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Raleigh Endures Atlanta-Like Traffic Jam; Philadelphia Braces for More Snow; Debt Ceiling Clears Senate with GOP Help; TWC Deal Givers Comcast Negotiation Leverage

Aired February 13, 2014 - 09:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now in the NEWSROOM, frozen nation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The snow started with a fury.

COSTELLO: One hundred million people in the path of another catastrophic storm. The south socked in and stuck under snow and sleet.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A lot of people had abandoned their cars.

COSTELLO: An epic traffic jam with flashbacks to Atlanta.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't think we were quite as prepared as we should have been.

COSTELLO: Powerless and paralyzed, hundreds of thousands without electricity.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Are you worried about this next storm coming up?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. My husband is buying a generator right now.

COSTELLO: This morning, the historic storm with a laser focus on the northeast.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We need you to be on alert.

COSTELLO: And a dire warning.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is really the one. Stay home.

COSTELLO: A special edition of NEWSROOM starts now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

By almost any measure most Americans have endured brutal conditions this winter. And today snow-weary northeasterners could face the worst storm of the season. We're covering the path of that storm, where it's been, where it's heading with our CNN correspondents in place from Atlanta to New York.

But let's start in the Washington area with Brian Todd. He's in Cheverly, Maryland, and it's quite a scene there.

Actually, the last time I saw you, you were by an overturned semi and you just rescued someone from a car.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We've had an active morning, Carol. We just pulled up to the scene of another, a second overturned semi trailer. We just pulled up to it. I'm in the vehicle now. I'm going to be getting out talking to one camera now. I'm going to talk to the other camera that's pointing to the front of our vehicle through the windshield. Then we'll pick it up with another camera and we'll show you the picture of the second overturned tractor trailer.

Getting out of the vehicle now. Coming up to the front. Got to talk to this camera for a second while we get set. The vehicle overturned here. This intersection of 295 and 495. 495 is the Washington beltway. This vehicle heading southbound and what they call the inner loop of the beltway. Picking it up now with our live camera and our photojournalist Oliver Janney and I. I can walk across here and show you this is an exit so we have to be very careful.

This tractor trailer overturned. There was an identical accident just up the road a few miles where that driver suffered minor injuries and got out. This was the scene of until a few minutes ago of an active rescue. This driver was trapped. We are trying to get information as to whether he is still trapped in the vehicle.

Vehicles coming by here as a speak so bear with us here. The state police are out here. They are interviewing a gentleman over here. Not clear if that is the driver or not. But we were told that the driver of this vehicle, as of probably 20 minutes ago or so, was trapped. And that they were trying to get him out.

We are trying to get the information as to whether that driver is still in here or not. I can probably walk out a little bit and get a little closer. Not sure how the state police are going to react to this but we'll see.

A lot of traffic problems in the D.C. area as this sleet, freezing rain and snowfall continues to pound this area. A lot of road closures here in Maryland. We were in Virginia a short time ago when we helped a gentleman who had done a 180 off the road. He hooked up his vehicle to a cord. Hooked it up to our vehicle, pulled him out of there.

A lot of road closures in this area. A lot of traffic problems. The federal government is closed today. So that has cut down on a lot of the traffic. So that's a fortunate thing. The unfortunate thing is you've got a very slippery surface here on the roads. A lot of slush. A lot of ice. And here comes state police over here.

I am not sure if this is still an active rescue -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. We're going to let you go because your shot is freezing on the air. Some irony there. But please be careful, Brian Todd.

Please stay off the roads today. It's just not worth it. Stay off the roads.

Let's head to New York City now and Central Park. It is snowing like mad there. Let's check in with Indra Petersons.

Hi, Indra.

INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: That is -- good morning, Carol. That is an understatement. We're talking about flakes now that are so big that one of these really felt like someone just threw a snowball right into my eye. I mean, they're unbelievably, impressively huge. Snowfall now coming down near blizzard-like conditions out here.

Two if not four inches per hour. That is how heavy this snow is falling. You can actually see just to my right here, we have residents trying to kind of shovel out early and get ahead of the storm. They're saying they're going to come out every hour because that's what it's going to take when you have a heavy snowfall range like this.

What are we expecting now as we go throughout the day? Two things. Remember, we still have ice in the southeast. We see half an inch to an inch of ice in the southeast. A crippling ice storm. And unfortunately, more ice is still on the way into the southeast.

Then the second part of the system is this heavy snow. You can see it really intensifying here because that low from the southeast, the same storm is now making its way up the coastline. As it does so it's strengthening. So you're going to have two things going on. One, as the low makes its way closer, the winds are going to intensify. So you're really going to see all the snow coming at you throughout the day. This heavy, wet miserable kind of snow.

And then as we start to warm up throughout the day, right on that freezing line, some places are going to have this transition over from even snow to sleet and even some places some rain. The closer you are to the coastline -- there you go with the wind. That is how brutal it is out there.

The closer you are to the coastline you may see some rain. The farther inland you are, the heavier snowfall amount you are going to be seeing. Then as the sun goes down tonight, the temperatures again, so close to that freezing mark, they're going to go back down -- snow into my mouth. I feel like I'm chocking on the snow right now, guys.

(LAUGHTER)

Then as you go tonight, we're talking about the snow returning. So keep in mind, if you see rain, don't think the system is over with. It is not. It will cool off again this evening. If you are in places like Boston, four to eight inches of snow possible, even through tomorrow for your morning commute. Twelve inches through New York City. Should die down by -- maybe about midnight or early morning tomorrow morning. And toward D.C., late evening tonight, we should see that snow die down. But we're still talking about potential here of a foot of snow. And it's not hard to see looking at me, if nothing else, why, Carol?

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: You're not kidding. Indra Petersons, you're in White Plains, New York. We're going to head to Central Park in just a minute where it's also snowing like mad.

Indra, thanks so much.

As this storm churned its way up the East Coast it barreled through the Carolinas and created the exact same sort of traffic nightmares that paralyzed Atlanta two weeks ago. In Raleigh, commuters rushed to get home only to get stuck on the highway, often for hours.

CNN's David Mattingly joins us live from Charlotte to tell us more.

Good morning.

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Got some good news this morning from the spokesperson from the Department of Transportation here in North Carolina. He says last night those massive lines of traffic that we saw jammed outside of Raleigh resolved themselves late last night.

They were able to get the plows in there, start clearing the roads. They were able to move cars that had been abandoned. Moving them out of the way. They believe that there was no one that had to spend the night on the interstate last night. They had the National Guard ready to go out there and rescue people in case they were stranded.

As far as the Department of Transportation is aware none of that had to happen. But today everyone is being cautioned to stay inside. Stay off the roads today unless they absolutely have to be out. And the reason for that you can see it all around me right now. More snow this morning. And heavy snow.

We woke up this morning to find this road had been plowed clear and just in the last hour -- gives you an idea how much snow is falling right now -- the road completely covered over again. But we've been seeing police out here quite a bit. Very few people coming into the city today.

Yesterday people came in -- there were quite a few people who came into work but then left at noon. Most people in Charlotte getting lout ahead of the weather coming in so Charlotte did not see the traffic jams that Raleigh did. Raleigh's problem was there was that cell of really heavy snow that seemed to catch everybody surprised -- by surprise. Even though they knew it was coming.

But again, those traffic problems in Raleigh resolved themselves late last night according to the Department of Transportation. And today they're just going to keep working to clear these roads whether nature cooperates or not -- Carol. COSTELLO: I do like what the North Carolina governor said. Don't put your stupid hat on, people. Stay home.

David Mattingly, thanks so much.

Let's talk about Philadelphia now because it got whacked last week by blizzards that left nearly a million people with no power. Well, guess what? Another storm system is moving through Philadelphia and the exact same thing could happen.

Let's go to Margaret Conley, she's covering that part of the story.

Good morning.

MARGARET CONLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. The -- the snow right now is coming down at a rate of two to three inches per hour in this area. They are expecting 14 to 18 inches of snow for this entire storm.

Now emergency workers, they are standing by to deal with the power lines, to deal with cutting down trees, whatever is necessary in case there are any more blackouts.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CONLEY (voice-over): Just days after Pennsylvania was hit with crippling power outages across the state, residents are bracing this morning for yet another storm.

Heavy snow fell overnight threatening blackouts in some counties here that were hit harder last week than during Superstorm Sandy. Emergency workers from as far away as Canada have stayed in town to help residents face this storm.

ANITA CRAWFORD, ABINGTON TOWNSHIP RESIDENT: It was very eerie in the town last week. Every street was blocked off and there were trees laying everywhere.

CONLEY: Residents have had to restock or get new supplies from last week.

(On camera): Are you worried about this next storm coming up?

LAURA HEACOCK, ABINGTON TOWNSHIP RESIDENT: Yes. My husband is buying a generator right now. He tracked one down somewhere on the Internet.

CONLEY: And some residents just got their power turned back on. This restaurant owner was out of business for seven straight days.

WALTER MANTON, OWNER, CHICKEN TIME: A little hard. About $6,000 or $7,000 of business lost for the week.

CONLEY: His fear, along with many others here, is another round of outages too soon as they wait to see what this storm will bring.

MANTON: Getting up tomorrow morning. See what I got and get in my truck and drive here. That's all I can do.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CONLEY: Now so far authorities that we've talked to and we just got off the phone with the commissioner of this county, Josh Shapiro. He's the head of this county. He said, advised everybody, reports are normal but, please, everybody stay off the roads here -- Carol.

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: We keep saying that. I hope people follow that advice.

Margaret Conley reporting live from Philadelphia, thanks so much.

Well, the snow and ice, they're kind of breaking records on the Great Lakes. This is a beautiful picture. Isn't that bizarre?

Right now more than 88 percent of the five Great Lakes are covered in ice. That number expected to rise. These are pictures taken by NASA. The lakes haven't been frozen over in 20 years. Meteorologists say because of all the ice on the lakes, the cities around lake Michigan could see a cooler summer this year. Oh no.

As millions dig out of the snow and ice today, here are two words that will warm your heart. Play ball. Pitchers and catchers for several teams, including my beloved Detroit Tigers, report to the warm climate of Florida and Arizona today. By the end of the weekend spring training will be underway for almost every team, and in case you're keeping scores of regular season begins next month so never fear, spring is on the way. It's less than 40 days away right now.

Still to come in the CNN NEWSROOM, the Senate approves a bill to raise the nation's debt ceiling but not without a bit of -- not without a big of drama first.

Our senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta is on that story.

Good morning, Jim.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. That's right. The president praises perhaps an end to the politics of brinksmanship as the Congress, as the Senate passes that debt ceiling bill. I'll have details coming up in just a few minutes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Checking our top stories. It's 15 minutes past the hour.

New video shows the moment a 10-year-old girl crashed her mom's car into the DMV. The mother told police she left her 10-year-old and 12- year-old daughters in a parked SUV. The younger kid who is 10 apparently turned the key, hit the gas and drove straight into that building. No one was hurt but the little girl, yes, the little girl, got a ticket for careless driving. A section of eastbound Interstate 84 in Oregon still closed after a rock slide sent boulders crashing on to the road. According to CNN affiliate KATU, a man said boulders nearly smashed into his car while he was driving. Amazingly, no one was hurt. No word on when that road will reopen.

And encouraging news for the White House as more than 3 million people have now signed up for Obamacare. That's according to new government data. And we're getting more details about who is enrolling.

About a quarter of the enrollees are ages 18 to 34, while 82 percent are eligible for federal subsidies to help cover premiums and out-of- pocket costs. The Congressional Budget Office predicts 6 million people will enroll in Obamacare this year.

A small breakthrough in a deeply divided Washington. The Senate voting to raise the nation's debt limit, approving a measure that allows the government to borrow more money to pay its bills through March of 2015. The legislation got through, thanks in part to 12 Republicans who blocked a filibuster attempt by fellow Republican Ted Cruz.

Our chief congressional correspondent Dana Bash has more for you.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This vote was never going to be easy, but this was high drama. For 45 minutes, the Senate was in limbo, two votes short of the 60 needed to overcome a filibuster waged by Republican Ted Cruz on raising the debt ceiling.

Thanks to Cruz's tactics, what Republicans feared most, putting the nation's credit and Americans' stock portfolios at risk, was about to happen.

Then, suddenly, the Senate's top two Republicans walked the political plank together. Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell and his number two John Cornyn approached the desk to vote yes.

Both McConnell and Cornyn are facing primary challenges from the right. Both knew full well voting to allow more borrowing to pay the country's debt would give ammunition to their conservative opponents but they did it anyway. That was the 60 votes needed to break Cruz's filibuster.

But Republicans decided they need more. The search began for other GOP colleagues to switch their votes to yes to give their senate leaders political cover.

Finally, Susan Collins emerged with a group of Republicans who agreed to vote yes -- John McCain, Orrin Hatch and others taking one for the team, helping to pad the margin and share responsibility.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The votes on the motion are 67 in favor, 31 against. BASH: Quickly followed by final passage on a party line vote, something most Republicans wanted in first place without the drama of Cruz's filibuster.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On this vote, the ayes are 55, the nays are 43.

BASH: Fifty-five Democrats voting yes. All Republicans voting no.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Joining me now, Dana Bash, along with our senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta.

Dana, I want to start with you. Democrat Chuck Schumer says the Republican vote shows they're trying to put Tea Party politics, quote, "in the rear-view mirror."

Is he right?

BASH: You know, it's a good sound bite. We can always Chuck Schumer for that. But it's not that simple, Carol. The principles of the Tea Party are still very much alive and well. I mean, just look at the emergency unemployment insurance benefits that expired at the end of last year. The extension is still stuck in the Senate. Hard to imagine that happening before the Tea Party rise in 2010.

But what is true is that many Republicans who came here on that Tea Party wave have been in office for three years. They understand more. You can't always stand on principle and it backfires because they learned it the hard way with the government shutdown in the fall.

There was the revolt a couple days ago when House Speaker John Boehner allowed this clean debt ceiling vote to come. That really gives you a sense they get it more than before. You still have Ted Cruz seeing himself as the guy that's going to hold on to the conservative principle, even though it means he'll be the skunk at the Republican garden party for the next couple of weeks.

COSTELLO: That was my favorite line from you yesterday -- the skunk at the garden party.

Jim, a question for you -- the president says he will sign the bill into law and he hopes it ends political brinksmanship. I don't know about that, though.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I don't know about that either. Several skunks at the garden party here in Washington. So, you never know what's around the corner.

But, no, I mean, this is a victory for the president. He said he wanted a clean debt ceiling bill with no strings attached. That's what he got. He's been saying since the beginning of his second term that he would like to see -- he would like to break the Tea Party fever as he calls it here in Washington. And I think as Dana was saying, that some of that happened yesterday. White House officials are optimistic that perhaps this breakthrough could lead to perhaps some movement on the minimum wage and immigration reform. As Dana can tell you, that is going to be a stretch in this midterm election year. And people here at the White House know it.

But they are going to say in the meantime that while the Congress is not always going to go along with the president, that he has that pen and that phone. He's going to take executive actions. So, we're going to continue to hear that from the president going forward.

COSTELLO: All right. I must say, Washington looks beautiful behind you in the snow.

And, Jim, we have a picture of your masterpiece you created a short time ago to show our viewers.

ACOSTA: Oh, no. Please don't. Actually, I should give yet credit is due. Our crew here, Bill and Berry, they worked hard on that all morning.

I actually broke it earlier. So, I had to make another one. I'm going to carefully hold the new one up because it may fall apart again. It's starting to get warm out here.

COSTELLO: We needed a little smile this morning.

ACOSTA: We're multitasking.

COSTELLO: Exactly, Dana Bash, Jim Acosta.

All right. Let's talk seriously about the weather now and head to New York's Central Park. That's where Zain Asher is standing by.

And that looks pretty, too, but it's causing misery for so many people.

ZAIN ASHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol, absolutely. It's official. We are getting hammered out here in central park. When Mayor Bill de Blasio said, guys, stay indoors, he really was not kidding. I mean, this really is the real deal.

Let me just show you a couple of things. Over here, our viewers, sort of (INAUDIBLE) in this area, I had to walk about 45 minutes, it's only a 5-minute walk.

But the wind was really coming at me so hard that I had to walk backwards. Who is this girl? What is she doing? She's crazy.

Let me show you what the snow looks like on the ground. It's very sort of light. Very powdery, fluffy.

There's some good news and bad news. The good news is, the snow will eventually turn to rain so you don't have to worry about that for too long. But this will eventually turn into slush. Obviously, everybody hates slush. But in terms of what New Yorkers are saying. They are used to this. They are a resilient bunch. One woman saying she loves the snow and would not miss this for the world -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Until it turns into that slush because there's nothing like New York City filled with slush. It's not a pretty picture.

Zain Asher, thanks so much.

ASHER: Exactly.

COSTELLO: Still to come to the NEWSROOM, a blockbuster deal could create the nation's largest cable provider. But in a deal worth tens of billions, could consumers get the shaft?

Christine Romans has more.

Good morning.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. A $45 billion deal between Comcast and Time Warner Cable. What will it mean for your customer service and for the number at the bottom of your cable bill? I'll have that for you after --after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: It is the dawn of a new era for cable TV subscribers. Early this morning, Comcast announced it's agreed to pay $45 billion to buy Time Warner Cable and create the nation's largest cable provider. One analyst estimated that if this deal goes through, more than one-third of pay TV subscribers would get their service from Comcast.

Christine Romans is in New York following this story.

I'm thinking that's not a good thing for consumers.

ROMANS: Well, Carol, as you know, this would be a very big cable company. It would control television channels and Internet connections, you're right, about one-third of American households. Most of those are in New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C.

Now, the companies, Carol, they are touting all this cool stuff they have. The consumer demand of more on demand, more DVR features, and new customers may love the new online capabilities. But they may not like their new cable bill. Less competition typically means higher prices.

When it comes to cable bills, customers have experienced rapidly rising prices. I want to show what bills have been doing already. They are increasing at a rate of 6 percent each year. And they're forecast to reach 200 bucks a month on average by 20. That's according to NPD research group. Pricing and competition are what federal regulators will look at when they scrutinize this deal. This could be a very good deal for the two companies. But there are three questions for cable customers. What's it going to do for your bill? What it mean for those occasional blackouts when cable companies battle the content providers? And, what will it mean for your customer service, Carol. Those are still the questions for consumers here.

COSTELLO: You know, one day soon, everything is going to be owned by one great humongous company and we'll be totally controlled by that one company.

Another question, you know, you mentioned cable bills, right?

ROMANS: Right.

COSTELLO: The cable bills of people who subscribe to other services, will they also rise?

ROMANS: It's interesting. You can lower your cable bill if you can leverage, you know, the different services in your neck of the woods. I know a lot of people have been calling their cable providers and asking to go right to the retention office. You want to keep me, you can lower my bill.

So, that's kind of a personal finance tip in all of this. But in general, these fees for these services have been going up, up and up. As we're expecting more from our cable company and they are giving us more choices. So the cable companies are touting all the cool features. The bundling of the phone and the cable and on demand.

But the price for that has been rising. No question. Far outstripping the price --

COSTELLO: And even when you talk about customer service, because if you look at national surveys, customer service for cable providers at the bottom of the barrel.

ROMANS: And, Carol, these two, who are merging, are number six and seven of seven when you talk about customer satisfaction for Internet service providers. They are number six and number seven.

So, even if you lose the Time Warner Cable name and it's just Comcast, you've upgraded from number seven to number six.

I want to tell you some from Free Press. This is a group that often criticizes the cable companies. This is what this consumer group's criticism was. Already Americans hate dealing with the cable guy. Both these giant companies regularly rank among the worst of the worst. But this deal would be the cable guy on steroids pumped up, unstoppable and grasping for your wallet.

Ouch.

COSTELLO: It's a frightening prospect, because you know, a lot of Americans can only afford to watch television at home.