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100 Million People to Feel Storm's Wrath; How Winter Storm Chills U.S. Economy; Storm Knocks Out Power to 230K in Georgia; Obamacare Sign-Ups Jump to 3.3 Million

Aired February 13, 2014 - 10:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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

Today that deadly winter storm that crippled the southeast is pushing up the Eastern Seaboard and into New England. It could dump as much as a foot of a half -- a foot and a half of snow in some places; 18 states now under a winter storm warning. Across the southeast, more snow falling overnight turning roads into skating rinks. Trees are now coated in heavy ice and those trees are now falling and knocking out power.

More than 700,000 homes and businesses still in the dark; at least 10 have died because of this storm. It may be near impossible to escape though. More than 5,300 flights are already cancelled this morning. And take a look at one of the hardest hit areas -- that would be North Carolina, now being called the new Atlanta after drivers who ignored warnings got stuck for hours on icy highways. Conditions so dangerous in Charlotte all city offices are closed today which has happened only one other time in the past seven years.

We have team coverage for you this morning. Margaret Conley is just north of Philadelphia. George Howell is south of Atlanta. But let's begin with Ashleigh Banfield. She's in New York Central Park. Good morning -- Ashleigh.

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey. It looks beautiful from this angle and wind is at my back Carol which means those needles that called themselves snow are affecting the people behind the camera and the lights and the producers. So I'm going to spin it around this way so they don't have to be in this torment any longer. There's a good reason for goggles if you're in this kind of weather today.

It's been sort of strange. Over the last hour, we've gone from sideways blowing snow that hurts to sort of gusts and then low. But make no mistake the thing is not over and we are expecting rain. Look up top at the CNN sign you can see 31 degrees. We haven't changed much in the last half hour but we are moving up. And this is all going to be turning to rain.

I don't know, folks, if you've been to New York City when it snows a lot and then it rains, but it is not a nice place to be. This is a pedestrian city for the most part. And those cabs are not really inclined to drive on ice like every other place in this nation that's been struggling with it.

So far in the beautiful Central Park which I'm now on the outskirts of, seven inches of snow and we're expecting up to 12 or so. Frank could you do a wipe? You good? And we're -- you know the crews are battling out here. I've seen news organizations scrambling back into their cars to clean their gear, dry themselves off.

I just swallowed a snowflake. Ok job hazard. I'm sorry about that. And -- and we actually lost our power in our last live shot too because of the winds. They've been very, very gusty. The reports are that these are near blizzard like conditions. You need 35 mile an hour winds for a blizzard.

But I'll tell you what you can tell me all you want whether it's near or not, it feels very much like the blizzards I grew up in when I walked uphill on the way there and uphill on the way back to school every day in cold, cold Canada.

So you can see some of the gear that's out, this is Columbus Circle, one of the famed spots in New York City very high tourist location. People recognize it they know it's the entrance to Central Park. I've been giving you the measurements. I don't know if it's changing much. But let me do a quick presidential ruler. I'm not wearing my glasses I'm just going to guess that we're at Wilson. I have no idea. But at this point you can see it's an unpleasant place to be.

What I don't understand Carol and it will never -- I will never understand why the mayor -- the brand new mayor of the Big Apple Mayor Bill De Blasio didn't cancel school.

So a lot of people had to go out and get their kids to school and manage this. Whether they'll be able to manage getting home will be a whole other kettle of fish. Because like I said the water is coming, the rain is coming. And in a second round of snow and freeze is coming. And that's when it gets bad. I don't need to tell you. You're from Atlanta you've driven it.

COSTELLO: Yes.

BANFIELD: In fact I want to go to Pennsylvania too. Because Margaret Conley she's watching it Carol from Pennsylvania. She got hit before I did Carol. She got -- she got the first blast. So if I got to learn what was coming from her. So why don't we spin it over to her to see what she's got going on in Pennsylvania?

MARGARET CONLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thanks for that Ashleigh. Yes the snow right now is coming down about two to three inches per hour. We're expecting a 14 inches to 18 inches in total. We're about eight inches right now.

Emergency workers they are standing by. A lot of them have flown in from other parts of the country. They're standing by in case there are any more other blackouts.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) 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 the storm.

ANITA CRAWFORD, RESIDENT: It was 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, 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 to $7,000 -- our biggest loss 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: We're getting opened tomorrow morning, and see what I got. And get my truck and drive there. That's all I can do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CONLEY: Now we have talked to authorities. And they say that reports so far are normal. They are warning people to stay off the roads. There have been more accidents than normal. And Carol this part of the country is expecting more snow tonight.

COSTELLO: Thank you Margaret Conley. I appreciate it.

So how much is all of this awful weather costing all of us? We'll have more on our storm coverage coming up.

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COSTELLO: Thousands of flights cancelled, trains delayed, workers staying home unable to leave the house let alone go shopping. You better believe this winter storm is having a chilling effect on our economy and on your money. CNN's Alison Kosik live in New York to tell us the toll. Good morning.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you Carol. You know a lot of people say look, it's lame to blame the weather for weak data coming out about the economy. But you know some of this really does hold true as part of the reasons you are seeing a little softness in the economy. And the first sign of that is in the jobs report that we got. Not just January but December as well. And you know, no coincidence that we've been getting these blasts of very, very cold air and snow up and down the northeast also in the south, southeast. So you know, we're seeing this in the numbers. Once again the numbers were weak. And that translates because a lot of -- a lot of companies have actually closed their doors during those times.

Wal-Mart for instance had to close their stores during this time off and on because of the weather. And because of that, they're even saying expect weak sales coming up. So you know a lot of people is not getting out to stores because they're not open and not going out because who wants to go out in this weather and shop.

Same thing goes for auto sales seeing weakness in auto sales; you know a lot of people going out and buying bread and milk and running to the grocery store. They're not running so fast to the car dealership to buy a new car. Same thing for housing, same softness in housing numbers; new home sales, they were below expectations as well and existing home sales as well because this is not the greatest weather to go house -- to go look for a house in.

And also you're going to see the spike in your heating bill. Even the power company here ConEd says expect to see heating bills go up 16 percent in February this year compared to last year. Electricity prices Carol, expected to go up a whopping 22 percent compared to one year earlier. I know my bill Carol, literally more than doubled in January. So I can only imagine what my February bill is going to look like -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right I have experienced the same kind of pain. So I'm with you Alison Kosik. Thanks so much.

Another major problem with all of this terrible weather -- hundreds of thousands of people without power this morning. George Howell will give us that side of the story. Hi George.

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We maybe out of the woods as far as the weather and the storm is concerned, but there are still problems -- power outages and ice on the roads.

I'm George Howell with the live report coming up next.

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COSTELLO: More than 700,000 homes and businesses across the South and East Coast have no power this morning. In Georgia alone, nearly a quarter million customers are in the dark. Now the rush is on for crews to restore service.

CNN's George Howell is in one neighborhood south of Atlanta with no power.

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, good day. So the good news is we are out of the woods as far as the storm is concerned -- the sleet, that freezing rain. But, you know, the problem that we're seeing now is the ice on the roads and also the power outages. You can see the crews back there; they just removed the tree that took down power lines. And many people have had to deal with this for hours.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL (voice over): The worst of the storm may have passed, but now there's a challenge for hundreds of thousands who lost power in the south and northeast. And more outages are expected.

GALA HOLLAND (PH), RESIDENT: It was cold, no heat. Can't see.

HOWELL: Left in the dark, Gala Holland (ph) and Alfred Hartsfield (ph) had to sleep through the cold.

(on camera): How did you get through the night?

ALFRED HARTSFIELD, RESIDENT: Stayed under the cover and prayed I guess. It was really cold. It was really down in the lower degrees. I just managed what I could.

HOWELL (voice over): This community in Clayton county, Georgia one of the hardest hit when it comes to power outages. Nearly 300,000 lost power alone in Georgia. Residents here knew the ice and snow that built up on trees and power lines would cause problems.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Took out three transformers just like fireworks.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sounded like a bucket of echoes. Boom, boom, boom and everything went out. And I said we're going to be in here for a while.

HOWELL: Power crews are doing their best to restore as quickly as possible. But they say the process could take days.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Does not surprise me at all. This is Georgia man. I've been here for years.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: Now you see a live picture here where there used to be a tree in the road that was blocking this road. The tree has been removed. Now the crews here tell me they're waiting for Georgia power to return.

But the story that we're talking about here Carol is the story you see throughout this region, this area. A lot of people lost power. They will be waiting for these crews to restore it.

And again the other thing, the roads are getting better. There's still plenty of ice on the roads. Real quickly, if you go down, you can see. There's still plenty of ice to slide around on. Officials are warning people to just stay at home to avoid any problems -- Carol.

COSTELLO: A great idea. George Howell -- reporting live from Atlanta, Georgia this morning. Thanks so much. This winter's unrelenting assault comes at another steep cost -- the price of removing all that snow and ice to make roads passable. The work is creating some big headaches.

In Maryland the state came in to the season $48 million in the snow removal budget. Look how much it actually spent -- more than $82 million and that's as of yesterday. We still have several weeks of winter left.

They aren't forgetting that in Virginia. That state's snow removal budget was $157 million. Officials still tallying just how much they've spent, but they're confident they've already blown through that budget.

In Washington, the usual budget talk is largely muted today. The government has shut down federal offices. CNN's Erin McPike is in D.C. with more. Good morning.

ERIN MCPIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, good morning. Yes, Washington D.C. is just largely shut down. Bus service has even been suspended. And you can see why. The roads are still in really bad shape behind me. Now also, because the federal government is closed it means there are no cars really outside the capital.

All of the hearings that were scheduled to go on today -- they're not going on. And lots of people come into town for those hearings. Well, they're stuck here because Dulles airport, all the runways there are shut down as the runways are shut down at Reagan National Airport as well. Those on the Washington International Airport -- those runways are open. But many of the flights have been cancelled.

And just take a look at how much snow we have down here. It's really heavy, thick snow. That's the problem I want to spin around here though. You can see now actually people are enjoying it. We have a lot of people out on the mall.

You might not be able to see this because there's such a big white blanket of snow but lots of people are out here today. We are getting more snow later this afternoon. It stopped for the time being but it should get a little worse later today -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Looks fun out there. Erin McPike thanks so much.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Obamacare signups surge. But questions linger about just how many people have actually paid for their plans.

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COSTELLO: Checking our top stories at 56 minutes past.

In a move the U.S. calls, quote, "deeply regrettable", Afghanistan has released 65 prisoners that the U.S. military says are linked to attacks on American troops. Officials say they made the decision based on Afghan law.

21 train cars went careening off the tracks when a Norfolk Southern train derailed today in western Pennsylvania. They were carrying crude oil and propane. And there is a leak in one of the cars. No injuries reported. None of the cars have caught fire. Authorities say it may take days to clear the scene though.

Good news for the White House this morning. The number of Americans signing up for Obamacare is growing. More than three million have enrolled since the exchanges opened four months ago. The Congressional Budget Office projects that number will grow to six million this year.

But there's still one thing unknown -- how many of those Obamacare enrollees have actually paid for their coverage. Senior administration officials tell CNN they're developing a new method to keep track of those payments.

Our senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta joins us now. So what's the plan?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well Carol, we asked this question in part because of the enrollment release that was announced yesterday by the administration when they said 3.3 million people have enrolled in Obamacare over all, 1.1 million in the month of January.

But Republican critics have been asking the question, wait a minute, until you have proof that people have actually made payments for that coverage, how do you actually know who has indeed signed up and completed the enrolment process? We went to administration officials this morning and they got back to us and said that yes; that they are developing an automated system that they hope in time will be able to measure, track, report those details in terms of how people have made those payments.

It's an important detail in all of this, Carol. I talked to an insurance industry source earlier this morning who said somewhere 10 percent to 25 percent of people who have enrolled have not made their payments which means that they have not actually enrolled and that their policies may have been cancelled. Some of those people obviously may be attempting to make those payments time and again and so they may eventually get enrolled.

But a key important detail in all of this and the administration officials that we've been talking to say that once the system is up and running, they should be able to report that payment data. We'll have to see if that will go anywhere towards silencing some of those critics who have been asking what are the real enrolment numbers for the Affordable Care Act -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Right. So are these problems part of the lingering problems from the Web site itself?

ACOSTA: Well, some of them are. Remember way back in the fall when they were having the problems with the rollout of the Web site. The insurance companies were saying, wait a minute, the so called 834 enrolment forms which is sort of technical jargon, they had mistakes. Sometimes they were incomplete. And so they couldn't determine exactly who was signing up and who was not signing up. They have largely taken care of that problem.

In the meantime, they've been trying to get this automated system up and running to determine who is making these payments, which is of course another important part of this. People who are making those payments, those are the ones who are actually getting enrolled actually getting coverage and in some cases getting financial assistance from the federal government.

So this is just another one of those wrinkles in the rollout of the President's signature health care achievement here and it's one we'll be watching -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Jim Acosta, many thanks.

ACOSTA: You bet.

COSTELLO: And thank you for joining me today. I'm Carol Costello.

"@THIS HOUR" with Berman and Michaela starts now.