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Coverage of the storm that is expected to impact for like 85 million people; 10-11p ET
Aired January 23, 2016 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[22:00:15] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN HOST: And hello. I'm Carol Costello live in New York City along with Jim Sciutto who is live in Washington D.C.
And guess what, news flash. It has stopped snowing in New York City. And I mean it has stopped -- I can't believe it because it has been snowing like the Dickens all day long. In fact it is a record setter, 25 inches recorded in central park. That is the third biggest snowfall in history. The biggest snowfall since 1869. It is incredible here Jim Sciutto.
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: Well, we have to go back just to 1922 to get the last time we have seen this much snow in Washington D.C. And we distill have a little coming. We keep watching every hour to see if it is going taper off. It is a little bit slower. The winds have died down a bit. But we still have a little more, maybe another hour of snow coming down here. Two feet, maybe more in some parts of the district. Three feet in southern Maryland just across the border. And sadly it's been dangerous in a lot of places.
Hundreds of car accidents. And across the border in Virginia. As we have seen in a lot of cities up and down the east coast, including here in Washington, warnings from City officials to stay at home. Closing the roads, mandating that. But I tell you a lot of folks not listening. A lot of them sadly paying for it. We have seen the death toll rise. We have also seen a lot of accidents. We see emergency services out there doing their best to keep people safe. And we are doing our best here just to remind people to heed those warnings. I know you are hearing the same in New York City, Carol.
COSTELLO: I absolutely am. Fourteen people have died during this blizzard all along the eastern sea board. Three of those people have died in the City of New York and all of them died of heart attacks from shoveling snow. So just because the blizzard is over, it doesn't mean you are out of the woods just yet. Just be careful when you are removing that snow because it is very heavy. It is easy to overtax yourself and you know what could happen when you do that.
I wish I could say the worst was over because the snow has really tapered off. But along the jersey shore it is just getting worse. There is -- there is actually flooding there. I talked to the mayor from north Wildwood New Jersey. He said people actually had to be residence rescued from their homes because water was sweeping in. And I mean water maybe a foot deep. People were afraid. The entire town has been evacuated. It is under a mandatory evacuation order as many towns along the jersey shore.
Ryan Young is covering that part of the storm for us. Hi, Ryan.
RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Carol. We are still covering it out here and the water keeps rising. In fact we are in Margate. And as we take a walk down the street here, I wanted to show you something because we just talked to the fire chief. And he told us, look, this is the fire house right here. What he was telling us is water is only gone inside this building three times. Once in 1992, then during super storm Sandy and now the water is going in here. It is about ten inches, going back this way. So you can see that.
But this is a street that we have been talking about for quite some time. Look at all this. As I'm going to ask my photographer to walk towards that intersection because that is the intersection we have been showing over and over again. It is about five blocks away from the bay. And the bay is where this water is coming from.
We are also hearing for the south those areas have been hit a lot harder than this town. But you can see all of the water that has taken over the street. No rescues tonight which is good news. They did have to tell some people to stay off the roadway. We have seen people try to drive through this but the worst is not over yet because they believe they could be dealing with more water over the next few hours.
Just look at this. This whole street is shut down. Businesses with sandbags up here. We are told water was waist deep about four blocks down that direction during super storm Sandy. And they believe the water could get not that high again but at least enough to disable a car. And the wind here has been whipping us throughout the evening. It is almost hard to talk sometimes because it takes your breath away, Carol.
COSTELLO: Well, it is interesting that the electricity seems to be on where you are Ryan because the mayor of north Wildwood told me power has been out in his town since about 6:00 this morning.
YOUNG: And that is the good news here. The critical services, all have been maintained here. We did see one power outage that was last night and that lasted four minutes. You heard further south, they are dealing with some power issues. But look here, though. Everyone is bracing for the fact there is a high tide. The fact there is a full moon. And they are not sure yet if the water is going to stop filling up the streets or we are going to see more throughout the evening. We do know the National Guard is on standby just in case they need them, but so far in this area at least, no rescues are reported.
[22:05:10] COSTELLO: Yes. The National Guard has been activated so they are there if need be. The mayor also told me that in north Wildwood a lot of people are in shelters, 65 people in all. There are only a 5,000 people in the town. He says the town is a ghost town. Have people cleared out where you are?
YOUNG: Well that is a great question. We will show you that some of the neighborhoods here, you can see people are left their homes. But a lot of people are living on higher elevation. So we have seen some people decide to stick it out. We had one guy tell us look, he moved his car. He got some food. He was ready to stay in for the evening and that was his plan. And in the last few hours we have not seen as many people walking the street. I will tell you some people have taken to their cars to come out with their camera phones and take a few pictures. Luckily they haven't been going through deep edges of the water, but you know, a people have decided, I guess have cabin fever, they wanted to see what is going on. The snow is still falling here but it is a lot less than what it has been before. We have seen a lot of it melt away with all those water that is coming in from the bay down this direction.
COSTELLO: All right, Ryan Young reporting live for us tonight. Thanks so much.
Governor Chris Christie has quite a mess on his hands tonight and into tomorrow morning. Our Poppy Harlow interviewed the governor earlier tonight. Here is what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (on the phone): We need to. The National Guard has been called in into parts of the state. We sent a number of high water vehicles there to be able to move people if we need to. The state police has moved their urban search and rescue and swift water teams there. If there are people who need to be moved from their homes and local law enforcement can't handle it. And so, we know that we have got the resources there we need. And we know our National Guardsmen and women are ready as a moment's notice even more than to be called up and help. They are some of the true heroes from hurricane Sandy three years ago and we will be able to do it now.
The great thing about this is though is this, if you think about the fact that right now we only have about 63,000 people in New Jersey without power at the moment. That is down from over a hundred thousand earlier today. So the utilities are working hard to get these power restored quickly. We have lowered it by about a third so far. And so, by tomorrow when the weather is better, Poppy, I think we are going to able to make real headway on that.
POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What about some of the citizens that are watching, governor. I mean, I covered hurricane Sandy and saw the incredible response from average citizens coming out to help. There is a time to do that and there is a time to stay hunkered down at home. What do you see to these people watching who want to go out and help? Should they at this point?
CHRISTIE: No. I say let that emotion happen for you tomorrow, not tonight. In the northern part of our state, near New York City the snow is still coming down very hard. Where I live -- I just arrived home a little while ago in Morris County. We have over 18 inches of snow.
We don't want people moving around tonight. We want the roads clear for the plows and for any emergency vehicles that need to go through. The way you can help folks is if you know, check on your friends and families who are in these affected areas. If they need a place to shelter, invite them to come to your home. Feed them tonight, keep them warm tonight. And if you need local law enforcement to help you, you know, we can get places into those places where they can be sheltered.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: All right. That was Governor Chris Christie. Like I said he had the mess on his hands and your heart goes out to all of the residents who is suffering water damage because of this blizzard. It is just so unusual and in many cases it is so very sad.
Here in New York City the snow has really tapered off. Really it's stopped snowing. And one other bit of good news to pass along, the travel ban that was put into place 2:30 this afternoon at will be lifted at 7:00 tomorrow morning. They are getting the streets cleared very fast here in New York City. In fact, as I look around there are people shoveling the sidewalks. There are snow plows out. And of course they use the garbage trucks in New York City, to remove the snow and it's been very effective.
Jason Carroll is in the west village. He has more for us on the conditions there.
Hi Jason.
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And Carol, you know, this is the first time literally in hours that we have seen the snow this light. It is barely, if you can say, a whisper the snow coming down. That's certainly good news along here, along bleaker.
Normally at this hour, as you know Carl, this part of the west village would be mobbed. Patch of people looking at it now. Now you have a few folks out there who are already starting to shovel on one side of the street and the other side of the street itself. They have, as well, they have the shovels out. Snow blower out as well. And strangely enough still a number of people who are out on the streets as well, as well as wanting to get out of house.
I know some of you had an early brunch today. You said you found a place that was open and did your brunch. How was that go?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is great. We had a boozy brunch.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Enjoying the snow day.
[22:10:01] CARROLL: A boozy brunch. You know, that sounds good. Maybe I will have one of those sometime soon. You guys as well. You were out and about during the day.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. We had just some Italian food and wine.
CARROLL: And tomorrow you are saying it is back to work.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Back to work tomorrow, yes. CARROLL: And what is your consensus? I want everyone's consensus on
how you think the City did in terms of getting the plows out, getting the salt spreaders out?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think they did pretty well.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There should be more sleds. More sleds. We need more sleds to take us where we need to go. We need bobsleds like maybe like a chute from uptown Broadway down to downtown. That is the easiest way. Let's cut out subways. Just bobsleds.
CARROLL: Sledding. Sled your way through the storm. You know, I think.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sure. We need sleds to be given us through the storm.
CARROLL: I think you might be on to something.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm with her.
CARROLL: Well, actually, we were out at central park a little earlier. Who is this? We are out at central park a little earlier --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's the only thing. We need more sleds that are free for taxes. Like put our tax money in that.
CARROLL: Got it. I'm with you.
So Carol, see, maybe that is the way to handle things, more sleds, more brunches. But according to what they are saying the City did well in terms of how they handled the salt spreaders, in terms of how they hammed plows out in the streets. Certainly lot of good news. A lot of folks out here also saying they thought the travel ban was actually a good idea, keeping more people off the streets. Some people heading out into the streets now, well that might be a different story.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No cars, more sleds.
CARROLL: Less cars, more sleds.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tell de Blasio that?
CARROLL: I think he can hear you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can he hear me? Mic check, mic check. Can he hear me?
CARROLL: Thank you very much. Back to you carol.
COSTELLO: Man there are some fun people in the west village. I got to go down there. Those girls were fantastic.
CARROLL: Always. Always.
COSTELLO: Thank you Jason Carroll.
The travel ban was a good idea. It was also a good idea to keep the subways to run and (INAUDIBLE) around. They shut the subways down and the storm missed New York City and people were very angry. But this time the subways were running. In fact that is how I got work. I went underground, got on the subway and it was great. So that is the blessing of having an underground way of transportation to ferry you around. Again the travel ban will be lifted at 7:00 a.m.
As far as air travel, all airports in the New York City area closed down. No flights taking off. In fact, thousands of flights canceled. Call ahead if you are planning to go somewhere.
All right. Let's head to the west side highway because right at the moment that travel ban remains in place. Brian Stelter is there.
You must feel like the king of the road.
BRIAN STELTER CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: We are the only ones out here, Carol. This afternoon I thought I might have to come pick you up because we weren't sure how you were going to get to work. I'm glad the subways worked for you.
We are in an SUV here thankfully taking advantage of the exception from the local authorities. They do allow media to be out on the street during the travel ban so that we can show everybody else what it is like out here.
We are almost seeing black top on the Westside highway. This is the main corridor north and south on the west side of the City. We are by the Hudson River. And I think it is worth noting we did not see a dramatic rise at high tide here at least in New York and around New York City and around Manhattan. Clearly the flooding situation lower on the jersey shore down the shore was very serious and remains series. And we have another high tide cycle tomorrow morning. But here in Manhattan proper thankfully did not see any issues with the surge a couple of hours ago.
As you mentioned up there at Columbus circle, snow is mostly stopped here. It looks on the radar like we could see a little more light snow in the hours ahead. But for the most part the heavy bands of snow have moved to the south.
As we look at the dash cam here, you can see there are no other cars in sight on the west side highway. That is exactly what local authorities wanted to see. They must be happy to see this picture right now. Because it is allowing the snowplows to do their work. Getting ready for that 7:00 a.m. lifting of the ban.
I would say, though, on the avenues, we were on ninth a few minutes ago, it was almost like a parade. So many people walking up and down the avenues, some in serge of food or maybe some sort of liquid sustenance. Some people out taking pictures, walking their dogs and of course a few skiers. A lot of people out are walking on the avenues, but you can see these major thoroughfares are mostly empty and that is good news for the folks in charge -- Carol. COSTELLO: OK. And police did give you permission to drive around,
right?
STELTER: In fact, we actually talk to couple of the officers before our last live shot because we wanted to make sure it was all kosher. Yes, I think they enjoy having a little bit of company out here. Of course the conditions were a lot worse as they were a few hours ago, tried to stay away from big thoroughfares like this.
COSTELLO: All right, Brian Stelter, thanks.
As I take you do break, you know, Brian mentioned a lot of people were out taking pictures. And we have one to show you. Yes, the naked cowboy was out. And yes as you can see he was pretty much naked in the cold. That is amazing.
We will be right back with much more.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[22:19:15] SCIUTTO: Welcome back. I'm Jim Sciutto live in Washington where the snow is still coming down. The White House glowing tonight through the snow storm. A historic snow storm here. The most we have seen in Washington, City, since 94 years. The Nation's capital, empty and quiet tonight. Snow emergency still in effect. Blizzard warning still in effect until tomorrow.
CNN meteorologist Jennifer Gray, she is as always tonight in freedom plaza tonight right near the White House.
Jennifer how much more are we going to see of this?
JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well I just looked at the radar and good news. It looks like it is finally starting to wind down in the D.C. area. We are still going to get some light snow for the next hour or two. And we are still getting those wind gusts. I don't know if you are feeling them where you are Jim, but, so we will get a lot of those blowing snow. And you can see it just coming in front of the camera. Some of it is actually snowfalls falling. Others is a little bit of this as well blowing snow.
But look. We can finally see the capitol right over my shoulder. The first time we have been able to see it all day because visibility has been so low. But look at this. I mean, D.C. is left with just incredible amount of snow. We haven't set the all-time record. But Dulles airport, number two for the snowiest storm where you see more than 28 inches of snow and Reagan has received more than 17 inches of snow and that ranks number five. However the snow totals for the entire storm won't come in until tomorrow once it stops snowing of course.
But just so much out here Jim. We are looking at a lot of people going to have a lot of work to do as we get into the latter part of the weekend. They are going to be shoveling. And keep in mind tomorrow we could see sunshine. Temperatures will get just above freezing. We will see a little bit of melting. And so, we are going to see a possible refreeze by tomorrow night. But folks here have taken it in stride with this historic storm.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
[22:21:11] GRAY (voice-over): The massive winter storm clobbering the eastern United States from southern Virginia to New York City.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We need you do stay home.
GRAY: One of the hardest hit area, Washington D.C. where the snowplows are out in full force along with the National Guard. The D.C. police chief got her hands dirty as well. As she helped push a stuck cruiser. The City's mayor said 300, 911 calls Thursday night were all answered.
MAYOR MURIEL BOWSER, WASHINGTON: This is an emergency event and we are very much still in our emergency response phase.
GRAY: For the most part, the City is ground do a standstill with most spots deserted. The capitol dome, the Washington monument, the White House are nearly invisible in blizzard conditions. Snowfall is expected to continue into the nighttime hours.
Nearby, Dulles airport empty. The airport barely visible. The few remaining planes covered in snow.
Meanwhile in Central Kentucky, some drivers were strand along in 35 miles stretch of interstate 75 for as much as 19 hours from Friday afternoon to Saturday morning. A similar scene along the Pennsylvania turnpike. Cars stuck for five miles. And in North Carolina a fatal truck accident caused a huge back up.
As the storm effects approximately 85 million Americans, it wasn't expected to have such an impact on New Jersey and New York.
On the New Jersey shore tides are on the rise. Flooding coastal towns with ocean water. Forcing more than fifty people to evacuate from their homes. While coastal flooding was always a worry, CNN was live in Margate New Jersey as the ocean waters overwhelmed the sea wall and spilled into the streets.
And in New York City, the bridges and tunnels into the island of Manhattan closed at 2:30 p.m., the result of a travel ban. The normally bustling Times Square looks like a ghost town. The governor is calling for common sense.
GOV. ANDREW CUOMO, NEW YORK: Our own citizens can create the greatest issues. You go out on the road, all it takes is one car to get stuck and now that road is not passable and the plows can't plow that road. And the situation quickly descends into chaos. We have seen this time and time again.
GRAY: And it is far from over. With the storm tracking north overnight.
CUOMO: Between the snowfall and the wind, it is really a treacherous, treacherous situation. (END VIDEOTAPE)
GRAY: And Jim, not to get too far ahead of ourselves but tomorrow with a little sunshine and some melting and then a possible refreeze on Sunday evening, it is going to be interesting to see how the road situations are on Monday morning for the morning commute. I know a lot of people are going to be antsy trying to get to work and get out of the house. So that is going to be a wait and see game I guess to see how the plows can get the roads clear and do see what kind of condition they will be in on Monday morning -- Jim.
SCIUTTO: No question. Warmer temperatures would be nice but then yes that could come back and bite you Sunday night.
Thanks very much Jennifer Gray.
In Virginia, just across the river here state police have been busy to say the least in the storm. More than a thousand crashes, hundreds of stranded vehicles. Five Virginia troopers suffered minor injuries responding. We also know that the Virginia National Guard has been out there pitching in.
Nick Valencia, he is live now in Fairfax, Virginia.
They are still has it tonight, I imagine trying to get drivers off the road, rescue some of those stranded drivers. What are you seeing out there, Nick?
NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. And we could use some of that sunshine that Jennifer Gray was talking about here. We don't expect that to happen until sometime tomorrow afternoon.
It is a bit of good news here in the last hour. The snow seems to have a teetered off a little bit. The wind gusts are picking up. And of course, those emergency vehicles are still in effect. Just off camera here, there is a crew of snowplows getting ready to go out and make another pass at these roads.
This is route 50 here. It is one of the main thoroughfares that cuts through Fairfax. And we haven't seen too many cars on this road in the hours that we have been out here. Just for the most part emergency vehicles, snowplows. We actually saw little while ago, I guess you would say earlier this afternoon an emergency vehicle get stuck in the middle of this thoroughfare trying to make a u turn on its way to go treat some of these road.
You talk about the Virginia state police, Jim, 1300 accidents, 1600 disabled vehicles an d that includes some of those snowplows and emergency vehicles. The Virginia state police expected to give us another update here in a couple of minutes. But they did tell us earlier this evening at least three people have perished as a slip here in the snow. At least three people has perish as result of this storm that's come through the can commonwealth. Two died from hypothermia, another one lost control of his car crashing into a tree.
The storm here has really lived up to all the expectations. We spoke earlier to a native Virginian who said this could be one of the worst steams he has ever seen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just wet, sloppy conditions and just trying to make the best of it and clean everything up as much as we can.
VALENCIA: You are from here. You are around this area. You are a Virginia guy. How does this compare with storms in the past? Years past?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is predicted to be one of the worst once we have had that I have had to deal with.
VALENCIA: Are you living up to it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So far, yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VALENCIA: See this? And you can see her behind me something really cool happening. We see this every couple of hours. It is a snowplow train. They come through in a caravan, Jim, and they push all of the snow to the right shoulder of the thoroughfare here of this pass. They are really doing a lot of work. They have taken a lot of preparations, precautions. They started, we are told back in June, making sure that all of their subcontractors that work for the Virginia department of transportation were prepared for something like this. Takes about 12-18 hours to load the more than 4,000 pieces of heavy equipment they have on the roadways. So they effectively started their real efforts some time on Thursday night as that snow was expected to come through and it really did.
It's been snowing consistently for at least 32 hours and hopefully, you know, that sunshine with come out tomorrow afternoon and melt some of this snow here and then hopefully the recovery effort will start - Jim.
[22:27:32] SCIUTTO: It is an incredibly logistical challenge to deploy all those resources, 4,000 heavy vehicles. We just got a little taste of that right behind you there Nick. Thanks for talking us through that.
I want to go now to get a look ahead. Meteorologist Karen Maginnis, she is tracking the storm in the CNN weather center.
So, we are looking ahead. We have heard this a little bit, Karen, when we were talking earlier tomorrow, sunshine, warmer temperatures but that can also mean trouble can't it?
KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. It is a double-edge sword because you do get the sunshine. People want to get out as we heard Jennifer Gray say just a few minutes ago.
But look at these overnight temperatures. Only in the 20s and then it would go down into the teens by Tuesday overnight. Daytime highs will be above freezing mark. This is for New York City. So you do get that melting. And then when those temperatures go below freezing then you are looking at the black ice.
So same for Washington D.C. Although on Sunday night for D.C., it looks like it is going to be single digits here. You are just not out of woods. And I heard somebody reference the snowfall for Washington D.C. They said you have hit the jackpot of snowfall for the season. Well you certainly have. Philadelphia, you go down into the teens. So those temperatures hovering around freezing. Bumps up a little bit during the workweek. But not terribly much. There is still so much snowfall, a foot, two feet, three feet some areas. In some of the outer corners have seen 40 inches of snowfall. So that is a lot to deal with. The other thing we are talking about are the coastal effects of this huge storm. A lunar tide. And then you have got big problems.
Take a look at what happened. And this is at Sea Isle City. This is just below Atlantic City, New Jersey. They saw the water rushing in this morning because of the tides. It was a high lunar tide. And it inundated some of these coastal areas. And as you know what? As we go into tomorrow morning, it looks like Sandy Hook could also see another round of that flooding coming up as we go into Sunday morning. Time of high tide, 7:30 - 8:00 in morning.
Here is a good news. Seven or about noon day coming up for Sunday, area of low pressure pulls away. We still have the winds on the backside of this. So it will be a little gusty but you are not going to see the period where the snowfall is going to be heavy. You might see a spit of snowfall here and there. Maybe just a little burst but that is about it by the afternoon. I think it pulls far enough away that you are going to be pretty good.
How about those snowfall totals? All right. For Dulles, in excess of 28 inches of snowfall. At Newark, 25. Now these were as of 7:00 p.m. this evening. We are expecting to get another update. Do we have records? We probably do. And if you have got some great pictures, why don't you send it to us, #CNN weather. We would love to see your photos. If you are safe, stay safe because that is what's key here. But we see some great pictures and especially in some of the coastal areas of New Jersey. Still not out of the woods as far as the flooding is concerned. New York looks like your visibility really has improved quite a bit. But as I mentioned flurries still possible here, especially in Long Island. And you go a little bit further to the north. Places like Boston could see a few bursts here and there. And on out the Cape, Jim, we saw hurricane force winds. Very dramatic.
[22:31:07] SCIUTTO: It is not over Karen Maginnis, thanks very much for tracking it all for us.
Well, as we have been reporting all night lots of things are shut down up and down the east coast. Roads, schools, businesses, people told stay home. There is one thing in the Washington as the not shut down and that is the single guard, the lone guard that stands at the tomb of the unknown soldier at Arlington national ceremony. We still remember. A storm won't keep us from remembering and that one soldier standing there in tonight in remembrance of all those who lost their lives in service of the country. We are going continue to follow the winter weather tonight. Please
stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[22:35:30] COSTELLO: And hello again. I'm Carol Costello.
The snow has pretty much stopped near in New York City. Of course it is still very, very cold. It feels like it is ten degrees outside. But things are progressing pretty well. I'm looking behind me on the sidewalk and it is completely clear. The snow plows have been out all night long, all day long. And all night, I should say, there are also tiny snowplows -- I just heard more falls ice in the building. So please be careful if you are walking, if you are out and about because I have been hearing ice falling from the buildings all day long.
I want to take a look at what's written snow there on Columbus circle. I love Lauren. We are not quite sure whose art that is, but Lauren is probably one happy women, whoever she may be. And on that warm and fuzzy note I must take you out to New Jersey, to the jersey shore because nothing warm and fuzzy going on out there maybe inside I don't know wherever people are finding shelter today. But there is massive flooding along the jersey shore in New Jersey. In fact, our Ryan Young has been showing you all night long especially in Margate New, Jersey.
Lieutenant Matt Hunkerson (ph) is on the phone with me right now.
Lieutenant, hello.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello.
COSTELLO: Thanks for being with me. I appreciate it. Tell me what it is like in Margate right now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are right at the end of another high tide. High tide is about 8:00 this evening. It expected peak tide about an hour after that. And a lot of our business areas and back bay areas, water is coming over the bulk head in a lot of the same areas as Hurricane Sandy hit.
COSTELLO: So we are looking at shots of what appears to be the downtown area. What other areas are effected in Margate.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right now most of the businesses in the back bay area, they are getting effected with water coming over the bulge heads in the back bay area. Where you are looking right now is one of the business districts and that is one of our lower lying areas and that's where the water has come in the back bays and some coming from the ocean on the other side.
COSTELLO: How deep is the water sir?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It depends on the areas. Some areas I would say it is thigh to waist deep. It is going to depend where you are going as to how deep it is. COSTELLO: How many people's homes have been affected?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At this time it is pretty hard to tell. We will know more tomorrow. People have pretty much stayed inside which has been very nice. People have heeded some of the warnings and have been watching the news and know it is not a good time to go outside. So it's worked out pretty well from our end.
COSTELLO: Is there are a mandatory evacuation in Margate?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is not. People have called and we have given advice but we have actually been very lucky so far today. We have had our usual cause for service. We have a lot of o extra calls for service assisting the public and some of the situations they might run into. Other than that we have not needed to have an evacuation at this point.
COSTELLO: Lieutenant, how does this make your job more difficult?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is -- the hardest part is accessing some of the areas where we might have to get to because of the flooding. Luckily we do have some heavier equipment that we can use to get to those areas. And like I said, assisting the public and public staying inside is one of the bigger aspects. Makes our job a lot easier. The less people on the street the easier it is to get around.
COSTELLO: I know there were safeguards in place after hurricane sandy. They don't appear to have been very effective.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well it seems that most of our water right now is coming from our back bays over the bulk head and not from our ocean front. Some of our ocean front streets have water on them but not to the extent that our back bay areas have because of the tide. The tide seems to be the biggest factor at this point as it is coming over the back bay area.
COSTELLO: And Lieutenant, I know people are watching in Margate tonight. What would you like to tell them?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The areas that usually flood are flooding as bad as they can be. It is not to the extent of hurricane Sandy. But those flood prone areas are flooded. Other areas of the town aren't as affected as they were, say, during hurricane Sandy because a lot of area was effected. This is more in our usual low-lying areas. That is where we are getting most of our flooding as we usually do.
[22:40:01] COSTELLO: All right. Lieutenant, thank you so much for being with me tonight and thank you for all that you are doing out there tonight because I know it must be miserable conditions for you as well. Thank you so much.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Carol.
COSTELLO: You're welcome.
Let's get a check on the forecast in Chad Myers. CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, we are officially going to break
a record here in central park or Time Square. All across the City. Manhattan officially going to go above the highest snowfall record on record for as long as they have been keeping records here in New York. And I guess that is kind of a milestone.
But the wind here in central park and Time Square wasn't as bad as we saw down the shore or down in Baltimore and Philadelphia and D.C. So we don't have the drifting like they have down there. It is a little bit better. Talia is actually from Florida. She joins me.
You live over Hell's kitchen, but you said the cars over there are snowed in.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everything is snowed in over there. And it's freezing but we are having fun.
MYERS: This is the most snow you have ever seen.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: YES. I have lived in Manhattan for ten and a half years and this is definitely the most snow I have ever seen in my life.
MYERS: So, how are you going to cope with it? Are you going to cook? Are the stores open? What is it like over there?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We found one restaurant over there that's opened. It is not (INAUDIBLE) as I thought it would be. I figured it would be packed but it is not and we are just having fun with it.
MYERS: I think that is all you can do. At this point in time we have gone by the, oh my God, I'm not going to get to work on Monday and now we are just going to have fun wit.
So I guess, if you can't and don't want to go out, please don't. Maybe Monday or Tuesday is the day to get there. Right now stay in and watch TV, or just kind of enjoy it briefly and get back inside.
COSTELLO: All right. Thank you Chad Meyers.
And I think Chad was right. It is good to have fun when the weather is so miserable. Lots of people are out and about earlier today and even tonight and they were having fun. They were snowboarding through central park. They were sledding. They had their dogs out. They were making snow angels in the snow. You know in some ways it just -- oh look that is so beautiful. Right in front of the Lincoln memorial. That's awesome.
So see, people were having fun in this terrible weather. That is the way to go.
I'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[22:45:58] SCIUTTO: You are looking at pictures here of emergency crews responding on I-20 just outside of Baltimore. You get a sense of just how dangerous the roads have been, but also that enormous presence of security service, emergency service, National Guard in some place. Really, all hands on deck in a number of cities up and down the east coast responding to this historic storm.
Baltimore officials have declared a phase three snow emergency, all traffic banned except for those emergency vehicles and plows. And all hospital staff must remain in place to be ready to take care of any injured who come in.
Our Miguel Marquez, he has been in the thick of it in this storm in Baltimore all day. They have had heavy snow, heavy wind as well. But you have been seeing it taper off a little bit, haven't you. How it's it looking now, Miguel?
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I think it is all over but the cleanup. We haven't seen a lot of snow. Maybe a flurry or to. It is hard to tell. The wind seems to have stopped, but this is the stuff now. The snowdrifts, (INAUDIBLE), scrapping off the roads all over the city. We will have to go away.
The next couple of days are going to be tough. It will be just above freezing in Baltimore. So it might melt little bit. Get a lot of ice going and it will freeze again. Tuesday is meant to be very warm so then they will probably get a leg up then on all of the snow. They have to get off the streets here. That faze three, of getting all the cars off the road here that may expire tomorrow morning at 6:00 a.m. All public transportation is still off until 3:00 a.m. Monday. All of those can be reassessed officials say, but it looks like they are on track to get those things done by then.
The question is whether they have broken any records here in Baltimore. 26.8 inches back in 2003. It was the most (INAUDIBLE) for the city. This afternoon, the unofficial tallies on snow was already about 24 inches in some parts of Baltimore. So they may, in fact, break some records here as well. Some parts of Maryland already up to 35, 36 inches of snow. Far western Maryland may have gotten as much as 48 inches of snow, four feet. So just an unbelievable snow storm that's powered through here and just has complicated things. The governor saying that it may take some days to dig out. And other places in the state may take as long as a week -- Jim.
SCIUTTO: Miguel Marquez in the think of it in Baltimore.
Also Philadelphia has been seeing a lot. Pennsylvania, 600 - actually 500 vehicles stuck on the Pennsylvania turnpike because of snow. They have been there for more than 24 hours now. Temperatures low. Among those stranded a group of catholic students and their chaperones. As they waited for help, listen to what they did. The group held a mass right there on the turnpike. Let's have a listen.
(VIDEO CLIP PLAYING)
SCIUTTO: Making the best of a tough, even a dangerous situation there. Blocked on the roads.
Sara Ganim, she is joining us now from Philadelphia.
Sara, we have been hearing that they were starting to get to some of these drivers, get them out of there. What is the status now? How many people still stranded?
SARA GANIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We just got off the phone with Pennsylvania state police a little while ago and they could only just say they are continuing to help those drivers and their passengers to shelter tonight. They brought in the National Guard early this morning to try and speed up the process. But Jim this is a five mile stretch, 500 vehicles. It all started because some tractor-trailers couldn't make it through. It was not passable on the highway anymore because of the snow and that backed up the highway for five miles. You saw those buses with 300 and some members of that church. They were making the best of the situation, but a lot of people, you know, stuck out on the highway in freezing temperatures in the snow for 24 hours.
Now, the last thing we heard was things were starting to move little bit. But just think about how much snow fell while they were sitting out there and those roads couldn't be plowed while so many cars were stuck out there so that creates a problem.
Now thankfully, that is the biggest problem that we have heard of in Pennsylvania today over the course of this blizzard. Here in Philadelphia, there was mostly good news. There were not have many power outages. No serious incidents or accidents. They did break a record here. Recording at the office of emergency management just over 30 inches, which is well above the 24-hour snowfall total previous to this.
I want to show you Jim what this snow looks like here because this is really telling to me. I mean, this is really thick, wet, heavy stuff. This is the kind of stuff that you really get a workout with when you are shoveling. It is such, wet, thick snow that when it was following before Jim and we were standing out here talking to you guys, you could hear it hitting your jacket. It would really pelt you in the face. It was very thick.
Now it did lighten up. The snow lightened up and really what we are feeling now are just wind gusts that we have been feeling all day up to 40 miles per hour. The blizzard warning remains in effect until tomorrow morning about 7:00 a.m. And officials still asking people here in Philadelphia and other parts of Pennsylvania to stay in their houses. Stay off the streets so they can continue to clear up these roads so they can get these places back to normal as soon as possible -- Jim.
SCIUTTO: Sarah Ganim on the streets of Philadelphia.
We have been watching it here in Washington D.C. where city seen the worst snow, the most snow in 94 years. Look how it's played out over the course of the day. And I'll tell you right now I'm just seeing the first signs of a clear night sky. We might be seeing the end here.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[22:56:18] COSTELLO: Hello, I'm Carol Costello.
I know we had a record snowfall today, 25 inches recorded in central park. And there may be more to come although the snow is pretty much abated here in the city. It is very cold outside though. It feels like it is 10 degrees.
Of course all the flights are canceled in all three New York City airplanes or New York airplane area airports, I should say. Thousands of flights have been canceled. But I'm going to look on the bright side for just a couple of minutes right now. Because the sights around New York City and this beautiful snowfall are simply gorgeous.
I want to bring in Gary Hershorn. He is a professional photographer. He has been taking pictures all day in New York City and he has captured the beauty of the moment.
So Gary, welcome and thank you for being with me.
GARY HERSHORN, PHOTOGRAPHER (on the phone): Hi Carol.
COSTELLO: So we are going show a couple of your pictures on air. And just take me through your day.
HERSHORN: Well I got up at -- wow, I left the house about 9:30 this morning to head into town. I live in Hoboken New Jersey (INAUDIBLE). And I started at Macy's and around the empire state building and went up to Times Square and shot a bunch of pictures up in the Times Square area. And then I came home for a couple of hours and then about 5:00, when it got dark, I went back into the City and spent another two hours walking around village and also over to union square.
COSTELLO: I'm looking at your pictures and I haven't seen my favorite one yet, the man on the unicycle.
HERSHORN: That is just crazy. You know that is lucky being in the right place at the right time. That was down in the village and I couldn't believe he came across the street with that thing. He kept falling off it. Couldn't stay on more than about ten feet before he fell off.
COSTELLO: You know the other surprising things that I saw here in my own neighborhood here in New York City. There are delivery people out riding bicycles through the snow and that had to be difficult.
HERSHORN: It was crazy. Everywhere all over the City you could see a restaurant bicycle deliveries going on, which is crazy.
COSTELLO: The most wonderful thing I saw as I had to take a walk through central park because it is just so stunningly beautiful there in the snow. Lots of children sled riding. And playing with their parents. People had their dogs out. It was like a community gathering and I must say it was a lovely thing to see. HERSHORN: Definitely, you know. You know whenever there is snow I
always try to make it inside the square and the beautiful thing there are the tourist whose just love the snow. They plow the snow and make these little snow mountains in Times Square and everybody goes up. And you know, who doesn't have fun on a snowy day in New York.
COSTELLO: Exactly. And then as the days pass by the snow turns kind of black and grime my and you just want it gone. So, it is important for us to -go ahead.
HERSHORN: Yes, we should get one more beautiful day. You know, tomorrow morning I'm going to head out to central park. And to me, the day after a snowfall, especially when the sun comes out and all of that white glistening snow, it should be just a beautiful day in the park tomorrow.
COSTELLO: All right. Gary Hershorn, thanks for sharing. We appreciate it.
And we are going continue our coverage right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So this is a forecast that in the last 24 hours has jumped up several times.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just look at how much snow it has accumulated on the ground here? I'm walking. And it was every step I take it is just about knew-high.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm watching the snow filled that outside my window. I mean, it actually pretty scary.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We haven't seen this amount of snowfall in one storm in 94 years.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shows a massive, massive storm. This wind is just making everything miserable here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
