Return to Transcripts main page
Erin Burnett Outfront
Blizzard Emergency In Boston; Historic Blizzard Slams The Northeast; Police Release New Pictures Of Dorner
Aired February 08, 2013 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: OUTFRONT next, a monster blizzard slamming the northeast tonight. Starting here in New York, it's going to be feet and not inches of snow. We have that covered.
Plus we're going to go to Boston, which has been getting pummeled throughout the day today. There have been dramatic and draconian actions there with the governor saying you're going to go to jail if you're actually out driving your car.
We've got new information also about the suspected cop killer in Los Angeles tonight. We have for you exclusive video of the suspect as he was training to shoot guns. Let's go OUTFRONT.
Good evening, everyone. I'm Erin Burnett. OUTFRONT tonight, a historic blizzard is slamming the northeast as I speak. We're expecting up to about 3 inches of snow accumulating an hour, which is obviously incredibly quick.
It's been sort of slow coming here to New York, but the accumulation will be dramatic and severe. The snow fell, the last blizzard in this city was 2011, and it was 20 inches of snow. We'll see if this one will set a record overnight.
To give you just an idea of how big this storm is, how many states are affected tonight, this is a picture from NASA that we're looking at. You can see the storm right now stretches all the way from north up in Maine all the way down to the mid-Atlantic and New Jersey.
There are near whiteout conditions across the northeast and I am in New York City where the mayor is warning the storm is unpredictable. He's been instructing everyone to stay inside although, of course, there are still a lot of the people out tonight.
But the pictures of destruction from Superstorm Sandy are still fresh in his mind and in the mind of many people in the New York City area. New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly is here with me. We're going to be talking in just a moment.
But we want to go to the north first and New England, which as I said, has been getting pummeled through the day. This is one of the ten biggest storms in history. In Boston right now, already breaking the record of 27 inches, which was set ten years ago back in 2003. And that is the fear that made Massachusetts Governor Duvall Patrick to take drastic action. He said, if you are on the road driving after 4:00 this afternoon, you could face a year in jail. That's a pretty significant step to make.
OUTFRONT, Jason Carroll, he is live in Boston. Ali Velshi is live in Dennis Port, Massachusetts and Poppy Harlow is in Providence, Rhode Island. I want to start with Jason though. Jason, it has been a pretty incredible day there and record snowfall throughout. What's it been like?
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I have to tell you, Erin, the conditions here in Boston are quite frankly they are miserable. It's a kind of icy snow that's been blowing around in your face. And just to give you an idea the condition of snow, earlier today it was very sticky.
You can see it's starting to become much more powdery now. That's going to make the conditions here much, much worse. Because when you have powdery snow blowing around with these strong wind gusts that we're experiencing, in fact, at Logan Airport, they clocked 40 to 50-mile-per-hour wind gusts.
When you have that powdery snow blowing around like that, the wind, the conditions -- the conditions in terms of visibility become very, very difficult. So that's what we're experiencing now in Boston. As you say, the city and the state doing what they can to keep people off the streets.
The governor is signing that action making it illegal actually to be out on the roads unless you're in an emergency vehicle and that certainly has helped because as we were out, we saw very little people out on the streets. This is a secondary street here in South Boston.
It's the primary streets that will be plowed first. Streets like this second although we did see some plows out here earlier today. And that's certainly a good indication that the city has things under control, at least at this point.
We were told from city officials that they had at least 4,000 pieces of equipment out to man streets like this one and other streets as well. And in addition to that, you've got some 5,000 members of the National Guard on standby just in case.
So the conditions here in Boston at this hour are bad. They are sure to get even worse as the hours move on -- Erin.
BURNETT: Drivers have been ordered, Jason, I know to stay off the streets as we were saying, Governor Duvall Patrick, saying if you're on the roads in Boston after 4:00 in the afternoon, you could face up to a year in jail. Are people heeding that warning?
CARROLL: A year in jail or a $500 fine. And so far, so far we've seen very little traffic out here. You can see the street. We've seen absolutely nothing for the past hour. Maybe we saw one passenger car come by on the way out to this location, Erin, one or two vehicles.
But for the most part, people seem to be heeding the warning and staying inside. We spoke to some people who are not far from here. They're doing what a lot of people are doing, then set out early, bought their supplies, bought their groceries, now they are just hunkering down for the storm.
BURNETT: All right, thanks very much, Jason Carroll. We're going to check in with Jason later on in the hour, but I want to go to Ali Velshi now. As I said he is in Dennis Port, Massachusetts. Ali, what's it like there?
ALI VELSHI, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: All right, so whatever Jason's getting, we've had. I can tell him it's going to get worse. It's gotten colder in the last half hour. These icy snowflakes have gotten vicious.
Let me just tell you where I am. I'm on the south side of Cape Cod, OK. That is south. Chatham, if you know Cape Cod, the bottom corner of Cape Cod is east, about 30 miles east of me. Jason is over there.
This storm is going that way to him and it is changing in personality. The wind is whipping up. A few miles east of here, Hyannis Airport is just recording about 25-mile-an-hour sustained winds. That's sustained, but the gusts are coming through and you can see them coming in.
Come over for a second to over here. This is the beach. Last night's tide came up to here. Now, we are at 7:00, high tide's going to be about 10:00. You can see the surf getting very rough over here. Here's the combination of the problems that we've got right now.
One wave of this storm has come through, Chad can explain to you better why this is such a biting wind. The storm's out there. It's going to be three or four hours before it gets as close as it's going to do land.
At that point, we're going to be at high tide or we'll have just come off of high tide so the water will be a lot closer. It will be something of a surge. We'll start to see power outages already where we are we've seen the lights flicker as trees start to go down and take power lines with them.
So folks around here are dealing with this wind. They're dealing with cold temperatures. They're dealing with power outages. We are in Massachusetts so you can't drive in Connecticut, Rhode Island or Massachusetts. You need to be home right now.
At least there's nobody sightseeing out here, Erin. It's too cold and it's too biting to be doing that. But this is what Jason's going to get in not too long from here -- Erin.
BURNETT: You mentioned flooding and how bad it's been. Have you been seeing anything near those buildings? VELSHI: No. Because again, we're not -- we're too many hours away from high tide. The combination -- the issue is going to be if this thing gets bad at about -- between 10:00 and midnight, they're expecting some coastal flooding around here.
All the way down the coast of Massachusetts, all the way into New York, there are coastal flooding warnings. So we're a little bit worried about that. But that's going to have to do with the timing of when the storm comes in versus how high the tide is.
As I said, high tide's expected here around 9:45 or so tonight. We're not expecting the peak of the storm probably until about midnight or so. But there are warnings about flooding, in fact, as I'm watching CNN here.
It's being interrupted by weather alerts from the National Weather Service to warn, in addition to the other warnings they've got, about a coastal flooding alert. This area is in that red zone of coastal flooding alerts -- Erin.
BURNETT: Thank you very much to you, Ali and we'll check in with Ali as well. I want to move a little further south now to Providence, Rhode Island, which has also been in the main belt of the storm throughout much of the day.
As you can see here in New York, the storm is really just hitting in the next couple of hours. Not the case to the north particularly in Providence. Our Poppy Harlow is there -- Poppy.
POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM CORRESPONDENT: Erin, the big problem here is how thick, how wet, this snow is. You heard from Ali. You heard from Jason and here with the whipping winds, we're getting this thick, wet snow that is landing on power lines and that is exactly what the governor here told me he is so worried about.
The mayor, I was just with him. They're very concerned that as these winds pick up, we're here right in front of city hall in Providence less than a mile from the water. As it picks up, they're worried about massive power outages.
We already have huge snow accumulation here. We drove up here. I want to show some shots of our drive up here, from I-95 up from New York here. We saw numerous, very big, severe accidents. Tractor- trailers jack-knifed. We even saw one semi that it actually tipped off the side of the highway. That was hours ago.
So what they've done here as well, taken those extraordinary actions, closed all of I-95 through Massachusetts, through Connecticut, and through Rhode Island. As of 5:00 Eastern here, it was illegal, just like you heard from Jason, for any cars to be on the road except for emergency vehicles. So what are they doing about it?
You see the plows out here already about ten of them just passed by me. I had a chance just before your show to go into the Emergency Command Center basically ground zero where they're keeping an eye on the storm. And we can show you what that was like. They have people there 24/7, they walked around. They have trackers now on all of the snow plows in Rhode Island. They can see where they're going, how they're helping people, where they're getting stuck and in addition using every single emergency vehicle in Rhode Island.
They have hired all of the contractors they can to help take care of this storm. I know you're going to talk to the mayor a little bit later, Erin. But it's getting significantly worse here by the minute.
BURNETT: All right, thank you very much, Poppy Harlow, as we watch the storm approach. Obviously, going to be blizzard conditions here in New York City where I'm standing as well. It's because of the heavy snow and strong winds that the city's Mayor Michael Bloomberg has urged New Yorkers to pack it up and get home early.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, NEW YORK: You can't take nature too lightly. Hopefully, it won't be anything drastic and it's certainly not going to be a hurricane sandy. But that doesn't mean you can't get badly hurt or killed if you're not careful and help others.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: All right, joining me OUTFRONT now is New York City's Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. Commissioner, good to see you again. Last time, I saw you was on the night of Hurricane Sandy.
RAY KELLY, NEW YORK CITY POLICE COMMISSIONER: I remember it well.
BURNETT: Yes. That was a frightening night in a lot of ways. Are you ready for this storm? Obviously right now it's just starting here, but the accumulation could be significant and historic.
KELLY: Yes, I think we're prepared. You heard the mayor give his briefing today so far, so good. The snow is light, but obviously we anticipate it getting heavier the next two to five hours.
BURNETT: Now it comes just a few months after Hurricane Sandy. The city has not fully recovered. Parts of the city, people are still not back in their homes. They don't have power. I mean, there are still a lot of problems. Are there going to be significant power outages? It seems everyone was afraid of that. There were gas lines. I mean, all those horrible scenes the country remembers from Sandy are happening again.
KELLY: Well, obviously we don't think it will be anything close to Sandy, but we're prepared for additional resources, the police, fire department, all resources in those Sandy-impacted areas, Coney Island, Rockaway, Staten Island. We have boats positioned for flooding. There's been concern about flooding in the western part of Long Island sound. They're prepared. Again, so far it's pretty light, but we're ready for it. BURNETT: It's light but it could get heavier and it's expected to. You were thinking it might be even worse by now. Broadway is still however lights on. People are out and about.
KELLY: Right.
BURNETT: But in Boston, you go to jail for a year if you're out driving.
KELLY: This is much better than Boston, obviously, looking at the television.
BURNETT: I mean, would you ever do something like that in New York or did they overreact?
KELLY: It depends on the situation. I don't know what's going on up there.
BURNETT: Well, New Yorkers would ignore you, but that's a separate issue.
KELLY: You know, we would prefer that people not drive, clearly, the mayor said that today, want people to stay home. Our police officers are working toward the possibility of whiteouts here, 50- mile-an-hour winds. We have our police cars with lights on. So we've done everything we reasonably can to prepare for this.
BURNETT: Were you surprised when you heard that, though, a year of jail time?
KELLY: You have to do what you have to do.
BURNETT: Look at how careful you're being. I want to say, so many people have been complaining that there has been no snow. People have been talking about climate change. There was no snow last year. Here we are. It brought to memory some of the big snow storms of 19- plus inches in New York, where there would be people cross country skiing down Park Avenue, in the middle of New York City, some fun and amazing images.
KELLY: Right. We weren't complaining here about it. We weren't complaining. Remembering as a boy in New York, 10 or 12 major snow storms a year so the world has changed significantly. I can't say I miss it.
BURNETT: All right, well, Commissioner Kelly, great to see you as always. Appreciate you taking the time.
KELLY: Thank you.
BURNETT: All right, we want to go now to chief meteorologist Chad Myers. Chad, to ask you this basic question, as Commissioner Kelly was just saying, thought it could get significantly worse, whiteout conditions here in New York. What's your prediction right now how bad it will get here and how long the storm will last overall? CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You know, New York City, Erin, is on the west side, on the almost over side of this storm. The real effect of this nor'easter is going to be Boston, Providence, Nantucket, all the way out even into Hartford, Connecticut, and through all of Connecticut proper.
New York City may get another 4 inches of snow. What New York City got today was the precip that should have been or could have been snow, was a rain-snow mix. So it's mucky out there. Shears slush in the streets. But tonight after 9:00, 10:00, it's going to get well below 32 and that's going to flash freeze.
Then it's going to snow, 3 to 4 inches, not much more for New York City. We're not seeing 20 more inches. It's just not going to happen, but then you have 4 inches of snow on top of ice that you can't see, trying to walk around, big ruts, big things.
There's going to be so much ice under that snow. That's the danger of New York City, I believe, right now. Now, there is thunder snow happening in parts of Connecticut and Long Island. That's how hard it is snowing.
Ali Velshi is right there, in case you didn't understand where he was, on the bottom of the hook. Here's Boston. Look at this blue area of snow right there. That's the heaviest snow about to approach Boston. It's through Providence, about to get to Hartford, all the way down to all of the big cities right along the coast there of Connecticut.
That's where the heavy snow is right now. That blue area. Let me show you what's going on for New York City. There's dry air coming in from the west. They're trying to push snow back up this way, but it's not getting very far. There's that big snow out there. Long island expressway's getting very heavy snow.
If we get 3 to 4 more inches of wrap-around snow in New York City I think that's all we get. It doesn't paralyze New York City like it's going to paralyze Boston. It's going to paralyze Providence and Hartford, these areas right through here. That's where it's going to snow another 12 here, 18 hours here.
So just because there's a little bit more snow coming, the worst of it I believe is still well off the coast because that's where the low is. If you're closest to the low, that's Boston, all the way through here, that's where the snow is going to be the heaviest.
New York, wound up, they got prepared. That's great. There's still to be snow, it's still going to look pretty. I don't believe it's going to be a paralyzing event for New York City. A lot of your precip came down as that wet, rain-snow mix. That didn't pile up -- Erin.
BURNETT: All right, Chad, thank you very much. I got to say as paralyzing as it may be in Boston, I've got nieces and nephews up there, who from the perspective of a child's eyes are very excited about finally getting a snow storm. We're going to be staying with the storm throughout the hours as we follow the conditions across the northeast.
Plus, we have exclusive video for you OUTFRONT of the alleged cop killer currently still on the run in Los Angeles. This has some specific details about his training and his motivation.
And what did cause the power to go out for 34 minutes during the Super Bowl? We finally have an answer for you. We'll be back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: We are following the historic blizzard that is striking right now 13 states across the northeast. You're looking at a live picture of Boston, which so far has been hit the hardest. This looks like it's going to go down as the biggest snowfall in Boston history.
Now on the other side of the country though, the hunt is still on for the alleged cop killer, the manhunt. Many people thought this would be resolved last night. They thought the FBI was closing in on him but maybe not. Not at this point.
The Irvine Police Department has just released two recent surveillance photos of Christopher Dorner. He, of course, is the 33- year-old former LAPD officer who is alleged to have killed three people so far, including the daughter of a retired Los Angeles Police Department captain, and also killing a current LAPD officer.
Dorner remains on the run tonight. They are not sure where he is. He's considered armed and dangerous. Cade Courtley is a former Navy SEAL. He is an expert in survival tactics. He is also the author of "SEAL Survival Guide, Navy SEAL Secrets to Surviving Any Disaster."
I'm glad to have you back. You know, last night, we were talking. There was a belief that Dorner was up in the resort area of Big Bear where his pickup truck had been found burning. They thought the FBI might be able to close in on him and find him. Now they're saying the trail went cold. How far could he have gotten?
CADE COURTLEY, FORMER NAVY SEAL/SNIPER: This guy's 275 pounds, I used to train up there, it's extremely rugged. It's snowing, not very far on foot. This guy is either bunkered in, in one of the homes up there or he's nowhere near that area, in my opinion.
BURNETT: That's my question. Do you think that it was a ruse that he may not even be there?
COURTLEY: I personally do. There's no reason why he had gone through all this planning for this and then just decided to abandon his vehicle, light it on fire, and go off on foot. I think he knows being a former cop that as soon as he lit his truck on fire, it was going to have a major police response, and now we have over 100 law enforcement up there looking for him. And I don't think he's anywhere nearby. I think he got in another vehicle and he's gone.
BURNETT: Cade, what are the chances, you've done this before. You followed these kinds of situations. What are the chances that he really disappears and there isn't a resolution to this where he is found, dead or alive, quickly?
COURTLEY: Well, I mean, that would be unfortunate. I was hoping we wouldn't have to talk about this tonight. I think he is going to go back to familiar territory. So I think he's going to head back to the San Diego area.
And then I think he's going to go ahead and do what he did in the Navy with that training, try and acquire a boat again, and knowing how harbor patrols, how coast guard would patrol, I think he'll go south to Baja, based on his background and training.
BURNETT: I'm curious what you think his motive is at this point. You know, when we read the manifesto that he put out, the 11,000-word document, he talked about how he died the day he was released from the LAPD years ago.
And everything in that manifesto indicates he's not going to live through this, he's done. He has no reason left to live, but now he's in hiding. So what's more important to him right now, escaping and getting free or going back and killing people even if that means he gets killed himself?
COURTLEY: I can only think based on the manifesto and just the ego of this guy, he doesn't want this to end. I think he wants to continue the ride on this thing. You know, I'm not a psychiatrist.
But I really think based on everything we've learned about this guy, he is loving this. He's not done yet, but I think he's probably a little bit more toward the escape, the blaze of glory. I don't know.
BURNETT: All right, Cade, thank you. Appreciate your taking the time. Hopefully we'll find this man and get this resolved very quickly, if not tonight, over the weekend.
Coming up, we have exclusive video of Christopher Dorner. This video gives you insight into how he was trained, literally. We have footage of him training on sharp shooting.
More of our coverage of the historic blizzard right now striking the entire northeast of the United States, how much more snow will hit?
And the family of George W. Bush has been hit by a hacker. We're going to tell you what was discovered in the family's personal e-mail accounts.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: Now some of the other key stories that we are watching tonight. The Secret Service is investigating the hacking and publishing of private e-mails belonging to members of the Bush family. The e-mails include private photos of former President H.W. Bush in the hospital. There were also some images of the artwork that were painted by former President George W. Bush. Now an OUTFRONT update on Malala Yousefzai. She is the teenage activist from Pakistan, you remember, who was shot in the head by the Taliban. Well, nearly four months after her ordeal began, we have some really good news to report to you tonight.
Malala has been released from the hospital. She is going to continue rehab at her family's temporary home in Britain. She became a target of the Taliban after speaking out for girls' rights to education.
And now finally, an answer to the burning question that has been lighting up our lives all week, the lack of light at the Super Bowl for 34 minutes. We finally have an answer as to why.
It turns out that Entergy, which is the company that provides power to the Superdome in New Orleans said a device that was specifically used to prevent power failure, well, failed.
They say the device worked absolutely fine during other major events leading up to the Superbowl, including the Sugar Bowl. The device has since been removed. Now it's going down in flames.
Condoleezza Rice has come out swinging at a PGA Tour event in Pebble Beach, California. According to Yahoo! Sports, the former secretary of state took a bad swing and shanked the ball 50 yards into a crowd of spectators. The ball reportedly hit a woman in the forehead, causing concussion-like symptoms. Rice, of course, reportedly apologized.
Still to come, more of our coverage of the monster snowstorm right now striking the north eastern part of this country. How many inches of snow will fall when all is said and done tomorrow morning?
Exclusive video here OUTFRONT, information about the suspected cop killer on the run around Los Angeles. We have video of him that you won't see anywhere else.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: And back to our top story, the historic blizzard which is striking the Northeast. About 13 states in the United States being hit by the strongest bands right now are actually closing in on New York City and primarily in Boston. That's where we're expecting to see an accumulation rate of about 3 inches an hour, which is pretty incredible to contemplate.
Ground zero for the storm is greater Boston. There are 4.5 million people who live there. And by the time the last flakes of snow fall tonight, Boston could be buried under nearly 30 inches of snow.
Now, the state's governor issued a state of emergency. He's also banned all cars from the roads and, we're not joking here. Anyone who defies that executive order can face a year in jail and a fine of $500. OUTFRONT tonight, Jason Carroll who is live in Boston, Ali Velshi in Dennis Port, Massachusetts, along the cape, right along the coast there of Massachusetts.
Jason, let me start with you and people hear, that cars have been banned, you could face a year in jail. They think, this must be pretty incredible, pretty scary. How has it been?
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I have to tell you, people seem to be heeding that warning and staying off roads. Since we've been out here in this neighborhood of South Boston we have not seen any passenger vehicles or at least very little passenger vehicles out on the road.
I'll tell you what we did see just a short while ago, Erin. Take a look at this driveway over here. We're parked at a church. Inside a church parking lot that's buried in snow, just a little while ago, a tow truck actually tried to come in, tried to make his way up this driveway. He got stuck here for a little while. He tried to make it up for just a few minutes. He finally gave up, and decided he'd be better off not doing that.
And that gives you an idea of the conditions we've been facing out here through the past several hours. The conditions have steadily gotten worse. People have been staying off the roads but that doesn't mean they've stayed indoors.
Joining me right now, I've got Katie, I've got Sean, I've got Jared. They were basically staying inside but now you decided to go to a friend's house, get a little bit more food as we battle that icy, windy snow that's out here right now.
You guys are brave. I know. I'm paid on be out here but when you're hungry you'll go just about anywhere. How are you guys holding up?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good. Layer up, try to keep warm. Watch out for the frigging snow.
CARROLL: Hopefully your friend doesn't live too far away, right, Katie?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, just around the corner. That's how we managed to get over. He trekked it.
CARROLL: So, how do you think the city has responded, the state has responded so far to the blizzard?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think appropriately so far. I think it's a good idea to keep people off the streets. Walkers only at this point, really.
CARROLL: Walkers, that's a good term.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Like us.
CARROLL: I certainly don't want to keep you guys out here in these conditions for very long. I really appreciate you stopping by.
Go to your friend's house, get your food, get your stuff, thanks very much.
So, Erin, as you can see, conditions here steadily getting worse as this blinding blizzard-like conditions, wind, icy snow, continues to blow. As a blizzard barrels down on Boston -- Erin.
BURNETT: All right, Jason, thank you.
And now, let's go to Ali Velshi. He's in Dennis Port, Massachusetts, right along the Massachusetts coast.
And I know, Ali, standing where you are, big concern is wind gusts and the ocean, that you could have flooding. Are you seeing any of that yet?
ALI VELSHI, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, let me tell you, two parts of it, first of all, the ocean is probably 20 feet from me right now. So we are two hours from high tide.
Where I am is where high tide would normally reach. When we're going to get alarmed is if high tide reaches further in, than when we are. Two hours from now, it's probably a little early for the worst of the storm to be hitting us. That's good news, because if it's two hours after high tide that the worst of the storm hits, we may feel less of a surge.
Bottom line is we are, you know, all the way up through Massachusetts, down through New York, we are in a severe coastal flooding zone right now. So that is a serious concern.
Now, what Jason's getting is what I had awhile ago. I've still got that biting snow right now. But we do have gusts. So if you know where I am, I'm in Dennis Port, Cape Cod. So, I'm halfway across the bottom part, the south part of Cape Cod. That's the south over there.
Over that way, east about 30 miles, is Chatham, New Hampshire, where they are reporting gusts of about 55 miles per hour.
Over here, we're very close to Hyannis. Hyannis airport is reporting gusting of 47-mile-per-hour. Those are not hurricane-force winds, which are sustained winds 75 miles an hour or more to be a hurricane. When you combine probably 30-mile-an-hour winds with gusts up to 50, and biting, icy snow, what you're doing is you're gathering accumulation on the top of trees and power lines and things like that, which then with added weight topple, bringing down power.
And we're seeing flickering lights around here. So, we've got those gusts. We've got this potential storm surge. You can see the water breaking a little bit. That's what we're looking at right now.
The next fee hours are going to be serious to see how all this pans out, certainly from 10:00 eastern probably through the early part of the night. Bu we are seeing increasing gusting. Jason is seeing a lot more of that right now. That's the situation here. The good news, probably about 250,000 people on Cape Cod generally speaking in the winter. Many of those might have left. Did you live here in the winter, Erin, you're probably a hardy New Englander and you've seen bad weather before, you're probably at home. It is Massachusetts.
There's no driving allowed tonight in Massachusetts, or Rhode Island, or Connecticut if you're not an official vehicle. So, most folks are home not walking around. I haven't seen a human around here for hours, I'll tell you that, Erin.
BURNETT: Trying to stay safe. Thanks very much, Ali.
And a state of emergency as Ali indicated, with nobody driving in a few of the states of New England, but also a state of emergency in Rhode Island. There are 2 feet expected to fall there. Cars and no trucks, cars and trucks no match for blizzard conditions out there.
I want to show you the scene on I-95. The main thoroughfare of the East Coast of the United States, that scene is being repeated across the Northeast.
I want to bring in Angel Taveras. He's the mayor of Providence, Rhode Island.
Mayor Taveras, thanks very much for taking the time. Obviously, just heard of up to two feet of snow. People aren't supposed to be out driving, only emergency vehicles.
Is the city, your city, totally prepared, ready for this?
ANGEL TAVERAS, MAYOR OF PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND: We're doing the best that we can, Erin. One of the things that we've done is make sure to get the information out to everyone, let them know that it's a time to really be home, to be with your family, to give us an opportunity to really be on the roads trying to clear the roads.
But the snow is coming down, it's coming down pretty fast as you can see. And we've got a lot of work to do the next 24 hours. So, we're asking everyone to please stay off the roads, let us do our job. Fortunately, we have a lot of good people out there tonight working. We're going to work throughout the night.
BURNETT: And, Mayor Taveras, I know one of the things from hurricane Sandy, which obviously affected your state as well as much of the Mid-Atlantic, was power outages. I know now a lot of the snow that's coming down where you are, it's heavy. It's wet snow. It's the kind of snow that could bring down power lines.
Are you worried about mass power outages?
TAVERAS: That's actually a huge concern that we have, especially during the wintertime where we're concerned about people heating their homes. And this heavy snow on the branches and the winds that we expect to be very strong, that's something that we're very concerned about, that that's going to bring down power lines and we're making sure to respond as quickly as possible.
Right now, we have about 60 homes in the city of Providence without power, we're doing everything we can to get them back up. But it is as concern that we have. We're going to do everything we can to get everyone back up as quickly as possible.
BURNETT: And do you think you're going to need federal assistance? I ask that question obviously given what we all are aware of, which is the extreme difficulty that the Mid-Atlantic, New York, and New Jersey had in obtaining money from the federal government after hurricane Sandy.
TAVERAS: Well, I certainly hope we don't need federal assistance, but we have an outstanding federal delegation here in our state. And I've been in contact with them. I know that the governor has as well.
So we've got good people here. But I hope that doesn't rise to that level. But we'll do everything we have to do to make sure that the city is clean and that people can go about their business as soon as possible. But hopefully it won't require federal assistance.
BURNETT: Mayor Taveras, thanks.
And still to come, we have just obtained an exclusive video of suspected cop killer Christopher Dorner and we are going to show it to you right after this break.
And according to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and a whole lot of other people it costs taxpayers about $1 million to clean one inch of snow. We've heard that number everywhere. So we investigated. Does it add up?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: All right. Well, the storm obviously is continuing in the Northeast. Right now, you're looking at a picture of Boston. The video that you're seeing is live and it's being shot out of the side of a vehicle in Boston. That's a CNN vehicle.
As we've been telling you, cars have been banned from the streets of Boston since 4:00 this afternoon. You have to pay a fine of $500 or go to jail for a year if you're driving. The CNN vehicle is allowed to be there, but we just want to explain what you're seeing.
Obviously, you're seeing people building a snow man. Along with the paralyzing effects of the snow will come joy for a whole lot of people, including children. Overall in Boston, which is ground zero for this storm, we are expecting up to 30 inches of snow which would put it as the single greatest snowfall for Boston, Massachusetts, in its history.
And as the peak of the storm hits which will be over the next few hours, we are anticipating snowfall could max out at three inches an hour, which is a pretty stunning number in terms of the accumulation that we're watching. Now, we're going to be covering, coming back to the story in just a moment. But I want to give you an update on the manhunt going on in Los Angeles and some exclusive and breaking news we have for you. The suspected cop killer is vowing revenge on the LAPD.
We have obtained tonight, exclusive video of the 33-year-old, Christopher Jordan Dorner. He's a former LAPD officer accused of killing three people. And the video we are about to show you shows Dorner when he was an LAPD training cadet.
You're going to see him training. This gives you a glimpse of who this man really is.
Kyung Lah is OUTFRONT with this exclusive report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Christopher Dorner, LAPD cadet, in 2005.
(on camera): What do you think watching this? Considering what's happened?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, he's an expert with weapons, definitely. He's definitely dangerous.
LAH: This man spent months with Dorner at the LAPD Training Academy. We are altering his voice and not showing his face because he fears Dorner will go after his police friends. But he wants the public to see this so people understand what the LAPD is facing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You look at Chris, you can see he's a little bit of an expert. The way -- watch, his arms, he'll shoot, you -- almost no movement when he shoots the gun, and then pop, like nothing.
LAH: So, he stood out?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, he stood out. He knew what he was doing. The LAPD has -- they're going to be going after one of their own former, and he knows, like I say, he knows what he's doing. He knows how to use everything.
LAH: Being a cop, do you think that it was -- could you tell that it was important to him?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I think it was very important to him. Yes.
LAH: You could see it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
LAH: Even during the training?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right, yes. I think it's a 300-pound dummy and he does that easily. LAH: Easily? This is 300 pounds.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. I believe that's 300 pounds.
LAH: So, this is a very strong man?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
LAH: But not everything was easy for Dorner, the aspiring police officer. This man says he witnessed drill instructors picking on him for his weight and slow running.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When I hear about how angry he is about the LAPD, I think that fits, to my experience, with him. I could kind of, you know -- that matches up when he says things about LAPD, matches up to the way I think he had his experience through the LAPD, especially the academy.
LAH (voice-over): But this man never spoke to Dorner but he never forgot the cadet.
(on camera): But your thought was, this man represents power and --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, exactly. I wanted to show -- when I was going to use it, I wanted to show, put music, show the LAPD is powerful, look at this powerful man handling this gun.
LAH: Is it frightening to think that the LAPD is now facing this man?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, yes. I mean, this guy is no joke.
LAH (voice-over): And one police are taking very seriously.
Kyung Lah, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT: Now I want to bring in Jim Clemente, spent 22 years at FBI, 12 of them as a criminal profiler. And he's OUTFRONT tonight.
So, Jim, now, you've had a chance to watch that video of Dorner training, learning how to shoot. You heard how the man there, we had to distort his information, how he reacted. What do you think? Have what does this show you how capable he is as a killer, as a shooter?
JIM CLEMENTE, FORMER FBI PROFILER: I think any LAPD officer is going to be capable. Certainly, they would not pass him if he didn't have that minimal level of capability. But nothing in those videos actually showed any extreme expertise.
There's a little bit of intensity. I mean, he certainly was focused on his mission, which most LAPD officers should be. But, you know, he may have been a little over the top that way. But again, there's nothing extraordinary about that. And even in his manifesto, he listed himself as a marksman, which as far as I know, that's one of the lowest competency levels. I mean, you have to at least be a marksman to pass. So I don't think that's anything extraordinary. But it's also consistent with his personality, that he would blow it out of proportion.
BURNETT: Right, well, a marksman on the rifle, I believe. On the .9 millimeter, he was an expert, slightly higher.
But any -- no matter what those are, they would not be of the level of, say, a Navy SEAL or a sniper, correct?
CLEMENTE: No. No, they wouldn't. No.
BURNETT: Right. All right. Jim, thank you very much. We appreciate your taking the time.
So as the snow picks up here where I am in New York, there is a monetary, a money story about snowfalls like this. Snow plows, drivers, salt trucks, 250 tons of salt here in New York. And you know what? It doesn't come cheap.
The truth is to clean up the white stuff in New York City, you need a heck of a lot of the green stuff. But just how much money does it cost?
That brings me to tonight's number: $1 million. That's how much they say it costs the city of New York to clean up each inch of snow, $1 million an inch.
OK. Who are they, exactly? The truth is nobody seems to know. This was New York Mayor Bloomberg yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG (I), NEW YORK: There's an old rule that it costs a million dollars an inch. Number one, that was made up by somebody who just needed to answer a question like yours, probably.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: All right, so Mayor Bloomberg says he doesn't know where it came from. He also doesn't seem to think there's any truth to it. So why is he saying it? Well, maybe because for the past 10 years the news media has reported as a matter of fact that it costs $1 million for each inch of snow in New York City, and they almost never cite a source when they put that in the article.
In fact, the only time a source was cited, the source was New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the same man who said he didn't know where the quote came from and it was, quote-unquote, "made up".
Now, it's really interesting because to defend the media, he seems to be the one perpetuating the rumor the most. Here's the mayor in a snow storm back in 2005. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BLOOMBERG: Last year, we spent roughly $40 million on snow removal and had 38 inches of snow. So the rule of thumb of $1 million an inch is probably a good one.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: So, there you have it. According to the mayor, the city did some simple math using numbers from 2004 and they came up with this number, $1 million an inch. So, why isn't he sticking with it now? Maybe because he started using the $1 million number before that particular snow storm.
Here's Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2003.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BLOOMBERG: We've always used $1 million an inch as a good rule.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: You know what? He has always used it as a good rule.
Here's the mayor in 2002, the year he took office.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BLOOMBERG: The number that is always bantered about is $1 million an inch. It's as good a number as you can find.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: It's as good a number as you can find.
Now, to date, we wanted to find out where it came from, so we contacted both the mayor's office and the New York City Office of Public Information. They could not agree on where the number came from either. We can only assume it was made up.
And that's a good thing, because if it wasn't made up, it would mean one of two things: either snow plow drivers haven't gotten a raise in a decade, or our government has no idea what it's doing with our tax dollars.
So, I guess when the mayor said it was made up by somebody that just needed an answer to a question, he was talking about himself.
All right. We're going to take a brief break. We will be back. We're going to get the latest on the storm path and exactly how much accumulation we're going to get in terms of accumulation with our Chad Myers. We'll go to our weather center in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: All right. We are back, along with our chief meteorologist Chad Myers.
And, right now, you're looking at a live picture of Boston. As I mentioned a few moments ago, this is actually -- our video right out of a car that we're driving slowly through the streets of Boston. Right now, you can see someone with a snow blower. Probably a little bit of a futile effort right now given what's happening, but we expect the worst of the storm to hit in Boston in the next several hours. Our Jason Carroll has been reporting there.
But also, I go to Chad now.
Chad, what is the latest and where is the center of the storm actually?
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good question.
Just south of the Hamptons, by about 150 miles. It's going to travel to the Northeast, and it's going to miss Cape Cod, the southern point there, and then head out to sea.
What we're waiting for is the wrap-around snow to get back to New York City because right now, you're not seeing very much. But parts of New York have seen quite a bit, 10 inches in Ogdensburg, and Waterbury Center in Vermont, now, 10 inches there. And also Johnson in Vermont, 10 inches.
So, what is still to come? For the next 72 hours, the bulk of the snow is east of New York City. Everywhere that you see pink through here, that's a foot of snow or more, and then the purple is 20 to 30 inches of snow. That's all the way from Portland, Maine, through Boston, Nashua, all the way back to Cambridge, down south into Hartford and Providence, that's still to come.
So, you already have six on the ground. There's plus 20. That's still a good snowfall.
Albany, you're going to see about six to 10 more. But then down toward New York City, it appears you're almost in this dry area where there will be eight to your north, four to your south, but not a lot more to come still in the city compared to what is going to be on Long Island right there. That's over a foot still to come here.
And this is the danger zone, it's just snowing everywhere out here. It's coming down in buckets because at the low comes through here, its closest position is going to be to Boston, not New York City. That's why snow is not going to be as heavy in the city as it will be in Boston because the low is much closer there. Then, by tomorrow afternoon, literally, this thing is gone. Saturday, 4:00, 5:00, the snow is completely over. Only the wind is left -- Erin.
BURNETT: And what's the bottom line? I know there have been competing models. Someone said the European model said we would be getting historic snow. The American model said no. Bottom line, who wins?
MYERS: I don't think we're going to know that until tomorrow morning. You have to get back to me tomorrow. It's not done yet.
BURNETT: Everyone wants to know who wins between those two models, as always, both sides of the Atlantic.
All right. Chad, thank you very much.
MYERS: You're welcome.
BURNETT: And as we continue to monitor the historic storm as it gets into the worst over the next couple hours, I'm going to pass it off to my colleague Anderson Cooper.
"ANDERSON COOPER 360" starts right now.
