Return to Transcripts main page

Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Winter Storm Buries Northeast, Measles Outbreak: New Cases; Cuba Releases New Pictures of Castro; Jordan Awaits Word on Captured Pilot; Crisis in Ukraine: New Help from the U.S.?

Aired February 03, 2015 - 04:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, the northeast digging out again from a deadly record-breaking snowstorm. Icy roads now creating a dangerous morning commute for millions. Airlines cancelling flights. Oh, yes, and a new arctic chill moves in. We are tracking the damage done and what's still to come.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Measles outbreak. This virus is spreading because of decisions some people in the country are making. New cases are popping up. We are tracking the latest and now politicians are weighing in creating new controversy.

ROMANS: Breaking overnight. Proof of life? Pictures released of Fidel Castro following speculation that the former Cuban leader could be dead.

Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.

BERMAN: I'm John Berman. Great to see you today. About 30 minutes after the hour.

And here in the Northeast --

ROMANS: Here we go again.

BERMAN: -- and Midwest, digging out from a record-breaking deadly snowstorm. Snow plows just struggling to keep up with the heavy and wet snow. That's on top of all the big accumulations from last week.

Boston smashed a record for the snowiest seven days in the city's history at 34.2 inches. The giant winter storm blamed for ten deaths in seven states.

The snow is causing major problems for travel as well. More than 4,300 flights canceled on top for thousands more scratched on Sunday. Big question now is, is it ever? Is more on the way?

Let's bring in meteorologist Pedram Javaheri for the forecast -- Pedram.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, almost over. We'll have a little bit more in the way of snow later this week. But, you know, the big story across this region is the amount of snow that's on the ground, 1,500-mile stretch in the Midwest, all the way out towards Boston, with an area of at least a foot to two feet of snow on the ground. That's the snow depth at this hour across this region, pretty expansive, and that is going to stay in place because the temperatures are way too cold.

Twenty-five to 35 below, that's around interior New England. We have wind-chill advisories and warnings in place here. Those are very dangerous temperatures. Exposure to your skin, five or six minutes on those temperatures could cause permanent damage.

And look at the reading, Chicago, fifth largest snowstorm in history this past weekend. Detroit comes in with the third largest snowstorm. Boston picks up nearly 16 inches.

By the way, just looking at some of the numbers. In Boston, officials there have plowed about 150,000 miles of roadways so far this season. I did the math, that's about going around the circumference of the earth six times. That's how far they plowed in the several weeks when it comes to the snowfall that's been in place. Cancellations exceeding 7,700. That's a cost of about $46 million to the aviation industry when it comes to how many flights have been impacted since Sunday, Monday and now, preemptive cancellations into Tuesday.

High temps look like this, generally to the 20s, generally well below freezing the freezing marks are going to support all of this speaking around for the next couple of days. So, the question, John and Christine, we're asking is, what is going to be the next couple of days? Well, the next 24 hours, high pressure builds and mostly sunny skies, brutally cold. Same story for Wednesday. But by Wednesday afternoon, another clipper system drops in and this brings with it a couple of inches of snow showers just north of New York City it looks like. But we can guarantee it will be brutally cold and colder than what we are seeing right now across this region as the jet stream takes a nose dive.

So, the temperatures could be in the low single digits. Lows are generally around one to two on Friday morning around Boston, maybe five to six degrees, that's without the wind around New York City on Friday as well. So, hang in there, guys.

ROMANS: It's so cold, Pedram, the snow sounds different when you step on it. It is so cold and brittle, 11 degree this morning. So, sunny skies, but brutally cold. You give us a mixed bag. Thanks, Pedram.

JAVAHERI: You bet.

ROMANS: The storm has just been brutal for Boston, creating chaos, even for folks out having fun and innocent bystanders -- ouch! Watch these guys lose control of the ATV. They whacked into a parked car and sped off. Although now, the whole world can see who hit that car.

The storm slamming waves over the sea wall in Marshfield, Massachusetts. That same seawall that failed last week, causing serious flooding. The storm forcing the delay until Wednesday of jury selection in the trial of accused Boston marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

Also postponed until Wednesday, the ticker tape parade celebrating the Patriots Super Bowl victory. I missed that --

BERMAN: You know, the Patriots won the Super Bowl. I don't know if you told you.

ROMANS: Here they are getting a hero's welcome as they arrived back in New England.

Meteorologist Jennifer Gray is on the streets of Boston this morning. She's got the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: John and Christine, as the snow ends in Boston, the temperatures are going to plummet. Single digits with wind-chill values 10 to 20 degrees below zero. High temperatures later today don't get out of the teens.

That's why that parade has been postponed. The city needed an extra day to get all of the snow moved off of the parade route. We're not on the parade route right now.

But crews have been trying to plow the streets and just haul all of the snow. They have three snow farms they are taking it to. They have machines they are putting it in and melting it and putting it in drains under ground.

Of course, it has been brutal here in Boston. The roads are very, very slushy. The morning commute is going to be rough because temperatures getting so cold. All of the slush on the roads are just going to freeze.

Even New York City worried about an icy commute this morning. So, be extra careful.

John and Christine, doesn't look like we're going to see anymore snow for the next 24 to 48 hours, but we are just going to be in for some very, very cold temperatures.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: So, we have that to look forward to.

Two of the deaths in the storm happened on I-95 north of New York City. State police say a car and shuttle bus collided. The drivers got out to examine the damage, and they were struck and killed by a minivan when that driver lost control on the icy road.

One man is injured in Brooklyn by a manhole explosion likely caused, Con Edison says, by melting snow mixed with salt.

New York fire officials say the victim was walking by when the first of two underground explosions launched the manhole cover some 50 feet in the air, striking him. Officials say he was taken to the hospital with minor injuries.

Melting snow also caused some trouble on Long Island. Roadways flooded, new and now frozen into ice right there, temperatures so low, there is just nowhere for this water to go, which is freezing. Western New York, snowfall totals of a foot or more, making problems for the commute. A lot of schools and businesses still closed.

Having a big affect all over the Northeast, I want to show you pictures of Maine right now. They have received more snow than they normally do in the average year. Icy conditions leading to many accidents in Maine, also in Vermont. Just awful scene as cars lost control on the roadway slamming into at least four snow plows. Fortunately, no serious injuries reported.

In Pennsylvania, slick roads forced Pittsburgh schools to shutdown on Monday. Today, a majority of schools have already instituted delayed openings. They want to wait for the road conditions to improve before sending kids to school.

ROMANS: The dome of a soccer stadium collapsed in Michigan. The weight from the heavy snow proving too much for the Wind Star Dome in Pontiac. The roof, look at that, just collapsed. Fortunately, no one was inside at the time and no injuries were reported. Airports digging out this morning, seeing more cancellations, I'm afraid, in New York, Boston and Chicago.

Already more than 500 flights have been canceled today. New York LaGuardia and Boston's Logan have the most cancellation. On Sunday and Monday, winter weather caused almost 7,000 canceled flights. That makes this storm almost as bad as last week's blizzard for airlines. Nine thousand cancelled flights then.

Back to back storms are causing a backlog of travelers which will take days now to fix, not to mention the cost. Each cancelled flight costs airline around 6 grand, but passengers end up spending, about $58,000 for all passengers who are supposed to be on a flight, because of extra lodging and meals, plus their lost productivity from missing work.

BERMAN: Developing this morning, new cases of the measles being reported. Also, there is new concern about just how fast it is spreading. Fourteen infants have been quarantined at child care center on the Santa Monica high school campus after an infant came down with measles. No word yet on whether health authorities have linked that case to Disneyland as dozens of earlier measles cases have been. But now, this is spreading as a nationwide issue.

Senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen tracking the outbreak.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, the Centers for Disease Control has come out with new measles numbers. They say that in the month of January, 102 people had the measles and that spread out over 14 states. Now, 92 percent of those cases were related to Disneyland. However, obviously, some weren't. One of them is New York college

student. This college student got on an Amtrak train from New York City's Penn Station, and there's some concern that that student might have spread that -- spread measles to other people on the train.

So many people are asking, what do I do if I was on that train? What you really have to talk to your doctor. Some people have full immunity from the measles because if they were born after 1990, they got two doses of the vaccine. So, they almost certainly have full immunity.

Other people who were born before 1990 might not have full immunity. And that's because back then, they would only give people one shot. That worked fine for some people, but didn't work fine for everybody. So, you have to talk to your doctor to figure out your particular situation.

Now, it's important to remember, measles is an incredibly contagious disease. It spreads through the air. If someone walked into the room and had measles and then walked out, and you walk in an hour later and you had not been vaccinated, you could get measles. It's very ,very contagious.

So, it's a disease that really needs to be taken seriously. Before vaccines, 400 to 500 Americans every year died from measles, and about 4,000 would get encephalitis or brain swelling.

So, certainly, the CDC is keeping an eye on this, expecting this to grow even bigger. So, we'll stay on it for you -- John, Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: Before the widespread use of that vaccine, many others would have deafness or blindness in some cases, mental retardation.

In a development troubling the medical community this morning, the controversy over vaccines has entered the political arena. This is worrying doctors. Two potential GOP presidential candidates, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, now, they're weighing on vaccines. Now, both Republicans favor parents getting their kids vaccinated, but --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: It is much more important I think when you think as a parent and what you think as a public official. And that's what we do. But I also understand that parents need to have some measure of choice in things as well. So, that's the balance that the government has to decide.

SEN. RAND PAUL (R), KENTUCKY: For most of us history, they have been voluntary. So, I don't think I'm arguing out of the ordinary. We're arguing for what most of our history has had.

(END VIDEO CLIPS) ROMANS: Meantime, there is no doubt where Hillary Clinton stands. The would-be Democratic front runner tweeted this, "Te science is clear. The earth is round, the sky is blue and vaccines work. Let's protect all our kids. #grandmothersknowbest."

BERMAN: In 2008, President Obama, then-candidate Obama did raise questions or say that he had some personal questions about vaccines. So, it's on both sides of the aisle. Overtime, President Obama now he says that the science and medicine is clear that you should have children vaccinated.

ROMANS: Public health officials will tell you that it is a sign of the success of widespread vaccination that they have the luxury, some parents have luxury of not even remembering what it was like not having 500 people a year die of a horrible death of measles. In other parts of the world, they would kill to have widespread vaccination, but just don't have the public health infrastructure to do it. In a way, it's a first world problem.

BERMAN: Forty-one minutes after the hour right now.

President Obama will deliver his 2016 budget to Congress, along with a pep talk. He actually did it yesterday. He asked lawmakers to put politics aside and pass some budget to fund nation security and economic priorities.

Republicans didn't seem to like it very much. House Speaker John Boehner says the nearly $4 trillion proposal is really filled with more taxes and more spending, and more debt. Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell calls the whole thing a waste of time. The Republicans intend to offer a different plan that they say will balance the budget. They're going to offer that plan this spring.

ROMANS: All right. Breaking overnight: new images have surfaced of long time Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Cuba's state-run media claims these photos were taken on January 23rd. More than 20 of them were published overnight, possibly to fend off rumors that Fidel Castro's health is failing. It came -- they were published along with an article titled, "Fidel is one of a kind."

The last photos of Castro were published almost six months. He has rarely been seen in public since handing over power to his brother Raul back in 2006.

BERMAN: Happening now, a frantic push to try to free a hostage held by ISIS. This morning, new silence from the terrorists. There is concern that this man may already be dead. We are live with the very latest, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: Jordan is still waiting for word from ISIS, on the fate of captured military pilot Muath al-Kaseasbeh. ISISH has not provided evidence he is alive. Jordan could release the convicted would-be suicide bomber if ISIS lets this pilot go.

Jomana Karadsheh is live for us in Jordan with the very latest.

And troubling, they've been asking for proof of life for days now. ISIS, not providing any, and ISIS, as we know, very difficult to deal with, very difficult to negotiate with, with very brutal results.

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine, what we do know from Jordanian officials that those indirect communications, those lines that they had open with ISIS to try and secure the release of the pilot Muath al-Kaseasbeh, they say those lines are still open. But as you mentioned, the most critical thing for Jordanians is that proof of life. They say for weeks now, during their negotiations, this indirect negotiations that asked for proof of like, they have not gotten it.

Then, again, at the end of the week, we saw the Jordanian government coming out publicly and asking for any evidence from ISIS that Muath al-Kaseasbeh is alive and well. They have yet to get that.

And this is really concerning for so many Jordanians here, because the question is, if he is alive and he is well, why has ISIS, this organization that has released so many sophisticated propaganda videos and images, has not released anything in about 40 days since his capture. But so many Jordanians, Christine, are holding on to hope he is still alive.

Yesterday evening, we went to a candle light vigil outside the Japanese embassy here in Amman where people were remembering Kenji Goto, the Japanese hostage who was apparently executed by ISIS. And they were also at the same time condemning terrorism and praying for the safe return of pilot Muath al Kaseasbeh home, a man seen by so many here as a national hero.

ROMANS: All right. Jomana, thank you so much for that this morning.

BERMAN: About 48 minutes after the hour.

The U.S. could be getting more involved in the war in Ukraine. We are live with the new help that could be headed that way and what it means for the U.S. relations with Russia.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: New this morning, the Obama administration now considering sending anti-tank systems and other lethal aid to help Ukraine defend against attacks from pro-Russian rebels in the eastern part of the country. Now, a U.S. official tells CNN that the Pentagon favors sending what is called defensive lethal aid.

The White House still trying to assess what the reaction would be from Russia. Secretary of State John Kerry is headed to Ukraine on Thursday to meet with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and other officials.

I want to go to Moscow and talk about the Russian response. We are joined by international correspondent Matthew Chance. Matthew, it is difficult to imagine out-arming the Russians here, but

what is their opinion, what is their reaction to the U.S. even considering sending more aid to Ukraine?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I mean, there hasn't been a direct reaction to that, although the foreign minister of the country has said all along, he believes that Washington has been biased in favor of the government in Kiev, against the pro-Russian rebels. But I think it's a really good to ask about what impact the supply of weapons to the government in Ukraine would have on the conflict. Would it have been enough to -- for the Russians to back off for their support for the pro-Russians rebels? Would it lead to them bolstering their support for the rebels? That's the big risk that President Obama and other U.S. officials have to balance.

Of course, the conflict at the moment is limited to a relatively small area in eastern Ukraine. The danger is that that conflict could expand, particularly if Washington gets involved in addressing the imbalance and forces on the ground. And that could be a disaster for many, many people across Ukraine who will be caught up in that fighting.

BERMAN: Nevertheless, Ukraine has been losing ground in recent days and weeks, that the U.S. may be considering the fact that only arming them will stop that tide.

All right. Matthew Chance for us in Moscow, thanks so much.

ROMANS: All right. Gas prices have been falling for months, but that trend could be over.

BERMAN: What?

ROMANS: An early start on your money, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: All right. Let's get an early start on your money this morning. Rebounding oil prices giving stocks a lift this morning. Asian and European stocks mostly higher. U.S. stock futures are too.

Yesterday, the Dow gained 200 points for the first day of trading in February. The S&P 500 also rallied above the key 2,000 number. And energy stocks led the way. Crude oil is above $50 a barrel right now for the first time in about a month. Prices have been falling since last summer. This bounce could mean maybe prices have found a bottom.

BERMAN: That is a big spike.

ROMANS: That slide in gas prices may be over. Gas prices fell for more than 120 days in a row. That's never happened. But last week, prices bottomed out at $2.03. And now, they are ticking back up, at $2.07 a gallon. That is average for the country.

Gas prices are likely to keep ticking up as we head into spring. Still, the average price is below $2 a gallon in 23 states and at half of the nation's gas stations. So, it is still a stimulus for so many of you out there.

Rents -- rents are rising faster than wages and homeownership is at its lowest since 1994. But the president's right hand man on housing says tells me this is the year to reverse that trend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JULIAN CASTRO, HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT SECRETARY: I see 2015 as a year of housing opportunity, and particularly homeownership. Good example is the FHA mortgage insurance premium reduction. I mean, that's going to mean a savings of $900 annually for 2 million borrowers out there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: That's a big change for a lot of borrowers out there.

Castro -- Julian Castro who runs HUD for the president, he says the premium reduction won't not cause the same problems that created the housing bubble, but we have to make it easier for people to responsibly buy a home. To see how Castro responded to rumors he will be Hillary Clinton's vice presidential running mate, visit the entire interview at CNNMoney.com.

BERMAN: That's a big tease. There's a lot of speculation about that right now.

ROMANS: Yes, that's a face to remember right there.

BERAMN: All right. EARLY START continues right now.

(MUSIC)