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Snow Storm Socks Northeast
Aired February 17, 2003 - 13:01 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: First this hour, that monster storm that's buried the big cities from D.C. northward. Right now, New York City is bearing the brunt of the blizzard, one of the biggest in years. And snow is now falling on Boston.
Here's what the storm has left in its wake, in some places a blanket of white stuff several feet deep. It's fallen as far to the south as the Carolinas and as far to the west as Indiana.
As the sun rose this morning on the nation's capital, many streets were deserted. Lucky for some it's a national holiday.
If you are trying to travel by air, just forget the northeast. More than 2,000 flights are canceled and a number of airports are closed. The ripple effect being felt all the way to Miami.
CNN's Patty Davis is standing by in Washington.
First, though, CNN's Daryn Kagan. She's live in New York -- Daryn.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, the National Weather Service says that this is actually calming down, if you can believe it or not. Its hard to believe standing right here on the edge of Central Park. It is still coming down pretty strong.
The mayor here, Mayor Bloomberg, has called a state of emergency. That mainly is to help pay for the big mess that all of this snow is causing.
I want to take you on a little walk here and give you an idea of what we see. First of all, you know you're in the middle of a blizzard when you run into a Saint Bernard named Dakota (ph), who comes with her keg. People just kind of getting in it.
They have strapped me with snowshoes, so I'm going to walk you around here and take you for a walk on Columbus Circle. Let's just go. They said this will keep me from sinking in the snow.
I just wanted to give you an idea of how big the snowdrifts are in what's usually one of the busiest intersections in New York City. Whoa! I'm level with a car, the top of a car right now.
Now, about an hour ago, the mayor, Mayor Bloomberg, held a news conference. He told people to pretty much stay in, stay patient, and to let them know that the city is doing the best that it can.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, NEW YORK: I can't tell you that you can get response time as fast in these conditions as we would like to deliver or as you can when there's no snow on the roads. But the sanitation department is doing best they can, and the fire department and the police department and all of the ambulance drivers will do the best they can.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAGAN: Some numbers that we're getting for snowfall right here in Central Park, 16 inches so far, LaGuardia, 14 inches, and the most so far, JFK airport, 21 inches of snow so far today.
In terms of what it this is costing the city, Mayor Bloomberg said pretty much just add up $1 million for every inch of snow, so some $20 million is being spent today by New York City just to try to deal with this snowstorm.
Of course, New York is not the only place with the problem. Washington also had its share of snow, and we want to go to Patty Davis for more on that -- Patty.
PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Daryn, Reagan National Airport is closed right now. It doesnt plan to reopen now until 7:00 a.m. tomorrow morning, and that's caused some major waits for passengers at this airport. In fact, some passengers slept here last night. The airport was kind enough, though, to give them blankets.
Some of the passengers telling me they did not want to leave because they were afraid the roads were so bad that they wouldn't be able to get back. They wanted to get on their flights. Just in time when they were taking off today, but it looks like no luck. Some of those passengers may, in fact, be back again tomorrow morning, be staying here and hopefully take off tomorrow morning.
Now, it's not just the airports that are shut down. It's things like the Metro here in D.C. you can see behind me. Now, the D.C. Metro, that's the subway station here at Reagan National Airport, earlier today they were not running any trains that were above ground. So, that has been a problem here in Washington, D.C.
People have also been camping out at Greyhound stations, after service on the East Coast east of Pittsburgh, and then from Buffalo all the way down to North Carolina was canceled. Greyhound, though, says that it is getting people food at cost, so that they have something to eat while they're waiting for the bus service to get back to normal.
Back to you.
PHILLIPS: All right, Patty Davis live from Washington -- thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired February 17, 2003 - 13:01 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: First this hour, that monster storm that's buried the big cities from D.C. northward. Right now, New York City is bearing the brunt of the blizzard, one of the biggest in years. And snow is now falling on Boston.
Here's what the storm has left in its wake, in some places a blanket of white stuff several feet deep. It's fallen as far to the south as the Carolinas and as far to the west as Indiana.
As the sun rose this morning on the nation's capital, many streets were deserted. Lucky for some it's a national holiday.
If you are trying to travel by air, just forget the northeast. More than 2,000 flights are canceled and a number of airports are closed. The ripple effect being felt all the way to Miami.
CNN's Patty Davis is standing by in Washington.
First, though, CNN's Daryn Kagan. She's live in New York -- Daryn.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, the National Weather Service says that this is actually calming down, if you can believe it or not. Its hard to believe standing right here on the edge of Central Park. It is still coming down pretty strong.
The mayor here, Mayor Bloomberg, has called a state of emergency. That mainly is to help pay for the big mess that all of this snow is causing.
I want to take you on a little walk here and give you an idea of what we see. First of all, you know you're in the middle of a blizzard when you run into a Saint Bernard named Dakota (ph), who comes with her keg. People just kind of getting in it.
They have strapped me with snowshoes, so I'm going to walk you around here and take you for a walk on Columbus Circle. Let's just go. They said this will keep me from sinking in the snow.
I just wanted to give you an idea of how big the snowdrifts are in what's usually one of the busiest intersections in New York City. Whoa! I'm level with a car, the top of a car right now.
Now, about an hour ago, the mayor, Mayor Bloomberg, held a news conference. He told people to pretty much stay in, stay patient, and to let them know that the city is doing the best that it can.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, NEW YORK: I can't tell you that you can get response time as fast in these conditions as we would like to deliver or as you can when there's no snow on the roads. But the sanitation department is doing best they can, and the fire department and the police department and all of the ambulance drivers will do the best they can.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAGAN: Some numbers that we're getting for snowfall right here in Central Park, 16 inches so far, LaGuardia, 14 inches, and the most so far, JFK airport, 21 inches of snow so far today.
In terms of what it this is costing the city, Mayor Bloomberg said pretty much just add up $1 million for every inch of snow, so some $20 million is being spent today by New York City just to try to deal with this snowstorm.
Of course, New York is not the only place with the problem. Washington also had its share of snow, and we want to go to Patty Davis for more on that -- Patty.
PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Daryn, Reagan National Airport is closed right now. It doesnt plan to reopen now until 7:00 a.m. tomorrow morning, and that's caused some major waits for passengers at this airport. In fact, some passengers slept here last night. The airport was kind enough, though, to give them blankets.
Some of the passengers telling me they did not want to leave because they were afraid the roads were so bad that they wouldn't be able to get back. They wanted to get on their flights. Just in time when they were taking off today, but it looks like no luck. Some of those passengers may, in fact, be back again tomorrow morning, be staying here and hopefully take off tomorrow morning.
Now, it's not just the airports that are shut down. It's things like the Metro here in D.C. you can see behind me. Now, the D.C. Metro, that's the subway station here at Reagan National Airport, earlier today they were not running any trains that were above ground. So, that has been a problem here in Washington, D.C.
People have also been camping out at Greyhound stations, after service on the East Coast east of Pittsburgh, and then from Buffalo all the way down to North Carolina was canceled. Greyhound, though, says that it is getting people food at cost, so that they have something to eat while they're waiting for the bus service to get back to normal.
Back to you.
PHILLIPS: All right, Patty Davis live from Washington -- thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
