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American Morning

Maryland Digs Out From Biggest Storm in Years

Aired February 17, 2003 - 09:34   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.


PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Back to our top story -- that wicked winter blast that continues to pound the East Coast this morning. Maryland is getting hit with its biggest snowstorm in years. John Sherman of our affiliate WBAL is standing by in Baltimore.
How it does look there this morning? Good morning, John.

JOHN SHERMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT, WBAL: Good morning, Paula.

People here in Baltimore are waking up to just enormous snow mounts like the one I'm on right here. It's been snowing like this for more than 24 hours, just snow at an absolutely torrid pace. By midday yesterday, we had about a foot of snow on the ground. Right now we're approaching two feet and we're told the snow could continue on well into this afternoon and maybe even into tonight.

And what it's doing is making driving conditions nearly impossible to deal with. At one point, Governor Bob Ehrlich declared that anybody caught on a state road a numbered state road would be given a $1,000 fine. He said that those were just for emergency vehicles only. And what a lot of folks are dealing with this morning, even though this lot here has been plowed very well, a lot of folks are finding that as soon as they get in their cars, it's just very easy to spin those wheels. Nobody is going anywhere.

And cars aren't the only kind of transportation that's been crippled by this. What we're finding is that planes can't take off either. BWI Airport here has been shut down since yesterday and continues to be shut down. Many people there have been even spending night there just finding no place to go, as everything is pretty much paralyzed here in Baltimore. And the kicker is we're told that the end of this my may not be in sight. It could continue snowing, as I said, into tonight -- Paula.

ZAHN: We were impressed by your driving capabilities there.

SHERMAN: Hey, well, you know everybody's sliding all over the place.

ZAHN: I got stuck this morning coming in and saw another three or four cars stuck in snow banks. So, I hope you're wise enough not to do much driving today. And thanks for showing us how bad it is there. Wow.

SHERMAN: Yes, absolutely.

ZAHN: Thanks so much, good luck to 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 - 09:34   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Back to our top story -- that wicked winter blast that continues to pound the East Coast this morning. Maryland is getting hit with its biggest snowstorm in years. John Sherman of our affiliate WBAL is standing by in Baltimore.
How it does look there this morning? Good morning, John.

JOHN SHERMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT, WBAL: Good morning, Paula.

People here in Baltimore are waking up to just enormous snow mounts like the one I'm on right here. It's been snowing like this for more than 24 hours, just snow at an absolutely torrid pace. By midday yesterday, we had about a foot of snow on the ground. Right now we're approaching two feet and we're told the snow could continue on well into this afternoon and maybe even into tonight.

And what it's doing is making driving conditions nearly impossible to deal with. At one point, Governor Bob Ehrlich declared that anybody caught on a state road a numbered state road would be given a $1,000 fine. He said that those were just for emergency vehicles only. And what a lot of folks are dealing with this morning, even though this lot here has been plowed very well, a lot of folks are finding that as soon as they get in their cars, it's just very easy to spin those wheels. Nobody is going anywhere.

And cars aren't the only kind of transportation that's been crippled by this. What we're finding is that planes can't take off either. BWI Airport here has been shut down since yesterday and continues to be shut down. Many people there have been even spending night there just finding no place to go, as everything is pretty much paralyzed here in Baltimore. And the kicker is we're told that the end of this my may not be in sight. It could continue snowing, as I said, into tonight -- Paula.

ZAHN: We were impressed by your driving capabilities there.

SHERMAN: Hey, well, you know everybody's sliding all over the place.

ZAHN: I got stuck this morning coming in and saw another three or four cars stuck in snow banks. So, I hope you're wise enough not to do much driving today. And thanks for showing us how bad it is there. Wow.

SHERMAN: Yes, absolutely.

ZAHN: Thanks so much, good luck to 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