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American Morning

Boston Gets Buried by Snow

Aired February 18, 2003 - 07:09   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: While some cities are already digging out this morning, the blizzard is still burying Boston. We're going to catch up with Michael Okwu, who is getting a little bit of break now in between flurries.
Good morning -- Michael.

MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.

In between flurries is right. This is far from over. In fact, state officials here in Massachusetts, Paula, say that another one to three inches is likely to fall. And in fact, last night they said at some points during the course of the night, as many as four inches were falling per hour.

And you can take a look here. I am standing in what appears to be almost about a foot-and-a-half of snow. They say that in Boston, about 19 inches have fallen thus far, and you can see that it takes a lot of work to make it past this sidewalk here. In fact, nobody is using the sidewalks today here in Boston. They're actually using the roads.

You can look over there, Joe (ph). I want to direct our cameraman across the street. This is what's been going on all morning, people shoveling. They're taking a break.

Hey, say hello. Say hello to CNN.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hello.

OKWU: Well, you can see here, Paula, also that whoever owns this car is going to be doing a lot of shoveling. If you woke up in Boston this morning, live pictures on the television all day showed vehicles just like this one completely covered in snow.

The governor has not called a state of emergency, but he is asking all non-essential personnel in the state to stay home today, to get off the roads. They say there are about 4,000 pieces of equipment working to clear the streets today, and in fact, they're saying that it's going to take the entire day to do this.

I want to show you one other quick shot here, Paula. This wedge of yellow here is actually a fire hydrant. That will give you a sense of just how deep this snow is here in Boston.

Paula -- back to you. ZAHN: And I'm sure like New York City, the cost of cleaning up is going to be tremendous. The number we've been bandying about this morning is $1 million per inch in New York City, so I wish Bostonians good luck as they try to dig out before another three inches comes their way.

Michael Okwu, thanks so much.

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 18, 2003 - 07:09   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: While some cities are already digging out this morning, the blizzard is still burying Boston. We're going to catch up with Michael Okwu, who is getting a little bit of break now in between flurries.
Good morning -- Michael.

MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.

In between flurries is right. This is far from over. In fact, state officials here in Massachusetts, Paula, say that another one to three inches is likely to fall. And in fact, last night they said at some points during the course of the night, as many as four inches were falling per hour.

And you can take a look here. I am standing in what appears to be almost about a foot-and-a-half of snow. They say that in Boston, about 19 inches have fallen thus far, and you can see that it takes a lot of work to make it past this sidewalk here. In fact, nobody is using the sidewalks today here in Boston. They're actually using the roads.

You can look over there, Joe (ph). I want to direct our cameraman across the street. This is what's been going on all morning, people shoveling. They're taking a break.

Hey, say hello. Say hello to CNN.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hello.

OKWU: Well, you can see here, Paula, also that whoever owns this car is going to be doing a lot of shoveling. If you woke up in Boston this morning, live pictures on the television all day showed vehicles just like this one completely covered in snow.

The governor has not called a state of emergency, but he is asking all non-essential personnel in the state to stay home today, to get off the roads. They say there are about 4,000 pieces of equipment working to clear the streets today, and in fact, they're saying that it's going to take the entire day to do this.

I want to show you one other quick shot here, Paula. This wedge of yellow here is actually a fire hydrant. That will give you a sense of just how deep this snow is here in Boston.

Paula -- back to you. ZAHN: And I'm sure like New York City, the cost of cleaning up is going to be tremendous. The number we've been bandying about this morning is $1 million per inch in New York City, so I wish Bostonians good luck as they try to dig out before another three inches comes their way.

Michael Okwu, thanks so much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.