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CNN Sunday Morning
High Winds Could Cause Problems With Snow Along East Coast; NFL Teams Play In Subzero Temperatures Today
Aired January 23, 2005 - 09:30 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.
TONY HARRIS, CO-ANCHOR: A major blizzard socks it to the northeast. Good morning and welcome back to CNN SUNDAY MORNING, I'm Tony Harris.
BETTY NGUYEN, CO-ANCHOR: I'm cold just looking at it. And I'm Betty Nguyen. Thanks for joining us today.
HARRIS: It is cold, snowy, and even dangerous all along the east coast, but the nation's capitol has already seen the worst of the blizzard. Blowing and drifting snow could be the next big problem there. Let's go live now to CNN's Gary Nuremberg in Washington, D.C.
Gary, give us an update on conditions, there.
GARY NUREMBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: OK, Tony, the snow has stopped. It's been replaced by the wind, which is blowing the snow, sometimes up to 35 miles an hour, at times causing whiteouts at Reagan National Airport. That old advice about calling your airline is particularly true today. There are wind advisories for Washington today, and with temperatures in the low teens, that gives us a wind- chill factor of about zero.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's cold out here.
NUREMBERG: Cold enough to put an icicle on your chin. And cross-country skis on your feet.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: D.C.'S a beautiful city and it's even more beautiful when it's covered in snow.
NUREMBERG: Having less fun, passengers at Washington's Dulles Airport who sat through storm-caused delays as crews carefully de-iced the planes that did get out.
Transportation on the ground was no fun either. D.C. had 200 snow trucks on the road Saturday evening. Their job made easier by reduced weekend traffic. But some drivers weren't impressed with the municipal efforts.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's worse in town than it is out in the country.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is that right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, they started plowing out in the country, so, yeah, it's not bad at all.
NUREMBERG: It was pretty. Tourists at the World War II memorial took snowy pictures. The Jefferson memorial was difficult to see in the snow. Some tourists knew it was coming and planned for it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We tried to do all of our outside stuff yesterday, so we could do all the museums and inside today.
NUREMBERG: Some kids played football on the National Mall. Some from Florida made snow angels in the first snow they had ever seen.
NUREMBERG (on camera): Your butt is now completely covered in snow. It was worth it?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah. Because we can't do this in Florida.
NUREMBERG (voice-over): Ask if it's smart to leave Florida for this?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just as smart as the people that come down to Florida during hurricane season.
(LAUGHTER)
NUREMBERG: There is another activity for kids on the mall that we didn't report, and that is throwing snowballs at television crews. For a town that has not had baseball in more than 30 years, we can report there are some kids in this town with disturbingly good arms.
HARRIS: That is so good. Yeah, they didn't miss, did they? OK, Gary, we appreciate it. Thank you.
NGUYEN: Easy target.
All right, we want to go now to Chad Myers, who is near Lincoln Field, I understand. And Chad, have you some video from the car on your way up there today, is that what I understand?
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, you know what? The whole thing has kind of slowed down this process of shoveling. The snow, obviously, put a big dent in a lot of people's plans. If you take a look out up here to the top here. This Lincoln Financial Field is very tall, and they have been shoveling the snow from the top to the bottom, and then dumping it down here into this area, and then it gets picked up by front-end loaders. The whole process started about 8:00 last night, and it's finally finished now. They finally have all the snow down to the field. The field's getting scooped. It's been covered, so the snow was not on the grass. It was on the tarp. They're shoveling the tarp, and now they're getting all of that snow out of here as well. So I would say, this place is so prepared for a football game. They heard the forecast; they knew the snow was coming. They couldn't be better off than they are right now. If you don't make it the game, it's your own fault, because the game is ready for you.
NGUYEN: It's looks like you're a little prepared, too. I mean hey, you're wearing red. Does that mean you're rooting for the Falcons?
HARRIS: You dirty bird, you.
MYERS: Well...
NGUYEN: Ah-huh...
MYERS: I have a hat -- I have a green hat in the back of the car if you you want to see it, in the next (UNINTELLIGIBLE) in about 15 minutes. Do you want to see that? It's a special one.
NGUYEN: Yeah, we'll check back in with you for that.
MYERS: You have to watch what you ask for.
NGUYEN: All right, Chad Myers, playing it safe out there. Thank you, Chad.
MYERS: All right.
HARRIS: All right, air travel in parts of the northeast is virtually nonexistence this morning because of the blizzard. The airport in Philadelphia is opened but hundreds of flights have been canceled. The airport did close yesterday, for a few hours, disappointing many fans trying to fly in for that big game.
NGUYEN: The blizzard has already grounded flights in the New York metro area and in Boston. In fact, Logan Airport in Boston is closed this morning, and that's going to cause travel problems well into tomorrow. Travelocity expert Rally Caparas, joins us now with an update.
How big is this going to be, backup-wise?
RALLY CAPARAS, TRAVELOCITY: Well Betty, it's going to be huge backup-wise, with about 4,000 flights canceled over the last two days, even though the weekend air traffic volume is usually down a bit, it's not going to make much difference, as we'll see major cancellations throughout tomorrow morning hours at Boston's Logan airport, down in New York City at LaGuardia, Newark, and JFK, and also down in Philadelphia.
Now, they're staying ahead of the snow down in Philly, but up in New York, they're still behind, trying to clear runways periodically. Boston's Logan, you'll see runway snow removal go through tomorrow because the snow will just be leaving late, late, late this evening. So you can expect very slow schedules, if you're flying at all, go online because there will be massive cancellations, once again, up around Boston.
This will affect flights into and out of major hubs such as Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson, Chicago's O'Hare, et cetera. The major hub airports will be affected by these major cancellations and delays in the northeast as equipment, trying to get to and from the locations where they need to along with the flight crews, including captains, pilots, and stewardesses, it's going to be hard to distribute them, because once these airports get back up and open, which won't happen, probably, until sometime tomorrow for Boston, and then later this morning you'll start to see some activity at LaGuardia, JFK, and Newark. But, it's going to be very sparse and very poor for what you're supposed to see today. It's going to be a tough go today, a tough go tomorrow throughout the entire day, and then, possibly, on Tuesday we should see things getting back to normal -- Betty.
NGUYEN: No until Tuesday, it sounds. OK, Travelocity expert, Rally Caparas, thank you for that -- Tony.
HARRIS: Blizzard? What blizzard? Snow? What snow? These are classic conditions for a classic football game. The NFC championship game is on, and so is the AFC title game, both of them in snowy Pennsylvania. It'll be the Eagles and the Falcons at Lincoln Field in Philadelphia. And CNN sports reporter, Ray D'Alessio, has a preview of that shootout.
Good morning, Ray.
RAY D'ALESSIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Tony. I'll tell you what, I'd much prefer if the game was inside the Georgia Dome, but that not here nor there. I know it's early, but so far my MVP for this game are the hundreds of workers who spent the -- spent the night trying to get this field clean, and have done a pretty good job. Again, the field is covered; it's heated, so the footing should not be a problem once the game begins. And as far as the players are concerned, the weather, the chill factor, that's the last thing they're worried about.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DONOVAN MCNABB, EAGLES QUARTERBACK: No, it doesn't stop our game plan. Our game plan is still going to have the aggressive attack. We're still going to have the same mentality.
JIM MORA, FALCONS COACH: It doesn't matter to us, bring it. Whatever the weather is, we're going to go play in it. It doesn't matter to us.
MICHAEL VICK, FALCONS QUARTERBACK: We're going to pretend it's a 90-degree day in Florida and go out there and let it ride -- let it go.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
D'ALESSIO: Now, should the Falcons win, they don't have to worry about pretending. Of course, they will be in Jacksonville, Florida, two weeks from today. However, a lot of the national sports writer, they don't see that happening, in fact, in today in Philadelphia's "Enquirer," they polled a group of nine media members asking them what their opinion was in this game, who they thought would win, all nine selected the Eagles.
Live in Philadelphia, I'm Ray D'Alessio, let's go back to CNN.
HARRIS: All right Ray, thank you. NGUYEN: All across the state of Pittsburgh, clearing the snow is not such a big deal after all. Only a few inches fell on Heinz Field where the Steelers meet the New England Patriots, tonight, in the AFC championship game. New England is 15-2 this season, Pittsburgh, 16-1, Going to be a good game.
HARRIS: Big ketchup bottle there in Pittsburgh.
If you're snowed in this morning, you can use the web and CNN.com to track the forecast, we'll show you who. CNN SUNDAY MORNING continues in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: So how do you hold a marriage together when one's spouse is in Iraq for months and the other is at home with the kids? That's the subject of our soldier story this morning, and our soldier is Chaplain Gerald Nelson of the 81st Regional Readiness Command quartered in Birmingham, Alabama.
Chaplain Nelson, good morning to see you. Can you hear us now?
GERALD NELSON, U.S. ARMY CHAPLAIN: I can hear you.
HARRIS: OK, we made the connection. Good to talk to you. You know, there's probably a lot we can learn from your own experience. You were active duty for ten years; you served in the first Iraq war. What were some of the issues in your own life that you had to deal with once you came back?
NELSON: Oh, when I came back, I done all the reunion briefings, but it's nothing like coming back and seeing the reality, coming back and the spouse has done very good with the money, that I used to do, and the kids have a different regiment that may not be what I thought they should be.
HARRIS: Yeah.
NELSON: And I was supposed to be a guest, but I'm wanting to get right in there and change everything and become a productive member again.
HARRIS: And that hasn't really changed for these reservists coming back, has it?
NELSON: No, it hasn't.
HARRIS: So, what is the idea behind the three-day retreat? It sounds like a great idea for these couples to get away for three days and kind of bond again, get to know one another again.
NELSON: Yes. It's just a time where we can introduce a speaker/listener model where they can hear each other and listen to each other. So many times when you go away and you come back, you have your issues and the spouse has her issues. And you don't hear each other a lot of times. And it's just a time where you can rebound because you've changed. You don't think you've changed, but you've changed a lot.
HARRIS: Now, that's an important point. Let's spend a little bit of time on that. When you go to war, and you're in a hot war, as we are right now in Iraq, it changes you. When you see people who are dying and death around you, and maybe you've had to open fire in defense, it changes you as a person. And you bring that back home with you, don't you?
NELSON: Yes, you do.
HARRIS: So what do you say? What can you say to these soldiers? And what do you say to these wives in preparation for these soldiers coming back home?
NELSON: Well, we talk about the importance of talking to each other, but listening to the other person. Neither one of us has it worse. In fact, I think the spouses have it worse than I do when I'm over there, because they have the children, and they have to keep everything together while I'm gone.
HARRIS: What do are you anticipating? A lot of these reservists are finishing up their tour of duty pretty soon here, so you'll have a large number of reservists coming back home. What kinds of issues, and are you ready for the numbers of reservists that you'll have coming back?
NELSON: Well, we have an awesome number that are coming back.
HARRIS: Yeah.
NELSON: We're doing retreats every month, usually between 60 and 80 couples come to our retreats every month. And also we have an Army One source that they can call and get counseling help if there's not a chaplain around.
HARRIS: Very good. Chaplain Nelson, good to see you. Thanks for taking the time to talk to us this morning.
NELSON: Thank you very much.
HARRIS: We're going to take a break, but when we come back, more on the weather. We'll go to CNN.com and we'll also check in with Rob Marciano, who will tell you more about the situation in New Haven, Connecticut, and all along the east coast, which is being socked in now by the blizzard of 2005. CNN SUNDAY MORNING returns right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: Of course we're bringing you the best of the best all morning long, but a cool firsthand look at any of the major cities getting hit by snow is at your fingertip. All you have to do is check out Earthcam.com for live shots from a number of different locations. New York, Philly, Boston, they'll all there. And if you had enough of the white stuff, well, you can also check out Daytona Beach. That may put a smile on your face -- Tony. HARRIS: And, of course, we're keeping you on top of the blizzard conditions all day here on CNN, but if you need some specifics, head to our website at CNN.com. It is a great resource and Veronica De La Cruz is here to help you navigate all of this information.
Good morning, Veronica.
VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Tony. And yes, I want to show you what is going on at CNN.com, right now. On our main page, let's take a look at that. The top story right now, "Northeast Buried in White," which we all know by now, if you scroll down, and you have to travel, which hopefully you don't, there you go, airport delays, airport closing, there's the link right there, so very useful. And our special report right now, "Winter Weather." And the "Winter Weather" page has a lot of useful information, preparation, and safety. Let's take a look at "Winterproof." This is how to winterproof the outdoors, the indoors as well...
HARRIS: OK.
DE LA CRUZ: ...and your car. You know, things like having an emergency kit, traveling.
HARRIS: Yes.
DE LA CRUZ: Don't you think?
HARRIS: Yeah, I think so. Yeah. And if you get a little snowbound, you need to have this kind of information, and you've got -- you got a page right there that helps us navigate what we need to do if we get a little snowbound in our car, as well.
DE LA CRUZ: Well, if you're stranded, take a look at that, let's go back to the "Stranded" page, that -- that's some useful information right there. What do you do if you're caught in a storm suddenly? Severe weather happens and you're stuck in your car? There you go.
HARRIS: Yeah.
DE LA CRUZ: We have some interactive guides. No, outside of all of this useful information, Tony, what do you do when you're listening to your weatherman and you have no idea what these weather watches, these weather warnings mean? What is a blizzard warning?
HARRIS: Exactly.
DE LA CRUZ: And let's take a look at that, actually, because we have that in our interactive guide. A blizzard warning, Tony, is issued before a storm with sustained winds or gusts of 35 miles-an- hour or more, and a considerable amount of snow that will reduce visibility to less than a quarter mile. So, there you go. High winds, low visibility, a blizzard.
HARRIS: Yeah.
DE LA CRUZ: And I was listening to Rob, and I think he was saying there are winds gusting up to 78 miles-an-hour.
HARRIS: Are you kidding me?
DE LA CRUZ: No, he was saying that earlier on.
HARRIS: And there's another place you can figure out wind direction speed, wind-chill factor, and all that?
DE LA CRUZ: Yeah.
HARRIS: So we can work up a little forecast ourselves.
DE LA CRUZ: We sure can. We can go back to the web, we'll take a look at that and -- or maybe we're not going to do that. There you go.
HARRIS: Here we go. Here we go.
DE LA CRUZ: You were saying the wind-chill factor, in Atlanta right now, I think it's 19 degrees, it's very cold outside. And the wind speed is also around 19 or 20.
HARRIS: And my guess is that the wind-chill factor is -- the pressure, what you feel on your skin, is probably five degrees.
DE LA CRUZ: Is that what you're going to guess?
HARRIS: That's my guess, it's five degrees.
DE LA CRUZ: OK.
HARRIS: Believe me, it's not a guess, it's (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
DE LA CRUZ: I didn't even get to -- I didn't get to guess, but you're very close. It's three degrees -- it feels like degrees outside right now. It feels like three degrees.
HARRIS: We're so flat out of time. We're so involved with all of this, but CNN.com, right?
DE LA CRUZ: CNN.com.
HARRIS: Thank you, Veronica.
NGUYEN: All right, let's talk about snow right now. Snow removal is the name of the game today in most metropolitan areas on the east coast. We've been checking in all morning long with CNN meteorologist, Chad Myers who is keeping tabs on the heroic efforts to clear the snow from Philadelphia's Lincoln Financial Field for today's NFC championship.
And Chad, did you steal a hat from some kid? What is that on your head?
MYERS: You know, 15 minutes ago you accused me of being a Falcon fan. NGUYEN: You had the red on.
MYERS: I had this in my car. This came from a friend of mine this from Ottawa. When you full the little string, it magically -- these flaps come down, and you turn into an Eagles fan.
NGUYEN: Oh, I see.
MYERS: It's phenomenal. You know, I mean, look, it keeps your ears warm, it's ready to go. Let me tell you are, the Eagles fans, they're a hearty bunch. We're on the other side of the stadium where they're tailgating, they have fires burning already, they're standing out there, their bratwurst. They are truly fans, and not fair weather fans, because this isn't fair weather. The wind-chill factor, right now, is 13 degrees below zero, and even at game time it could be colder than that because the winds are actually going to pick up. But, somebody did dare me to wear this hat, and so I just thought, well, you know, if you're going to get out there and root for the Eagles, you've got to wear something like this, don't you?
NGUYEN: Absolutely.
MYERS: Back to you guys.
NGUYEN: You know, talking about those fans out there, the die- hard fans, we don't want to see any without their shirts on today, too cold for that. You always see it at the games
MYERS: You know that's going to happen. You know somebody...
NGUYEN: Warn them now, Chad. Warn them.
MYERS: Somebody's going to be painted green, thinking that that green paint is keeping them warn. But trust me, it's not. Don't -- don't try that at home, or even here.
NGUYEN: Yeah, frostbite city. All right, Chad Myers, thank you so much.
MYERS: You're welcome.
HARRIS: Lead paint, it will never come off.
Check out these pictures, kids making the most of the snow in Philadelphia. We've been asking for your best snow pictures. We'll see what you've been sending in a little later.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: Well, good morning, New Haven, Connecticut. If you were thinking about venturing outside, just take a look at this picture. You may want to just stay inside.
HARRIS: It's wind blown. We've seen pictures all morning, of the flags just being swept away, just stiff with all this wind.
NGUYEN: Strong winds, there.
HARRIS: Another place that's pretty socked in is Washington, D.C. Let's get there now and visit with Dana bash for a preview of "Inside Politics Sunday."
Good morning, Dana.
DANA BASH, "INSIDE POLITICS SUNDAY": Good morning, Tony. And coming up on "Inside Politics Sunday," winter weather, we'll get an update on the blizzard that's pounding the northeastern United States. Plus, the Iraq elections are one week from today. Two top senators debate what it really means for the U.S. mission there.
And remember all those presidential campaign ads? Well, they actually give awards for the best. Stay tuned to see if your favorite won. That's all ahead at the top of the hour, back to you.
HARRIS: Thank you.
NGUYEN: Well, all morning long we've been asking folks to send in this their snow pictures, and we have quite a few to show you right about now.
Joyce Norris says, "The invitation to send in pictures was the motivation I needed to get the software installed. All are taken near Windsor, Nova Scotia." We're gong to try to put those up. Look at that dog, there.
No wading in a pond. Who knew that was a pond? She also writes, "I don't know what the New Yorkers are complaing about, one guy with a snow blower had maybe an inch of snow he was removing. The Central Park jogger was jogging on only two to three inches. What is the news value of that? Try St. John's Newfoundland, where she got 60 centimeters, which is about 24 inches, dumped on them, and they're getting the blizzard on top of it."
HARRIS: OK, let's look at this picture from Patrick, he sent it in to us from Ovid. I think that's Ovid, Michigan. That's beautiful. Look at that.
NGUYEN: Picturesque.
HARRIS: And he says, "We're just waiting patiently for spring." Aren't we all?
NGUYEN: Well, Rob is talking about this blizzard. That's on our minds today. And, boy, what a blizzard it is, Rob.
(WEATHER REPORT)
NGUYEN: Yeah, but don't try to get a flight out, because you're not going to be making it today.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Not out of Boston.
HARRIS: My friend, you have earned it this morning, Rob. MARCIANO: Thanks for the (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
HARRIS: Nice work. Nice work. Thank you, Rob.
NGUYEN: Yeah, thank you, Rob. Well, that is going to do it for us this morning. We want to thank you for watching and see you back here next weekend.
HARRIS: "Inside Politics Sunday" is next. Have a great Sunday.
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Aired January 23, 2005 - 09:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TONY HARRIS, CO-ANCHOR: A major blizzard socks it to the northeast. Good morning and welcome back to CNN SUNDAY MORNING, I'm Tony Harris.
BETTY NGUYEN, CO-ANCHOR: I'm cold just looking at it. And I'm Betty Nguyen. Thanks for joining us today.
HARRIS: It is cold, snowy, and even dangerous all along the east coast, but the nation's capitol has already seen the worst of the blizzard. Blowing and drifting snow could be the next big problem there. Let's go live now to CNN's Gary Nuremberg in Washington, D.C.
Gary, give us an update on conditions, there.
GARY NUREMBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: OK, Tony, the snow has stopped. It's been replaced by the wind, which is blowing the snow, sometimes up to 35 miles an hour, at times causing whiteouts at Reagan National Airport. That old advice about calling your airline is particularly true today. There are wind advisories for Washington today, and with temperatures in the low teens, that gives us a wind- chill factor of about zero.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's cold out here.
NUREMBERG: Cold enough to put an icicle on your chin. And cross-country skis on your feet.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: D.C.'S a beautiful city and it's even more beautiful when it's covered in snow.
NUREMBERG: Having less fun, passengers at Washington's Dulles Airport who sat through storm-caused delays as crews carefully de-iced the planes that did get out.
Transportation on the ground was no fun either. D.C. had 200 snow trucks on the road Saturday evening. Their job made easier by reduced weekend traffic. But some drivers weren't impressed with the municipal efforts.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's worse in town than it is out in the country.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is that right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, they started plowing out in the country, so, yeah, it's not bad at all.
NUREMBERG: It was pretty. Tourists at the World War II memorial took snowy pictures. The Jefferson memorial was difficult to see in the snow. Some tourists knew it was coming and planned for it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We tried to do all of our outside stuff yesterday, so we could do all the museums and inside today.
NUREMBERG: Some kids played football on the National Mall. Some from Florida made snow angels in the first snow they had ever seen.
NUREMBERG (on camera): Your butt is now completely covered in snow. It was worth it?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah. Because we can't do this in Florida.
NUREMBERG (voice-over): Ask if it's smart to leave Florida for this?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just as smart as the people that come down to Florida during hurricane season.
(LAUGHTER)
NUREMBERG: There is another activity for kids on the mall that we didn't report, and that is throwing snowballs at television crews. For a town that has not had baseball in more than 30 years, we can report there are some kids in this town with disturbingly good arms.
HARRIS: That is so good. Yeah, they didn't miss, did they? OK, Gary, we appreciate it. Thank you.
NGUYEN: Easy target.
All right, we want to go now to Chad Myers, who is near Lincoln Field, I understand. And Chad, have you some video from the car on your way up there today, is that what I understand?
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, you know what? The whole thing has kind of slowed down this process of shoveling. The snow, obviously, put a big dent in a lot of people's plans. If you take a look out up here to the top here. This Lincoln Financial Field is very tall, and they have been shoveling the snow from the top to the bottom, and then dumping it down here into this area, and then it gets picked up by front-end loaders. The whole process started about 8:00 last night, and it's finally finished now. They finally have all the snow down to the field. The field's getting scooped. It's been covered, so the snow was not on the grass. It was on the tarp. They're shoveling the tarp, and now they're getting all of that snow out of here as well. So I would say, this place is so prepared for a football game. They heard the forecast; they knew the snow was coming. They couldn't be better off than they are right now. If you don't make it the game, it's your own fault, because the game is ready for you.
NGUYEN: It's looks like you're a little prepared, too. I mean hey, you're wearing red. Does that mean you're rooting for the Falcons?
HARRIS: You dirty bird, you.
MYERS: Well...
NGUYEN: Ah-huh...
MYERS: I have a hat -- I have a green hat in the back of the car if you you want to see it, in the next (UNINTELLIGIBLE) in about 15 minutes. Do you want to see that? It's a special one.
NGUYEN: Yeah, we'll check back in with you for that.
MYERS: You have to watch what you ask for.
NGUYEN: All right, Chad Myers, playing it safe out there. Thank you, Chad.
MYERS: All right.
HARRIS: All right, air travel in parts of the northeast is virtually nonexistence this morning because of the blizzard. The airport in Philadelphia is opened but hundreds of flights have been canceled. The airport did close yesterday, for a few hours, disappointing many fans trying to fly in for that big game.
NGUYEN: The blizzard has already grounded flights in the New York metro area and in Boston. In fact, Logan Airport in Boston is closed this morning, and that's going to cause travel problems well into tomorrow. Travelocity expert Rally Caparas, joins us now with an update.
How big is this going to be, backup-wise?
RALLY CAPARAS, TRAVELOCITY: Well Betty, it's going to be huge backup-wise, with about 4,000 flights canceled over the last two days, even though the weekend air traffic volume is usually down a bit, it's not going to make much difference, as we'll see major cancellations throughout tomorrow morning hours at Boston's Logan airport, down in New York City at LaGuardia, Newark, and JFK, and also down in Philadelphia.
Now, they're staying ahead of the snow down in Philly, but up in New York, they're still behind, trying to clear runways periodically. Boston's Logan, you'll see runway snow removal go through tomorrow because the snow will just be leaving late, late, late this evening. So you can expect very slow schedules, if you're flying at all, go online because there will be massive cancellations, once again, up around Boston.
This will affect flights into and out of major hubs such as Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson, Chicago's O'Hare, et cetera. The major hub airports will be affected by these major cancellations and delays in the northeast as equipment, trying to get to and from the locations where they need to along with the flight crews, including captains, pilots, and stewardesses, it's going to be hard to distribute them, because once these airports get back up and open, which won't happen, probably, until sometime tomorrow for Boston, and then later this morning you'll start to see some activity at LaGuardia, JFK, and Newark. But, it's going to be very sparse and very poor for what you're supposed to see today. It's going to be a tough go today, a tough go tomorrow throughout the entire day, and then, possibly, on Tuesday we should see things getting back to normal -- Betty.
NGUYEN: No until Tuesday, it sounds. OK, Travelocity expert, Rally Caparas, thank you for that -- Tony.
HARRIS: Blizzard? What blizzard? Snow? What snow? These are classic conditions for a classic football game. The NFC championship game is on, and so is the AFC title game, both of them in snowy Pennsylvania. It'll be the Eagles and the Falcons at Lincoln Field in Philadelphia. And CNN sports reporter, Ray D'Alessio, has a preview of that shootout.
Good morning, Ray.
RAY D'ALESSIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Tony. I'll tell you what, I'd much prefer if the game was inside the Georgia Dome, but that not here nor there. I know it's early, but so far my MVP for this game are the hundreds of workers who spent the -- spent the night trying to get this field clean, and have done a pretty good job. Again, the field is covered; it's heated, so the footing should not be a problem once the game begins. And as far as the players are concerned, the weather, the chill factor, that's the last thing they're worried about.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DONOVAN MCNABB, EAGLES QUARTERBACK: No, it doesn't stop our game plan. Our game plan is still going to have the aggressive attack. We're still going to have the same mentality.
JIM MORA, FALCONS COACH: It doesn't matter to us, bring it. Whatever the weather is, we're going to go play in it. It doesn't matter to us.
MICHAEL VICK, FALCONS QUARTERBACK: We're going to pretend it's a 90-degree day in Florida and go out there and let it ride -- let it go.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
D'ALESSIO: Now, should the Falcons win, they don't have to worry about pretending. Of course, they will be in Jacksonville, Florida, two weeks from today. However, a lot of the national sports writer, they don't see that happening, in fact, in today in Philadelphia's "Enquirer," they polled a group of nine media members asking them what their opinion was in this game, who they thought would win, all nine selected the Eagles.
Live in Philadelphia, I'm Ray D'Alessio, let's go back to CNN.
HARRIS: All right Ray, thank you. NGUYEN: All across the state of Pittsburgh, clearing the snow is not such a big deal after all. Only a few inches fell on Heinz Field where the Steelers meet the New England Patriots, tonight, in the AFC championship game. New England is 15-2 this season, Pittsburgh, 16-1, Going to be a good game.
HARRIS: Big ketchup bottle there in Pittsburgh.
If you're snowed in this morning, you can use the web and CNN.com to track the forecast, we'll show you who. CNN SUNDAY MORNING continues in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: So how do you hold a marriage together when one's spouse is in Iraq for months and the other is at home with the kids? That's the subject of our soldier story this morning, and our soldier is Chaplain Gerald Nelson of the 81st Regional Readiness Command quartered in Birmingham, Alabama.
Chaplain Nelson, good morning to see you. Can you hear us now?
GERALD NELSON, U.S. ARMY CHAPLAIN: I can hear you.
HARRIS: OK, we made the connection. Good to talk to you. You know, there's probably a lot we can learn from your own experience. You were active duty for ten years; you served in the first Iraq war. What were some of the issues in your own life that you had to deal with once you came back?
NELSON: Oh, when I came back, I done all the reunion briefings, but it's nothing like coming back and seeing the reality, coming back and the spouse has done very good with the money, that I used to do, and the kids have a different regiment that may not be what I thought they should be.
HARRIS: Yeah.
NELSON: And I was supposed to be a guest, but I'm wanting to get right in there and change everything and become a productive member again.
HARRIS: And that hasn't really changed for these reservists coming back, has it?
NELSON: No, it hasn't.
HARRIS: So, what is the idea behind the three-day retreat? It sounds like a great idea for these couples to get away for three days and kind of bond again, get to know one another again.
NELSON: Yes. It's just a time where we can introduce a speaker/listener model where they can hear each other and listen to each other. So many times when you go away and you come back, you have your issues and the spouse has her issues. And you don't hear each other a lot of times. And it's just a time where you can rebound because you've changed. You don't think you've changed, but you've changed a lot.
HARRIS: Now, that's an important point. Let's spend a little bit of time on that. When you go to war, and you're in a hot war, as we are right now in Iraq, it changes you. When you see people who are dying and death around you, and maybe you've had to open fire in defense, it changes you as a person. And you bring that back home with you, don't you?
NELSON: Yes, you do.
HARRIS: So what do you say? What can you say to these soldiers? And what do you say to these wives in preparation for these soldiers coming back home?
NELSON: Well, we talk about the importance of talking to each other, but listening to the other person. Neither one of us has it worse. In fact, I think the spouses have it worse than I do when I'm over there, because they have the children, and they have to keep everything together while I'm gone.
HARRIS: What do are you anticipating? A lot of these reservists are finishing up their tour of duty pretty soon here, so you'll have a large number of reservists coming back home. What kinds of issues, and are you ready for the numbers of reservists that you'll have coming back?
NELSON: Well, we have an awesome number that are coming back.
HARRIS: Yeah.
NELSON: We're doing retreats every month, usually between 60 and 80 couples come to our retreats every month. And also we have an Army One source that they can call and get counseling help if there's not a chaplain around.
HARRIS: Very good. Chaplain Nelson, good to see you. Thanks for taking the time to talk to us this morning.
NELSON: Thank you very much.
HARRIS: We're going to take a break, but when we come back, more on the weather. We'll go to CNN.com and we'll also check in with Rob Marciano, who will tell you more about the situation in New Haven, Connecticut, and all along the east coast, which is being socked in now by the blizzard of 2005. CNN SUNDAY MORNING returns right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: Of course we're bringing you the best of the best all morning long, but a cool firsthand look at any of the major cities getting hit by snow is at your fingertip. All you have to do is check out Earthcam.com for live shots from a number of different locations. New York, Philly, Boston, they'll all there. And if you had enough of the white stuff, well, you can also check out Daytona Beach. That may put a smile on your face -- Tony. HARRIS: And, of course, we're keeping you on top of the blizzard conditions all day here on CNN, but if you need some specifics, head to our website at CNN.com. It is a great resource and Veronica De La Cruz is here to help you navigate all of this information.
Good morning, Veronica.
VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Tony. And yes, I want to show you what is going on at CNN.com, right now. On our main page, let's take a look at that. The top story right now, "Northeast Buried in White," which we all know by now, if you scroll down, and you have to travel, which hopefully you don't, there you go, airport delays, airport closing, there's the link right there, so very useful. And our special report right now, "Winter Weather." And the "Winter Weather" page has a lot of useful information, preparation, and safety. Let's take a look at "Winterproof." This is how to winterproof the outdoors, the indoors as well...
HARRIS: OK.
DE LA CRUZ: ...and your car. You know, things like having an emergency kit, traveling.
HARRIS: Yes.
DE LA CRUZ: Don't you think?
HARRIS: Yeah, I think so. Yeah. And if you get a little snowbound, you need to have this kind of information, and you've got -- you got a page right there that helps us navigate what we need to do if we get a little snowbound in our car, as well.
DE LA CRUZ: Well, if you're stranded, take a look at that, let's go back to the "Stranded" page, that -- that's some useful information right there. What do you do if you're caught in a storm suddenly? Severe weather happens and you're stuck in your car? There you go.
HARRIS: Yeah.
DE LA CRUZ: We have some interactive guides. No, outside of all of this useful information, Tony, what do you do when you're listening to your weatherman and you have no idea what these weather watches, these weather warnings mean? What is a blizzard warning?
HARRIS: Exactly.
DE LA CRUZ: And let's take a look at that, actually, because we have that in our interactive guide. A blizzard warning, Tony, is issued before a storm with sustained winds or gusts of 35 miles-an- hour or more, and a considerable amount of snow that will reduce visibility to less than a quarter mile. So, there you go. High winds, low visibility, a blizzard.
HARRIS: Yeah.
DE LA CRUZ: And I was listening to Rob, and I think he was saying there are winds gusting up to 78 miles-an-hour.
HARRIS: Are you kidding me?
DE LA CRUZ: No, he was saying that earlier on.
HARRIS: And there's another place you can figure out wind direction speed, wind-chill factor, and all that?
DE LA CRUZ: Yeah.
HARRIS: So we can work up a little forecast ourselves.
DE LA CRUZ: We sure can. We can go back to the web, we'll take a look at that and -- or maybe we're not going to do that. There you go.
HARRIS: Here we go. Here we go.
DE LA CRUZ: You were saying the wind-chill factor, in Atlanta right now, I think it's 19 degrees, it's very cold outside. And the wind speed is also around 19 or 20.
HARRIS: And my guess is that the wind-chill factor is -- the pressure, what you feel on your skin, is probably five degrees.
DE LA CRUZ: Is that what you're going to guess?
HARRIS: That's my guess, it's five degrees.
DE LA CRUZ: OK.
HARRIS: Believe me, it's not a guess, it's (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
DE LA CRUZ: I didn't even get to -- I didn't get to guess, but you're very close. It's three degrees -- it feels like degrees outside right now. It feels like three degrees.
HARRIS: We're so flat out of time. We're so involved with all of this, but CNN.com, right?
DE LA CRUZ: CNN.com.
HARRIS: Thank you, Veronica.
NGUYEN: All right, let's talk about snow right now. Snow removal is the name of the game today in most metropolitan areas on the east coast. We've been checking in all morning long with CNN meteorologist, Chad Myers who is keeping tabs on the heroic efforts to clear the snow from Philadelphia's Lincoln Financial Field for today's NFC championship.
And Chad, did you steal a hat from some kid? What is that on your head?
MYERS: You know, 15 minutes ago you accused me of being a Falcon fan. NGUYEN: You had the red on.
MYERS: I had this in my car. This came from a friend of mine this from Ottawa. When you full the little string, it magically -- these flaps come down, and you turn into an Eagles fan.
NGUYEN: Oh, I see.
MYERS: It's phenomenal. You know, I mean, look, it keeps your ears warm, it's ready to go. Let me tell you are, the Eagles fans, they're a hearty bunch. We're on the other side of the stadium where they're tailgating, they have fires burning already, they're standing out there, their bratwurst. They are truly fans, and not fair weather fans, because this isn't fair weather. The wind-chill factor, right now, is 13 degrees below zero, and even at game time it could be colder than that because the winds are actually going to pick up. But, somebody did dare me to wear this hat, and so I just thought, well, you know, if you're going to get out there and root for the Eagles, you've got to wear something like this, don't you?
NGUYEN: Absolutely.
MYERS: Back to you guys.
NGUYEN: You know, talking about those fans out there, the die- hard fans, we don't want to see any without their shirts on today, too cold for that. You always see it at the games
MYERS: You know that's going to happen. You know somebody...
NGUYEN: Warn them now, Chad. Warn them.
MYERS: Somebody's going to be painted green, thinking that that green paint is keeping them warn. But trust me, it's not. Don't -- don't try that at home, or even here.
NGUYEN: Yeah, frostbite city. All right, Chad Myers, thank you so much.
MYERS: You're welcome.
HARRIS: Lead paint, it will never come off.
Check out these pictures, kids making the most of the snow in Philadelphia. We've been asking for your best snow pictures. We'll see what you've been sending in a little later.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: Well, good morning, New Haven, Connecticut. If you were thinking about venturing outside, just take a look at this picture. You may want to just stay inside.
HARRIS: It's wind blown. We've seen pictures all morning, of the flags just being swept away, just stiff with all this wind.
NGUYEN: Strong winds, there.
HARRIS: Another place that's pretty socked in is Washington, D.C. Let's get there now and visit with Dana bash for a preview of "Inside Politics Sunday."
Good morning, Dana.
DANA BASH, "INSIDE POLITICS SUNDAY": Good morning, Tony. And coming up on "Inside Politics Sunday," winter weather, we'll get an update on the blizzard that's pounding the northeastern United States. Plus, the Iraq elections are one week from today. Two top senators debate what it really means for the U.S. mission there.
And remember all those presidential campaign ads? Well, they actually give awards for the best. Stay tuned to see if your favorite won. That's all ahead at the top of the hour, back to you.
HARRIS: Thank you.
NGUYEN: Well, all morning long we've been asking folks to send in this their snow pictures, and we have quite a few to show you right about now.
Joyce Norris says, "The invitation to send in pictures was the motivation I needed to get the software installed. All are taken near Windsor, Nova Scotia." We're gong to try to put those up. Look at that dog, there.
No wading in a pond. Who knew that was a pond? She also writes, "I don't know what the New Yorkers are complaing about, one guy with a snow blower had maybe an inch of snow he was removing. The Central Park jogger was jogging on only two to three inches. What is the news value of that? Try St. John's Newfoundland, where she got 60 centimeters, which is about 24 inches, dumped on them, and they're getting the blizzard on top of it."
HARRIS: OK, let's look at this picture from Patrick, he sent it in to us from Ovid. I think that's Ovid, Michigan. That's beautiful. Look at that.
NGUYEN: Picturesque.
HARRIS: And he says, "We're just waiting patiently for spring." Aren't we all?
NGUYEN: Well, Rob is talking about this blizzard. That's on our minds today. And, boy, what a blizzard it is, Rob.
(WEATHER REPORT)
NGUYEN: Yeah, but don't try to get a flight out, because you're not going to be making it today.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Not out of Boston.
HARRIS: My friend, you have earned it this morning, Rob. MARCIANO: Thanks for the (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
HARRIS: Nice work. Nice work. Thank you, Rob.
NGUYEN: Yeah, thank you, Rob. Well, that is going to do it for us this morning. We want to thank you for watching and see you back here next weekend.
HARRIS: "Inside Politics Sunday" is next. Have a great Sunday.
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