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CNN Saturday Morning News
Storm Hits Northeast
Aired December 06, 2003 - 09:01 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.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: And our top story, weather. Weather forecasters say it's not over yet. A snowy blanket covers the Northeast, and warnings are up. The full-blown storm will sweep through the region today from northern Virginia to northern Maine.
Our Jane King is watching the weather in New York. But first we go to our CNN Adoara Udoji. She's watching the weather for us in Boston. Good morning, Adoara.
ADOARA UDOJI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Heidi.
It's coming down hard here, accumulation of eight inches. They're expecting perhaps up to two feet in some areas in and around Boston.
We're here on Newbury Street, which is a busy shopping area, and actually it's quite busy. There's many brave souls out here, brave souls including Amy Huff (ph), who is very kind enough to join and chat with us for a moment.
So what do you think, the first big storm of 2003?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, I love it.
UDOJI: And what did you plan to do today, and now the storm's come, what are you planning to do today?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So well, I was going to do a little bit of shopping, and I'm actually a law student, so I was going to do some studying. So the shopping's probably out, but the studying is still on.
UDOJI: Well, actually, it's quite good weather to be inside, right?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Absolutely.
UDOJI: Listen, thanks, Amy. You have an excellent day. Thank you very much.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.
UDOJI: Now let's take a quick look at Faneuil Hall, the famous Faneuil Hall in Boston, check out what's not happening over there. We've also this morning spoken to the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency. They're real concerned about possible high winds of up to 45 miles per hour and coastal flooding.
The port authority, we also spoke to officials there. They are saying so far, out of 850 scheduled flights today, 158 have been canceled. Two runways are open.
But keep in mind, the worst is yet to come. They are expecting the main thrust of the storm this afternoon.
And last thing, very quickly, a warning, a caution to Bostonians, don't expect a free pass today on parking. In fact, this morning, we have seen a parking enforcement agent out on the road passing out those tickets. So, watch out, Heidi.
COLLINS: All right, Adoara, thanks so very much. That's a real bummer, can't even get a break on a ticket today.
We want to go now to Jane King, standing by in New York. Not quite as many flakes coming down there yet, Jane.
JANE KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Heidi.
It is starting to pick up. You can definitely feel the winds are even more fierce now than they were just a few hours ago. But the city that never sleeps waking up to some serious snow this morning. And, in fact, we're going to get even more later on today.
The city goes under a blizzard warning in about an hour. We do expect another five inches of snow, and also miles, wind of 40 to 45 miles per hour coming down today as well. And this on top of the eight inches that we got in Central Park last night.
And you can see here, it's already starting to drift in some areas. It's getting packed down, but overall it's a very light, powdery snow. This is very different than what we saw in the city last night. We saw a very slushy, very wet snow last night.
But you can tell that the temperatures are dropping, because the snow is becoming much more powdery here.
Now, I'm on the corner of Central Park South and Fifth Avenue, a very popular tourist destination in New York City. And you can see, a lot of people are starting to come out. We have gutsy individuals here that are leaving their apartments and their hotel rooms and venturing out a little bit here this morning.
Of course, Fifth Avenue, very popular shopping destination, FAO Schwarz, Saks Fifth Avenue, Tiffany's, all the big stores are located on Fifth Avenue. And the retailers are hoping that people will be able to brave this and come out and do some shopping today.
Meanwhile, this storm may be one for the record books. In fact, in 1886, we had 8.1 inches of snow on December 5 in Central Park. We barely missed that record yesterday with eight inches of snow, according to the National Weather Service.
Heidi, back to you. COLLINS: Always like to break the snow totals. All right. Jane King, thanks so much, live from New York City today.
JIM MORET, CNN ANCHOR: And with all of the snow along the East Coast, you just know there are airport delays. Air travel expert Rally Caparas from Travelocity Business is here with more. Rally?
RALLY CAPARAS, AIR TRAFFIC SPECIALIST, TRAVELOCITY BUSINESS (on phone): Jim, I'll tell you, it certainly is a beautiful sight watching them, but it's not nearly as beautiful, I'm sure, standing in the middle of it.
Yesterday and today we saw somewhere in the neighborhood of 700 to 800 flights canceled going into those major airports from Boston down to Philadelphia. And so before you step outdoors and go to those airlines, folks, or airports, check your airline Web site for the status of your flight. There is a chance it could be canceled today also.
Boston's Logan Airport in the Northeast, expect 45- to 60-minute arrival delays. The strong gusting wind, blowing snow, and runway snow removal will force those moderate delays.
Newark, La Guardia, and JFK airports, you can expect one- to two- hour arrival delays. The strong wind, blowing snow, runway snow removal will be problems there also. And keep in mind, departures will be delayed by about 30 to 45 minutes as they de-ice your airplane for safety.
Down in Philadelphia, same situation for the departures, and then 60-minute arrival delays. The wind, the snow, excuse me, and the de- icing once again.
And then in the D.C. metros this morning, you have poor visibility at all three locations, Baltimore, Washington, Dulles, and Reagan National. It's going to cause about a 45-minute arrival delay. You'll still see some light snow in the region. But there will be p.m. clearing, and we should see on-time schedules later on this afternoon and evening, so good news in the D.C. metro area.
The rest of the country looking pretty good. But if you're headed into those areas, these areas we've talked about just a moment ago, you can expect to suffer those delays. But the further you are away from the airport that you're headed to today, the more likely you are to be closer to on time.
I'll be back on Monday morning with the latest from the Eye on the Sky. Back to you guys in the studio. Have a good one.
MORET: Thank you, Rally. Have a good weekend.
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 December 6, 2003 - 09:01 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: And our top story, weather. Weather forecasters say it's not over yet. A snowy blanket covers the Northeast, and warnings are up. The full-blown storm will sweep through the region today from northern Virginia to northern Maine.
Our Jane King is watching the weather in New York. But first we go to our CNN Adoara Udoji. She's watching the weather for us in Boston. Good morning, Adoara.
ADOARA UDOJI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Heidi.
It's coming down hard here, accumulation of eight inches. They're expecting perhaps up to two feet in some areas in and around Boston.
We're here on Newbury Street, which is a busy shopping area, and actually it's quite busy. There's many brave souls out here, brave souls including Amy Huff (ph), who is very kind enough to join and chat with us for a moment.
So what do you think, the first big storm of 2003?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, I love it.
UDOJI: And what did you plan to do today, and now the storm's come, what are you planning to do today?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So well, I was going to do a little bit of shopping, and I'm actually a law student, so I was going to do some studying. So the shopping's probably out, but the studying is still on.
UDOJI: Well, actually, it's quite good weather to be inside, right?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Absolutely.
UDOJI: Listen, thanks, Amy. You have an excellent day. Thank you very much.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.
UDOJI: Now let's take a quick look at Faneuil Hall, the famous Faneuil Hall in Boston, check out what's not happening over there. We've also this morning spoken to the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency. They're real concerned about possible high winds of up to 45 miles per hour and coastal flooding.
The port authority, we also spoke to officials there. They are saying so far, out of 850 scheduled flights today, 158 have been canceled. Two runways are open.
But keep in mind, the worst is yet to come. They are expecting the main thrust of the storm this afternoon.
And last thing, very quickly, a warning, a caution to Bostonians, don't expect a free pass today on parking. In fact, this morning, we have seen a parking enforcement agent out on the road passing out those tickets. So, watch out, Heidi.
COLLINS: All right, Adoara, thanks so very much. That's a real bummer, can't even get a break on a ticket today.
We want to go now to Jane King, standing by in New York. Not quite as many flakes coming down there yet, Jane.
JANE KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Heidi.
It is starting to pick up. You can definitely feel the winds are even more fierce now than they were just a few hours ago. But the city that never sleeps waking up to some serious snow this morning. And, in fact, we're going to get even more later on today.
The city goes under a blizzard warning in about an hour. We do expect another five inches of snow, and also miles, wind of 40 to 45 miles per hour coming down today as well. And this on top of the eight inches that we got in Central Park last night.
And you can see here, it's already starting to drift in some areas. It's getting packed down, but overall it's a very light, powdery snow. This is very different than what we saw in the city last night. We saw a very slushy, very wet snow last night.
But you can tell that the temperatures are dropping, because the snow is becoming much more powdery here.
Now, I'm on the corner of Central Park South and Fifth Avenue, a very popular tourist destination in New York City. And you can see, a lot of people are starting to come out. We have gutsy individuals here that are leaving their apartments and their hotel rooms and venturing out a little bit here this morning.
Of course, Fifth Avenue, very popular shopping destination, FAO Schwarz, Saks Fifth Avenue, Tiffany's, all the big stores are located on Fifth Avenue. And the retailers are hoping that people will be able to brave this and come out and do some shopping today.
Meanwhile, this storm may be one for the record books. In fact, in 1886, we had 8.1 inches of snow on December 5 in Central Park. We barely missed that record yesterday with eight inches of snow, according to the National Weather Service.
Heidi, back to you. COLLINS: Always like to break the snow totals. All right. Jane King, thanks so much, live from New York City today.
JIM MORET, CNN ANCHOR: And with all of the snow along the East Coast, you just know there are airport delays. Air travel expert Rally Caparas from Travelocity Business is here with more. Rally?
RALLY CAPARAS, AIR TRAFFIC SPECIALIST, TRAVELOCITY BUSINESS (on phone): Jim, I'll tell you, it certainly is a beautiful sight watching them, but it's not nearly as beautiful, I'm sure, standing in the middle of it.
Yesterday and today we saw somewhere in the neighborhood of 700 to 800 flights canceled going into those major airports from Boston down to Philadelphia. And so before you step outdoors and go to those airlines, folks, or airports, check your airline Web site for the status of your flight. There is a chance it could be canceled today also.
Boston's Logan Airport in the Northeast, expect 45- to 60-minute arrival delays. The strong gusting wind, blowing snow, and runway snow removal will force those moderate delays.
Newark, La Guardia, and JFK airports, you can expect one- to two- hour arrival delays. The strong wind, blowing snow, runway snow removal will be problems there also. And keep in mind, departures will be delayed by about 30 to 45 minutes as they de-ice your airplane for safety.
Down in Philadelphia, same situation for the departures, and then 60-minute arrival delays. The wind, the snow, excuse me, and the de- icing once again.
And then in the D.C. metros this morning, you have poor visibility at all three locations, Baltimore, Washington, Dulles, and Reagan National. It's going to cause about a 45-minute arrival delay. You'll still see some light snow in the region. But there will be p.m. clearing, and we should see on-time schedules later on this afternoon and evening, so good news in the D.C. metro area.
The rest of the country looking pretty good. But if you're headed into those areas, these areas we've talked about just a moment ago, you can expect to suffer those delays. But the further you are away from the airport that you're headed to today, the more likely you are to be closer to on time.
I'll be back on Monday morning with the latest from the Eye on the Sky. Back to you guys in the studio. Have a good one.
MORET: Thank you, Rally. Have a good weekend.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
