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CNN Saturday Morning News

Blizzard Wreaks Havoc on Northeast U.S.; California Manhunt Continues; About 5,000 flights Canceled Due to Weather; Hadiya Pendleton Will Be Buried Today; NYC Mayor Gives Storm Briefing; New Artists Take Center Stage

Aired February 09, 2013 - 08:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: And thank you very much for starting your morning with us, on what can be a difficult morning for many people as they try to struggle through all of what is happening with the snow that's coming down.

Let's go right now to Ashleigh Banfield. She joins us from Darien, Connecticut.

Ashleigh, how are you?

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Well, it is very, very snowy here, Marty. I was taking the drive because the media was allowed to be on the roads last night but everybody else wasn't. Between Greenwich, Connecticut, and Darien, Connecticut, on that 95 corridor as you look at your map, all the way to, you know, to New Haven and beyond.

And I have never been on a freeway like that, with five cars over the course of about a 45-minute drive, driving about 25, 30 miles an hour. If you've ever imagined 95 looking like a farmer's field, that's what it looked like, trying to make headway throughout the night. It was about 12:00 midnight, 1:00 am. And like I said, just absolutely remarkable to see that people really did, for the most part, heed the travel ban warnings. That might be why we're not getting as many reports of huge traffic pileups or even accidents that might have been critical or lethal. I saw not one accident. Again, I only passed five cars in total in 45 minutes.

You can see your map, I mean this thing is just monstrous. My own home is blanketed in about two feet of snow. The boughs are so laden, I'm really concerned about snapping branches and that's really what Connecticut worries about when we talk about these massive power outages.

The governor (INAUDIBLE) 30 percent (INAUDIBLE) customers in Connecticut (INAUDIBLE). You know, millions of people are going to be without power. I'm usually the first ones to lose it but I've got power this morning, which is really terrific. I will say this Marty, I don't know about you and your Canadian upbringing but I was shoveling about a foot and a half of snow from midnight until 1:00 a.m. last night just to try to get ahead of it, which is exactly what those plows have been doing. They've been out constantly just trying to stay ahead of it because once you get too deep, it starts to become a far greater job to clear those roadways.

SAVIDGE: It is always better to do a little bit at a time than trying to take it all on at once. Ashleigh Banfield talking about what sounds like a very interesting drive in the middle of the night there in Connecticut. Thank you very much for joining us and we want to keep you updated on this massive blizzard as it continues to impact the northeast. You just have to look at big this storm is. Check it out from space and see that. This is what NASA shows us, what looks like a hurricane, really and it's packing winds of 65 miles per hour or more in some places. That wind combined with a heavy snow knocking out power, as you heard. This morning we've been told that about 650,000 people, that's businesses and homes, are without power across the northeast in some nine states. More than half of those are in -- power outages, that is -- in the state of Massachusetts.

We now know that this storm has claimed at least one person's life. That's in upstate New York in a car crash. Meanwhile though, hundreds of people were stranded on highways in Long Island. Rescue crews struggled to get to those people. And also this storm has caused more than 1,700 flights to be canceled today and that number was expected to increase. So, we have been following all of that for you now. We also want to turn to Poppy Harlow who is standing by. I believe she has been in Providence, Rhode Island. Poppy, take it away.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Marty. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us. Quite pleasant here, relatively speaking. The snow has slowed down. The wind gusts are no more, at least for now. Providence, Rhode Island really turning a corner after a bitter, bitter storm with really torrential rain/snow pellets coming at us all night long. That caused a big issue here, which the city of Providence, the state of Rhode Island is trying to deal with this morning. That is massive power outages, that wet, thick snow falling on trees, falling on power lines. It means about nearly 200,000 homes here in Rhode Island are without power. That is what they're dealing with at this hour.

Some good news, some of those bridges at places like Newport, Rhode Island, have reopened. They closed late last night because of these sustained 58-mile-per-hour wind gusts that we were getting. Those have reopened. I-95, that huge interstate through Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island still closed, though. Roads here in Providence closed as well since 5:00 Eastern last night, illegal to be out driving on them. Stay home. Even though it looks better, stay home.

We had a chance last night to hang out with this guy, let's bring him into the picture, Colonel Pete Gaynor (ph). Good morning, thank you for being with us. He heads emergency management here in Providence and we were in your command center last night which we showed our viewers a little earlier, seeing all of the technology, the GPS you have on all of the snow plows tracking their every move. You were getting calls all through the night. I know you were up all night. Give us a sense of the situation now here in Providence and broader Rhode Island. Where does it stand?

COL. PETE GAYNOR: It's been a long night and today will be even a longer day because our crews are now working probably in excess of 24 hours. So, we're pretty happy about primary roads in the city. Again, our goal is to keep people off the roads so we can get them from curb to curb. That's our goal and then we ask residents to be patient. It's going to take a while to get to that neighborhood surface road.

HARLOW: The biggest concern for anyone that doesn't have power right now is when is it going to come back on? They've likely lost their heat. Do we have any reading on how long it's going to take the power to get back up?

GAYNOR: National Grid crews are staged, ready to go. I would imagine now with the wind dying down and the weather improving that they're probably out there right now, starting the restoration process. So again we ask you to be patient. We hope to get big blocks of power turned back on. Again it's a slow process. The weather, you're fighting it every inch of the way.

HARLOW: Do you have a read? Is it going to be 24 hours, 48? Are we talking about weeks? Because in the wake of super storm Sandy - I'm from New York where we got hit very hard -- people are very concerned. Are they going to be weeks here without power?

GAYNOR: I wouldn't think weeks, maybe a couple of days at the most. For the most part, national grid has a great plan. They're trying to restore the biggest block first.

HARLOW: Sure.

GAYNOR: So if you are a resident without power in your house, you have to make sure that you call National Grid and let them know you don't have power because other than that, they don't know.

HARLOW: Thank you sir, appreciate it. I want to get a lot more work to do today. Thank you. And I want to my colleague, Susan Candiotti. She's in Boston. Boston got dumped on even more than we did here in Providence. They've got about double the amount of people in Massachusetts without power, over 400,000, but Susan, is it subsiding a little bit where you are?

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it comes and it goes. Sometimes we get those powerful wind gusts and then, like now, it seems a bit calm. Certainly the snow is much flakier, lighter than it was during all day yesterday and into the night, when it was that heavy, wet snow that you can easily make a snowball out of. Now we are sitting back, because we're noticing that the winds are expected to pick up during the day. And that means -- that, combined with the lighter snow, authorities will be looking for a lot of drifting to happen and that could create even more problems, of course, as people try to clean up after this.

Just to give you an indication, here is the latest measurement we've got here with our yardstick, counting about 14" here. We learned from the folks out at Logan international airport, they got -- let's see. It was a foot of snow since midnight, between midnight and this hour. That's how much of a dump they got in the overnight hours of snow coming down. Now, over my shoulder, you can see just a bit of Boston harbor, with all those boats in port. They stayed where they were and they seem to be no worse for the wear. But water as you can see, is fairly calm. No big waves there. Of course, it's protected, obviously, from -- we're not close to Massachusetts Bay there. That's why we're seeing the water look that way.

But on the streets again, people are abiding by that rule, Poppy. They're to stay off the road and that makes a lot of sense. So unless you have a critical job that you need to get to, if you're an emergency vehicle -- obviously the snow plows are out. You are ordered to stay off the road and it looks like for now people are following that rule. Poppy, back to you.

HARLOW: Susan, thank you so much. Appreciate it, same here. We're in downtown Providence right in front of city hall. It is still a ghost town. You don't see anyone out walking about here. So they are staying inside, which is good because those power crews have to get to the lines and get power back up for folks that lost it. I'll send it back to you now, Marty.

SAVIDGE: Thanks, Poppy.

Hundreds of cars are stuck in the snow. This is on the Long Island and the Long Island Expressway, also on the Sunrise highway. The roads are closed now except to anybody who's got an emergency vehicle. Some people were forced, though, to sleep in their cars overnight. Police say that most of them have now been rescued and they say that most drivers apparently didn't heed the warnings we've been putting out there to stay off the roads.

This blizzard has also knocked out power to about 650,000 customers across nine states. In some places, take a look at the map there, including parts of New York and Massachusetts, electricity has already been restored to a few thousand lucky households and businesses. But other states, Maine, New Jersey among them, they have seen their outage numbers climb in the past two hours, especially in Maine, it's expected to get worse. One power company official had good news for 100 or so customers who are in the dark in upstate New York.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN BRUCKNER, PRESIDENT OF TRANSMISSION, NATIONAL GRID: We do have staffing levels that we expect that most customers will be restored within 24 hours from the time they report their outage.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: And you can bet that a lot of people have the clock ticking to see if that truly will bear out.

More than 1,700 flights have been canceled today, that according to flight aware tracking. So far, several airports are still closed. Boston Logan's airport is closed until at least 3:00 Eastern and no flights until tomorrow. New York's airports have been shut down. But now you've just a short while ago heard there is good news, that flights are beginning to land again at some of those airports. So remember, if you're heading on a flight, even if you're not in an area that's being impacted by snow right now, you should probably check your flight ahead of time. Make sure it's still going. There are a number of websites where you can do that. You really, really got to make sure it's going to go before you head to the airport.

And if you are stuck at home, you can count on us to bring you some of the amazing pictures that many other people have been out in the weather bringing and snapping. These are just a few of the shots. How many times have you had that umbrella do that to you? These are just what the blizzard looked like in places like say Boston and New York. We know that Hartford, Connecticut, has been getting hard-hit by this storm. I want to show you a live picture that is coming out of there. In most places they have about two feet of snow or more. We talked to the mayor earlier, who said that snow was falling about four inches an hour. That really is a staggering rate, far above the ability of snow crews to really keep up with when it comes to plowing.

Snow will be falling there for several more hours. Meteorologist Alexandra Steele has been following this and boy, they are hoping that that snow machine's going to stop at some point I'm sure, Alexandra.

ALEXANDRA STEELE, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Oh, it will. It will. New York will stop first and then Connecticut, then Rhode Island, then Boston, so expect the flights in New York, at Kennedy and LaGuardia, Newark, to resume certainly before Boston will. It does seem like Connecticut has been kind of ground zero for the three feet of snow. Look at some of these numbers. It wasn't just the shore line, Madison, (INAUDIBLE) Look at Milford, Connecticut, 38 inches of snow. New Haven and New Haven County, 34, Bridgeport, 30 inches, Hamden, 34. That's right off that 91 corridor. So if you're in central Connecticut or on the shore line really between 2 1/2 and three feet, Madison, 32" of snow.

So we are going to see this end. The back side is kind of in New York now. We'll watch that taper off this morning and then in Connecticut. Bigger picture on Long Island, 27.5 inches and these are kind on indicative of what we saw, Stoneybrook, Worcester, Mass, 27. So it wasn't just a New York deal. It wasn't just a Massachusetts. It wasn't just a Connecticut, Boston now at 21.8 inches. Where we see these hefty totals is really where the snow was the most dynamic, coming down at two, three, even four inches an hour. So the snow was incredible. The winds were as well. Look at what we saw in Connecticut, 81-mile-per-hour wind gusts at the airport, 76 in Boston. So it looks like a hurricane as Marty showed you earlier from space. But also hurricane-force winds were certainly a part of the picture.

All right, when's it going to end, right? It is ending. In northwest Connecticut, in Litchfield village, you can see clearing there. Clearing in southern New York with the Hudson Valley, clearing now in Fairfield County, Bridgeport coming to an end. We will see it end from west to east. I-84 clears out, then 91 and then places southeast of New York like Broughton (ph) and then toward, of course, Rhode Island and Massachusetts coming later.

Here is the picture this morning. Here is the area of low pressure. This is the time span. This is the future radar so moving and watching. We're going to see what this storm by this afternoon, you can see we're cleared out of New York, Connecticut. Still the cape and the islands this afternoon, still seeing the snow. But even as we head toward 10:00 tonight, snow will be done, but the winds will still be a player, kind of blowing all this snow around. So this afternoon, look at some of these wind gusts we're expecting, still 37, 41-mile- per-hour gust at 10:00 tonight in Boston. That certainly will factor in to the airlines and the airports, kind of getting in gear and resuming.

By Sunday we will see things certainly calm. So in the next 18 hours, where is the snow? We'll still see it here in kind of southeastern Connecticut and also here through Portland, into Maine, perhaps maybe another five to seven inches. For the most part, the heavy snow is done though in New York, in New Jersey and in Connecticut as well. Martin, certainly the winds will be a big player still even when the snow ends.

SAVIDGE: That does make it a problem to get rid of that snow.

STEELE: Some of these totals though in the 30s, 30 inches, really incredible in Connecticut.

SAVIDGE: It is. Alexandra, thanks very much for keeping us updated.

And some other news now, a big announcement by AOL. They announced an increase in revenues in the fourth quarter. So, why is this big? Well, it's the first overall growth in eight years for AOL. They say an increase in ad sales is responsible for the uptick.

Michelle Obama will attend today's funeral for 15-year-old Adia Pendleton. The Chicago honor student and band majorette was gunned down just a week after performing at President Obama's inauguration. Police told our affiliates that Pendleton had no gang affiliation, was likely not even the intended target. We'll have a report from Chicago coming up later on this morning.

And then a judge in Cleveland sentenced the Amish man behind the string of beard cutting attacks to 15 years in prison. Samuel (INAUDIBLE) was convicted of hate crimes, kidnapping and conspiracy. Several of his followers received shorter sentences.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has waded into the drone debate. He has slammed the U.S. government for saying it has the right to kill, that is, U.S. citizens who are perceived to be, quote, imminent terror threats, unquote.

And then, on the hunt for a suspected cop killer, is that suspect hiding out in a popular ski resort area in California? We'll go live to Los Angeles next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SAVIDGE: Fenway Park in Boston, which is now covered with a lot of snow, as is much of the northeast. And that, of course, is the big story we're following and continue to follow right here on CNN. We want to bring in the mayor right now of Hamden, Connecticut. That's Scott Jackson. He joins us on the phone. Mayor, I understand you've got something like 34 inches of snow on the ground there. How are you doing?

MAYOR SCOTT JACKSON, HAMDEN, CT. (BY TELEPHONE): Well, it's a disaster. We have 240 miles of road, about 61,000 residents and at some point the plows become ineffective. You actually have to move the snow. We're moving snow with loaders now as opposed to doing the strict plowing that we usually do.

SAVIDGE: And aside from that, of course, I know that the roads are closed. People, hopefully, are staying off the roads. Right?

JACKSON: Absolutely. You're not going to be able to get anywhere. The roads are impassable. The governor of Connecticut, Daniel Malloy has closed all roads. Everyone has got to stay home. We've got to move this snow.

SAVIDGE: OK, so as try to move this, since you said front loaders and all of that, that sounds like a job that's going to take more than, say, the weekend.

JACKSON: We'll know a little bit better probably toward midday today what our proposed timelines are. Fortunately, we're having good weather now. Fortunately, this did not turn into a power disaster like our last several storms. We have had local electrical utility embedded (INAUDIBLE) and three out of 26,000 customers are currently out. So, it's not a power issue, but as long as people stay off the roads, businesses are closed, everything is closed. Stay home and let our public works guys do their job.

SAVIDGE: Very good advice. That is the mayor of Hamden, Connecticut. They've got about 34 inches on the ground. Scott Jackson, thank you very much for joining us on the telephone this morning.

JACKSON: Take care.

SAVIDGE: Now out to the west coast, he was once one of the LAPD's own. Now Christopher Dorner is the focus of an intense police manhunt, the former cop accused of killing three people and wounding two others and it's feared he plans to strike again. Let's go right now to CNN's Nick Valencia. He's in Los Angeles and Nick, bring us up to speed. Where are things as far as the search that's been going on in Big Bear Lake?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That search is focused about 100 miles east of here, two hours east of downtown Los Angeles. That search was scaled back overnight because of unfavorable weather. Not only are they dealing with somebody, Chris Dorner, who has survivalist training, but they're also dealing with these tough, winter weather conditions. There's helicopters that could fly but they can't fly in this really, really tough conditions there. But they're expected to resume their search in just over an hour here, as soon as the sun comes up, as soon as we see daybreak. Right now that operation is scaled back. Martin? SAVIDGE: You know, you mentioned that heavy snow. As these crews start to go out and start searching, what are they looking for? Are they going to go to the cabins? Are they going to go into the mountains? What exactly will they search?

VALENCIA: That's a really good question. Yesterday they conducted searches of some abandoned cabins in about an eight-square-mile area. It's in the San Bernardino mountains. Big Bear is a very popular ski resort, a lot of skiers, a lot of snowboarders travel to the area this time of year. But they're concentrating in an eight-square-mile area. If you remember, Dorner's pickup truck was found on Thursday, that torched, burned out pickup truck. No word on what evidence came of that investigation into the pickup truck. But they are concentrating it there in that eight-square-mile area. Again though, just really tough weather conditions for the search teams, Martin.

SAVIDGE: Are they really certain he may be there? In other words, could this somehow have been a ruse to disguise and his movements are going some place else?

VALENCIA: I asked Commander Andy Smith that yesterday, about whether or not this burned-out pickup was a diversion. Some people have suggested he may have remotely detonated this pickup truck. The fact is that in press conferences yesterday, local authorities there in San Bernadino County said there may or may not be evidence to suggest that he is there. This search and investigation has spread far beyond southern California as you're quite aware Martin. But right now, they are concentrating because that's where their leads are. That's the last known tangible evidence of the whereabouts of Chris Dorner, there in Big Bear. That's where they're concentrating their search right now. The anxiety can be felt throughout the entire city here in Los Angeles. I think all of us at some point have looked behind our backs to sort of look for Dorner. But that anxiety is lingering throughout the city even though that investigation is focused more than 100 miles away.

SAVIDGE: I bet a lot of people are very worried. Nick Valencia, thanks very much for the update.

Meanwhile, it is travel chaos at airports in the northeast. Hundreds of flights already canceled. That's just the beginning of it. We'll take you live to Reagan national. That will be next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Good morning, everyone. Happy Saturday. Thank you for joining us. If you're waking up on the east coast in New England, you're waking up to this, whiteout conditions. Very beautiful, though. I'm joining you live from Providence, Rhode Island, where we've been reporting throughout this massive blizzard. I want to pan over and show you just where we are. This is downtown Providence, got city hall over there, major office buildings, Bank of America right there and not a soul in sight. This is how it has been all night. People staying home, which is good because of the blizzard conditions, the roads just starting to get cleared. I do have some news for you, though. The governor, who we spoke with earlier, Lincoln Chaffey, the governor of Rhode Island has now put a mandatory ban on all non-emergency vehicles all across the state of Rhode Island. The reason is, this is temporary but it's because they want to get the power crews out to fix all these downed power lines. We've got a lot of power lines that went down, tree that went down, about 187,000 homes in Rhode Island without power, about a fifth of the population, no power, no heat. They need to get them back up and running. That is the condition here in Providence. Things have really turned the corner. We're going to have know here until 2:00 Eastern time. We've got almost two feet of snow here.

All right. I want to take you live to Boston. Our Susan Candiotti is there. She's got even more snow than we do here. Susan, how is it looking? Actually, we're going to get to Susan in a moment. Folks, we're going to go to Zain Asher. She's in New York City. Zain, New York really spared in all of this, especially Manhattan. Not as bad as many people expected.

ZAIN ASHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Poppy, not as bad at all. I've been out here since 5:00 in the morning. When I got here, it was quite dark outside. I didn't see anybody on the streets. Now, New York is starting to look a bit more like New York. My producer and I, Brian, we actual wandered down 8th Avenue not too long ago. We bumped into some people and I just said guys, how's it going? What's it like coping in the blizzard and they looked at me and simply said what blizzard? I think that really sums up just how resilient New Yorkers are, just how thick skinned they are.

We got 11" of snow here, which is half the amount we got three years ago during the blizzard of 2010. We also, back then, had more cars stuck in the snow, more buses stuck in the snow. This time, Poppy, the city really isn't taking any chances. I know you mentioned that a lot of the snow plows are being fitted with GPS tracking devices. So it's pretty cool. You can actually go online to figure out when your street is going to get plowed. We have had some transportation issues. I actually saw a couple of taxis get stuck in the snow. The bottom line is if you don't have to be outside, if you're not going to work, if you're not one of the unlucky few that are going to work, it is best probably to just stay indoors. Poppy?

HARLOW: Absolutely. I know though, outside of the city there have been some real problems the Long Island Expressway, the highway surrounding New York City, very backed up, a lot of stranded vehicles. Even if it looks good outside your window, don't let that fool you. Make sure to stay inside. If you're going to go out in Manhattan, just take the subway. The subway is running. No need to get into a cab or car or drive around until they get the roads cleared.

Folks, again, a flight, sorry. If it was going out in DC or if it was going out of Boston or New York, you've probably got an issue.

Let's go to Rene Marsh. She's live at Reagan International airport.

What are you seeing Rene? RENE MARSH, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Poppy, you said it. If you're going to the Northeast, you definitely have an issue we are seeing a ripple effect here at Reagan National Airport. I mean take a look there are flights that are going in and out of Reagan but if you're going to the northeast, you are going nowhere fast. Because we're seeing many cancellations here at Reagan about 83 arrivals and departures canceled many of those because of the weather.

Now we know and we met firsthand folks who know what it's all about when you're stuck and you cannot go to your destination. Prime example -- my friend here, Randy. Randy, you are trying to get to Portland, Maine, right?

RANDY, STRANDED PASSENGER: That's correct.

MARSH: Tell me what's your situation here? When did you get to the airport? When were you supposed to leave and what's next for you?

RANDY: I came in from Seattle on a business trip and been here for a week. And my flight was supposed to depart last night at 10:00, rescheduled until 10:00 this morning. That was canceled and they're telling me now I won't be leaving the Reagan Airport until Monday morning at 10:00.

MARSH: And you spent the night here at Reagan, is that right?

RANDY: I did the night here at Reagan.

MARSH: And your destination, Portland, Maine? You're going there to visit family?

RANDY: I am. We have a family reunion. I just talked to my mother. And she said the wind is howling, the snow is coming down and she can't open her door.

MARSH: All right and look outside. You've got a lot of sun here except you're stuck inside of an airport.

RANDY: It's beautiful view here in Reagan and I look at the tarmac, blue skies. The sun is out. It's amazing 300 miles away, it's so blustery.

MARSH: All right well Randy thanks for talking to us. I hope you get to your destination soon. And those are the kind of stories that we're seeing here at Reagan. Again I'll tell you Poppy we are seeing flights go out but if you're going to the northeast, you're out of luck. Back to you.

HARLOW: Yes. I got some advice for Randy. Leave the airport. Ditch the airport. Head to our nation's capital, see the sights. Enjoy it because if you sit in there until Monday he does not want to be in the airport anymore.

Rene thank you I appreciate it.

Folks, we are expecting to hear live from the Mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg in just a few minutes. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back with that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: More than 1,750 flights have been canceled today according to Flight Aware Tracking. Boston's Logan Airport closed until at least 3:00 p.m. Eastern and no flights until tomorrow. New York's airports a little bit better there. They're now open but you still need to check your flight. But Bradley Airport in Connecticut that remains closed. Be sure, as we say, to check with your airline, your air carrier and the airport before you head out.

Also this blizzard has knocked out power to about 650,000 customers across nine states. In some places, including parts of New York and Massachusetts, electricity has already been restored to a few thousand lucky households and businesses. But other states, Maine and New Jersey among them, have seen their outage numbers climb in the past two hours.

Now I want you to take a close look at this exclusive CNN footage of a dangerous fugitive on the run in California. That is Christopher Dorner at a police academy shooting range during his time as a cadet. But now Dorner is on the other side of the law, on the run after allegedly killing three people in a twisted mission of revenge against the LAPD who, he says, just unjustly let him go.

Despite that intense manhunt, the 33-year-old remains free and investigators are focusing now their efforts on abandoned cabins high up in the cold, snowy mountains east of Los Angeles.

CNN legal contributor Paul Callan joins me now for more. Have you ever heard of a case like this, Paul? Because I've got to tell you it almost sounds like something you would expect to come out of Hollywood.

PAUL CALLAN, CNN LEGAL CONTRIBUTOR: It sounds like a Hollywood script. I have to tell you I was a homicide prosecutor here in New York and I was involved in serial killer cases.

This is the scariest one I've ever seen. He is a trained, military guy; he was a Lieutenant in the Navy. He is a trained police officer and he's holding off, literally, thousands of cops who are searching for him. So a very, very dangerous, a very scary situation.

SAVIDGE: And I'm hoping that he turns himself in and that there is no more violence. But if he were to be caught, and what possible defense could he have?

CALLAN: Well you know when you look at a case like this the thing that I'm concerned about as far as Lieutenant Dorner is -- and I call him Lieutenant because he was a military man. He is facing the death penalty if he does not voluntarily surrender. Obviously, he is familiar with the concept of suicide by cop, which is you know, you fight the police with weapons they're going to shoot you. And that's what's going to happen to him at some point in time when he's found. So the death penalty is a certainty with him if he does not voluntarily surrender. On the other hand, if he contacts a lawyer, if he contacts a member of the media -- you know I was reading his manifesto, which is 13 or 14 pages. He's -- he's a guy who really follows the news. He comments about every major issue you could possibly imagine, political and social, in this manifesto.

So he's tuned in to what's going on in society and if he reaches out to somebody in the media or a -- or a defense attorney, you know, he can come out of this alive. And a defense attorney can put together some kind of a defense for him. But you know, he's looking at -- he's looking at death otherwise. So you know that's the only honorable end for him, would be to voluntarily surrender.

SAVIDGE: And prosecutors, what are they doing to bring this case together?

CALLAN: Well, because this is a multijurisdictional case -- now he's crossed county lines. He is traveling -- his -- his victim list, which includes about 40 people, includes victims all over the country. So you have potential prosecutors from multiple jurisdictions who could be prosecuting. And what that means in the end, Martin, is that the prosecutors are not heavily involved in this at this point. They're leaving this to police officers and to police commissioners in these various districts and federal authorities as well.

So I think this is a law enforcement case right now. I don't think you're going to see heavy prosecutorial involvement until he surrenders. Now if he contacts the prosecutor's office or he contacts an attorney, you'll get the lawyers involved and his life will be spared. But if he leaves this as a military, law enforcement operation, death is going to be a certainty for Lieutenant Dorner.

SAVIDGE: Well let's hope he chooses to turn himself in. Paul Callan, thank you very much for your insights.

CALLAN: Ok thank you, Martin.

SAVIDGE: Hadiya Pendleton, that is the teen who was gunned down just a week after performing at President Obama's inauguration. She will be buried in Chicago today. And we're taking a special look at her young life that ended so soon.

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SAVIDGE: You are looking at live pictures of downtown Boston where it's pretty much a monochromatic world. Most of that is just white. And the vehicles you see are supposed to be just emergency vehicles. Otherwise you've got to hook it if you want to get around there.

And that's just one snapshot of what you've been looking at if you're waking up in Boston and New York. If you're stuck at home, of course, you can also remember, you can count on us and other people to bring amazing pictures from our iReporters. And they really have been doing a great job. Remember don't risk anything getting us those photos. We appreciate them greatly, but your safety is our biggest concern. Other news now: Former Illinois Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr., he has signed a deal with prosecutors. The son of the well-known civil rights leader was investigated -- or under investigation rather -- for misusing campaign funds. Details of that deal are unknown. But according to local reports out of Chicago, he could still face prison time.

A judge in Cleveland sentenced an Amish man behind a string of beard- cutting attacks to 15 years in prison. Samuel Mullet was convicted of hate crimes, kidnapping and conspiracy. Several of his followers received shorter sentences.

At least 12 people were killed earlier Saturday when a bus carrying fans of one of Chile's top soccer teams careened off the side of a road south of the capital city of Santiago, Chile. The accident happened at about 2:00 am when the driver apparently lost control on the mountain road and the bus plummeted 100 feet. The bus was carrying 45 fans -- fans, that is -- of the Ohigans soccer team.

And in a little more than two hours from now, Michelle Obama will attend today's funeral for 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton. The Chicago honor student and band majorette was gunned down just a week after performing at President Obama's inauguration.

CNN's Athena Jones has been following the story and she's now live in Chicago. This is really a heartbreaking tale -- Athena.

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is. Good morning Martin. You can also already see people behind me lining up to go through the magnetometers in preparation for the First Lady's visit. You know, the First Lady was heartbroken to learn about the death of Hadiya Pendleton, according to her office. And she wanted to come here today to this funeral today to offer her condolences to Pendleton's family and loved ones.

First Lady Michelle Obama is returning to her hometown to attend the funeral of 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton, a bystander shot dead in the Chicago Park a week after she performed at the President's inauguration. Vice President Biden memorialized the young honor student in remarks to House Democrats.

JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This was no ordinary child. She was a child who had used social media urging her friends to speak out, don't join gangs. And now she's --

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SAVIDGE: And we apologize for interrupting that report but Mayor Bloomberg of New York is speaking now on the blizzard. Let's listen.

MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG (I), NEW YORK CITY: The storm brought plenty of snow, about a foot in a lot of areas of New York City, but we certainly avoided the worst of it. And our thoughts go out to the people in Connecticut and Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine. They've gotten an enormous amount of snow and their snow continues to come down. If we can do anything to help them, we certainly will. I talked to Governor Cuomo this morning. Eastern Long Island got a lot more snow than we did. And we've talked and I said anything, if he needs equipment from us and manpower, we will be happy to do it.

Deputy Mayor for operations Cas Holloway has been talking to Howard Glaser the governor's person and I don't know that they're going to need us but we certainly will make sure that we provide whatever they need. We should not forget that when we were in trouble, the country came to our aid and we want to make sure that we do the same.

Our Department of Sanitation was out all night and will be working all day to clear the streets. The sanitation workers behind us here in Queens work hard, as do all of the men and women of the Sanitation Department. The number of plows I saw go by this morning was quite amazing.

There's enormous amount of resources on the streets. Not just Sanitation Department, but Parks Department, Department of Transportation, private contractors providing plows and tow trucks in case we needed them. We towed maybe half a dozen cars all night in the whole night but we had probably 150 tow trucks ready to go. Better to be safe than sorry.

We have roughly 2,200 pieces of equipment plowing and salting in total. And virtually all primary streets have been plowed and all city streets, we think, will be plowed by the end of the day. The main roads, the highways are all clear. And the primary roads in the city may be snow covered but we think virtually all of them have been plowed.

You can go to nyc.gov, go to plow New York. It will show you within time periods the last time a plow came down your street. If you live on a tertiary street and we haven't gotten to you yet, by the end of the day we think we'll get to everyone.

But our message is please don't drive. Stay off the roads. Our plows can go down the streets much quicker and they can do a much better job if they have a straight shot. If they have to stop and go around cars or stuck cars that keep them from going down streets it really doesn't lead to good results.

We are bringing in extra snow laborers to shovel our crosswalks, bus stops and fire hydrants. What you might do if you live near the corner of a street and if you are strong and healthy -- don't try it if you're old or there's any health risks. But if you shoveled out that street corner, opened up a drain yourself, that would help everybody. Let's you cross but also lets all your neighbors get around.

NYPD has been checking on families impacted by Sandy who still do not have heat. There were absolutely no requests to relocate. But if you're cold and you start shivering, pick up the phone, 911. We want to get somebody there very quickly. That can be fatal.

SAVIDGE: You're listening to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg as he sort of summarizes what appears to be a fairly good situation in New York City, perhaps not getting hit as hard as they feared. And that it looks like the city will be able to rebound. But they're asking the people to stay off the streets for now to allow the plows to continue to do their work.

We'll take a break and be back with more after this.

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SAVIDGE: Take a look at the snow in Boston as it piles up there along the waterfront. Still, pretty picture, actually, on a Saturday morning. Thanks very much for being with us.

How about a little entertainment news now? This is, of course, Grammy weekend. The elite from the world of music are gathering to honor the best of the year. And as CNN entertainment correspondent Nischelle Turner reports, this year is all about new blood.

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NISCHELLE TURNER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: "We are Young", that could be the theme of the 55th annual Grammy awards.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's been an incredible year in music. It feels like alternative music is back.

TURNER: This year the spotlight isn't on veterans like Springsteen or Dylan. It's about Fun, and the Black Keys, and Mumford and Sons, Frank Ocean and Jack White.

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TURNER: They're all nominated for Album of the Year and they're all in their 20s or 30s.

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TURNER: In addition, Mumford and Sons, Dan Auerbach from the Black Keys, Frank Ocean and Fun go into Sunday's ceremony with six nods a piece, matching nominations earned by hip hop heavyweights Jay-Z and Kanye West.

But this past year, attention was focused on the breakout stars, most notably, Fun, the power pop trio from New York, and Frank Ocean, the New Orleans R&B singer who shot to stardom with this emotional performance on late night with Jimmy Fallon where he sang about an unrequited love with another man.

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TURNER: Both Ocean and Fun are nominated for Best New Artist along with country multi-instrumentalist Hunter Hayes.

HUNTER HAYES, GRAMMY NOMINEE: Here we are at nominations, my first record, my debut record.

TURNER: Blues rock group, Alabama Shakes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Two years ago, what were you guys doing. Weren't you working at the postal service?

ALABAMA SHAKES: Yes. I was working. I was delivering postal mail.

TURNER: And folk rock trio, the Lumineers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Went from sleeping in people's -- friend's houses and then going to like six people to a hotel room to now like Grammy nominations.

(MUSIC)

TURNER: On Sunday look for Justin Timberlake's first Grammy performance in four years. Rihanna's first solo turn at the Grammys since her physical altercation with Chris Brown caused her to cancel in 2009, and a collaboration featuring Bruno Mars, Sting and Rihanna.

Nischelle Turner, CNN, Los Angeles.

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SAVIDGE: After her spectacular half-time show, some say Beyonce won the Super Bowl. It has been a most memorable year for the superstar -- a new baby and an upcoming world tour. Tonight "BEYONCE: FINDING HER DESTINY" looks at the singer's rise. Be sure to tune in for that right here on CNN 8:00 p.m. Eastern.

CNN's coverage of the blizzard blanketing the northeast continues right after this break.

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