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Part of Massachusetts Seawall Collapses; Rhode Island Under Blizzard Warning; Flooding on the Massachusetts Coast; New England Bearing Brunt of Winter Storm; 70 Years Since Liberation of Most Notorious Nazi Death Camp; Massachusetts Coast Flooding; Connecticut Hit Hard

Aired January 27, 2015 - 13:00   ET

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

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WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer reporting from Washington.

Up first, powerful winds blowing and drifting snow, dangerous storm surges. Right now, New England is bearing the brunt of that major winter storm moving across the northeastern part of the United States. In Massachusetts, officials now say strong winds collapsed part of a seawall in Marshfield. The nearby town of Scituate is reporting floodwaters up to five feet high. We're going live there in a moment.

The power is out on the island of Nantucket. An armada of snowplows hit the street north of Boston. At daybreak, a blizzard warning is still in effect for parts of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Besides the heavy snow, the area could experience near hurricane force winds still. The governor of Rhode Island says the danger is not over.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. GINA RAIMONDO, RHODE ISLAND: I just got off of a plow out there. It is very bad. These roads are not safe. The snow is still coming down several inches an hour. And we still have wind gusts, 30, 40, 50 miles an hour. Visibility is extremely poor. We expect that the snow will continue to fall heavily throughout the afternoon. We're expecting at least an additional five to six inches between now and, say, 4:00 or 5:00.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: This storm's also affecting air travel all across the country. The Web site FlightAware.com says airlines canceled almost 4,700 flights today, that's on top of the 2,800 that were grounded yesterday. Hundreds of more flights have already been canceled for tomorrow.

Our CNN correspondents are strategically positioned along the path of the storm to bring you the very latest as it happens this hour. We have live reports from Massachusetts, from out on Long Island and Montauk, also points in between.

But let's start with the breaking news, the dramatic flooding now underway in parts of Massachusetts. Our Alexandra Field is joining us from Scituate, Massachusetts. So, Alexandra, tell us what you're seeing, right now, because we know some -- what, a wall has broken and the water is coming in and the flooding has started.

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, Wolf. And it hasn't stopped yet. They had a big hit this morning when the high tide came in. We're going to try and move around here a little bit to show you what's going on. This is some of the water that has come up. It actually came during high tide this morning and it went right over this fence. That's what the people are telling me who live inside this house. Right now, their basement is flooded four or five feet. And look how far back this water goes. You can see that these houses are built up on stilts. But this is water from earlier (ph) that came over the seawall. That's the seawall right down there, down that road. The water came up between and around these houses.

It flooded in between here and then it actually whipped all the way across this street and you can see some of the damage that it's already left in its path. You've got some of this debris just lining the sidewalk outside of this home right now. These sticks that are down, even some buoys we're seeing in people's yards. Just a tremendous amount of damage. These roads are becoming impassable all around this neighborhood because this water is -- in some spots, could be a foot, maybe two feet deep. We're not sure. This road slopes down a bit.

But cars absolutely cannot pass through here. The National Guard did come through. They came in earlier today when the water was higher and they rescued people from this house. We're also seeing police in high-axle vehicles. They are coming through as well. They have cut through the water along with some front-end loaders. But, certainly, this is not something that you can drive through.

There are, however, people who are still in these houses, Wolf. We keep seeing people coming out of the door there, those steps. We see people who are coming out, looking around and assesses the conditions. What I've seen, since I've been out here for the last hour or so, is that not only is the wind picking up but the snow is starting to come down a lot more, too, because this street is now covered in snow. It wasn't when we got out here, just water at that point.

The people who are in these houses, though, when they come out, they're doing what they can. They can't even really walk through that water. We saw one gentleman. He had boots on. He had garbage bags over his boots and he actually rode a bicycle through it.

And then, we did see people Wolf, who walked all the way down the street there going to the beach. They actually brought sleds with them. Look, it's going to be a dangerous thing to do because the wind is really kicking up. The major concern, though, for the people that live here is the fact that high tide will come back and we're expecting to see a lot more flooding. That's between 4:00 and 5:00 tonight and they could see what they saw around 4:00 and 5:00 this morning, the high tide combined with these wind gusts. And that's when you get this storm surge that just floods these streets. They've seen it in Scituate before. This is a community that is used to flooding. I've covered a number of storms here. They see the water come over those roads. But people who live here tell me, Wolf, that this is more than they have seen before, that when they saw that water come up this morning, it really -- it took their breath away.

BLITZER: All right, Alexandra, I want you to stand by. Our Meteorologist Ivan Cabrera is taking a look at the bigger picture over there. Is this an isolated area of Massachusetts, Scituate, where this flooding is occurring? It could get worse later with high tide or is it all along the Massachusetts coast?

IVAN CABRERA, CNN METEORLOGIST: Wolf, the National Weather Service essentially has a coastal flood watch for the entire coastline here. We have had sustained tropical storm force wind gusts with the wind pushing in out of the northeast. If you're familiar with this area where we're broadcasting there from live, Scituate, that is the south shore of Boston. It's about 30 miles.

If you south of Boston, that'll get you to Scituate. That'll get you to what you're looking at right now. It's a very exposed area. So, with those nor'easters, they typically do flood out like this. The one good thing I will say, at the next high tide, Wolf, we're talking about winds that are backing away. That means that we're going to get a northwesterly wind and more of an offshore wind.

And so, that the winds will not combine with the high tide to produce what you're seeing there. So, I think the worst of the flooding is already happened. We're just going to have to wait for that water to recede. I don't think we're going to be talking about the kinds of levels that we've seen because of the combination of a couple of tides that we saw with that strong northeasterly wind that was, essentially, at a tropical storm force -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, all right. Well, that's encouraging at least for later. But it looks pretty awful right now. And, as you say, that warning is all along the coast of Massachusetts, not just there in Scituate. Ivan, stand by.

Another casualty of the storm, this coastal surge we've been talking about, the major seawalls in various areas, including in Marshfield, Massachusetts, along the coast.

Brian Todd is traveling in the area right now. Brian, what are you seeing about this damaged seawall and its impact?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, we're heading to Marshfield, Massachusetts right now. And we've been on the phone with officials there. The state representative, Jim Cantwell, I just talked to a short time ago, plus fire officials there. What we know now is that a seawall breached early this morning in Marshfield, Massachusetts. It caused significant flooding and the state rep, Jim Cantwell, just told me that a least -- at least 11 homes suffered significant damage in Marshfield, Massachusetts. They had to do evacuations with the help of the National Guard. The fire department was on hand to do those evacuations, to rescue people who are stranded from their homes. They don't have a head count on how many people have been in need of rescue throughout the day or how many people they still have yet to pull out, possibly, from this situation. But they do say that no one has been hurt that they know of so far. But, again, this is still kind of a rolling situation there in Marshfield with their attempt to get people out of their homes.

What they are concerned about, Wolf, is the situation with high tide. I think you mentioned that a short time ago in the nearby town of Scituate. High tide in Marshfield is going to be about 5:00 p.m. Eastern time today. And what we're told is that the real worry is if there -- the power is still on in some of these houses and the water rushes in, they could have short-circuiting, fires could be caused by that. And they did tell us that they had at least one house burn down in another incident some years ago when that did happen. So, they are really concerned about high tide later on today -- Wolf.

BLITZER: What about in the area where you've been in Massachusetts? The roads, what are they like?

TODD: Well, Wolf, we're heading into Massachusetts right now. I believe we're on the I-95 corridor. And we can do -- we can show you kind of a -- the view out our dash cam. Our photojournalist, Cody Abdullah (ph), can switch out to show you our dash cam here. The roads are not too bad. You know, you've got about half of it plowed on a given interstate.

But a lot of the roads are passable today and we're -- you know, we're seeing some of that. But it is inconsistent. We're looking at some areas that we come across that have not been completely plowed. And where we are at the moment now, it's not snowing really at all. But we know we're heading into some areas in Massachusetts where it's still snowing pretty heavily. They may see some records broken there -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, Brian. Thanks very much. We'll check back with you. Let's check in with our Meteorologist Jennifer Gray. She's on the ground in Boston right now. Boston, Jennifer, it's been hit pretty hard. How many inches of snow, so far, and how many more are they expecting?

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, in portions of Boston, they've received over 18 inches of snow. Other areas east in the city have received about a foot. Where I'm standing, I did a tape measure earlier, but it's buried out in the snow somewhere. I have no idea where it is. But I'm guessing we had about 15 inches right here where we've been standing all day. It's really hard to measure, as you can see, Wolf, because the problem is all these snow drifts, as you know, the winds whipping 30 and 40 miles per hour. And it's just taking this powdery snow and just moving it elsewhere.

So, it's hard to get an exact measurement. But I would say a little over a foot. It's actually an eerie feeling, being here in Boston, because the roads are essentially empty. There's no street traffic, anything. And you can just hear the winds howling between the buildings. Of course, Boston is protected right here, so we weren't getting the coastal flooding like you're seeing elsewhere in Massachusetts.

But we are getting a lot of snow and the winds are picking up. Power outages are to a minimum as well. And the plows have been out clearing the streets. And if we pan a little bit over here, you can see things are starting to clear out in the streets. These plows are keeping a good job with that. We are getting these snow mounds, though, on the sides of the streets and that's what you see there.

But, look, dogs having a good time, some people are out and about with it. But when these gusts of wind come, just like you see right here, you, basically, can't see anything, Wolf. And so, that's a danger. That's why people are urged to stay off the streets. That travel ban still in place here in Boston -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, Jennifer, so, you had 15 inches so far. Are they still expecting more in Boston or is it basically over? Because, yesterday, there were great fears they could hit that record of 27 inches.

GRAY: Yes, I mean, some places in the city could definitely get into the mid-20s or so before this is all said and over because it's still going to come down. We're still getting those bands coming into Boston, as we speak. That low churning just off the coast of the cape. And then, by the time we get to tomorrow morning, this storm will have lifted north and will be off the coast of Nova Scotia. So, we have from now until about midnight for this snow. Then, it's going to start tapering off and things will improve. But definitely a couple more hours so several more inches will be picked up here in Boston.

BLITZER: All right, Jennifer, we're going to get back to you as well. Thank you.

As we've been saying, Massachusetts, that's one of the states hit hardest by this blizzard with some spots nearing near 80-mile-per-hour winds. Now, there's some significant flooding as we've been showing you. Up next, I'll speak with an emergency management official about the extent of the damage.

And later on, a very somber ceremony marking 70 years since the liberation of the most notorious Nazi death camp. We're going live to Auschwitz for a full report.

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BLITZER: Take a look at these pictures, This is Saugas, Massachusetts, north of Boston, only about four miles from the coast. It's pretty grim looking over there. As you can see, Massachusetts is getting the brunt of this blizzard. Right now, more than two feet of snow have fallen, at least in parts of the state. It's expected to get more before it's all over. The snow continuing for several more hours.

Just a little while ago, the governor of Massachusetts, Charlie Baker, said he was lifting the travel ban for some of the counties around the state, but added this important word of caution.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. CHARLIE BAKER (R), MASSACHUSETTS: Lieutenant Governor Polito has talked to a lot of the local officials out there and they have all asked us to ask the public to use what I would describe as sort of best judgment with respect to going out. If you don't need to go out, I think those folks who are still in the process of cleaning up would appreciate it if you'd give them the room and the opportunity to do that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Joining us on the phone is Peter Judge right now. He's the spokesman for the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency.

Thanks so much for joining us, Peter, once again. We spoke with you yesterday. Let me get right to the breaking news we've been following, this flooding along the Massachusetts coast. We were showing our viewers live pictures of the water coming in off the Atlantic Coast and the houses now, at least parts of the houses, under water. There are some of the pictures right there. What's going on along the Massachusetts coast?

PETER JUDGE, MASSACHUSETTS EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY (via telephone): Well, our concern is really with the next high tide, particularly around the 4:00 hour. We're expecting it to be a little bit worse than our 4:00 a.m. high tide, which put a lot of that water in those communities. So although we didn't have major damage associated with that high tide, you know, we could very well see something on a worse level later this evening.

BLITZER: And it's not just in Scituate, it's all over the Massachusetts coastline, is that right?

JUDGE: Absolutely. All the south coast, parts of Nantucket, parts of -- up on the north shore of Massachusetts as well. So any coastal areas really have to hunker down for this afternoon.

BLITZER: And some of the seawalls have broken, is that right?

JUDGE: There's a particular seawall that breached in the town of Marshfield. There was a home there that was unoccupied that sustained some serious damage. But other than that, that's been the main issue. But, again, whether there are dunes or whether there are seawalls, we have to watch everything this afternoon.

BLITZER: How many more hours are your experts telling you the snow will continue coming down in at least parts of Boston area, other parts of Massachusetts?

JUDGE: Well into the dark right now. There are areas they say will probably get an additional 10 inches of snow. There are some areas right now where it's snowing harder than it's snowed at any time during this snowfall, where it's coming down inches an hour. So looks like the snow kind of broke up. Western Massachusetts lightened up. Eastern Massachusetts, we're getting the worst of it. BLITZER: Because Boston we're saying, what, they've -- at least parts

of Boston got 18 inches so far. They could get a whole lot more, is that right?

JUDGE: Right. They're talking about creeping up on that 27.5-inch record.

BLITZER: So this could be, as you told us yesterday, one of the five worst snowstorms in the history of Massachusetts, certainly in the history of Boston?

JUDGE: I think we could comfortably say that, yes, at this point.

BLITZER: And is everybody dealing with it OK? What's - I mean you're in charge of emergency management. What's the latest?

JUDGE: People are doing a great job. We've lifted the travel ban for the western part of the state. The eastern part of the state as well. Folks have stayed off the roads, allowed the folks out there with the plows to try to stay up with this storm. Hopefully it will get people back to work and back on the roads some time tomorrow hopefully. 5:00 this afternoon, Governor Baker will then have a press conference and maybe there will be some decisions in that regard as well.

BLITZER: Because what we were worried about yesterday also, on top of everything else, were power outages. There could be a lot. How is the situation with power outages? Because, as you know, I'm especially concerned about the elderly, if they lose power, they lose their heat, that could be a disaster.

JUDGE: You're right. We're very lucky in that the snow for the most part, even most of the state, it was very light and fluffy. We were really concerned with wet and heavy snow. That produces the power outages. So, therefore, the highest we've hit all day is about 36,000, which obviously if you're one of those people, that's a lot. But in the great scheme of things, we were anticipating as much as hundreds of thousands of outages. So in that regard, I think local officials have reached out to those elderly populations and a lot of shelters have been set up and basically a lot of friends and neighbors, I think, are doing a great job of taking care of those folks out there.

BLITZER: And, finally, any deaths yet related to the storm?

JUDGE: No, no deaths. No serious injuries that we're aware of at this point.

BLITZER: Well, that's good news on that front. Peter Judge, we'll check back with you as well. Good luck to you and good luck to all the folks in Massachusetts, which has been heavily hit.

While Massachusetts is certainly suffering, New York City was spared the worst of the storm. Connecticut was hit relatively hard with some high winds, heavy snow. We're going live to Connecticut when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BLITZER: All right, take a look at this. As you can see, this storm seems to have stalled at least a bit in the New England area over parts of Massachusetts. The snow is continuing to come down for several more hours into the evening, we're told. We're monitoring this situation in the Boston area and other parts of Massachusetts, especially along the coast where there already has been some serious flooding.

But I want to get to Connecticut right now where the governor there says the travel ban will be lifted by the end of this hour. The governor, Dan Malloy, is urging people to limit their travel, to use common sense while driving. Let's go to CNN's Rosa Flores. She's joining us now from New London.

Rosa, so tell us what's going on over there?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, the governor lifted the state travel ban, Wolf. But in a lot of the municipalities, including this one, that travel ban is still going to be into effect even after 2:00 p.m., once that state travel ban has been lifted. Why? Because take a look around. A lot of these smaller towns, in this particular town about 30,000 residents, they've got a limited amount of plows that are working around the clock and so they need to make sure that those are working.

And you can actually see one right here right now. They've been plowing this street. And as you take a look at this scene - I want you to take - to notice a few things because here is the key, Wolf. This is why the mayor tells us that things are not so bad in Connecticut. First of all, you see that the streets are plowed. There are plows that are able to get access to the roads.

And the other thing, those red traffic lights, very important. The power here in Connecticut has been on. The governor was saying that they were preparing for about 120,000 people to be without power. And guess what? That didn't happen. There's only about -- right now, I just checked, and Connecticut Light and Power are showing about 29 people without power, Wolf.

And I'll tell you exactly why. If you take a look at the snow, it's very powdery. It's very light. It's not the kind of snow that is going to pull down power lines, that's going to pull down branches and create chaos. It's very powdery. It's still dangerous, Wolf, but it's not causing the power outages that were expected.

Wolf.

BLITZER: Looks like in Connecticut they dodged a significant bullet over there. Rosa, thanks very much.

Meanwhile, the snow and the ice and the wind and now the flooding that's significant at least in parts of Massachusetts, take a look at these live pictures we're showing you, one of the hardest-hit areas along the Massachusetts coast. We'll update you on what's going on and all the day's other important news right after this.

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