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Continuing Coverage Of Northeast Snowstorm
Aired February 09, 2013 - 3:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Here we are at the top of the hour. We're with you, all night long. Hello from the CNN World Headquarters. I'm Brooke Baldwin, welcoming our viewers once again in the United States and all around the world.
This hour, across much of the Northeast and New England this blizzard is bearing down. The problems are piling up. Boston is about to get hit by round two of the snow. Massachusetts, more than 380,000 homes and businesses are without power. That is more than half the total across the region.
That number now up a bit from the last time I mentioned it, now at more than 600,000 customers scattered across nine states. And more than a foot and a half of snow has already fallen in parts of Massachusetts.
Next to New York here, look at these pictures with me. Really, these buildings have begun to disappear in the overnight hours because the visibility is so, so poor. That is the skyline this morning.
We did learn that a man, a 74-year-old man, he passed away. He was hit by a car that apparently lost control on some of these snowy streets in Poughkeepsie, New York. So we do now have one fatality to report tonight.
And across New York, a state of emergency is in place. Rail service has been suspended all the way from Manhattan upstate. And as I mentioned, did I mention this? It's 3:00 in the morning and guess who I have on the phone, the mayor of Newark, New Jersey, Cory Booker calling me up.
Cory Booker, how are you doing?
CORY BOOKER, MAYOR OF NEWARK: I'm doing well, Brooke, just came off the streets and going to try to get some sleep before what will be a very long day tomorrow.
BALDWIN: I saw that you were tweeting and so I thought maybe we'd try to get you before you hit the hay.
Tell me -- tell me what you have seen so far on the streets of Newark?
BOOKER: (Inaudible), the conditions are worsening. And I actually walked through all five wards of the city, checking in on our crews that we have out there as well as conditions on the street. A lot of stranded cars now. A lot of people out that really shouldn't be.
So it's, you know, just very perilous out there and people need to understand that. Stay indoors, just hunker down for the night. Conditions are going to continue to be bad throughout the morning tomorrow.
So this is not time to take this lightly. Very dangerous conditions, especially around motor vehicle accidents. And we also are on alert for possible power outages here in Newark if the wind starts to pick up. So I'm grateful for the hundreds of workers we have out there, from law enforcement to folks plowing and salting streets. A lot of work ahead.
BALDWIN: As the sun will begin to rise in a couple of hours, that's when, as you mentioned, you know, we'll really get the better chance to see damage that's been done. Hopefully, the streets are cleared. First responders can get out and about. What is -- what's the biggest challenge, you think, come tomorrow morning?
BOOKER: Well, I think it's just the mess and getting rid of this from our streets. And, hopefully, people will stay in and stay secure. If we are able to be spared -- and I know there's a lot of people struggling in the Northeast right now without power.
If the city of Newark and surrounding environments get spared power outages, the real urgency then is to get the roads clear and safe so as people begin to move about, we don't see the kind of accidents that often come with icy conditions.
And again, the most urgent thing I could ask people to do is to really stay indoors as much as you can tomorrow, but also be compassionate and check in on your neighbors, check in on the elderly or people that are shut in.
And if you do go out to shovel your driveway, see if there's other people that might need a little bit of assistance. The storm is tough, but when we pull together, we are a lot tougher.
BALDWIN: We are thinking about, of course, of all of you guys, especially those of you who were hit so hard in the end of October because of superstorm Sandy and here you have this massive, massive snowstorm.
Before I let you go, before I let you go to bed, I mean, we all know you, Cory Booker, hands-on kind of mayor, you know. Do you anticipate having to help out yourself if necessary tomorrow?
BOOKER: Yes. I think we all need to take that attitude. Obviously, my primary concern is working with my command staff to do what's necessary to get the streets clear. But I always go out with a group of folks, with shovels and other supplies. So should we see somebody in need, we always try to jump out and help.
So it's a good spirit that I've found in Newark in past storms and past weather emergencies as well as snowstorms that folks are out there helping each other. And I try to make sure that I do my part, as well, to demonstrate that this is a time where we all need to be hands-on and being out there and of assistance.
And I have got a great command staff. Most of my senior staff turned in an hour or two ago, and they are ready for tomorrow. The city's really working in partnership with county authorities, state authorities and New Jersey has proven a lot of resilience, especially coming out of Sandy. The storm was brutal and difficult, but in many ways, in terms of storm preparedness, it made us all that much stronger.
So I'm grateful for a good team. We got a big day tomorrow. I will be out there on the streets as well, doing my best to be of service during what will be a very long and difficult day.
BALDWIN: Well, Cory, I'm not going to keep you on the phone anymore, then, because I know you have -- you have some sleep to get before this big day tomorrow, but I appreciate you picking up the phone at 3:00 in the morning to call us here at CNN.
We appreciate that very much.
BOOKER: You know, I appreciate; CNN does an incredible job of keeping people aware of what is going on and I just thank you in ways, media during storms, our first responders themselves with information during these times is critical. So thanks, Brooke.
BALDWIN: Absolutely. We are here to help.
BOOKER: Wish you all the best.
BALDWIN: Thank you, Cory Booker on the phone with me. Newark, New Jersey mayor.
Now we have a couple of folks out and about here. Susan Candiotti is in Boston. We also have Alison Kosik in Manhattan and we have Gary Tuchman in Staten Island, also here in the Weather Center, Karen Maginnis, she is working the overnight hours right along with me, tracking the storm here in the Northeast.
But let's begin with Susan Candiotti in Boston.
Susan, how's it looking?
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Brooke.
BALDWIN: Yes. Yes, I guess it is morning now.
(CROSSTALK)
CANDIOTTI: Last time that we were out here -- that's right. It sure is the wee hours of. But the last time we were speaking with you, Brooke, it was yesterday afternoon and you could still see a bit of the grass, a mere dusting. But I can tell you the power then of the wind, it was so much more forceful then. The pellets seemed to almost be hitting your eyeballs. I mean it stung.
Now when I came out a little while ago -- it is still coming down, still sideways and every which way, but the winds do not feel as strong as they did early last evening.
But the snow, oh, yes, it's piling up. I know you have been watching all throughout the night. We are here in downtown Boston.
You can see over in this yardstick, it measures about 9 inches, but if I go over just over this way, take a few steps, kind of goes off the...
BALDWIN: Look at how deep that is.
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: Careful.
CANDIOTTI: Now you can see -- yes. Keeping in mind that I'm 5 feet tall, so it doesn't take much to get deep for me. But here we go. This one is measuring about 19 inches where I am.
So it really is -- it really is accumulating and, of course, as the day goes on, they are expecting the winds to pick up. And naturally, as it always happens in these big snowstorms, you don't have to worry about -- you not only worry about the snow piling up but of course the shifting snow and the snowdrifts that are going to be probably happening as the day goes on.
Also, we have been very lucky here. Never lost power, at least in this section of the city. All the lights are still on. You can see those beautiful blue lights over my shoulder, sort of a canopy effect there, here in Columbus Park.
And behind me, that's Quincy Market, Faneuil (ph) Hall and all the rest of it. You rarely see anyone walking by, but you do see a snow blower from time to time, going around there, and some, of course as you have been watching, the plows on occasion, seeing those, too.
But I swear timing is everything, Brooke. Just before you came to me --
BALDWIN: Who is this?
CANDIOTTI: These three people -- these three people are out for a stroll -- and why not at 3 o'clock in the morning? I know you and Julian were trying to catch some people a few minutes ago. Now these folks are joining us all the way from...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Washington, D.C.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: D.C., yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, Arlington, Virginia.
CANDIOTTI: And it's not like they were here on a visit. They specifically came here because...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The snow.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: White knuckle from about Providence to Boston.
CANDIOTTI: Now you guys just wanted to get a look at the --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We drove in this morning and took about eight hours to get in today. Yes.
CANDIOTTI: That's only because you wanted to --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just to witness the snowstorm. We don't get any snow in D.C. So we have to witness it here, unfortunately.
BALDWIN: Where are they from, Susan?
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible) here.
CANDIOTTI: Now do you have -- yes, they are from D.C. and Virginia, right, you guys?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
(CROSSTALK)
CANDIOTTI: This one works for the fire department.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We all work for the fire department.
(CROSSTALK)
CANDIOTTI: Now, where do you have a place to stay? Or are you just sleeping in the car? I'm afraid to ask.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hotels, yes. We actually got a hotel. Yes, yes, yes.
CANDIOTTI: I'm glad to hear that at the at the very least. Well, it is something for the record books or might be one for the record books.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Probably.
CANDIOTTI: What is it like to experience this as you are walking around?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's awesome. The wind is just -- that's the best part of this, is the wind. It is lightened up a little bit, but it's going to get going later on. And the accumulation, (inaudible) this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are in Boston, the best city in the country. I mean, you got the winds and it's wonderful. You can't beat this.
CANDIOTTI: OK, guys. Well, thank you very much. Really, you need to be careful out there.
BALDWIN: Hang on, I have got one more.
CANDIOTTI: (Inaudible) stay as warm as you can. Maybe it's time to get to that hotel room.
Go ahead, Brooke.
BALDWIN: Keep them there, Susan, because, I mean, how often do you see, you know, people who drive eight hours to come to Boston to see the snow? I'm just curious what the first thing they did when they saw the snow, what was the first thing they did? Snowball fight, snow angels, I don't know.
CANDIOTTI: Absolutely. It was certainly not the -- not the first time you have seen snow in your lives, of course, but wanted to be part of this experience.
So when you saw it really coming down, did you experience whiteout conditions? I mean, what was your reaction when you saw all of this?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It hasn't been so bad so far. We have been to Chicago a couple of years ago and the blizzard up there and this is much worse. So far it has been really nice to see the heavy snow and the wind.
CANDIOTTI: Yes. And did you manage to get in on the snowball fights or build a snowman as yet?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're getting there. I think we are going to do that pretty soon. You better watch out.
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm ready.
CANDIOTTI: The challenge is on. Exactly.
All right, guys, well, thank you very much. Look at this. Now we don't want to show that, but he is proud where he works. We don't want to say where he is supposed to be today, but in any case, it is 3 o'clock in the morning.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Washington, D.C.
CANDIOTTI: That's right. That's right. All right. I think we are using anonymous names right now, but we will just move on.
BALDWIN: We'll just move on.
CANDIOTTI: Anyway --
BALDWIN: Go ahead, because Susan, button it up for me.
CANDIOTTI: Exactly. Exactly. But I tell you, as I said, we are lucky that we haven't lost power but I think the numbers are up to more than 380,000 homes and businesses are without. And that's going to be tough, obviously, as the sun comes up and as it possibly gets colder than this and the snow comes and you are stuck at home.
So you have to remember that everyone, as they've been reminding everyone here, to keep checking on your neighbors, making sure that they are OK, too, as best you can as the day goes on.
BALDWIN: OK. Susan Candiotti and friends at 3:00 in this morning in Boston. Susan, thank you.
Karen Maginnis, I guess I was asking where I heard they were from, D.C. and Virginia, but I'm thinking are you from Buffalo, like did you miss the snow so much that you wanted to drive eight hours to Boston to be stuck in it?
KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I think he was covering up where he worked.
BALDWIN: Right.
MAGINNIS: I think that --
BALDWIN: I don't know. We won't go there.
Anyway, so Boston. They are getting hit again.
MAGINNIS: They are. The visibility is still about a half mile. I just took a look at the winds. And the winds have come down just a tick over the last couple of hours, but I think when this next round comes through and it is holding together, so you will get that really heavy rainfall or snowfall rate, that 2 to 3 inches per hour. It is probably going to be one for the record books.
But it has been really devastating on the highways and just everywhere we look.
As Susan just mentioned, they are very fortunate that at least that particular area didn't lose power, but a lot of areas across Massachusetts, Plimpton, Walpole (ph), Westport, Halifax, just a few that I jotted down in the last couple of minutes, but they're reporting trees down, we're going to see power lines down because it gets heavy, it's wet.
The wind is blowing and it's just a matter of time, 600,000; maybe in the next couple of hours we could see hundreds more.
BALDWIN: Yes, I mean, you know, in stories like this, we are sort of still in the thick of it. And once the sun starts to come up, that is when you see the damage that's been done. That's when the first responders need to get out and about and respond.
MAGINNIS: One other point: by about midday, this really tapers off quite a bit. The storm system moves out into the Atlantic. So we will really be able to assess things even more thoroughly, probably right about noontime, coming up for today.
BALDWIN: OK. Karen, thank you. And don't go anywhere. We are still up for the next couple of hours here, taking you through the storm. About 40 million people in the path of this blizzard. Look at this, though. Seems like the visibility has improved, at least in Manhattan. Some of those buildings are reappearing for us. We will be right back. Special coverage after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: The blizzard is making travel difficult for one NBA team and downright impossible for two others, as we're talking, New York here, live pictures, Columbus Circle. Obviously everything at a standstill at 3:00 in the morning.
Back to the teams here, the New York Knicks, stuck tonight in Minneapolis. San Antonio Spurs delaying a trip to New York until tomorrow afternoon or I guess I should technically say today, this afternoon.
The Brooklyn Nets, they are taking a train instead of hopping a plane back to New York after playing in D.C. So this thing affecting all kinds of people.
And we have Alison Kosik. She is in Manhattan for us, still in the wee hours.
Alison, good to see you. Pretty quiet.
ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is pretty quiet to say the least. The snowstorm put the city that never sleeps into a deep slumber. When was the last time you saw the streets of New York here this empty? Oh, boy. Here comes the snowplow. I think the first I have seen I think in about an hour. Finally, finally.
But, you know, the snow is not too bad here. It has been coming down a little bit faster at a pretty good clip. Hard for some of the folks who are shoveling this area here on this sidewalk, hard for them to keep up with it because it does continue piling up here.
But who would be up around 3 o'clock in the morning besides you and me, Brooke, but Lucas (ph). Lucas (ph), you know, everyone who passed us was drunk. Lucas (ph) is not, thank goodness.
What were you doing tonight?
LUCAS (PH): I was just hanging out with Yuni (ph).
KOSIK: Hi, Yuni (ph), hi. LUCAS (PH): This girl right here. And we went to karaoke -- sing karaoke for a little bit with our friends.
KOSIK: Well, that's a good idea. Karaoke on a --
LUCAS (PH): It was a good night. I think a lot of clubs were shut down, so we decided to go sing.
YUNI (PH): It's indoor.
LUCAS (PH): It's indoor, it's warm, exactly. It was a good time away from the snow.
KOSIK: So the snow didn't scare you out from going to have a good time?
LUCAS (PH): I mean, obviously, like it's, you know, it is hard to (inaudible) taxi, but like taking the subway is not hard at all. It's still running, so you can take the subway pretty much anywhere. So that was like a very good option for us and then we decided to go out and --
YUNI (PH): I mean, we came from Princeton. We are here for a friend's birthday and we took -- we are -- like some of our friends are supposed to come tomorrow, but I don't think they'll be able to make it. So we are glad that we got the train -- we caught the train in time.
KOSIK: Did you guys attempt to catch a cab?
LUCAS (PH): We did earlier but seeing how there was no cars on the street pretty much because of snow, we decided to take the subway instead. Yes.
KOSIK: All right. Well, enjoy the rest of your evening. Even the cabbies gave up, Brooke. The cabbies said forget it, we're not even going to roam the streets. Pretty much no one is around at this point.
BALDWIN: Forget about it. So say the cabbies in New York City. How about that? People out and about, 3:00 in the morning. You have got some friends, Susan Candiotti has some friends.
I guess people are just enjoying it.
KOSIK: It is New York City.
BALDWIN: They're enjoying it. Alison Kosik, thank you so much.
KOSIK: Sure.
BALDWIN: And the Red Cross, the Red Cross has shelters open for a lot of people who are seeking really heat, refuge from this blizzard.
Sara Smith is with the American Red Cross in Providence, Rhode Island.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SARA SMITH, AMERICAN RED CROSS: We are responding to the storm. And it is a challenge, as you can imagine. We do have some shelters open on the Cape in Massachusetts and also on Long Island.
And we have volunteers, and we also have supplies in place and ready to go on standby if emergency officials say it's time to open more shelters throughout Rhode Island and other areas if necessary.
BALDWIN: While I have you, while people are listening, just run through the common sense things that you want to pass along to people so hopefully they will not be calling you.
SMITH: Well, you know, if they're home without power, obviously, the biggest thing tonight is to keep warm. And we want people to do that safely. So maybe the best thing to do is gather everybody into one room. It's time to have a family night and stay warm, get some extra blankets. Maybe some layered clothing for the evening.
You never, ever want to use your oven or stove to heat your home. That's a dangerous thing to do. If you're going to use a generator, you need to be very, very careful that it has enough exhaust and that, you know, it hasn't been covered in snow so that then it will back up into your home and have a carbon monoxide situation. You need to be very careful with that.
Also if you have no power, you don't want to use candles. You know, with the wind the way it is, tree branches are falling. They could -- a window could break. Then you have wind and an open flame and a fire. And that's a much more dangerous situation. So we definitely suggest flashlights. Or maybe your kids have toys that light up. You know, something fun even --
BALDWIN: That's a great -- that's good advice.
SMITH: -- (inaudible) something battery powered.
BALDWIN: Great advice, Sara.
Let me ask you, as you talk about these shelters that are open, obviously they're for folks who may not have power, wouldn't have heat. I can't help but also think about people who are homeless who are out, who do not have anywhere to go, do not have shelter to seek.
How are you handling that?
SMITH: Well, I mean, the emergency shelters that are open, you know, like I said, on the Cape and in Long Island, you know, they'll take anybody that needs a place to stay.
A lot of the cities in our region and across the affected area had, you know, been out there, I'm sure, even over the past few months because of the cold, with a different kind of outreach to the homeless as far as places that they can go. (END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Sara Smith with the American Red Cross talking to me in the wee hours here in Providence, Rhode Island.
And we have crews, as only we of course do, throughout this region, covering this blizzard for you, including Staten Island, buried in a blizzard after getting blasted by superstorm Sandy just a couple of months ago. Still so many people trying to get their feet under them.
Gary Tuchman is there. We'll talk to Gary live coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JOE KAYATA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Seems like it's snowing as hard as it did earlier, but it is still coming down; and it's the wind. And it's this (inaudible) and it's building up, drifting in different areas.
But as you can see people are stuck on the side of the road here in Fall River. And of course we are going to be continuing our coverage in Fall River throughout the night, as well as New Bedford and all of southeastern Mass. Reporting live from Fall River, I'm Joe Kayata, NBC10 News.
BALDWIN: This is one of our reporters where we are dipping in when we can to just check out some of the local coverage. This is WJAR out of Providence, Rhode Island, in Fall River, which is just about 50 miles south of Boston.
Take a look with me. We are juxtaposing two images. Left side of your screen, Manhattan skyline, right side, Fenway, home of the Boston Red Sox, who, by the way, are in beautiful Ft. Myers, Florida, right now. Good for them.
So these -- this is what we are looking at as far as visibility goes in the wee hours here as we are in officially Saturday morning. And we are talking about this massive Northeast blizzard. This hour, across much of the Northeast and New England, this blizzard is bearing down. The problems piling up in Massachusetts, for example.
More than 380,000 homes and businesses are without power. That's more than half the total across the region. We've just updated that number. If you are keeping score with us, it's now at 614,000 customers out of power, that includes eight -- excuse me -- nine different states, nine states. More than a foot and a half of snow has already fallen in parts of Massachusetts.
Let's go to New York. Let me show you some New York pictures. Live pictures, Columbus Circle here. The worst of the storm hitting -- or has hit now in these pre-dawn hours. We are reporting now this is officially a fatal storm after a man has now died after he was hit by a young woman driving this car, who -- she apparently lost control on this snowy road and hit him.
He ultimately died in the hospital. That was Poughkeepsie, New York.
Across the state a state of emergency is in place. Rail service has been suspended all the way from Manhattan to upstate.
And I want to take you to a place now hard hit by superstorm Sandy: Staten island. Tonight -- I should maybe say now this morning, blizzard has a lot of people on edge. Scott McGrath lost the first floor of his home to Sandy. He, like so many others, are still rebuilding and he's bracing for what's ahead.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCOTT MCGRATH, STATEN ISLAND: Well, everybody has fear, you know. You seen the gas lines this afternoon. People were on the -- the gas stations were running out of gas because people were getting their generators full. They were getting their cars full because you know what, it was a hard hit. If this tide is high like they are expecting and the high winds, we're in for a long night.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Gary Tuchman, part of this long night, right along with folks like him. Gary Tuchman now live for me in Staten island.
And how bad is it? Is it -- hopefully not as bad as they were anticipating?
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there was a lot of anxiety, Brooke. There's no question about it. And it's certainly not as bad as Connecticut, as Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine. However, there has been a lot of snow and a lot of wind.
When we started the day today there was absolutely no snow on the ground whatsoever and they have gotten quite a bit. It is starting to let up. We have had precipitation here now for the last 20 hours in Staten Island. But about four of the hours in the beginning were rain and that's why we don't have more snow than there could have been.
Behind me, this is a tent. The reason the tent here is that's where people who have been left homeless from Hurricane Sandy three months ago have been going for meals each and every day.As a matter of fact, even while this blizzard hit earlier today, there are people in there who did have homes. There are about 1,400 homeless people still in Staten Island from the hurricane who were having meals inside this tent.
You know, a lot of people call Staten Island the forgotten borough. There are five boroughs in New York City, for those of you not familiar with the layout of this city. Staten Island has 475,000 people, that's only 5 percent of the population.
We should tell you trivia folks, people who are into trivia, the borough with the most people is not Manhattan like most people would assume. It is -- Brooklyn is number one, Queens is number two, Manhattan is number three, The Bronx is number four and little Staten Island is number five. But now a lot of people have heard of Staten Island.
(Inaudible) know a lot about Staten Island because of what happened here on October 29th when Hurricane Sandy came through, 23 people died in this small borough. That's more than 50 percent of the deaths in New York City, despite the fact that this borough only is 5 percent of the population.
And that's why there was so much anxiety. So far, very few people have lost power. The snow hasn't been as deep as a lot of people have thought it would be. So even though it is a tough day all along the East Coast, including here on Staten Island, the anxiety level, it's a little less right now in this particular borough of New York City, Brooke.
BALDWIN: Can I ask you, Gary, how Albert is doing, just for folks who are just flipping around, tuning in, Albert is the name of our satellite -- our engineer, our engineer who's with you, Gary, who, what hit -- banged his head because of some of the snow, stitches.
TUCHMAN: Right. Right. And for our viewers who didn't see, I want to show what happened. Albert is our satellite engineer. And earlier today -- you can see, by the way, the police cars that are here.
The police have been here all day here with us. And that's because this particular neighborhood was hit so hard from the hurricane, a lot of these houses were destroyed and some people are living in houses that aren't completely fixed. So they want to maintain a presence here.
But our engineer, Albert, was by the SUV and there was so much snow on top of the SUV that when he went to open this up, it closed and it hit him. The point of it hit him in the top of the head. And he was bleeding pretty profusely. We brought him to the hospital. He got six stitches in his head. He came back to work.
He is right now in our satellite truck, working even though he has six stitches in his head. So the news is, Brooke, he is doing absolutely fine and we are delighted about that because when we saw that blood we were pretty scared for him.
BALDWIN: He's OK. Gary Tuchman, thank you.
Hi, Albert. I'm so glad you're OK. We were worried about you.
Gary Tuchman, thank you, in the middle of the night with me in Staten Island, certainly a very hard-hit area because of Sandy and now dealing with all of this snow.
When we come back, you, your iReports, your photos, your videos, your eyes and ears on the ground as well. We're going to pass along some of those. Amy La Porte's going to join me live. We'll walk through your photos as our special coverage of this Northeast blizzard continues.
(MUSIC PLAYING) (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: I should point out here, as we are covering this storm, and we have amazing crews out and about in northeast New England, some of the best stuff we get in to CNN on stories like this, straight from you at home. You really are our eyes on the ground for us, covering this storm.
And Amy La Porte, back here with me, 3:30 in the morning. What a trooper. Talking me through some of these -- the iReports, the videos, the photos that people have been sending in.
AMY LA PORTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, we have got some great video I want to show you guys. Let's roll the first one.
Check this out. This guy. He came out. He brushed his car off. Two hours later he comes back out to 8 inches of snow on his car. This is Dartmouth. And he -- I just feel like he might be -- it's a losing battle for this guy. I really think he should probably just give it a rest, let the -- let the snow keep falling on those cars. Look at that.
BALDWIN: So he is trying to clean his car off? He thinks he is going to beat the storm?
LA PORTE: Yes.
BALDWIN: As we say in the South, bless his heart.
LA PORTE: Yes. Bless his heart.
Next video, this guy, we've got him -- he's -- basically, he's out on the streets. Watch this snowplow roll by. I mean, I think it is fascinating. We are sitting here, we're kind of, gosh, you know, it's getting late. Think of the people out there who are actually plowing this. I mean, look, talk about a losing battle. Good luck out there, mate.
BALDWIN: Thank goodness for them.
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: They need those (inaudible).
LA PORTE: They are doing their best, yes.
BALDWIN: -- tonight and tomorrow --
LA PORTE: Yes, I mean, they're trying to clear the roads out there before those people wake in the morning.
Next video, this is a city park.
BALDWIN: It is so beautiful.
LA PORTE: I know; that's what I said. It is the wind being whipped around. This is the snow in Boston. It's obviously being propelled by those winds which --
BALDWIN: I can hear it.
LA PORTE: -- yes, let's listen.
BALDWIN: Makes me cold. It makes me cold, hearing that.
LA PORTE: It's like bone-chilling. But these winds, high as 70 miles per hour. I mean, I don't know why this guy's out here, but great for us, great video coming in.
BALDWIN: Thank you, Travis.
LA PORTE: Yes, thank you. And he actually is a university student, moved here from California, said to us that he misses the beach. Don't blame him, really. I -- yes. Times like this -- people looking at the brighter side. This tweet coming in.
"For New Englanders hunkered down for" -- what this woman is calling -- "Snowpocalyse '13: look on the bright side. The radio just said flu season's over. So there's that..."
BALDWIN: (Inaudible) a little bit of a sense of humor here.
LA PORTE: Yes.
BALDWIN: I love it. I love that people send us all this stuff. I love the people who are still tweeting with me at 3:30 in the morning. Keep them coming. (Inaudible) keep us awake and on it for you.
LA PORTE: Absolutely, please keep sending them in, CNN iReport.
BALDWIN: Wonderful.
LA PORTE: Do it.
BALDWIN: Ali -- listen, I'm thinking Ali Velshi in my ear. Now I'm getting sleepy.
Amy La Porte, thank you very much.
Do we want to go to Ali? OK, after the break. After the break. We have been checking in with Ali Velshi. He has been stationed on Cape Cod, as he has been battered by some of these winds and you can see some of the surf behind him. We will check out how that's going for him, Cape Cod, right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Boston right now getting hit with another round of snow. You see those windshield wipers working. This is the car of Julian Cummings. He's our producer, who has been navigating some of the streets of Boston for us, really for more than 12 hours now. We were talking at 2:00 pm. And now it is long past 2:00 am. So pictures here in Boston -- we'll come back to him but we want to talk about Cape Cod, because Ali Velshi, he has been out in this storm. And I know you folks at home, he loved what he's doing out there.
He actually loves it. Let me just say that, but there now is a Twitter handle called SaveAliVelshi. I promise you he wants to be there. This is the kind of guy that's like to be in the thick of things in the middle of the big story.
He has been in Cape Cod for us the last couple of hours, in the town of Dennis Port, Massachusetts. He had an update on the power situation there. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They are back on in Dennis Port, but they're off for many, many hundreds of thousands of customers in Massachusetts. That's going to be the problem as people wake up in a few hours. They might be waking up into cold houses. It is cold.
I will say the wind has died down. We -- you know, it does feel like we are on the backside of the storm. It is pelting me right now. We have got a gust coming through, but there are moments where I don't even feel it.
And frankly, as you can see, we have been talking for a couple of hours, I can stand up straight and talk to you, which I wasn't able to do earlier. I was kind of hunched down or I'd be doing this. There are still gusts coming through, but we are definitely on the back end.
There's still a lot of precipitation. You can see it between us. It is still those sort of icy pellets, but the truth is, it's lighter than it was before. There's less accumulation.
The problem now is going to be, even if we're at the back end of this thing, even if it there's just a few more inches of snow to come, that could be the few more inches that takes down the branch, that takes down the power line, that puts more people out of power. And until there's no wind you are not getting guys in buckets who are repairing that.
So more people are going to end up without power overnight. And it is cold. It's not all that cold, the actual temperature, but there's enough wind that it is making it particularly cold and there's still a travel ban in effect here in Massachusetts, in Connecticut and in Rhode Island. So you can't get around.
So there's -- you know, we're at the back end. I don't think it is going to get substantially worse, but that doesn't mean it's not going to get worse if you have power now, you still may lose it. So it's best to take those precautions.
The coast of Cape Cod, I'm at the southern side. I'm about two- thirds of the way east. You go farther east, you get to Chatham. That northeast coast of Cape Cod was also getting hit hard. We don't have a real sense of how badly Cape Cod has been hit overall. About a quarter of a million people are probably wintering on Cape Cod right now.
These are full-year residents. So it has been hit hard. It probably accounts for a fair number of the people in Massachusetts, even though Boston has been hit fairly hard. The power outages are probably fairly well concentrated here on the Cape Cod side of things.
So hopefully, I can stand and talk to you so it does look like, over the course of the next few hours, we will have a little less this of this coming along, Brooke.
BALDWIN: Ali, let me ask you, because I can hear and I can sort of see, it's dark behind you, the waves crashing behind you, that there were sort of initial fears over maybe some flooding issues, although Chad seemed to put some of that to bed. What kind of surge, if anything, are you seeing?
VELSHI: Right. Well, nothing actually, which is interesting. Whoa! A little bit of ice there.
BALDWIN: Careful.
VELSHI: I'll tell you, right around here was where high tide hit at about 9:45, 10 o'clock. And this is a little -- it's a few feet higher than yesterday's high tide, which was over here.
So really, we got nothing extra. And as soon as the tide receded, there was some fear that, as the storm hit, which was probably about an hour and a half ago or two hours ago when Chad said it got to -- the low pressure system got to -- as close to me as it was going to get. The water was far enough out that there did not seem to be an impact.
Now, again, Cape Cod is a big place and the flood warnings were in place for much of Massachusetts, not just Cape Cod. So I don't know what the story is in other places. And the northeast coast, from Chatham, northwest to that -- you know, that one part of the triangle of Cape Cod, that was perhaps in more danger of flooding.
But we do not have reports of that right now. So at the moment, it does feel like we may have missed the worst of that. But I -- we'll have to wait until we get some more reports in to figure that out, once daylight starts in a few hours.
BALDWIN: Ali Velshi, Ali, thank you so much.
Coming up here on the other side of the break, we will talk back with Julian Cummings. You never know what we we're going to find when we talk to Julian. Last time we chatted, he caught up with some cross-country skiers there in the Back Bay of Boston. What could come next? We will check in with him on the other side of the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: 3:48 here in the morning East Coast time. As we talk about Boston, the snow continues to fall. Second round of snow, in fact, falling right now on you in Boston. If you are up with me -- and I hope you are -- I know who else is, Julian Cummings, my friend and producer, who has been wandering -- I shouldn't say wandering -- driving around the streets here of Boston.
This is your -- these are your live pictures. Julian, what is that, is that a plow?
JULIAN CUMMINGS, CNN PRODUCER: That is a tractor with a plow on it. Yes, we are definitely in his way slightly, and he almost clipped us a bit, but the city of Boston is sleeping, but the trucks are out trying to make it up and running for tomorrow morning.
We are on Boylston (ph) Street and it is filled with plows, snow blowers, trucks, big mounds of snow being built, hoping for the roads to be cleared in the morning but they are facing an uphill battle. It is coming down here.
BALDWIN: We should point out -- hang tight with me -- point out if you are sitting there, wondering, well, why is Julian driving, you heard about the travel ban from Deval Patrick, the governor of Massachusetts, media is allowed to, obviously tractors, you know, plows, first responders.
They are the ones they wanted to be able to clear the streets so then when these folks get out, they can -- they can do their jobs.
Julian, I'm not seeing cars. What's that car right there with the blinking lights?
CUMMINGS: That car looks like it was a stalled vehicle. That's one of the first cars we have seen out here that was not an emergency vehicle in a long time. They are having a few of those here and there. But yes, it's very, very desolate. It has that ghost town feel.
There was a few people, stragglers running around Boston, spent the night out (inaudible) local bars. (Inaudible) they are -- they are now starting to go to sleep. We definitely are in a very eerie feeling here.
BALDWIN: So that's a good sign. I see all those -- the lights lining the streets; they're on as we talk about, you know, Massachusetts, I think it is something like 350,000 people without power, but at least on these major roads like Boylston (ph) Street, you have power.
For the most part, did people heed the warnings from the mayor? Are most of the cars off the streets?
CUMMINGS: Yes, most cars are off the streets. We saw -- we saw some cars being towed earlier in the afternoon that didn't listen to the parking bans that that mayor put in place.
But you know, you will see it, I'm moving on these different roads now. Some roads are plowed, some are not. You know, there are some areas that are very thick and, you know, the city has a lot of work ahead of them here to make sure that things are working.
And I think people are going to have a lot of work to do digging out as well tomorrow, because there's a lot of -- a lot of roads that aren't plowed yet. And the real challenge to keep up with the snow.
BALDWIN: Yes, especially those secondary streets, I think some people will be stuck for a little while in their homes, as the focus is that the primary streets first.
Before I let you go, Julian, is it still -- is it still snowing?
CUMMINGS: Oh, it's definitely still snowing. We are circling snow; it's all over the place. And you can barely see. The shot you are seeing is clearer than what I am seeing. We -- our camera can pick up a lot of light. So it's snowing really hard.
BALDWIN: OK, Julian. Safe driving, please. We will talk to you in just a little bit, as you have been driving for quite a number of hours for us in the Boston streets to try to give us a better example as to what the situation is like.
When we come back, we're going to hit the pause button here on our blizzard coverage because we have some new exclusive video as we have been also covering this breaking story in Southern California.
Look at this. This is the suspect, this former cop, who's accused of killing three people. They are looking for him, exclusive new pictures of him coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: We will get you back to our special blizzard coverage in just a moment here, but first the manhunt for that ex-cop accused of gunning down several police officers in Southern California.
Look at these pictures. The Irvine Police Department has released this surveillance photo. It was taken at an Orange County hotel days before Christopher Dorner allegedly launched his deadly vendetta against law enforcement.
CNN's Kyung Lah has more on the search.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Christopher Dorner, LAPD cadet in 2005.
LAH: What do you think, watching this, considering what's happened?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, he's an expert with weapons, definitely. He's definitely dangerous.
LAH (voice-over): This man spent months with Dorner at the LAPD training academy. We are altering his voice and not showing his face because he fears Dorner will go after his police friends. But he wants the public to see this so people understand what the LAPD is facing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You look at Chris, you can see that he is a little bit of an expert, the way you watch he disarms. He'll shoot and almost no movement when he shoots the gun and then, pop, a big nothing.
LAH: So he stood out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, he stood out. He knew what he was doing. The LAPD has -- they're going to be going after one of their own former, and he knows what he's -- like I said, he knows what he is doing. He knows how to use everything.
LAH: Being a cop, do you think that it was -- could you tell that it was important to him?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. I think it was very important to him. Yes.
LAH: You could see it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
LAH: Even during the training?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right. Yes. I think it is a 300-pound dummy and he does that easily.
LAH: Easily. This is 300 pounds.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I believe that's 300 pounds.
LAH: So this is a very strong man.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.
LAH (voice-over): But not everything was easy for Dorner, the aspiring police officer. This man says he witnessed drill instructors picking on him for his weight and slow running.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When I hear about how angry he is about the LAPD, I think that fits to my experience with him. I could kind of -- you know, that matches up, when he says things about LAPD, it matches up to the way I think he had his experience through the LAPD, especially the academy.
LAH (voice-over): This man never spoke to Dorner, but he never forgot the cadet.
LAH: But your thought was, this man represents power (inaudible) --
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, exactly. I wanted to show -- when I was going to use, I wanted to show and maybe put music and show that the LAPD is powerful and look at this powerful man, you know, handling this gun.
LAH: Is it frightening to think that the LAPD is now facing this man?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, yes. I mean, this guy is no joke.
LAH (voice-over): And one police are taking very seriously -- Kyung Lah, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Frightening times in Southern California for sure.
We will be back right after this here, as we are coming upon the 4:00 am hour. We are live for you, covering the storm in the way that CNN can. Much more of this Northeast blizzard after this.
