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Videos Contradicts Statements By DHS And Border Officials; Monster Winter Storm Brings Ice, Snow, And Bitter Cold; Northeast Expecting Record Snowfall, Freezing Temperatures; Outrage And Anger Spreading Across Minneapolis; At Least Seven People Have Died In Coldest Temps Seen This Winter; Interview With Oxford, Mississippi, Mayor Robyn Tannehill; Thousands Of Travelers Impacted By Winter Weather; Winter Storm Leaves Much Of Texas Under Disaster Declaration. Aired 8-9p ET

Aired January 25, 2026 - 20:00   ET

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

[20:01:19]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: And you're in the CNN NEWSROOM tonight. I'm Kaitlan Collins in New York.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Anderson Cooper in Minneapolis.

COLLINS: We're tracking a massive storm system tonight that is wreaking havoc across most of the country this evening. There's been a steady flow of heavy snow and sleet that's been pouring down across the northeast in the last couple of hours. It's burying streets and highways across several states, and it's a powerful storm that has knocked out power for at least a million customers tonight, as authorities in several states are warning that the impacts you're seeing tonight could actually end up lasting for days.

We're also watching as the worst day for flight cancellations since the pandemic is happening here in the United States. The storm has forced airlines to cancel more than 17,000 flights and counting. Schools in several major cities are canceling classes already or moving to remote learning. as tonight we are also following the major news out of Minneapolis, where there's new information, a new video on the fatal shooting of a U.S. citizen by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis.

Anderson Cooper is there on the ground -- Anderson.

COOPER: Kaitlan, thanks very much. It has been a tense day here. Meantime, the community is on edge after another U.S. citizen was shot, killed by federal immigration officers. The death of an ICU nurse, Alex Pretti, and the response from top Homeland Security officials and the statements which, frankly, are contradicted by the evidence, by the video evidence that we have all seen are leading to new protests and new fury over the agents, the Border Patrol agents who have descended on the city, and ICE agents.

Several videos have recently emerged of the incident from various angles, which, as I said, contradict the version of events given by Trump administration officials. In particular, secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, and a top border official, Greg Bovino.

CNN senior video producer Gianna Toboni walks us through the videos. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GIANNA TOBONI, CNN SENIOR VIDEO PRODUCER (voice-over): Federal immigration officers fatally shot a man Saturday in Minneapolis. He was an ICU nurse who worked at a local Veteran Affairs Hospital. Another controversial killing by U.S. immigration agents and the second U.S. citizen killed this month.

CNN analyzed cell phone footage from multiple angles. Taken together, they appear at odds with the Department of Homeland Security's initial claims about the lead up to officers firing on Alex Pretti. Around 9:00 a.m. Central, video captures two people approaching a federal immigration officer in front of an unidentified vehicle. The sound of whistles is blaring in the background.

Alex Pretti enters the frame here. He's filming an officer interacting with protesters and waving a car through. Fifteen seconds later, Pretti yells --

ALEX PRETTI, SHOT BY ICE AGENTS: Do not push them into the traffic.

TOBONI: In their statement, DHS said that an individual approached officers with, quote, "a nine-millimeter semi-automatic handgun." This video seems to show officers approaching Pretti instead of the other way around. We'll see later that Pretti does appear to have had a gun in his waistband, but this video shows he didn't have a gun in his hand, only a phone.

Video from this white car shows an up close angle of a federal immigration officer pushing one protester, then three seconds later, he pushes Pretti. And then, as the camera comes into focus, you see the same federal officer push a third protester with the orange backpack. Pretti raises his hand and turns away just as the officer sprays him with a chemical irritant. You see Pretti and the other protester trying to help the person with the orange backpack.

[20:05:03]

You can see here an officer pulling Pretti off of this person. Three more officers join and then two more. Pretti is on the ground under them. One officer in a tan beanie can be seen repeatedly striking Pretti's head with a metal can. You can see an officer in a gray jacket walk into the frame. There isn't a gun in his hand. Seconds later, officers shout --

The officer removes the gun from Pretti's belt. The officer steps away from the scene, carrying a firearm seen here in his right hand. Then gunfire.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The (EXPLETIVE DELETED) you do this? TOBONI: At least 10 shots rang out. We looked back at the scene from

different angles and slowed down the footage. This officer wearing a black beanie can be seen drawing his firearm and pointing it in Pretti's direction. We can't see his gun when the first shot is fired, but we can see that this officer fired the second shot.

In this angle, you see a second officer also had his gun drawn, and here he's pointing his weapon at Pretti as we hear gunshots, though it isn't clear if he's the one firing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What the (EXPLETIVE DELETED)? Did they (EXPLETIVE DELETED) kill that guy?

TOBONI: Pretti collapses onto the ground as the officers scattered backwards from around him. The same agent in the black beanie from earlier can be seen firing five final shots as Pretti lies there motionless. Nobody approached his body for 24 seconds. When officers do return to Pretti, they appear to begin searching his body.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where's the gun?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my god.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He had a gun.

TOBONI: Video shows that about a minute after Pretti collapsed, immigration officers asked for medical support.

When CNN asked DHS about the officer removing the gun before the shooting, DHS repeated their earlier statement, quote, "Officers attempted to disarm the suspect, but the armed suspect violently resisted."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: And CNN senior video producer Gianna Toboni joins me now live.

All of this happened very, very quickly, but it's remarkable. You were saying those five shots, you see the officer, he's at a distance from Pretti at that point, and Pretti is lying motionless on the ground, and he fires five shots into him.

TOBONI (on-camera): There's really no question. I mean, when you see this footage from multiple angles slowed down and you can see it frame by frame, you can see the firearms, you can see them discharging. I mean, this is, this is evidence that certainly local authorities will pursue in their case. So, yes, I mean, it's hard to deny what you're seeing in this video.

COOPER: Yes. I mean, local authorities will pursue it, but they were not allowed to examine any evidence on the scene by federal authorities, which is just a remarkable turn of events here. I mean, we saw it before, obviously, in the Good killing as well.

Gianna Toboni, I appreciate what you did there. Thank you.

Even employees inside the DHS are raising concerns about some of what they are seeing.

National security analyst Juliette Kayyem joins us now. She's also a former assistant secretary for policy at the Department of Homeland Security.

Juliette, I mean, I know maybe we shouldn't be surprised that Kristi Noem makes stuff up and wants to get out front and try to create a narrative. But even she must be, with her limited experience in this position, must be aware that videotape is going to come out and contradict what she is saying.

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Right. Part of it is she's not, I mean, I'll be honest with you. She's not sophisticated. She doesn't know the law. She -- she's running an agency that is at best out of control, at worst is being told to do this. And she's authorizing it. I have been critical of her before this. It's a huge agency, and she clearly has no management of it.

So what happens is she hears something happens. She comes out in front because she thinks she can control a narrative. And what's happened in a very short period of time is two things. One is, just as we saw with Gianna's work, is that lots of people have counter narratives through video that are coming out quickly, and it is hard for a rational, objective person to deny them.

The second is the horror of what we saw yesterday morning has now gotten some Republicans in the Senate, but in particular the House GOP led Homeland Security Committee to demand an investigation. And now she's left sort of floundering with Bovino, the head of these operations.

[20:10:00]

And what I saw today is DHS leadership slightly trying to unwind the slander that they started with yesterday. It was -- it was absolute slander. I mean, they just were making up lies about the victim.

COOPER: And they're saying essentially, calling -- essentially alluding to him as a domestic terrorist, that this would be an act of domestic terrorism, and implying that he was there to massacre federal law enforcement. And again, his gun was not out. He, according to the chief of police here, had a right to carry it. I assumed Kristi Noem is a big advocate of the Second Amendment since she, you know, shot a dog, and you know, talks about -- has been photographed with rifles and stuff.

It's remarkable to me how the narrative from them is contradicted by this video on so many different points. And again, these are the people now who are in charge of the investigation and who are not allowing any state officials to be part of that investigation. How unusual is that?

KAYYEM: So unusual. It's -- and it's, for someone like me who's worked in state government and federal government. Look, not everything is ideal, but I have never seen the hostility towards local and state public safety authorities that you're seeing from the federal government, and you're seeing a pushback not just in Minnesota but throughout the country. Conservative sheriffs saying, I support the agenda of what of these deportations, but this isn't policing. This isn't law enforcement. This is just thuggery. I mean, two U.S. citizens have, you know, now been killed.

I want to address something about the gun, not just the Second Amendment issue. You heard Bovino on a press conference today really sort of slightly threatening I thought protesters saying people make bad choices and must suffer the consequences. Presumably he was talking about Pretti having a gun. Maybe perhaps about Good being in a car, although, you know, I don't know what that has to do with her being killed last week.

But it was threatening. It was definitely -- we want people to stop criticizing us. And I think that that's the posture of ICE right now, which is they view the criticism lawful, Democratic, noisy, we're a pluralistic society. The criticism as somehow a license to shoot. And so I want to make clear, even if Pretti made bad judgment of bringing a gun, I'm just -- I'm going to buy into the argument.

I don't believe it, but I'll buy into the argument you're hearing from some people saying why do you bring a gun, In Milwaukee last year they confiscated 900 unlawful guns. Not a single person was shot. Law enforcement is trained to deal with situations in which there might be something not great. And I want to make clear that even if you focus on the gun, he was lawfully carrying it. And that's just not a license to kill. It's just not.

COOPER: Yes. It's also remarkable that these are federal officers and they are not wearing any kind of body camera, though they seem very happy to have their own cameras out. But they, you know, they don't have to wear body cameras because there was a change in the law by the administration.

Juliette Kayyem, I appreciate you being with us. Thank you. A lot of questions still to answer.

Still ahead tonight, heavy snow, thick ice, tornadoes. We are live from the areas being impacted the most by this major winter storm.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:18:20]

COLLINS: Tonight, we're closely tracking the winter storm that has taken over two-thirds of the United States. At least seven people have died as the nation is grappling with the coldest temperatures we've seen all winter. Authorities in the northeast are working tirelessly to clear the roads tonight, as power crews are also racing to get the lights back on in several places.

Right now, there's more than 900,000 customers that are still in the dark, which is actually an improvement from earlier when more than a million customers had been affected. Our CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam has been tracking it all on the

ground in Louisville, Kentucky.

And Derek, you were talking earlier about where this look tonight, I know the temperatures have been dropping there. What are you seeing so far?

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, so the precipitation, meaning the wintry mix that we had here from the snow to the sleet and the freezing rain across the state of Kentucky has largely come to an end. So that's the good news. But like you already pointed out, it's now the cold, bitter cold air that is descending across the eastern half of the country. We feel it.

The mercury in the thermometer is starting to bottom out, and by tomorrow morning there is going to be hundreds of millions of people over the eastern half of the country that will feel these subzero wind chill temperatures because behind this cold front, not only is it arctic air, but it's also the wind as well.

So the precipitation has come to an end in our area, but over the East Coast, it's still producing significant snowfall. So we know that up towards Boston and into the Massachusetts turnpike area, even the New York City region, even though that's largely come to an end, there was a mixture of sleet at times near the nation's capital into New York City. But snow in Boston could set -- could reach that foot to a foot and a half level.

[20:20:01]

So we're watching out for something that -- something about that on Monday morning and how that could impact travel conditions there as the lingering kind of moisture wraps into the East Coast. But it's this flash freeze we're talking about and what this is going to do is it's going to kind of prolong the impacts of the frozen precipitation that we have on the ground here. I mean, we didn't get the blockbuster snowfall totals here in Louisville, but it was enough that what you can't see behind me is vehicles trying to get out of snowbanks that have been plowed up to the sides of the street.

And this is going to be encased in the cold temperatures for several days to come because we won't see the mercury in the thermometer climb above the freezing mark for several days, not just here, but in many locations over the East Coast. So when there is this flash freeze, we had this brief bump in our temperatures above freezing, and there may be changeover from freezing rain to rain.

Well, now that rapid drop in the temperature is going to freeze all of that very quickly. And that's the concern. That's why we have so many public schools, including my own children's school in Atlanta, closed for the day tomorrow in an abundance of caution just because of the potential of this flash freezing, leaving such dangerous road conditions.

Glad to see this individual here was able to get his car unstuck from the snowbank behind us. That's just one of the many stories of people struggling to navigate these roads, Kaitlan, because what the storm has left behind is not only freezing rain, but also deep snow in some locations. It's going to be a mess on Monday morning, heading back to work.

COLLINS: Oh, yes. Derek Van Dam, stay warm out there and thank you for bringing us the latest reporting on the ground in Louisville.

Meantime, here in the northeast, many cities have been blanketed in snow. It's not expected to stop anytime soon. Philadelphia has been seeing a mix of sleet and snow in what is the largest snowfall that city has seen in five years actually. Much of Washington, D.C. and the surrounding area has been shut down because of the heavy snow there as you can see it here.

And just to give you a sense of how much that shutdown is underway, Reagan National Airport actually canceled every single flight at its airport today. There's no word yet on when they're going to resume those regular operations, but we're tracking that closely, as here in New York, the city is expected to get over a foot of snow by the time this storm has fully passed. And the message from the new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, has been simple. He said stay home and watch horrible reality TV instead.

Gloria Pazmino is joining us now from New York. She's out there reporting.

And I know, Gloria, you've been in the city all day looking at what's happening, seeing the mayor, Zohran Mamdani, actually helping people as well shovel their snow. What else have you been seeing on the ground tonight?

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Kaitlan. And, you know, frankly, going into this today, it was going to be a bit of a governing test for this new mayor. It's a brand new administration. This is the first major weather event that we are seeing this year under this new mayor. So there was a lot of anticipation and a lot of close full watch of how Mamdani was going to handle this situation.

I think so far, from what I've heard from local lawmakers, people on the ground, they have been happy with the response. There are more than 2500 sanitation workers who are spread out all across the five boroughs, trying to clean up.

Now, the mayor might have suggested that people stay indoors today and watch bad reality television, but I can tell you that here in Central Park, where we've been most of the day, there were thousands of people that streamed into the park to try and enjoy the snow. We haven't gotten this much snow here in New York City in a few years. Eight inches and counting so far here at Central Park.

And I just want to tell you, I saw everything from cardboard boxes, plastic bins. A man was carrying a cookie sheet. All of these were sledding devices. There were many happy children inside this park here today. But as much as folks are out here enjoying the snow, it is important to mention that these are dangerous conditions. It's very cold, it's very windy, and there's freezing rain that's falling right now.

That's going to make it extremely difficult to get around tonight into tomorrow morning. The public schools are shut down. The mayor making that decision earlier today. He told me that that was because of safety. He doesn't want people having to get to school in dangerous conditions. So kids will be learning remotely. The public schools, the art institutions, they are also closed down. And certainly the biggest part of this cleanup effort will get underway tonight and in the early hours of tomorrow morning -- Kaitlan.

COLLINS: Gloria Pazmino, thank you for that. Thanks for being out there for us.

And also tonight we're back live on the ground in Minneapolis. That city is reeling from the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti. What his family is saying tonight, and also what local law enforcement and the community has to say. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:29:18]

COOPER: Well, the sun has definitely set here in Minneapolis. It is below zero. Temperatures have been freezing all day and it is just getting colder. That's certainly not cooling, the growing anger here after U.S. citizen and ICU nurse Alex Pretti was shot and killed by federal immigration officers Saturday morning. People have been coming out to remember Mr. Pretti all day from early this morning and all day yesterday. He was killed Saturday morning.

Many people expressing their anger, their sadness, their grief as they lay candles and flowers. There's also growing frustration with how the Trump administration, how high level DHS officials have been framing this incident from the very earliest, from shortly after word spread that Mr. Pretti had been killed, to claims that are either contradicted directly by video footage or unsupported by any evidence that officials have presented so far.

[20:30:12]

CNN senior crime and justice correspondent Shimon Prokupecz joins me now.

Shimon, you've been out talking with people. You were at the memorial. Now you're at the site where Mr. Pretti was killed. What are you hearing from people today?

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: You know, it's really interesting, Anderson. I just spoke to a mom here, and she brought her 10-year-old, 8-year-old and 5-year-old, and they just left. And they came here to light some candles. And I asked her what was the importance in bringing her kids here. And it was just very moving to hear her say that it's important for them to see the good in all of this, you know, and just how difficult all of this has been for her family and her kids. She wanted them to come here to see, to see the good. And that is so

much of what we are seeing here. People have come out here to light candles, to lay flowers.

David, let's just show a little bit this way.

Just you can see here all of these candles. There are some signs there. There's some flowers here. And there's a sign here that says, "Rest in power. Love from New York." We have been seeing people from out of state here. There's another sign here that mentions Renee Good, of course, the other woman who was killed, and mentions Alex Jeffrey Pretti. And then it says, "May their memories be a revolution."

And that's what we're seeing all across here, really, people just wanting to come here to pay their respects and to show that they are not afraid and they are going to stand up to what they feel has just been so unfair, the fear that they have experienced. Despite the cold we've been seeing a constant stream of people here, Anderson. And really at this point now, the police have allowed them to remain in the street and we'll see.

I mean, it's freezing out here. And yet to see this many people here tonight has been truly moving. And they're really just trying to make sense of all of this right now.

COOPER: Yes. Shimon, thanks very much. Appreciate it.

Millions still under winter weather alerts as snow, ice and sleet cover many areas. This is a live look at Chicago. We're going to have a lot more from here in Minneapolis. But coming up, our weather team has the updated timeline of the storm after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:37:13]

COLLINS: The majority of the United States tonight is dealing with a brutal winter storm, and the punishing cold has killed at least seven people so far, with temperatures expected to drop even further tonight.

Heavy snow has been hitting states across the Midwest. Also here in the northeast. We heard from the Connecticut governor, Ned Lamont, he said the snow was coming so fast that the plows could actually not move it fast enough in time. Many cities along the I-95 corridor have been bracing for record totals, and across the south tonight, the problem has actually been the ice. It's been described as catastrophic in some areas.

And just to give you a sense of what's happening on the ground, this is what it looks like in Mississippi.

You can hear ice there as parts of Mississippi, South Carolina, also, Louisiana, are seeing up to an inch of ice on the ground. It's been downing power lines and leaving a lot of people in the dark, in the cold. When it comes to outages, Tennessee has by far the most so far. More than 300,000.

And CNN's Derek Van Dam has been tracking this storm. He's in Louisville, Kentucky, and joins me now.

And Derek, obviously, you know, we've been talking about ice so much. That's been the big concern. A lot of my family in Alabama has been dealing with this as well. What about the dangers that this poses in terms of, you know, we see these record snowfalls that are happening in Philadelphia and in New York. But what about the ice that you're seeing on the ground and how people are dealing with that?

VAN DAM: So you got to think about the weight of the ice. So frozen -- freezing rain when it accumulates on power lines, for instance, a half an inch of frozen precipitation coated on a power line, a typical power line, can add up to 1,000 pounds to that power line. Now get this. When you're talking about average, let's say, 30-foot tree, half an inch of ice collecting on the branches of that 30-foot tree could add up to 7,000 pounds on it.

So I want to show you an image that really just shocked me and a lot of my team. We see what is a large tree. Hopefully the control room is pulling this up. That's kind of splintered in quarters, but they're almost symmetrical on either side. This is coming out of Hendersonville in central Tennessee. It's near Nashville. And that large part of that area, the Nashville region, received over a half an inch of freezing rain.

And it coated everything. So the added weight not only knocked out the power for over 300,000 customers, that's what we're reporting now. But it also brought down trees, tree limbs. And when we talk about the differences between a 10th of an inch of ice, you know, a glazing, yes, that's dangerous to drive in.

[20:40:02]

But when you start working into a quarter to a half an inch of ice, then you're talking about the added weight that impacts the infrastructure, and then you get to one inch to three inches. There have been freezing rain events in the United States that have caused that much frozen precipitation. But that's when you're talking about catastrophic infrastructure damage.

And look, with the winds coming through and the arctic blast coming in, it's going to only prolong the impacts because we're not going to be melting this anytime soon. Back to you.

COLLINS: Yes. We'll see how officials are dealing with that, especially in the morning.

Derek Van Dam, thank you for being out there in the cold for us.

And given what Derek just laid out for us there, we've seen a lot of airports basically turning into ghost towns because the winter storm has caused mass flight cancellations.

Randi Kaye has been tracking the latest from Newark International Airport.

And, Randi, I know there's not many people there behind you, which is obviously not a scene that most people are used to seeing on the ground inside that airport. Obviously, one of the busiest ones. What have you been hearing, Randi Kaye, from travelers, as you've been there today?

We'll check back in with Randi Kaye. Her shot has gone down, but we'll get back to her as we're watching there. She said that when they arrived at the airport, they were one of the only cars pulling up to departures. And if you've been to Newark Airport, you know that's not a sight that you often see.

There's also been a lot of heavy ice that has been snapping trees, power poles across much of Mississippi. It's left more than 164,000 people in that state in the dark tonight. One of the hardest hit areas has been Oxford, Mississippi, where there's been an emergency alert for residents to stay in shelter in place.

If you look at this video, there's all this ice that has toppled wood and metal power poles. We've seen huge trees falling as well as officials are warning it could be days before those crews can restore power.

I'm being joined tonight by Robyn Tannehill, the mayor of Oxford, Mississippi.

And thank you, Mayor, for joining me, because I know you have a lot on your hands tonight. Can you just tell us what is the latest that you're seeing on the ground tonight? What's the biggest challenge that you're dealing with right now?

MAYOR ROBYN TANNEHILL, OXFORD, MISSISSIPPI: Well, we are facing a lot of challenges right now, Kaitlan, but thank you so much for having me on tonight. It's so -- I so appreciated that you and the rest of the country know what's going on in North Mississippi. Oxford has been dealt a really catastrophic blow, as you just described it. We have 11 of 16 of our electric circuits down.

We have trees on homes, trees that have devastated people's cars, and are still blocking roadways today and prohibiting people from getting out. We've got, you know, 26,000 students in Oxford, at Ole Miss, and we've got 28,000 full time residents. Most all of whom don't have power right now.

COLLINS: And do you have any expectation of when that power can be restored, or when they're at least going to be able to feel hopeful about, you know, what that should look like?

TANNEHILL: Well, we've got the best employees in the country and they are giving it all they've got. They started last night at 11:00 p.m. when we had our first outages and have not stopped yet. You know, right now we're still in an emergency situation. Precipitation has just stopped and we've got trees that are still bending and breaking under the weight of all the ice that's on them. So right now, like I said, we're still in an emergency situation. We are assessing different opportunities and different challenges. We

have crews from Memphis, Tennessee, 10 different crews from Memphis that came in. We've got 30 different linemen from municipal electric power associations in Alabama that got here this afternoon to help us start rebuilding our community. Oxford will never be the same. And, you know, there are people who have lost their homes and their cars and have lost so much and are sitting in the cold right now.

And so it seems silly to say, but Oxford is a historic that will never have the same -- have the same look and the same feel. This has changed everything about Oxford, Mississippi. But what it hasn't changed is that we're a town of people that take care of each other, and Oxford, Mississippi, and a challenge, and in a tragic situation steps up. And that's what they're doing today.

COLLINS: And Mayor, for people who are at home and if they've lost power, I know the temperatures in the teens there, what is your message to them tonight? What should they be doing if they're really worried about how they're going to stay warm tonight?

TANNEHILL: Sure. Well, we have three warming stations, shelters in place in town. Our conference center, and then the Lafayette County Arena and the student union in the Ole Miss campus are all available. All have food at the conference center. We've brought in cots and are ready for people to be there as long as they need to be. Unfortunately, the roads are so treacherous that even though people need those shelters, it's very difficult for them to get there.

[20:45:02]

And in many cases, it's too difficult for us to get to them. So we are just telling people to take care of their neighbors, to find as many blankets as you can get, to be a tent, to build cardboard boxes around you, to stay -- to keep that body heat in and to stay warm tonight. And hopefully we can get more people to shelters tomorrow.

COLLINS: How long do you expect that shelter in place warning to be in effect?

TANNEHILL: Well, the shelter in place warning will be there as long as we have downed power lines, Kaitlan. We've got trees that have come down and power lines that have come down, and power lines that are draping over streets. And those -- many of those wires are hot. And so we are begging people not to get out and try to get through these trees because in some cases, you don't know that there's a power line that has been pulled down with all of that massive trees and branches.

So for right now, I don't have a time that I can tell you the shelter in place will be removed. We hope tomorrow. And we hope that tomorrow we will be able to access areas we couldn't today and get more people into shelters.

COLLINS: Yes. Oxford Mayor Robyn Tannehill, thank you for joining us tonight. We're thinking of everybody in your area and everywhere that's so affected. So thank you for taking the time to join us. And we're wishing you guys the best of luck in getting everything back online and hoping everyone stays safe.

TANNEHILL: Thank you, Kaitlan.

COLLINS: Yes, absolutely.

And we're going to keep tracking this brutal storm and the effects of it that we're seeing, not just in Oxford, Mississippi, but really in multiple cities across the nation. After the break, we're going to join you live from Dallas with the latest conditions there. What we've been seeing on the ground. And also we'll be back on the ground in Minneapolis as well.

Stay with us. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:51:11]

COLLINS: We're following breaking news this hour as we're keeping up with what is happening with this winter storm that is carrying out across the country. We've also just learned tonight that a private jet carrying eight people has crashed at the Bangor, Maine, airport. According to our sources tonight, where this plane was taking off and it's carrying eight people and it was crashed upon takeoff from that airport tonight.

The extent of the injuries right now is not known based on what my colleagues are hearing from sources tonight. We are checking on that breaking news. We'll tell you more as we are learning new details about what's happening.

And as we look at airlines tonight and what has been happening in the skies are my colleague Randi Kaye is at Newark International Airport.

And Randi Kaye, obviously, we were saying earlier, it's quite empty there behind you as so many people have been dealing and having to grapple themselves with the cancellations of all of these flights. What are you hearing from people tonight?

RANDI KAYE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Kaitlan, Newark Airport, where I am, is definitely a very lonely place tonight. Just take a look at this scene. It's pretty surreal. Like nobody is checking in at the counters. These are the -- where you get your bag tags and you check in here on these machines. There are also just completely empty. Nobody here trying to get anywhere because nobody is going anywhere.

The security lines, nothing to be seen here. I could go right through there, which would be great any other day. But obviously the planes are not going anywhere today. That's because Port Authority, which runs this airport, Kaitlan, told me that 87 percent of the flights have been canceled in and out of Newark, and that's really widespread. We're seeing about more than 80 percent of flights canceled at JFK. Also at LaGuardia and in Philadelphia and at Reagan, more than 90 percent of the flights, at Washington, Reagan in D.C., Kaitlan. So we'll see when things get back to running again.

COLLINS: Yes, I know everyone else is going to be paying close attention to that.

Randi Kaye, thank you for being there for us tonight.

And speaking of what we're seeing play out from this storm tonight, a lot of Texas is under a disaster declaration because of the storm. What we are told tonight is one person in Austin has died from exposure to the cold. That's what we've heard from officials there on the ground.

And that's where we find CNN's Ed Lavandera, who is live on the ground in Dallas.

And, Ed, obviously, we've seen this impact from not just Houston all the way up to the north part of the state. What have you been seeing and feeling on the ground tonight?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I'm feeling absolutely miserable Is the bottom line. The temperatures have really plummeted. This wind chill into the single digits. And that's really going to be the story over the next couple of days, because the worst of the arctic storm has blown through with all of the ice and snow and sleet, and it has blanketed much of the areas of north Texas, into east Texas as well.

Obviously, Oklahoma in many parts seeing record snowfall there as well. And this is an event that is not over. Even though the worst of the storm might have passed, we are still going to be feeling the effects of this for some time to come. It is not going to get above the freezing mark until Tuesday, so it's going to take some time for all of this to melt away.

And I can tell you, Kaitlan, as I've driven around today, this snow and sleet and ice, this all mixture that is on the roadways, it is starting to harden up intensely, which is going to make driving really difficult, much more dangerous than it was yesterday and late Friday as well. So this is going to take some time to melt away. And freezing temperatures not going away anytime soon.

That means we're seeing a slate of cancellations of schools and businesses, not just tomorrow, but also being announced for Tuesday as well. So it's going to take some time for all of this to go away. And as you mentioned, the danger of these temperatures really settling in as well is that the person was found dead in Austin because of exposure. You know, the temperatures here is really going to be the story over the next 48 hours.

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COLLINS: Yes. And obviously we've been watching all this play out. I know there's been some feuding back and forth between Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear and Senator Ted Cruz in Texas over, you know, how he was handling that in his state. Beshear was saying, I've been leading the response here in my state all day long. One big concern, though, on Texas's front has been the power grid.

Obviously, we all remember five years ago during that winter storm and the massive effects that that had on people there. How is it holding up during this storm?

LAVANDERA: Pretty well. You know, there are extensive -- thousands of customers without power mostly kind of in the east Texas area. But the power grid has held, by and large, from what -- no major problems that we've been able to find out about. So about -- last I checked, about 70,000 customers without power in the state. Most of the customers without power are in Tennessee and Mississippi as well. And we're those that storm has since moved on to. But clearly, you know, the effects of what happened five years ago is that major power grid failure still looms over this state, but it seems like everything has pulled through quite well so far.

COLLINS: Yes. Ed Lavandera, glad to hear that at least. That's a relief for people. Thank you so much, Ed, for being there on the ground. Please stay warm. I know you're miserable, but we're grateful to have you there.

And we're going to have much more of our breaking news coverage ahead, not just tracking this winter storm and also the warnings we're hearing from officials. We're also live on the ground in Minneapolis with the latest there, as there is outrage growing after what federal officials have been saying about the shooting of Alex Pretti is not matching up with what we're seeing on video.

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