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NEW DAY SUNDAY

Winter Storm Aftermath. Aired 5-6a ET

Aired January 24, 2016 - 05:00   ET

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


[05:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN, NEWS ANCHOR: Well, it is time to dig out. Millions of you this morning are looking at the aftermath of this historic blizzard that left cities paralyzed, motorists trapped nearly 24 hours in some places and tens of thousands without power.

New Yorkers ready to ride the city lifting its travel ban just hours from now, we believe, as two feet of snow blankets that city. Plus a sea of red. Thousands of flights across the country, I'm so sorry to tell you, still canceled as millions of travelers wonder.

I know, you're thinking, "When am I going to get back in the air and get to my destination??

The new day starts right now. And we're always grateful to start that with you. I'm Christi Paul and Martin Savidge as you see in New York City in much better condition, I think, than what we saw yesterday. The snow stopped obviously.

A lot of questions, though, for all of us this morning about the airports, the power outages, the coastal flooding. We're getting some incredible video we're going to share with you. And we're looking at all of that throughout the morning here.

So, Martin, let's get to you and talk to me about what's happening in New York City. I know Jean Casarez is with you as well.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN, REPORTER: Right, yeah, good morning, Christi. It's a cliche, but it's worth noting. What a difference, a 24-hour period has made in the city.

The snow has stopped, that storm is now about a thousand miles of the East Coast. So, the good news is, it is long gone from here. There are still concerns about coastal flooding and we will be coming up on another high tide in a few hours from now.

You talked about that travel ban. But let's face it, in New York, they are breathing a sigh of relief after a storm that may go down as just one of the most impactful ever, so close to being the deepest though that this city has ever seen.

If yesterday was the big snow, today is the big dig.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: From above, the monster storm looks peaceful, almost serene. But on the ground, it caused death, misery and destruction. From fatal accidents to huge snowplows, flooding, and the complete shutdown of major cities. The blizzard of 2016 is one for the record books.

GOV. TOM WOLF, (D), PENNSYLVANIA: This is a huge challenge for Pennsylvania. We're deploying all of our resources to try to make sure that the people of Pennsylvania are safe.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, back, now forward.

SAVIDGE: As the weather begins to subside and people dig out from tons of snow, it could be days before life gets back to normal.

MAYOR STEPHANIE RAWLINGS-BLAKE, (D), BALTIMORE: Stay patient and to quote a line from one of my favorite musicals, we're all in this together. So, just stay patient.

SAVIDGE: I've never seen anything like it. Within minutes, a rush of water from that bay came over into the harbor and essentially flooded our crew.

In New Jersey, coastal residents are assessing damage from tidal flooding, that sent seawater and ice blocks onto town streets.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I came home early from work yesterday, I cleaned up the bottom half of my house and I brought everything up.

SAVIDGE: Smart.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah. We learned from Sandy, so.

SAVIDGE: In Kentucky and Pennsylvania, stories of epic traffic jams, some motorists stranded for almost 24 hours.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've never been stuck on a highway this long before. We've been here for about 15 hours.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stuff like this is going to be hard to get out of here anyway. So, I feel we're going to be here for a long time.

SAVIDGE: 85 million people impacted by the storm. More than a dozen deaths, hundreds of traffic accidents, thousands of power outages and flight cancellations. It is a storm that won't soon be forgotten.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wet, sloppy conditions, and just trying to make the best of it and clean everything up as much as we can.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: And even though that the snow has stopped, the danger and the disruption has not, there is still a long way to go. Transportation is still very much a problem in the Big Apple, New York and elsewhere and beyond.

Let's go now to Jean Casarez. She's in Times Square. Jean, they will eventually be lifting the travel ban, right?

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN, CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. Yes, 7:00 is the target time. They're going to assess it. But they believe 7:00 a.m. is when they're going to lift that travel ban, because right now, you cannot drive on the streets in New York City and the outlying boroughs.

I mean, as you can see, it's just desolate here. We've seen some snowplows go by. We've seen some police cars, a couple of emergency vehicles, but no one else. But 7:00 a.m. is what they're looking at now.

Currently, underground subways are running. Subways that are exposed to the elements, 6:00 a.m. is the target time for that. They're all going to assess the railroads at 6:00 am. And then 7:00 a.m., limited bus service begins and they're going to be assessing other modes of transportation, including bridges, tunnels because you can't get in or get out of New York City at this point.

[05:05:09] So that's the target time.

But we do want to say that, unofficially, the National Weather Service is reporting a total of 26.8 inches of snow yesterday recorded, actually at 1:00 a.m. this morning out of Central Park. That would be a record breaker. That would put New York City at number two of yesterday's snowfall in the record book, breaking that record from 1869.

National Weather Service are saying that it's unofficial at this point. But, obviously, there's a lot of snow.

And, you know, Marty (ph), it's harder to walk around today. It's slicker. It's not as soft as it was yesterday. So people really need to be aware and careful if they're walking around anywhere on the Eastern seaboard for that black ice and that snow that has become packed and it's just really slippery at this point, Marty (ph)

SAVIDGE: Yeah, this is where it goes from that soft and fluffy stuff, where it really becomes difficult to move and it's difficult to walk around.

As far as operations in the city itself, you mentioned already the travel ban being lifted. You know, stores, are they planning to reopen, people going to work? Is that going to be -- I can't imagine that it's still going to be any kind of normal day.

CASAREZ: Well, that's a great point, because we've seen some signs on some stores. And so we've looked over to see, you know, what the signs actually say. And they're saying, "Closed for the storm, sorry."

So I'm sure this happened yesterday because they needed to get employees out to the outlying areas where people live before that travel ban took effect.

But I'm also noting that people are walking down the street. They're not walking on the sidewalks. Here's a snowplow right here. This is what they're continuing to do to get the roadways clear, so when that travel ban is lifted, that you can actually have vehicles.

But people are walking down the streets because there's such high embankments between the sidewalk and the street. People can't get over it, they can't cross the streets.

And so if you walk down the street, then you have a better thoroughfare to really just get around a little bit.

And here's some people, here's an example. See? They're walking down the street. They're not walking on the sidewalk. So maybe that's one safe way to go until that travel ban is lifted and you're going to have vehicles on the roadways, Marty.

SAVIDGE: It really is very bizarre, Jean, to be able to walk down any street here in New York City and not be afraid of getting hit by a bus or a car. And, it's just so quiet. I mean, you don't hear any sirens, you don't hear any ...

CASAREZ: Yeah.

SAVIDGE: ...horns honking. It's just a very peculiar thing, yeah, very still. Thank you very much, Jean Casarez there ...

CASAREZ: Yeah.

SAVIDGE: ...in Times Square.

CASAREZ: Thanks, Marty.

SAVIDGE: We want to check in now with Boris Sanchez, he was all day long out there in coastal flooding area of New Jersey. And he is there once again for us.

And Boris, I understand, you know, when it comes to the potential for flooding, there is still that threat this morning.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN, CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Martin. The thread (ph) is still there. This is very moderate thread (ph). And I have to tell you, there is a stark difference between what we saw when we were talking to you at this time early yesterday morning and what we're seeing now.

I want to show you the bay behind me. Yesterday, this water was threatening to come over the edge at this time. It was only a few inches away from creeping over. And at high tide, it peaked and sent almost a foot of water, potentially more than a foot of water in some spots, creeping into this neighborhood behind us, shooting into the street.

When we were live with you, we had to pick up our stuff and start running down the street because the water had simply taken over this entire area. You can see there are residences and businesses here. We checked inside. The damage somehow doesn't appear to be very extensive. There is a lot of debris in the streets. But as you can tell, it's mostly cleared up.

The danger here, though, lurks again at high tide. Once we get closer to 8:00 a.m., this water is, again, threatening to come up. What I can tell you is that today, there isn't as much wind and there's obviously no precipitation here. So the threat is not as severe as it was yesterday. Fortunately, though, it appears that things have mostly calmed down, and at noon, several flood watches in counties like this one expires. So hopefully, the cleanup will be under way, Martin.

SAVIDGE: Yeah, they can't wait for that day.

I wonder, was there any kind of evacuation. Did people leave voluntarily or was there a mandatory evacuation at any point?

SANCHEZ: There were mandatory evacuations, very minor ones, North of us in Barnegat.

Here, there were voluntary evacuations in place. And frankly, there weren't very many people here because this is more of a summertime community, this is a beach community.

So in the winter, there's not as much population here. But, several people that I had spoken to tried to stay inside their homes, obviously, considering they didn't want to be part of all the debris and all the flooding and the mess that was out here yesterday morning.

SAVIDGE: Yeah. Well, I can't blame them on that. Boris Sanchez, thanks very much.

[05:10:02] And we've got a contingent of snowplows that are just behind us here at Columbus Circle. So that work continues. They, obviously, have to make the most they can before the travel ban is lifted. But it will be happening today and there's actually a rumor of sunshine. So, we'll look forward to that.

Christi?

PAUL: Yes, I'm sure that you will. And I hope that we see that in just a couple of hours. Thank you so much, Martin. Appreciate it.

That's an out coverage of the blizzard aftermath is continuing this morning throughout the morning. We have more live reports for you straight ahead from several different cities. Also, a lot of political news to talk about, including what Donald Trump said about shooting people that's raising eyebrows.

Also, speaking of politics, guess who was featured again on SNL last night. Hint for you.

Tina Fey played the part, so.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SAVIDGE: And Washington, D.C. this morning where the White House is surrounded by a lot of white, as is all of Washington and the Baltimore area.

We knew early on that the nation's capital was really under the gun when it came to this storm.

However, I think New York, which was sort of a late bloomer in this, actually beat Washington, D.C. in the snow tallies. Chris Frates was the one who is riding it all out and giving us the reporting. He's still there.

Chris, how are you this morning?

CHRIS FRATES, CNN, CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Martin. Well, I'll tell you, this is the first time I've been outside since Friday afternoon that it hasn't been snowing. And you get a little bit better look of what it usually looks like here. You can see the capital real bright and shiny behind me. That's usually the view we get from here.

Of course, yesterday, the wind and snow was so bad, you can hardly see it. And take a look, we've shoveled out our live position here. But, about a four and a half of snow, if you take a look here, that's about what DCA, Reagan National Airport reported at 17.5 inches.

So we're a little bit below that 24 inches that was called for. We did see some bigger snow totals elsewhere in the city. At the National Zoo, for instance, they had about 22 inches. And I don't know if you saw that cute vine (ph) of the panda bear playing in the snow yesterday. So, some of the animals at the National Zoo very much enjoying that.

We dig at some records in the area though, Baltimore International Airport, which is between Washington and Baltimore, hit a record of about 30 inches. And so that was about 18 inches more than the record when they set it back in 1935.

[05:15:03] So we do have some records of our own here. The streets, however, still pretty dicey. They've been working around the clock to get those cleared out. The emergency routes are still pretty clear.

But in places like Maryland, I-270, 1935.

[05:15:03] So we do have some records of our own here. The streets, however, still pretty dicey. They've been working around the chock to get them cleared out. The emergency routes are still pretty clear. But in places like Maryland, I-270, that's a spur off the capitol beltway into northwestern Maryland, that's still closed until 7:00 a.m. So, don't try to get out there. Those roads are still closed and today is the day everybody is going to start to dig out.

Officials had warned everybody, hey, please stay inside all day yesterday. We will have time for the skiing and sledding today. And it looks like we'll have pretty good weather for it, it's clear. The snow is still here. We'll get about freezing. And, that's part of what you have to watch here. As things start to melt a little bit and then we get a refreeze later tonight, that black ice is going to be very, very dangerous. And I can tell you, Martin, one of the things we worried about here was this high wind. 40 mile per hour winds. We didn't see those materialize for sustained periods. We had some gusts. But that largely kept the trees up, that kept the power lines up. And I can report to you that we only have about 30 people out of power right now in Maryland and the District of Columbia. In Virginia, about 500 people without power. That's up 2.35 million people.

So the lights are on, the heat is on here. And I can tell you, while we didn't hit the numbers of two feet that might have been record here, back in 1922, 28 inches. So we didn't hit that, and, I think people are, as usual, this New York-D.C. rivalry, you know, we're going to stand by our snow here, Martin. You guys might have gotten a little bit more up there, but I can tell you, it's still plenty of snow to go around up and down the east coast, Martin.

SAVIDGE: Yeah, without a doubt. There's plenty of snow for everyone. So, no one should be grumbling about how they got shorted in any way. And it's wonderful to see the capitol again behind your shoulders there. So thank you so much, Chris Frates.

We want to check in with Allison Chinchar. She's going to give us the -- sort of a historic look here, because we've said it so many times that the record books have either been shaken or broken. So, let's get a real read. Allison?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: That's right, yeah. Several records have been broken. But even in spots where maybe it came close but didn't break them, the numbers are still incredibly impressive. Take a look at the numbers, top for a lot of their states.

Shepherds Town, West Virginia, picked up over 40 inches of snow. Cascade, Maryland, 37.5, Round Hill, Virginia, picking up around 36, and parts of Pennsylvania, picking up about 32. The airports, this is a reason why we had so many cancellations and delays for a good reason. Look at these numbers, JFK Airport, picking up 30.5 inches. The top of all the airports that you see here.

LaGuardia not far behind, about 28 inches, Philadelphia picked up around 20 and Reagan National picking up just around 18 inches. Now, in terms of the records, we take a look at New York because here's a look. The top one with February of 2006, when we had 26.9, this storm ranks number Two. But I want to emphasize, we're talking by just a bitter fraction of a difference. 26.9 versus 26.8.

We're talking 0.1 tenth of an inch, was actual difference between that storm. So, for all intents and purposes, they were pretty much the same. Here's a look at the watches and warnings across much of the country. Blowing snow. So it's not necessarily new snow that's coming down but now the threat becomes the wind and what it's doing with the snow that's already on the ground.

We've got the radar. And again, notice for the most part, we've got a couple snow showers left up around the cape, around Nantucket. For the most part, everything is finally starting to make its way off. That's good news. Will start to clear out, and as martin was saying earlier, that allows those folks to be able to get out and maybe shovel out from their homes later on today. Winds are still expected to be relatively high today. 25 to 35 miles per hour in Atlantic City. 35 to 40 in Ocean City. And that again, may actually end up causing some more delays for some of the airports, especially if those winds get up. So we'll have more details on that coming up in just a few minutes. Martin?

SAVIDGE: Allison, thank you very much for that.

We want to talk about the National Guard because they were called out in a number of states and they continue to play a major role in the recovery effort now. Major Earl Brown is with the National Guard, a spokesperson for them. Major, are you there this morning?

MAJOR EARL BROWN, NATIONAL GUARD SPOKESPERSON: Hi, good morning, Martin, how are you.

SAVIDGE: I'm doing well. Thank you very much. How is the guard doing and what are they doing and where?

BROWN: Well I work for the National Guard Bureau in Washington, D.C. and, you know, we have 12 states that have been, you know, working around the clock with over 2,400 soldiers and airmen out there on the streets helping first responders, helping stranded motorists get to the locations that they need to.

[05:20:03] And it's something that they look forward to, and they enjoy getting out there and getting after it, helping our local citizens.

SAVIDGE: What is the kind of specialized equipment or training that they bring that supplements, you know, local law enforcement and emergency responders?

BROWN: Well, you know, we have a unique capability of having a dual purpose role, both, you know, for our overseas mission but, here domestically, we have high clearance vehicles, such as the ATV (ph) and the humvees. They can get to other areas where it's not as easily accessible. You know, just for example, yesterday we had a large wrecker that was able to pull out a fire truck here in the D.C. area.

So, you know, they're helping stranded motorists along the turnpikes and getting out there, you know, getting first responders, police troopers out to their locations and where they need to be so they can provide safety and security for our citizens.

SAVIDGE: And how long do you think they'll be on the job? I mean, now the snow has stopped. The job isn't over, I presume.

BROWN: Well, you know, we transition right now. Probably more or less, today is going to be a big transition period from a response mode, helping out stranded motorists and making sure people are taken care of, to more of a recovery where we're going to have more engineer assets out there helping out, taking down, you know, taking care of clearing trees and, you know, clearing paths so that, you know, and responders, first responders and, you know, commerce can hooked up and going.

I think, and most importantly, citizens just need to, you know, listen to their local authorities and, you know, give the resources the ability to clear the streets and, you know, get things going again.

SAVIDGE: Yeah. Major Earl Brown, we appreciate it. And we certainly appreciate the National Guard. They do so many things for us and often that doesn't necessarily get mentioned. But they were truly a great help.

BROWN: Thank you very much.

SAVIDGE: Thank you for joining us. Christi, let me send it back to you.

PAUL: All righty, as we look at that 26.8 inches of snow, of course, behind you that -- I don't know if that's exactly what's behind you but that's what obviously we were talking about in New York. Thank you so much, Martin. We appreciate it.

We're going to continue to cover this winter storm because today is the day when we finally get to see the aftermath and what needs to be done from this point on to get you back on your airplanes, to get you back on the road where you need to go. We're going to follow that.

Also, a big morning in politics, former Mayor Michael Bloomberg now considering running for President.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:25:00] 26 minutes past the hour right now. We're continuing to follow the blizzard on the East Coast. But, you know, there is some breaking political news this morning that's really intriguing, with just one week until the nation's first caucuses in Iowa. The Des Moines register has given its coveted presidential endorsement to Republican Senator Marco Rubio and Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Notably, the paper interviewed every major candidate for 2016 with the exception of Republican frontrunners Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. Apparently both declined to those interviews.

And the former mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, is seriously considering a possible presidential run. Sources tell CNN, he would run as an independent candidate. He's making -- or looking at making a decision sometime in March. And "The New York Times" reports Bloomberg would be willing to spend a billion dollars of his own money on that White House bid.

Now on the campaign trail in Iowa, Republican presidential front- runner Donald Trump, he said that support for his campaign would stay the same even if he shot somebody in the middle of a crowded street. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: My people are so smart. And you know what else they say about my people, the polls, they say I have the most loyal people. Did you ever see that? Where I could stand in the middle of 5th avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose any voters, OK? It's like incredible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: So later we asked Trump to clarify his comments. But he declined to do so.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TINA FEY, AS SARAH PALIN: I'm here because we Americans are struggling. So many of us have lost our jobs at the factory or reality shows about Alaska. We've seen our own children targeted by the police for no reason other than they committed some crime. We turn on the news every morning and are shocked to see we're not even on it because we've been replaced by immigrants like Geraldo Rivera.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's fun. She just says whatever she wants. It's like her mouth starts driving before her brain gets in the car.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: OK. Who didn't see it coming, right? Yes, she's back. Tina Fey returning again to "Saturday Night Live," last night as Sarah Palin poking fun at the former Alaska government's endorsement of Donald Trump last week and decked out in that same sparkling sweater that's been setting social media on fire as well.

I want to give you a programming note here a little bit later today in the 7:00 a.m. eastern hour, we're going to be joined by Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul. We're going to the Kentucky Senator about that mishap yesterday. The weather, the blizzard and how all those cars could get stuck in a 35-mile stretch of highway in Kentucky. Also, talking about, you know, the latest polls in New Hampshire that have him in an uptick a bit and get his reaction to some of this political news this morning.

Bernie Sanders by the way, Hillary Clinton and Martin O'Malley all facing voters in a Des Moines, Iowa in a live CNN Democratic presidential town hall. Our Chris Cuomo is moderating it. It is the final pitch, per se, for all the candidates before the first votes are cast. And a unique opportunity really for Iowans to ask questions of the three Democrats, so that's on Monday night, 9:00 p.m. eastern live only here on CNN.

Listen, we are just about an hour away from what should be that travel ban in New York City. Disintegrating. Hopefully going to lift that thing in about an hour and a half, as I said, but there are some assessments that have to be made before that. We'll see if it happens, and we're going to take you back to New York live with Martin Savidge.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:30:00] Take a look at the highways in Tennessee. Nashville was hit by eight inches of powder. Enough to snarl traffic causing people to abandon their cars, as you see there which a lot of people say please don't do, because that can cause more traffic hazards.

And they're warning drivers, please stay vigilant today. The roads may refreeze today as well. So you do want to be very careful regarding where you're driving. Get to feel the road beneath you.

In Washington too, cars were going anywhere but forward essentially. Capitol paralyzed by two feet of snow taking a direct hit from the storm. Kids, though, yeah this is when you get your inner kid going again.

The white stuff was perfect for snowball fights and playing outside. Of course, you need that heavy jacket. But oh, and look at the little baby. She even ventured out. That is one brave mom.

Let's go back to Martin Savidge in New York City. We've seen a lot of people out, not yet this morning obviously, but the weather did not keep them home yesterday, Martin.

SAVIDGE: No, in fact, there was a point where the governor and the mayor both were sort of saying, "Look, we can't continue having everybody out on the streets since you are. You need to go home because we need to get the work done and we can't do it if everybody is in traffic or everybody is on the sidewalk." So they rectified that problem.

There is still another problem and that is the storm is a thousand miles off of the east coast. So it's long gone but its still having a potential impact, primarily in the area of the possibility of coastal flooding. And as we get closer and closer to around the 7:00, 8:00 hour Eastern Time, that's when high tide comes back. There are renewed concerns in those areas.

Boris Sanchez is out there keeping an eye on things for us, and Boris, just a quick update if you would.

[05:35:10] SANCHEZ: Martin, as you said, we're basically waiting for high tide. In the past 20 minutes, since we last spoke to you, the wind has picked up considerably. I'm going to show you the bay again, the water once again creeping up several inches, getting closer and closer to this barrier.

By 8:00, we'll find out if we're going to see more flooding today. We're not expecting it to be as bad as it was yesterday when water came rushing over this edge and into this neighborhood.

We just spoke to a gentleman who works at a bar over here to the right, Maynard. He said he got three inches inside of the bar. He was cleaning it out. There was some debris and mud inside.

Fortunately it appears that the damage is not extensive and he'll be able to get back in business pretty soon. But the water that rushed through this neighborhood is now gone ultimately and it's pushed away a lot of the ice and snow. As you can see this area right here doesn't have nearly as much snow as some of the other parts of this neighborhood where the water didn't get to. But, again, as you said, Martin, near 8:00 a.m. when high tide hits again, we'll keep a close eye on this bay to see if the water goes up.

Fortunately, the winds are shifting today. So the National Weather Service tells us that right around noon we should expect some of these flood watches in these neighborhoods to expire and hopefully we'll get to the end of this mess, Martin.

SAVIDGE: Yeah, hopefully we will.

Boris, thanks so much. We'll stay in touch as we approach the critical hour.

I want to talk to Jeffrey Lee of the Margate Police Department. That's in the same area where Boris is.

And sir, just -- if you would, how are things looking this morning and what is the potential for any kind of re-flooding?

JEFFREY LEE, MARGATE POLICE DEPARTMENT: The streets right now are -- they're still very icy, the areas that did flood. The flooding left large debris and large chunks of ice in the road, and it carried away some trash cans and some debris and left it in the roadway. So, the areas that did flood are still a lot of very hazardous to the public.

SAVIDGE: How bad was the flooding? I mean you know, you live there. Was it really severe or was this just kind of typical for this kind of severe weather?

LEE: The flooding was severe in certain areas. The water could be up to your knees or up to your thighs depending on what area of the town that you were in.

SAVIDGE: And, was it businesses that were primarily impacted, homes or both?

LEE: It was both. Both residential and businesses. There's lots of homes and businesses that are along the bay area.

SAVIDGE: And, were there mandatory evacuations? How did you handle that?

LEE: No. There was no mandatory evacuations. But the residents that do live in town that know the areas of town that flood did stay away from the area. There was a lot of people that had heeded our warnings and they were not out and about during the flood.

SAVIDGE: How about safety wise, everybody is OK and is the power still on and heat still flowing?

LEE: Yes. Everybody is safe. The power is still on. We only had one incident yesterday, during the day shift that a resident had to be removed from the residence because water was entering her home. SAVIDGE: And what's your outlook say, for about another hour or two hours from now when we go to high tide? What are you thinking?

LEE: Well, we have officers on stand by. We have equipment that is capable of handling the high water and we're ready to respond to anything that comes up.

SAVIDGE: And that's the best we could ask for. Well, we hope that it doesn't come up. But we will stay in touch with you as well, Jeffrey Lee, of the Margate Police Department there. And we wish you the very best as the hours of high tide approach.

In the meantime, let's go back to Christi.

PAUL: All righty. Hey, Martin, thank you very much. And just stay with us. We have more on some very interesting political news as well as watching around the country. What is happening with the storm and how airports specifically are going to recover.

If you're staying in the airport and you're watching us now, we're doing our darndest to make sure we can get you some information you can take to the bank with you today.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:40:00] PAUL: So think about this. Can you imagine being stranded in your car on a freeway just sitting there in snow for anywhere from 13 to 24 hours? That's what happened on the Pennsylvania turnpike. Melanie Gillespie of CNN affiliate WPIX takes us there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MELANIE GILLESPIE, WPXI AFFILIATE: From tractor-trailers to tour buses the cars and SUVs. Hundreds of drivers were paralyzed on the Pennsylvania turnpike for a staggering 33-mile stretch prompting the National Guard to call in troops to rescue stranded drivers.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're eating scarce fully and hopefully it won't take too much longer.

GILLESPIE: Hundreds spent more than 16 hours living off of what was in their car, staying warm with the turn of their ignition and waiting for any sign of movement.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I thought that we'd see some vehicles, series of trucks or whatever comes along to Berman whatever and just nothing. So we just sat there all night.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We slept, some watching T.V. trying to keep warm.

GILLESPIE: The turnpike authority shuttered traffic for an 86 mile stretch from Somerset to Bedford and then New Stanton to Breezewood but most we found were in good spirits with a chilling story to tell.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've never have been stuck on a highway this long before and we've been here for about 15 hours. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stuff like this. It's going to be hard to get out of this anyway. So I think we're going to be here for a long time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: A long time is right. They weren't the only ones. Kentucky, folks were stranded on I-75 for more than 25 hours, 24 hours, I think it was.

Meteorologist, Allison Chinchar with us now. We know that those roads are reopened but still, sheets of ice underneath all of this snow everywhere. And, a lot of people are wondering -- sitting in airports this morning too thinking, am I going to get out of here today? What are you hearing, Allison?

CHINCHAR: Well, and so here's the deal. If you had a flight scheduled for later today, you've got about a 50/50 chance. If you had a flight yesterday or Friday that you were just hoping maybe now, the airports are going to open back and you get it today.

[05:45:07] I have some bad news for you. A lot of these airports, the earliest they're rebooking is Tuesday of this week, and for good reason.

Now, we take a look, these are the current flights over the air. So you can see some around Chicago and for good reason. Now we take a look yesterday or Friday that you just hoping maybe now the airports are going to open back up, you give it today. I have some bad news for you, a lot of these airports to earliest their rebooking is Tuesday of this week, and for good reason, now we take a look these are the current flights over the earth (ph). You can see some around Chicago their sun down into parts of the southeast but the north east is pretty match of Aero (ph) zone. And the reason is we have -- a lot of airports already over 50 percent of the flights out of LaGuardia, JFK, Reagan, Baltimore, even New York.

Over 50 percent of flights today are already canceled, in fact over 75 percent out of LaGuardia are already canceled for today. And not just the cancelations that doesn't even count any delays that you would have. Again, even though the snow is -- so finally starting to push it's ways back out, it's on the stuff that's already on the ground and a lot of woods underneath that snow is a thin layer of ice and that's one to take a lot of the airport approves even longer so finally clear that off, a lot of it runways and the planes and things such as that.

Also the winds, now the good news is we do expect the wind to not linearly strong today as they were yesterday, but they're still strong, we're talking 35 to 40 miles prone Atlantic City, 25 to 30 in New York, 30-35, in Boston, and 40 to 45 into Ocean city. And again now again notice the numbers do go down is we make our way into tonight, so I think that will help in terms of getting some but you've got all this snow they have to remove.

Look at all these airports with such impressive numbers double up speaking of 28 inches JFK 30, New York 28, LAGuardia almost 28, Philadelphia picking up 20 inches of snow as well. So, again, Christi, it's the combination of the impressive snow total. The ices underneath them, the back up from the last couple of days and then the weather going forward because again we expect that refreeze to anything that they can not possibly clear of is going to refreeze tonight and they'll have to treat it all over again tomorrow.

PAUL: What a mess, I hate getting people that information but we got to be truthful so, thank you so much Allison, we appreciate all of that. And listen, there was some other areas affected by the snow.

Let's talk about Maryland for one. We know that at least one person died in that monster storm that have been and in parts of the state are still shoveling out this morning obviously, and they're shoveling out at least three feet of snow. Take a look at this video from LArgo Maryland, even fire track got stuck in this mess. And you know that they were on their way to help somebody.

Let's go to Virginia now, they're dealing with more than three feet of snow there in parts of the state. Governor Terry McAuliffe look at him here riding with bid out (ph) workers and they really struggled non stop to clear those roads. He's urging people, yet again today stay home if you can even if the storm has moved our where you are. Obviously doesn't off a lot of work to do. And in Massachusetts more than a footage snow hit Cape Cod Coastal areas are raising for flooding as the snow lets up to high tide, strong winds are expected and we're going to keep our cameras posted there as well to bring you all the latest.

You know, you will never know who you're going to run into while you're covering the snow storm. Our Poppy Harlow had a surprise guest yesterday, we'll show you what happened when we comeback.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:51:45] PAUL: All right take a look at a beautiful of New York City at least in the sky and I'm sure it is in the street as well, but we are just about an hour and 10 minutes away from what a lot of people are anticipating merit. The travel ban suppose to be lifted. We do know that City Officials are meeting this next hour, in the 6:00 hour to asses what's happening there and see if they can indeed lift that travel ban but somebody who's already in the thick of things is Jean Casarez live in time square, and you know what I don't even think she' been alone already, it's almost what, 10 to six, eight to six and Jean, I think people walking behind you, driving behind you, I mean, what -- what is it like there so early this morning?

CASAREZ: We actually saw a police car, they just drove by. We've only seen one private vehicle and I thought, what are they doing? Because the travel ban is still in effect.

So these roads are really desolate here but just you said an hour and 10 minutes from now, it's believe they're going to lift that travel ban. What assure is what exactly what people are doing, the people that are walking, they are walking along the street, just as I am right here because the embankments are pretty high. And so it's very difficult at some points to get across the street so you deal with that by just walking in the street. Now we're not going to recommend that after 7:00 a.m. this morning because you're going to suddenly have cars on the street but I think people -- the few people have felt that they could do at this morning.

Now, of course underground subway is operational. Just in about 10 minutes, they're going to look at subway that is above ground, they're also going to assess the railroads at 6:00 a.m. this morning. The railroad that takes so many people in and out of this city everyday and then at 7:00 a.m. a long with traveled ban being lifted also Metrobus service and the bridges and the tunnels will be assessed at 7:00 a.m. because you can't get in or out of this city right now. And it looks like we have an actual record because the national weather services report in this morning unofficially at this point that 26.8 inches of snow fell yesterday which would make it number two in the record books.

Number one would be 2006 and this is since records have been kept in 1869. So, huge snow fall yesterday and our own Brian Stelter last night was in the thick of it as he was driving around New York City. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: We all know New York is the city that never sleeps but it came offly (ph) close to snoozing this past few hours. We're in the West Side Highway right now heading toward Lower Manhattan and you can see that we are the only ones out here. The sanitation vehicles have been able to get ahead of the storm. Thanks to the travel ban that was put into effect on Saturday afternoon, that's why we're already seeing blackout out here already being able to see that the roads are clearing up as the now fall starts to calm down.

This storm was much, much bigger than anticipated New York City. You know couple of days ago the forecast were four or eight inches, may be a foot, we ended up more than two feet of snow here which is interesting because you know, normally people complain when weather man over estimate, they are over -- over state or even exaggerate how bad it's going to be.

[05:55:01] We'll in this case the storm amount was suggesting that Washington will bear the brand of the storm and New York would be led off comparatively easy. It turns out in that great D.C. versus New York rivalry, actually New York was dealt the bigger blow, the topper blow from the storm ended up of more snow up here than in mane areas around Washington.

Of course one of the notable part about the storm is how wide spread it is. We're talking about 100 of miles that's going to be digging out as this day now get started here on Sunday and as the people start to recover from the storm and sort to head out maybe enjoy the fresh snow and you go and sliding and of course taking their pets out and things like that.

So as we drive around here can tell you we see almost no one out here, only a few pedestrians and a few emergency vehicles. This travel ban is maybe surprisingly effective, surprisingly well accepted by New Yorkers and is how the benefit of being able to clear this road as s result.

Back to you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: Brian thanks so much for that. You know one more thing this morning. It's a little different and was yesterday morning. It's leak, its slippery, the powdery snow has really packed down and it's icy. So if you're walking anywhere along the Eastern Seaboard, be very careful because very easy to fall in all of this.

Christi, I'm getting it back to you.

PAUL: Yeah, not only that, yeah, the ices there -- not only there but it's the airports that's part of the problem that they're having and to refreeze they're expecting as well. You know, Jean noticeably absent from time square that people usually talk about and like to see is the naked cowboy and we would certainly hope he's not there in the -- in the weather that you're seeing now but it is ...

CASAREZ: No, we would ...

PAUL: Go ahead.

CASAREZ: We would talk about that, right. No. What we've got here actually some shovelers. People shoveling are coming out finely, they, you know, I don't think we can se them over the embankment of snow but they were out this. You know yesterday, they shoveled and shoveled and shoveled but it kept coming down, so quickly they never made any impact.

PAUL: Yeah.

CASAREZ: Today, I think they'll make some headway because it's not coming down.

PAUL: Yeah, it's like being on hands to way, you just can't finish it. But it's funny, you being in New York, you never quite know who you're going to run into, even in the middle of a snow storm and that was so true from Poppy Harlow. Look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVEN TYLER, LEAD SINGER, AEROSMITH: Not flying out anytime soon, I am from New York City and I'm down here to see my daughter and my son Milo, how you doing Milo? And rush in decided to go downtown but then decided not to. The weather's terrible.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORESPONDENT: Where are you guys going next? The weather is terrible. You were here promoting your latest single in Colbert last night. Where are you going next? I mean you're going to obviously hunger down for this thing?

TYLER: I'm going to hunger down. I got a funny feeling the storms going to keep us here a couple of extra days. Stay home, two words, "Hot Chocolate".

HARLOW: Hot chocolate, all right.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And family hug.

HARLOW: And family, look at this.

TYLER: Yeah, hugs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: He even tell, can you imagine I'm just standing here doing the live shot and here come Steven Tyler. Only in New York, it is so much fun, it's despite's everything that's happening, you got to find those little nuggets, those little pocket out where maybe it's not quite so bad. So thank you obviously to Steven Tyler who had took supplement to talk to us while he was without in about yesterday.

I don't know if we'll be out again today. There's so much news to tell you this morning regarding the storm and some very interesting political news next air of our new day starts right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN breaking news.

PAUL: Take a look at some of the pictures we're getting in from the Jersey Coast, devastating floods as it just gets hammered there. Coastal towns and roads swamped by ocean waters yet again. Also New -- New Yorkers ready to ride. We are one hour away from hopefully the cities travel ban being lifted, but after two feet of snow, the question is how safe is it really if people want to get back out on the road?

Also still in the dark, thousands of people do not have power this morning, they don't have heat as snow covered trees are tapping powered lines covered in ice in the good chunk of the country. And despite all of that, we do want to wish you a very good morning. Happy Sunday, we're grateful to have you company. I'm Christi Paul. Martin Savidge is live for us in New York City. A city cross appear in those side walk in the roads and Martin looks very different this morning at Columbos circle than he did yesterday and I have to believe Martin though it's so cold, you're much more comfortable this morning.

SAVIDGE: Yeah, yeah, it's a big difference. In 24 hours, I mean, now you can see the city skylight again so I think that it completely disappeared. Grateful for that, sunshine is expected later today but there is a lot still going on and so very serious consequence is we've got, probably you can here him. See the snow plows? These guys have about one more hour to really do what needs to be done and so you can see this in the sanitation trucks here, they've been out that it would plows, they've been going non-stop.

[06:00:02] That 1600 of them in the city, so they have been using the time since that travel bans in effect to try to clear the main though repairs (ph) and of course down here in the Columbos circle. That is one of those.