A Deadly Walk in the Park for NYC Man; Winter Shows No Mercy; Snow Expected in Parts of the Northeast
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: It's Friday. And if you're here watching us, it means you're either at home trying to dig out or you somehow made it into the office. But welcome. Boy, the Northeast really getting a beating today with the snow on this Friday. It is February 26th. A lot of people saying, when the heck is winter going to be over?</s>CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Oh, yes, it will be over when it's over. And until then, it's going to be ferocious. John Roberts is off today. I'm Christine Romans filling in for him. Here are some of the big stories we'll be telling you about in the next 15 minutes. Snow and sleet coming down sideways, pelting people. Some were trying to crack the ice off their cars in the northeast this morning. This latest winter storm may only be getting started too. We'll have the latest warnings and delays and what it looks like for your commute right now.</s>CHETRY: So did you watch it yesterday? They came, they talked, but the White House health care summit may have been just what the president didn't want -- political theater. Did the bipartisan give and take actually accomplish anything? We're live at the White House with a full report just ahead.</s>ROMANS: Desperately needed supplies still not reaching those who need it in Haiti. Still held up by red tape because the government there says the emergency is over. Even when there weren't these hurdles, there were tragic delays. Soledad O'Brien is there to show us why that decision by the government is causing all new chaos.</s>CHETRY: The top of the hour, we begin with the winter storm that is still pounding the northeast as we speak and it's slowing the morning commute to a crawl in many places. It actually got stronger overnight making a weird turn, if you will, and ended up dumping more than two feet of snow in parts of New Jersey, upstate New York, and Pennsylvania. That's where hundreds of members of the National Guard were actually called up to help deal with all the snow. A combination of 50-mile-an-hour wind gusts in some places, heavy wet snow. It proved deadly in New York City when a hundred pound tree limb came down on a man in Central Park. He was killed. A very powerful and strange storm has meteorologists fascinated but travelers pretty frustrated, and we're all over the extreme weather this morning. Rob Marciano live at the extreme weather for us. We also have Reynolds Wolf. He's outside in the elements in Philly. First, though, we're going to check in with Susan Candiotti live in Central Park this morning. As we said this was a scene of tragedy when a huge elm limb went down on somebody that was there.</s>SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Oh, yes. It's a horrible tragedy, to say the least. But messy is the watch word here today. Look at the snow. We're in at the foot of Central Park on the south end of it right now in Columbus Circle, and you can see some of the tire tracks here. You see they got about a foot of snow here. It has been snowing nonstop since yesterday. As you indicated, it's coming down straight, it's coming across sideways, and you know they've done a fairly good job of cleaning the streets here in New York. We're seeing barely any traffic, of course, at this hour, but we are seeing some buses go by. But the commute for a lot of people coming in this morning, it's a mess on the tunnels. We hear that in New Jersey they have suspended bus service into the city for now. But look at this guy over here at the foot of Central Park. Managed to clear out the sidewalks just a bit so he could open up his coffee shop there. But it did, as you indicated, a walk in the park proved fatal for one man here in Central Park.</s>CANDIOTTI (voice-over): The wet and heavy snow proved too much for some trees, raining down branches across New York's Central Park. In one unfortunate case, the timing proved deadly. Police say a 46- year-old man from Brooklyn was killed when a large limb fell on his head as he walked through the park. Just blocks north of that scene, an entire tree fell on a city bus, forcing police to close part of New York's famous Fifth Avenue. Luckily, no one was hurt there. The crews were scrambling to keep up with trees falling all over the city.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right now, we have trees down at four locations at 76th Street, 71th Street, 69th Street and 68th Street.</s>CANDIOTTI: It made for an uglier than usual commute for New Yorkers with people literally racing to get home before it got worse.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: New Jersey it's snowing a lot more, so I figure let me go now.</s>CANDIOTTI: But the worst of it wasn't in New Jersey. Some areas northwest of New York City could see more than two feet of snow. There were some brave souls out during the day.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Driving is crazy today. Crazy. Ridiculous.</s>CANDIOTTI: But by nightfall, Orange County, New York, had declared a state of emergency, banning all but plows and emergency vehicles from the roads. The storm knocked out power for tens of thousands in the area and outages extended as far north as Vermont.</s>CANDIOTTI: In fact, the latest numbers, more than 22,000 people without power in the New York region. Also, it's a rarity, but public schools are out here in New York City. And in terms of flights, you better call ahead of time because they canceled more than a thousand yesterday and they're still canceling more this morning. Back to you.</s>CHETRY: Susan Candiotti in a very snowy Central Park for us this morning, thank you.</s>ROMANS: OK. So the weather is so bad in parts of northern Pennsylvania, the National Guard had to rescue some high school students stranded after their buses got stuck in the snow. There's power outages, canceled flights, lots of canceled flights. For more, our Reynolds Wolf joins us live from Philadelphia. Hi, Reynolds.</s>REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hi, guys. We are coming to you from Philadelphia from Society Hill. I'm here with CNN photo journalist Kim Borelen (ph). And for our viewers that are tuning in across America, it's kind of like we're inside a giant snow globe. The snow coming again horizontally, and that's basically what's in the air. What's on the ground we've had I'd say about six to eight inches of snowfall. Much of it though began melting yesterday afternoon. Last night, a good part of it was basically like what you see under my feet, but then it snowed over I'd say the last six to eight hours. It's just been a remarkable transformation where now we have heavier snow that has been piling up in many places. Now, I'm going to pick up kind of where Susan Candiotti left off. She was talking about the power situation in parts of New York. Power here in Philadelphia for the most part is in pretty good shape. The problem is, though, we do anticipate the winds to pick up. And as the winds pick up, we're going to see some tree damages. If we have tree damage, of course, there are going to be more power outages so that is certainly a big concern for us. The roadways also a concern, although we do see some traffic moving here along South Street. Let's watch out. Let's not get flattened by one of these trucks. These guys are going to be coming through. They're doing sort of a pretty nimble and pretty slow pace. We have seen some city buses come though, a few taxis. So things are working but still, if you don't have to go out on the major roadways, by all means don't. Roads in some places have been treated. They're in pretty good place, but the overpass as we have that air going below and above it, you're going to have some slick spots. Let's talk air travel. For Philadelphia, in terms of Southwest Airlines, all flights canceled. You're not going anywhere if you're going to fly that. And, of course, with the wind conditions and with the snow, I would not be surprised to see more issues at the airport here in Philadelphia. All over the region it's going to be a big nightmare for a lot of people. That's the latest we got from Philadelphia. Let's send it back to you in the studio.</s>ROMANS: All right. Reynolds Wolf in Philly. Thanks, Reynolds.</s>CHETRY: All right. So it's six minutes past the hour right now. The snow is piling up and the storm is creeping along. And so how much longer will it last? Let's bring in Rob Marciano at the extreme weather center. You know what I find sometimes, Rob, I mean, you're a meteorologist -- hubby is a meteorologist -- no one believes you guys until they step outside and say where the heck did all the snow come from?</s>ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. And this storm is a remarkable one for kids and meteorologists alike. A different type of storm track. It's sitting and spinning. It's hitting a road block. I haven't seen one of these in years, if not a couple of decades. All right. Let's go over the snow totals first and then we'll show you how much more is coming. Pocono Summit, 19 inches; West Milford, New Jersey, 18 inches; Ithaca, New York, 16; Binghamton, 14 and Central, 9.6. And there is more to come although it will be winding down as we go throughout the day today. You know, there's a little bit of dry air sliding into the northern part of this system but the overall circulation is not moving anywhere. So it's going to sit and spin over New York and pretty much has to wind itself out. Now, all the warm air has been wound out of this system. It's gone. It's aloft. It's all cold air at the surface now from New Haven back to New York into Philadelphia, and so the snow that is falling today is lighter and it will be blowing and that will lead to snow drift also. How much more do we expect across the northeast? Generally speaking, figure four to eight. Maybe another 10 in spots today. So take what you see outside and add another half a dozen inches, maybe 10 inches in some areas as well. The other facet to this storm that we haven't really talked about is the wind, yes, but also the water, flooding rains from Connecticut to Maine. We've had flooded roads across parts of Maine and New Hampshire because of the storm surge coming in on the east part of this system. So, almost like a land falling hurricane with snow with this go around. Certainly a remarkable storm and it is not done. We'll talk more, much more about it in about 30 minutes, guys. Stay tough up there. I know it's a busy one for you.</s>ROMANS: OK, quick question. Is it going to be so wet? I mean, the snow that we have right now is so wet and heavy, it's much different than the last couple of big storms we've had. I mean, just doing our</s>MARCIANO: And that's the dangerous part of it. Tree limbs down. You saw the big tree limbs coming down, and that's the dangerous part. That's what knocks out power outages and that's what makes it difficult to remove. Temperatures are dropping so the snow will become lighter but we're getting more snow on top of the already wet snow.</s>ROMANS: Right.</s>MARCIANO: So it's not going to get easier.</s>CHETRY: Yes. It is a different consistency for sure and it is causing a lot of problems for the power companies around the area. All right. Rob Marciano, we'll be checking in with you a lot this morning. Thanks so much.</s>MARCIANO: All right.</s>CHETRY: Eight minutes past the hour. Other stories, new this morning. Taliban now claiming responsibility for coordinated suicide bomb attacks in Afghanistan. At least 17 people were killed in two huge explosions at a hotel in the heart of Kabul and dozens of others were hurt in those attacks. A Taliban spokesman says that five suicide bombers carried out the attacks which occurred about 20 minutes apart.</s>ROMANS: New York Congressman Charles Rangel received a formal admonishment today for breaking House rules. The Ethics Committee says he accepted Caribbean trips from a company that lobbied Congress. Rangel says it's his staff's fault and he shouldn't be blamed. Rangel is chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee.</s>CHETRY: Also SeaWorld says it has no plans to release the killer whale that drowned its trainer. This is amateur video that was taken just moments before the 12,000 pound orca named Tilikum grabbed trainer Dawn Brancheau by her ponytail and pulled her into the water. Autopsy results showing that Brancheau died of drowning as well as multiple injuries. Shows in Orlando and San Diego are going to be canceled again today. The parks themselves are remaining open. Trainers are being offered counseling and as of this point they say they're still evaluating the future when it comes to the killer whale shows.</s>ROMANS: Oh, it's just chilling to see the video of those last moments, you know. I know that all those people --</s>CHETRY: Were there when it happened.</s>ROMANS: All right.</s>CHETRY: Well, still to come on the Most News in the Morning, Democrats and Republicans, they sit down and talk health care. It was six hours long, but did they accomplish anything when all was said and done? White House reporter Ed Henry is going to be breaking it down for us in just a moment. Ten minutes past the hour.