Powerful Winter Storm Slams East Coast
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Deadly storm. Powerful winter weather in the Northeast right now. Hundreds of flights are on hold, including dozens for JetBlue.</s>MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news overnight. A surprise visit to Pakistan. Vice President Cheney delivering a strong message. Plus . . .</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I started going down and the water was coming into my mouth and I started saying, hey, this doesn't look good. There's a chance, you know, you may drown.</s>M. O'BRIEN: Olympian effort. Gold medalist Rulon Gardner crashes in his plane, wrestling death for a fourth time.</s>S. O'BRIEN: And the dearly departed Martin Scorsese finally goes home with an Oscar. We're live coast to coast, Hollywood, Chicago, New York and Washington, D.C., on this AMERICAN MORNING. Good morning. Welcome, everybody. It's Monday, February 26th. I'm Soledad O'Brien.</s>M. O'BRIEN: And I'm Miles O'Brien. Thanks for being with us.</s>S. O'BRIEN: Let's begin with that powerful winter weather socking the East Coast right now. It's going to be a snowy and a very sloppy commute too in New York City and Philadelphia, where the plows are out in full force. There are thousands of people in the Midwest now without power and hundreds of flights across the country have already been canceled. Now that same storm spun off damaging tornados in the Southeast. We're going to cover that as well. We've got team coverage for you this morning with Allan Chertoff at the Kennedy Airport right here in New York, Reggie Aqui is at Chicago O'Hare for us, Sean Callebs is in Dumas, Arkansas, this morning, and Rob Marciano is watching it all at the CNN Weather Center. Let's start with Reggie in Chicago. Reggie, how's it looking?</s>REGGIE AQUI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad. Well, the lines are pretty line, as might expect. Over the weekend, including Sunday, they had to cancel more than 600 flights. O'Hare, of course, is the major hub for United and American. So take a look as these people are not so happily getting in line this morning trying to get to their destinations. This caused a huge problem, this storm. Not so much in inches here in Chicago, but in hours. The hours and days people had to wait to get out of here, whether they were going to San Juan or San Diego.</s>AQUI, (voice over): Iowa, ice. Colorado, car pileups. A wintry Minnesota mess. But perhaps the most telling images from this weekend's storm come from Chicago. At least airport officials kept them warm inside. But for several days it looked like camp O'Hare. On this night, more than 1,000 passengers who wanted to take to the skies found themselves stuck just a few inches off the ground.</s>DAWN BECKMAN, STRANDED PASSENGER: We sat on the plane for four and a half hours, were deiced twice, taxied around the lot. And then I think between the fact that it was still hailing and that the crew had done their 16 hours, back to the gate. And here we are, sleeping on the cots.</s>AQUI: Cots turned out to be much safer than cars. Parts of the Midwest saw up to two feet of snow. And in Wisconsin, a mini van driver lost control of her car, colliding with a county snowplow. A mother, daughter, cousin, and family dog all died in the crash. In Iowa, it could be a week or more before power customers see the light. At one point, 160,000 people lost electricity. Meanwhile, back at O'Hare, oh, brother.</s>PATTY SILVERMAN, STRANDED PASSENGER: And I'm having a heck of a time sleeping.</s>AQUI: What do yo have, these</s>SILVERMAN: Yes, a little cot here. Not very comfortable.</s>AQUI: Patty Silverman and thousands of others just trying to get home. After a weekend of this, those cramped seats in coach never looked so good.</s>AQUI: Yes, people just want to finally get to their destinations after a very rough weekend. I should mention, you heard me talk about the accident that happened with the snowplow in Wisconsin. The total number of people who died over the weekend is now nine. Most of those in Wisconsin because of car accidents, because of slick conditions up there. Soledad, I can tell you that here in Chicago this morning, we're already seeing some delays and cancellations out of O'Hare and into O'Hare. So it could be another very interesting day here at our nation's airports. Back to you.</s>S. O'BRIEN: Yes, interesting as in bad and long and miserable. Reggie Aqui for us this morning. Reggie, thanks for that report. Miles.</s>M. O'BRIEN: This morning everyone is accounted for in south eastern Arkansas after a powerful tornado left a 17-mile trail of destruction. Homes and businesses in Dumas blown to bits. Power is out. At least 40 injured and this morning two children, aged five and seven years old, are in critical condition. AMERICAN MORNING's Sean Callebs is there. Good morning, Sean.</s>SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, Miles. It was a very difficult weekend for people here. They're slowly coming to grips with the injuries and the damage to essential services. But the big unknown in this area, as you look behind me at a pet food factory that employed close to 100 people, trucks strewn across this lawn. The big unknown, the long-term economic damage to this small town.</s>CALLEBS, (voice over): In a terrorizing instant, Brandy Lay lost everything -- her home, her job, and perhaps her entire community.</s>BRANDY LAY, HOME DESTROYED IN TORNADO: I think it will devastate it. My place of employment is demolished. And they're one of the biggest employers in this town. I just don't know if it will recover.</s>CALLEBS: Seconds before two suspected tornados did this to her streets, Lay, a mother of two, rushed next door to lead an elderly neighbor to safety, just as emergency warnings blared.</s>LAY: By the time we got to the grass, the sirens went off. And we made it from her driveway to our house into the hallway and it happened that quick.</s>CALLEBS: So quickly and so deafening, Brandy will never forget.</s>LAY: You hear people say it sounded like a freight train. It sounded like there was a freight train right on top of the house. And it was just like someone took the house and just shook it. And the roof just blew off.</s>CALLEBS: The town's major power substation took a direct hit. Most of the 5,000 residents are without power and it could be days before it's restored.</s>SHERIFF JIM SNYDER, DESHA COUNTY, ARKANSAS: It's kind of crippled a small town like this. We probably have -- we're looking at probably 800 people out of work. Probably a third of our businesses are gone.</s>CALLEBS: Lay lost everything, except her sense of humor, as she tried to calculate the incredible odds of losing both her house and her livelihood.</s>LAY: It's got to be a million to one, but it happened to me.</s>CALLEBS: Boy, and the people of Dumas are going to need to keep their sense of humor in the days and weeks ahead. I really think it bears repeating what the sheriff said. A town of about 5,000 people, 800 jobs perhaps lost. And the big unknown, when will these factories, when will these businesses get up and running, if they will? Stick with us on AMERICAN MORNING. Behind us, there are two mills at this pet food plant, Miles. We're going to show you in about an hour, when the sun comes up, the significant damage. It is just mind boggling what the wind did to these massive steel structures. Just twisting them as if they were toys.</s>M. O'BRIEN: Thank you, Sean. We'll see you in just a little bit. Sean Callebs there in Arkansas. Coming up, we're going to get the storm's track from Rob Marciano and we'll go live to New York's Kennedy Airport. JetBlue, remember them, and other airlines canceling dozens of flights well in advance today. Soledad.</s>S. O'BRIEN: No matter how many tornados you covered, you just never get used to seeing that damage.</s>M. O'BRIEN: It's humbling when you see the power of nature.</s>S. O'BRIEN: Every single time. Let's talk about what else is happening this morning. Vice President Dick Cheney is making a surprise overnight stopover in Pakistan, meeting with President Pervez Musharraf, pressing Pakistan to step up against the Taliban in Afghanistan. Do more to track down al Qaeda operatives in Pakistan. He's hinting that aid could be reduced if Pakistan does not act. In London right now, six country talks about Iran's nuclear program. The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany are looking for a unified way to confront Iran. Iran ignored a U.N. deadline to suspend its nuclear activities. You might have notice that gas prices are up across the nation. Nearly 13 cents a gallon, in fact, over the last two weeks. $2.35 is the average for self-serve regular. The highest nationwide is $2.84 a gallon. That's in San Francisco. The lowest is $2.12 in Salt Lake City.</s>M. O'BRIEN: Well, at long last, there is an Oscar on Martin Scorsese's mantel this morning. The director finally winning the big one. In fact, the movie he made, "The Departed," departed the Kodak theater in Hollywood with four statues. Besides the director award, it won best picture, best editing and the best adapted screen play. Scorsese clearly savoring his moment in the limelight.</s>MARTIN SCORSESE: Thank you. Could you double-check the envelope, please?</s>M. O'BRIEN: It was his sixth nomination, but his first win. Others winners, as predicted, Helen Mirren took home best actress for her role as the queen. Best actor went to Forest Whitaker for "The Last King of Scotland." A bit of a surprise, a win for Alan Arkin. He takes home the best supporting actor for his role as the somewhat crazy grandfather in "Little Miss Sunshine." Supporting actress went to Jennifer Hudson for her role in "Dreamgirls." And "An Inconvenient Truth," Al Gore's slide show turned film about the perils of global warming won best documentary. Comedian Ellen DeGeneres presided over this. So, congratulations there. True to form, she was low key, casual, frequently not on stage and, at one point, stopping by Scorsese's seat.</s>ELLEN DEGENERES: Are you enjoying yourself?</s>MARTIN SCORSESE: Oh, yes.</s>DEGENERES: That's great. It is warm in here, though, isn't it?</s>SCORSESE: It's getting a little hot.</s>DEGENERES: What is this? Oh, it's a screen play I wrote. That is so weird.</s>SCORSESE: It's a screen play you wrote. That says screen play right there.</s>DEGENERES: Yes, that is so weird.</s>SCORSESE: That's interesting.</s>DEGENERES: It's a cross between "Good Fellows" and "Big Mama's House," it's called "Good Mamas.</s>SCORSESE: I'm interested.</s>DEGENERES: And it's -- you don't have time right now, I'm sure, but I'll see you at the governor's ball.</s>SCORSESE: That really looks really good.</s>DEGENERES: Thanks. I appreciate it. Just take a look.</s>M. O'BRIEN: I assume he gave it a green light, as they say. Scorsese's first directing nomination was for "Raging Bull" back in 1981. Good to see he won.</s>S. O'BRIEN: Yes, finally. Finally.</s>M. O'BRIEN: Yes, New York's favorite director.</s>S. O'BRIEN: And she was funny. I thought Ellen did a good job. That's a tough crowd.</s>M. O'BRIEN: A tough crowd and she had the perfect approach.</s>S. O'BRIEN: She's so funny.</s>M. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, Rob Marciano has got the latest on this winter storm we've been talking about that's slamming the East Coast. We'll update you on what's happening there. And then this guy. He is either the luckiest or he might be the unluckiest man alive. Rulon Gardner. Remember the Olympic athlete. Made it through a snowmobile accident, frost bite, lost a toe, has crashed his motorcycle. Now he's got another survival story to tell you about, a plane crash. We'll update you on what happened there. Plus, the Reverend Al Sharpton. It turns out he's linked to Strom Thurmond. Did you hear about this? We'll tell you exactly how straight ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. The most news in the morning is right here on CNN.