Boston Area Pounded by Eastern Snowstorm
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Coming up on CNN, a record breaking blizzard in the Northeast. CNN is everywhere in the storm zone. We are focusing on how millions of people will travel tomorrow. Vice President Cheney's hunting accident. How did the vice president shoot a friend? The man's condition and the vice president's visit at the hospital. And is her hope for Olympic gold dashed forever? The fallout from Michelle Kwan's decision to pull out of the games, and who will skate in her place. These stories and a lot more next on CNN SUNDAY NIGHT. Good evening, I'm Carol Lin at the CNN World Headquarters. My colleagues are bundled up along with millions of people slogging it out in the biggest snowstorm to hit in a long time. A Nor'easter, a monster storm barreled its way up the East Coast overnight. Washington, D.C. got off easy with a foot of snow. New York City hit with a record snowfall. Air travel is a mess. Roads are closed. And emergency crews are working overtime. CNN correspondents are on the story. And we're also harnessing the power of our wide network affiliate stations. They've given us some amazing video to show you tonight. But up first tonight, Vice President Dick Cheney. He visited a man in Texas in a Texas hospital today one day after shooting him in a hunting accident with a shotgun. CNN's White House correspondent Dana Bash has the latest from the White House right now. Dana, first, begin by telling us what happened.</s>DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. Well, it happened at about 5:30 last night, Saturday night in Texas. The vice president is an avid hunter. And he was quail hunting in Texas. And one of his companions, Mr. Harry Whittington, shot a bird and stopped to pick it up. Well, Mr. Cheney kept going. And when Mr. Whittington went to catch up with Mr. Cheney and one other person there, he apparently didn't announce himself, which is the safety protocol. Mr. Cheney simply did not see him and shot him, peppered him with a bird shot from about 30 yards away with a 28 gauge shotgun. Now this is an incident - this incident, according to Katharine Armstrong, she was an eyewitness, also it is her family's ranch where they were hunting, what she said is that Mr. Whittington dropped down immediately. And he was never unconscious, but he certainly was very hurt. He had scrapes and was bleeding from his face and also from his chest. And he was sent to the hospital. The vice president, of course, has a security detail and also his medical personnel with him at all times and also an ambulance not too far away. So they got there very fast. Let's listen to what this eyewitness I was talking about had to say about the incident.</s>KATHARINE ARMSTRONG, OWNER, ARMSTRONG RANCH: The situation is easily overblown. It shouldn't be.</s>BASH: Now it was hard to hear that, but she was saying to reporters there near Corpus Christi, what she said to me on the phone, which is that she does think that for hunters, this is perhaps more common than other people would expect. But I can tell you that the Kennedy County Sheriff Ray Salinas does say tonight that the shooting was ruled an accident, but the investigation is ongoing, Carol.</s>LIN: Dana, how well does the vice president know Mr. Whittington?</s>BASH: Well, it's unclear. What Ms. Armstrong told us is that Mr. Whittington was a guest of hers. He's a good friend of hers. And she said so is the vice president. The vice president goes down there once a year to shoot quail and has been doing that for about 15 years. So it's really unclear how well they knew each other. She thinks it's perhaps the first time that they hunted together. But Mr. Whittington is - has political ties to Republicans in Texas. He's an attorney there. But I can also tell you that, Carol, we did not know about this incident, of course, 'til about 24 hours after it happened. As I mentioned, it happened last night. It was because Ms. Armstrong called her local paper and told them about it, because she told us that she knew it was going to be a story that it got out in the press at all. And it was then, and only then, that the vice president's office confirmed the incident.</s>LIN: My goodness. All right, Dana, thank you very much. So who was - who is Harry Whittington and why was he our bird hunting with Dick Cheney? Well, he's a 78-year old attorney from Austin and prominent - a prominent Texas Republican. He's a supporter of the Bush-Cheney administration and contributed to their election campaigns. And he's also like the vice president an avid outdoorsman and hunter. Now right now, as we mentioned, Mr. Whittington is in a hospital in Corpus Christi, Texas. We'll go live there in just a few minutes to see how he's doing.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're watching CNN, your severe weather headquarters.</s>LIN: Now to the day's other top story. And those of you on the Eastern seaboard only need to look outside. The blizzard is not done with New England. Jacqui Jeras has the big picture. Right after a first hand look from CNN's John King in Chatham, Massachusetts, John, it's still coming down there.</s>JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Carol, it is still coming down here in Chatham, the elbow of Cape Cod, if you will. The blizzard warning was lifted at the top of the hour just a few moments ago, but the snow continues to fall, as you can see. The winds continue to swirl, but the biggest change here has been that. The winds have died down quite considerably in the last couple hours or so. But the snow continuing to come in, up to 18 inches across parts of Massachusetts. Logan Airport remained open. It never officially closed up in Boston. But more than 90 percent of its more than 1200 flights were canceled today. Across Massachusetts, they are digging out here in Cape Cod. We encountered a number of hardy souls today. It has been a relatively mild winter here in Massachusetts and across New England. But today, a major challenge.</s>KING (voice-over): Daybreak at the Chatham lighthouse, a struggle to raise the flag as much a message as the flag itself: storm warning. Blizzard conditions are trouble enough, a foot of snow in some places more, means a day-long battle in white-out conditions. To clear the way, only to see the storm and the wind-blown drifts block it again. But Chatham's location on the elbow of Cape Cod adds a second worry, there's water everywhere and a mean winter storm is a recipe for flooding.</s>CHIEF MARK PAWLINA, CHATHAM MASS. POLICE: Being surrounded on three sides by water makes it an interesting police.</s>KING: Mark Pawlina became Chatham police chief just four weeks ago. Things seem OK here at the fish pier. His biggest worry is the flooding across town. Much of this parking lot is already under water, an hour before high tide. The main road through town, just a few steps away.</s>PAWLINA: If the water does breach the road, then, of course, we'll have to close it off.</s>KING: Shelters are stocked and ready, but no power outages reported. Summer seems far, far away on a day like this. Swirling snows limiting the famous views that turned Chatham from a town of 7,000 in the winter to more than 30,000 in the summer. Holy Redeemer Church normally draws about 200 for the morning mass. Only 10 hearty souls in the pews this day. No work for the lobster and fishing boats means no samples dockside. But at Chatham Village Cafe, open seven days means open seven days. Rich (ph) and Michelle Crean enjoying their first winter storm since buying the business.</s>MICHELLE CREAN, BUSINESS OWNER: A lot of the guys that are doing plowing are swinging by.</s>KING: Michelle initially slept in, came to work when she realized Rich (ph) was busy. The cafe, the only place in town open.</s>CREAN: Ten, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19. Thank you.</s>KING: That's Michelle counting the change, but she could just as well be measuring the growing depth of this winter's biggest storm.</s>KING: And the snow continuing to fall here. Again, the blizzard warning lifted at the top of the hour, but the winds pick up from time to time. The snow still swirling. What makes this storm very unique for New England, the snow is very powdery. Usually, you get a much wetter snow here. And one of the problems with all this wind is you're getting drifts. You see them here along the coastline. We've seen them across town as we've gone through this town today. Hazardous road conditions still. Officials say they were quite lucky this happened on a Sunday down here on Cape Cod. Certainly it's the off season. Not as many people around as well. Most officials say they believe they've weathered the worst of this. They'll continue the road cleaning throughout the night, Carol. And I have to tell you, it was a tough day for people, of course. They've been worried about the conditions, but Cape Cod is spectacularly beautiful in the snow.</s>LIN: That's the optimistic point of view. Boy, John, well, I'm glad that the storm is moving on, because we're going to start testing accumulations on you. Stay warm out there, OK?</s>KING: Quite all right, quite all right.</s>LIN: Take care.</s>KING: It's one night. Spring day.</s>LIN: Hardy stock we have here at CNN. Well, meteorologist Jacqui Jeras can tell us where the storm is headed now. She's at the CNN Weather Center - Jacqui?</s>JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hey, Carol. I'm glad to hear John was enjoying himself, because I was thinking he kind of drew the short straw here because the worst of the weather throughout the day today really for the last 12 hours has been out in Eastern Massachusetts and along the Cape, where the winds are continuing to howl at this hour. And take a very - you can see that visibility has been down to a quarter of a mile at times. In Chatham where John is, we had wind gusts reported as high as 69 miles per hour. Incredible strength with this storm. Storm surge from those strong winds bringing up the waves about 2.5 feet on the shoreline there. We are watching for dramatic improvements now, as we head through the rest of the evening and overnight hours. You can see the snow showers continuing. John's right about here. And he can expect to pick up maybe another inch or two of snowfall. And we're watching all this to pull out say by 3:00 a.m. at the latest. I think the snow is going to be over and done with. The wind's still a little bit strong just to the west of there in Barnstable, 15 miles per hour, 14 miles per hour. Kind of going back and forth a little bit. And about the same in Boston. Your snow has been done for a couple of hours now. We also still have a few lingering snow showers here across the coastal areas of Maine. But you can see most of the brunt of this already beginning to come offshore. I want to show you this storm system as a whole. It's a really great picture over the last 24 hours. And boy, it really gives you an idea of what a fast assault this storm system was. There you can see it, as it started out across the Mid Atlantic, moves through the Northeast, and now continues to move into New England, and now heading on up towards the Canadian Maritimes. And those folks are going to have some trouble with this storm system as well. What do the numbers look like in terms of total accumulation? Well, we had a number of records to report today. Fairfield, Connecticut was the highest total we could find. 27.8 inches. Here's your all time snow event in Central Park. We also had one in Hartford, Connecticut. Nearly 22 inches there. And Boston, Massachusetts coming in at 17.5 inches of snowfall. What a powerful one for our first Nor'easter this season. Carol?</s>LIN: Unbelievable, Jacqui. Those numbers.</s>JERAS: Yes.</s>LIN: Well, we want to show folks some pictures out of New York City. That storm roared right over that city and dumped a pile of snow, like you saw in Jacqui's numbers. The likes which nobody alive today has ever seen. CNN's Chris Huntington is in - on the Brooklyn side of the bridge right now. Chris, is the weather beginning to clear?</s>CHRIS HUNTINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, indeed it has cleared up and calmed down considerably. They lifted the blizzard condition appellation, if you will, for the storm at about 5:00 this afternoon. It really stopped snowing, I would say, at about 5:30. Has cleared up. It's almost, you'd say, a lovely night, except it is considerably colder. Certainly not the situation earlier today and really throughout much of the day here, the New York Metropolitan area. A ferocious blizzard really throughout much of the day. Record snowfall in New York City in Central Park. 26.9 inches recorded in Central Park, the highest reported snowfall in this city ever. So indeed, one for the record books. The main issue, of course, was what it did to travel, which basically locked down the city. Anybody out trying to drive around was really taking their car and perhaps their lives into their own hands. We saw professional drivers, the bus drivers, the taxi drivers skitting ferociously all over the place. Anybody else out there likely to meet the same kind of situation. Of course, a non starter at the airports today, all of the major airports shut down throughout the day. No flights going in and out. Kennedy Airport and Newark Airport have opened up. But I think we can show you shots of Laguardia, which is still closed down. And that means havoc for domestic flights coming in and out of New York, scheduled at least to come and out of New York not only tonight, but well into tomorrow. Of course tomorrow is Monday, a work day. And Mayor Mike Bloomberg has staked his reputation kind of repeatedly, keeping the mass transit system going in this city. And earlier today, he held a press conference and had this to say about how he'll open up the city and the commuting lanes for tomorrow.</s>MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, MAYOR, NEW YORK: And the next goal is to do everything we can to - as close a normal rush hour tomorrow as possible. Tomorrow, mass transit would be a very good idea once again.</s>HUNTINGTON: Now the subways are running smoothly. We're here underneath the Brooklyn Bridge, a major artery into Manhattan. Traffic is moving smoothly there. Schools are open. So all those kids who were able to go out sledding today are going to have to put away the sleds, put away their hats and gloves, and hit the books again tomorrow. Carol?</s>LIN: Oh, my. All right. Thanks so much. Well, Chris was just talking about the devastation on the air travel across the Northeast. And there in New York City, folks are trying to decide if they're going to travel tomorrow or not. So let's check in with Dave Hennen. He's been tracking a lot of this for the headaches facing air travelers. Dave?</s>DAVE HENNEN, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, Carol, a lot better than it was. Earlier in the day, we had eight airports closed. We're down to just one, as Chris mentioned Laguardia at this hour is still closed. The expected opening time tomorrow at 6:00 a.m. Nantucket closed. No opening time given there. And if you are traveling at the present time, JFK about an hour delay, about 90 minutes or so. Kind of an interesting phenomenon happened today. We didn't see all that many delays right now, because there were so many canceled flights, that there's not that many airplanes flying into these particular airports. In fact, let me take you to our flight explorer system here. This shows you all the airplanes in the air at any particular moment. And around the Boston area now, a few more planes. There's one just getting ready to land in Boston. Came from O'Hare. That's one of the first landings we've seen in Boston in several hours. I want to take you quickly just down to the south here. Notice around Atlanta, this gives you an idea of what it would look like normally. Dozens of planes moving into the Atlanta area, that are landing at the present time. So we are not back to normal yet, Carol, but getting there. We'll have a live report for you coming up in about 20 minutes, too. Out of Laguardia and show you what's going on there right now. Carol?</s>LIN: Good. A lot of folks are going to want to know about that. And we're hearing that it's going to take a full day, you know, to wash out on all these delays.</s>HENNEN: Yes, you're going to want to call ahead. That's for sure.</s>LIN: You bet. Or not travel at all, frankly. Thanks, Dave. Well, of course, CNN and CNN.com never sleep. So get the very latest winter storm information and forecasts from CNN, your severe weather headquarters. Sunday services ruined for yet another Alabama congregation.</s>RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Rusty Dornin in Beaverton, Alabama, where investigators are asking the arsonist to give them a call. We'll tell you how, coming up.</s>LIN: Also, four inmates on the loose in Illinois tonight, including one charge with murder. We're live from Chicago on the nationwide manhunt. And later...</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Being caught red handed worked in her favor. He didn't even want to fight the case. He said, look, whatever you want, we'll get a divorce. And that was the end of it.</s>LIN: And for this private eye, Valentine's Day is a great day to catch cheating spouses. You're watching CNN.