Snow, Ice To Impact Major U.S. Impact; Twenty To Thirty Whales Stranded In Everglades; Passenger Files Claims Against Metro North
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now in the "NEWSROOM", a shocking revelation: the union rep for the engineer in that deadly train derailment says he was nodding off moments before the crash. Just how big of a problem is this?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If I was to get $15 an hour, I mean, you got to understand where I'm coming from, how that would change my life tremendously. My kids could have simple things like Christmas gifts. Things that people take for granted.</s>COSTELLO: She says a few dollars more in her paycheck would change her life. Fast food workers like this woman planning to walk off the job tomorrow, all part of a push for higher pay. Plus this, what's it like behind the wheel of the car actor, Paul Walker, died in?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is it easy to do something stupid?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, it is. It's just having so much power under your foot that, you know, things can happen.</s>COSTELLO: More than 600 horsepower, hair-trigger steering. Was it all too much to handle? Second hour of "NEWSROOM" starts now. And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thanks so much for joining me. Get ready for the arctic invasion, plummeting temperatures from Montana to Texas, Missouri to Ohio. We're talking snow, ice, sleet, freezing rain. Places in Colorado seeing major traffic backups with heavy snow and much more to come. Minneapolis could get up to 10 inches of snow while places like Ohio may get hammered with ice. Look at the drastic changes in temperature. Dallas is predicted to have a high of 81 degrees today. That temperature is due to drop to 31 degrees by Friday. That's a swing of 50 degrees. We have team coverage for you this morning. CNN's Ana Cabrera is in Boulder, Colorado where as much as 10 inches of snow expected to fall today. Indra Petersons is in the CNN Severe Weather Center. Let's start in Boulder, though, shall we, with Ana. Good morning.</s>INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It's the combination of the snow and extremely cold temperatures that are making for dangerous conditions this morning. In fact, this is the mall, a popular place if you're familiar with boulder. We've seen a lot of people falling as they're walking this morning. We're talking to drivers who have said they've been slipping. Even the Department of Transportation tells us it' tough to have effective de-icing during this kind of weather because the freeze point is just so low for the snow that they're putting down that de- icer on that it's an issue in terms of getting traction. That's why ire 70 was closed for some time yesterday because of the drastic -- teens for highs, single digits in the metro area with temperatures dipping to negative ten at night. The National Weather Service telling us this could be the coldest stretch of air Colorado has seen in years. And it's not just Colorado really feeling the pain of this arctic air mass. It's really about a dozen states across the country that are at least experiencing some, if not going to experience a lot of these cold, icy, snowy conditions in the next few days. Several inches on the ground now. We'll be here to watch what happens from here. Back to you.</s>COSTELLO: All right, Ana Cabrera, many thanks. Ana Cabrera live in Boulder. By Friday the storm could cause extremely dangerous conditions in some cities that aren't so used to it. Look what it's done in Duluth, Minnesota. It's covered in snow. Now that nasty weather is headed south. Indra Petersons is here to tell us where exactly that storm is headed.</s>PETERSONS: There's a lot to be taking a look at. Looking at Colorado, there's more snow. Another 16 inches is still possible to solve in through Minnesota, same thing. Look at all of this heavy snowfall and that's not even the main story. Here is what we need to be watching. This is the system making its way south and pushing off to the east. We're concerned with the wintry mix. Notice all the pinks. When talk about anywhere from southern portions of Missouri all the way back through Texas, we have a threat of sleet and rain. And that mix extended all the way into the Ohio Valley on Thursday. And where you have the freezing rain in that pink zone, you have the threat for downed power lines and trees. And it looks like some of the National Weather Services are thinking that ice storm is possible.</s>COSTELLO: Many thanks to you. I told you before the break about those 20 to 30 whales beaching themselves in Southern Florida. This is in Everglades National Park. We don't know exactly why this is happening. John Zarrella is on the phone to hopefully fill us in with more information.</s>JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): It's not common when they do this. But it certainly does happen. And where they are is a very, very remote area of the everglades national park on the West Coast. A fisherman spotted them last night. Several of them had beached themselves. Several others were still out in the water. For folks out there, you have to understand, it is all flat out there, very, very shallow water. In some places less than a foot deep at low tide. And even at high tide you may not get more than 3 feet or 4 feet, if that the. Right now there are volunteers that are out there, National Park service folks, fish and wildlife biologists are headed out to the scene, if not already there, to try to see if they can encourage the whales that are still out in the water to get into the deeper water hopefully when the tide comes up if it hasn't already come up. And they were able to manage to get some of the beached whales off of the beach before they expired.</s>COSTELLO: How would they get them off the beach? It would seem to be an insurmountable task.</s>ZARRELLA: They're bill (ph) whales, but not enormous whales. With enough people, they're able to move them back into the water and try to coax them by holding them up. I've seen this done. It can be done. And it certainly is a tedious job. And sadly, in many cases these whales do expire before it's accomplished to getting them into deeper water. But there's a major rescue effort underway now. And it's a very remote area of the park over on the west coast and only accessible by boat.</s>COSTELLO: You said that biologists would try to coax them back into the ocean. How do they do that?</s>ZARRELLA: Literally, it's just by force. They're grabbing them, a bunch of people are holding them. They're trying to point them in the right direction. They try to hopefully orient them so they can get them into deeper water. In some cases it's just literally walking them out to the deeper water. And once they do that, they are then able to hopefully keep them going in that direction. A lot of times they just turn around and dolphins do the same thing and come right back to shore and re-beach themselves. And of course, scientists, biologists are still unclear as to what it is that ultimately leads to these whales and dolphins, you know, beaching themselves. Whether it's viral whether it's environmental. Nobody knows what the cause is when you see something like this happen. But they're working very hard to at least try to save as many of these whales as they can.</s>COSTELLO: Many thanks to you.</s>BALDWIN: This just in to CNN. A female passenger on Sunday's derailed train in New York has filed a train against the metro North. Her client suffered a fractured spine, a broken collarbone and several broken ribs. This claim comes with the question about the highway hypnosis that could have caused in this derailment. A union rep said he caught himself nodding off. It could be key to explaining what happened. But federal investigators say the union rep spoke out of turn. And now the NTSB has kicked the rail union off the case. Earlier this morning a former NTSB director weighed in on the crash saying that fatigue is a real danger in the industry.</s>PETER GOELZ, FORMER NTSB MANAGING DIRECTOR: Fatigue is an insidious issue because it's not easily documented. It tends not to have a high priority on the part of either management or on the part of the operators, the unions. Because you get -- sometimes you get paid extra for working later or working longer. So it is a tough issue. I think management has started to focus on it. But it really is a personal responsibility of the operator.</s>COSTELLO: The derailed train's driver is scheduled to talk to NTSB investigators today. A difficulty ahead for the family of the victims of last year's massacre in Newtown, Connecticut. The 911 tapes are scheduled to be released later this afternoon. An attorney tried to block the release to protect relatives. But a judge ultimately agreed with a ruling by a state freedom of information commission. CNN will air some of those calls, but will not be in Newtown for the one-year anniversary next Saturday out of respect for the families. Still ahead, an exclusion sift look inside one of deadliest nuclear disasters in history. CNN gets exclusive access inside the Fukushima nuclear plant.