La Guardia Sees Delays; Firefighter Injured in Atlanta Blaze; Venezuelan President Makes Good on Oil Promise; World's Largest Aquarium Opens in Atlanta
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: From CNN's world headquarters here in Atlanta, Georgia, I'm Kyra Phillips. Here's the stories that we're working on for you right now. Holiday hurdles: snow, snarled traffic and airport lines. And millions of travelers are still hitting the road. Up in flames. A firefighter injured, and the blaze is still raging. We're live on that story. And from belugas to blowfish, the world's largest aquarium has it all. We're going to take you there live. The grand opening, right here in the ATL. All that and more straight ahead. CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now. Planes, trains, and automobiles. If you're not in one, packing for one, waiting for one, trying to carry your turkey in one, you may be extra thankful on this Thanksgiving eve. Whether or not it's really the busiest travel day of the whole year, it's busy enough. AAA estimates 37 million of us will get to grandmother's House or wherever by road, even though the hotels, rental cars, and especially gasoline, that all cost more now than it did a year ago. Airfares have taken off, too. But 22 million of us are flying this week, or trying to. The Air Transport Association expects to slightly outdo the all-time record for Thanksgiving volume set in 2004. Amtrak expects to almost double its usual mid-week train traffic. Dozens of extra trains are online in the northeast alone, and all of those, plus the Surfliner trains in southern California, guess what, all sold out. And I haven't even mentioned one vital ingredient in all of this, the weather. CNN meteorologists Dave Hennen and Bonnie Schneider watching that and how it affects the trip from point A to point B. We've got to double up on the weather today. Hi, guys.</s>DAVE HENNEN, CNN METEOROLOGIST: If we can take a look at our real-time traffic delays that we're looking at. This is flight explorer, showing you all the planes in the air. Over 6,000 airlines are in the air at the present time. There are currently some airport delays in effect, as well. If we can go back to camera now, let me show you a couple of the things that we're looking at. Back through the Midwest, these are our problem areas at the present time. Let me zoom you into a couple problem areas that we have seen through the morning hours. This takes us into the Chicago area. There's a problem, I-94. That is the Tristate Tollway north of U.S. 14, problems there. Seeing some problems in Denver on I-70, westbound, in the metro area. If you're heading into Denver that accident really slowing things down at the present time. And one more stop for you as well, is further out to the west. Actually, let me show you airport delays, because we do presently have some delays. Into the northeast, La Guardia, over an hour at the present time. We also have some other specific delays I can talk about as well. Back through the southeast. A few delays here. And in the west, delays Seattle, delays also in Phoenix, 15 to 30 minutes, 15 to 30 minutes in Seattle. We'll be tracking these all afternoon, Kyra. So not the best of days if you're traveling through the Great Lakes. We'll have more on that coming up in the next half hour.</s>PHILLIPS: Thanks, Dave. Well, perfect segue. You mentioned La Guardia. We know of one airline actually offering free massages in the VIP lounge at La Guardia today. CNN's Alina Cho can tell us how everyone else is coping. Are you really serious? Is that happening? What airline is this?</s>ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know what? If it is happening, we're not there and we should be.</s>PHILLIPS: You don't know about it.</s>CHO: You know -- no, I do now, and we'll be heading there after this live shot, I assure you.</s>PHILLIPS: All right. I'll work on finding out which airline it is. OK.</s>CHO: Yes, that's right. What I can tell you, Kyra, is that it is unbelievably quiet here at La Guardia Airport. And that's surprising considering this is traditionally the busiest travel day of the year. I am assured, however, that this is simply a lull in the activity here. Things are expected to pick up in a couple of hours, two to be exact, at 3 p.m. Eastern Time, and will stay busy until about 9 tonight. Now, there was a minor glitch to report. One of the two runways was closed for a short time this morning, due to the high winds that were reported earlier. But both runways are back open. And the good news is, Kyra, no major delays to report here.</s>PHILLIPS: That's great. All right. Well, Dave Hennen was saying something about possibly an hour delay with some -- is that considered not major, I guess?</s>CHO: Well, you know there were 15- to 30-minute delays reported earlier due to the high winds. And it could simply be that there are some backups due to that single runway situation earlier. But nothing major to report. We just spoke to the Port Authority.</s>PHILLIPS: Good.</s>CHO: And he said smooth sailing or smooth flying, I should say.</s>PHILLIPS: That's great news. Alina Cho, thank you so much. And we're going to get right to Fredricka Whitfield, working a story right now, developing here in Atlanta, a raging fire. Fred, what do you know?</s>FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Well, here it is the day before Thanksgiving, and this raging fire is involving an apartment complex in downtown Atlanta. Here's a live picture right now of the blaze. It's -- that they are trying to put out. Taking place at the corner of Pine Street and Boulevard, if you known downtown Atlanta. Fortunately, all the residents of the 36 units of that building have been evacuated. And no injuries of the residents have been reported. However, while fighting the blaze -- we'll show you some videotape that was taken a little bit earlier -- an injury was reported, that involving a firefighter, trying to battle this -- what was considered a four alarm fire taking place there in downtown Atlanta. You see those pictures of an injured firefighter being taken out. Now, the winds apparently might be hampering this firefighting efforts, because a neighboring structure, according to some of the aerial views of the firefighting that we've been seeing, looks like it might be in trouble. But we have no official confirmation of what that neighboring structure just might be. Again, this video -- that video you were seeing of them administering some first aid to that injured firefighter. Meantime, the cause of this blaze is still unknown at this time -- Kyra.</s>PHILLIPS: And Fred -- Fred, did you say we don't know how that firefighter is doing as of right now?</s>WHITFIELD: We don't know. We just know that he has been transported to the hospital. He is being treated and hospitalized there. But of course, when we get his condition and the extent of his injuries, we'll be able to pass that on to you.</s>PHILLIPS: All right. We'll check in with you for the update. Fred, thanks so much. Meanwhile, it's a good cause, but not everyone thinks it's a good idea. At issue, a pair of deals that some House Democrats had cut with Venezuela's controversial president, Hugo Chavez. Venezuela will ship home heating oil to low-income Americans at a discount. In return, Chavez gets a chance to, well, embarrass his nemesis, George W. Bush. Here's CNN's Christine Romans.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a gift from Venezuela, and we're having a party.</s>CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Venezuela's president is making good on a promise to bring cheap heating oil to poor Americans. And in the process, thumbing his nose at President George Bush.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's Venezuelan oil, pal.</s>ROMANS: Massachusetts Democrats and Venezuela's ambassador, with much fanfare, gathered on the lawn of a residence south of Boston to celebrate.</s>REP. WILLIAM DELAHUNT (D), MASSACHUSETTS: To Citgo, to the people of Venezuela, our debt.</s>REP. EDWARD MARKEY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: This is a singular gesture, which will translate into real help for real people.</s>ROMANS: Real help from a Latin American leader prone to outrageous insults of President Bush, who's called the United States the largest terrorist organization in the world. At a State Department press briefing...</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What type of message does this send when a foreign government comes in and is helping Americans in the time of need?</s>SEAN MCCORMACK, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: Well, again, we haven't seen -- seen -- we've seen the rhetoric; we've seen the press reports. I don't think that we have seen any sort -- we don't have any further details with regard to these news reports. We haven't seen any concrete -- concrete steps on the part of Citgo Corporation.</s>ROMANS: But Bronx Congressman Jose Serrano is seeing concrete steps on the part of Venezuela's Citgo.</s>REP. JOSE SERRANO (D), NEW YORK: Citgo Corporation will sell, set aside, eight million gallons of home heating oil to be sold at a 40 percent discount. With the full understanding, signed understanding, that this 40 percent savings has to be passed on to the community.</s>ROMANS: In the Bronx and in Boston, Democrats say Venezuela is doing what the Bush administration, Congress, and oil companies can't or won't. Citizens Energy president Joe Kennedy.</s>JOSEPH KENNEDY, PRESIDENT, CITIZENS ENERGY CORPORATION: When it comes to saying whether there's enough money to increase just a little bit for the fuel assistance program, what do we hear from Washington? "Sorry, boys, there's no money in the till."</s>ROMANS: No money in the till, critics say, unless it's handouts for oil companies.</s>TYSON SLOCUM, PUBLIC CITIZEN'S ENERGY PROGRAM: The recent energy bill prioritized oil companies with $6 billion in subsidies. There wasn't a dime in that energy bill for lower-income people, to help them out with their utility bills, or for middle American -- for middle income people.</s>ROMANS: That leaves a big opening for the man would called the president "Mr. Danger" to playing "Santa Chavez." Christine Romans, CNN, New York.</s>PHILLIPS: We'll have more on this issue next hour. Former congressman Bob Barr and Larry Crecin (ph) of the Massachusetts energy nonprofit will go head to head over Hugo Chavez and his oil offer. That's this hour right here on LIVE FROM. Compelling pictures from the front lines in Iraq. Troops searching for dangerous insurgents, yet in the midst, families holed up, trying to protect their property and their loved ones. It's called the three-block war. You'll see it next on LIVE FROM.