Melting Snow Could Create Major Flooding
WHITFIELD: Deadly and massive snowfall. Now the threats of major flooding in Buffalo, New York, officials are confirming 13 deaths from the storms, which have blanketed the area with 7 feet of snow in just days. That's a year's worth of snow before the end of November. Roofs are buckling under the weight and with rain and warmer temperatures now on the way, swift water rescue crews are in place as well, as fears of flooding are now rising. Alexandra Field joining us now. So, how are people coping in general?</s>ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I mean, a lot of people look at Buffalo and say, they're used to snow, but so many people here telling us that they've been harder hit than ever before. Now the secondary threats, the warmer weather, the rain that's starting to come down now. But you can see that there are people who are out here, they're doing their shoveling, they've got the snow blowers out, they've got plows on their trucks and there's so much work to do. When you finish your house, it's on to a neighbor's house or on to a family member's house, but as the rain comes, a lot of people telling us, their number one priority right now, getting their roof cleaned off. Listen to what one man said.</s>JOHNSON BUNSON, RESIDENT OF SENECA, NEW YORK: obviously, with the rain coming up and the temperatures getting warmer, just worry about the snow getting heavier, obviously. So we've got 6 feet, average, across the roof. These roofs are going to give out so just trying to take precaution.</s>FIELD: Massive effort underway right now to get some of this snow out of here especially in the city. South Buffalo is one of the hardest hit areas. Right now, there are 1,600 dump trucks on the road. Their job, to come on through and pick up some of the snow that's being piled up in these snowbanks, they're trying to haul them out of the city, out of the surrounding areas, in order to control the floodwaters once the temperatures begin to rise a little bit later this week -- Fred.</s>WHITFIELD: All right, lots to worry about. Thanks so much, Alexandra. Let's talk to Jennifer Gray here in studio. So how potentially severe could this flooding be?</s>JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, it's really, time will tell. There's no idea to really know the exact impacts. It's all going to play out, though, and the threat is there. There is a flood watch in effect. We're going to have the melting. We're going to have the added rain. A lot of water is going to try to drain at one time. The rain already there, and it is going to continue off and on, light rain as we go throughout the late evening hours into the overnight. And then a little bit of a break on Sunday. We'll get more rain through there on Monday. So that's going to add even more rainwater. And temperatures are warming at the same time. So you're going to have the snow melt at the same time you're having some added rain. So that is the fear. We're not going to see a whole lot of rain, most likely, less than an inch. Maybe an inch in some isolated places, so this is going to fill up the creeks, the rivers very, very quickly. Areas that have poor drainage, there is that threat for flood. That flood watch is in effect from Sunday evening all the way through Wednesday due to that warm air, the rain, and the snowmelt. And look at these temperatures, they are quickly warm, 41 today, 47 tomorrow, Fred, 60 degrees by Monday. But then look at Tuesday, you're back at 37 degrees and possibly seeing more snow on Tuesday. So, we have a lot that's going to play out over the next three days.</s>WHITFIELD: What a real mess, because on Tuesday, freezing of a lot of that rain, a lot of that snowmelt. Wow, that's going to be a very messy, dangerously, potentially very dangerous situation as well.</s>GRAY: You bet.</s>WHITFIELD: All right, thanks so much, Jennifer. Appreciate that. All right, Bill Cosby in the middle of an avalanche himself of great allegations. But he is still getting love from fans. We'll show you what happened at his latest performance.