Winter Storm Triggers Flight Cancellations and FEMA Shift (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: 1800 flights preemptively canceled by airlines going into tomorrow. That is a huge number. We're talking the worst we have seen so far this year and probably the worst we have seen in the next the last few years. One, it's all said and done. Here is what airlines are doing. They're putting into place what's called travel waivers, meaning that you can book, rebook or cancel your flight free of charge. No penalty, making it easier for you to sort of get out of one of these places that's going to be impacted by the storm. Southwest Airlines, in fact, just said that it's canceling about 235 flights preemptively tomorrow, suspending operations at about a half dozen different airports from Memphis all the way to Amarillo. Here's what airlines are doing. They're moving airports, airplanes rather out of places that were going to be hit big time by the storm, and they're bringing in extra workers in terms of folks below the wing. That's baggage workers, people marshaling airplanes because they're gonna be out in the cold. Also, they're making sure that de icing equipment is ready to go. And the airports that we've been hearing from a lot of places that aren't impacted by snow big time, they are making sure that their plows, their de icing equipment is ready to go. We just heard from Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson International Airport. They say they are ready for this in spite of the fact that they do not get big storm snowstorms like this often. It is the biggest hub for Delta Airlines, one of the biggest airports in terms of traffic volume in the world. It's gonna have a big impact, Erica.

[00:01:34] Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely. All right, Pete. Appreciate it. Thank you. Racing for impact right now. Half of the country is about to face one of the most crippling winter storms we have seen in years. More than 230 million Americans across some 20 states are on alert for what is being labeled a potentially catastrophic storm, and it's a triple threat. You've got heavy snow, ice and, of course, those bitterly cold temperatures. Places like Louisville, Kentucky. They could see 18 inches of snow that has not happened in more than 25 years. By this weekend, Washington, D. C. Philadelphia, New York City, all set to get walloped as well. The biggest threat, however, is likely the ice, and that threat is impacting states from Texas on into the Carolinas. This could impact travel. It could impact power potentially for days. 14 states, at least at this hour, are now under states of emergency center and meteorologist Allison Chin Char is tracking this. The timing, Allison and the dangers. Where do things stand with these most recent models?

[00:02:36] Speaker 3: Right, so let's take a look at where the storm is now, and it doesn't really look like all that much on radar because it's still kind of getting its act together and forming. But we're already starting to see some of the rain showers begin to slide into portions of Texas, and it's really going to ramp up as we head into the evening hour. So we take a look tonight around six p.m. Eastern time. You already start to see some of that pink and purple color starting to form in places like Oklahoma and Texas, indicating the snow and the change over into some freezing rain. By the time we push forward into Saturday morning notice, not only does it push eastward, but you also start to notice a lot more pink and purple on the map, indicating the expansion of both of those winter elements. You're talking states like Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, even down as far south as Louisiana, looking to get some freezing rain out of this. By the time we get to the latter portion of Saturday and into early Sunday. Now the focus becomes more of the mid Atlantic. The Carolinas down into Georgia. You will notice this area of yellow here in green, meaning the temperatures on Sunday are expected to warm back up enough that some folks may transition back to rain before going back to snow and ice again when the temperatures fall on Sunday night. Sunday night, too, is when we start to see some of those impacts begin to spread into areas of the northeast, specifically into New England during the overnight hours before the system finally exits early Monday. Now, here's a look at those totals. Yes, there's a lot of pink on this map, indicating widespread totals of at least eight inches, but some spots could see 12 15, even 18 inches of snow before it all finally exits this area. But ice, this is going to be quite possibly the biggest impact in terms of what we expect over the next 72 hours. Some of these spots could pick up half an inch to over an inch of ice accumulations. Yes, that obviously causes problems on the roadways, but that kind of accumulation really pulls the weight down on things like trees and power lines. So in turn, we could end up seeing some pretty significant widespread power outages across a lot of these areas. You see here that includes Charlotte, Nashville, Little Rock, even down through Jackson, Mississippi and even Dallas, Texas.

[00:04:40] Speaker 2: It is really something. It's also these temperatures that I am having a hard time, frankly, wrapping my head around the wind, the wind chill in some areas. It could feel like minus 50 Allison.

[00:04:51] Speaker 3: It is. It's kind of hard to comprehend a temperature like that. So basically what's happening is the cold arctic air is really starting to push down into the Midwest, but you also have wind gusts 2030 35 MPH. So that feels like temperature to your body, at least areas that are not covered. This is what it's going to feel like minus 43 in Duluth, negative 37 in Green Bay, even Chicago. Looking at it feels like temperature Saturday morning of minus 24. But it's all that cold air. It's going to spread southward and allow some locations that you know, don't normally see snow and ice to get it because of this incredibly cold air. Here's a look at Sunday morning. Now, some of these numbers do improve a little bit, especially places like Chicago, Indianapolis and Des Moines. But you still have some spots in the high plains or the upper Midwest that are still looking at those wind chills, negative thirties and even into the negative forties. But we talked about it's spreading. Look at all of these areas you see in that purple or pale blue color indicating the extreme cold alerts this. This is why we are going to see ice and snow very far deep into the south where you wouldn't normally get to see it. It's also a concern because all of the areas up north where they have the cold air, it's going to stay there, which means in turn all of that snow that's going to come down and all of that ice that's going to come down some of these spots, it may not melt or go away for days simply because the temperature is not expected to get back above freezing.

[00:06:11] Speaker 2: Wow.

[00:06:12] Speaker 4: Allison, I really appreciate it. Thank you, Gabe. I know you've got some significant reporting today about FEMA abruptly halting hundreds of disaster worker terminations as the storm approaches.

[00:06:24] Speaker 5: Yeah, that's right. And the end of the big question right now is obviously is FEMA ready to respond to a disaster like this, potentially the biggest storm of trump's second term. All of that, as the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees FEMA, is really deep into this overhaul of the agency that's been playing out over the past year or so. And just this month, they have been terminating almost every FEMA disaster worker whose employment contract is expiring. We're talking about a lot of the folks who would deploy to a disaster like this and a lot of whom would help them in the long term recovery to help these communities get back on their feet. Roughly 300 or so of these workers have been ousted from the agency so far this month. It has been causing a lot of confusion and concern across FEMA. But then yesterday, Dana, just hours after Secretary Kristi Noem went to FEMA headquarters, she was briefed on the storm. Suddenly, the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA abruptly halted those terminations. At least for now, we obtain these emails that show that for the time being, at least ahead of this storm, if employees contract expires, they're not simply gonna be shown the door. And look, based on our reporting, what this is indicative of is that it really appears that this administration is leaning into the use of FEMA for this storm and taking the storm extremely seriously. I obtained these internal documents yesterday that outline FEMA's preparations. They say that FEMA is on the ground and leaning forward, proactively supporting states in the path of this winter storm to ensure a rapid and well coordinated response. Disasters are best when locally executed, state managed and federally supported, a role that we take very seriously. And I can tell you, FEMA has also activated their National Response Coordination Center. They've been deploying teams across the country to several of the areas that are going to be hit hard from Texas all the way to Pennsylvania and New England. They have been stationing generators, hundreds of thousands of meals, bottles of water. So, Dana, clearly they're taking it seriously. But one of the big concerns right now with the amount of staff they've lost over the past year, how is the response going to be potentially diminished? We've heard the concerns. We'll see how it plays out.

[00:08:38] Speaker 4: Yeah, and that really is key. I mean, your reporting is fascinating about the people who were about to be shown the door will be held on. What about the people who have been cut over the last year in a big, big way, which you've also been doing excellent reporting on. Gabe, thank you so much. Appreciate it.