hey, good morning to you. thank you so much for joining me, i'm carol costello. it is a nightmare outside. drivers across the south are being warned to stay off the roads for a second day. hundreds of motorists are waking up in their cars. still stranded on icy roads and highways crippled by paralyzing snow. when i say snow, paralyzing snow, i mean two inches. in the city of atlanta alone, nearly 1,000 car accidents were reported. some drivers abandoned their cars on the side of the road and are trying to walk home. a pregnant woman stuck in traffic was forced to give birth in her car. and perhaps even most astonishing, local politicians are shaking off the blame, saying, hey, we can't control the weather. >> reporter: thousands of drivers stranded on gridlocked highways paralyzing the metro area. children stuck on their school buses well past midnight. >> i was so much scaried. i was like if i don't get home

tonight to my parents i'm going to freak out. >> reporter: sorry students unable to make it home at all. waking up in classrooms after slick road conditions forceschools to cancel bus service. >> one of the children had a cell phone so they kept calling me saying we stopped again. we slipped again. we're hitting trees. we just ran a red light. >> reporter: with over 900 accidents recordnd and 100 injuries, commuters decided to ban don their cars and seek shelter. others who reported ten hours on the road turned to social media for help. nine months' pregnant. haven't eaten since 10:00 al yesterday. my car is out of gas and i'm starting to get cold, dehydrated and hungry. please help. i have a friend whose truck has been hit by six cars. she has two kids in the car and trying get two more at day care. 911 is busy. any suggestions? the city in a state of emergency, leaving many asking why wasn't the city more

prepared. facing mounting criticism governor nathan deal blamed a faulty weather forecast in a presser late last night. >> i wish it was something that we could wave a magic wand, but that's not possible. we have to deal with reality. i think all of these folks who are here are doing their very best. >> of course, the meteorologists here at cnn beg to differ. they say their forecasts were right on target. we'll get to that in a minute. but i want to head out to the atlanta airport right now. victor blackwell is there. at last check, hundreds of flights have been canceled for the day, victor. >> reporter: well, carol, i'm just a few miles away in college park. yes, hundreds of flights canceled on top of nearly 1,000 flights yesterday. when we talk about 1,000, we know more than 1,000 students in and around atlanta, atlanta public schools and counties surrounding atlanta are waking up at school. but the nightmare for them continues. schools in this area were

dismissed and the classes were suspended at about 1:30 here in atlanta and other districts, but the students were not able to leave because of a shelter in place order. some of the schools had difficulty feeding the students. we saw a tweet from atlanta school officials at 11:45 last night that they were trying to get food to students at some schools. and the students who were at the schools were the lucky ones. because there are students as late as 5:00, 6:00 a.m. this morning who are stuck on school buses in the traffic on these icy roads. we know that fulton county schools had about 90 students stuck on four buses. ambulances had to rush to them. pack them in the ambulances, drive them to a kroger. and many of the students are still waiting there this morning for their parents to pick them up. they were able to go to the shelves and pick whatever food and drink they wanted. but this started for them this time yesterday when they walked into school. the mayor of atlanta is scheduled to hold a news conference to answer some of the

difficult questions about what the city prepared and if they took it seriously. and if those two answers are yes, how could all of this happened here. he has acknowledged, though that one of the mistakes was releasing all of the government workers. companies sending their workers home and putting the school buses on the roads all a same time. but clearly, more questions about answered this morning by the mayor. >> oh, lots and lots of questions. we're going to have the mayor of the city of atlanta on in just about ten minutes. i'm sure everyone will be looking forward to that. on the phone with me right now is my colleague kyra phillips, she endured a nightmare trying to get home last night. kyra, it's just unconscionable what happened in atlanta. >> you know, here's how i'm looking at a time. you know, i lived and worked in green bay, wisconsin, right? we made it to work. we functioned in feet of snow. and as you mentioned there was only a little bit of snow here. here's the problem, people that are in atlanta are not equipped

for weather like this. we don't have the trucks. we don't have the icers. we don't have the salt. we don't have the right personnel. we don't have the leaders that understand what it takes to deal with weather like this. and that's why, carol, our city was paralyzed. i left work in the afternoon. it took me eight hours to get as far as i did. i finally had to ditch the car and walk home. but you know what, my situation, i could go into detail about how frustrating it was. it was nothing compared to what i witnessed on that eight-mile walk home. i saw kids on school bus us. i saw kids stuck at school. i saw people stranded on the street corners crying not knowing what to do. their cars were out of gas. their phones weren't charged up. they weren't dressed properly. there were little kids in diapers where moms didn't have enough food to give them. they were going crazy in the car. i mean, it was seriously, completely shut down.

i mean, i've never seen anything like this. and we've been here, what, carol, 15 years, and we've had bad weather. i've not ever witnessed the city shut down like this. >> i experienced back-to-back blizzards in baltimore a few years ago, and people were able to move around after that happened. you're right. it's just unimaginable what happened here. i want to get back to what happened to you, though. you ditched your car, like a lot of people did, because they had to. a lot of people ran out of gas that was a big problem. running out of gas, help can't get to you because the streets are clogged. you're on the side of the road, what do you do, you start walking. you decided to get out of your car and walk for eight miles. you've been to baghdad. you're one tough woman. but i understand it affected you emotionally, too? >> well you know, because i kept thinking about my son -- you know, my husband travels with

work. i was on my own, all i could think about were my kids. what am i going to do. thank god i had neighbors to call that could help. that's what was driving me, no matter how cold i was going to get. no matter where my car was, no matter what. i was going to get home at some point to make sure my family was okay. if i didn't have kids, carol, i probably would have knocked on someone's door and asked if i could hang out there. on the entire walk, people were putting signs upstairs on the doors, saying we're friendly, come in. we have hot coffee. you can stay here. i saw so many neighbors taking people in, complete strangers. and my biggest fear is i hope that we are not reporting on stories where people took advantage of people. and that there were issues of crime, et cetera. i hope that the desperation was so bad that that didn't happen. and that everybody had good intentions and just helped those that needed help. >> oh, i think the latter is

probably right. i've heard so many stories of good samaritans. going back to the kids when they decided to close the schools in atlanta. some of those school systems decide they had couldn't run the buses because it was too dangerous on the roadways. which meant parents had to somehow get to the children to pick their children up. that created a huge traffic jam. because the schools closed, the businesses closed and the government offices closed at the same time. and people could not get to their children, kyra, for hours and hours. some of those kids ended up staying overnight in school. other kids simply had nowhere to go and they were taken in by total strangers. it was really frightening for some parents. >> and oh, as a parent, you can imagine? i mean -- you know, i'm always against giving killeds cell phones, but i think this is one situation where i saw friends and neighbors saying thank god i gave my kid a phone and they were able to tell me where they were. just in my eight-mile walk,

three school buses, one spinning out, cars that bumped into each other on north side which is a main road. i saw two other buses just right in the middle of the street, couldn't move. they were going the wrong way. they had cones up around. another bus i came across, the driver and the killeds were still on that bus. i would probably say a total of four was i able to witness they were either stranded, had kids or blocking roadways. and you know, that is where the leaders of this city are going to have to be held accountable. we knew that that weather was coming. we all knew that, right? yes, we expected it later, so we thought we could push it. but schools should never have been open. and the workers that are out here to protect us on the roads, et cetera, should never have been sent home. they really should have had a different plan. and living, like you said in baltimore, and green bay, and other parts of the country, you can prepare for things like

this. we had warnings. and there are going to be leaders they're going to have to be held accountable. they made big mistakes, carol. >> funny you should say that, coming in a few minutes we're going to have atlanta's mayor on and the city of atlanta was absolutely paralyzed. should that really happen to any large metropolitan city? god knows what could have happened. we had over 1,000 traffic accidents here. over 100 injuries. one person died. i'll pose all of those questions to mayor kasim reed when we come back. a friend invites you over and they have a really big, really fun pool. and then another friend invites you over who has a much smaller, less fun pool. which pool would you rather go to? does the big pool have piranhas? i believe so. does it have a dinosaur that can turn into a robot and chop the water like a karate ninja? yeah. wait, what? why would it not? [ male announcer ] it's not complicated. bigger is better. and at&t now covers more than 99% of all americans.

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still experiencing a traffic nightmare. the traffic is still backed up on a major artery, i-75 because of all the accident, people have been stuck in traffic maybe since last night. one of the people stuck in traffic right now is mayor kasim reed, the mayor of atlanta, he assures us he will be in shortly to answer all of our question. the georgia department of transportation issuing a strong warning for all of atlanta for people to stay off the roads. nick valencia is covering that part of the story. good morning, nick. >> reporter: good morning, carol, how are you? >> what are they telling people? i've asked tough questions this morning, but what are they saying? >> reporter: in the handful of weather assignments i've had in the last couple of months, really throughout the united states, this is the worst i've seen it. i was caught up in it myself at 1:00 p.m. yesterday when this all started. i don't think anyone could have planned or prepared for businesses to close down. let everyone out on the road. the mayor is listening to an

interview on the local radio station yesterday, he said about 1 million people were on the roads all at once. and that caused nightmare situations for so many people. >> let me interrupt you for a second. we're showing a live picture what it looks like right now. people will immediately understand what you're saying about being stuck in traffic. carry on. >> reporter: these cars are stranded out. some of them are abandoned, i'm sure. i drove in early. i saw a handful of cars just had hazard lights on. people got sick and tired of waiting in cars and decided to leave. i don't know you you understand at home, everybody here at atlanta has been affected by it. everybody seemingly has a story. we heard a story about a woman giving birth in her car. people having to spend the night at cds. children spending the night at school. about 150 people at one elementary school being kept overnight there.

people just couldn't get back home to their families. they couldn't drive on these roads. when you mention this to our cousins to the northeast. people who are used to or accustomed to dealing with severe weather. this is almost laughable that a couple inches of snow do have caused an entire city to shut down like this but again, lack of preparation and coordination, i'd say, caused a big problem here, when everybody just was on that roadway. trying to get home. and it was really just more like a race against the clock, carol. >> i just want to ask you a question, because i didn't see a single snowplow for -- yesterday, or last night. and it took me a good four, five hours to get home. and i live two miles away, mind you. i didn't see -- did you? did you see any snowplows or salt trucks? >> no, i didn't either. this is a question we probably have to ask the mayor. he said yesterday there were at least 40 snowplows on the road. i didn't see any of them. i drove many miles in the city. but yesterday, spoke to a lot of people stranded as well on those

interstates. like the interstate you're looking at right now. interstate 75, one of the main interstates that goes through the city. just a complete disaster to try to drive through. my girlfriend's brother got caught in traffic. 12 hours he was stuck. two of them in a parking deck trying to get out, carol. so you can imagine the situation, you know, his temper, that his going through. and trying to keep calm in a situation like that. i think everybody had, really, you know, their patience tested yesterday. >> all right. nick valencia, you stand by. thanks so much. i want to head to the weather center, indra petersons, because it's very, very cold here now, indra, as it is for most of the country. take a look at the live pictures. you see the roadway there. it still looks lightly snow-covered. no surprise. that's ice now. indra, as you well know, when you're expected to get very cold and for roads to turn icy, you should pretreat the roadways. i did not notice much of that in the city of atlanta yesterday.

>> you know, this is one of the big things we keep talking about, weather education. understanding what to do when a storm's rolling in. unfortunately, yesterday what i'm seeing and what i'm hearing, as soon as the storm hit, everyone flooded the doorways. it's almost like everybody in the auditorium running for the door. everyone got in their cars on the roads at the exact same time. what do we have on the roads? snow on the roads and vehicles heating up the roads and it's turning to water, right? the temperature keeping dropping through the overnight hours. what is that water? it's ice. atlanta, only 2 inches of snow. they knew it was coming. we all knew it was coming, several days in advance. the one thing that was out there was a little bit of a question of how much ice and how much snow. you can actually see on the map when you look at the radar loop here. closer to the gulf, it's water. that's where you gate the water. icing as that cold air makes wind, first you get icing and then snow. some forecasts, ice or snow,

either way, what time they brought in the ice and snow, you knew the storm was coming. why? of course we knew, that same big bull's-eye of high pressure that's been here for last several days. bringing that cold air. the freezing temperatures in the upper midwest and northeast. that cold air was going towards the gulf. going all the way to the south. interact with that moisture on the gulf. this was not a surprise. it was all about the planning. the schools were not closed. unfortunately, when the snow started to come. once again, everyone headed outdoors and stuck in the middle of the storm. storm producing several inches of snow in the mid-atlantic. but the biggest thing i want to point out exactly what you were talking about, carol, the temperatures, they're still cold out there today. but in some places we're going to see the snow melt. many places it has. again, overnight tonight any water that's on the highways that is going to refreeze. forget the fact that nothing's falling out of the skies. that is not the problem at this point. the problem is, everything on those roadways.

the fact that people may try to get on the highways again when you think conditions are going to be improving. you could still have a round two with more black ice in an area where you guys just around used those kind of weather. >> another problem, a lot of people ran out of gas. i don't know if this is true for gas stations in the city of atlanta. i'm an e, e, e. i tried to go to two gas stations. both were closed. >> when a storm is come always put extra gear in your car, gloves, hats, coats. always have the basics. ural right, people in other parts of the country are familiar with it. unfortunately in the southeast it was a collision of a whole bunch of things at the same time. it was that perfect storm of timing. not planning and definitely not having the gas in the gas tank and that warm hat to put on your head. >> man, i'm from ohio. there's no excuse. not only is georgia experiencing this problem but alabama and north carolina, too. we'll get you updated on those

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two inches of snow and it was a -- it was like the apocalypse here in atlanta. it's hard to believe unless you hear it straight from the horse's mouth, what a nightmare this has been in the city of atlanta. matthew holcomb is vice president of engineering here at cnn in atlanta. he's been trapped on the highway for 16 hours now.

he left work at 4:00 yesterday afternoon. matt, i can't even imagine how you feel at this point. >> it's surreal. it really is. i'm really tired. but, you know, i thought leaving at 4:00 yesterday i was actually going to be behind it a little bit. but it didn't turn out too well. i actually sat in traffic at 285 and 75 which was major freeways that are north of the city. i sat for 12 hours. and never moved. >> you sat for 12 hours and never moved. so how -- >> yes. >> i can't imagine. are you going out of your mind? >> yeah, i'm close to losing it. but the good news is, this morning, i've had enough. so instead of just sitting there. i actually went south on 75, and came back around and headed back north on 75. and completely avoided the 285/75 interchange. and now i'm going 10 miles an hour. it feels like i'm flying, but hopefully i'm going to -- it

took me 16 hours to go about 20 miles. i got about 20 more miles to go. we'll see how long that takes. >> so just take off your cnn hat. i just want you to be a citizen of atlanta. if you could say anything to city officials right now, what would that be? >> what was the plan? i mean, two or three weeks ago, the kids were left out of school when it got cold here. knowing what was coming, i can't believe they -- they didn't have the kids out of school and there wasn't a better plan on the roads. i mean, it's an i nightmare. and i have yet to see a snowplow or anyone slinging sand. i haven't seen it. i've been on the road for over 16 hours now. i've not seen anybody out. >> i haven't seen a snowplow either. like where are they? >> 285 and 75 is i mean is a pretty major interchange, if you

know atlanta roads. and they've done nothing. i have seen literally hundred us of cars parked on the side of the road. i saw a lady carrying her kid in a blanket down the side of the road. i mean, people going the wrong way on major, major interstates. it's scary stuff. >> it is scary stuff. there have been more than 1,000 accidents, right. 100 peopled injured. i'm surprised it's not been worse. >> i agree, i think it locked down so quickly. i think people are still sitting. i think i've seen most of those accident, carol. >> matthew, i'm glad you're -- i'm glad that you're traveling at 10 miles per hour. that's great news this morning. please be careful out there. >> just so you know, carol, i'm not going to make it into work today. >> okay. you just told everyone here. and that's perfectly okay. thank you so much for joining me on the phone. i appreciate it. we'll be right back. [ julie ] the wrinkle cream graveyard.

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good morning. thank you so much for joining me. i'm carol costello. of course, we're talking about the weather. and the absolute mess it is in the city of atlanta. the entire city, paralyzed. the suburbs, paralyzed. all because of what some are calling poor planning by city

and state officials. people have been trapped in their cars for up to 15 hours. they simply cannot move on atlanta's highways and biways. the streets are a mess. ice is very thick now. it's very dangerous to drive. the citizens here are asking who's to blame? why wasn't there a better plan? earlier this morning on "new day," kate bolduan and i had a chance to ask that very question of matthew kelmeyer. he's the director of emergency management agency. here it is. >> i lot of information was shared by the national weather service. and one of the things that we take pride in that we push that information not only to our internal, but external partners to make informed decisions on what they're going to do. federal executive board made a tremendous decision to let employees go at an early hour. and it was followed suit by local jurisdictions, mainly the city of atlanta, and they got the employees out in a timely

fashion. it did get quite technical on the roadway. but i believe the elected officials did the right thing by releasing these people to get out of harm's way as soon as possible. >> i'm hearing what you're saying, matthew. and i'm just expressing the frustration of a city. as a person who was stuck in traffic for hours and hours and hours. what people are wondering, okay, the snow started to fall at 1:00 yesterday afternoon. everybody was looking for a salt truck or a plow. i just asked nine people out here, nobody saw one. when did you begin salting the roads? >> well, i can tell you for a fact that the city of atlanta actually got out early in the morning to start addressing the problem spots. one of the things that, you know, i know the commissioner is quite happy with public works that we had not a single problem by any of our major hospitals. both of our trauma facilities have told us they have had no problems. >> yes, but, matthew, that's by the grace of god. you had over 1,000 traffic zengtss.

a woman had a baby inside of her car. there are school children still trapped on school buses on the highway. right now, 18 hours after it started snowing. april lot of people would say that's unconscionable. >> great point, carol. but i want to make sure you know what our private partners have done. publix, home depot and other organizations have come forward and done incredible things to make sure these people had a place where they could go and get out of, i guess, the cold weather for a little while. >> but, isn't that the responsibility of our public responsibilities? is it the responsibility of home depot to spring up and provide emergency shelter for people who simply cannot get home? for people who had to abandon their cars on roadways and walk some place warm? >> well, it takes every partner to go ahead and make it successful. there are a lot of resources out

there but there really is only a limited number of spreaders, graters, everything that can be brought in. and they're being used. i can assure between the georgia emergency management and georgia department of transportation, they're trying to take care of every route they can. major thoroughfares, we supported them in that process. once again in the city of atlanta, al fret that, sams creek, union city, tremendous work for the partners doing what they can. >> i'm sure you're working around the clock. i just want to ask one more question kate, if i might. in hindsight. i know it's not your responsibility to shut down the schools throughout the area. but should schools have been closed before the weather started or even the night before? >> carol, that's always a question to hard-view answer after an event happens. we will work with the national weather sure to make sure that the help partners in the atlanta public schools get the best

information in a timely fashion so they can ask their administration to make those informed decisions. and we will continue to work with them to fine-tune this to be successful as we move ahead. >> all right. so there you heard it. these are live pictures. this is actually -- this is tape. but just a short time ago. this is i-75 in cobb county, that's outside of atlanta. as you can see, there are cars still on the roadway right now. the reason for that, is a lot of people simply abandoned their cars. and either got in a car with another person who still had gas or walked somewhere for warmth. there was also a number of traffic accidents. since emergency crews do not get to the accidents where there were no injuries, people simply abandoned their cars on the highway. this is what it looks like right now. people are still trapped in their cars as we speak. one of the persons -- one woman who suffered through a similar nightmare is hillary isman, she

joins me now on the phone -- you're on skype. hi there, hillary. >> hey, how are you? >> i'm much better than you. but i'm so glad you're home right now. how many hours did it take you to get home? >> it took over 12 hours. and actually, my car overheated. so a stranger, a nice samaritan, his name is peter. i don't have his last name. he actually took me the rest of the way. we were in the car ten hours. >> so let me get this straight, were you in your car for 12 hours, and then another ten hours in his car? >> no, i was in my car for two hours. my car overheated. he was kind enough to take me the rest of the way. were we driving together. i never met him before in my life. and we, together, made it through really treacherous times. i don't know how we made it there. we made it to a racetrack, a gas station, a police officer took me the rest of the way home. >> and this was particularly scary for you because you have

diabetes? >> that's correct. yeah. and, you know, you don't realize how lucky you are until you're in a situation where you're trapped on a highway. and you, you know, nature calls. you know, basically. and you're with a stranger who is so kind. i really lucked out being with somebody who is patient and kind and we kept each other company because we didn't know if we had to abandon our car or not. >> tell me about your emotional journey through that 12 hours. >> well, initially, i just thought, you know, that it was going to take maybe two hours to get home. until i was really stuck in it. and my car just started overheating so i pulled over. and i thought i'd wait it out a little bit and everything would be fine. with the kindness of strangers, you know, he calmed me down quite a bit. and it was pretty amazing.

because this is a really scary situation. i didn't know even until midnight last night if i was going to get home at all. and i'm so thankful. i don't even know how i got here, to be honest with you. it's just amazing how we made it. we got stuck four or five times on the highway. and our car wouldn't go. all of a sudden, it would just turn back in where it needs to be. >> in all of that time, did you see any salt trucks? >> i didn't see anything. i didn't see any salt trucks. there were some police cars because of some accidents. but really, people were just stopped. and kind of feel agent a loss. all i saw was abandoned cars along the highway. and a million accidents. and we were just so thankful that we were healthy. and we have one another to kind of just talk our way out of being really panicked.

>> we're looking at live pictures of the highway right now. and it probably looks exactly the same as it did when you were stuck there for those 12 hours. >> absolutely. absolutely. we had to make big decisions, do we try to get off the highway -- you know, what the exit. and what do we do if we -- you know, get to a certain point. what do we do if we get in a car accident? what do we do if somebody gets injured? one of us. we had to talk through a lot of very big life decisions with two strangers. so it's pretty amazing actually. >> you know, to make matters worse -- i mean, people in the north are probably lookinghillay gosh gosh it's barely two inches, barely. the roads were not salted or cleared. so explain to people why this was such a big deal for the city of atlanta and for cities in the

south that are going to experience this today? >> well, i have to say, i lived in philadelphia for eight years. so i've experienced extreme temperatures and extreme weather. and here in atlanta, we don't get soft, powdery snow. we get ice. what happened is compacting with all the traffic answer td the j was thought heating up the roads. it was making it black ice. i had to step out of the car twice. each time it was slick. it was an ice dating rink for a car. it's very dangerous, it's very danger option for soft snow. and we don't have the kind of roads and conditions that can handle that. nor do we have the drivers. we have people who are not familiar on how to drive in that. even those who are familiar, i'm telling you, there's no way to navigate this. i don't know how i made it home safely and we made it anywhere. >> last question, hillary, who

do you hold accountable for this? >> oh, that's a good question, but i think no pun intended but it was the perfect storm. we should never had had the kids go to school today at all. i think part of the clamoring is parents trying to get to their children. and i do think, i didn't see any salt trucks i didn't see d.o.t. and i just think it was a matter of so many things that happened in such symmetry that made for a nightmare. >> hillary isman, i'm glad you're safe and sound. up want to continue watching because mayor kasim reed just entered the studio. i'll talk to atlanta's mayor after the break. farmer: hello, i'm an idaho potato farmer.

and our giant idaho potato truck is still missing. so my dog and i we're going to go find it. it's out there somewhere spreading the good word about idaho potatoes and raising money for meals on wheels. but we'd really like our truck back, so if you see it, let us know, would you? thanks. what?

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streets from alabama to carolinas looks like skating rinks. it's enough to grind the city to a halt. people stuck in traffic for more than eight hours in some cases. some people had to abandon their cars on the roadway and walk home. others slept in stores like home depot. hundreds of teachers and students were stuck in schools. some students were stuck on school buses until late tuesday night. >> i was super scaredy. i was like if i don't get home tonight to my parents i'm going to freak out. let my mom know where i am, my dad. it was crazy. >> i was scared i wouldn't see my mom until like 7:00 a.m. >> we are so happy and so grateful for the bus driver. we're happy they're home. >> joining me now is atlanta mayor kasim reed. thanks for coming in, mr. mayor, glad to be with you. >> you know how angry people are at you? >> i don't feel that people are angry at me.

i think they have a great deal of frustration. >> you don't think people are angry at you? >> this is the deal, carol, what i've been doing is working nonstop to alleviate a tough situation. we got 1 million people out of the city. we haven't had any fate tagalite got all of the children who are in the system off the buses. and i've been communicates with people on a regular basis. >> there are plenty of people who say the school children should never have been placed in that position. that schools should have been closed? >> well shg, carol, if you're b fair, you would point out that the public school systems makes the call when the schools are closed. you ought to be fair. the atlanta public school systems calls and the school systems independently call when they close. so what we did was communicate. and yesterday, immediately, i said that i thought it was a mistake for business, government

and the schools to announce those closures. which caused people to flow into the streets and created a major traffic jam. i went on the local news -- >> so just overruled your suggestions? >> this isn't an overruling. i said if i would have had my druthers we would have staggered the closings but for you to represent or make it seem that i control when the schools close or businesses that's not the case. >> so who is to blame? >> i think that was a mistake and shared responsibility. >> who made the decision to allow schools to let out, businesses to let out and government offices to let out at the same time? >> the same way that cnn released their employees, other passes released their employees. there were a series of independent decisions when they saw that the government was closed and that aps was closing, thousands of employees decided to release their employees. during the day, there are 1.1

million people in the city. and all of those people left at about the same time which caused a massive traffic jam which caused a great difficulty. that being said, we got 1 million people out of the city. we did not have any fatalities. we cleared wait of our hospitals, all of our police stations and firestations. >> we didn't have any fatalities, but that was by the grace of god. >> no it's not by the grace of god. >> people got out of their cars in icy situations. >> but you're -- >> i was stuck in the car. >> if you put up cnn cameras it looks pretty good outside of cnn. it's not by the grace of god, it's by people workings carol. it's by the grace of god and thousands of employees who did not go to sleep working very hard all night long. so i certainly said immediately yesterday that releasing all of these folks was not the right way to go.

and the only thing i've been doing is working constantly. and i agree that god definitely had a role in it. but god needs partners and that's people out here doing their work. we're in the first day of the storm and we're but i'm partnering with our state partners to get people off of the freeways. >> let's talk about the streets within the city of atlanta. i drove to work this morning. some of them are quite icy and frankly dangerous. i have talked to many, many people who say they haven't seen a salt truck anywhere. >> obviously, there are salt trucks. the streets are salted and done on my route here. i drove on the same roads you rode on and i got here in 20 minutes. i know that we had a fleet of 30 spreaders, 40 snowplows and our crews have been running nonstop on 12-hour shifts. of course, there are going to be

roads that are icy. what i know is that we are responding ahead of the storm. you were here in 2011. >> yes, i was the city was closed two and three days. >> i was going to say other cities have these problems. >> we have started immediately. we started immediately. the bottom line is, we're going to work nonstop we're going to get the city open and operational faster. we are going to partner with the state and get people off the freeways and keep people safe. >> other cities seem to have it together when things happen like this. you could argue that cities like atlanta aren't used to dealing with weather like this but it just happened a couple of years ago. so you had a practice run. some citizens might say, you

learned nothing from that, because it was worse this time. >> they should go back and look at your cnn tape. during the last storm, the city didn't have any snow equipment. it took days. for the first two days, it was kind of like snow days. we were responding immediately. we started deicing the city before the snow ever fell wechlt are now in day one of this crisis. we are fully staffed and running 12-shifts. it is not anywhere as bad as it was in 2011 where it lasted three or four days. no nothing was done. nobody had any equipment. this time, we had sand and gravel and we had it located within the city. what we're going to do is continue to work and get the city open and operational. we are going to go out and partner with the state and get folks off the freeways.

>> if this happens a month from now and i hope it doesn't, what would you do differently? >> what we would do is stagger all of the closings, coordinate more with the business community, the local school system and the state on our closings so we don't have the massive exodus that we had on this occasion that led to a horrible traffic situation that caused people enormous inconvenience. >> mayor kasim reed, thanks so much for going. >> thank you for giving me a chance to talk to you. >> you're welcome. we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] ever wonder why no other mouthwash feels like listerine®? because no other mouthwash works like listerine®. in your mouth, bacteria forms in layers. listerine® penetrates these layers deeper than other mouthwashes, killing bacteria all the way down to the bottom layer. so for a cleaner, healthier mouth,

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in many places, the city and b suburbia still at a stand still. we are joined by a teacher that has been stranded in the school since yesterday morning. you tell us, jeannie. yesterday morning, you went to work as usual. were you surprised that school was being held and wasn't canceled? >> i have to say i was a little surprised but, there again, at that point, when we were watching the weather and keeping an eye on things, we just didn't expect for there to be as much accumulation and ice as what we ended up getting. once it started coming down, it started coming down very quickly and iced very quickly z when was the decision made to try to send the kids home? >> oh, gosh, i want to say that maybe around 10:30, we got the news that we would be closing early. we were going to have a two-hour early relief schedule. all of the level schools,

whatever time they normally released, we were going to release two hours early. for us, that would have been at 2:50. >> were the buses still running to take the kids home. >> we did have buses running. they have to go to the elementary schools first and then the high school and middle schools. it was one of the reasons for the staggered release system. we did have many buses that were unable to maneuver the roads and traffic. there were a lot of abandoned vehicles. getting to and from students homes and schools, it was messy. >> so some students, because the buses couldn't like be on the roads, because it was too dangerous. some students were trapped with you yesterday. at some point yesterday, how many students could not get home to their parents? >> we still have one with us this morning. her mother is one of the ones that are trapped on 75 in her car right now franticly trying to get to her child. we released four others at 11:30

last night. >> i've been talking to several mothers here at cnn. they had the very same problem. they could not get to their children. i can't imagine the phone calls you were getting through the night. >> we got many phone calls. i have to say that the outpouring of support and love has been tremendous. we are extremely blessed to be where we are. i think our community knows that their children were in good hands here at barber. we pride ourselves on putting our students first and making sure that they are well cared for. we fed them dinner. we had snacks. we played games. so we tried to make the most of a situation as we could. but, yes, it was a little stressful at times. >> i just interviewed the mayor. who do you hold accountable for this mess? >> oh, i don't think i'm going to bite on that one. our focus is our students and our community. i'm not here to point fingers or

to place blame on anyone. i'm just released to know that our students are safe and that we are warm and taken care of. >> you're a nice, nice woman, jeannie collins. thank you so much for joining me this morning. i appreciate it. >> thank you, carol. good morning. i'm carol costello. thank you so much for joining me. drivers across the south are being asked to stay off the roads for a second day. hundreds of motorists are on their car. tripled by a few inches of snow. in the city of atlanta alone, nearly 1,000 car accidents were reported. some drivers abandoned their cars on the side of the road and were trying to walk home. a pregnant woman stuck in traffic was forced to give birth in her car. most astounding, local

politicses are shaking off the blame saying, hey, we can't control the weather. >> reporter: thousands of drivers stranded on gridlock highways paralyzing the metro area. children stuck on their school buses way past midnight. >> i was super scared. i was like, if i don't get home to my parents, i'm going to freak out. >> reporter: other students unable to make it home at all. waking up in their classrooms after slick road conditions forced some schools to cancel bus service. >> one of the children had a cell phone. they kept calling me and saying, we stopped again, we slipped again, we are hitting trees, we just ran a red light. where with over 900 accidents reported and over 100 injuries, desperate computers decided to abandon their cars and seek shelter. others, some report spending over ten hours on the road turned to social media for help. nine months pregnant, haven't eaton since 10:00 a.m. yesterday. my car is out of gas and i'm starting to get cold, dehydrated

and hungry. please help. anxious residents seek help for their loved once. >> i have a friend whose truck has been hit by six cars. she has two kids in the car and trying to get two more to daycare. 911 is busy. any suggestions? >> the city in a state of emergency leaving many asking, why wasn't the city more prepared? facing mounting criticism, the governor blamed a faulty weather forecast in a press conference late last night. >> i wish it was something we could wave a magic wand. we have to deal with the reality. all of these folks here are doing their very best. >> indra petersons might have a bone to pick with governor deal. she said the weather forecast was spot on. another one of our meteorologist, jennifer grey, tried to make it home yesterday afternoon. perhaps that was a mistake. she was forced to abandon her car. she has a terrible story. hi, jennifer.

are you okay? >> reporter: hi. yeah, i'm okay. that was the craziest thing i have ever been through in my life. insane i just moved to atlanta a couple of months ago. i did live shots outside of cnn yesterday until about 4:45. i got in my car to drive home. nobody was driving in the hov lanes, not one single car. so i hopped in the hov lanes, because i felt like we neat to utilize all the lanes we could. got about halfway homemaking pretty good time and it stopped. nothing once you got on 75 where 75 and 85 split. i was there for hours and hours and hours. the entire southbound side of 75 was completely shut down. you never saw a sand truck or a salt truck or a plow or anything utilized at that time when it was shut down for some reason.

people were just getting really impatient. you are starving. you have to go to the bathroom. eventually, around 11:00 last night, i just started getting nervous. i was about four miles from home. i was thinking, i'm going to park my car on the side of the road and start walking. >> oh, my gosh. >> i pulled my car over to the side. i started walking. hundreds and hundreds of cars that i passed had people sleeping in them, people had abandoned their cars. people were walking along the road. i had my cold weather gear on. i was lucky. i was doing live shots for cnn. there were women in heels walking in the ice trying to find answers. i walked about a mile to a gas station and got some food and went to the bathroom. my boyfriend was a couple miles away. he met me. we walked back to my car together and then finally got off at the next exit and tried to get home, back roads, couldn't. we had to dish the car about two

miles away from home and got home about 5:30 this morning. we walked. >> oh, my gosh. you left work at 4:45 yesterday afternoon and made it home at 5:30 this morning. that's insane. question just moved you here from florida. so this must be absolute hell for you. >> it was crazy. we dropped the car two miles away from home. we walked the last two miles. that's the only way we are home now. this completely reminds me of the scenes that i saw in 2005 during hurricane rita when houston was trying to evacuate. everyone tried to leave the city at once. there were people stranded on the roads. everyone was running out of gas. they didn't know what to do. there were no answers. i was listening to some of the local radio stations just to find answers and no one was calling in to say, hey, this is what's happening. this is what's going on. you are getting so stressed out, because you feel like there is

no end. i am completely thankful but shocked that no one died in all of that. i kept saying in my head, somebody is going to die out here. somebody is going to die out here, because this is crazy. awful. >> by the grace of god. it was absolute luck. jennifer grey, i am glad. i am so glad that you are home right now and safe and sound. >> me too. >> thanks for sharing your story. >> me too. let's head out to college park. that's veneer the atlanta airport. victor blackwell is standing by with some information. morning, victor. what do you have to tell us? >> carol, good morning. i'm just in the last couple of moments had a conversation with the folks person for atlanta public schools and i've asked the question. i've asked several times this morning since i got the first update at 5:00 a.m. the question is, what is the plan to get the hundreds of students at nine sites across the area back to their homes, reunited with their parents? the answer was, i have not been

given an answer from the board. so that spokesperson, still no update at this hour on how to get the kids back home. you go to their facebook page. you look at the twitter handles and people are using words like failure of leadership, frustrated, enraging, disappointing. they have been waiting for the children to come home, the ones still at school are the fortunate ones when you consider how many kids stayed on buses. i just listened to jennifer grey talk about her experience. my team and i, we were coming from south georgia, coming back to atlanta. we sat in traffic and we were going about eye mia mile an hou. we lucked up on getting hotels here in college park. that's why we are here. we were listening to the radio shows, carol. there was one elderly woman that called in. she asked the host about the legality of relieving herself on the side of the highway. i know that's an indelicate topic but consider this elderly woman has been sitting in

traffic for six hours at that point and she had to make a decision. thousands of people had to make that decision. some people ended up at the home depot stretched out on patio furniture, on cushions, sitting in grocery stores overnight. there are still students who were still stranded on a bus sitting at a grocery store off of interstate 285. a lot of people, i know, listened to that interview with mayor reed and heard from the assistant superintendent from atlanta public schools and officials in other districts. still, very unsatisfying if you look at the social media response to what they are still living through, this nightmare, this morning, carol. >> victor, i have got to say. you mentioned that interview i had with mayor kasim reed. he says it is not his fault. he did what he could. i am sure that will enrage many people in the atlanta area. >> reporter: there are a lot of people that are not buying that. there are people, also, i should preface this by saying some of

the tweets, some of the comments about schools, they are thanking the bus drivers and the teachers who did what they were ordered to do, what enter job required. they are saying that all these messages of how the partners came together to make this work, it is not the responsibility of the manager of home depot to make sure the kids get somewhere. it is not the responsibility of the kroger employees to feed children. they were dropped off there by ambulances that had to pull them off of school buses that were flooded streets in the middle of the afternoon. this is the outcry from people who are still waiting for their children to come home. >> all right, victor. many thanks to you. great information there. i want to get mari, one of our cnn meteorologists on the phone. she has a nightmare to tell you about. >> when i left work at cnn around noon, i knew that the roads were crowded and i knew

that it had started to snow but i honestly thought i was going to make it home. >> why did you think that? >> because it was only supposed to be 0-2 inches of snow. that's not that much. i believed that the roads would be taken care of. most of my commute, almost 30 miles, is on the highway. i thought i would make it. i can tell you now, i didn't. i'm still not home. >> it's just crazy. we're looking at live pictures. i think that's i-75 there, aerial shots from wxia. people are still trapped in their cars and waiting in long lines of traffic. so how long did it take you to get home? did you too have to abandon your car? >> i left cnn center around noon. it was still relatively early. the traffic was really bad. it took me about five hours to travel 20 miles. i didn't -- i wasn't prepared. i didn't have -- i had my work clothes on, my work shoes, it

was not as if i could get out of my car at any moment, because it was so cold. i didn't have a blanket. the irony is that i do this for a living and i tell people, if you are going to go out in the winter weather, make sure your car is prepared, you have a blanket, food, water. if you get stuck, you are on your own. they may not be able to come get you. here i was in my car with none of those things and my windshield being caked with ice. i'm from miami. i have never driven in this kind of weather. my car ended up sliding off the interstate into the ice. i wasn't able to move for about an hour until emergency personnel got there but they were trying to get through to an accident that was farther down the road. they couldn't help me. they had a bigger emergency to go to. i was really scared at that moment. i think that was the scariest moment. eventually, they kind of guided me. they had to move me out of the way in order that their

emergency vehicles could get by. then, i was able to get off the road. i had a couple of friends, alicia and my husband, michael, were both trying to find hotels for me. i kept saying, okay, i am getting to wendy hill. can you find a hotel? >> can you find a hotel in mayor parkway? everything was booked. finally, we were able to find one hotel. i drove as close as i could and walked the last two blocks. >> you poor thing. you left at noon. you talk about the hotel rooms. the poultry convention is in town. that's why all the hotel rooms are filled up. i bet they are having a great time. mari ramos, thank you so much for joining me and sharing your story. i appreciate it. i want to take you to the georgia department of transportation where nick val l

valencia is right now. >> reporter: we are outside the cnn center. i haven't spoken to the georgia department of transportation but many people that have similar stories. mari ramos and jennifer grey. people say it is not a lack of preparation. it was that there was no preparation at all. i heard your interview with mayor kasim reed. he said it was not as bad as 2011. i was here. from my personal experience, carol, this was much worse. you have motorists abandoning their cars on sides of roads. in the middle of some highways. a woman gave birth in her car. children stuck in elementary schools. people traveling more than 12 hours just to go a few miles. you could imagine the situations and the stories that are coming from emergency type situations of people not being able to go to the bathroom, wanting to get home to their children, not being able to let their animals out or take care of their loved ones back at home. i got caught up in the start of it at about 1:00 p.m. yesterday. this was a lack of coordination

among businesses and schools. everybody got let out at the same time. you had 1 million people on the roads in atlanta all trying to get home and it was really a race against the clock. everybody trying to beat each other to get home. that caused a huge mess on the freeway, traffic jams. you are looking at live pictures here hovering from our local affiliate. the interstates are still a mess. it is just as alarming here for the residents having to deal with this as it looks and as it sounds. people spend the night at a cvs. we are hearing stories about culinary students cooking for 700 people. the good thing about stories like this, the good thing about situations like this is people come together in extraordinary circumstances and we've seen a lot of people go above and beyond to help out their fellow neighbor. people, strangers, helping out strangers. that's really the good side of this. everybody that you speak to here, carol, everyone here has a story. you and i included. >> oh, yeah.

nick valencia, many thanks to you. take a break. we'll be right back in the "newsroom." the conversation about her mortgage didn't start here. it began on her vacation in europe on the day she arrived in london. someone set up a bogus hotspot, stole her identity and opened some credit cards in her name. but she's not worried. checking her credit report and score at experian.com allowed her to better address the issue...

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let's talk a little politics before we get back to the weather that's paralyzing the southeast. the state of the up ynion was pretty much the same until we got to one moment. president obama's ohmage to a war hero and his story of survival at the end of the state of the union address. >> i first met corey remsburg, a proud army ranger at omaha beach

on the 51st anniversary of "d" day. he walked me through the program and ceremony. he was a strong, impressive young man, an easy manner, sharp as a tack. we joked around and took pictures. i told him to stay in touch. a few months later on his tenth deployment, corey was nearly killed by massive roadside bomb in afghanistan. his comrades found him in a canal face down under water shrapnel in his brain. for months, he lay in a coma. the next time i met him, in the hospital, he couldn't speak. he could barely move. overs years, he has endured dozens of surgeries and procedures, hours of grueling rehab every day.

even now, corey is still blind in one eye, still struggles on his left side but slowly, steadily, with the support of caregivers like his dad, craig, and the community around him, corey has grown strong stronger. day by day he has learned to speak again and stand again. and walk again. he is working toward the day he can serve his country again. my recovery has not been easy, he says. nothing in life that's worth anything is easy. corey is here tonight. like the army he loves, like the america he serves, sergeant first class corey remsburg never gives up and he does not quit. [ applause ]

>> a lot of tears shed. joining me to talk a bit about this, cnn's chief washington correspondent and host of the league, jake tapper. good morning, jake. >> good morning, carol. >> were you in the room when that happened? >> i was not. i was right outside. it was obviously the most emotional moment of the night. in fact, the camera cut away just then before what i thought was perhaps the most meaningful part which is when sergeant first class remsburg saluted the president and he saluted him back. that's specially meaningful, because in their third meeting, it was very dramatic by all

accounts when the sergeant who had been in a coma for three months, when he stood and saluted his commander in chief. there was a time when doctors didn't think he was going to be able to do that. it was a remarkable moment and very meaningful to sergeant first class remsburg's family and the president as well. >> the president used him as a symbolism of what america is made of. of what we can achieve if we try hard enough. will that resonate. >> i wish i could say that it will. obviously, that was a wonderful moment and bipartisan support for that particular sergeant first class. i'm not sure that as a metaphor that means anything in terms of the country rallying behind what president obama wants to do. this is the state of the union address. i think it was not an insignificant one in terms of a course that the president is now willing to take.

i don't necessarily think he changed any minds in that room per se. >> i know you are going to sit down nd atalk to president obama later today and i'm sure you have plenty of questions you are going to ask him. tell us about it. >> it's always complicated whether you do an interview with the president. we will be interviewing him tomorrow and throughout the afternoon tomorrow. when you interview somebody like president obama, you start off with a list of maybe 100 questions. you really have to winnow it down to no more than a dozen. you have to think about, well, what is he going to answer? how is he going to answer? what has been asked before, what has not been asked before, what do the american people care about, what do they not care about? >> in addition to 15 minutes of an interview, there is going to be about five minutes of walk and talk. usually, that's a moment where you can ask some questions that aren't necessarily hard-hitting

questions, maybe more emotional ones, maybe about sergeant first class remsburg or something else. i'm certainly not going to announce to the white house, assuming they are watching right now, what questions i am going to ask. they will be substantive and about jobs and the economy, the presidency, politics, foreign policy, nationalle security. let's keep it there on those broad categories. >> responsible tan aity is always the best. we have heard of our first fatality due to that storm in the east. victor blackwell has all the details for you. 2 for $25 bet? rich, irresistible parmesan! the star of our new 2 for $25 menu. choose two melt-in-your mouth entrées topped with decadent parmesan like tender new parmesan crusted chicken or creamy new parmesan crusted tortellini. two appetizers. two entrees. unlimited salad and breadsticks. our best 2 for $25 yet! olive garden.

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breaking news for you this morning. much of the south is frozen in place. driving all but impossible still in the atlanta area. we are getting new details of just how bad it is.

victor blackwell joins us with some numbers. tell us, victor. >> carol, good morning. the first confirmed fatality in the state of georgia is related to the weather. i just received an update from georgia state patrol in which i am going to read the message as it came from them. >> reporter: troopers have been dispatched to 1,254 crash calls with 130 injuries and one weather-related fatality since 10:00 a.m. tuesday. of course, that's when the snow started. the slush started and all froze over. i am holding my phone here. i, of course, asked for details about the circumstances surrounding that fatality. i am hoping that i get a response. understand that even with the 1,254 crash calls, those were just calls that state troopers responded to. that does not include the crashes that local city police, the municipal resources responded to. we have seen cnn i-reporters

pushing buses out of the way to allow school buses to get down the road. crashes unreported, people ended up in ditches and walked off to make a phone call or get in a store. the latest number, one fatality. >> i'm sorry, victor. one fatality reported. i want to go to mayor kasim reed's press conference right now. >> we have not had any major injuries at this time. of the 791 accidents that have occurred in our city, 763 have been resolved. we have open cases on 28 of them. we also conducted police escorts for sand spreaders. we've been monitoring recreation centers. we have provided warming stations and we have gotten all children who attend school in the aps system to a safe place.

so none of the students in the atlanta public school system are on buses. we are also providing food for them. so we have been providing food for the students who are stranded in school or on buses at this time. we are also providing food for them. we have been providing food for the students who are stranded in school at this time. the joint operations center has been operating since 11:00 a.m. on yesterday. all of us have been working 12-hour shifts. mine has been nonstop. our fire station has provided overnight support. >> we are going to step away from this news conference, because i think we get the gist. let's go back to victor bla blackwell.

the mayor just said 791 accidents in all in the city of atlanta. most of them have been cleared. he still has open cases as he termed but for 28 accidents. what are you hearing? >> reporter: again, just for those people that joined us late, 1,254 crash calls for georgia state police, 130 injuries and now one confirmed fatality. now, you heard mayor kasim reed say there was not one fatality in the city of atlanta. these two things can be true, because they are the numbers for the state. it could be outside the city of atlanta. another thing the mayor mentioned, getting food to children at schools. i had a conversation with the spokesperson in atlanta public schools about the food and the supplies getting to students. i read some tweets from the aps accounts at 11:54 last night about students who were waiting for food and they were hungry. they said, food is on the way.

i asked her, when did the food reach these students? when were supplies sent where hundreds of students were waiting? she just received, everyone has received food. no clarity if it was 2:00 a.m., 3:00 a.m., or 5:00 a.m. they are saying there have been resources sent to all schools. for parents, if you read the facebook and social media responses, that es not enouis n. we are still hearing the outcry from the students. they knew the weather was going to be difficult. also, why they put all the school buses on the roads at 1:25 and then the communication with the students, between the students and their parents. so we're still waiting to get clarity about the resources that were provided to the students and when they actually received them. carol? >> i'm sure you'll be looking for those answers today. victor blackwell, many thanks to you. we are joined now by keith parker, the ceo and general

manager of marta, the public transportation in atlanta. good morning, sir. >> good morning. >> i'm hoping the trains are running. >> they are. they are on a somewhat delayed schedule but we kept the training up and running all night. we resumed regular service around 5:30 this morning. yesterday, we carried several hundred thousand people and i think operated pretty well. >> in your mind, because we are troo i go to get at what exactly happened. only two inches of snow fell in the city of atlanta. granted, it is very cold. but this is ridiculous. this is a large metropolitan city who has been through this situation before. we heard from the governor who said it was because of a faulty weather forecast. we just heard from the mayor from the city of atlanta saying, hey, i'm not responsible for the highways. i'm only responsible for the streets within the city of atlanta. in your mind, sir, who is to blame for this mess? >> well, i won't get into who is to blame in various ways.

what i can tell you is that we prepared quite a bit in advance for situations like this. we do a tremendous amount of emergency preparedness. we had our emergency operations center going as of yesterday and were able to successfully move hundreds of thousands of people during yesterday afternoon and beginning this morning again. we were beginning to run the rail service throughout the day. >> i'm just looking at these pictures and hoping that everyone is taking the trains. you say the trains are full which is a good thing. was there collaboration between state officials and city officials and marta, you guys? was there enough collaboration to prepare for this storm? >> again, i speak for our folks. we did communicate with the state, with city officials.

we had communications and, yes, we do cost them quite a bit. the toughest thing about this storm has been the ice. the snow is not a problem. i have had a chance to work in a number of different cities around the country that have had occasion to deal with these type of emergency situations. the biggest difference between two inches of snow in wisconsin and what we had here is the ice. instant ice on the roads. that's a far different scene than we saw. we saw the same swigs whituatioi was working in charlotte and richmond, virginia. the system was able to come through and deliver people home safely like we did yesterday and will continue to do for the rest of this morning and throughout this event. >> keith parker, general manager of marta. thank you so much for joining me.

we are going to hear from the mayor now or after a break. >> we are going to hear from the mayor after a break. we'll be right back. stitute for. for what reality teaches you firsthand. in the face of danger, and under the most demanding circumstances. experience builds character. experience builds confidence. and experience... has built this. introducing the 2014 glk. the engineering and the experience of mercedes-benz. see your authorized dealer for exceptional offers through mercedes-benz financial services.

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so when my moderate to severe chronic plaque psoriasis them. was also on display, i'd had it. i finally had a serious talk with my dermatologist. this time, he prescribed humira-adalimumab. humira helps to clear the surface of my skin by actually working inside my body. in clinical trials, most adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis saw 75% skin clearance. and the majority of people were clear or almost clear in just 4 months. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal events, such as infections, lymphoma, or other types of cancer have happened. blood, liver and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure have occurred. before starting humira, your doctor should test you for tb. ask your doctor if you live in or have been to a region

where certain fungal infections are common. tell your doctor if you have had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have symptoms such as fever, fatigue, cough, or sores. you should not start humira if you have any kind of infection. make the most of every moment. ask your dermatologist about humira, today. clearer skin is possible. we're following breaking news out of atlanta where roads are paralyzed. a few minutes ago, i talked with atlanta mayor, kasim reed and asked him, how is it possible that people are still stuck in traffic from yesterday, from last night? some people are still trying to

get home this morning. they have been trapped in their cars for 12-15 hours. the mayor defended himself, saying he is not to blame for those horrible traffic problems. listen. >> so who is to blame? >> i think that that was a mistake and they shared responsibility for it. >> who made the decision? >> the same. >> who made the decision to allow schools and businesses and government offices to let out? >> the same way cnn released their employees, other businesses released their employees. they were a series of independent decisions when they saw the government was closing. thousands of businesses decided to release their employees. there were 1.1 million people in the city and all of those people left at about the same time which caused a massive traffic jam that caused a great difficulty. that being said, that being said, we got 1 million people out of the city. we have not had any fatalities. we have cleared the way of all

of our hospitals. >> i have heard this from public officials before. we didn't have any public fatalities. that was by the grace of god. there were 1,000 traffic accidents and people got out of their cars. >> it's easy to say from your anchor seat. >> i was out stuck in the traffic. i was one of those people. >> if you put up the cnn cameras, it looks pretty good outside of cnn and it is not just by the grace of god. it was through a lot of people working, carol. i think it is by the grace of god and thousands of employees who did not go to sleep last night who were working very hard all night long. so i certainly said immediately yesterday that releasing all of these folks was not the right way to go. the only thing i have been doing is working constantly. i agree that god definitely had a role in it but god needs partners and that's people out here doing the work. this was the first day of the storm and we are working right now to clear the freeways and

you know that i don't have all the responsibilities for the freeways but i'm partnering with our state partners to get people off of the freeways. >> let's talk about the streets within the city of atlanta. i drove to work this morning. some of them were quite icy and frankly dangerous. i have talked to many, many people that say they haven't seen a salt truck anywhere. where are they? >> obviously, there are salt trucks, because the streets are salted on my route here. i drove on the same roads that you rode on. i got here in 20 minutes. i know that we had a fleet of 30 spreaders, 40 snowplows, and our crews have been running nonstop on 12-hour shifts. of course, there are going to be roads that are icy. that's going to happen. what i know is that we're responding in hour one ahead of the storm. you were here during 2011. the city was closed two and three days before there was any activity. >> let's talk about that. >> so we started. >> i was going to say other

cities -- >> and we. >> handle these kind of problems. >> we started immediately. so we started immediately. the bottom line is, we're going to work nonstop and we're going to get the city open and operational faster. we are going to partner with the state and get the folks off of the freeways and we're going to keep people safe. >> well, i was going to say. other cities seem to have it together when things happen like this. you could argue that cities like atlanta aren't used to dealing with weather like this but it just happened a couple of years ago. you had a practice run. some citizens might say, you learned nothing from that, because it was worse this time. >> i would say to those citizens that they should go back and look at your cnn tape. that's just not true. during the last storm, it took days. the city didn't even have any snow equipment during the last storm. it took days. for the first two days, it was kind of funny, like snow days. we were responding immediately.

with he started deicing the city before the snow ever fell. we are now in day one of this crisis. we are fully staffed and running full 12-hour shifts. so as tough as it is right now, it is nowhere near as bad as it was in 2011 where the snow event lasted three or four days. candidly, nothing was done. nobody had any equipment. this time, we had 30 spreaders, 40 snowplows, 70,000 tons of sand and gravel. we had it located within the city. what we're going to do is continue to work and get the city open and operational and we're going to go out and partner with the state and get folks off the freeways. >> so if this happens a month from now, and i hope it doesn't, same scenario, what would you do differently? >> what we would do differently is stagger all of the closings, coordinate more with the business community, the local school system and the state on our closings so that we don't

have the massive exodus that we had on this occasion that led to a horrible traffic situation that caused people enormous inconvenience. >> all right. that was atlanta's mayor, kasim reed. some citizens of atlanta are probably shaking their heads because he probably didn't give them the answers that they really wanted to hear. one of them might be my colleague, kyra phillips, who has quite the horror story to tell. >> i am sitting here burning up, taking notes from what he said. it is like what i heard at the press conference at 11:00 last night when i finally got myself home after an eight-hour commute, ditching my car and walking in the snow and ice, falling three times, to get home to my twins. here is what just drives me nuts. he is talking about what he is doing now but he did noted address what they did not do

prior to this. they knew this was coming. this was a combination of bad forecasting and no planning. when they held that press conference last night, one of the emergency response individuals got up there and said, we understand your pain. it took us about an hour and a half to get here as well. an hour and a half. say that to the woman at the cvs who was eight months pregnant and couldn't leave and is still there this morning. say that to the woman who gave birth on the freeway because she couldn't make it to the hospital. even say it to me and colleagues who couldn't make it home last night for up to ten hours. it is ridiculous. how about the kids in the school buses that i saw as i was walking home in the middle of the night freezing my butt off. i mean, i can't believe the way he is talking. they screwed up, carol. they need to own it and they need to realize what they did or they need to implement something differently. he mentioned 2011. yeah. people had warning in 2011.

i was a part of that. i remember. people stayed home. that's why it wasn't as bad as this time. people weren't told to stay home soon enough. schools should have been canceled and we shouldn't have been in the predicament we were yesterday. >> here is what the mayor said about that. he said, i'm not this in charge of closing down schools. i'm not in charge have o the highways. i'm only in charge of the roadways within the city of atlanta. the reason the city came to a stand still is because the schools were closed, businesses were closed and government offices closed all at the same time. everybody was leaving at the same time, which caused huge traffic jams, which meant even if the salt trucks were present, and i personally didn't see any, they couldn't get through the traffic to spread the salt on the roadways. the mayor did admit there could have been better collaboration between public officials. it seems to me right the at the moment there was none. >> let's talk about 9/11 and how

nobody was communicating. did we not learn anything from 9/11. i'm sorry, mr. mayor. you are in charge of this city and the safety of this city. you knew it was coming as our good friend, lieutenant russell onere said, who led us through katrina. call the shots as a leader, be a man and take charge. don't blame it on other people. he should have coordinated with all those leaders, whether it was the school superintendent or whomever. hey, emergency. let's all communication. let's make a decision. i'm the mayor. i think we should do this. take charge, point blank. they screwed up, carol. i've never seen anything like this before as in all of this, dozens and dozens of people that i talked to on that trek home. people were desperate. i have never seen people this desperate in our city and i have never seen them stranded this long. there are still people all across this city in schools,

drug stores, grocery stores. they look like homeless people spread out on the floor. i have been sending in pictures all through the night and the morning. people still can't get home. that's ridiculous. >> you are absolutely right. one of our colleagues, matt holcomb, from the engineering department. he left work at 4:45 yesterday afternoon. he just arrived home now. let's talk about that picture we just showed before we get into matt's story. i think this isn't a home depot. people were leaving their cars and trying to find any place warm. they went into home depot and cvs. it is just insane. >> and grocery stores. here is another scene that really bothers me about what the mayor said. well, carol, the route i took here was salted and i had no problem. i made it in 20 minutes. yeah, you are the mayor and you have an entourage and my guess is, they wanted to make sure he got to the interview on cnn so there was some -- i'm not saying what went down but my guess is

they made sure the mayor was going to get to your interview safe and sound and within 20 minutes. say that to the person stranded out on 400 out in the boon docks still trying to get home to their family. their route wasn't salted. on your note of not seeing salt trucks, eight hour commute all over the main parts of this city, i didn't see one salt truck. >> i didn't either. kyra phillips, thanks for sharing the outrage in your story. thanks so much. i'm glad you are home with your twins. i'm sure they are happy too. we are going to talk to a woman who had to sleep all night in a home depot. we will check back in with my colleague, matt holcomb, who finally made it home. we'll be right back. the recent increase in cafeteria prices is not cool. when you vote for flo, we'll have discounts. ice-cream discounts. multi-cookie discounts. pizza loyalty discounts! [ kids chanting "flo!" ] i also have some great ideas on car insurance. [ silence ]

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we've been talking mostly about what's happening in atlanta and the underlying

suburbs. the area has come to an absolute halt after two inches of snow fell. people trapped in their cars for up to 12 hours. some people are still trapped in their cars for i-75, i-85, interstate 285. they can't go anywhere, because a lot of people abandoned their cars. there were accidents and emergency crews couldn't get to those accidents to clear the cars from the roadways. that caused so many problems. in the end, some people got out of their cars and walked to anywhere close by where it was warm. britney louise spent the night at a home depot. i'm anxious to hear your story, britney. >> caller: hey, there. you guys are talking about desperation. i can tell you spending 10 hours in my car, moving about a few feet every 30 minutes, not knowing how far i was going to be able to go.

my phone died about two hours into my commute. so my family didn't know where i was, if i was okay. it was awful. i was able to find some wi-fi and get my laptop and call my husband. he saw on facebook that home depot was offering people shelter and food. luckily, i was just next door. i got in. they are amazing. they gave us food. they gave us blankets. they gave us pillows. they put down rugs. people were sleeping everywhere. they had movies showing. we could watch the news. it was -- they were really amazing. >> did you ever think you would be spending the night in a home depot? >> caller: no, no. one of the girls next to me said that it was kind of like a weird girl scout walk-in.

you just have people kind of walking around and everybody looks dazed. it's been quite the experience. >> interestingly, the walking dead is filmed in part in atlanta. a lot of people said it looked like the zombie apocalypse on the highway. >> reporter: i'll tell y . >> caller: i'll tell you what, one of my friends told me she was so impressed how i was able to find food and shelter, if the zombie apocalypse happened, she wanted me on her team. >> who do you hold accountable for what happened in atlanta? >> caller: that's a hard question but i feel like it is the government's job to make sure their citizens are safe. i was sitting in my car last night and i looked over and there was a bus full of kids. there were people getting out of their cars. there were abandoned cars in the middle of the road. it was pretty crazy.

i definitely think that somebody should be held accountable for that. >> i just talked to the mayor of atlanta and he said he is not responsible for maintaining the highways, right. he is just responsible for inside the city of atlanta. the governor earlier said there was a faulty forecast to blame. actually, we have invited the governor to be on the program and he has declined. so when you hear things like that, britney, what goes through your mind about your public officials? >> caller: i mean, really it just makes me worry if this happened again. you had said earlier, what would happen if this came up in a month. i don't know if it would be any different. that worries me. >> you're not alone. britney luiz, thank you so much for joining us this morning. i so appreciate it. >> caller: thank you. we're going to bring in matthew holcomb, the vice president of engineering here at the cnn center in atlanta. he was stuck on the highway for

18 hours. he left work at 4:45 yesterday afternoon and he just got home. matthew, congratulations. >> i've never been so happy to see my home in my life, carol. it is great to be here. >> i can't believe you didn't run out of gas. >> caller: well, you know, i actually had to conserve it. i was sitting on 285 there at 75 for about 12 hours not moving last night. it would get cold. you just had to crank the car up, get it warm and cut it off. when i left work, i had about half a tank. when i came into the house this morning, i was running on fumes. i had to conserve gas. there was no doubt about it. you couldn't get off the freeway. you were just blocked. >> there were plenty of other people on the highway with you. at some point, did you start to get to know them? >> caller: actually, there were a couple of people i talked to. one was a guy that was handing

out gator aid and things like that. he had a full backpack. he was walking down the freeway. >> i am going to interrupt you for a second. there is an interview from the national guard. we want to dip in to see what's going on. hole on for a second. let's go there. >> i-75, between 285 south all the way up to i-20. so right through there, that's what we have been running up and down for the night trying to find stranded motorists to help them out any way we can. let them know what's available. >> reporter: what is this you are holding here? >> for the ones that need it, we have meals ready to eat, what we call mres. just basic nutrition. that's what your soldiers are eating in afghanistan. >> they can open it and start eating it. >> they can open it up. there are parts in there. everything that's in there, they can go ahead and start eating if

they have some water or we can give them some water, they can heat up a section of it with a heater that's activated by water. we do that as well. >> reporter: are you going to be out here all day? >> we'll have to rotate out with the georgia guard and the 48th brigade will be out here. we'll stay out here until our mission is over, until it is completed and the governor says he doesn't need us anymore. >> reporter: people are stranded. if they need assistance from y'all, is there a number they can call? >> it is still 911. what's been happening, i believe the gema has been activated, georgia emergency management agency. everything for us, how we get missioned or how we get tasked, all goes through that. that's what we wait for. >> reporter: looks like your guys are taking water to those people on that bus there. >> we try to take advantage. we have limit