>> reporter: governor f i could follow up, i was -- i was at -- >> reporter: why didn't you declare a state of emergency before the storm hit rather than after? >> well, we did not think it was justified to do so. we were putting all of our resources in play without the official declaration. the official declaration doesn't really do anything in terms of getting outside help or whatever. all it does is simply say that the state's resources will be available to local levels of government if they chose to ask us for that. and there were minimal requests, even now, from local levels of government for additional state assistance. >> reporter: couldn't that have kept people off the roads, though? if you declare a state of emergency and wouldn't that have kept people -- north carolina and other states aren't dealing the same issue we're dealing with because they declared a state of emergency before the storm hit. >> you may be right. that's a lesson we need to look

at and see if it would have made a difference in this case. >> reporter: if i could follow up on that point, governor. i was at gema trying to get into the emergency ops center. they said it wasn't activated. that was 3:30 to 4:00. they told me because it wasn't activated. how can you say there wasn't an emergency when kids were stranded in schools and school buses at that time. >> charlie, you want to answer? >> yes, sir. the state operation center was partially activated. that means that some key state agencies were in place. and we were talking to even more of those people over the phone and through e-mail and things of that nature. and we were still gearing up for the response, because at 2:00 or 3:00 yesterday, it had still not gotten terrible on the roads. >> reporter: at 3:30 or 4:00 it wasn't terrible on the roads? is that what you're saying? >> yeah. it wasn't as gridlocked as it is

now. >> reporter: governor, do you agree with that? >> i'm afraid i don't. because i was on the roads about that point in time and it was getting to be gridlocked. the interstates were already experiencing major difficulties. side roads that people were trying to take to get off were experiencing difficulties. so, you know, we all have some lessons we need to learn here from this. and i think we all will take that away. whether or not the declaration would have changed the circumstances, is a question i don't know the total answer to. we will talk with other departments such as local school superintendents as to whether or not they would have made a determination on their part had a declaration been issued earlier. i don't know whether that would have been the case or not. but certainly, all of that is the kind of thing that we have to evaluate. and will dictate whether or not we react in a different fashion at another point in time. hopefully it will not happen any

time soon, but obviously this one is a bad situation. we're trying to deal with the realities now. >> reporter: governor, you said you don't blame anyone but some people are blaming you for the gridlock that we're seeing and the perception across the country is that georgia can't handle a storm like this. even al roker said that this is the result of poor preplanning. would you respond? >> well, i'm willing to take whatever blame comes my way. if i'm responsible for it, i'll accept that. i think the important thing to understand, though, is that we have geared up by way of resources. the mayor has already outlined that as to what the city has done since 2011 when we had a similar storm. the state has already done that as well through d.o.t. and, of course, here again, calling in the national guard and the assistance of the state patrol with the amount of equipment that is out there, we have much more equipment available. the problem was, though, the

equipment could not function with so many people on the roadway and unable to move. now, i don't know the best way to solve that, other than to start taking it gradually to unclog that part of congestion. that's the approach that we've been taking. and those large trucks are a major portion of it. and maybe i should ask keith to talk to you about what could be done in terms of preparing them to either avoid an area such as this in a time of crisis with a storm, or whether or not there are requirements they should maybe have chains on their wheels in order to avoid these jack-knifes. >> reporter: mayor reed said he thought there was errors in that everyone was let out at the same time. do you agree, were there any errors made? >> obviously, there were errors. i think the mayor used a deskriptive term.

like somebody blew a whistle and everyone left at the same time. that's exactly what happened. if we had blown the whistle earlier, would that have changed. i don't know. >> reporter: did you make the right call? >> we did under the circumstances of what we knew at that time. we alerted our state employees so they could leave earlier. get them off the roadways if they were in a position to leave. you know, we just got to learn the lessons from this. and they're hard lessons. and every situation manifests itself differently. it's not always the same way. we have always had emergency plans in place. sometimes they're adequate. sometimes they're not. let me ask keith, though, to talk about the situation with the 18-wheelers. >> thank you, governor. yes, after the 2011 event, which was really a totally different event. that event started at night on like a sunday night, monday mortga morning. we had 5 inches of accumulation very quickly, ice pack and we

didn't get above freezing for four days. different event than today. to compare the two it's not necessarily totally fair. but what we did do after 2011 in legislation is 2011 we actually noticed that trucks were a problem and we continue to work on that. so, we actually got a statute passed that said we would require chains on tractor-trailers if we signed them into the region. that statute was passed. it's very difficult to do that. have you to understand, interstates are built to move commerce. looking at the event at 4:00, 5:00 in the morning and knowing we were looking for dustings, light dustings, maybe up to 2 inches would not have changed our response. as the governor said for us, at the department of transportation, we wouldn't have changed anything because we were still expecting heavy accumulation south of georgia. whether two hours north of cherokee or one hour north of cherokee. we could not have repositioned any of our folks. so, i don't know that we could have activated that.

that's something we'll work with the department of public safety on and try to determine when's the best time to make that call to require tractor-trailers to have chains and when they come into the area they have the ability to have the traction and not have the impacts. >> reporter: were you able to stop any of the trucks coming in? at the point in time where everything was just shut down, are you able to stop the tractor-trailers from coming back into town? >> we started posting signage early yesterday afternoon advising tractor-trailers they should have chains. many did have chains. most of them do have chains as a part of their actual systems. so, we started doing that. we did not make it a mandatory event. we talked with the colonel about maybe in the next event what we would do differently and how we might could make that call. >> reporter: talk about your communication of strategy. did you or anybody have a conversation before this all happened to anticipate the possibility that on weekday, on a work day, that you might have what seems to be the catalyst,

which is everybody hitting the roads at once, the communication to avoid that? >> i don't know if we went down to that level of planning. we take ever scenarios into play. in 2008 we had a similar event, people trying to get home from, work d a lot of walking. you try to take into consideration any options or do any scenarios. those are always taken -- yesterday, as i mentioned with the governor in speaking to him, it was challenging for us, again, that congestion did not allow us to get out and do the treatment. and i would second his notion that, you know, the actual delay of us getting out there was driven by the traffic. and, the -- >> reporter: i'm talking about communication with drivers. communication to the general public. don't go out on the roads. there seems to be little snippets in a broadcast here or a press release there. but never this, you know, getting to the bully pulpit and

saying, stay off the roads tomorrow, folks. did you have that conversation? >> no. >> reporter: i was surprised when everyone -- >> reporter: we heard from people who call us, who e-mail us, you're looking at people coming from the 1982 storm, atlanta citizens, long-time citizens who say, we've been through this before, we saw this in '82, the storm was coming in and everybody was in the work day, nine, ten, 15-hour drive. the question we keep hearing over and over, why don't we learn anything in this state? why is it we're so caught offguard apparently every time one of these storms hits? >> i think we do need to drese that a little bit. having been through the 2011 experience, which was four days, we are far more activated faster than we ever were in '11. i was alive in '82, but i wasn't leading anything. so, the question is, there is no question if you go back to 2011

and you all pull all of your film, that the first two days we didn't do anything. and i take my share of blame. we started sanding at 9 a.m. after the alert. on sand and gravel. so, we fully mobilized all of our equipment, and we started partnering with the state by 10:00, 11:00 a.m. now, i understand people are frustrated and angry, but, you know, i couldn't stand here knowing that i was here in '11 and everybody thought the first two days of '11 was funny. it was like -- because it was sunday night when it happened. five inches came, 4 inches came. everybody knew the first two days were off. by the third day, i can tell you, it wasn't funny anymore. and you all didn't think it was funny. we're in day one. we're at about hour 16 right

now. 120 pieces of state equipment have been mobilized. the national guard has been mobilized. the city of atlanta has been running 12-hour shifts. we've been running our spreaders and sanders nonstop. the issue is, and people are going to stop feeling frustration when we get people out of cars on the interstates. and, you know, i'll take credit -- i'll take credit or blame for my statement. we made a mistake by not staggering when people should leave. so, i'll take responsibility for that. we should -- lessons learned, because i know folks want to know that we're at least learning from this. please, remember, we're definitely better than we were in '11, and faster. but if we had it to do again, we would have said, schools, you go out, you go first. private sector businesses, you go second. and government goes last.

so, i think that that would have helped and we should have been much clearer on our need to access the roads. >> reporter: mayor, that's why i think people are frustrated about -- >> reporter: to be proactive rather than reactive. >> we're going to break away from this press conference involving atlanta's mayor and the governor of the state of georgia, nathan deal. hello, i'm carol costello. >> i'm brooke baldwin. good afternoon to a lot of you on the east coast. my goodness. i think the word that comes to mind is mess. that's putting it nicely. >> i think it was apocalyptic. >> these are pictures we continue to see in the metro atlanta area. this is the story of the day. a lot of people outside the georgia area are shaking their heads wondering how this could happen with 2 inches of snow. let me tell you, people within atlanta are shaking their heads, wondering the compacted same thing up. just heard from the governor and the mayor specifically. and we'll play a part of your

interview with mayor kasim reed. you were tough and rightly so. there is a lot that comes to blame deflection when it comes to city and state. first, chad myers is on the phone. we sent you to new orleans because of the icy cold conditions there. little did we know the story would be back here, cnn world headquarters in atlanta. i want you to respond to the city officials and statewide officials who constantly say, nope, they got it wrong. the meteorologists got it wrong. the national weather service got it wrong. we didn't know it would be this bad. your response. >> the forecast was 1 to 2 inches, brooke. we got 2.3. if that's wrong, then i take credit for being wrong. but at 2.3, when i said 1 to 2, i think so that's okay. and it came down at a time, at 1:00 to 2:00, when everybody tried to leave at the same time. and the mayor and the governor both had it right just now when they said we should not have let everybody out at the same time. on a normal friday, if i ring a bell at 2:00 in atlanta and i

say, go, and everybody has to leave their house and leave their building and leigh their work to go and get their kids, to go to school, do whatever, you'll have a three-hour backup. no question on a regular, sunny day. >> but here's the thing -- here's the thing, chad. okay, so governor deal said that he -- you know, he can't predict mother nature. we didn't know. somebody blew that whistle for everyone to go home at the same time. and the governor and mayor seem to be blaming you guys, the meteorologists, because you didn't predict the precise time that it would get nasty here in atlanta, georgia. >> you know, that's right. we said between noon and 3:00. and it happened at 1:30. so, we really did miss that one. >> you know, i just -- it boggles the mind. something else to ask you about, because i know you know about these things. the salting of the road. everyone i spoke to today did not see one salt truck on the roadways. now, mayor kasim reed insists

they started spreading salt on the roadways at 9:00. now, it did start snowing until about, oh, 1:00, per se, right? at that time everybody left. which meant the salt trucks couldn't get through the traffic to resalt the roads. what effect do you think that had, chad? >> well, i grew up in buffalo. let me tell you, when we knew snow was coming, the roads were white before it snowed. because they salted the heck out of everything when they knew snow was coming so that those first snowflakes didn't stick at all. and we had a good brine. this is an issue where nobody wants to take responsibility. these are my streets. no those are your streets. we don't care of the interstates. someone has to do everything at some point in time. but of the thousands of miles of roads in atlanta, we simply have never purchased the amount of equipment necessary. why would you in a city that gets one snow event every three years, why would you buy 500

snowplows and salt trucks and have them sit around for 1,000 days, waiting for the next event? that's the issue. we just don't have the ability to salt like a northern city does. >> here's my next question, before everyone really begins the monday morning-quarterbacking process. we're still in this. there are still am, many, many cars stuck on the highways. as i'm looking at the clock. it's just noon in atlanta right now. we're about six hours away from when the sun begins to set. i walked into work today. it's icy. it is snowy. i wonder if this is going to go into day two. >> absolutely. without a question, 285 on the north side of atlanta, especially westbound, trying to get from 85 all the way over to 75 on the north, it's an east-to-westbound road, it's still stopped and those cars have been stopped for 22 hours. and they are simply not going. and half the cars are abandoned in front of all the cars that can go.

so, there's no way to get those abandoned vehicles out of the way except one tow truck at a time. there are hundreds of cars on every hill in atlanta that just couldn't get up last night. at 10:00 it was down to 17 degrees. snow turned into ice. every time a car ran into a little bit of snow, it pack the it down and made it more slippery. oh, yeah, still a couple more days to go. i'm worried about those stuck in cars without medication, babies without diapers, babies without medication. we're looking at 24 hours from now, pretty soon to when they possibly got stuck without medication. i know we have one fatality but i'm concerned with people in those cars running out of gas, running out of heat and running out of hope. >> luckily they finally called in the national guard late last night. the national guard on the highway. interestingly enough, they're passing out mres to drivers so they have something to eat. the problem is, have you these

giant tractor-trailers. some are broken down. some are jack-knifed so the cars can't get past them. the salt trucks have to get up to these trucks to put salt on the roads so the trucks can begin moving. until that happens, no one's going anywhere. >> correct. and i -- the epitome of a salt truck in atlanta is two guys. one guy in the front of a pickup, one guy in the back of a pickup with a shovel and a pile of salt. and they drive around the streets. they shovel the shovel with a little salt and spread it behind the pickup truck. that's the way atlanta gets salt on some of its roads. it's a ridiculous situation. and in buffalo, this doesn't happen. everybody's home and having dinner last night in buffalo. but atlanta, because they didn't salt the streets ahead of time enough and they don't have equipment to do 4,000 miles worth of roads all at one time, this is what we're in right now. >> the word we missed yesterday was staggering. staggering the schools. staggering the government agencies.

staggeringle businesses. leaving and making sure the timing of the few snowplows we do have. listen, i'm from atlanta. this isn't something we experience. i get that, okay? but it should have been done differently and blame should be taken. and it doesn't sound like it is yet. the frustration, i hear it from you on social media, from our own colleagues who were stuck in this -- chad mentioned mothers in cars with baby. how about the lady who gave birth with the sandy springs police officer and the father with help to get to the hospital with baby grace. by the way, baby grace is apparently doing okay. we look at these pictures and -- you think of people in california who oftentimes don't get rain. there are different situations. i'm sure some people can relate to this. we hope at the end of the day you can't. we hope this is a one-time thing. >> wouldn't it be nice to hear some politician say, you know what, we screwed up. i don't know what we were thinking. but we really need to work together better. we need to communicate better.

no one is saying that. governor deal is blaming meteorologists. mayor kasim reed sort of accepted responsibility. he said he's not responsible for the highways. he's responsible for the city of atlanta. we'll talk to russel honore, who knows about disasters, gets troops in and out after katrina. ashleigh banfield will pick occupy that conversation. stories coming in as people sleep in home depots, under blankets, using toilet paper as a pillow. that's coming up. [ sneezes, coughs ] i've got a big date, but my sinuses are acting up.

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welcome back. as we cover the deep freeze of 2014. new numbers in from the state of alabama as we talk about this winter weather. five confirmed winter-related deaths for that state. as we continue to update that information, lease take you back to george. as you look at these pictures, hundreds of national guard troops are now out and about on foot, on georgia's highways, walking car to car, trying to help folks who are stranded. take a look. >> first priority was look for people that were stranded. you know, hadn't had any food or water and to bring that to them. you know, if we -- if we could -- if they needed to go to a shelter, we try to find out where the closest one was for them, direct them there. any type of coordination we could do with the local police or state patrol that was out here with us. there were some hero units out here as well. in a few instances for some smaller vehicles we had an opportunity where we might have been able to give them a little tow to get them unstuck or just

use our own man power while we were out here. that's mostly what we've been trying to do. the basic stuff, keeping people safe, especially for the ones that have been out here since yesterday afternoon. >> reporter: how long have you guys been out here? -- you're with the 48th brigade? >> 48th brig dade. 148th brigade support battalion of the 48th brigade. we got on the road at macon at 2 a.m. heading this way. and our mission for the four-crew team i have out here, these two humvees, our mission was i-75 between 285 south all the way up to i-20. right through there. that's what we've been running up and down for the night, trying to find stranded motorists, help them out any way we can. let them know what's available. >> reporter: what is this you're holding here? >> for the ones that need it, we've got the meals ready to eat. what we call the mres.

these are just -- it's got stuff in there. just basic nutrition. that's what your soldiers are eating in afghanistan when they're out on patrols and everything else. >> reporter: 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 to eat. if they have water with them or we can give them water, they can heat it up with the heater that's activated by water here. we do that as well. >> reporter: you're going to be out here all day? >> you know, we'll have to -- we'll have to rotate out, but the georgia guard and 48th brigade will be out here. we'll stay out here until our mission is over, you know, until it's completed and the governor says he doesn't need us anymore. >> reporter: if people are stranded and they need assistance from you, is there a number they can call? do they just have to wait for a humvee to come by? >> it's still 911. what's been happening, i believe they've got the -- the gema has been activated, you know,

georgia emergency management agency, and everything for us, how we get missioned or tasked all goes through that. >> reporter: okay. >> so, that's what we wait for. >> reporter: looks like your guys are taking water to those people on that bus there. >> right. we try to take advantage -- we've got limited resources out here. like i said, we've been out here for a while now. but we look for, you know, whatever we can help out. you know, earlier today we actually had a couple out here that had two infants with them. they had run out of water so they couldn't make formula. luckily, we were able to provide some water for them. so, that was one of the -- that was one of the really good ones, doing something like that. you always want to make sure the kids are taken care of. >> reporter: most definitely. >> we have some people, we'll put them in the humvee just to warm up. we have wool blankets. anything we can provide, we'll take care of them. >> all right. thank goodness the national guard is there because he is helping people. he and his fellow national guardsmen, helping people who have been trapped on that

highway since yesterday afternoon. it's crazy. one man says, it's unconscionable. let's head to new york and check in with ashleigh banfield. i'm talking about lieutenant russel honore. >> did you see that national guardsman trying to walk across that roadway, his boots were slipping. imagine a truck or semi. remarkable. one thing as i was listening to the live news conference with the georgia governor and a couple of the other officials, the atlanta mayor as well, they were happily listing off all the things they are doing now and how successful this reaction has been or continues to be, but nobody seemed to really want to dig in to why there has to be a reaction at all. why are we in this boat? why is the national guard having to hand out mres and water so an infant can get formula on a roadway almost 24 hours after the fact? i want to bring in the guy who can probably answer this best, retired lieutenant general

russel honore. just before the news conference, general, you and i were digging into that very fact. you said something very profound that was cut off by the governor as he began the news conference. you said that this is an area dealing with a 19th century system of government and 21st century problems. i would like you to expand on that. if you can, tell me why we're getting so much blame deflection. >> well, decentralized government we have around atlanta, as it was formed in the mid-19th century, here wire in the 21st century with 5 million people who work in and around the beltway around atlanta, inside the perimeter, and people come in there -- when you fly into the city, you hear a great message from the mashgs we wiyo to atlanta. but when somebody sg bad happens like this, you figure out the bad side of having decentralized government. atlanta needs to move on. georgia needs to move on. you need to have the same type of government in new york city where the mayor controls the

city and everything around that city. and the mayor can make decisions on road closures. he has emergency powers as far sz when the school closes. we don't have that in atlanta. we have a lot of small governments run by the county. as a result, this has made the problem worse. mother nature had a vote here, but in no way those schools should have even opened yesterday. and the state government should have been closed. it should have never opened. >> that's where i wanted to get to, the heart of the issue. during the news conference we were told that the -- that the government offices were given notice at 10 a.m. yesterday. 10 a.m., that they could go home. and yet a state of emergency was not declared until after 5 p.m. when we already know thousands and thousands of motorists were stuck on a virtual skating rink. and, obviously, you've seen all of the crisis that's unraveled

since then. now we hear the mayor say we made a mistake not staggering people. i'm still wondering, who needs to tell the schools to close? who needs to set the ball in motion for all these independent agencies to take heed from the leadership? >> the leadership is preventing a crisis. responding to them, you've seen what you see, call out the national guard. the good thing is, we don't have the federal government here to blame this time. but that's the normal scenario we go through. but all the predictions, i mean, the -- all the weather people had talked about this for 24 hours. it's coming, it's come, it's coming. it should have started with the state government declaring people not to come to work and only having essential people. and i hope the governor and the mayor learn from this, that they're going to have to act before these events, not make some symbolic gesture after because they need to move now to get those people off the road

that's been stuck there for a day. and i hope they're moving around, making that happen. >> that's the reaction to the crisis. but i'm not hearing a lot of contrition nor responsibility for the crisis in the first place. i'm hearing the national weather service modeling was off. but i can tell you, if you watch the national service modeling right beside it should be the cnn meteorologist, chad myers, who said, look, it wasn't off to the extent that no one, no one should have closed anything. last week they shut down schools because it was cold. what does it take to shut down schools when there's an ice storm coming? >> you're absolutely right. we got a failure to lead. and when you lead, you have to make hard decisions. they're not about popularity. they're about performance. and i hope they'll reflect on that. and get a team in there to help them look at the indications -- the emergency operation center should have been open 24 hours before this event even happened. that's what i don't understand. and they've got to fix that.

>> we just heard a reporter saying she showed up at georgia emergency management center at 3:00 yesterday only to be told it's not open, it's not functioning. to which the response was, it was partially functioning. at 3 p.m. you've been in this boat. you know the ins and outs of fema, emergency management. don't we set these things up in advance of crisis as opposed to in the middle or after a crisis? >> the federal government has given these states millions and billions of dollars to set you up these emergency operation centers. you go to any one on any given day, they're empty. these are in the 21st century. they have to be fully operational all the time. go look at the one in new york city. it's operational. every form of government is in there, and they're there 24 hours a day. they've got to come into the 21st century and be proactive as opposed to being reactive. >> amen. general honore, great to talk to you. i'm going to toss this back to you, brooke and carol, with this

last thought. we heard the mayor swearing up and down the sanding of those streets began at 10:00 or 11:00 in the morning. all i can say is just look behind me at that evidence right there. look behind you at the evidence behind you. i'm not exactly sure which streets got the sanding and the salting at 11:00 in the morning. i can tell you this at 3:00 or 5:00, whatever time those kids were stuck on buses and had no idea if they were getting home, they weren't on salted and sanded streets. >> well, it wasn't sanded or salted on peach street or spring street. i was there and didn't notice anything. the other interesting thing from that press conference is that the governor seemed to blame truck drivers for the snafus on the highways. and said, oh, if they had chains on their tires, maybe this wouldn't have happened. come on. >> yeah. speaking of those truck drivers, there are lots of stories coming in of people who have been stuck, you included, many of our colleagues included, but the snow started falling just about 24 hours ago. we're going to talk to a trucker

on our air who's been stuck for 23 hours. he's still stuck. he's just going to talk to us on the phone. we'll help him -- wooeg we'll walk him through. that's coming up on the other side of the break as this special breaking news coverage continues here on cnn. [ male announcer ] the new new york is open. open to innovation. open to ambition. open to bold ideas. that's why new york has a new plan -- dozens of tax free zones all across the state. move here, expand here, or start a new business here and pay no taxes for ten years... we're new york. if there's something that creates more jobs, and grows more businesses... we're open to it. start a tax-free business at startup-ny.com. her long day of pick ups and drop offs begins with arthritis pain... and a choice. take up to 6 tylenol in a day or just 2 aleve for all day relief.

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welcome back to "newsroom." we've been talking about the apocalyptic continues in atlanta, georgia, after 2.5 inches fell yesterday afternoon.

>> 24 hours ago now. >> 24 hours ago. now we're dealing with this thick sheet of ice and people trapped on the highway. some of those people have been on that highway for 23 hours. we're going to talk to a man who's been trapped in his -- it will be 24 hours at 1 p.m. eastern time. greg is a truck driver. you're from maine. you were just trying to do a three-hour tour here and you've been on the road for 23 1/2 hours. tell us, are you going crazy? >> caller: well, it's not working out. i was supposed to go -- i was supposed to go down south and enjoy the warm weather for a little bit and it's not working out at all, no. yeah, it's been a long trip through atlanta. >> so, greg, this is brooke. i'm just looking at the map. you were coming from gainesville, georgia, so for people who don't know, this is a little northeast of atlanta, trying to head directly west to vance, alabama. so at what point did you realize you wouldn't be moving?

>> caller: i'd say i got from gainesville into atlanta without much incident. although there was backup out on 285. that led me to stay on 85. once you're in atlanta, you knew you weren't going anywhere. you could tell right off the bat. it was going to be a long night. >> we're looking at your pictures. this is your still picture from somewhere around your truck. we were also going between this and live pictures just to remind people, this is still ongoing. there are many, many people, as you can see, several lanes on the right side of your screen, who are still stuck. to be clear, greg, you're not stuck in snow or ice. you're just stuck in traffic, yes? >> caller: yes, just stuck in traffic. i've slid a couple times. seen hundreds of accidents. i'm not stuck on anything. there's just nowhere to go. >> so, have you ever experienced anything like this? you've been a truck driver for a long time. >> caller: i can say, this is the worst. this is the worst i've ever

seen. you know, 2 inches of snow, i haven't seen a sander yet. no road treatments at all. >> a lot of people are saying that, i haven't seen a salt truck or sander or anything. people are just left at, you know -- you know, left on their own. i wanted to ask you about something governor nathan deal said, the governor of georgia said. he said big rigs were in part to blame for this traffic mess because they slip and slide on the roadways. they don't have chains on their tires. what do you say? >> caller: well, i didn't hear him say that. i've managed all 48 states and most of canada. this is about treating the roads. it's not about truck drivers being part of the problem. i mean, we can handle the roads if the roads are treated and taken care of. i haven't even seen a guy with a shovel out here. sound like he's blaming a lot of people this morning. >> yeah. greg shrader, stay safe.

as we look at these pictures, some folks just stuck. some people having been stuck hours for hours, making friends, trying to help one another. we saw the national guard out and about, handing out mres. these are meals we give our troops in afghanistan. in is what is being given out to thousands of people still stuck at this hour. nearly 24 hours later on georgia highways. >> keep in mind, it is frigidly cold outside. it's like 20 degrees. so, i admire these people for getting out of their cars and walking around. i imagine after being stuck in your car for 12 or 24 hours, you'd want to stretch your legs a bit. that's where it gets dangerous. please, please be careful out there. >> be careful. be smart. we will not go too far from this breaking weather story, the big story of the day. we to want move along and talk politics for a minute. a representative showing his emotion in this confrontation and apologizing. you'll hear what he says next on cnn. okay, listen up! i'm re-workin' the menu. mayo? corn dogs? you are so outta here!

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for many, nexium helps relieve heartburn symptoms from acid reflux disease. find out how you can save at purplepill.com. there is risk of bone fracture and low magnesium levels. side effects may include headache, abdominal pain, and diarrhea. if you have persistent diarrhea, contact your doctor right away. other serious stomach conditions may exist. avoid if you take clopidogrel. for many, relief is at hand. ask your doctor about nexium. welcome back. we will get you back to the breaking weather coverage in a minute. first, u.s. congressman is trying to explain his behavior today after threatening a tv reporter in front of the camera. this is all moments after president of the united states wrapped up his state of the union. watch. let let me be clear to you you are

again i'll throw you [ bleep ]. >> why? >> if you ever do that to me again -- >> why? why? [ inaudible ] >> so, you read that. you saw michael grimm, congressman grimm, walking back and forth. the other voice you heard was reporter michael scotto on the receiving end of that threat from new york congress map out of staten island saying, i will break you in half. our correspondent is on capitol hill for us today with this. so now congressman grimm is apologizing. you saw him today. what did he have to say? >> reporter: hi, brooke. of course, we know things can get contentious in an interview but it's very rare to see a politician, an elected official threaten someone on camera. grimm, we spoke to him in the hallway outside of his office after early votes this morning. he said he apologized.

he called michael scotto to apologize. he said they plan to have a lunch some sometime next week to put this all behind them. let's play for you a little bit of what he had to say to us. >> this was an unfortunate incident that shouldn't have happened. and, you know, i'm sure my italian mother is going to, you know, be yelling at me, saying you weren't raised that way, and she's right. she's absolutely right. the bottom line is, i overreacted. and my emotions got the better of me. i lost my cool, and that shouldn't happen. >> reporter: a little bit of background here. michael scotto was trying to ask congressman grimm about a justice department probe into whether he broke campaign finance laws raising money four years ago. grimm did not want to talk about that. he seemed to believe they had some sort of agreement not to address things outside of the state of the union. that's something michael scotto says was not agreed to. grimm told reporters later on, not on camera, that he has not talked to the fbi or justice

department about this probe. but i asked him if he thought it was inappropriate. he told scotto he didn't want to be asked that question. he sent a statement to new york one saying the reporter was out of line. i asked him, was it out of line? was it inappropriate to ask about this investigation? and grimm said, no, it absolutely wasn't. so, he's trying to come through and apologize here and kind of clear this. >> i wonder if the new york one reporter accepts the poapology. >> reporter: he does. he tweeted that he did. >> i wish i could be a fly on the wall when they have lunch together. >> if they ever do that. >> exactly. president obama gave a speech in maryland. next up, pittsburgh. jim acosta is there. jim, tell us more. >> reporter: hi, carol, that's right up. heard the president deliver his state of the union speech. today he's selling it. he'll be at this steel plant just outside of pittsburgh in the next several minutes. he's on the ground in

pennsylvania right now. he'll be talking about the new federal retirement savings accounts he launched last night in his state of the union speech. by the way, by executive order. those executive orders he mentioned last night already has republicans up on capitol hill questioning whether or not the president has the constitutional authority to do that. but these retirement savings accounts, as we'll hear the president explain, will allow americans to withdraw money out of their paychecks, make payroll contributions into the accounts, backed by federal government. all of this will start as a pilot program. earlier he was selling another part of the state of the union about minimum wage at a costco store. he also talked about that executive order he took to raise the minimum wage for federally contracted workers. but he says it's time for congress to do for the rest of the country. here's what he had to say. >> so americans overwhelmingly agree, nobody who works full time should ever have to raise a family in poverty.

and that is why i firmly believe, it's time to give america a raise. >> reporter: and the president's campaign style swing through the american heartland does not stop today. he'll be heading off to wisconsin tomorrow to talk about job training programs, a reforming of job training programs, that he's put vice president joe biden in charge of. then on to nashville, tennessee, after that to talk about upgrading schools. carol, he is very much in campaign style mode right now, trying to sell that state of the union speech and that agenda he has for the coming year. much of it through executive action. something that republicans will have a lot to say about up on capitol hill today, carol. >> i'm sure. jim acosta reporting live from pittsburgh today. jake tapper sits down exclusively with president obama in his first interview after the state of the union. it airs this friday morning on "new day" and again on "the

lead," 4 p.m. eastern. back to the wintry weather and back to many people stuck on the roads in atlanta. you know what, not just stuck on the roads. look at these smiling faces, gumming down water, after being stuck and walking from their cars. coming up, we'll talk to a woman who has been sitting in a walgreens for 19 hours. and, she says, more and more people keep streaming in. we'll be right back.

well, as the snow disaster continues to unfold across the south. we were talking to chad myers, our meteorologist, saying, yes, indeed this will go into day two. we're hearing more and more stories of strangers banding together just to make it through. savannah joins me on the phone. she's been stuck since last night at a walgreens store just

north of atlanta. in marietta. savannah, it looks like there are several people with you. tell me what it looks like right now? >> caller: well, right now our numbers have fluctuated between 15 and 25. right now there's about ten people left. a lot of people have been able to get out and have found rides. a lot of the roads are starting to clear up enough to be passable. but there's still several people here who are waiting it out just to see how it goes. >> savannah, tell us about your journey to the walgreens. this is carol costello. how did you get there? >> caller: well, i was out and about about 2:00 yesterday afternoon. i got stuck in a subdivision off holly spring road. decided it was just impossible. i had been there for three hours. could not move my car. decided to just hop out and walk to the nearest open business

that had, you know, heat and water and all of those basic necessities. and i ended up at the walgreens. and they had everything that we needed. there was a group of seven that started out, that were the first buns to come in. i was in that group. as soon as we walked in the door, the employees handed us cups of hot coffee, they had chairs waiting for us. >> i see lots of valentine's candy at the walgreens. i mean, how are you doing? are just kind of making it through for now? has the anger set in yet? >> caller: i'm not necessarily angry. i'm very anxious. i very much want to get home. but, yeah, it's more -- it's more -- last night was a lot of anxiety. just because you don't know exactly how severe it is. you know, in our little section of the walgreens, it was

passable and we were all okay. we were warm and we had water. >> and that is a good thing. savannah, who do you hold accountable for this mess? >> caller: you know, i don't know necessarily who i would hold accountable. it's all one big pie. yes, the department of transportation has a slice of that pie. but also the citizens of georgia have a slice of that pie. i myself underestimated the severity of the weather. you know, and some of that is personal responsibility. i should have stayed home. >> she's a generous woman, savannah, isn't she, brooke? >> you are. we wish you well and the rest of the folks stuck at walgreens. i suppose if you have to be stuck somewhere, a place like that is not horrendous. thank you so much. >> caller: yes. >> it's better than being stuck on a truck on like interstate 20. >> on hour 23, like greg who just called in. i know we just have a minute left. but to underscore, we are now

five hours away from sundown. as thousands of cars are still stuck on this interstate, this is by no means over. >> i'm just going to pray i can get home because i don't have any gas. thank you so much for watching. >> i'm brooke baldwin, carol costello. i'll be back in an hour. hey kevin...still eating chalk for heartburn? yeah... try new alka seltzer fruit chews. they work fast on heartburn and taste awesome. these are good. told ya! i'm feeling better already. [ male announcer ] new alka seltzer fruits chews. enjoy the relief! [ male ♪nnouncer ] new alka seltzer fruits chews. they lived. ♪ they lived. ♪ they lived. ♪ (dad) we lived... thanks to our subaru. ♪ (announcer) love.

it's what makes a subaru, a subaru. right now. atlanta emergency. kids forced to spend the night in school or school buses. drivers strand for more than 20 hours on ice-covered road. right now, president obama is on the road, trying to sell a state of the union message. how much did last night's speech help the president? and right now, a new york congressman apologizes for threatening to throw a reporter over a balcony. and the whole thing caught on camera.