mean bakery. last year americans spent only $10 billion on movies. yeah, five times more money on their pets. please stop with the clothes for the little ones. they may look cute, but honestly they have pride! they do! thanks so much for joining us. anderson starts now. good evening, everyone. if you are watching this in alabama, georgia or the carolinas, please stay off the road. if you're watching anywhere else along the i-95 corridor from virginia to maine, get ready to a big mess. it is only just begun. and if you're trying to fly anywhere tonight or in the next few days, i wish you a lot of luck. to breaking news, parts of the country now are at a complete stand still on ice. highways covered with it, cars stuck anytime. nearly half a million homes without power. thousands of flights canceled. at least nine lives lost. more than 100 million others affected or about to be affected by yet another winter wallop. the chaos started in georgia.

and now it's hammering north carolina. millions bracing for a storm the weather service called potentially catastrophic. the largest concern, ice, up to an inch thick in some places. >> it's pretty bad. i used to live in indiana. and this is worse than that. >> sleet and freezing rain are creating treacherous conditions, coating roads and bringing down tree limbs. already power is out for nearly half a million across the region. and it could remain that way for days or even weeks. anticipating outages, energy companies in south carolina brought in extra crews to help speed up the process. officials throughout the south are pleading with people to stay safe and stay off the roads. >> stay home and stay out of the way of emergency agencies and power companies. >> be smart during these times. realize these are dangerous conditions, and realize that as you put yourself in jeopardy, you're putting other people in jeopardy also.

>> well, south carolina and georgia residents seemed to heed the warnings, stocking up on the essential before the storm hit. much of north carolina, it seems, has not. charlotte and raleigh-durham, worsening conditions snarling rush hour traffic, causing mass of traffic jams, and in, a repeat of atlanta's mess last week, forcing people to abandon their vehicles on the roads. all flights into and out of raleigh's airport are canceled. adding to the travel nightmare throughout the east where more than 3,000 flights were scrubbed. the storm will continue to march north where it will develop into a full-fledged nor'easter overnight, dumping upwards of a foot of snow or more along the busy i-95 corridor and interior new england. officials around washington, which could see its largest snow totals in four years, are taking no chances. pretreating roads before the flakes start flying. >> we're spraying salt down in order to prepare for the roads. anything comes down we're prepared for. >> in north carolina where few

things are bigger than college basketball, something happened today that best anyone can remember never has before. they called off a duke-unc game. the roads are just too dangerous for people to get there. earlier tonight, north carolina's department of public safety deployed about 170 national guard troops to help the highway patrol locate stranded drivers. on the phone right now the mayor of raleigh-durham. mayor bell, the pictures are kay of to chaotic to say the least. how are things now? >> up improved anderson but we still have issues. fortunately we've been able to get through most of it. the storm came in while everyone was expecting it. no one expected it to be so sudden around 1:00. it dumped a lot of snow in a short amount of time caused major havoc. >> are there still people stranded on the various highways in your area? >> i'm told there are a few but not as many as earlier today. we've been able to work with the state and with our local crews

to try to get some of this cleared up. >> i understand 911 operators received hundreds of calls if not more by now. a lot of accidents as well. how prepared do you think your community, your state was, if to respond to a storm of this caliber? how much equipment do you have? this is obviously not a normal occurrence. >> well, i think we were prepared as we could be given the information we were given. we have the equipment. we've been working cooperatively with the state. we've been able to work this out. but obviously there have been some issues. for example, i was over at duke's campus around 12:00. the storm came in at 1:00. and a drive that normally takes me about 15 minutes to get back to my home took three hours. it was all because of the snow piling up on the roads. >> in terms of power outages what's the latest? >> we've been fortunate. we keep our fingers crossed right now. we haven't really had any reported outages of any significance, at least in the durham area. we're prepared for that also. if need be we open shelters. we've had two of our major

shopping centers to serve as shelters for stranded motorists along the interstate kwocorrido. that's been helpful also. >> mayor i wishout best. thanks for talking to us tonight. amazing stories are emerging from the some. our next guest was driving home from work tonight when she got caught in traffic. what she saw next she says she'll never forget. tricia humphrey joins us by phone. >> you're in one of the hardest-hit areas in your state. your commute i understand from work normally takes you about 25 minutes on good day. how long did it take you today? >> today was about six hours. >> wow! >> i know. >> oh, my goodness. were you prepared for that? did you expect that? >> well, i actually was prepared because i had seen the situation in atlanta. and i said that will not happen to me. and i was expecting it to happen later in the day. and what happened is, folks called me from my area, and they said, we see flurries.

and it came on so fast and furious, it just happened so quickly, that is why so many of us were caught. >> sorry. go ahead. >> well, we were all just caught out leaving our offices at the same time, which we saw happened in atlanta. so it was just a repeat. >> and i know you shared some pictures of what you saw. we're going to show them to everybody. it really looks a lot like atlanta in the last storm as you said. >> yes. >> it looks like there was a car on fire that you were close to. >> yes. a lot of cars were abandoned. they just left. and i saw folks walking, families, people. but my car was actually -- had really good traction. and then the next thing you know i see flames. and a gentleman came up and he said, turn off your car. just relax. you're not going anywhere for awhile. and then finally the police

came. and they didn't really have anything to put out the flames, so then the actual fire truck came. and they put out the flames. and the car was just a shell when i went by it later. >> there was nobody inside, though. >> no, no, no. >> that's good. >> no. there are a lot of people out helping each other. and i imagine think got them out. and i'm sure the person in the car saw that it was -- >> the blessings you see people kind of reaching out and helping their neighbors and getting to know one another. >> oh, they were. there were a lot of guys out there just pushing people and helping. that was very cool to see. >> it's nice to see. well, listen, ms. humphrey, thank you so much. i'm glad you got home and appreciate you talking to us >> yes, thank you very much. >> take care. hope it's better tomorrow. we have a live shot from durham reporter derica waller from cnn affiliate wncn joins us. how's it looking out there? >> reporter: it's looking a lot better, anderson, than a few hours ago.

still kind of sleeting right now here in raleigh. earlier today, though, this was kind of a whiteout mess. this is wake forest road kind of in the heart of town. earlier today between about like 1:00 and 5:00 today, all this was a parking lot. this was full of cars that were really going nowhere fast. now you can see it's pretty open. judgme just a few cars on the roads. people are heeded warnings. the roads are still kind of a mess out here. they are snow packed, only going to turn into ice as the temperatures drop later tonight. you can also see that snowplows have really already been down this road. so the d.o.t. crews are out, trying to clear the roads, but it is still pretty treacherous and dangerous. earlier today we actually saw some people abandoning their cars on this road. so people were take this pretty seriously earlier. it was a pretty bad situation. but thankfully now it's cleared up tremendously. again, bad conditions on the road, but at least there's no

traffic at this hour, anderson. >> that is certainly good news. derek, appreciate you reporting. i know you've been out there all day. thanks very much. more now on the big picture. we'll check in with chad myers throughout the hour. we want to get a sense of where the storm is right now and where it's heading. chad, in terms of the latesters what's going on in north carolina? is the worst still yet to come there or are they over tworst? >> if you're in the triad, the piedmont you'll still get an awful lot of snow that will change over to sleet. talking about this higher elevation here. if you're in the lower elevations of north carolina it's going to be warm enough that it will either be a little bit of freezing rain at 33, 34, as it comes down it may freeze a little pit but going to be warming up to 35. it will just be solid rain eventually. in between is kind of that no man's land in this pink area that is the sleet and freezing rain mixed together. people will say what is the difference? the difference is that sleet hits you and it's frozen already. it hits you. it hurts. but it bounces off things. if it's rain and it's liquid and

you're 30, all of a sudden it sticks to you like a tree or a car or branches and limbs. and then things start to fall down, especially power lines because they get heavy. the freezing rain is really the problem because it's liquid. back out here, it is snowing like it hasn't snowed in a long time in birmingham. it's snowing all the way through chattanooga and all along the higher elevations here right along i-81. and the snow now coming up into washington, d.c. as well. and it's ironic, literally with this storm, anderson, how this is following i-95. there's 95 right there, right there, right there and all the way into boston. if you're east of there, you're in the clear. you're going to get something, an inch or two. but if you're west of there, especially if you're 50 miles west of there, all of this pink is a foot of snow. so it really is amazing how the low pressure tonight is going to travel up the east coast. if you're too close to the low you're going to be warm and you're going to be in good shape. if you're far enough away from the low, that's where you're

going to get into the snow. >> talking to tricia just a couple of minutes ago there, she was saying they saw what had happened in atlanta. she was like, that's not going to happen to me. and yet lo and behold it happened to her. they're having the same issues atlanta had two weeks ago. >> they are because it happened at the same time of day. somewhere around 12:00, 1:00. that's when it happened in atlanta. people thought they had time in atlanta either to send their kids to school -- didn't go to school today -- or they thought they could go do one more thing and then they got caught. it snowed right in the middle of the day. the difference between atlanta's pictures today which is completely blank roads it started at 2:00 a.m. people looked out at 5:00, 6:00 in the morning and said i'm not going out in that and they stayed home. that's the difference between this ice storm and last week's or two week's ago snowstorm where there was like two different cities because we were prepared this time and it started at a completely different time of day. >> all right. we'll be checking in with chad throughout this hour. also in our 10:00 hour.

let us know what you think. follow me on twitt twitter @andersoncooper. tweet us using #acj 360. we'll check on the situation in atlanta where people have lost power. latte or au lait?

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now. this is real time planes over the mid-atlantic just over 5,000. the folks at flight aware say that's a little bit lower than they would expect. but let's talk about the cancellations today. today delta saw the most cancellations. that makes a lot of sense because their hub is in atlanta. atlanta got hit really hard. 1700 cancellations today. tomorrow they project 1200. jetblue, they've had a really rough winter. today only had 41 cancellations. that's because the storm hadn't reached new york as yet. but it's on its way. and they already have precanceled some 300 flights for tomorrow. but anderson, the big question is what about the plane that is do get into the air? we went behind the scenes to look at the operation as to how they coordinate all those planes that are in the air as that big storm is moving its way up the east coast. >> still atlanta with the freezing rain. we'll check in with them. it just started to snow now at charlotte. no changes to that. >> reporter: conference calls every two hours inside the faa

command center as another winter storm moves up the east coast dumping rain, ice and snow. on the call, airlines, airports and air traffic control. they're coordinating how to get planes around this winter storm and minimize traveler delays. six large screens displayed the storm. planes in the air and planes grounded. at atlanta's hartfield airport, the busiest in the world, planes are parked. >> i see a lot of blue by atlanta. what are you monitoring here? >> this is one of our primary traffic management tools. blue is the cancellations coming in from the carriers. >> atlanta is down to nothing. >> atlanta is pretty much getting down to nothing. >> reporter: all airports have a weather plan, and this faa command center in warrington, virginia helps coordinate the execution by communicating with 21 regional centers. >> you do real math here as far as how many planes can you deice per minute.

>> once an airplane dede ices we want to minimize the time from that happening to departing. we don't want to put anybody in a position where they are staying on the ramp where they have to go back to deice. you could call this the calm during the storm. it really gets busy here after the system passes and airlines scramble to get their planes back into the air. >> so rene, you talked a little bit about what's going to happen tomorrow. how does it look more on tomorrow? >> reporter: in a word, anderson, it looks bad. majority of flights canceled in atlanta, philadelphia and new jersey. right around where you are. >> rene, thanks very much. now atlanta which is getting a kind of do over second chance after about two inches of snow and ice a couple weeks ago turned the city into america's parking lot. people stick in cars hour after hour, some all day all night, kids stuck at school, people sleeping in grocery store aisles. this time the closings, warnings

and preparations came early. people stayed off the roads. salt trucks had room to roll. a big big difference many our gary tuchman has been out and about. he joins us now. you're on the streets of downtown atlanta. looks pretty good there right now. >> much different situation, anderson, than two weeks ago. we do have a situation where there are 150,000 homes without power here in georgia. a lot of people call atlanta the city of trees because it's so green. countless trees have been destroyed, power lines down. but people have taken this storm much more seriously. and the down time connector which is the merger of interstate 75 and 85 which goes through downtown atlanta, one of the busiest highways in the united states, almost completely empty today. roads throughout the city almost completely empty. it reminded me of hurricane katrina just before it came and all the streets in new orleans being empty. and gulfport, mississippi and biloxi, mississippi being empty. people took it very seriously. it really worked. when politicians and parents and everyone in between take it seriously and don't send their kids to school, don't go to work when they know lots of snow is coming in place they don't get much of it things work.

>> will businesses be closed tomorrow? certainly i guess schools will be. >> reporter: yes. most schools we already know will be closed again. to they were closed tuesday because it was anticipated this weather would move in on tuesday. it didn't but schools for the most part were closed tuesday. every school was closed today. most schools will be closed tomorrow. there's a good chance this being the south and people being wary the schools may still be closed on friday with still ice on the streets. >> gary was mentioning hurricane katrina. i want to bring in retired general honore who led relief efforts after the hurricane. you talked about georgia's lack of preparation during the last snowstorm. they're weathering this one a little bit better it looks like or a lot better. can we expect things to get worse? the situation seems pretty bad in north carolina. >> absolutely. it will get worse before it gets better. imagine what happened two weeks ago. they did better this time around. this time we had the lights out. and when we get the electricity out to large populations, it's

setback the way we live 80 years. water stops running, no flushing toilets. it really creates a mess when we lose power. but they are doing a lot better, both the mayor and the governor. congratulations to them. >> and in terms of infrastructure, hundreds of thousands of people without power as you just mentioned in the southeast. it's really the ice, not the snow, that causes the power lines to fall. is it just a matter of money that communities are not putting power lines underground? >> yes. that, anderson, in the absence of any tree trimming, seriously. if you drive around atlanta, beautiful city. i love it there. you will see mile after mile of trees that are taller than the power lines. atlanta's referred to as a forest with a city in it. 80% of the power lines in america are above ground. i live in both harlem and germany. in both of those locations the power is generally underground in most communities. but the down side of underground power is cost.

and who pays to put that in the ground? it costs about double the amount to put underground power as above ground. above ground mile in a new subdivision is about $200,000. underground in that same distance in a new subdivision is right at 500,000. to put it in an existing inner city neighborhood is over $700,000. who pays the cost if you want to do that? the other down side is flooding, anderson. like it happens in new york sometimes, they have underground power but there can be flooding and catastrophic effects also. >> the other big thing is tree maintenance, which is obviously important. but then again that's a question of money. >> money. most of our power companies, they do lean operations, only trim where they have to. they're helped in a negative way by the green people in the communities who refuse to allow you to cut a tree. if you wanted to cut a tree in atlanta, you've got to get a permission from an arborist who will come out and look at the tree on your property and tell you if you can cut it or not.

the down side of it is when we have a storm like this, everybody wants to know why isn't the power underground and why are those trees allowed to fall on the power lines. it's a dilemma, short-lived. next week people will be talking about something else. but we have a problem in america with our infrastructure, particularly with our power grid. this is just one of them. and we must address it with some standards. >> yes. general honore, good to have you on. for more on the story you can go to cnn.com. tonight up next michael dunn's fate is now in the hands of the jury in his murder trial. the equal justice panel weighs in on today's closing arguments. we'll tell you what both attorneys said. also tonight take a look at this. are you going to put that in there? wow, look at that. good job. >> we began a really remarkable series tonight on babies and their brains. a lot of people think babies are just kind of a blank slate. but the question is and what researchers at yale university are looking into is the question are babies born knowing the difference between right and wrong. we're talking about babies three

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>> a jury in jacksonville, florida is now deciding the guilt of innocence of michael dunn. jurors began deliberating late this afternoon. we've learned they've wrapped up for the night without reaching a verdict. they'll resume deliberations tomorrow morning at 10:00. dunn is charged in murder in the shooting death of a 17-year-old man, jordan davis at a gas station in 2012. he claims he acted in self-defense during a confrontation with a group of teenagers in an suv. martin savidge was inside the courtroom today. >> reporter: in closing arguments, prosecutors said 17-year-old jordan davis may have a big mouth, but he never had a weapon. >> let me be very clear. on november 23rd, 2012, when this defendant shot and killed jordan davis, there was no gun in that durango. there was no stick. there was no bat. there was no lead pipe. there was no gun.

>> reporter: 47-year-old michael dunn says it all started when he exchanged words over loud music coming from an suv carrying four teens. he says he pulled his weapon after he thought he saw the teens, at least one of them, point something out the rear window toward him. dunn fired nine shots at near point blank range into the suv, killing davis. assistant state's attorney erin wolfson depicted him as a tripper happy man with a disposition for hate. >> this defendant fired round after round after round into that car. >> reporter: without warning, she startled the courtroom playing the sounds of gun fire captured by a surveillance recording. on the witness stand, dunn said he shot in self-defense after davis got out of the suv to attack him. but prosecutors say the suv and dup's car were parked too close for davis to get out. they say dunn didn't shoot to protect himself but because he was angry that davis has talked

back to him. prosecutors say it wasn't self-defense it was murder. >> he took it upon himself to silence jordan davis forever. . even people who have a right to self-defense do not have the right to take the life of a child when that self-defense is unreasonable. >> reporter: prosecutors said leaving the scene and never calling 911 that night or the next day was further proof dunn thought he got away with it. but defense attorney corey strolik quickly countered claims his client was angry, saying the other teens testified the only person they saw upset was davis, not dunn. >> even they admitted on cross-examination, did you see him get angry? no, sir. did you see him curse? no. did he punch anything, throw anything? nope. >> reporter: then defense attorney strolik began a

systematic attack on the state's case, claiming witnesses with -- that the medical examiner's findings davis could suffer the wounds he did only while remaining seated in the suv didn't match bullet trajectories. >> it's physics. it's the law of a universe that can't change. this isn't the matrix. >> reporter: as for the state's contention the teens had no gun, strolik said there was a gun, police just didn't find it. he says after fleeing the gun fire the suv stopped for three minutes at a plaza next door. plenty of time, strolik said to toss the weapon. he said investigators failed to secure the crime scene and didn't look for a weapon for days. >> never asked about the plaza. never asked about underneath the cars in the plaza. never checked the bushes. never checked the dumpsters. but you know what the detective alleges they did it? five days later. >> reporter: strolah never

attempted to explain why his client never called 911 after the shooting, instead going to a hotel with his fiancee and ordering the pizza. the defense attorney said all that mattered was his client felt threatened. as a result, the jury was required to find michael dunn not guilty. martin savidge, cnn, jacksonville. lots to talk about. let's bring in our legal justice analysts, sunny hostin a former federal prosecutor was inside the courtroom jacksonville today and mark geragos a criminal defense attorney. sunny, the defense saying it was sloppy police work they didn't secure the crime scene. but dunn didn't call police until or didn't admit what he had done publicly until the next day. it wasn't as if the police were on scene right after the shooting. >> well, that's right. i mean, it was really an interesting argument that he tried to make, saying that the police never searched dumpsters, never searched the grounds for this alleged shotgun. in john guy's closing argument, rebuttal argument which i thought was absolutely brilliant, he pointed out that

the only reason that police didn't search the grounds is because they didn't know michael dunn's story until days later. he never called the police, anderson. actually the police looked for him. >> and mark, do you agree with that? this was kind of a red herring by the defense? >> no, not at all. clearly they knew something had happened. i agree that probably the worst fact for the defense is that he didn't call 911 or that he didn't report it immediately. i'm not going to fight that. but that doesn't excuse what i consider to be and what the defense is arguing shoddy police work. remember, the prosecution has the burden of proof. the defense doesn't have to prove a thing here. they've got to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt. >> in terms of searching for a gun, dunn never said there was a gun until days later, mark. >> right. but the police obviously know something happened. shots were fired. that doesn't -- the idea that somehow they weren't going to

explore this or they weren't going to go and find out where they went afterwards or anything else i think is not real good police work.