>> with the bombing, the misconception is the blast destroys the evidence. the blast disperses the evidence, where it makes it harder for us to find it, but harder for us to find it, but we'll find it. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com happening now, a deadly winter storm creating absolute chaos for millions of people this morning up and down the east coast. hundreds of thousands without power. major airports all but shut down this hour, roads covered in ice, schools closed. the message -- find somewhere safe and stay there. we're bringing you live, team coverage of the damage done and what's still to come. >> good morning, everyone. welcome to "early start." it is a tough morning for a huge number of people today. i'm john berman. >> a big sigh from my co-anchor. i'm christine romans. it's thursday, february 13th,

5:00 a.m. in the east. >> we'll begin with what is happening up and down the coast now, from the south all the way up to new england. look at that. that tells the story. snow, heavy snow, and there's ice, too. very, very dangerous, very deadly. already ten deaths have been connected to this storm. more than 4,000 flights have been canceled from atlanta all the way up to boston. 700,000 people without power. >> 71,000 flights canceled since january, billions of dollars out of travelers' pockets. all of this drama continues and we all wait for spring. look, a number of power customers without power this morning climbing. the heavy ice has taken down power lines. more than 770,000 people are now without power this morning in 15 states, john. >> the ice also causing situations like this one. oh, my goodness! just trees snapping under their own weight throughout the southeast. and again, that is moving north at this minute. these trees are crashing into homes, leaving some people just

inches away from tragedy. >> terrifying. hearing the tree crack and watching it fall from my window and landing on my daughter's room was very traumatic. >> many schools closed today from alabama to maine because of the icy, slick roads from this storm. that means accidents. this one near atlanta, a tractor-trailer off the road blocking traffic. luckily, most heeded the warnings and were not out driving. good samaritans had to step in and get this ambulance moving to marietta, georgia. there was a passenger on board, but the ambulance couldn't move because of the ice. >> it would move maybe ten feet and then just stop, then we would have to start the process all over again. >> whoo-hoo! >> take a look at this picture from charlotte, north carolina. a car on top of another after an accident. in raleigh, traffic was backed up for miles. people had to get out, push their cars down the road. one car caught on fire on a raleigh street. you can see the others scattered across the road there.

>> you talk about schools being closed. you know, our school system here now already cutting into vacation days because of snow days. >> i know. >> look at this scene in virginia. the snow there started falling midafternoon. it has been going all night. it's snowing now. these pictures are from danville, near roanoke. the national guard is now on standby to help anyone who winds up stranded. >> okay, our reporters are out covering the storm from all the angles this morning. let's start with indra petersons, live in white plains, new york, just north of new york city, where it's snowing right now. indra's joining us on the phone. good morning! >> oh, good morning. i thought i was going to get a lucky break this morning. we looked out of our row at the hotel this morning and it looked like nothing was going on, but it took only minutes before things quickly changed. we're getting the hardest type of snow, a very wet snow coming down strong right now. so, in the last hour, we can tell that the system is making its way in. we know we have a tough day ahead of us. but here's the thing, we kept talking about the placement of the low. the low itself is just a little bit farther inland. why does that matter?

if you're on the right side of the low, which means everyone closer to the coastline, you'll start to transition around 10:00 this morning to more of that sleet, so that really kind of wet stuff that makes your day absolutely miserable. that's what we'll be dealing with in these major metropolitan areas throughout the day. then on the back side of it as the low starts to make its way out, we'll start to see that transition again to snow overnight. so, what does your day look like? well, if you're farther inland, that's where you'll really get the heavy amounts of snow. i mean, d.c., we're still talking about almost near a foot of snow. unbelievable. again, it will be more of the western portion of the city. right now i've already heard reports of about 2 inches per hour. so, definitely some heavy snow in that region. new york city got about an inch overnight, but again, it is now making its way in, so that's where we're starting to see that heavy snow line. >> yeah, indra, thanks. we're hearing indra up in white plains, new york, just about a half hour out of the city right now, where the snow is starting to fall. and you could see it on that map, just the stretch of snow all the way from the southeast up to the north. and in a large part of this country, this is just the beginning. this is going to go through the

night, as indra was saying, it turns to rain, turns back to snow, it freezes, it unfreezes. this is a mess and it's going to be a mess until tomorrow morning, at least. let's check in now in washington, where you know, they always handle snow and storms so well. i'm not being honest about that. >> i was looking forward to testimony today from janet yellen, the new fed chief. she will not be testifying today because the federal government is closed. they're looking for what, i think 8 inches of snow this morning? ice as well in the nation's capital. erin mcpike is live for us in the washington mall. erin, what's it like there right now? >> reporter: well, guys, we have at least 6 inches now, and we know they were supposed to get at least 8, maybe a foot. now, we have heard that crews, hundreds of crews are being deployed. however, this is third street behind me, and it is still covered. so, the roads don't look good right now, but the federal government closed about 10:00 p.m. last night. they decided to close for the day. d.c. public schools are closed and all the major universities are closed in the area, too. so, nobody's taking any chances

here. but we can't see any snow really covering the capitol dome yet. hopefully, we'll get to see more, but d.c. actually looks pretty good in the snow, i would have to say. >> federal snow globe with erin mcpike sitting in the middle, being shaken up right now. all right, erin, we'll check back with you in a little bit. nice picture right there with the snow falling in front of the capitol. atlanta not a pretty picture this morning. it is on ice, along with much of the south. the mayor's urging residents to stay home again today, even as this storm moves north, because the icy mess that is there and is staying there today. george howell out surveying the damage in forest park, georgia, this morning. george, give us a sense of the situation. >> reporter: john, you know, the good news is we're out of the woods as far as the sleet is concerned. still a little snow coming down, but when you go into the woods, when you go into these wooded, suburban neighborhoods, you see the problem back here. you see the tree that has fallen on the power line.

this is a community and one of many here throughout the area where people had to sleep, you know, in the cold, without power. in this particular case, we spoke with the crews, and apparently, they're waiting to get permission from the power company to move that tree. they want to make sure that the line is safe. certainly, we're keeping a good distance away from it as well, as you see -- you may not be able to see it, but the yellow tape there, staying away from that. but again, this is something you find throughout the area. i used to work here in this market. not surprised by this, because these trees and also the power lines, when they get that extra weight on them, the weight from the ice, the weight from the snow, just not prepared for that weight, and it brings the trees and power lines down. that's one thing we're watching here in the atlanta metro area. and then the other thing also is the fact that we are, many of us are standing, driving on beds of ice. that ice from the sleet yesterday, it's coating many of the roadways on top of the snow that has yet to come.

we understand that we should see clearing by noon today eastern time. but again, you know, it will take some time for that ice to melt. >> george, you've been out in that ice since yesterday. in fact, i'm not quite sure when george slept because he's been on for us about 24 straight hours. i think the good news in the atlanta area, in georgia, was that most people heeded the warnings. they learned the lesson from last time and they stayed home, is that correct? because i saw some pictures from charlotte, north carolina, not so much with the learning thing, george. >> reporter: absolutely, and that's the interesting thing about it. when you think about the rush hour yesterday, no one, no one was on the roads, and they all paid attention to what the officials said. the local stations here, they drove the message home, stay home. that's what people have done. but you know, you get on twitter and you hear some of the things that people are saying. they're saying, hey, you know, starting to get cabin fever, i want to get out. you have to wait another day at least. wait for this ice to melt. wait for the roads to become

safer. and that's the hope, you know, as we get through this final day of this storm here. >> all right, george howell, thanks so much, george. you know, the storm making travel very difficult today. the effects of bad weather could be felt for months on the roads. in new york city alone, crews have already filled 70,000 potholes since the first of the year, the result of the snow and the cold causing the asphalt to split open. aging water mains are busting as well, damage that could take a while to fully assess and repair. all right, breaking news overnight. dozens of terrorists released from prison. why men who killed u.s. soldiers were set free. and a trial date for at accused boston bomber, but it's not sitting well with the victims or the defense. we're going to explain that story next. the day we rescued riley was a truly amazing day. he was a matted mess in a small cage. so that was our first task, was getting him to wellness. without angie's list, i don't know if we could have found

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breaking overnight, everyone, the afghanistan government releasing 65

suspected taliban fighters from jail, despite fierce protests from the u.s. military officials who insist that the men are a threat to nato and afghan forces, but the inmates were allowed to walk out of bagram prison around five hours ago and now it appears extremely unlikely that the two countries will be able to reach a long-term security agreement before president karzai's term ends this spring. relations between the two countries now not good at all. this morning, the latest potential crisis over the debt ceiling is over! the senate mustering 67 votes, including 12 republicans to break a filibuster and move forward with raising the nation's borrowing limit for another year. it is another moment of bipartisanship in a capitol not used to that sort of thing. remember, it's been three years of debt ceiling brinksmanship. perhaps this sets a new course for working together without risking the economy. >> hard to argue in the future that somehow having done it

three times, doesn't matter now, we're going to threaten to shut the government down, threaten to default on the full faith and credit of the united states again. i think that argument becomes harder to sustain in the future. >> senator ted cruz, who was behind the filibuster, was unapologetic, saying the vote shows politicians in washington are not listening to the american people. but others in his own party called the vote a good outcome. >> it was a frantic hour on the floor of the senate. >> it was. >> high drama. meanwhile, health and human services secretary kathleen sebelius says she is encouraged by the latest figures on obamacare enrollment, a total now of 3.3 million americans have now signed up for health care coverage. this is according to the administration, including a 53% increase in sign-ups since the beginning of the year. still, the congressional budget office has downgraded its original projection of 7 million obamacare sign-ups to 6 million by march 31st. that's the enrollment deadline. they're about a million behind where they thought they would be

at this time. secretary of state john kerry is in seoul today to meet with south korea's president and get briefed on interkorea talks. that visit follows the highest level talks between the two koreas in six years. the north reportedly asked for a delay in joint military exercises with the u.s. those are scheduled for later this month. but seoul rejected that request. kerry's visit is the first leg of an asia trip that includes stops in china and indonesia. breaking overnight, one of the biggest mergers ever for cable television. comcast is buying time warner cable for about $45 billion in stock. the two cable companies are the largest in the country, each providing tv to millions of americans. together they hold about 33% of the market here in the u.s. this deal undoubtedly will get tough security from federal antitrust regulators. we should note that time warner cable is a separate company from time warner, which is the parent company of cnn. >> and john, the biggest question is what happens to your cable bill with all this? cable inflation has been about

6% a year. this giant cable company's going to have a third of all u.s. customers, certainly something regulators will consider. looking at the stock market today, worldwide selling in stocks today. japan, hong kong, shanghai all lower. stocks in europe breaking a six-day winning streak. the stock market here in new york gave up its winning streak on thursday. looks like selling again today. february is looking pretty good so far for stocks. one question, will it be a temporary bounce or will investors be able to shrug off a rough start to the year and go for another run at record highs? if i knew the answer to that, i would be not here in this weather, i would be on an island in the caribbean, maybe even someplace more remote. >> the time warner/comcast thing sounds like a huge, huge deal. >> it's a very big deal. and time warner cable has had other suitors over the last year, kept saying the offer's not high enough. it is a very big deal and it will be a humongous cable company, as prices have been rising because of, you know, the cost of the content, blackouts, all kinds of stuff. the big question for me is what

it will mean for consumers. >> they may have to pay higher prices, also will have a different number to call to complain every week for their service when it doesn't work. >> different logo on the cable guy. 16 minutes after the hour now. the jury resumes deliberations in the michael dunn trial, the florida man accused of murder in the killing of 17-year-old jordan davis after a confrontation about loud music. dunn insists it was self-defense and that he saw a gun. police never found any gun. no one else saw any gun. but prosecutors said in their closing arguments that dunn's claims just don't hold up. this morning, victims' families and defense lawyers are not happy with a judge's decision setting a november trial date for accused boston marathon bomber dzhokhar tsarnaev. the families wanted tsarnaev on trial sooner. the defense didn't want to start until 2015, saying the fbi isn't turning over evidence they need to prepare their case. three people died. 260 were injured in the bombings last april. >>. he's guilty, talking about

former new orleans mayor ray nagin, the federal jury finding him guy on robbery, conspiracy and wire fraud for accepting illegal gifts from contractors before and after hurricane katrina. nagin, one of the public faces of that city during katrina, has long denied taking bribes. he is likely to face about 20 years in jail when he's sentenced in june. kentucky this morning is being told it must recognize same-sex marriages, at least the marriages of residents who wed outside the state. a federal judge making that ruling and pointing to last year's supreme court decision striking down a key part of the defense of marriage act. four kentucky couples challenged a state law that declared their out-of-state marriages void. couples in missouri are currently challenging a similar law there. new details this morning of how a policy change at the boy scouts of america may be affecting its membership numbers. they report a 6% membership decline in the last year. that is since it allowed openly gay boy scouts to remain in the

scouts, a move that angered some conservative groups. however, a spokesman for the boy scouts insists that other issues, including the decreasing amount of free time that many kids have, may be a bigger cause. any parent knows that kids are doing a gillion things now, so less time for any one thing. happening today in tampa, investigators will be at busch gardens to try to figure out why 16 roller coaster riders were stuck nearly six stories above the ground. this happened on the park's newest roller coaster, cheetah hunt. riders were suspended at a 30-degree angle for nearly four hours. there were no injuries, except for the one i suffered just having to even think about it doing this story. >> exactly, the heartbeat i just skipped. all right, the doors are set to open this morning at the national corvette museum in kentucky. you must have seen this picture. >> unbelievable. >> this is crazy. a giant, 30-foot sinkhole swallowed up eight of these cars, these classic corvettes, unique, collector versions of

these cars with a value of several million dollars apiece. >> where we had corvettes, there's now a big hole. >> definitely well known to have sinkhole occurrences throughout this area of kentucky and in other places in the southeastern u.s. we've had a lot of rain recently. it's been a really wet winter, and so, that type of thing is something that could be a contributing factor but i just can't say for sure right now. >> other cars near the sinkhole have been relocated to other parts of the museum. they're now trying to figure out the best way to pull out the corvettes. the corvettes falling into the sinkholes, first sign of the apocalypse, right? first sign is the corvettes, then what happens? >> they were sharing this video virally and there's a 1962 black corvette that fell in there that people were particularly crying over. i think they're close to the mammoth caves there. my parents actually go there. the romans' list of things to see -- >> right before the ball of twine, you go to the corvette museum? >> we are the corvette museum fans, yes.

20 minutes after the hour now. i don't know if you heard, but derek jeter has only got one year left to play. this went unnoticed largely yesterday. derek jeter announced that he is retiring after this season. andy scholes joins us now, in a little bit, i should say, with the "bleacher report," breaking down this announcement. that's coming up next. i'm beth... and i'm michelle. and we own the paper cottage. it's a stationery and gifts store. anything we purchase for the paper cottage goes on our ink card. so you can manage your business expenses and access them online instantly with the game changing app from ink.

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yankees great derek jeter announcing that the upcoming 2014 season will be his last. >> andy scholes joins us now with more in this morning's "bleacher report." hey, andy. >> hey, good morning, guys. this season will be the end of an era for the yankees. their captain, derek jeter, is going to be calling it quits after his 20th season in the big leagues. jeter made the big announcement on facebook yesterday, saying, "as i came to this conclusion and shared it with my friends and family, they all told me to hold off saying anything until i was absolutely 100% sure. and the thing is, i could not be more sure. i know it in my heart the 2014 season will be my last year playing professional baseball." now, for the first time in his career, jeter struggled with injuries last season, playing only 17 games, but in his 19 years, he's played more games than any other yankee ever, and everyone wants to see his last game at yankee stadium. tickets to the final game this season, they've skyrocketed. the cheapest ticket's gone from $20 all the way up to 300 bucks.

all right, over in sochi yesterday, the u.s. ladies reigned supreme on the halfpipe, a day after shaun white failed to medal in the men's competition. kaitlyn farrington dazzled the crowd with a gold-medal performance. her teammate, kelly clark, not too far behind her, taking home the bronze medal. unfortunately for team usa, though, these were the only two medals won yesterday. now, on the ice, the u.s. and canada renewed their rivalry in hockey. the u.s. was up in the first but canada would score three goals to get the win 3-2. there's still a good chance, though, that these two teams will meet again down the line in the gold medal game. now, the u.s. men's hockey team, meanwhile, will open play later this morning. they're going to take on slovakia in the preliminary round. here's a look at the current medal count. norway leads the way with 12 medals. u.s. hanging in there with nine. germany has eight medals, but they do lead the way with six of them being gold. trending on

bleacherreport.com today is a story about all the stray dogs running around sochi. but one u.s. olympian's doing what he can to save some of them. look how cute this is. skier gus kenworthy stumbled upon this adorable family and tweeted that he's going it take them all to get vaccinated and has lined up kennels for them and really wants to take them back to the u.s., but i'm sure there's a lot of paperwork and headaches involved in that. but guys, how cute are these puppies? >> very adorable. you can't get yogurt in and out of sochi, so i think puppies won't be too easy, but awfully nice, great sentiment. great picture, too. andy scholes, nice to see you this morning. >> all right. all right, our big top story this morning, snow, ice, freezing rain. the east coast is covered this morning. it's a deadly storm that has all but shut down the south. it's moving north. we're going to have everything you need to know about this right after the break. [ male announcer ] inside every box of cheerios are those great-tasting little o's made from carefully selected oats that can help lower cholesterol.

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happening right now, you're looking at it, this monster storm moving up the east coast. millions of people in its path this morning. this storm is knocking down power lines, freezing branches and shutting down airports. driving is a mess. question now is how long will it last? indra petersons tracking the latest. welcome back to "early start," everyone. i'm john berman. >> i'm christine romans. 31 minutes past the hour. and it's so interesting, when you look at this video, you're not used to seeing the call letters from stations from the south where you're seeing that kind of action. look, this is the map, from the south all the way to new england. heavy snow, ice falling, making

travel treacheous. already ten people have died. their deaths connected to this storm. more than 4,000 flights have been canceled from atlanta all the way to boston. call ahead, folks. and as you're waking up this morning, one of the biggest concerns, the power. power outages, the numbers continuing to climb. right now, more than 770,000 customers do not have electricity in 15 states. this is mostly just the south right now. it hasn't hit the north as badly as it's going to just yet. what's happening, you're looking at it right now, the ice snapping tree limbs, dragging down power lines, and it could get worse before it gets better. >> you know, it's also pulling down trees, leading to dangerous situations like this one, as those massive trees crash into homes and leave some just inches from escaping tragedy. >> terrifying, hearing the tree crack and watching it fall from my window and landing on my daughter's room was very traumatic. >> all right, schools are closed this morning from alabama all

the way up to maine. a lot of school districts being told now they're going to eat into some of your vacations because they've had so many snow days with students staying home in some cases day after day. getting to school is just too dangerous. the icy, slick roads, as you can see, leading to accidents like this one near atlanta. a tractor-trailer off the road blocking traffic. luckily, most people did heed the warnings and were not out driving. good samaritans had to hop in to get this ambulance moving in marietta, georgia. there was a passenger on board, but the ambulance could move because of the ice. >> it would move maybe ten feet and then just stop, and then we would have to start the process all over again. [ cheering ] >> take a look at this amazing picture from charlotte, north carolina, a car on top of another one after an accident, right on top of it. in raleigh, traffic was backed up for miles. people getting out, pushing their cars down the road. one car caught on fire on a

raleigh street. you can see all the other cars scattered across the road there. in virginia, it has been snowing all night, still snowing. several inches started falling in the afternoon, making the commute a real mess. these pictures are from danville. the national guard is now on standby to help anyone who winds up stranded. >> indra petersons live in white plains, new york, this morning, just north of new york city, where it is snowing right now. and indra, the only smiles on anyone's face all up and down the east coast are the kids who are getting another snow day. the rest of us just have to really grin and bear it, don't we? >> reporter: yes. this is such a different type of snowstorm than what we've seen just the last few times, because it's almost that very wet, heavy snow that just makes you feel miserable. it almost makes it feel like it melts on contact, but that's starting to change. this heavy snow. how heavy? places like d.c., baltimore, have already seen 6 to 9 inches of snow, guys. remember, four years ago, they had 5 inches. so, this is a huge storm in the d.c. area, and it's still snowing in that region.

also now making its way in through new york city. keep in mind, by 10:00 a.m. today, though, we're going to start to see a change. remember, it's all about the position of the low. when it's closer to the coastline, you get more of the snow at the coastline. but instead, it's actually shifted a little bit farther inland. so, on the right side, we're going to start to get more of that warm air. what does that mean? it's going to feel even more miserable because you'll get kind of that sleet mixture throughout the day, once the sun is up, right? then, through the evening hours, once the sun goes down, it's going to switch back to snow, as it's going to be colder out there. so, you're going to see a lot of transitioning throughout the day. d.c., by early evening, you'll start to see this kind of shut off. by midnight or so today in terms of new york city, you'll start to see the shutoff. the heavier amounts, though, are going to be inland. and there's another factor to this storm. i don't know if you can see it behind me, but when this wind kicks up, it's absolutely miserable out here, guys. we're definitely talking about strong winds as this low's developing and continuing to make its way up the coastline. we're going to start to see the winds intensifying, so 30, 40-mile-per-hour winds really

blowing this snow around. so, that's one side of the system. but remember, even down to the southeast, we still have the icing out there, so that's unfortunate. we're still talking about half an inch of ice still possible, freezing rain reported in towards the carolinas, so there's really a lot to be taken into consideration here. really a long way still to go as this system is expected to dump some heavy amounts of snow. d.c. could see almost near a foot of snow, and also towards new york city, especially farther inland. we could see maybe 6 inches towards the city, a little higher inland, guys. tough day. >> all right. thanks, indra. >> it's going to be a long, long day. and if the weather's not bad enough, we will be dealing with impact for quite some time on the roads. we're talking about the potholes. they are just huge. in new york city alone, crews have already filled nearly 70,000 potholes since the first of the year as a result of the snow and the cold that causes the asphalt to crumble. you know, teeth-rattling potholes. water mains bursting. this damage will take a long time to fully assess and repair. all right, breaking

overnight, 65 suspected taliban fighters have been released from jail in afghanistan. the government taking this step, despite fierce protests from the u.s. american military officials insist these men are a threat to nato and afghan forces, but the inmates were allowed to walk out of bagram prison around five hours ago. it now appears extremely unlikely that the u.s. and afghanistan can reach a long-term security agreement before president karzai's term ends this spring. now to washington, where a major crisis has been averted now that the debt ceiling has been raised, or i should say suspended for another year. the senate mustering 67 votes, including 12 republicans, to break a filibuster and move forward with increasing the nation's borrowing limit for another year. this was a bipartisan move, although democrats made up most of the votes to prevent what could have been a real catastrophe for the economy. >> and it would be hard to argue in the future that, somehow, having done it three times, it

doesn't matter, now we're going to threaten to shut the government down, threaten to default on the full faith and credit of the united states again. i think that argument becomes harder to sustain in the future. >> senator ted cruz was leading the efforts for a filibuster. he made no apologies for that effort, saying the vote shows that politicians in washington are not listening to the american people. there were other members of his party, including the party leadership, which called the vote a good outcome. all right, new details this morning about just how many people have signed up for obamacare. the latest government figures show nearly 3.3 million americans have now signed up for health care coverage, including a 53% increase in sign-ups since the beginning of the year. still, the congressional budget office has downgraded its original projection of 7 million obamacare sign-ups to 6 million by the march 31st individual enrollment deadline. happening today in seoul, secretary of state john kerry is meeting with south korea's president, and he will be briefed on the high-level talks

between north and south korea. his visit follows the highest level talks between the two koreas in six years. the north reportedly asked for a delay in joint military exercises with the u.s., scheduled later this month, but seoul rejected that request. the secretary's visit is the first leg of an asia trip that includes stops in china and indonesia. we're hearing this morning from senator rand paul, now that he and a group of conservative activists have filed suit against the president and his administration over the nsa's surveillance programs. the senator says the collection of phone records is unconstitutional, and he wants the highest court in the land to agree. >> we are going to try to have a decision on whether the fourth amendment applies to our phone records in an open court, the supreme court, and i think we will be heard, and i think that we have a very strong argument. things are complicated with regard to how big a class is, but we didn't define the class. this is defined by the arrogance of government that has decided

that the fourth amendment really allows a warrant to be written for everybody's phone records. it shows the enormity and the egregiousness of really the government's intrusion. >> former virginia attorney general ken cuccinelli is serving as lead counsel. he, of course, ran for governor there, too. he admits it's likely to take several years before this case reaches the supreme court. stocks closed lower in asia. european markets break their longest winning streak of the year. and u.s. investors, well, you can look for more of yesterday's selling on wall street. the two largest cable companies are joining forces. that's the big money story of the day. comcast set to announce it's buying time warner cable for $45 billion in stock. deals this size typically come under tough scrutiny from federal regulators. if approved, a combined comcast and time warner cable would hold a third of the american cable tv business. customers, beware, less competition typically means higher prices. it's definitely something regulators look at. time warner cable is a separate company from time warner, the

parent of cnn. but that's the big money story we're following today, this huge, huge cable deal. >> you know, i have some breaking olympic news right now, and it's rare good news for the united states. >> what is it? >> the u.s. just swept the men's slopestyle skiing. >> fantastic. >> got the gold, silver and bronze in that, so congratulations, usa. you will probably not be able to see that on tv for about 14 more hours, but we're giving you the results right now here on cnn. >> that would bump us up to 10, 11 medals? >> yeah, probably up to third place. go, usa. >> third place, all right. coming up next for us, huge, huge flooding overseas. entire towns, beautiful villages under water this morning, and there is a new storm coming. we are live right after the break. [ male announcer ] it's surprising what your mouth goes through in a day. but what's even more surprising is that brushing alone isn't enough to keep it clean. fortunately, you've got listerine®. unlike brushing which misses 75% of your mouth, listerine® cleans virtually your entire mouth. so what are you waiting for? it's time to take your mouth to a whole new level of health.

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protect their homes. jim boldin's live in one hard-hit area. jim, what's latest? >> reporter: christine, you can see it's actually quite a nice day today. we had terrible storms yesterday and we expect more storms tomorrow, so we are really just in the middle of that. but what you see here, and even though we're near the river thames, this is not the river flooding. this is groundwater. that's why we've come here. this is sewers that cannot handle all the rain that this area's getting. people had put out these sandbags, but it hasn't worked, it doesn't work because the water's coming from below. so, you see these families here have been flooded out, homes evacuated. these people live near the river, but they weren't expecting flooding because it doesn't flood here from the river. so, a lot of people really caught out. you see this family here. they've had to take their refrigerator and put it out into the front yard. some people, i've been told, are still in these homes, are refusing to leave. the police have said they should leave because we're going to get higher water tomorrow. luckily at this moment, the water has gone down a little

bit. as you say, much worse than the rest of the country, really bad storms overnight and bad storms hitting wales. they're telling us the river could be at a 60-year high in the next few days, the river over there, so these people need to prepare, even though right now the water's receding. they need to prepare for what could be a very bad weekend. christine? >> jim boulden, thank you, jim. when you look at these pictures, it's incredible, and flooding is so insidious, takes so long to clean up. >> so destructive. >> and they're right in the middle of it. 46 minutes after the hour. let's look at what's coming up on "new day." kate bolduan with us. hi, kate. >> guys, we have to keep continuing to cover this storm that doesn't go away. a different rendition every week. this deadly winter storm now slamming the northeast. it just barreled through the south leaving leaving chaos in its wake. nearly a million customers are without power this morning. we're going to have everything that all our viewers need to know and we'll also talk to the mayors of the hard-hit cities of

charlotte and durham, north carolina, about how they're handling the storm. unfortunately, some of the interstates there look as if it's round two of what happened in atlanta. hopefully not the same result this time. but also, this story for everybody. an olympian will be in the house this morning. sage kotsenburg, who made history winning the first gold medal in the men's snowboarding slopestyle event and the first gold for the u.s. at the olympics. he'll be joining us live. we'll talk to him, of course, about the winter games and that snowboarding lingo. we've been saying it ever since we learned it. we still don't know what spoice means. >> can't wait for that. a revelation in lingo. all right, kate. >> exactly. all right, coming up, a roller coaster ride turns terrifying. the dramatic rescue and what's happening this morning. [ female announcer ] we lowered her fever.

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breaking news is the weather. these are live pictures right now from georgia, where you can see a sign right there. but behind that sign, i think you have a lot of snow, ice, things are freezing. not good at all. >> we've got live pictures as well from raleigh. lots of snow on the ground there. we're keeping a close eye on this monster storm as it churns from the southeastern coast of the united states all the way up here to some of the more populated cities. all right, happening today in jacksonville, a jury gets back to work in the murder trial of michael dunn. he's the florida man on trial for killing a 17-year-old, jordan davis, after a confrontation over loud music. dunn insists it was self-defense, he had to fire at the car davis was riding in to protect himself, but prosecutors said in their closing arguments that dunn's claims simply don't add up. the families of victims and defense lawyers are blasting a judge's decision in the boston marathon bombings. the judge set a november trial

date for accused bomber dzhokhar tsarnaev. the families wanted tsarnaev on trial sooner. the defense didn't want the trial to start until 2015, saying the fbi isn't turning over evidence that they need to prepare their case. three people died, more than 260 were injured in the bombings last april. former new orleans mayor ray nagin is now a convicted felon. a federal jury finding him guilty on 20 counts of bribery, conspiracy and wide fraud for accepting illegal gifts from contractors before and after hurricane katrina. nagin, of course, was the public face of that city during katrina. he has long denied taking bribes. he likely faces 20 years in jail when he's sentenced in june. busch gardens tampa back open today after this. >> terrifying. >> investigators will be on the scene looking into the scary stop of a roller coaster six stories above the ground. 16 people were on board the cheetah hunt, suspended at a 30-degree angle right there before fire crews were able to

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all right, more breaking news for you now. these are live pictures from kentucky, where authorities suspect that a gas line exploded in a rural area southeast of louisville. at least three homes now on fire. amazingly, just one minor injury has been reported so far, but you can see the flames there still burning. not clear at this point what caused the explosion, but again, they suspect a gas line explosion of some kind. we'll keep an eye on this throughout the morning and tell you how it goes. >> all right, just a couple minutes before 6:00 in the east. selling in stock markets around the world today. u.s. futures are lower. another winter storm slowing business for many. european markets are headed for the end to a six-day winning

streak. asian markets closed lower as well. interesting numbers on your 401(k) balance. they hit a record last year, have doubled, frankly, since 2009, averaging $89,300. that's the average, up 15% from a year earlier. nest egg's getting a boost from stock market gains last year, of course, but it's not all unicorns and sunshine and rain bows. people approaching retirement age have a little more cushion, but many young and low-income workers are cashing out, rather than rolling over their 401(k)s when they leave jobs. fully a third of people who are leaving their jobs cashing out the 401(k). if workers don't roll over funds, it makes it harder to grow retirement savings, obviously. cashing out also carries a 10% fine and heavy tax penalties. so, retirement planning experts this morning looking at that so-called good news about 401(k) balances and saying, great, the 401(k)s are growing, but people are cashing them out and spending them when they leave their jobs, a dangerous sign for the future. >> very few people ever advise you to cash out your 401(k) at a young age. there are penalties that are huge! >> also, the number for

pre-retirees, closer to 55 getting ready to retire, that number should be higher. it should be more than $165,000 you've got in that account. >> certainly a better time to retire now than it was during the recession or the crash a few years ago when a lot of retirees lost money. that's it for us. "new day" starts right now. breaking news. that catastrophic storm hits full force. the south pummeled with cars stranded. drivers stuck for hours with nowhere to go. now the northeast in the cross hairs. a full-on nor'easter hitting at his hour. some areas expecting to see more than a foot of snow. schools and offices closed across the entire eastern seaboard. >> there are cars all over the roads. 's in the medians. people sliding all over the place. i don't think we were quite as prepared as we should have been. more than half a million customers in the dark this morning.

power lines down, people left in the cold u. could hear the rumble and then the snap of the power. >> and this storm is creating a nightmare in the skies. thousands of flights cancelled, even more delayed, and no relief is in sight. >> four to six more inches on top of what we've got tonight with temperatures in the 20s. we are definitely not out of the woods yet. >> we're live throughout the storms on everything you need to know. good morning. welcome to "new day." it's thursday, february 13th. 6:00 in the east and we're beginning with breaking news. another monster outside your window paralyzing the south and now pounding the northeast. this system is massive and deadly. ten have lost their lives so far. the pictures, as always, tells story. take a look. this is chaos in north carolina. epic traffic jams forces thousands to abandon their cars on icy roads, of course. and lessons learned in