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Saturday Morning NewsSnow Falls on South as Fans Descend for Super Bowl in AtlantaAired January 29, 2000 - 9:07 a.m. ETTHIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. KYRA PHILLIPS, ANCHOR: Winter weather continues to bear down on much of the United States. People in the Northeast are making -- or waking up to another day of bitter cold, while in the central U.S., an inch to three inches of snow are expected. And for one region, a balmy winter is nowhere in sight. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) (voice-over): Much of the South is under wraps and keeping watch on the second winter storm to hit the region in a week. Freezing rain, snow, sleet, and ice are making roads slick and keeping people indoors. In Mississippi, about 300 National Guardsmen are on alert to help communities. In Atlanta, host of Super Bowl XXXIV, some sleet and freezing rain fell early Saturday. An estimated 100,000 fans are expected to descend on the city this weekend to watch the indoor game. President Clinton declared 30 Georgia counties disaster areas because of last week's ice storm. Besides Georgia, the combination of snow and ice has caused traffic to back up for miles in Texas and Arkansas. Major pileups have stranded more than 1,000 people on highways. In Arkansas, the worst of the storm is now over. In some places, people are trying to dig out from the 18 inches of snow that fell, while others are taking advantage of a rare snowy playground. For those who pause, the snowy aftermath does leave behind scenes to behold. (END VIDEOTAPE) Now a closer look at how the South's Super Bowl city is bearing up under this blast of wintry weather. CNN's Brian Cabell is standing by in Atlanta with the latest on conditions there. We got you up on the TV there, Brian. Good morning. BRIAN CABELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kyra, and welcome to the Ice Bowl. This is the Georgia Dome behind me, the scene of the Super Bowl tomorrow late afternoon. We are in the satellite truck parking lot, as a matter of fact, not too much action out here right now, as you might expect. It's cold, it's dreary. Let me show you something else. This is the scaffolding back here. On top of this scaffolding is supposed to be where all the camera crews are, where I'm supposed to be. But it's about 20 feet above the ground, and there is a sheet of ice up there about a half an inch thick. It is treacherous. No one -- very few people, as a matter of fact -- are going up there. Speaking of ice, ice all over the highways today, 75, 85, the two highways that go north-south throughout town, traffic is crawling along there throughout the morning, very, very slowly, 5, 10 miles an hour, a lot of skidding, a lot of ice along the highways. Law enforcement officials saying stay off of there if you possibly can. I-20, which is the highway east-west through town, a 49-car pileup there yesterday late last night because of the ice. Of course, all of this ice, all of this cold, frigid conditions putting a little bit of a damper on the festivities here on Super Bowl weekend. There are some parties taking place up in Buckhead last night, the Bud Bowl party. But the attendance there probably not as much as had been hoped. And again, the festive atmosphere probably not as great as it had been hoped for Super Bowl weekend. But again, the Super Bowl will be held here in spite of all the ice, in spite of the rain, in spite of a little bit of sleet. It'll be held right behind me here in the dome, and of course the weather will be fine there tomorrow, 72 degrees. That'll please both the fans and the players. I'm Brian Cabell, CNN, live in Atlanta. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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