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Blizzard Slams Eastern U.S.; Norwegian Volunteers Help Stop Refugee Deportations; French Jews Find Homes in Israel; Abandoned Chinese Boy Now at Home in U.S. Aired 1-1:30a ET

Aired January 24, 2016 - 01:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


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NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Record snowfall in the Big Apple and damaging floods along the Jersey Shore. Another night of misery for millions in the eastern U.S. We'll have the very latest.

Also, an exodus not seen for generations as Muslim migrants flocking to Europe dominate the headlines, we'll explain why thousands of European Jews are heading to Israel.

And just days away from the Iowa caucuses, the state's most powerful paper names its presidential favorites.

It might surprise you, one of them perhaps, I don't know.

Thanks for joining us here on CNN NEWSROOM. We're live in Atlanta. I'm Natalie Allen.

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ALLEN: A mammoth winter storm has put much of the eastern United States in the deep freeze. So far the storm has claimed 14 lives as well; 11 governors have declared states of emergency as record snowfall locks up travel on the roads and in the air on the Atlantic Coast.

Also there's another threat.

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ALLEN (voice-over): Strong winds have forced floodwaters into some cities in New Jersey. Earlier the mayor of one of those towns in New Jersey spoke with us by phone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This morning's high tide was really bad. It came in much higher than we had anticipated or had been forecast actually to levels that exceed what we saw during Hurricane Sandy.

We had a lot of evacuations. A lot of people who had stayed in their homes, not anticipating this, needed to be rescued. And so we've actually rescued well over 100 people from flooded homes throughout the day. We've also been without electricity in most of the city since 6:00 am

this morning. And so with the cold temperatures and the flooding, that has also led to more evacuations.

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ALLEN: Derek Van Dam is with us.

You were telling us this was probably going to happen last night as we watched this.

Can you imagine how cold that water is?

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Oh, I would imagine it's about 42 degrees in fact, Fahrenheit.

Of course because I checked.

Not a place you want to be, obviously. And that part of New Jersey saw the brunt of this coastal storm surge because it coincided with the high tide.

There was an astronomical full moon and the strongest part of the storm moved right next to that shoreline at that very precise moment --

ALLEN: Bad luck.

VAN DAM: But it just exaggerated everything there.

But I found it fascinating how this thing, this storm played out on social media.

Did you see all the hashtags out there?

#snowmageddon. We've seen that one. #snowzilla, that was a new one for me. I'd never seen that; #blizzard2016, they were all trending. And look at some of the photo that people put out around social media.

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VAN DAM (voice-over): "Dude, where's my car?"

Can you imagine, Natalie, having to find your vehicle in that amount of snowfall?

Well, a lot of people are wondering, did they break the record?

D.C.?

Nope. Second largest. Snow is coming to an end quickly there as well.

Central Park?

Second largest snowfall as well for you, 26.8 inches. That's 68 centimeters. We are talking about less than a half a centimeter from the all-time record snowfall event.

ALLEN: You are such a weather dude, wanting to break records --

(LAUGHTER)

VAN DAM: I want to so badly. And New York City people (INAUDIBLE) are like, no way, man. What is this guy talking about?

Here's a look at some of the other totals. The airports, you can see exactly why airports were closed and the thousands of flights that have been cancelled and delayed. That's going to have a snowball effect -- no pun intended -- right through the rest of the weekend and into next week.

And check this out, West Virginia, Maryland, they had snowfall totals in excess of 40 inches. You can do the math if you want to convert to metric. I'll leave that up to you.

Look how expansive this storm was, coverage a good 12 to 15 states, depending on which timeframe you're looking at. The good news is it's starting to pull away from the major metropolitan areas: Washington, D.C.; Philadelphia; Baltimore; into Atlantic City as well as the New York City area.

Only a few snow showers remain. And this could cause, obviously, some problems, considering that there is so much snow on the ground as we speak. It's not going anywhere very quickly.

And the big idea here is that we're going to get a warming trend throughout the course of the rest of the weekend. Then it freezes again. And what we get left with? Well, the potential for black ice.

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VAN DAM: I'll leave you with this: thundersnow from space. That little white speck in the middle of that photo there, that is lightning from the International Space Station, Scott Kelly.

ALLEN: Another fascinating thing about this storm.

VAN DAM: So many angles.

ALLEN: All right, Derek.

Thank you, yes, we're going to continue to take pictures now from the ground.

The state of Virginia is one of those places particularly hard hit by the snow.

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ALLEN (voice-over): This is how it looked in Oakton, that's not far from Dulles Airport, lots of sun there, huh? More than 70 centimeters of snow piled up there, the area's second largest snowfall on record. Our Nick Valencia has been out in the snow since it started. He spoke with us a short time ago from Fairfax, Virginia.

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NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The Commonwealth of Virginia continues to be pounded by this fatal storm. Of course you can see just how treacherous this is. Let me just give you an example here.

Walking through this, falling nearly ankle deep, knee deep and the further I go, just about up to my waist here. This storm has really lived up to all of the expectations. The biggest issues on the roadways have been disabled vehicles.

Just a little while ago, we actually saw one of those emergency vehicles stuck in the middle of this thoroughfare, this Route 50 here that connects to Interstate 66. The Virginia State Police saying that really is their main concern, those disabled vehicles, including those emergency vehicles that are out, trying to help residents.

The positive news in all of this is that people are really listening to government officials and staying inside.

There is, of course, some unfortunate news to report. At least two people died of hypothermia; the cold weather just really brutal and bone-chilling here. Another person, an individual lost control of his car and ran into a tree, causing him to die at the scene.

This winter weather is expected to last well through the weekend. More than 85 million Americans up and down the East Coast impacted by this with more sticky, wet weather and this snow continuing to fall and expected to fall well through Sunday -- back to you.

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ALLEN: Our Nick Valencia there for us.

The massive storm effectively snowed in New York City; all bridges, roads and tunnels into Manhattan are closed until at least Sunday morning after 25 inches, 63 centimeters of snow fell there.

Before that ban went into effect Saturday, one stranded driver got help from none other than New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. The governor spoke with CNN about what happened.

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ANDREW CUOMO, GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK: New Yorkers really demand to get their money's worth from almost any service and also from elected officials. So I am a full service governor. I tow cars. I push cars. I shovel snow up to a doctor-recommended limit.

There are cars all over the roadways this morning, which is one of the reasons we imposed the travel ban. But there was one car we came across that was really in a dangerous

position. It was on an exit ramp, where many cars were trying to get off and it was blocking the exit ramp and there was just mayhem. It's amazing what can happen so quickly.

So we actually got out to help that person move the car and get out of the snowbank. And we were successful, because it was just a matter of time before that cascaded into a number of accidents.

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ALLEN: Well, that's the governor there. Now we'll switch to the mayor. New York's mayor calls the huge snowfall in his city "uncharted territory."

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ALLEN (voice-over): And if anyone wanted to see a Broadway show Saturday, forget about it. All shows cancelled because of the weather.

But Chad Myers was in Times Square. Here is his report a few hours ago.

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CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, we are officially going to break a record here in Central Park or Times Square, all across the city. Manhattan officially going to go above the highest snowfall record on record for as long as they have been keeping records here in New York. And I guess that is kind of a milestone.

But the wind here in Central Park and in Times Square wasn't as bad as we saw down the shore or down in Baltimore and Philadelphia and D.C. So we don't have the drifting like they have down there. It's a little bit better.

Talia (ph) is actually from Florida; she joins me now.

You live over in Hell's Kitchen but you said the cars over there are snowed in?

TALIA (PH), RESIDENT: Everything is snowed in over there and it's freezing. But we are having fun.

MYERS: Now this is the most snow you have seen?

TALIA (PH): Yes. I've lived in Manhattan for 10.5 years and this is definitely the most snow I've ever seen in my life.

MYERS: So how are you going to cope with it?

Are you going to cook?

Are there stores open?

What's it like over there?

TALIA (PH): We found one restaurant over there that's open. It's not as crowded as I thought it would be. We figured it would be packed but it's not and we're just having fun with it.

MYERS: I think that's all you can do. At this point in time, we have --

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MYERS: -- gone by the, "oh, my gosh; I'm not going to get to work on Monday," and now we're just going to have fun with it.

So I guess if you can't and you don't want to go out, please don't; maybe Monday and Tuesday is the day to get there. Right now, it's stay in and watch TV or just kind of enjoy it briefly and get back inside.

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ALLEN: That's how it looked in New York City.

Now we take you to the nation's capital. Chris Welch, Chris was out last night as this storm bear down.

Now you are there. We were saying to you, this really, really, are they going to get that much snow and it looks like, well, you have.

CHRIS WELCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Natalie. When we spoke last night, it was looking like things were on track to reach the 2-feet mark, which is what a lot of meteorologists were predicting. That is essentially what we got here.

There was some talk, was some thinking, that they might break the record here in D.C., that record that was set back in 1922 of 28 inches. It does not appear that D.C. has broken that record here.

Take a look at my feet here. We've got about 22 inches here in the D.C. Metro area; Dulles International Airport was looking at about 28 inches, heavy, wet snow again.

The reasons that people are saying be careful, if you go out shoveling, if the snow has stopped falling where you are and you are going to go out there and do that, just be careful because it can be dangerous. We've seen that already today. There have been fatalities associated with shoveling snow.

But let's focus on tomorrow now. That's going to be the next step: clean up. The next phase of this storm. Now tomorrow's temperatures will be better. They'll be above freezing which means it will give some of the snow a little bit of room to melt, give some of the plows a chance to get out there on the streets.

But that also means there's going to be people out there on the streets. There's going to be a lot more traffic on the streets that the plows will have to be competing with. So when it comes to the cleanup efforts and whether things are going

to be fully back to normal Monday, that's the big question. And we'll kind of have to see how far crews get by tomorrow night -- Natalie.

Chris Welch for us, stay warm as you've been doing a great job for us for many hours. Thanks a lot.

Well, at least one Washington resident is totally enjoying the snow.

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ALLEN (voice-over): Check out Tian Tian, the giant panda at the Smithsonian National Zoo.

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ALLEN (voice-over): It's so adorable.

The zookeepers recorded Tian Tian rolling and frolicking in the freshly fallen snow Saturday. They posted the video online with the tweet, "Tian Tian woke up this morning to a lot of snow and he was pretty excited about it. #blizzard2016."

Chewed on his snowy toe there.

Coming up here, a boy abandoned in China as a baby is about to start a new life with his first real family in the United States.

Also ahead here, the Cruz-versus-Trump feud intensified but did either get an endorsement from the most powerful newspaper in Iowa?

That's next.

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ALLEN: Going to turn now to the migrant crisis still ongoing around the world following pro-refugee protests in Norway. The government has temporarily suspended the deportation of asylum seekers back to Russia. Russia state news agency reports the decision followed a request from Russian officials.

Thousands of migrants arrived in Norway over the last year by taking the so-called Arctic route you see here. Norway is part of the European Free Movement Agreement.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees says Russia is simply not a safe country for migrants and as our Atika Shubert reports, some Norwegians took it upon themselves to help refugees who feared deportation.

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ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Refugees in Norway's Arctic town of Kirkenes are fighting against deportation to Russia and they're getting some help from Marete Nordhus, a local and a volunteer with the group, Refugees Welcome to the Arctic.

She says, "I did not think to myself at the time that, 'What you're doing now, Marete, is criminal.' My only thought," she says, "was to get this poor family to safety."

On Thursday, Nordhus helped a Syrian family seek asylum in a church. The family was due to be deported to Russia imminently. But when she returned to the deportation center to get another family, police stopped the car. She took these photos of the encounter.

Nordhus was briefly arrested on alleged immigration violations and released with a fine. The refugee family was returned to the center.

"The mother was crying, 'No Russia, no Russia,' she said. They cried, I cried, the family cried. It was heartbreaking," she says.

Hundreds of refugees have taken the so-called Arctic route through Russia and into Norway. But this week, Norway's government began to deport any refugee with a valid Russian visa.

In Kirkenes, local residents came to support refugees, protesting and demanding to stay in Norway. Aid groups have warned that refugees could be left stranded without shelter in Russia, with temperatures reaching -34 degrees, prompting locals like Nordhus to take action. And she isn't deterred by the police stop.

One local reporter asks, "Was it worth it?"

She answers, "Yes, absolutely."

Even the Arctic Circle, it seems, is feeling the effects of the refugee crisis -- Atika Shubert, CNN.

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ALLEN: The deadly terror attacks in Paris and the rise in anti- Semitic violence have led to the largest migration of Jews from Western Europe to Israel in more than half a century.

Our Oren Liebermann reports from a town in Israel that many French Jews now call home.

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OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The ages are as varied as the backgrounds in this class. Students in their 20s or 40s, from France or Russia, all learning the same language: Hebrew.

They are new immigrants to Israel, part of the largest wave of Jewish immigration from Western Europe to Israel since 1948. French Jews are leading that wave.

After the attack on the kosher supermarket in Paris a year ago, where four Jews were killed just days after the Charlie Hebdo attack, many French immigrants say they felt increasingly unsafe. Yoav Krief's friend was killed in that attack.

YOAV KRIEF, FRENCH JEWISH EMIGRE: I was not good, really not good. And talked to my mom. I said, "I must go to Israel."

LIEBERMANN: And this is where you will continue your life?

KRIEF: Yes, of course.

LIEBERMANN: This is home for you?

KRIEF: Yes.

LIEBERMANN (voice-over): Many, like Krief, have made their home in Ashdod, a city in Southern Israel. Here, you are as likely to hear French on the streets as Hebrew.

LIEBERMANN: The cultural center here in the heart of Ashdod, right near city hall, looks an awful lot like The Louvre. And across the street is Cafe Lyons, a popular meeting spot for the French community here in the city.

Sitting here, at this French cafe in Ashdod, it's quite stunning; all the conversations in here around me are in French. The entire menu is in French. And on the window outside, it says, in French, "joie de vivre," the enjoyment of life.

LIEBERMANN (voice-over): And that's what French Jews like Charly Dahan say they are looking for, a place to combine their old home with their new one.

"We've tried to per serve our culture here," he says.

"It's very important to hold onto that when you've lived in a different country for 30 or 40 years. We bring our old culture with us and try to combine it with a new one."

Reminders of why they left continue to this day. A Jewish teacher was attacked last week in Marseilles in an ISIS-inspired attack. And the city's chief rabbi told Jews not to the wear religious skullcaps, called kippah, on the French streets.

According to the E.U., the vast majority of French Jews openly --

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LIEBERMANN (voice-over): -- identifying as Jewish at least some of the time.

Dov Cohen left Marseilles in July, headed for Ashdod.

"There's a feeling of security here that no longer exists in France," he says.

"Twenty years ago, maybe there was. Since the year 2000, it's gone."

The idea of Israel has always been that Jews anywhere have a home here, but what of the place these newcomers have left behind?

One French leader expressed the fear that France would no longer be France without a group of its native sons -- Oren Liebermann, CNN, Ashdod.

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ALLEN: A Chinese boy abandoned as a baby is now adjusting to his new life in America.

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ALLEN (voice-over): A rare behind the scenes look at his long journey to adoption -- that's just ahead here.

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ALLEN: An influential Iowa newspaper gave its endorsements for Democratic and Republican presidential candidates; Hillary Clinton and Marco Rubio got the nod, respectively. "The Des Moines Register" interviewed every major candidate on both sides, with the notable exception of both Donald Trump and Ted Cruz.

Our Jeff Zeleny explains the impact of the endorsements.

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JEFF ZELENY, CNN SR. WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Both Hillary Clinton and Marco Rubio on their respective sides are the choice of the establishment. But this is a non-establishment election cycle. So that's why these endorsements have to be viewed in that lens.

If you look at both of the endorsements, Hillary Clinton is exactly the argument she's making. She's the establishment candidate. She's the experienced candidate. She knows exactly how to do the job.

And Marco Rubio is the future face of this Republican Party. He represents a different brand of Republican.

But the question is, are voters going to be in the mood for these types of establishment plays on both sides?

But, without question, everyone usually wants an endorsement. But they have limited value. And in this cycle, I think they probably have even less value than in previous cycles.

(END VIDEOTAPE) ALLEN: One week before the state of Iowa casts ballots in the

nation's first caucus, the Democratic candidates will go face-to-face with voters there. CNN's Chris Cuomo moderates the Democratic presidential town hall with Martin O'Malley, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders seen here on CNN. That's Tuesday, 2:00 am in London, 3:00 am Central European time.

And there is one man who could make the race even more interesting. The former mayor of New York City may have his eye on the Oval Office.

"The New York Times" reports Michael Bloomberg could spend $1 billion of his own money on an independent campaign for president. A source close to the media mogul has previously told CNN, Bloomberg would consider entering the race if it appeared Donald Trump or Ted Cruz would face Bernie Sanders in the general election.

An abandoned boy from China is now settling into his new life in the U.S. JiaJia arrived in Kansas City, Missouri, Friday with his adoptive parents. His American name is now Jason Wilson.

Before that, he spent most of his nine years at a medical orphanage in Beijing. CNN's Will Ripley and producer Serena Dong have more on what it was like covering JiaJia's adoption in this special report.

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WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Serena and I have been working on this --

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RIPLEY: -- story for five months.

And it was really hard for you to find an place, an orphanage that would allow us to even film.

SERENA DONG, CNN PRODUCER: So most were saying, sorry, it's kind of like sensitive topic in China.

Finally I reach out to the Elena's House.

RIPLEY: I don't know what you were expecting but I was kind of expecting this drab, dismal place. And then it was lovely in there.

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RIPLEY (voice-over): Hardwood floors; it was bright and kids were playing.

But it didn't make up for the fact that all of these kids didn't have parents. There were a lot of kids when we were filming, but JiaJia really stuck out to me.

He was the oldest one at the orphanage. But he just was acting as if he was a big brother for everybody.

DOING (voice-over): He's smart. He's brave. You know, he helps taking care of his little sisters and brothers in the orphanage.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Come here. Lots of people will see you.

DOING (voice-over): When his parents come to get him, he was telling me that, I don't want to, you know -- my best buddy to be here, because I don't want him to go through what I've been through before.

RIPLEY (voice-over): I got to the know the Wilson family a lot through Facebook and I admire them so much that they, as really working class people, who don't have a lot of money, would be willing to kind of risk it all and come and do this.

DOING (voice-over): That's why I wish our piece could, you know, get more people like touched and get involved.

RIPLEY (voice-over): When we did the story and they raised almost $50,000 in about a day, I -- I didn't expect that kind of a reaction.

DOING (voice-over): I know. I was shocked as well.

RIPLEY (voice-over): It was great. And I just think about the life that JiaJia is going to have now.

UNIDENFIFIED FEMALE: Yeah. They're looking at your shirt.

DONG (voice-over): And also with all his three big sisters in Kansas City, I'm sure they're going to have fun while JiaJia is there.

RIPLEY (voice-over): I think he's just going to be embraced and loved by everybody in his town.

DONG (voice-over): Exactly.

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RIPLEY: I'm so happy that JiaJia found a family but I'm haunted by the fact that there are so many other kids like him out there. There are hundreds of thousands of orphans here in China and these kids need homes.

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ALLEN: CNN's Will Ripley and Serena Dong there.

To find out more about JiaJia and other abandoned children like him in China, you can go to our website, cnn.com.

Thanks for watching, "WORLD SPORT" is coming up in a moment but I'll be right back with our top stories.

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