"Explosion" in Davos; Snow Gridlock in Northeast
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.</s>KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: That's right. Good morning, to you. We are following breaking news on this Thursday, January 27th. The latest on an explosion in Davos where the World Economic Forum is taking place right now.</s>T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: And we want to turn right to our Sanjay Gupta. He is there, has been covering that World Economic Forum. And Sanjay, things were going along. Meetings were taking place. And now we're told about a little explosion. Do we know yet if this thing was set by someone? Was it a criminal act? Or could this possibly have just been an accident?</s>DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're just getting some more information along those lines, T.J., and pretty convincing that there was some sort of criminal activity here because e-mails were sent prior to this detonation device, as it's being called -- e-mails were sent to people affiliated with the hotel and then to an organization that's part of a Swiss media organization. So, they threatened specifically to attack this hotel. The e- mails seem to have come from an anti-World Economic Forum group, anti- WEF group, as they are called. And they were threatening this exact thing. And, obviously, it was called a small detonation device. It was in the back entrance of a large hotel very close to where all of the meetings are taking place called the Posthotel. You couldn't tell if it was thrown into the back entrance or the detonation device was already there. It blew out a window. We're not hearing of any injuries. But this is a hotel, an important one, T.J. A lot of the sort of base of the Swiss government stays at this hotel during this World Economic Forum here in Davos. And, also, tonight, there was a party planned that was going to have -- the special guest, the former President Bill Clinton. That was scheduled for 6:30 this evening. We think it's still going to go on, we're hearing. But, again, it just gives you an idea of the context of just how important it is. We're at the specific Congress Center where the meetings are being held. The hotel is a half a mile away from here, T.J. I was walking down the street and heard police in the area. The small town of 13,000, police started to talk about the Posthotel when this first happened and we got a sense that something was happening. Even over the last half an hour or so, you see evidence of increasing security now, above some of the hotels now immediately adjacent to the Congress Center. You're seeing people on top of the roofs much these hotels, increasing security presence. So, no injuries but it seemed to be a criminal element, T.J., to your point.</s>HOLMES: All right. Sanjay, we appreciate the update. We'll continue to update our viewers on that story. But thanks to our Sanjay Gupta covering that for us. Criminal activity -- but, again, it looks like there was no injury associated with it. We'll turn to the weather situation right now and it is a situation. The roads are a mess. The sky is going to be a mess for while today as well. You see this video. Folks are trying to dig out and still trying to get around. But several cities right now have at least a foot of snow. We can tell you that the schools are closed in D.C., Philly, New York, Boston today. The federal government is going to be opening two hours late in D.C., and the major airports in the Northeast right now are struggling to get up and running today.</s>CHETRY: We also announced a snow emergency. That means they need to get cars off the road in places like New York and Boston so the plows can get through. They've closed schools, as we said, in all of those cities. And since mid-December, it has actually snowed eight times in the New York City area, about once every five days. In Boston, they have gotten 50 inches and counting so far this season, gobbling through their snow removal budgets. Reynolds Wolf is standing by this morning. And, Reynolds, also, just one other note. We got word from Amtrak that they have suspended their New York to Boston service as well because of the weather.</s>REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: No surprise. I mean, we have seen some very heavy snow as you mentioned around the region. South Boston, 11.5 inches of snowfall, and certainly standstill at the airport. They've had over 300 flights canceled, either coming in or departing. I'll tell you, though, one mode of transportation that has been working pretty well, at least since 7:00 last night, is due to these -- these cleaners that we have on the sidewalks. I want to take a look at something. Bob? Bob Crowley is our CNN photo journalists. Let's walk over and show them the condition of the sidewalks. I mean, we're talking picture perfect. They've got this down to a science. Got a little bit of salt that they put down, but they also have cleaning this stuff off and as clean as can be. Now, something else they've been working on the streets. Let's hop out over here and give you an idea of what we've got. Some places, obviously, where the plows have been coming through, it's been stacking up in a few places. They still advise that if you don't have to be on the roadways, don't. I mean, use this as a good excuse to stay home. But, again, you see a lot of cars over there. Certainly, these streets are certainly passable for the time being. City services are working and we have seen taxis. And we've seen vans, we've seen buses. We've seen all kinds of stuff. Speaking of the city -- all city government offices are going to be open for today. Everyone is expected to come into work. So, have fun with that. But, in terms of school, kids, all Boston public schools -- no kids have to go to school for the day. Community centers are going to be open. In fact, they've been opened since about 7:30. They'll be opened through 6:00 tonight. And, of course, some of Boston's finest are making their way on through working with no issues. Guys, this could have been a lot worse. Thankfully, this area of low pressure that caused a lot of this ruckus came through very quickly and it slowed down just a little bit, just a fraction or two. We might be talking about maybe six to eight more inches of more snowfall. But as it stands, the highest point we've seen in this area, 11.5. Let's kick it back to you, guys, in the studio.</s>CHETRY: So, Reynolds is telling, consider ourselves lucky. It could have been worse.</s>HOLMES: It could have been worse.</s>CHETRY: Six more inches. Go ahead, Reynolds. What?</s>WOLF: Absolutely.</s>CHETRY: All right. See you soon.</s>WOLF: You bet. It could have been far worse than this, guys.</s>HOLMES: Yes. Let's turn to the airports right now and give you an idea of what's happening up in the Northeast. Here's a look where we are right now. This is a changing situation, but you see Reagan National right now open. Boston Logan open. JFK is closed but they're trying to get up and moving over the next couple of hours. Newark closed right now, but they're going to reopen to departures in about an hour and open to arrivals around noon time.</s>CHETRY: All right. Well, Rob Marciano is in the extreme severe weather center with a look at all of this playing out for us, breaking records right and left today with the snow.</s>ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, just the totals in New York City, that puts you over the top for the month of January to break a record with over 32 inches of snow. The snow for the most part has stopped but the damage has been done and just digging out and trying to clear those runways. These are airports we think will see delays even after the airports you just mentioned open on later today. New York, Philadelphia, obviously, and Boston as well, over an hour delays expected there. Baltimore and D.C., a bit of a head start as far as getting out there early because the snow stopped earlier to help you folks dig out. In Chicago and Minneapolis and Detroit and Cleveland actually, back end of this, actually the next system, there's a little snow coming in as well. Here's the back edge of it. Providence to Boston starting to see things wind down. You saw the live shot from Reynolds Wolf. It doesn't look like it's snowing there. We did have wind gusts 40 to 50 miles an hour with this system. So, a number of power outages across the board and a lot of folks, this wasn't just confined to one area, from D.C. through Delaware, up to Baltimore and Philadelphia, up through parts of Jersey and through Boston, everybody getting a piece of this. And temperatures hovering right around the freezing mark, not drastically cold air behind this. And for the most part, it's been a pretty high water content event. Meaning, the snow has been very pretty wet and that makes it even more difficult to snowplow, but there's more in the way of snow coming in behind this system. But check out some of these totals. And these totals are actually come rising as we get out there to actually measure this stuff. Clifton, New Jersey, 19 inches; Norwalk, Connecticut seeing 17 inches; Jersey City, 16; Staten Island, 15 inches; and Milford, Connecticut, 15 inches. I think New York City's Central Park will get over 16 inches before this is done because that last was measured at 1:00 in the morning at 15.3. Here's your next system coming in from the Great Lakes. This doesn't have nearly the punch that this system does. Maybe an inch or two with this come tomorrow and another quick system coming in on Sunday. But it is accumulation of several storm systems over what has been a very long winter and we're not even into February yet. So, T.J., Kiran, kind of just bear with us here. Spring is not really right around the corner, but it will be here eventually.</s>CHETRY: Yes, exactly. All right. It can't come soon enough for us. Thanks, Rob.</s>HOLMES: Thanks, Rob.</s>MARCIANO: All right, guys.</s>CHETRY: The storm sent the federal government home early yesterday and grounded Marine One, in fact. The president was forced to ride in a motorcade from Air Force One to the White House instead of the usual helicopter ride. He was on his way back from Wisconsin. So, even the president had to deal with the D.C. traffic in the snow, which is not fun. Ride that usually takes about 20 minutes, it took an hour.</s>HOLMES: And this snow is not just causing headaches for you and trying to travel but it is doing a number on city budgets. This is expensive stuff. Take a look in D.C. They've spent about 39 percent of their $6.4 million snow removal budget. Here in New York City, they've reportedly burned through their entire $38.8 million budget. In Boston, they have gone through about 66 percent of their $16 million budget.</s>CHETRY: And the Dow is opening this morning at its highest level in nearly three years. Right now, just 15 points shy of the 12,000 mark. The Dow actually crossed that milestone yesterday, but then retreated slightly later in the day.</s>HOLMES: Also, coming up, some scary video to show you of a very popular singer taking a tumble off a stage at a concert and knocked unconscious.</s>CHETRY: Also a little later, why President Obama did a double take yesterday in Wisconsin when he met the local mayor.