CNN news 2014-02-16 加文本

cnn news 2014-02-16

CARL AZUZ, cnn ANCHOR: From the snowbound southeast, I`m Carl Azuz with cnn STUDENT NEWS. We`ve got some interesting info today on winter weather, and we`re starting in the district that`s pretty used to it. The District of Columbia. Congress has raised the roof on the U.S. debt limit. Currently, the national debt is $17.2 trillion. What lawmakers did is suspend the limit. They didn`t raise it to a specific dollar figure. They just voted to allow the government to continue borrowing money. However much it believes it needs to borrow until March of 2015. The bipartisan policy center estimates the government will add about a trillion more dollars to the debt between now and then. The House of Representatives passed this plan on Tuesday. The Senate passed it yesterday. President Obama is expected to sign it into law.

The story here at the American southeast can be summed up in this headline and the ice that covers it. The Georgia capital virtually shut down by winter weather two weeks ago, it`s getting hit with another snow and ice storm. We`d show you what that looks like from our roof here at cnn, but this is the current view from our tower cam, so you see why that wouldn`t work. It`s a relatively rare event for this part of the country. You can see the line of freezing precipitation curling up the eastern seaboard yesterday, expected to last through Thursday from the South to Maryland and Delaware.

Atlanta was expecting three to five inches of accumulation. Charlotte, North Carolina, up to ten inches. Parts of Virginia, 14 inches. Roads were closed, schools and businesses were closed, church and entertainment events canceled. Emergency workers were doing all they could to keep people safe. With winter advisory stretched over 22 states.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re not kidding. We`re not just crying wolf. It is serious business.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Weather-related incidents killed at least five people including three in Texas and two in Mississippi.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re facing an icing event that is very unusual for the metropolitan (ph) region in the state of Georgia.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Officials say once you get past a quarter-inch of ice, power lines are in big trouble.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We`re talking about places seeing even upward of an inch.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And officials warn those power outages could be widespread. Look at that. It`s like a ghost town in the entire city of Atlanta.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sleet, ice and snow canceling thousands of flights.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get your batteries out to get your flashlights out, to get your transistor radio out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wherever you are, you need to plan on stand there for a while.

AZUZ: One major danger here is ice. Part of the reason so many flights were canceled is because ice coats airplane wings, disrupting in the way air flows over them, hindering their ability to fly. Pilots can`t land on it, just like drivers without tire chains can`t drive on it. Ice coats trees, weighing them down and branches eventually break, taking out power lines as they fall. Almost half of million Americans were in the dark, many without heat yesterday. Utility company said they expected more to lose power as precipitation continued.

Some folks ask, why we don`t bury power lines to get them out of the way. For one thing, it could cost about six times more than suspending them above the ground. It takes a long time to do, and when underground power lines fail, it takes longer to fix them.

Another winter danger in areas that get a lot of snow, avalanches. The snowmobiler who captured this on his helmet cam, says he was pushed about 100 feet. He made it out OK.

When officials know the conditions are right for an avalanche, one that way they can deal with it, is by setting off explosives, causing an intended controlled avalanche. But they can`t keep tabs on every mountainside people will visit. And six people have recently been killed in avalanches in Colorado, Oregon and Utah. In the back country, remote areas where skiers, snowboarders and snowmobilers enjoy untouched powder, the snow isn`t groomed. It may not be monitored. The danger is higher, so the need for emergency equipment is higher.