← Here's the Scoop
Here's the Scoop
Is Texas Ready for Monster Winter Storm?; ICE Child Detentions New Sticking Point in Minnesota
00:22:49
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Hey, everybody. Happy Friday and welcome to here's the Scoot. From NBC News, I'm Laura Jarrett in for Yasmin Basugian. Coming up on the show today, Minneapolis businesses and schools are closed for a day of action to protest ice raids in the state. Plus, diplomats from Russia and Ukraine are meeting up for peace talks. And this weekend will determine who is headed to the Super Bowl. We'll tell you what teams to watch. But first, more than 170 million people are under winter weather alerts now as a massive storm system spanning 2,000 miles threatens snow, ice and below freezing wind chills, the northern and Central plains could see minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Our senior meteorologist Kathryn Prozev says we're bracing for impact. From Arizona all the way up to Maine.
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This is going to be the largest winter storm we've seen in years. The recipe, cold Arctic air mass colliding with tropical moisture will create this sprawling storm capable of up to a foot or more of snow and destructive ice amounts up to an inch in some places. So authorities are warning be prepared for prolonged power outages because even when the storm ends, temperatures will remain below freezing. So pipe freeze concerns power outages will last for days from this storm.
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More than half of the country is bracing for the storm. But in Texas, there's extra concern with a devastating power grid failure just five years in the rear view. For more on all this, I want to bring in NBC News correspondent Ryan Chandler, who's on the ground for us in Dallas. Hey, Ryan.
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Hey, Laura.
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So you could see up to 1 to 3 inches of snow, up to half an inch of ice, 36 hours straight of freezing rain. We're seeing these kinds of forecasts all across Texas. How are officials preparing for this?
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Well, it is certainly true that here in the south, we need to take more pains to prepare for this than other areas of the country because you just don't hear a forecast like that in North Texas very often. This is an all hands on deck approach, even to the point where the Texas National Guard is prepared to mobilize to rescue stranded motorists who inevitably, unfortunately, are going to get stuck on the side of the roads because of that life threatening ice accumulation. That, to me, is my biggest concern. Uh, it's not snow buildup like you may see in other places of the country. It's just that thin layer of ice that will make roads incredibly dangerous and could bring down power lines, creating infrastructure issues that could last for long after this storm is over.
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So the governor said Thursday he's enacting a disaster declaration covering 134 counties across the state ahead of this incoming storm. How much do you think the ghost of what happened in February of 2021 is looming over all of this? As you talk to officials, there's it.
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Is on every Texan's mind. Even with all of the changes that have been made and the promises that this time will be different, it is impossible for Texans to rid that memory. When we see this kind of weather coming towards us, I mean, you have the energy capital of the most prosperous country on earth. The infrastructure wasn't prepared for a hard freeze like that. The natural gas wells and the generators that put the power on the lines froze up. And millions of people didn't have heat or power or food or water for days on end. I mean, power wasn't fully restored for at least 10 days after it went out during that hard freeze. And people really struggled. Lots of the most vulnerable people died. A lot of them was simply from cold exposure because they couldn't find a warm place to go. Every restaurant was closed, every grocery store had empty shelves, even gas stations that you'd go for your basic necessities. It was gone. It was unbelievable. Texans carry that with them now to be sure. It is highly unlikely that that is going to happen this time.
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Why?
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In 2021, one of the major problems was the natural gas wells simply froze up. The generators couldn't create enough power because they weren't prepared for that kind of hard freeze that lasted for so long. We heard from the head of ercot, which is the state power regulator, and he said since then they've one instituted weatherization requirements. So these gas plants are required to be ready for all kinds of weather, both extreme hot and extreme cold. And they've performed more than 4,000 inspections of those plants over the last four years. Another big problem is power line maintenance. And it sounds simple, but one of the big problems we have during freezes like this is trees simply fall on power lines and knock them out, which can be a weeks long repair. ERCOT has performed more than 8,000 miles of vegetation maintenance along those power lines to make sure that that is not as much of an issue this time around, according to their CEO. And in the long term, over the last few legislative sessions, Texas has invested more than $10 billion into incentivizing more natural gas production to bring more power onto the grid, create more redundancies, so there's backup power. So a lot has been done, a lot of money and time has been invested. But given how much Certainty. Officials are telling us there is not going to be a problem with the grid. If there is, it would be not just catastrophic for, for Texans, but politically catastrophic.
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Obviously, last time things went bad, electricity prices were through the roof. There were lawsuits. If for whatever reason the preparations don't work now and things go badly, who would be on the hook politically here? Governor Abbott?
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Oh, certainly. I mean, he, he told every Texan yesterday that the grid is perfectly capable and there is no reason to expect any problems. Now. An important caveat there, we do expect a lot of local outages because of that ice accumulation on power lines, but that is not a grid problem. That is a problem to take up with your local utility provider. And local utility companies are preparing to field a whole lot of calls and repair infrastructure as quickly as they can.
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Let's end on some practical advice here. You have weathered these types of storms before, as you just mentioned. If someone finds themselves in the path of the storm and they can't evacuate, is there some practical advice that you've learned that you think is worth sharing?
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You know, this is a storm to take very seriously, but let's not overcomplicate it. Stay home. Stay off the roads. We've been speaking with first responders who are already preparing to increase the resources they need to respond to accidents on the roads because they know it could be life threatening. Stock up now. Get your gas, your groceries, everything you need to do to keep your family safe and warm and wait it out until the ice thaws. Now while you are home. Officials are also worried about some of the cases we saw. Tragically in the last storm, people died because they were running generators in their homes if they lost power. Carbon monoxide poisoning is real and you need to know how to prevent it. Space heaters are a concern. Don't put them near anywhere flammable for those who do lose heat or who don't have a warm place to go, Texas has opened almost 300 warming centers all around the state. Between state facilities and local facilities, you can find a place to go if you need it@tdem.gov Ryan.
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Stay safe, stay warm. Good luck this weekend. Thank you.
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Thank you so much, Laura.
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All right, we're going to take a quick break now and then check in on Minneapolis where protests continue even in the bitter cold. With questions about kids in ice detention at the forefront.
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And we're back with here's the scoop from NBC News. The city of Minneapolis is preparing today for more protests, an effort dubbed ICE out by some who are calling for no work, no school and no shopping. It's all to push back against ICE operations in that state. Though in some places it's business as normal. The Department of Homeland Security says federal agents will not leave until their immigration enforcement operations are complete. Emotions, though, have been running high, especially after a five year old boy was detained in his own driveway earlier this week. According to the superintendent of Columbia Heights Public Schools. That's just north of Minneapolis. He says four students in the Minneapolis area have been detained by ICE agents in recent weeks, including Liam. Maggie Vespa is in Minneapolis for us. Hey Maggie, you just came from this press conference with DHS and they were asked specifically about how they are dealing with children after so much attention has been focused on this five year old boy. His name is Liam Ramos. So many pictures of his face have now been circulating on social media. What have you learned exactly about how he came to be apprehended by ice?
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Yeah, it was really interesting because as you point out, there's been a lot of back and forth. It started when the school district sounded these alarms saying and this is Columbia Heights Public Schools just outside Minneapolis. They said, we've had four students apprehended in the last couple of weeks, one of them being this, this five year old, this preschooler, Liam. And they put out their story about what happened. DHS came back with a very different story about what happened. And it's gone back and forth since. What we had was Border Patrol and ICE leaders coming out, holding a briefing, which they started to do. It's almost daily now. And right off the bat, Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bevino, who's such a big face right in this immigration crackdown, he was emphatic. You could tell he was angry. He wanted to really immediately in his opening remarks hit on how border Patrol officers, how ICE officers handle children. He immediately called them, quote, experts when handling children. And then he started going into a number of anecdotes and a number of statistics about human trafficking and children being trafficked across the border. But he was really kind of drawing this contrast between this one little boy who he says ICE officers and DHS officers have treated with the utmost care. And then he went into the backstory saying that they were trying to apprehend his father, who's in the country illegally from Ecuador. Someone asked, does he have a criminal record? They didn't have that information at the time. As far as the story of how Liam got apprehended goes, they said he took off running. The father did, leaving his son in the car. They say ICE officers then tried to take Liam to the front door of his house, knock on the door to get somebody to take him. Nobody in the house would come to the door, according to these two leaders. And because of that, they said, well, effectively, what were they supposed to do? Leave this little kid outside by himself? The school district had characterized that moment where they brought him to the door as bait, saying they were trying to use Liam to get other adults to come to the door. And they were afraid that they were trying to arrest other adults. And when they opened the door for the five year old, those arrests wouldn't ensue. As far as where he is right now, he's in a family detention center in Texas. It's called Dilley. I asked a number of questions about this situation because one thing Gregory Bevino really wanted to hit on was he's with his family. I want everybody to realize, you know, despite what the media is reporting, that he's with his dad. And then we kind of went into an exchange and I asked him a question, just hitting at what we're hearing from people. And here's a little bit of how that played out. Another way of looking at that might be that we don't imprison or detain American children, penalizing them for the actions of their parents. So what do you say to those who are troubled by the contrast? They see a child in custody. American kids don't endure that.
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Well, I don't think there's a contrast. And the child could be without his parents somewhere, perhaps in social services care somewhere. And that's what we see oftentimes by children that are trafficked across the border. It's heartbreaking.
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They're not with any family.
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They're with Social Services or Office of Refugee and Resettlement.
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So the child is in the least restrictive setting with a family member.
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I don't think it gets any better than that.
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So Maggie, you had Vice President J.D. vance in Minneapolis talking about Liam's case in particular. I think it underscores how Liam has become just the poster child and the way people have grafted on the way they see this issue onto his case in terms of what's really going on in Minneapolis. Take a listen to the vice President.
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I see this story and I'm a father of a five year old, actually a five year old little boy. And I think to myself, oh my God, this is terrible. How did we arrest a five year old? Well, I do a little bit more follow up reason and what I find is that the five year old was.
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Not arrested, that his dad was an illegal alien. And then they went, when they went.
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To arrest his illegal alien father, the father ran.
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So the story is that ICE detained.
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A five year old.
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Well, what are they supposed to do?
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Are they supposed to let a five year old child freeze to death? Are they not supposed to arrest an.
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Illegal alien in the United States of America?
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If the argument.
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How is that argument being received on the ground in Minneapolis? Because I think at first glance the idea that the Vice President thinks it would be an outrage to arrest a five year old is newsy within itself. But I wonder if people there on the ground find that tone troubling or if they actually empathize with that point of view, which is to say, what is I supposed to do in this type of situation?
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You know, I think that the crux of it, a lot of people on the ground here don't trust the narratives that are being put out by the Department of Homeland Security, by ice, by Border Patrol. So like the narrative of dad ran, mom wouldn't take custody, the school district directly disputes that. The school district says adults on scene, they use the word begged, were begging. And there was one adult in particular. They wouldn't name the relationship, but they said there was one adult who lives in the house who begged ICE officers, let me take Liam, please don't take Liam. So there's a huge disconnect there between was anyone in the family willing to take Liam or not? DHS says no, the vice president says no, the school district says yes. And then they also had the family attorney who by the way says that father and son were in the country legally and were seeking asylum. They had a woman who was on scene who was the one who said there was someone living in the home begging to take the child. All of these people are speaking publicly. So the tone from the Vice president and that kind of Empathy off the top and making it clear that it would be horrible to arrest or detain a five year old. I guess I would say with people here that we've talked to, it only goes so far.
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The Department of Homeland Security says they won't leave the city until their operation is complete. What does complete look like for them?
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It's so interesting. Yesterday, this was the first time we had heard this acknowledged Gregory Bevino, the Border Patrol commander. He said, you know, we've been getting asked, like, what. What's the goal line here? And he said, all of them. He said, we want zero undocumented immigrants. His words were legal aliens on the streets of Minneapolis. And operation they've called it Metro Surge will end when they have all been apprehended. And that was really striking because this is a very diverse city, and a lot of people that we've talked to are really proud of that diversity. And kind of woven into that, spoken or not, is a knowledge that there are undocumented immigrants in this community, and they've been here for a long time. So I think that that was kind of a cold reality for a lot of people here in Minneapolis, realizing there's not, like, an end date in sight. They're not coming in to, like, make a splash, make a show, you know, get a certain number of arrests, and then move on to different cities. He really made it clear they're here for the long haul. And he didn't put even a timeline on it. It was just, quote, all of them.
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But, okay, so then if that's true, do you think that that will lead to sort of these clashes between ICE and just regular civilians? Are they gonna get more intense, or are the civilians eventually gonna have to just retreat and realize, like, look, they're here to stay? And I asked that because, you know, this has been going on, right? The death in Renee Goode happened, and yet you're still in Minneapolis.
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I'm still in Minneapolis. And keep in mind, Renee Goode died protesting ICE officers. So it was happening prior to her death. And then it really ratcheted up. You know, it's hard to say, like, in the backdrop of all of this, we're having this, like, crazy cold snap. It was 25 below this morning with a wind chill, I think, of 40 below. So the idea protests have calmed down 100% despite that. We just came from ICE headquarters. There were about 50 protesters out there. They were enraged.
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Do people seem angrier?
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I think they do seem angrier. And here's the thing. It's like this story has like an endless fire hose of flashpoints, the latest being Liam, the latest being this 5 year old. So you see these cases come up and I think people on both sides of this would agree that there just keeps being these just really kind of heartbreaking scenarios that people get really attached to. And if they were getting tired or if they felt like, okay, this is just our new reality, what can we really do? Then it's like that reignites it. It's really hard to tell long term how this will go.
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Maggie Vespa, appreciate all the reporting. Thank you.
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Thank you.
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We're gonna take a quick break now. And when we're back, the TikTok deal is finalized. We have all the details. Stay with us. There's so much more to enjoy when you fly in Emirates economy more legroom, delicious regionally inspired meals, complimentary free flowing drinks. And with the latest movies, TV shows, music and live sport, some of the best entertainment in the skies. And our family services make your journey simple and fun. Plan your next trip and start the vacation early in Emirates Economy fly. Emirates fly better. They say if you want to go fast, go alone.
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A new company, TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC is the name of it has officially been announced, announced with a seven member majority American board of Directors. Interestingly, one of those directors is the former CEO of TikTok, but one of this board's first orders of business was actually naming a new CEO. His name is Adam Presser. He was an executive at TikTok really overseeing data security in the US here prior to any of this happening. Also an interesting thing to watch out for for users. They say part of the security aspect here is that they are going to retrain the algorithm on US User data. Big question is, does that change what the algorithm looks like? How content is recommended to you? There's also a lot of questions from experts about how something like that is even possible.
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It's time to tear open that bag of chips and get on your face paint folks. It's the NFL Championship Weekend. With only four teams left, those games will now determine who goes to the Super Bowl. Here's NBC News Sports reporter Rohan Nagturni with the pre game announcement. In the AFC you have the Denver Broncos hosting the New England Patriots and in the NFC you have the Seattle Seahawks hosting the Los Angeles Rams. Let's start in Denver where the Broncos face a tall task as Jarrett Stidham, the backup quarterback will be taking over for the injured Bo Nicks, who was hurt last week in a win over the Bills. Stidham will be going up against a Patriots defense that's been suffocating opposing quarterbacks in the playoffs so far. And he'll also have to go toe to toe with Drake May, the second year quarterback who is an MVP finalist this season. In the NFC you have not only maybe the best match of the year, but of the last few seasons in the NFL, the number one scoring offense in the Rams going up against the number one scoring defense in the Seattle Seahawks. This is a game between two elite rosters, two elite head coaches. It should be a great chess match between divisional rivals who played two incredibly close games against each other in the regular season. Are you ready to chase that.
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Or.
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Do you want to just take it easy? Well, cue up this classic. The Eagles Greatest Hits 1971-1975 just became the first album to ever go quadrupled diamond, officially making it the best selling album in US history with more than 40 million units sold. Not bad for a record that's been around for nearly 50 years. Founding Member Don Henley says it's gratifying to be part of something that endures in a world where so much feels fleeting. I don't know about you, but I'm ready for. All right, that's going to do it for this episode of here's the scoop from NBC News. I'm Laura Jarrett. We'll be right back here Monday with whatever the news may bring. If you like what you heard, why not rate and review us in your favorite podcast app? Thanks so much for listening. Have a great weekend.
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