shepard: tropical storm strength winds slamming the midwest this afternoon, giving reports of tornado and chicago o hare is working to catch up after the winds forced airlines to delay take offs and landings, and this is called a chi-cone. affecting people from south dakota and north dakota to the great lakes. and now more details on the day. reporter: what a day. this is a same storm on saturday moved through the pacific northwest and all that snow sunday into monday over colorado, the rockies, and produced tornado in texas, and, now, today, the tornado watches ahead of the squall extending from michigan, down through central mississippi, so, really, a very serious situation out here and believe it or not on the back side of this we have a blizzard warning in effect for
fortunately, the warning system worked. take offs and landings were headlight halted and there was no airplane crash like there would have been before the micro burst warning system was in effect. gregg: now let s move to hurricanes and obviously the most costly and among the deadliest was katrina. could have been a lot worse absent warnings? no question. i believe, based on my research, that the warning system saved about 20,000 lives in katrina. in fact, just a few months before hurricane katrina, was a exercise of emergency officials called the hurricane pam exercise, and they planned for 40,000 deaths around new orleans in the event of an unwarranted hurricane. now, of course, katrina was very well warned by meteorologists and so we believe we saved 20,000 lives. most of the people who lost their lives in katrina lost it in the aftermath when emergency
continue te ript this morning. world health organization warns european to stay indoors saying it will pose breathing problems and health rickings. many airports are closed and european air safety authority said no take offs or landings are possible in northern and central europe for 24 hours. era massa wrote a $40,000 to his chief of staff . he is one of the staffers who said the democrat sexually harassed him. the check was written a day after massa announced his resignation. it was a deferred payment on massa reelection campaign. and a car crashes in a convenience store in idahor. the woman thought it was in drive but it was in reverse. next thing you know she was in the store.
bret: as you know sometimes parents have to get creative on work days when their children are out of school. this afternoon we learned one air traffic controller in new york may have crossed the line with two children last month. senior correspondent eric shawn has that story tonight from new york. good evening, eric. reporter: good evening, bret. you know if you work as an air traffic controller you can t take your child to work. but whatever you do, don t let the kids handle the take-offs. that apparently is what happened at new york s j.f.k. airport. controller and supervisor now on administrative leave after the agency says the controller let his young son and another child on two separate days last month clear big airliners for take-off. we know of two. jet blue flight 171 to sacramento and the other was
bret: as you know sometimes parents have to get creative on work days when their children are out of school. this afternoon we learned one air traffic controller in new york may have crossed the line with two children last month. senior correspondent eric shawn has that story tonight from new york. good evening, eric. reporter: good evening, bret. you know if you work as an air traffic controller you can t take your child to work. but whatever you do, don t let the kids handle the take-offs. that apparently is what happened at new york s j.f.k. airport. controller and supervisor now on administrative leave after the agency says the controller let his young son and another child on two separate days last month clear big airliners for take-off. we know of two. jet blue flight 171 to sacramento and the other was