30/01/2014 ABC World News with Diane Sawyer

the currency if Scotland decides on independence, but for that to happen

depends on the verdict of the voters later this year. Now, it is time for

ABC world news. Tonight, chaos in the cold. Our

reporter in the deep freeze with drivers stranded on the highways,

and people forced to sleep in stores. The congressmen who lashed

out after the President's speech. What he saying today about really

happened. The whistleblower fearing for his

life with allegations of mass corruption at the Winter Olympics by

top Russian officials linked to President Putin. And, an unconscious

skydiver wearing a camera, plunges to work. -- plunges to earth.

We begin with that sheer icy misery all across the South. The daily

chaos is still unfolding in Georgia. Today, highways jammed with miles of

cars and trucks abandoned, no one at the wheel. Tonight, questions are

flying about how a major American city became so slowed down by the

storm. Also, good Samaritans handed out water and supplies to everyone

in it. We start in Atlanta. Tonight, parts of Atlanta still look

apocalyptic. Mile after mile of traffic jams, and in many cases we

have seen cars abandoned by the side of the road. Right now, officials in

Georgia are still try to clean up this mess and TI is part of the

bridge. This is taking quite a while.

Atlanta roadways frozen in place. 20 mile commute is turned into 20 hour

odysseys. Drivers stuck through the night, heart will be in their cars.

Some, like this woman, cut-off. I have been here since 4pm yesterday.

I was going to the airport, and we got stuck behind a couple of trucks.

And we ran out of gas. Only two inches of snow fell yesterday, but

it's mother this city in a blanket of ice, grinding it to a halt. -- it

smothered. This ice is so thick and so slippery and it is impossible to

manoeuvre around. Across the south, a rare dusting of snow from Florida

to Virginia beach. But enough to make roadways impassable and shut

down highways and bridges, causing thousands of accidents. People

forced to shelter in place, many of them in stores. Tonight, in Georgia

and Alabama, several hundred children will have to sleep at their

schools brief second night. Thousands were turned back to the

place they started Monday in their classrooms. Teachers are forced to

forage for food. I want to go home! At this elementary school, staff are

staying as long as necessary. We made sure every last child was very

well taken care of. The Governor today admitted errors were made.

Sign that we all have lessons we need to learn. Some officials blame

the weather forecast. Many trucks jackknifed, and clogged roadways.

The command centre was taking dozens of calls through the day from

stranded motorists. Police went car to car, marking abandoned vehicles.

Little help coming, Faulks helped themselves. An extinct -- expectant

mother was stranded, and gave birth to a baby girl. Salt trucks are just

now arriving in this area. You can see that cars are abandoned by the

side of the road, and more bad news. All the snow that melted will freeze

again tonight, and that water will turn back to us.

The worst weather day in memory down there. Any relief in sight?

There is. Here we are, shivering on the Hudson River with ice behind us,

and all the way down to Florida, cold. On this map, 42% of the nation

is covered in snow. The snow will melt after tomorrow. We will look

for high temperatures, not just tomorrow, but Friday, Saturday and

Sunday. The warm weather will go from the 40s after the 50s. We add

about 10 degrees per day. It will be close to 80 by the time we reach the

end of the weekend. What about these charges from Florida officials that

it was a bad forecast to blame? Two days in advance, they had a watch or

advisory. They flipped and flopped between the two, but we knew so was

coming. As of yesterday morning, there was a winter storm warning: 41

42 inches of -- a winter storm warning, announcing one or two

inches of snow. The White House knows that that one

speech won't make a big difference with that one speech won't make a

big difference without a follow-up campaign. The President was out

there, hitting that give America a race theme. They were campaign style

events in Pennsylvania and Maryland. Even if he can't get Congress to go

along with an increased the minimum wage, Democrats they believe will

have a campaign issue the fall. Look at the ABC news, with overwhelming

support for a minimum wage increase. The President will push hard on

that. There were some grace notes, the tribute to the army ranger. They

shout out from the President... In America, our success should depend

not on accident of birth, but the strength of work ethic and the scope

of our dreams. That's how the son of a barkeeper became the Speaker of

the house. There are some signs of a fall between the party in the house.

Today, the house overwhelmingly passed $1 trillion farm bill that

show there may be looking to move forward on immigration reform. There

is another story from the capital making headlines. Right after the

President's speech, a member of Congress lost his cool and

threatened to kill a journalist. It was all caught on camera. Today, he

is apologising, and we look at whether that is too little too late.

Today, the New York congressman was a model of contrition. I was wrong.

It should not have happened. Last night, a reporter asked about an

investigation against him. We wanted to get him on camera about that. He

refused to talk. The congressmen returned... He threatens to throw

the reporter of the balcony. And it gets worse.

Yes, that's right. They congressman says he will break the journalist in

half. Congress in Grimm was elected during the Tea Party wave in 2010.

He is now under investigation by the FBI himself to determine whether he

solicited illegal campaign contributions. That was what the

reporter was trying to ask him. The story played out all day long. I'm

sure my mother is going to be yelling at me some more. She is

right. It was not the State of the Union address response that the

Republicans had in mind. And there is a new twist in that Lori we

reported on earlier, the cruise ship stricken with a lightning fast

gastro virus. -- that story. It will sail again

this week. What was supposed to be a ten day cruise to Paradise returned

to New Jersey today. Passengers walked out with their luggage,

hopeful that is all they brought with them. Nearly 700 people got

sick on board, likely effect by the highly contagious Norovirus. Really

bad. You have never felt pain until you have had this. Some passengers

describe five or six hour waits to get into the infirmary. One person

was taken off in a stretcher. It was a lovely cruise but unfortunately

the virus was not part of the package I signed up for. The cruise

line is offering compensation. 50% of the current cruise and 50% off

the next cruise. The clean-up began even before the ship docked. It's

fully sanitised. The methods that have been so effective in

controlling this virus once we understood it was happening...

Before it can go out again, workers will have to scrub down the entire

vessel. 15 passenger decks, 14 elevator is, more than 1500 state

rooms, three swimming pools, and miniature golf course. Do you feel

confident they will be able to do this? There are some very specific

guidelines about how ships should be decontaminated after outbreaks of

this nature and I believe that the cruise line will adhere to those

regulations. Officials want their next customers to know that they

will be in shipshape by Friday. Counting down to the Olympics.

Terror threats already dampened the spirits of the games. Tonight, we

have an exclusive investigation into charges of rampant corruption.

Bribery, suitcases full of cash and a whistleblower who says there is a

contract on his life because he dared to speak out. A home at the

end of this road, one hour away from London is the hiding place of this

exiled Russian businessmen, who now fears he will be killed after making

allegations about chaos to Russian officials overseeing construction at

the Winter Olympics. You will be drowned in blood. Yes. He told us

that he personally delivered huge payoffs to some of the officials,

one inside the office of the President, using a piece of luggage

like this stuffed with tens of millions of rebels. -- roubles. The

former Deputy Prime Minister, a political rival of Vladimir Putin,

says he has documented how well-connected Russians got rich

from Olympic contracts. $30 billion altogether. Yes. The Olympic Stadium

is three times the cost of any previous stadium anywhere in the

world. Even worse, he says, the nine billion dollar Highway and rail

project to the ski fields above Sochi, 30 miles away. In his

exclusive interview, President Vladimir Putin said he knew of no

evidence of a serious corruption of them. TRANSLATION: We have not seen

any large-scale instances of corruption. He has apparently

forgotten the problems with the long delayed Olympic ski slope, six times

over budget. This shows the moment he was told the contract are

building the ski slope was also the very Russian Olympic official

supposedly overseeing the construction. The vice president of

the National Olympic Committee is taking care of such a large-scale

construction? That official fled the country before he was charged with

embezzlement. But, of course, Vladimir Putin says he is not aware

of any such problems. Coming up, a skydiver falls to the Earth,

unconscious, but is saved by his friends.

Next tonight, amazing video of a midair rescue. A skydiver in free

fall at 12,000 feet, knocked out cold and not able to open his

parachute. This is what happens next. The video starts with a group

of skydiver 's climbing onto the outside of a plane and preparing to

jump. A small camera is attached to the helmet of an experienced 25

-year-old skydiver called James Leigh. He has done this more than

1000 times but never before has this happened. Seconds after he leaps, a

freak accident. He is hit in the back of the head by a fellow

skydiver. He is knocked out and tumbles unconscious through 12,500

feet towards certain death. You can see his arms going limp. Skydiver 's

fall at a rate of 120 mph on average. Look at what happens next.

His friends noticed there is something wrong with him. They

approach, giving him hand signals to check if he is OK. Seeing that he is

not, they've reoriented his body to the correct position and then deploy

his parachute. It's incredible. When somebody is unconscious and

tumbling, it's virtually impossible to catch them. This is not the first

skydiving mishap to make the news of late. This week, a 16 -year-old girl

in Oklahoma made a hard landing after her parachute failed. In

2005, a pregnant woman had her parachute malfunctioned. Both

survived. As James drifted towards the earth in the English

countryside, he regained consciousness, with no memory of the

incident. When he lands, you can see how relieved he is. Tonight, he says

this incident will not stop him from diving again.

Big trouble for Justin Bieber. He is arriving back in Canada tonight to

face charges of assaulting a limousine driver last December. This

comes on the heels of his arrest last week in Florida for drag racing

and drunken driving. Now, a rare moment of unity in Washington. It

was not about policy or politics but that deeply personal tribute to an

Army Ranger. The American hero who brought a nation to its feet. If the

nation remembers nothing else from last night, we will remember Corey

Rensburg. It was nearly five years ago when the President and he first

met in Normandy. The young, strong Army Ranger was commemorating

D-Day. Days later, he would be back in Afghanistan for his 10th combat

deployment. Only this time, a massive bomb would leave him

clinging to life, his brain badly damaged, his body partly paralysed.

Months of trauma. But then came that picture, a soldier and his

commander-in-chief next to his hospital bed. A photograph that

would catch the President's I while visiting wounded Warriors. He

suddenly realised he had met this soldier before. He could not speak,

he could barely move. But Corry did not give up, returning home to

Phoenix. It's unbelievable! His parents at his side. Every day, he

works to get stronger. And last summer, the president visited

again. That was when it happened. He wanted to show me something and he

leaned out of his chair and he reached out and grabbed his wallet,

pulling himself forward. He stood up and he looked at me and he gave me a

salute. -- he grabbed his walking stick. And he said... He said

Rangers lead the way. Ranges like Corry, who every day works to

recover from ever inspiring a nation that needs to remember. Thank you

for joining us. I'm not sure if it's the headline

you would like. Yet again, more rain in the forecast. On top of that, it

will be very cold. Perhaps one of the coldest days so far in many

areas. Across the