04/02/2014 ABC World News with Diane Sawyer

An update on the news in just under 20 minutes. Time now for a look at

the news as seen across the United States a couple of hours ago, in ABC

World News with Dianne Sawyer. Welcome. Tonight, another massive

snowstorm has blanketed trees and streets and many Super Bowl fans are

trying to get home. Thousands of flights cancelled and delayed around

the country. I just want to get out of here! Cars off the road and

ploughs up when the snow. More storms on the way. Fallen star. The

death of Philip Seymour Hoffman. Tonight, please describe the hidden

struggle with heroin at the height of his career. -- police describe.

Good evening. As we start this week together, 163 million Americans are

in the path of three winter storms that are a chain reaction for travel

trouble. Each new storm is more powerful than the last. We start

with all the people caught in a conveyor belt of wicked weather.

From the midwest to the north-east, another wet, heavy, slippery mess.

An army of ploughs in New York can barely keep up. The new mayor had

trouble handling Staten Island's answer to Tiny Phil. I am learning

about snow removal more than I ever expected to. School closed from the

north-east to Ohio. Whiteout conditions in Illinois. Trucks

pushing trucks in Oklahoma. It is also busting budgets. Cities like

Milwaukee running out of salt and others cancelling some projects to

pay for winter cleanup. For the thousands of Super Bowl fans

expecting cold and snow, they got it, just a little bit late. I was

walking the dog. Now the dog won't come out? The dog is smart! Across

the country, many flights cancelled and over 4000 delayed. It has been a

horrible year for flying. Airlines have lost up to $150 million and it

has cost them 30 million passengers affected. Here, 40% of flights have

been cancelled today and it looks like the travel misery is set to

continue. Meteorologists say this is the first of three storms to hit the

midwest and north-east between now and early next week.

Thank you. When did the next two big storms hit adware? -- and where?

It's a very vigourous storm system. Over the next seven -10 days, one

storm after another repeating itself, in the same path. Lots of

snow in the Ohio Valley, lots of rain down south. The storm we have

now is exiting and producing something like seven inches of snow

in central park, some parts to the interior of New Jersey around 11

inches. It will move through the centre again and create

thunderstorms. Then it goes into cold air and it will create ice.

Again into the New York City area and Boston. On top of that, there

could be a major storm, even bigger, coming for Sunday.

Now we look at the stock market falling. The Dow is down almost 300

points after last week. What is driving this? Is it time to change

plans. --? Wall Street slammed. News today that

American factories are turning out on a at their weakest rates. Also

affecting the markets is the weather. Cold and snow are grinding

businesses to a halt. There are concerns it will affect jobs. The

average American family's 401(k) hit hard down as much as 5.8% this year.

This means the typical $100,000 has lost almost $6,000 and just the last

month alone. A tough first day on the job for the new Federal Reserve

chair Janet Yellen whose chief mission will be to address the

sluggish economy, especially jobs. And now by ten. Only met this couple

of Illinois last December, things were looking good.

Now that you have stayed the course, how do you feel?

Very good, a great care. Now they join many others who face

an uncertain future. For perspective, we should look at

this, the last month of your retirement savings account. A weak

one. So far, if you look at the bigger picture, last year, stocks

were up at record highs. On average, you are still looking much better

than you did a few years ago during the great recession.

Thank you. Now we turn to the news that stunned many Americans

yesterday. For anybody who loves films, it is like a death in the

family. Philip Seymour Hoffman at 46 years old, an actor who was famously

shy and generous. Part of an actor's craft is to look at the

journey of life and find meaning in its destination. Somebody who lived

brilliantly inside of so many different people, the world and so

baffled today at how Philip Seymour Hoffman wound up here. Police

revealed new details about his death scene, finding nearly 70 bags of

heroin in his apartment. He was found with a needle in his arm.

On Wednesday night lights on Bordeaux will -- lights on Broadway

will be dammed and has no. An anxious night because of a prison

break. Authorities are in a race against time to find this man. The

hunt is on to track down is convicted killer. His getaway car

was found in a small town this afternoon. Schools have put on

lockdown as officers move door to door.

I have a little boy so it is scary. He was convicted of killing four

people in 1993 and was serving a life full stop he escaped from

prison in Michigan on Sunday night. Authorities believe his stall and

kitchen uniform and use his hands to pull apart two security fences.

There are flaws in the security that we need to assess.

He carjacked and abducted a woman driving this car and drove the

Indian. And for gas. She asked to use the bathroom and made a call to

911 from behind a log. -- behind a locked door.

He left her in the bathroom and laughed. Nerves on edge as

authorities race to get him behind bars. Avoiding crashes like this

one. How your car can keep you safe, keep cutting accidents by 80%.

Now, imagine your car avoiding a crash by talking to the other cars

around you. The US government says there is a new technology that they

want people to have by the time you buy your next car. Something as

important as safety as seatbelts. We find out how it works. Alert cars

are designed to survive this. What if we could keep those accidents

from ever happening? Cutting accidents by 80% by having your car

talk to other cars around you ? We can't understate the significance

of having vehicles that can be able to stop accidents.

They want every vehicle to have this technology. This rule will be in

place with the end of 2016. Ten times every second your car will

transmit its speed, direction, and other information. It will receive

the same information from cars around it. If somebody is braking

hard, cars in front of you, if you are pressing a vehicle, you will get

a warning of things happening. The technology will cost between

$100-$200. In the future, it could be paid with other systems like

automatic brakes which we tried out for a test drive.

It's just takes over. That is amazing.

We can build a foundation of avoiding crashes before they happen

in the first place. This could save at least 20,000

lives on American highways every year.

Our instant index tonight begins with a man who was a plumber by

trade at road into history. Look at this. This wave is 80 feet tall. It

is off Portugal and may be the biggest ever surfed. Look again.

There is the ways and there, that tiny speck, that is a man. He is a

plumber and so thinking. Another high seas adventure in the news.

Last week we told you about the mystery surrounding a man claims he

was adrift in the Pacific for more than one year living on turtles and

seagulls. Tonight, we see him. Here he is. Rwanda was discovered

shipwrecked on a remote island halfway between Hawaii and

Australia. -- he was discovered. It is easy to compare him to Castaway

from the film Castaway. Is the story real?

Style advice to Kate Middleton? A newspaper is claiming the Queen has

seen at the affordable dresses that has made Kate Middleton famous and

has suggested that she should wear longer hemlines when she visits

Australia including jewellery from the Queen's personal collection. She

has offered to send a stylist to help her.

We have a note tonight about the pressing. Joan Mondale has died. She

was a passionate advocate for the arts and pushing Congress to

increase funding for public arts programmes. She was so devoted, she

was given the nickname, Joan. She died with her husband and children

by her side. She was 83 years old. Now, we want to thank all of you

that responded powerfully to our special report on guns and children.

Every third day in America, a child dies of an accidental shooting. We

heard from so many of you with ideas about what we can do to save lives.

Your response was overwhelming. On one side, so many people leave

their guns on locked and loaded. On the other side, people say you can

still defend yourself but lock up your gun. After the special, many of

you went online to start a conversation about this in your

neighbourhood is about play dates and the guns. So many members say it

is time that we talk to each other. Even couples on different sites on

now talking, saying that we watched this and it helps them understand

each other. This is what some people said.

We also received messages from police. They were offering free gun

locks for those who want them. This officer and his wife are parents of

a young boy who got a hold of a gun and was lost to an accidental

shooting. They say that they heard from fellow police officers and

strangers alike saying it is time to change. The father of this little

boy seen in this video, a father believes that even very young

children should learn how to use guns. Charlie is four years old but

after watching a special, his father has told is that he will no longer

be leaving has guns out after use. He immediately lock them up.

I am glad you are watching tonight. We are always here online. I will

see you tomorrow night. A very unsettled week ahead. Wet and

windy weather associated with deep areas of low pressure. It is moving

in off the Atlantic. In a sequence of events on Monday. Monday