after the storm. it really gets busy after the system passes and airlines scramble to get their planes back into the air. at airports like raleigh, all flights in and out canceled and some airlines have already started canceling their overnight flights at other airports. that means that those planes will not be in place in the morning, so fliers should expect another rough morning tomorrow. >> think about it before you head out to the airport for sure. because the planes night not be taking off hey guys! sorry we're late. did you run into traffic? no, just had to stop by the house to grab a few things. you stopped by the house? uh-huh. yea. alright, whenever you get your stuff, run upstairs, get cleaned up for dinner. you leave the house in good shape? yea. yea, of course. ♪ [ sportscaster talking on tv ] last-second field go--

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. we're continuing to follow the breaking news. we're showing you live pictures coming in charlotte, north carolina, greenville, south carolina, you can see some traffic on the roads. not a whole lot. most people are heeding the advice of authorities, stay inside. if you're home, stay at home, if you're at work, stay at work. don't get on the roads right now, potentially very dangerous. i spoke with the north carolina governor pat mccrory just a little while ago. we spoke about the crisis playing out on the state's roads and highways. >> we want them to stay in their car, don't abandon their car unless there are certain elements requiring them to get out in very, very cold weather. we've got a system that we've set up where we can come rescue

those individuals in their cars. that's our incentive at this point in time, help the people get out of their car, then unblock the traffic. the problem is once they abandon their car, they block all the traffic including the emergency operation vehicles and they're putting other people at risk on these major highways and thoroughfares. >> i spoke to two young women who did abandon their cars on these highways in north carolina just a little while ago. they've walked, went to a hotel not that far away, she did get frostbite, fortunately there are nurses there to take care of her. it says here these people if their cars are towed, they'll have to pay for the towing. will these two young women have to pay for their cars being towed? >> most likely, if they don't pay it, someone has to pay for it. but we care for these two women. we would have preferred them to stay in their cars so they not get frostbite because the outside elements are so bad. >> we're joined by a north carolina woman who was forced to

abandon her car on that snowy highway. natalie kotuby is joining us via skype from raleigh. you heard what the governor had to say. what's your reaction? >> i -- honestly, i can see where he's coming from. i understand that emergency vehicles have to get through. however, i feel like he could be a little bit more compassionate for those of us who really didn't have any other option. i had many cars that were blocking my way. i thought it was the best thing to do rather than continuing to drive my car and potentially get into an accident and hurt somebody else or myself. i just thought it was best to get off the road. >> so you abandoned your car and you walked. and you got home. fortunately, you're okay, but your car is still stuck someplace on the highway over there, right? >> it is. i tried my very best to push it -- or to drive it quite far over, to keep it out of the way

as much as i could, but hopefully it's over far enough so that if emergency vehicles have to pass through, they're able to. >> if it's towed, you heard the governor say and we heard a spokesman for the department of transportation in north carolina say earlier if folks abandon their car, they may have to pay for the towing. you ready to pay for the towing? >> i mean, if that's what i have to do, that's what i have to do. i'm safe, so that was important to me right now. >> you got home safe and sound. just remind us, why did you decide to leave the warmth -- you had enough gas in your car i assume. >> i did. >> why did you decide to leave the relative warmth of the car and just start walking? >> you know, it was one of those things either i could continue staying there for hours and potentially risk running out of gas or i could go ahead and try my best to get home and i just decided to wing it and try to get home as fast as i could. there were so many cars that were along the road in front of me and there were cars that were swerving all over the road in

front of me. so i just decided to park it as far over as i could, then get going. >> we're glad you're home safe and sound, hopefully your car will be safe and sound as well, natalie. good luck. >> thank you. >> we're continuing to follow the breaking news. this is a killer storm hammering the south moving up the east coast. the washington, d.c., suburbs they're next in line. she's looking at the cost of this storm. what are you seeing, athena? what are you finding out? >> hi, wolf, of course the storm hasn't made its way here yet. we're beginning to see a few small flakes flying. i'm coming to you from a salt depot. we're right next to a very busy highway. this is the capital beltway, a major artery this in area. all this salt being poured into these trucks, that salt will be used to make sure highways like this stay clear. we've been watching trucks

lining up the past couple of hours getting filled with salt and heading out. northern virginia is the point that 4,000 trucks that make sure that roads and subdivisions stay clear. where is all that coming from? you can see the large structure and the doorway through it. imagine the weight of 100 statues of liberty. that's about 22,000 tons. that's how much salt this shed can hold. this facility was built after those big storms we saw in february of 2010 where areas in this region saw as much as two to four feet of snow over just the course of the first ten days of february. so i believe we have a graphic. this salt truck you can see moving out. i believe we have a graphic to show some of of the statistics we have from the northern department of virginia. they say they're ready, initially 4,000 trucks they're deploying, 5,000 tons of salt on hand. none of the kinds of salt shortages like in new york city and long island.

all told, they believe that this storm will cost $25 million. that's the cost of putting all these trucks on the road, having these workers work 12 hours on, 12 hours off. on our way here, we saw trucks already staged on the freeway. that gives you an idea how long they'll be working. north of us in washington, d.c., they're also getting ready. i spoke with the mayor's office earlier today. they're going to be declaring a snow emergency at 6:30 that mainly keeps the cars off major roads. they can make sure those are clear. across the region people have been flocking to hardware stores and supermarkets to stock up on shovels and groceries like bread, milk and water, wolf. >> it's going to be a bad situation here in the nation's capital area as it heads towards new york and beyond. our thanks, athena. thanks for that report. we'll continue the breaking news coverage here in the situation room. just ahead our own ed lavandera, he's been driving around this mess. he'll join us for a complete update on what's going on.

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we're continuing to follow this very, very dangerous snow and ice storm moving from the south up the east coast of the united states. cnn's ed lavandera has been taking a very close look at what's been going on on the roads. >> reporter: a deadly ice storm is pummeling the southeast and headed towards the major cities of the east coast. there are grounded flight, downed trees and widespread power outages. major traffic issues near raleigh. north carolina's capital city. >> everybody who was at work decided they were going to go home at that point so they all ended up on the roads at the same time. >> reporter: the governors of georgia, south carolina and north carolina have all declared states of emergency. >> from the federal government we have received word that they

have expanded their declaration to include the 89 counties that we had expanded the declaration to include and we have asked that they add the additional two counties, which we have every reason to believe that they will do so. >> reporter: in and around atlanta residents are staying at home. schools are closed, streets are desolate, coated with ice. an abundance of caution in preparation leading up to this storm in an effort to avoid scenes like this from two weeks ago. >> the house is getting cold, we've got the fireplace going we're using gas we've got whatever else we can we have battery backup and radios. >> reporter: how quickly has the temperature dropped in the house. >> almost as cold as everyone in the house except the main hallway. just cold inside as it is out right now. >> reporter: he was one of the first to lose power early wednesday morning in stone mountain, georgia, when he heard an electrical transformer explode. crews have worked all day to repair the lines in the freezing rain. clark says this time around in

the atlanta area, it's nothing like the ice-pocalypse disaster from two weeks ago. sadly it seems this is the care linians turn to test their storm preparedness. wolf, you can see a live picture of power crews working on a neighborhood east of the atlanta area. this is a power transformer that blew earlier today around 6:00 in the morning. crews still working into the night here. now you can see what a lot of people in this region will be dealing with as we start pulling away, and you can see that the sleet-like conditions are falling pretty heavily. and these roadways will be quite a mess throughout most of the night and only worsening as we continue to move into the darkness of these hours. but the good news is, wolf, there's a lot of people staying off of the roadways. only seeing a small handful of cars out there, but these roadways will only continue to get worse and we have to see what it looks like tomorrow morning. >> the other bad news is people are losing power in their homes.

it's cold outside, dark, i'm really wore ed about all those folks, especially the elderly that will lose power. ed lavandera, thank you. we've got much more on the breaking news. this historic storm moving up the east koefs the united states. i want to get to another major story that's breaking. the senate voting a little while ago to raise the nation's debt ceiling through march of 2015. the measure now awaiting the president's signature. the vote itself was not without drama. ted cruz, the freshman senator from texas, he forced his fellow republicans to stick his necks out. didn't win him a lot of friends among the republicans who were forced to do so. dana bash is following all the drama. a couple dramatic couple of hours. >> ted cruz has never been shy about not really caring if he's the stump at the republican garden party if it means standing up for his principles. it was clear when it led to a

government shutdown in the fall and it was clear today when he filibustered raising the debt ceiling. this vote was never going to be easy, but this was high drama. for 45 minutes the senate was in limbo. two votes short of the 60 needed to overcome a filibuster waged by republican ted cruz on raising the debt ceiling. thanks to cruz's tactics, what republicans feared most, putting the nation's credit and americans' stock portfolios at risk, was about to happen. then suddenly the senate's top two republicans walked the political plank together. mitch mcconnle and his number two john cornyn approached the desk to vote yes. they're both facing primary challenges from the right. both knew full well voting to allow more borrowing to pay the country's debt would give ammunition to their conservative opponents but they did it anyway. that was the 60 votes needed to break cruz's filibuster.

but republicans decided they needed more. the search began for other gop colleagues to switch their votes to yes to give their senate leaders political cover. finally susan collins emerged with a group of republicans who agreed to vote yes. john mccain, orrin hatch and others taking one for the team, helping to pad the margin and share responsibility. >> the votes on the motion are 67 in favor, 31 against. >> reporter: quickly followed by final passage on a party line vote, something most republicans wanted in first place without the drama of cruz's filibuster. >> on this vote, the ayes are 55, the nays 43. >> reporter: republican leadership sources i spoke to say their goal all along was to save republicans from a losing fight that could hurt the economy so much it can jeopardize republicans chances to take the senate and even possibly to keep the house, but cruz, as you know, has always positioned himself as somebody

who is the keeper of cob serve attive principles. he issued a statement after this vote saying that leaders in the senate are >> so he's not backing down at all? >> not at all. >> full steam ahead. >> dana, thanks very, very much. we're going to continue to follow breaking news on the weather right now. huge snow and ice storm moving from the south up the east coast. we're going to get the latest forecast. we'll also talk to a storm chaser right after this. [announcer] if your dog can dream it, purina pro plan can help him achieve it. ♪ driving rock/metal music stops ♪music resumes music stops ♪music resumes [announcer] purina pro plan's bioavailable formulas deliver optimal nutrient absorption. [whistle] purina pro plan. nutrition that performs.

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following the breaking news. we're just getting some new

video in showing how bad the conditions are as the snow is piling up, the ice piling up in north carolina. roads, vehicles are slipping and sliding unable to get any traction on the ice. a number of accidents growing by the hour. matt robinson, by the way, took this video. he's joining us on the phone from the raleigh, north carolina. what was it like, matt? >> it was a pretty fast scenario where i looked outside and, you know, it was pretty clear. i think that's what most people saw and then within about maybe 20, 25 minutes the roads started getting covered and then that's when immediately people lost traction and the video shows what happened next. >> this is about as bad as it's been a snowstorm and ice storm in north carolina, what, for almost ten years you haven't had anything like this, is that right? >> yeah, i can remember back in 2005 everyone remembers around here that there was something -- we didn't have as much snow but the road conditions were similar

and -- but i definitely don't think people are used to deal with driving in these conditions. >> as we see in this video you shot for us that we're showing, these cars and their trucks, they're trying to move but the roads are just jam pack full of ice. >> yeah, it's actually -- i shot the video from my front porch so i didn't have to go far but i live on a hill and once someone gets stuck, everyone kind of bottlenecks in line and then they don't -- they can't get past. some lady tried to get impatient and that causes a lot more problems. yeah, it's not something -- i'm glad i'm not -- i wasn't in that myself. >> you know, i grew up in the north, in the buffalo area, so we were used to snow. where you are, i take it some folks don't even have shovels, snow shovels? >> yeah, i mean, we don't -- i'm from pittsburgh so i am used to

that up there. down in raleigh, you know, we get snow maybe once or twice a year and it's nothing that -- i don't have a snow shovel myself. usually it's 60 degrees the next day. that stuff melts away. you don't have to shovel. >> but you're okay now? you're inside? you're not going anywhere, right? >> no. my wife is actually -- coincidentally she's 8 1/2 months pregnant so i decided to stay with her. we're just sitting at home hoping the power doesn't go out. >> let's hope the power doesn't go out. we know half a million people have lost power. it's cold and getting dark. so i'm really worried especially as i've been telling everyone about the elderly who could be stuck. hopefully there will be crews that can rescue them if we get word that they have, in fact, lost power. matt robinson, thanks for sharing the video with us. good luck to you. >> thanks a lot. let's go ba being to our severe weather expert,

meteorologist chad myers is joining us in the cnn weather center. chad, what are the conditions like? what do we need to know? >> it's going to start snowing in d.c. rather quickly. that burst of snow that raleigh had around 1 or 2:00, that will be moving up to d.c. right now it's getting into richmond, virginia. if you're out there, you'll see the snow coming back all the way to the beach in hampton roads as well. it's icing still down to the south. i think we lose focus on maybe ice and snow and how much and how much it affects people, but this is a large swath of a foot of snow or more right along i-95 and westward. east of i-95 you'll get a whole lot less. here's the number that we've been throwing around all day, wolf. i'm with you on this, concerned about the elderly, about the pets, about the young as well. 480,000 customers without power. there are 2.58 people on average in every house so you multiply that number by 2.58, you have

1.2 million people without power. not the customer because there's only one person on the bill, on the power bill, but there's 2.58 people behind that power bill as well so we're talking 1.2 million people tonight that will be sleeping in the cold. >> and that could go on for a while. if you lose power, there may not be enough crews to restore power within a day or two. this can last for a while. >> sure. you know, we know there are some places in town here in atlanta and just south where the roads aren't even safe enough for the crews to get there yet and those crews are trying to put power lines up where they can get to the downed power lines but there are some spots so slick and unsalted that the crews can't move around. this storm isn't half over yet. snow doesn't bring down power lines like the ice is down here in the south. there's snow. you absolutely need power when you get that type of cold weather. >> good advice. chad, thanks very much for all of your excellent, excellent

work. that's it for me. thanks very much for watching. remember, you can follow us what's going on behind the scenes here in "the situation room" on twitter. tweet me @wolvesblitzer. i'm wolf blitzer in washington. erin burnett "out front" starts erin burnett "out front" starts right now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com next, breaking news. more than 100 million americans feeling the wrath of a catastrophic winter storm. snow and ice wreaking havoc on the south and east. where the dangerous storm is leaving next because it is not leaving the coast. senator rand paul sues the president today. he's "out front." are americans ready for paula deen? let's go "out front." good evening,