>> yeah, i believe they should but it's going to take time. >> reporter: in many ways, a young woman only 22 there now exhausted by the attention of the last few days but the focus she's received in lebanon and wanting to get on with the skiing. jake? >> nick paton walsh in sochi, thanks. that's it for "the lead." i turn you over to wolf blitzer in "the situation room." >> jake, thank you. happening now, breaking news. battered again. parts of the east coast are getting another wallop as heavy snow and this deadly storm as a third of the country has a country in its grip and it won't let up. plus, road rage. we're seeing dangerous gridlock inside the storm zone. i'll ask the governor of pennsylvania about the state's traffic problems and the snow emergency. and rand paul versus president obama. i'll ask the republican senator what he hopes to accomplish with a controversial new lawsuit. that is and much more when he joins us live this hour. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room."

>> this is cnn breaking news. >> here in washington, d.c., we're bracing for the relentless winter storm that's affecting more than 100 million people in 14 states. roanoke, virginia, just got clobbered. we're also seeing a foot of snow or more in parts of the northeast. it fell at a rate of 4 inches an hour in some places. many roads are treacherous with countless accidents. at least 11 people have been killed since the storm first hit the south on tuesday. about 700,000 customers don't have power right now. more than 6,000 flights have been canceled alone.

brianed to has a look at the mess up and down the east coast. he's been on the road all day and he's joining us now live from maryland. what are you seeing? >> reporter: i'm seeing some very tough going. we just got word from virginia state police that they've responded to 1100 accidents throughout the state. two fatalities there. we're going to show you what we're seeing. we're north of baltimore, maryland, on the i-95 corridor. getting hit with freezing rain on 695. we'll toggle between my camera eight dash camera here. again, more snow is expected for the d.c. area. this is round two after a very treacherous round one.

ang overturned tractor-trailer. the wheels are in the air and guardrail is demolished. >> they are putting a winch on it right now. the driver is okay. he suffered minor injuries to his hand and told me that the snow and ice here, the slush underneath the truck just lost his steering. the steering got away from him and he slid down a ditch. most lanes are closed on a highway usually packed with commuters in the nation's capital and just a few minutes down the highway we see another one. the truck have sprawled across the highway on its side. the front is split open and the driver, we're told, had minor injuries. as someone who just slid off the road here on i-95 south, just south of d.c., probably 15 miles of d.c. sir -- >> yeah? >> what just happened? >> i got in this spot right here and i can't control the car. it's coming all the way over here. scared, man, when you can't

control the car, you can't do nothing. there's too much snow. it's danger. >> reporter: we hooked up a tow line from his car to our suv and pulled him around and out of the snow. three drivers, three examples of how treacherous the conditions are with thick snow falling all morning and hard pack on the roads. and these aren't the only ones. we see plows and spreaders at work but it's a lot to keep up with. one thing we didn't see, monster traffic jams like the ones in atlanta two weeks ago and in north carolina on wednesday. one reason, not a lot of people are reporting for work in the nation's capital and not a lot of people out on the highways. another reason? warmer temperatures. and spreaders and snowplows. downtown philadelphia, jerry is exhausted.

he spent all day plowing. >> been going at it since 2:00 a.m. it's been a long day. >> and as we get into round two, temperatures are starting to drop. the temperature on the road is 34 degrees. it gets down 2 more degrees and this road and everything else around here starts freezing, wolf, so you'll have freezing rain and some of the streets may be icing over as we get hit with more snow as well. >> we're going to check back with you later in "the situation room." a heartbreaking story as this crisis unfolds. a pregnant woman died after being struck by a privately owned snowplow in a new york city parking lot. her baby was nearly full term. the baby was delivered by caesarean section at a local hospital. he's now in critical condition. now to the forecast as that deadly storm is bringing more

misery to a huge chunk of the country, let's check in with chad myers. what's the forecast, chad? >> wolf, it's simply time to get off the road now. now the sun sets and the temperature drops rapidly. i'm giving you a three-minute warning. go home and stay there. it's going to start to get really slick out there. richmond, virginia, had thunder sleet. you certainly will hear it as it moves towards the d.c. area. that's going to fill in with rain, snow, and sleet and the freezing rain is going to make travel very difficult in the next couple of hours. now, we're not going to see a lot more snow. this is just about done. the big part of the storm, you could get six inches.

everybody else, 2 to 3. not much along the coast. nothing for boston and the cape. back up to the mountains and up towards nova scotia. that's the story now. we refreeze. almost everything on the roadway right now. it gets down to 24 or so, very close. new york city down to d.c., it gets down to 28 in atlanta, down to 26 in columbia, augusta, where there's a mess on the roadways there. a mess above the roadways, too. we haven't seen you a lot of pictures but parts of south carolina have been literally devastated with ice all over the place. trees are down everywhere. it's even hard to get there. wolf? >> chad, explain to our viewers what thundersleet is. >> well, there's convection. we can get air to go up in this. there's a lot of sleet here and it wants to make lightning and

the lightning is in the sky. it's not really cloud to ground. it's cloud to cloud up there and you may see the flash and hear the thunder and think, how can that happen? it's 30 degrees. but it does happen and it's kind of startling. there's thundersnow as well but the thundersleet up i-95 has been quite something for people who are getting startled as they hear thunder. >> it's pretty scary. just saw some lightning and in the d.c. area. we'll talk about that with you, chad, as well. this monster snowstorm is a huge drain on local governorments and their budgets. cnn has been traveling with snowplows on the roads to ba baltimore. >> reporter: they have been working overnight on know removal but they may have a budget problem. baltimore's city spokesman told

me that their budget for snow removal is $2.7 million. so far this year they have spent more than 5 million on snow removal. it's a problem they'll have to deal with, of course, after this storm is over. back to you, wolf. >> lisa, thank you. north carolina, a day after massive traffic backup in the raleigh area, some drivers who abandoned their cars went back to try to dig out their vehicles buried in the snow. the area got another 3 inches of snow today. up next, the latest on a train derailment that leaked crude oil. are people in the area at risk? and i'll ask the pennsylvania governor about that accident and a lot more as his state prepares to get hit with another round of very nasty weather. hey guys! sorry we're late.

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the deadly and dangerous storm socking the northeast right now. it's one of the snowiest winters on record in pennsylvania with more than 50 inches falling so far this season. power outages have been a huge, huge problem. cnn's margaret conley is in abbington, pennsylvania. what is going on? >> reporter: wolf, pico, the big power company here, they say that they are scattered power outages already in this region. this is not good news for abbington, which is out of power. this home, right over here, this woman had to live with her son for electricity and power

causing damage and further down the street there's a couple that had to live by candlelight and they were struggling to get their generator up and running. we also talked to a business owner who in town was out of power for seven days and he's been struggling to get his business back up and running. now, people are just trying to work hard to get their lives back on track. we were lucky today to survive this snow but we're expecting a lot more snow later tonight. wolf? >> get ready, margaret. thanks very much. good luck to the folks in the area. another big concern. a train hauling crude oil in the western part of the state, there are reports of oil leaking, haz-mat crews responding to the scene. we're joined by tom corbett. >> thank you, wolf. good to be here. >> tell us about this freight train hauling oil. what are you hearing about this? >> we heard a number of cars on

the freight train and there was a leak from one or maybe two. the leak has been contained. it was a couple thousand gallons. as you know, these tankers hold about 30,000 gallons but they were able to unload the rest of those tankers that were in danger of spilling and the most recent report i have is a couple hours old but no leak has been going into the kiskee river and i think that's very important. our teams are there. our department of environmental protection is there now. so we understand that pretty much is this in containment. and norfolk southern is working on writing the trains and getting them back on the track. >> a 65-mile stretch of the pennsylvania turnpike was shut down. it's getting dark and colder. this thundersleet is beginning to develop.

you're going to get a bunch more snow. how concerned are you as it gets colder and nightfall begins? >> well, as you know, a good portion of the turnpike was closed and cars were rerouted. we have made contingencies. we lean forward on this and if traffic on the turnpike or on any major highway is stopped for more than an hour, we do health and safety checks. we have penn-d.o.t., the department of transportation where they go up and down a backed up highway to make sure that everybody is taken care of. but what we really try to do, when we hear an accident that has closed down a section of the turnpike, we detour the traffic much sooner than we have in years past. >> i'm really worried about power outages, especially as they impact the elderly. if they can't make a phone call, they can't get out, it's dark, it's cold in their homes, first of all, how serious are the power outages? >> well, compared to what we

went through last week when it was almost a little bit over 800,000 customers that were out of business, right now we're at about more than 1500 customers out of 5800 at noontime today and different counties across the state. it's not nearly as bad unless you're one of those customers that don't have electricity. we always ask everybody to check on those who are elderly to make sure that they are able to get out if there's a problem. but we have monitoring stations set up. we have shelters available. we have warming stations available. >> so in your experience, how bad is this current storm affecting pennsylvania and you've been governor for a while. you know the state well. >> actually, the people of pennsylvania reacted very well from the warnings we gave them. they stayed home. i closed down state government here in harrisburg and across the eastern part of the state. the number of events are not nearly what you would have anticipated in a storm like

this. we restricted the types of heavy duty trucks that could go on there. so we're in a much better shape than we would have expected. we are very cautious of this next wave of the storm that is coming through between 8:00 and 3:00. depending on where you are, it could be between 3 to 5 to 8 inches of additional snow. so we are watching this but i have to commend the people of pennsylvania, they stayed out of the way and allowed the trucks to get out there and salt trucks to get out there and plow and salt the highways. >> you called up members of the national guard in pennsylvania. first of all, how many have you mobilized? what are they doing? >> well, we called up about 700 before the storm hit so we could get them to the armory so we could deploy them. if we waited until after the storm was hit, they'd have a hard time getting there. right now, i'm not aware of any missions that they've actually had to go out on. we expected -- we had 14 four-wheel drive ambulances available to go out and help to

get people if regular ambulances couldn't. we have heavy record trucks available to move accidents that haven't been used yet. so right now, with this storm that we've had so far, we haven't had to use them. and i'd rather have them in the armory and not have to use them than have them at home and be looking for them because we need their help. >> your main message to the people of pennsylvania right now, i assume, if you don't have to go out, stay home, right? >> absolutely. stay home. be patient, especially be patient with the utility companies. when power goes out at this time of year, it's so much harder to get the lines repaired with you will a of the lines in the snow and the cold. the power companies have been providing a large number of linemen out there and working on that but we ask you to be patient. stay home tonight. >> good idea. governor tom corbett of pennsylvania, good luck to you and all of the folks of pennsylvania. >> wolf, thank you for having us

on. that's right. everybody stay home tonight. >> i totally agree. sf sf all right. coming up, the latest forecast and the catastrophic conditions. we're tracking the storm that slams the east coast. they built roadside bombs, they killed american troops and now they are walking free. so what is going on in afghanistan right now? and a tea party darling, a 2016 presidential contender suing president obama and other top aides. i'll speak live this hour with senator rand paul. we'll talk about his lawsuit against the nsa. there's a saying around here, you stand behind what you say. around here you don't make excuses. you make commitments. and when you can't live up to them, you own up, and make it right. some people think the kind of accountability that thrives on so many streets in this country has gone missing in the places where it's needed most. but i know you'll still find it when you know where to look.

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we continue with breaking news. thund thundersleet is moving up and down the east coast. we're going to monitor what is going on. chad myers is standing by. but there is other important news. the afghan government has released 65 prisoners saying there isn't enough evidence against them but the move has outraged american officials who argue that these are dangerous men with american blood on their

hands. other chief national correspondent jim sciutto is joining me. i've spoke to several officials and military personnel who are outraged. >> there are 23 pages of this report and these were not minor players. 25 linked to the production of ieds, roadside bombs. a third tested positive for explosives when they were captured. together, they are responsible for coalition fighters and now they are free. they are behind dozens of deadly attacks on american soldiers. from roadside bombs like this one, armed ambushes. many have links to al qaeda but now the 65 enemy fighters, seen here as they left their prison cells today, have been set free. we thank the afghan army, one of

them said, they treated us like brothers. u.s. officials have vehemently protested against the release providing extensive evidence on the detainees. a third were involved in attacks that killed or wounded 60 coalition u.s. troops. however, karzai dismissed the criticism outright, despite more than 12 years of american military and humanitarian support. >> it is of no concern to the u.s. and should be of no concern to the u.s. and i hope that the united states will stop harassing afghanistan's procedures and judicial authority. >> reporter: on capitol hill, senator lindsey graham is being asked to re-evaluate aid to afghanistan in protest. >> i don't know what i would tell a member of coalition force that was killed by one of these

65 president karzai in my view is single handedly destroying this relationship. >> the militants should be referred to the afghan system for prosecution under afghan law and u.s. officials make the point that many previously released detainees have joined the fight, including afghan civilians. today, a state department spokesman said that it's the afghan government that bears responsibility for these attacks. the u.s. has given up on karzai, elections in april, they know they can't do business with him between now and then. they are waiting, in effect, for the next one and a big issue is the status of forces. >> not only that, but the billions of dollars is supposed to go to afghanistan to build roads, bridges, hospitals, infrastructure. there's a great demand to say, you know what, you don't want the u.s. to harass you as far as terrorists being released from

prison, terrorists who killed american troops, maybe you don't need money to be spent in the united states to build hospitals and bridges and schools as well. >> no question. when you think about the sacrifice and blood and treasure from the american side, it's hard to accept a move like this. >> all right. jim sciutto, thank you very much. it's an outrageous development. rand paul, by the way, is hitting the administration with a major class-action lawsuit. the potential 2016 contender is challenging the nsa's electronic surveillance program. senator paul, by the way, is standing by. we'll discuss this live in a few moments. first, background. joe johns is here. he's got the details of the lawsuit. joe? >> wolf, is it law or is it politics? senator rand paul's lawsuit is a bit of both. a legal challenge to the obama administration that will only increase the speculation that paul might run for president. at the very least, he's raising his profile and developing another piece of a national

message. senator rand paul's lawsuit joined by freedom works is the latest legal effort to put the heat on president obama and the national security agency over collection of telephone metadata. the numbers, dates, and times of calls but not the content. >> this, we believe, will be an historic lawsuit. we believe it will be the largest class-action lawsuit ever filed on behalf of the bill of rights. >> reporter: an unusual lawsuit that paul hopes will gain public support. it goes after the president and director of national intelligence of the nsa and fbi on behalf of millions who have been customers, users, and subscribers of phone service since 2006. paul wants the federal force to declare the metadata program unconstitutional, shut it down and order the government to purge from its system but they claim it's legal. >> it's been founded to be lawful by multiple courts and receives oversight from all three branches of government,

including the congress. >> reporter: is the lawsuit a good idea? >> our information i think should be private. >> the idea that anybody should be listening to my private life, it's a little bit creepy. >> i think it's a stunt. >> reporter: there are already cases involving the same legal question, whether the program violates your constitutional right. >> there's no question that the underlying legal question is going to have to be resolved by the federal courts sometime soon. it just doesn't seem like senator paul's suit is going to be the vehicle through which the courts do it. >> reporter: complicating the legal issues is a behind of scenes spat over the alleged hijacking of a prominent washington attorney's work. sources say conservative constitutional legal scholar bruce fine had worked on the lawsuit since december but when it was released publicly, his name was not on the document and former virginia attorney general ken cuccinelli, who left office in january, was featured as the

lead lawyer. when cnn asked who authored the document, cuccinelli said it was a legal document including fine and fine would participate in the litigation. fine told cnn he looks forward to working with the others with transparency and no ulterior motives. and the controversy continued today. ken cuccinelli said that bruce fine had not been named in the lawsuit because no written attorney retainer agreement had been completed at the time that the lawsuit was filed. other e-mails indicated that fine was paid $15,000 for some of his work but it's not clear at all after all of this whether fine will remain part of the legal team. wolf? >> joe johns, thanks very much. up next, we'll speak with senator rand paul. he's standing by live. he'll join us here in "the situation room." i'll ask him about this new lawsuit about the president. we'll ask talk about his own white house ambitions. and stay with us for more of our breaking news coverage. this is truly an historic snowstorm. it's getting worse right here in

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we're watching the breaking news right now. another round of that deadly winter storm is hitting the d.c. area right now. moving up through pennsylvania, new york, more snow on the way and also what our chad myers is calling thundersleet and thundersnow. a complete update at the top of

the hour. first, senator rand paul is suing the obama administration, including the president of the united states himself over the nsa sweeping surveillance program. some critics, though, are arguing the case has no real legal standing and is nothing more than a political stunt. let's discuss the lawsuit and much more. republican senator rand paul of kentucky is joining us right now. senator, thanks very much for coming in. >> good to be with you. >> you've heard all the criticism. it really has no legal standing. it's simply designed as a political stunt to strengthen your potential presidential prospects, to strengthen the tea party. what say you? >> the interesting thing is i haven't heard much criticism. i've heard a lot of thank yous from millions and millions of people with cell phones who want us to stand up for their privacy. so, no, we think this lawsuit will get heard. there's already been a lawsuit like this heard simply by people who say that their privacy has

been breached. we think there's evidence that anyone who has a cell phone or a landline has had their cell phone breached. so i think achieving standing and being heard in court is very likely since a couple of cases have already been heard. but, you know, the president pushed back yesterday and said, well, 15 judges have ruled this thing constitution. you have to get into the nitty gritty here a little bit. those 15 judges were in secret courts, primarily, with no one arguing on the side of the bill of rights. you only had the government arguing. we wanted to get into an open court, the supreme court where you can hear both sides and you'll hear a debate about whether the fourth amendment applies here and i think it needs to happen. >> aren't those members of the fisa court appointed by the chief justice of the united states, john roberts? is he someone you don't trust in these matters? >> it's not really trust. it's a matter that i think to get to truth, to find truth in a courtroom, you've got to have a lawyer on both sides. this is sort of something that came out of hundreds of years of

common law and figuring out what we wanted to have for juris prudence and having an attorney on each side is a basic thing that you need to to try to find truth. and in that court, the fisa court number one, it's secret to the hearings are not public. i think the truth may not always come out when it's in secret and only the government presents their case. you only hear from the nsa which, of course, loves to spy so they will defend spying but you don't get to hear from any citizens who say, you know what, i haven't done anything wrong and there's no suspicion or individual warrant to me. why should my phone records be dragged up? i don't think a fisa court fundamentally can find truth. i think we need to be in an open court in the supreme court and this is a big question about the bill of rights and with all of the advances in technology, i think really we do need to get this into the supreme court. >> well, there are other cases -- the harvard law professor, allen dershowitz,

said that other cases are trying to do what you're trying to do that have much greater standing legally speaking. he thinks yours is more of a political stunt, for example. listen to what dershowitz said. >> this issue was already before the court in some different context and those cases will probably reach the supreme court. this is more of a political action than an action that has a chance of actually succeeding on its own merits. >> he's the harvard law professor. what say you to him? >> well, you know, i'm a physician. i hate to argue with alan dershowitz. but because ours is going to be a class action lawsuit on behalf of everyone with records, if one of the cases goes forward and only ten people sue, maybe ten records get expunged, this would be on behalf of all cell phone users and all cell phone records would be expunged or taken out of the system if we win and it also illustrates the point that we're suing on behalf of

everyone that's had their records collected, not just 10 or 20 people. ours also argues specifically that this is a fourth amendment issue. it doesn't argue over statute. so there are legal scholars who are saying that we have a great chance and we've talked to several of these and legal scholars can sometimes disagree and they also have political opinions, too. so we'll see how it goes. but we won't know until we try and i think it's an important enough question that we do try. i can't say that we will win but we're going to try our hardest to defend the fourth amendment because we think what the president is doing is wrong and goes against what the fourth amount stands for. >> the other side saying that this is more political than legal. those who want to sign up to be part of this lawsuit is directed to rand pac, one of your political action committees to raise money for your political operation and they say this is the real reason behind this lawsuit. that's what the argument is. >> well, we did that initially because i'm not allowed to do it

as a senator. so it's illegal for me to do this through my official position. i have to do it as a private citizen and we have to have an entity to collect money and that entity existed and now we're converting over. now that we've teamed up with freedomworks, there will be an entity that is a nonpolitical entity that will do this and it's called the constitutiondefensefund.com. while we did start out through my pac, i never liked it and i think it gave the wrong appearance that this is political. eve but we don't want it to be overly partisan. we do really want it to be something that both people from the right and the left, young and old can join if they think the government has gone too far and really this is an interesting issue because it does unite young and old, right and left, republican and democrat. so this is an issue i think that needs to have its day out in the open with lots of sunshine and in front of the supreme court. >> yesterday when you made the

announcement, you had freedom works leaders' the tea party activists standing alongside you. that would reinforce the political as opposed to the legal basis for this lawsuit. >> well, they are a citizens group and they may be defenders of the bill of rights but they are not associated with any one party and i think matt's remarks, the president of freedom works, was specifically that. that this isn't a democrat or republican issue. if you've seen my work on this as i'm trying to reform the nsa, it has been bipartisan. i've worked with senator wyden and blumenthal on trying to fisa and with where technology is going and how government is obtaining new information. i think this is a huge case, whether it's my case that goes forward or another, it does need to get into the light of day and

we need to not allow questions of constitutional to be decided in secret without any argument for the plaintiff or without any argument for those who think their privacy has been invaded. >> rand paul, senator from kentucky, thank you very much for joining us. >> thank you, wolf. just ahead, the winter storm is hitting small businesses hard. but what if this is your biggest time of the year? how the snow could actually ruin valentine's day for a lot of florists out there. and the administration has announced new obamacare numbers. is it a disaster or a real sign of progress? ♪ [ male announcer ] to truck guys, the truck is everything. and when you put them in charge of making an unbeatable truck, good things happen. this is the ram 1500. the 2014 motor trend truck of the year. ♪ and first ever

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we're following the breaking news. look at this. this is washington, d.c. it's snowing once again. they've got here in the d.c. area thundersleet, thundersnow as well. this storm is wreaking havoc across the east coast leaving 700,000 customers. that's probably around 2 million people. without power. grounding over 6,000 more flights today alone. another major story, though, we're following right now, we'll have a lot more on the thundersleet and the snowstorm coming up. but the obama administration has now released new obama care numbers saying 3.3 million people have now signed up for obama care. the numbers may be a mark of progress that's unfolding now. a breakdown shows that enrollment actually slowed a little bit in january. the administration only has six weeks to hit its original goal of 7 million. more than a million did sign up

in january alone, though. let's dig deeper with our chief political analyst gloria borger. these new numbers are encouraging for the obama administration. >> they're not about to jump for joy because they've been through too much since october to do that. he described it to me as sort of falling flat on your face in the first lap of a long race. they picked themselves up now. they're very encouraged by these numbers. and they believe that the more people see some success, the more people will sign on. they have to exhibit a certain amount of competence here, wolf, because they look incompetent, nobody's going to go to the website. they think they've gotten over that hurdle now and the more people see success, the more they'll say, wait a minute, maybe i need to log on and do it. so they are encouraged. they're not saying they're completely out of the woods yet. >> in terms of the demographics of those who signed up, they are somewhat encouraged because in january, 27% of the new

enrollees were between the ages of 18 and 34. these are people obviously who are usually a lot more healthy than their parents or grandparents might be. >> right. >> so this is a very important number. >> right. and it's not high enough. it's not exactly where they want it to be. the big question is if you are going to make this large risk pool work, you have to have a large number of young, healthy people in it as well as sicker people. they say that, look, it's the sicker people who tend to sign up first because they're the ones who need the insurance immediately and if massachusetts is a model, that's what happened there. that the younger, healthier people will follow. so they think these numbers will continue to increase. i think the big issue for them is do these estimates track with the expectations that the insurance companies set up when they set their premiums for next year? because if they don't, people are going to get sticker shock. but if this is in line with what

the insurance companies were expecting, then people won't get large increases in their premiums, and that's the big question right now that really remains unanswered. >> gloria, we'll see how this unfolds over the next several months. >> we will. >> getting ready for the midterm elections. coming up a killer storm is crippling one-third of the united states right now and the snow, sleet and ice keep coming. we have a "situation room" special report coming up at the top of the hour. but first, valentine's day should be the most profitable time of the year but you'll see some florists have been left scrambling by this devastating storm. honestly? my kids were always on my laptop. i didn't think i could buy them their own, let alone for under $300.

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reagan national airport here in washington. the airport, this airport, like so many airports up and down the east coast, has been effectively closed. they're trying to deal as best as they can with literally

thousands of flights that have already been canceled today alone. death toll from the fierce winter storm, by the way, is now up to 12. we're following the breaking news. we'll have a special report right at the top of the hour. this is certainly supposed to be the time of the year for hearts and flower, but with just hours to go before valentine's day, that fierce winter storm is causing huge problems for a lot of florists. we're joined with more on this part of the story. what's going on? >> reporter: well, wolf, that's right. this snowstorm has shut down so much along the east coast, but it's impact on florists this valentine's day may be the real heartbreaker. in jeopardy, the most profitable day of the year for florists, up and down the east coast. >> this is actually the super bowl for florists. so with the weather, it just adds another element that we have to deal with. >> reporter: 100 million people have been hit by the storm. some florists forced to close,

others pushing back orders until after the storm. industry analysts say nearly 67 million flower orders are at risk. >> 80% of the business for valentine's day is accomplished on the 13th and 14th. >> reporter: ftd, one of the largest online retailers of flowers has stopped taking additional orders in areas affected by the weather. a representative called delivery iffy. for local florists, now starts a new storm, the big scramble. >> not too many florists are going to be able to deliver, depending on the area. so that means that we'll have today's deliveries and tomorrow's to get out tomorrow. >> reporter: this flower shop in washington, d.c., waited days for this delivery truck driving from miami. >> i mean, it's even worse here than some other places. last night in virginia, we had a delivery where the snow had covered all the area and we couldn't identify the streets.

>> reporter: it finally arrived today. >> we've been sleeping in the trailer. and they just opened the bridges five hours ago. and he got through. just to get this product. >> reporter: husbands are sweating it out. >> i was trying to buy roses for my wife. i had planned to surprise her with the hundred roses. i would assume they were open by now getting ready for the big day, which is tomorrow. >> reporter: it may be a shock to the heart, but mother nature's to blame. >> we don't have any control over the weather. >> reporter: many florists that we talked to today said they got about 15% of their orders out the door early before valentine's day, but the not so rosy picture, wolf, is that many people will still get their roses late saturday or even later. >> thanks very much. happening now, breaking news. the death toll climbs as a major snowstorm buried vast stretches of the northeast leaving more than a million people without

power. and treacherous driving conditions are about to get worse. tonight, air travel is crippled by thousands of new flight cancellations and the impact is rippling across the country. a storm has shut down the federal government with the nation's capital virtually pa paraly paralyzed. i get the information from the mayor of washington, d.c. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." >> this is cnn breaking news. >> we're following the breaking news this hour, the snow emergency unfolding right now across the northeastern united states. one-third of americans are being impacted as this powerful storm plows up the east coast and this is not over yet. millions of people will see more snow tonight and the dangerous and deadly conditions could last for days. at least 13 deaths are now blamed on the severe weather including a pregnant woman struck and killed by a snow plow in new york city. more than 1 million people are without power.

many of them shivering through brutally cold temperatures. air travel has ground to -- nearly to a halt with 6,000 more flights canceled today and almost 10,000 total since yesterday. our correspondents are covering all angles. they're live across the northeast in some of the hardest hit areas. let's begin. with our severe weather expert, our meteorologist chad myers, he's been tracking the storm for us. what do viewers need to know right now? >> this is the last of the comma of the tail of the storm. this is it. it is now approaching richmond, into d.c. and baltimore. these are the last three hours. so north carolina, you're just about out of it. but still central virginia on up to baltimore, d.c., still in it for now. farther up into new york, up into this is where the heaviest snow will be. across parts of the green and white mountains, even into about central maine. that's where the heaviest snow is going to be. i don't believe we'll see maybe

more than 2 to 4 inches in all the big cities, the big snow is at least 100 miles to the north of new york city and all the i-95 corridor. it is all up here heading to quebec and ontario as well. >> don't go too far. i want to talk to brian todd. he and his crew have been driving there some of the worst conditions. where are you now and what are you seeing? >> wolf, we're just north of washington, d.c., south of baltimore. we just came upon an accident. i'll get out of the vehicle and see if this woman can talk with us. she's talking to emergency responders right now. we have dash cam i'm talking to right now, coming out of the vehicle. this is the woman's car over here, picking it up with our photo journalist on his camera, going down here. this woman is paula. she just spun out. her car was driving northbound, spun out. now facing southbound. paula, do you have a second?

okay. come on over here, if you can. she spun out going northbound. i believe, paula, did you say there was some kind of a truck that caused this. >> a truck came up next to me, splashed on to my windshield, so i put the wipers on the higher mode to try and clear the windshield and the car started fishtailing and once it started fishtailing, i spun around and next thing you know i'm in a big old ditch. >> you're okay, though? >> i'm okay. i didn't hit anybody else. any other cars or i didn't get hurt. >> best of luck. >> knocked my whole front bumper off. the back end is a mess. >> as you deal with some of the responders here, good luck, paula, in getting out of this. you can see the whole front of her car was sheered off. this is some of the conditions we're dealing with. it's getting worse on the 95 corridor right now. >> people should stay off that corridor, stay off a lot of the

roads in the northeast. the storm has forced airlines to cancel almost 10,000 flights over the past 48 hours and the ripple effect is being felt all across the united states. rene marsh is at reagan airport just outside of washington, d.c. it's been closed part of the day as is washington dulles. what's happening there now, rene? >> wolf, you know we're out here on the air fields. we can tell you there is some activity, some good news, which is just about an hour ago they reopened the runways. but all day we've been here. been here for about nine hours. and this is all we've been seeing all day. just airplanes just sitting there, not moving. the good news is that is changing, and we are starting to see airplanes move and taxi, although this is a slow, slow process. but it's progress. and that's good here. again, here at reagan national airport, the runways and taxiways were shut down since midnight. and that's the reason why. you see those trucks in the

distance? they're all hauling away snow. snow is the big issue and the big reason why they had to shut down the runways. just too much of it. not only on the runways, but also on the taxiways. we spent a lot of time inside the airport operations center where they were monitoring everything, down to the asphalt to see whether if a plane landed on this asphalt would it skid, would it be able to land safely. take a look at what some of the factors were when deciding that they needed to shut down the runways. we spoke with the operations folks earlier today. take a listen. >> here's my problem right now. these are my two parallel taxiways. you can see i've got snow going right down the middle. what that's going to mean is when i get my airplanes off my runway, i can't transition between one taxiway to the next to get back into the gate. >> where is that taxiway supposed to be? >> this snow isn't supposed to be there. >> so big picture here, wolf,

how does today stack up against recent years? we had more than 6,000 cancellations. again, the worst this winter. however, hurricane sandy, hurricane irene, they had more than 7,000 cancellations. we're not there yet today, but nonetheless, a very, very bad travel day. >> certainly has been. causing a lot of disruption for so many people out there. parts of the southeast are reeling from the storm that barreled through yesterday. people are still without power including a lot of them in south carolina. erica from south carolina electric and gas is joining us now. how many customers in terms of -- how many customers are without power in south carolina right now, eric? >> wolf, right now we have a little over 91,000 customers without service. at one point it was probably a little closer to 120,000. certainly this has been a major weather impact event for our system. it may be the biggest weather event from a utility standpoint

since hurricane hugo back in 1989. and you know, we're dealing with a lot of accumulated ice in trees and branchs getting into our power lines and it's having a big impact on our customers. >> if you have 100,000 customers without power, that translates into well over 300,000 people, because if you have a family of three or four living in a house, that's a lot of people without power. do you have any idea how long this will go on for these folks? >> hard to say for sure exactly how long it will last. there are a lot of different incidents that are contributing to those overall numbers. i can tell you right now we have about 1200 employees directly involved in responding to these challenges that we have. we also have 500 plus utility crews that have come in from out of state to assist with the efforts and we certainly appreciate the assistance we're getting from our neighboring utilities. >> why has this massive outage occurred? what's the problem in south carolina? >> i think it really comes down to, we had a lot of accumulated

ice in various parts of the state. reports of an inch and a half or more of ice. when you have that much frozen precipitation getting into the trees, what happens is you start having branches and even whole trees coming down into the power lines and you know, there are a lot of trees in south carolina that -- and so we're seeing a lot of challenges in different parts of the state because of that. >> the key down the road is make sure those power lines are underground, not above ground, right? >> well, yeah, it would be nice if it was as easy as saying let's put them all under ground. unfortunately, there are a lot of other considerations and not the least of which is how much it costs to do that, significant challenge in that regard. i think the state of north carolina about ten years ago went through a similar challenge and they looked at this very closely. at the time their regulators decided that it was just cost prohibitive to take that entire distribution system and put it under ground. they thought it would result in

substantial increases to customer rates in north carolina. they talked about a 125% increase to rates. we do try to put lines under ground where we can, but you can't do it everywhere. >> one of the problem, big problems is a lot of people rely on electric power for their heat. if they lose that power and it is cold in south carolina right now, what are they going to do? they can be without this kind of power or heat, what, for another week? >> right, you know, we actually started a couple days before this storm hit and fortunately we had some good signs that it was coming and we started talking to our customers in advance about preparing to are that possibility of being without heat or lights or electricity over an extended period of time, stocking up on blankets and things like prescription medicines and those type of things. and it is definitely a challenging time for our customers and our entire state. and you know, we appreciate what our customers are going through and we certainly appreciate

their patience as we work to resolve these issues. >> eric boomhower, good luck, eric, good luck to all our friends in south carolina. >> thanks, wolf, i appreciate that. >> more breaking news today. standing by live, the mayor of washington, d.c. we'll talk about the storm, its impact in the nation's capital and we'll find out why some people are slamming the new york city mayor, the new one. bill de blasio, over a controversial storm decision today. pay my bill. phone: your account is already paid in full. oh, well in that case, back to vacation mode. ♪boots and pants and boots and pants♪ ♪and boots and pants and boots and pants♪ ♪and boots and pants... voice-enabled bill pay. just a tap away on the geico app. ♪ huh, 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. yup, everybody knows that. well, did you know that some owls aren't that wise. don't forget about i'm having brunch with meagan tomorrow. who? seriously, you met her like three times. who? geico.

take a look at the new york city mayor bill de blasio. he's shoveling the sidewalk outside his home in new york's park slope neighborhood. now he's getting pushback for

keeping the public schools open today despite near blizzard conditions in parts of the city. deborah feyerick is working this part of the story. what are people sayi ining aboue new mayor of new york? >> reporter: a lot of people not happy. it is raining right now. this is a part of the complication of getting around the city. the schools were opened. but as of 4:00 today there was only 45% attendance. that's still half a million kids but that doesn't deny the fact that majority of parents kept their kids home today. with snow and rain making driving and walking challenging, new york city mayor bill de blasio defended his controversial choice to keep open the city's nearly 1500 public schools. >> you think of 1.1 million kid, so many people depend on the schools as a place for their kids to be during the day, a safe place, a place where they're not only taught but they get nutrition and they're safe from the elements. so many families have to go to

work. >> reporter: the decision underscored the reality for 75% of new york city's public school children who qualify for food programs. still, it received sharp criticism from a number of public school parents who took to facebook and twitter including al roker who emphasized the potential danger. quote, is it worth putting kids' safety at risk? the mayor responded. >> it's a different thing to run a city than to give the weather on tv. >> reporter: roker, covering the olympics in sochi fired back, mr. mayor, i could never run new york city, but i know when it's time to keep kids home from school. saying also, quote, talk about a bad prediction. long range de blasio forecast, one term. up and down the east coast from georgia to maryland and into massachusetts, millions of students stayed home as public schools were shut down in places like atlanta, philadelphia and charlotte, north carolina. the confusion in new york city

was made even greater when governor andrew cuomo included it as part of a state of emergency. quote, new yorkers should stay off of the roads and remain in their homes until the worst of the storm has passed. the worst, which hit hardest during the morning commute, passed by lunchtime. rain followed, as did a hail of criticism. with this comment made by the new york city schools chancellor seemingly out of touch certainly with the weather. >> it has totally stopped snowing. it is absolutely a beautiful day out there right now. >> reporter: during the last major storm several weeks ago, schools remained open and only 44%, less than half of all students, showed up. still the mayor stuck to his choice citing historical precedent. >> since 1978 i think our figures, it has been 11 times -- i'll check the facts, but 11 times schools have been closed. so it's a rarity and something

we do not do lightly. >> reporter: for half a million city school children they were in class today. the majority of parents keeping their kids out. for those kids they'll get an n unexcused absence, weather and all. >> controversy in new york city right now. we're continuing to follow the breaking news. round two from this major winter storm now hitting in washington, d.c. look at these live pictures from capitol hill. we'll show you what's going on in the city and also get the latest on the crisis. the mayor of washington, d.c., vincent gray, is walking into "the situation room" right now. we'll discuss what's going on. no matter how busy your morning you can always do something better for yourself.

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breaking news here in the nation's capital taking another fresh peting from the snow right now has claimed at least 13 lives. the federal government was shut down today. the snow emergency is by no means over yet. cnn's athena jones is joining us now. what are you seeing? >> hi, wolf. we're here in washington, d.c.'s biggest salt depot. this is where trucks have been rolling in, in and out all day starting last night, actually, as they're getting this work done to try to clear the roads and keep them clear. you can see behind me these front loaders will pick up the salt and deliver it to the trucks. they managed to clear most of the major roads. they're still working on the secondary streets. mayor gray said that this city had 30,000 tons of salt on hand to deal with this storm, that's about the amount of three eiffel towers. the weight of three eiffel

towers, but mayor gray also said they have now, with this storm, surpassed their snow removal budget for the year. that's a budget of $6.2 million. they've had to deploy 20 times so far this year. and so that budget is now taxed, maxed out. wolf? >> athena, thank you. let's ask the mayor of washington what's going to happen. the mayor is here. you got enough money to pay for this? you're maxed out. >> we don't have a choice. we'll find the money. you always have underfunding in a budget of our size. we'll simply reprogram money to make sure we continue to get the snow off the streets. >> i saw a story in southeast washington, a man was found covered in snow dead, and it's a mystery what happened. and the question my dad would have always said, how can this happen in the united states of america that they simply find someone dead in the street covered in snow? >> this apparently was -- and i'm still learning more about it myself. this apparently was a man who

had been a patient in st. elizabeth's which is our mental health hospital. he apparently had wandered away from there several days ago, and we are still obviously learning more about this. and we will learn more about it in the days ahead. but again, we'll find out what happened, why he was away from the hospital and how he wound up in these conditions. >> what do you do? because you drive around washington, d.c., as you well know, within blocks of the white house, you always see homeless people on the sidewalk. in a situation like that, what do you do with those people who are simply freezing? >> i've been out on the streets myself at night, wolf. one of the things we did during this very cold winter that we've had, those -- the people who have mental health or substance abuse problems who won't come into the shelters, what we've done now is we put out what we call warming buses, where the buses are located in places where people congregate on the streets. we've actually gotten several hundred homeless people to come and be on the buses who would not go into the shelters

otherwise. we were out in one of the coldest nights when the temperature was about 6 or 8 degrees. we had buses out. we had almost 400 people came. >> it's heartbreaking. >> it is. >> what do you thing about the grief the new mayor of new york city bill de blasio is getting for keeping schools in the five boroughs open today? >> once again an affirmation, these jobs, no matter what you do, you'll get criticism from somebody. >> you shut the schools in d.c. today. >> i did. we shut the schools down because we erred on the side of caution. i think mayor de blasio made a good point with the fact that there are kids who otherwise might not get a meal or a full meal, a nutritional meal if they don't go to school. you're making judgment calls at every step of the way. we made the judgment call to shut down the skooms just erring on the side of caution. >> that's your decision, you as mayor, you make that decision. tomorrow it's a professional day, but the charter schools you're keeping open. >> that's right. we don't have the choice. the charter schools make that

decision. but we will do that in concert with the leadership of the charter school movement. again, we don't want to put kids in harm's way. so with the traditional d.c. public schools, we decided to close them today. who knows what we would have done tomorrow, but we'll evaluate that tonight. that will be done in concert with the chancellor of our schools -- >> is it true, though, we're out of time, that if schools are shut, a lot of these kids won't have a good meal. >> that's true. they won't have the quality of meal they would have gotten in school. you have to make a judgment call. do we put them in harm's way? and then you have parents who send them to school even when they're not open. >> that's it for me. thanks very much for watching. "crossfire" starts right now. tonight on "crossfire," the gop civil war. republican leaders abandon tea party loyalists on the debt

ceiling and place all their bets on obama care. but will it pay off in november? on the left sally kohn, on the right, s.e. cupp. in the "crossfire," the message chiefs from both parties. with congress on the line, are republican leaders steering their parties to victory or falling into a trap? tonight on "crossfire." >> welcome to "crossfire." i'm sally kohn on the left. >> i'm s.e. cupp on the right. in the "crossfire" tonight, the top spokesman for each party. now, democrats are positively giddy about a win in congress this week after successfully raising the nation's debt limit without even debating ways to lower our ballooning debt. >> it's encouraging some of my republican colleagues seem to be gaining their grip on sanity this week. i believe many of my republican colleagues would like to be reasonable, i really do believe

that. if they weren't so beholden and afraid of their tea party overlords. >> they don't want to vote for these things because the tea party is so strong in their primaries but they want it to pass because they know it will hurt the whole republican party if they keep following this extreme group off a cliff. >> not so fast, guys. republicans have democrats right where they want them. and here's why. speaker boehner is taking a page right out of the very successful tea party playbook. he wants to win 2014 by running on obama care just like the tea party did in 2010. we all remember how that worked out. democrats are falling into a gop trap, not the other way around. >> uh, you know, that sounds like a nice story, if only it were true. let's not forget, congressional republicans have the lowest approval rating in history and they can't shake this reputation, well earned of being the party of no. >> you just have to agree with it.