trying to get south are seeing problems too. >> thank you very much. to all of our viewers out there, thank you for watching. have a happy thanksgiving. i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room." erin burnett "outfront" starts right now. "outfront" tonight, breaking news, federal investigators are looking at whether arsonists targeted michael brown's forg s father's church and setting it on fire. and we are learning that officer wilson is still with the ferguson police department. and the medical examiner did not take photos of the crime scene and they didn't take notes at the first interview. can we ever know the truth. and huge traffic delays and hundreds of thousands of people trapped in the middle of an ice storm. let's go "outfront" tonight. and good evening.

i'm erin burnett. "outfront" tonight we begin with the breaking news. the atf is investigating the fire that destroyed -- the flood christian church in ferguson. they said arizona sonists may h targeted the church because michael brown's father is connected to the church. this as the mayor of ferguson tells cnn darren wilson is with the police officer and he has not worked out any resignation. >> obviously we are waiting to hear if he's going to make a decision like that, that is something we don't know at this point. nothing has really changed. again, he still remains a ferguson police officer. he is on administrative leave. it is a personnel matter and at this point, we can't really discuss that any further. >> well the unrest continues today. 300 protesters in st. louis staged a mock trial for officer darren wilson an then stormed city hall, fighting with police, chanting shame, shame. the demonstration aren't just in

ferguson but across america and now overseas. thousands takes to the streets of london demanding justice for michael brown. protests are planned for tonight, thanksgiving eve. and a tunnel leading to highways were shut down last night and we begin with evan perez on michael brown sr.'s church. evan, excuse me. what are you learning? >> reporter: erin, this was a big surprise on monday night. there were stories burning, but nobody noticed that there was this church that burned which is very surprising to law enforcement and now we learned that the atf has taken the lead of the investigation because they have jurisdiction when there is suspicious fires of houses of worship and they are looking at because there is great suspicion that perhaps -- perhaps this church was targeted because of michael brown sr. he is a member of the church. and they say that there was a break-in and they saw that the

fire began right near the front, right near the foyer entrance to the church. and so now the atf investigators are looking to see if there was accelerant or things used to make sure the church burned down, erin. >> evan, thank you very much. obviously that is a very sobering development as they look into that. and more breaking news. sara sidner interviewed the mayor of ferguson a short time ago and confirmed that darren wilson is still with the police department and on administrative leave. i believe paid. sara is "outfront" with the breaking story. this is going to shock a lot of people because we were told for days and weeks he was negotiating his resignation? >> reporter: right. but when that happened, we also spoke with someone at the city and they said actually that negotiation isn't happening. so we've been hearing a lot of different kinds of information. my sources telling me there was no final, for example, negotiation early on. but i did want to talk to the mayor about that and i asked him point blank, what is happening,

what is the status of officer darren wilson? michael brown's mother reacts to officer darren wilson explaining why he shot and killed her son. >> i gave myself a mental check, can i shoot this guy. legally, can i. and the question i answered to myself is i have to. if i don't, he will kill me if i don't. >> she doesn't believe a word of wilson's story and the grand jurors did and decided not to indict him. nobody from the city of ferguson has reached out to her after her son's shooting and that is why they decided to listen to the announcement of the grand jury decision outside among the protesters in front of the police department. >> i felt the need to do that because one, they never addressed us, and you heard our pleas and our cries for everything to go the way it

should be, and then third of all, we heard this and it was just like -- like i i -- like i had been shot. like you shot me now. no respect, no sympathy, nothing. and so my emotions were raging and hi to go up and i had to let them know, you just really don't care, do you? why don't you care. this could be your child. this could be anybody's child. >> reporter: she reacted with sorrow. her husband responded with anger. [ yelling ] >> reporter: louis head has been accused by some by inciting the riots with those words. >> his emotions were taken over just like mine and he spoke out of anger. it is one thing to speak and it is a different thing to act. he did not act. he just spoke out of anger. i'm a grieving mother. that is my husband. he's been around michael at least four years so he's grown

to love him, not as much as i do, but he's loved him like he loves his own children. so when you are that hurt and the system has done you this wrong, you may say some things as well. we've all spoke out of anger before. >> reporter: so you can certainly hear the sadness and the sorrow that the brown family feels. i do want to talk to you a little bit about the frustration and sorrow that the folks here in ferguson feel who own businesses, the folks and residents who live here and the fact that the national guard is still here. they are still here at the p.d. let me give you a look. the national guard members out in a much smaller force today because i want to show you why. before there were quite a few more troops. normally we've got a fair number of people who are out protesting. today, we're not seeing that. what we're seeing is just a couple of people, mostly -- a

bus there. mostly just media standing here. but for days, for more than 100 days there have been people out here every single night. this is the first night we haven't seen any sort of big crowds. erin? >> sara, thank you very much. and don't miss the interview with michael brown's parents at the top of the hour. and joining me now patricia bynes sand paul could you han and james wilson, the attorney for michael brown's friend, dorian johnson, who was with michael brown the day he was killed ab also testified before the grand jury. patric patricia, let me start with you and start first with this news about possible arson, that it could have been an arsonist who burned down the church that michael brown's father is affiliated with. is this something that shocked you? >> no, not at all. after being down here on the ground. what has happened with the protest attracted people with

their own agendas. and i mean from the people that are here, this is to be expected. there are a lot of people who are here and have come from out of town to use this as an opportunity to be destructive. so that is not surprising to me at all. and i believe authorities are -- have been aware of that as well. >> and obviously at this point we don't know who might have been responsible, if it was arson. but james, let me ask you, what about the other breaking news that we just heard the mayor of ferguson say, that darren wilson has not yet resigned from the police force. we were under the understanding that would happen immediately, if there was not an indictment. what is you're reaction to the fact it is not done yet? >> this is the latest in a series of broken promises from the leadership that have given us this grand jury verdict. we've been promised transparency and we didn't see that. we were told that darren wilson would leave the police force and he isn't. these are the kinds of things and the kind of inconsistencies

that are leading to the frustration we are seeing in the ferguson community. no one condones the violence or likes to see the property damage but the frauft reagan and anger are -- the frustration and anger are understandable that time and time again in this case we are being told one thing and the reality is different. >> and at the very least, it appears to be incredibly tone deaf. >> local authorities have been tone deaf from day one in regard to this case. and in regard to the potential resignation, i was surprised by that story and i know there was negotiations going on but for a officer to offered to while facing potential murder charges would have maybe sent a signal to the grand jury that, is he guilty. >> the fact that there was no indictment, they should have had it ready. >> you would think, except for this. but first of all, i was looking into the ferguson pension situation. you have to be a cop for eight years to qualify for a pension in ferguson. he's been there for six years. now he was at another police force and maybe he can put that

on. but retirement from a police force is all about do you get pension benefits. so i'm sure there is that going on in the background and they probably didn't reach an agreement with him. >> now, patricia, i guess it may shock some people but let me ask you about what you just heard in our piece. you heard michael brown's mother reaction, we're going to burn that b.i.t.c.h. down and there is question about whether that moment and that scream and that shout was inciting the riots we saw. you said you felt betrayed by what he said? >> yeah. it was very difficult to watch that video, when he said that. because there has been a community behind this family and behind getting to the truth and getting justice. what happened -- to what happened to mike brown. and it felt like such a betrayal

because the lashing out that was expressed to the community by burning down businesses, there are people that are out of jobs now. there are people -- and it is terrible. the entire -- i mean the community feels horrible about what happened and has been trying to support this family and it self-through the entire situation but it seemed like burning down ferguson, i don't -- that doesn't help -- that doesn't bring mike brown back. and it just seems like such an ugly thing to say when there have been so many people out here working towards justice. it was really a sad moment. >> i think you have to admit, no matter whether you think it caused the violence or not, it was an ugly things to say. and the head of the naacp was on the show last night and i asked him whether he thought that comment, burn this down, caused this violence. and his response was no, i don't think that was a call for violence or called violence.

i was surprised he said that. were you? >> no. i agree with him. listen, this was a comment made out of frustration when the world had witnessed one of the worst injustices that we've ever seen. this is not unlike a lot of things we say in frustration to children. i'm going to kill you to a spouse, i can't believe you will do that. without any real intent. he was frustrated and angry. but the governor didn't call in the national guard because michael brown's stepfather might make these comments. they knew that the injustice of the sham process they set up would come crashing down and no one man speaking out in frustration gave rise to this. this was the culmination of a disrespect that started in august and has continued through today. >> well, i don't know that a sham process was used here. i think the attorneys representing the officer would say it was quite a fair process, when the grand jury got all of the evidence. and forgetting about the grand jury process, because we've

discussed that a lot. in terms of the security arrangements, what bothers me is local authorities including the governor seemed to have been paralyzed by the criticism from the press and the media and the demonstrator, that first amendment rights were being put out and this was causing the demonstrators. so they were not ready to move in aggressively when looters and arsonists started to do bad things and they should have been ready regardless of whether this individual made an inappropriate statement. it was inappropriate. but there was a bigger picture. >> thanks. and it is a fair point. when you look at their headlines, a state of emergency and they called in the national guard, it was shocking they weren't prepared. out front next, in the wake of the grand jury decision, testimony and evidence released shows -- some really really serious things could have gone very wrong in this investigation and that is next. plus the breaking fuse that

officer darren wilson is still with the ferguson police department. this, as a lot of the grand jury decision centers around one man, the st. louis prosecutor robert mcculloch. a full report. and heavy rain and wind and snow and 30 million americans trying to get to where they want to go by tomorrow. we have the very latest. ♪

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department. he's on administrative leave. mayor james knowles said they are still waiting for him to make a decision about his job. after the grand jury decided not to indict wilson, hundreds of pages of testimony were released to the public and the more you comb through it raises bigger and bigger questions about how the investigation was handled. you won't believe some of this. pam brown is "outfront." >> officer david wilson breaking his silence and insisting what did he was right. >> the only emotion i felt was fear and then survival and training. >> and you are absolutely convinced when you look through your heart and your mind that if michael brown were white, this would have gone down in exactly the same way? >> yes. >> no question? >> no question. >> and now with evidence presented to the grand jury becoming public, new questions are emerging about the way the investigation was handled. immediately after the shooting. officer wilson washed blood off his hands and told the grand jury, from everything we've all

been taught about blood, you don't want it on you. i had to wash my hands so i go directly to the bathroom, i actually washed them. and officer wilson's gun was not turned over or finger printed immediately after the shooting. instead wilson brought it back to the police station and put his own gun into an evidence bag. >> i think all of those were problematic. i think the gun should have been taken and secured. i think that the blood should have been swabbed and secured. >> reporter: the police sergeant the first to interview wilson after the incident, told the grand jury he didn't take notes or record it. saying, number one, i didn't have a recorder and number two, i didn't take notes because at that point in time i had mult pull things going through my mind besides what darren was telling me. and the scene is being questioned. the prosecutor asked did you take any photographs. the medical examine replied know. when asked why not?

he said the battery in my camera died. they said it wasn't necessary to take any distance measurements at the scene. i got there and it was self-explanatory what happened. somebody shot somebody. cyril who a forensic pathologist who handled many high-profile cases. >> i can't believe anybody would have had the audacity or the stupidity to make that statement. you want to note everything in terms of measurements and photography. you want to get everything in meticulous detail. >> and we're going to get to more of the steps in a moment. this is pretty shocking, but when you looked into the police training to see was this a cover-up or just perhaps por training or incompetence? >> well i've been talking to former cops about this and that is the question i asked. a lot of them say, look, the procedures an the training, it varies from police department to police department. and when you get to the smaller police departments like the ferguson one, they may not perhaps have the same amount of

strongly rehearsed practice procedures as maybe you'll see at bigger cop shops such as l.a., new york. and so that could be a play here as well. and in the bigger cop shops there are dedicated teams, internal affairs that will investigate police involved shootings. that is not what the case was with the ferguson, police department. the st. louis county cops came in to help investigate. but what you see is a disparity with the amount of training at play here with the police departments across the country. >> and then you see something like this all out in the open. pam, thank you very much. and joining me now is cyril wekt and marcus amanda. and when you hear this, it seems shocking, that on this international magnitude, there were things done not the way they should have been done. dr. wekt, the medical examiner not taking photos and didn't

take measurements at the scene. is that something you could overlook and is okay in this case? >> erin, by no means would this be acceptable. and i would challenge in a friendly way my professional colleague in st. louis medical examin examiner's office to go along the american academy among their brethren among the country and tell them this is how they handle a police shooting case. ferguson is a suburb of st. louis. we're not talking about east sher you canniville in some far off land. not to have a camera or a battery for the recorder, to not take measurements this is absolutely unacceptable. i'm not saying this in a matter of arrogance, or intellectual con desen shun, this is something that is basic. you could take a student in his

first year of criminal forensic science and in any university of america and they would tell you how to conduct an investigation in a shooting. >> quite damning there. and it took them over a hour to call the medical examiner. and the guy not having a working camera, it is a huge mistake. is this something that could have impacted the forensic evidence, that could have impacted what really happened, it could mean that we'll never know what happened that day? >> well we don't know how much of this gloss-over that the grand jury heard or didn't hear about the forensic mistakes really impacted them. when i look at the overall global view of what happened and how it happened, thank god that the police actually took over 100, 150 photographs of the scene so that the medical examiner's decision or inability to take photographs was not as critical as in another case. and i'm a bit more troubles by the fact that wilson was able to

take his own gun and put it into an evidence bag because we know on that gun was, at some point, mike brown's blood or presumably mike brown's blood and now there are questions as to how it got there. there are problems with this. and i think the true relevance was mike brown and the turn-around and the confrontation between the two and that probably minimized the damage. >> dr. wekt, what about the point that mark o'mara brought up, that he put his own gun into the evidence bag when he went back to the police station, he also washed the blood off his hands and his hands were photographed with the blood because a photographer wasn't available. i find that stunning because everybody has an iphone. >> all of these are absolutely atrocious. and they should be so, so concerned and apologetic for what they did, what they failed to do. may i make a comment, erin, by

the way on something that was portrayed on your program last night that i saw. i think it is very important. and that is that officer wilson says that he shot because michael brown had his hand down in his waistband. obviously the reason that he says, that is because it suggestions that maybe he was going for a concealed which he heretofore had not pulled out. but you've seen me portray this. you put your right hand down toward your waistband and shooting you straight ahead and how do you get a bullet that enters a forearm and the upper arm and both of them move in an upward direction. there is no way in the world if you have your hand down in your waistband that will you have two shots entering your arm and have an upward trajectory. that arm was definitely in an uplifted position with michael brown facing the officer. and he was shot eight times, not

six times. there is a grazing wound across the bicep and i think the officer said he was falling forward and he shot him in the head. and that was barbaric, that is totally, totally unacceptable. >> and mark, the bottom line is do you feel confident that we'll ever really know the truth? >> well, we're done with the true evaluation. maybe an independent evaluation of what the truth will be. we have an opportunity to do things like this. but they found no probable cause on what they had before them. we are finding out more mistakes about the presentation. we'll talk about it more. >> thanks to both of you. i appreciate your time. more breaking news, protests in los angeles the day after nearly 200 demonstrators were arrested there. we'll go live there next. and plus ferguson erupts after monday's grand jury decision and we'll look at the toll the riots took and the huge storm hitting the east coast. 727 flights now canceled. we'll be back in a moment. ♪

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breaking news, protests growing in los angeles at this hour. we want to show you live pictures of what we're seeing here. last night protesters shut down parts of the 101 freeway in both

directions. demonstrators gathered outside of the police department headquarters, 183 people were arrested. we are live in los angeles to show you what is happening there. i know people are gathering where you are, paul. >> reporter: that is right, erin. i'm at the federal courthouse and about 250 demonstrators are here right now. one of the speakers is saying, i do not have faith in the justice system, but i have faith in all of you. this is going very smoothly right now. as you point out, they went toward the 101 freeway, that is right over here less than a city block and police officers intend to make a stand, if anybody goes that way and the motorcycle officers and federal officers that you cannot see close by. the protesters say they might make a walk toward the city jail. and by the way, you are pointing out the arrest last night and talking to a law enforcement source, 166 of those arrests were for disturbing the peace and 15 for curfew.

on disturbing the peace, they didn't add any other charges an the bail on that would be about $500 so most of them bailed out. so far right here in los angeles, on federal property we have what seems like a rather peaceful demonstration. back to you, erin. >> we'll see what happens as the night goes on and whether they tried to storm the freeway. and the breaking news tonight, the mayor of ferguson said darren wilson is still a member of the ferguson police department. and a spokesperson for missouri governor jame nixon said he will not name a new prosecutor to present a new case to a different grand jury. bob mcculloch was come under intense scrutiny for how he's handled the case. ed laugh end era is "outfront". >> anyone could do a better job than the prosecutor's office did. >> that is the sharp criticism

aimed at prosecutor robert mcculloch after he announced the grand jury's decision. >> all decisions in the criminal justice system must be determined by the physical and scientific evidence and the credible testimony corroborated by that evidence. not in response to public outcry or for political expediency. >> reporter: muck cullock launched his own criticism, lashing out at news organizations and social media. >> the most significant challenge encountered in this investigation has been the 24 hour news cycle an thein sabrable appetite for something, for anything to talk about. following closely behind with a nonstop rumors on -- social media. >> reporter: the grand jury decision calls for persistent calls for mcculloch to stand down. >> i can be fair. >> >> reporter: the prosecutors objectivity is in question in an event when he was a child n. 1964, his father was shot and

killed in the line of duty by an african-american. the future prosecutor was just 12 years old. he once told the newspaper, i couldn't become a police officer so being county prosecutor is the next best thing. >> four years ago two men were killed in a hail of gunfire, for man 20 shots fired by two white bloifrs in -- bloifrs in a botched drug bust. at the time mcculloch called them bums and mcculloch refused to file charges. he's been re-elected every term since he took office in 1991 as a democrat. but that is the history that fuels the prosecutor's most vocal critics. >> bob mcculloch has shown in the past he is not sensitive to the african-american community. >> reporter: but even with the grand jury decision now behind him, robert mcculloch still has many naysayers questioning how the evidence was laid out and exactly why he decided to make

the announcement late in the evening, when protests were more likely to get out of hand. ed laugh end era, cnn, furg, missouri. and some breaking news we had in. we have confirmed an ar-15 rifle stolen from one of the st. louis police cruisers that was torched, that it has been stolen and they are looking for its whereabouts. we'll update you as we get more on that story. and again an ar-15 a significant rifle into this nation's conscious giving the so many shootings. and first, your response to the ar-15 missing, that is an awful thing to hear. >> the last thing we need is more firearms up here in ferguson or anywhere in the world. it is not good news, let's say it that way. >> not at all. and i want to give your

reaction, neal, your client darren wilson still remains with the ferguson police department and what is your reaction and is there any question he will leave the police department or is this a sign he may not? >> erin, there is no way in the world he can go back to being a police officer. the first day he would go back on the street, something terrible would happen to him or someone else that would be working with him and the last thing in the world he wants to do is put other police officers at risk. so look, it is not a question of if, it is a question of when. we're talking to ferguson now about the terms and conditions under which we would leave. frankly, it is only a matter of time. >> it is only a matter of time. okay. and now let he talk about the report from ed, about the prosecutor. in "the new york times" they blasted his document dunk. he made the grand jury do his job and deciding if you should charge and if there is you put it in front of a jury with the standard of beyond a reasonable doubt. they had 70 hours of testimony

and 60 witnesses. it does beg the question, if you are going to make them listen to that, why not put it in front of a real jury and go to beyond a reasonable doubt. >> and the system is set up to do what mcculloch did in this particular situation. it is designed to have an initial look at all of the evidence. and there are two ways you can go on this, erin. you could have gone to a preliminary hearing in a courtroom you would put witnesses on the stand and presented this evidence to a judge and said to the judge, you make a decision. or you could do what mcculloch did, and put it in front of 12 members of the community. now these were seasoned grand jurors. these weren't raw grand jurors. they listened to a number of cases and had been sitting 2 1/2 or 3 months before they first got this case. he put everything in front of them. how can we complain about the way he did this. are we going to say he gave them too much evidence. if you went to a preliminary hearing, the problem is you had to put witnesses on the stand

and i think it is clear if you've read the transcripts or looked at any of the testimony, there were a number of people who were frightened by testifying. so you don't want to do that unless you absolutely have to in the context of the trial. sow don't say, look, we don't know what happened so let's go to trial. that is not the way the system is set up. there are rules. ware a -- we are a nation of law and we proceed by those rules and that is what mcculloch has done. >> neal, thank you very much. a appreciate your time tonight. and now the attorney for michael brown's family, darrell parks. let me give you a chance, first of all to response to what neal just said, defending the prosecutor and his decision to put this in front of a grand jury as opposed to letting a single judge make the decision in front of a judge to go beyond a reasonable doubt jury. >> well first of all, we believe the flaw is the prosecutor should have recused himself. there is ample evidence, for example, erin, we saw in this case where the prosecutor's

office put all cases on hold that darren wilson was involved in. they knew based on that there was an issue there. in our legal system, when you know there is an issue of a conflict, you recuse yourself. he should have been recused. their action alone is indicia of why this should have been a recusal by the prosecutor's office. >> so in terms of the issue that we've seen with the grand jury itself, one of the questions is that mcculloch didn't hide any of the evidence. to the contrary, he gave the grand jury everything. the argument is that he gave them too much. but one of the motivations given for that is he didn't want anybody to say what you said, look, his background, he's biased and he gave them everything. look at it yourself. he gave it to the grand jury and now he is going to give it the american public. isn't that as good as it gets? >> no. that is not the common process. his common process, one, is to come in normally, present enough evidence to get an indictment,

for probable cause, and then to advise the grand jury as to what he believes the charge should be. that is the normal process. but to leave it to them to do it, to overload and present one, to present the officer's defense to them, number two, to demonize and criticize the victim in this case in the way that he did. from his presentation, he made a point to make sure that we saw all of the negative about the victim in this case. and this family takes exception to the comments made by the prosecutor at his press conference it. was rather clear that his approach to dealing with the issue of michael brown given the situation. >> darrell, good to see you. and thank you. >> thank you. and next, an arsonist in ferguson burned down a church because michael brown's father is say member there. and winter weather is causing chaos, we have the latest on massive flight

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breaking news out of the

ferguson area, st. louis county sergeant confirms to cnn that officials are searching for a missing ar-15, semi-automatic assault rifle believed to be taken from a police car when it was torched this week. and whether arsonists targeted michael brown's father's church as protested spirals out control in the community. there has been gunshots and looting and arson. many of the buildings unrecognizable. sara sidner is "outfront" from ferguson. and sara, you have been there over the months and you've seen the town end the devastation of this week, i want to ask you about the disturbing headline, this missing ar-15 assault rifle. >> reporter: look, we're hearing it came out of a st. louis county police car. we can tell you we are on the street where we saw two police cars burned on this side and not

too far down the road, another police car burned outside of the city hall here in ferguson. we believe that police car that we saw last night burn outside of city hall was actually a ferguson police car. but the two that were down at the other end could have very well been the county cars. the difficulty is by the time we saw them go up in flames, we could not make out. they were so badly damaged. and people were punching out the windows and the fire started because someone punched out the windows and purposely started the fires. it is disturbing now that the gun now is in the hands of someone who would do something like that. to give you an idea about all of this, there is a lot of talk now about the fact that among the protesters, there were simply people who intended to be criminals and that is exactly what we saw and you are seeing the businesses behind me who have suffered because of that. boarded up, every single one of them. these were not boarded up. these were all open and glass when i first got here sand a --l

open in glass before this whole thing exploded and they decided to board up because they were broken into. and this is just some of the destruction happening here in ferguson. on the streets of ferguson, the morning light revealed the devastation after two nights of destruction. >> stop throwing objects at the police and disburse immediately. >> reporter: the announcement of the grand jury decision brought an explosion of anger and violence in ferguson. police surrounded this auto parts store early in the evening but rioters torched it. the store lit up the night's sky and continued burning into the next day. ferguson market and liquor is the store where michael brown stole cigarette minutes before he was fatally shot and it became a target for looters. but some chose to stand up for their town. andre thomas didn't know the owner of this wig shop. >> tell me what you are doing out here? >> saw people looting. that is not what i'm about and

i'm trying to protect it. >> others tried to save kathy's kitchen, a favorite local restaurant run by a local family. >> leave this alone. leave this alone. >> reporter: still even kathy's was vandalized in the days and weeks before monday's decision, business owners boarded up, hoping for the best but the best efforts were no match for this week's fury. this is what is left of little caesars, prime beauty supply and flood christian church. 2,000 national guards were ordered to the streets and the governor promising there would not be a repeat of monday night's violence. and still another police car was set on fire and flipped over and more businesses were crashed as police tried to break up crowds with teargas and smoke bombs. >> it feels like i'm in "the twilight zone" that i'm watching this happen and i'm having to live it but the destruction here is absolutely unbelievable.

>> reporter: by daylight there were small glimmers of hope. volunteers turned up to help with the clean-up. natalie turned to crowd funding for help. more than $100,000 has been pledged and at kathy's kitchen? >> i can rebuild. i will make it. >> reporter: and he's amazing. that family opened up and they were absolutely jam packed. i want to give you more of the glimmers of hope that we're seeing. what we're seeing for the boarded up places, they are being painted up with beautiful murals and we've seen this across ferguson and south flo s florissant and most can't get down to the major destruction but most trying to beautify the city hit so hard. >> so disheartening on thanksgiving eve. thank you, sara. and next, the forecast. heavy rain and snow and 30 million americans in this storm's path. we'll be right back.

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a fierce winter storm barreling up the east coast, right now, wreaking havoc on one of the busiest travel days of the year. people from north carolina to maine expected.

people from new england expecting to see up to 20 inches of snow. nearly 750 flights have been canceled already. close to 4,400 others are massively delayed. according to flight aware, that number will rise. the wintry mix of snow and rain is making driving incredibly dangerous and more than 41 people are expected to travel by car for thanksgiving. chad myers is "outfront." chad, where is the storm the worst right now? >> probably the worst is vermont, new hampshire, and on up to maine. the roads are re-freezing in pennsylvania, new york, as well. even though the lighter snow is there. just enough snow to make these roads turn back into ice. what we don't need. here's the snow now ending philadelphia. completely over for baltimore, d.c., and moving on up into upstate, also into the green mountains of vermont and new hampshire. there you go, d.c. just about over for you. a little bit of light shower activity, and rain showers mixing in at the very end here. but this is where it's still tough, to the western suburbs of

new york city, along morristown, and also back into the poconos and catskills, and wherever it is the whitest right here, that's where the travel troubles are happening right now. a lot of the interstates are very slow. if you're trying to get to a ski resort or something up into vermont, new hampshire, it is going to be a very slow ride from here, somewhere in the neighborhood of around 30 miles per hour, erin. >> 30 miles an hour. and you're talking about 20 inches of snow in some places. when people think about what happened in buffalo, where you got multiples of that, it's pretty stunning for this time of year. how long will this bad weather last? >> i think we're probably in this for another six hours. the good news is, the airports are getting out of it. we think, there's not that many delays. you know why there aren't delays? because they canceled all the flights that were going to be delayed. so that's why delays aren't showing up. here's the forecast map, it's still snowing, upstate, even by 8:00, 10:00, still snowing. now i'll move you ahead. this is 11:00 tonight, a few snow showers in new york, but bam, it is gone, by morning it is all done. and even snoopy and woodstock

and maybe even santa claus will have a good time tomorrow, somewhere around 34 degrees for the macy's day parade. >> let's hope so. because whether you're there, ie, here in new york or around the country, it is a real joy to watch that. thank you so much, chad. and we'll be right back. so you can see like right here i can just... you know, check my policy here, add a car, ah speak to customer service, check on a claim...you know, all with the ah, tap of my geico app. oh, that's so cool. well, i would disagree with you but, ah, that would make me a liar. no dude, you're on the jumbotron!

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and they'll deliver it free. television announcer: the $197 mattress sale... bulldog: oh boy! television announcer: ...ends sunday, thanksgiving weekend. ♪ mattress discounters president obama continued an american tradition today, ordering a pardon, or as he joked, amnesty, for two turkeys named mac and cheese.

presidential turkey pardons actually date back to the 1800s. only cheese showed up to the pardon, but both cheese and mac will retire to a virginia farm. happy thanksgiving to all of you. enjoy the wonderful day. hope it's special for you and your families. "anderson cooper 360" begins right thousand. good evening, everyone. john berman sitting in for anderson tonight. lake millions of people out on the roads, i'm not going anywhere. there is a nor'easter stalled off the eastern seaboard tonight. rain mixed with snow mixed with ice mixed with rain. nasty. and as the temperatures cool, forecasters predict nearly 2 feet of snow in places. dangerous roads, airport delays, our chad myers will have the latest forecast in just a moment. we begin, though, in ferguson, where authorities remain out in force tonight, bracing for whatever comes next, and we are just now learning that federal investigators are looking into a case of arson, at michael brown