in egypt, days of rage. new violence with tens of thousands taking to the streets again. demanding change, defying a curfew, refusing to back down. can the embattled president hold on as the u.s. and other countries call for reform? and in the chaos of it all, a new struggle to protect and in the chaos of it all, a new struggle to protect egypt's ancient treasures. captions paid for by nbc-universal television good evening. the ground swell that began in

egypt days ago has reached a critical point. in cairo and other major cities, the protesters show no sign of backing down. there is a large military presence on the streets but so far the army appears to be leaving people alone. the police have now retreated. but clashes with protesters have left more than 70 dead and more than 1,000 injured. in an effort to calm the situation, the target of all this fury, egyptian president hosni mubarak named a new vice president today, a position that never existed during his 30 years in power. nbc's chief foreign correspondent joins us tonight from cairo. good evening, richard. >> reporter: good evening kate. if president mubarak thought that making some minor concessions, changing his government, naming a vice president, if he thought this would stop the protests, then he badly miscalculated. today were the biggest demonstrations yet.

the egyptian government now seems teetering on collapse. it's never lost control like this before. today tens of thousands of protesters converged on cairo's main square. the police were no longer on the streets today. so, unopposed, the demonstrators had the run of cairo. in the square, it was mostly peaceful. the mood jubilant. the crowds were claiming victory after yesterday's fierce battles between protesters and riot police. egyptians today awoke to assess the damage. it's extensive. parts of this city on the nile are starting to look like the city on the tigress, baghdad. this was the headquarters of the president's political party. until recently, it was one of the most secured buildings in cairo. it is now being burned and picked apart by looters. the fires in cairo still smolder today, dangerously close to the

egyptian museum, home to the treasures of the ancient pharaohs, including tuten calmen's gold. by midafternoon, the protests started to grow. with police gone, only the army was in the streets in tanks, but tanks aren't built to hold back crowds. they can only do one thing -- fire. but the big guns have so far remained silent. the egyptian army has been overwhelmed by the demonstrators. now the soldiers face a very difficult choice. they can either open fire on the protestors or just allow themselves to be surrounded. the government ordered a new curfew, but no one listened. instead, in cairo's main tahrir square, what looked like 100,000 people called for president hosni mubarak to leave the country immediately. >> change makes room for other people. >> reporter: this may be the

day's most iconic image, protestors standing on tanks surrounded by supports, taking pictures with their cell phones. they are in the streets and certainly the military taking no action against the protestors. in fact, the soldiers seem to be siding with the demonstrators. we even saw soldiers cheering alongside the demonstrators. but who are the protesters? by now they're everybody, young men who want jobs egyptians tired of corruption and oppressive rule, families who decry the poor education system and increasingly, islamic fundamentalists who want a greater role for islamic law. mubarak has kept islamic parties under iron fists for decades. president mubarak today made good on a promise from last night. he reshuffled his government and appointed his intelligence chief as vice president.

the protestors immediately called it window dressing and said it's not enough. but there's another much darker side to this revolt. mob rule is starting to set in. as the demonstrations continue, there's widespread looting in cairo's wealthy suburbs. 17 police stations in cairo have been ransacked and their weapons stolen. foreigners are leaving as fast as they can. the pyramids have been closed to tourists. as mubarak clings to power, but appears to have lost control of the streets. tonight many egyptians have formed vigilante groups and are standing armed with whatever they can, sticks, knives, in some case weapons in front of their homes trying to protect their communities from elooters. kate? >> the images of those standing on the tanks.

how real is the possibility that the military simply takes over the functions of the government? >> reporter: we have been told by witnesses that some ground soldiers are on their way. we saw today tanks on the street they had almost no impact. we have been told that regular egyptian soldiers will be deploying to downtown cairo. according to many egyptians, this is a plot, an attempt to get the people to come out and support the army. whether that is the case or not is difficult to know, but egyptians expect there will be soldiers on the streets tomorrow. and if these soldiers are brave, that could be the groundwork for an army takeover. >> stand by for us, richard. we'll check back with you later in the broadcast. for three decades, president mubarak has been an ally of the united states. the u.s. sends over $1 billion

in military aid egypt every year. the obama administration is reacting cautiously. nbc's mike vicara is at the white house today. mike? >> reporter: tonight the white house called for restraint in egypt while insisting that the time for reform within the egyptian government is now. outside the white house -- >> stop! >> reporter: a few protesters gathered in a show of solidarity with those in cairo. inside the president met with top members of his foreign policy team after speaking with president mubarak by phone friday night and publicly urging him to enact immediate reforms. >> what's needed now is concrete steps that advance the rights of the people in egypt. meaningful dialogue between the government and its citizens. >> reporter: mubarak's move to oust his cabinet did not go far enough. the state department spokesman tweeting -- but while the president has

sided with the protesters in their call for greater freedoms, he has stopped short of backing demand for mubarak's ouster. >> if mubarak is going to survive, the united states can't do too much to an tal nice him. because he is going to be our partner hopefully going forward. however, if the administration believes that his days are numbered and the revolution is going to succeed, then it can't do too much to antagonize the protesters. >> reporter: anwar sadat was assassinated and mubarak rose to power in the arab world's most populous country. since then, peace with israel has held providing stability in a volatile region and throwing egypt and the united states into what the president yesterday described as a partnership. >> it affects everything the u.s. does in the gulf and beyond that. therefore, there are strategic consequences that the u.s. cannot afford not to watch and

pay attention to, which is putting the administration under a dilemma. >> reporter: and, kate, u.s. officials estimate there are about 90,000 americans either living or working in egypt, along with an unknown number of tourists there at any given moment. while they don't think that the situation in egypt now presents a serious threat to americans there, they point out that there are contingency plans to evacuate americans in f the situation gets worse. >> thanks, mike. this program note, tomorrow on "meet the press," david gregory will discuss the crisis in egypt with hillary clinton. what's happening in egist is not an isolated irns dent, of course. a wave of protests has swept through the arab world beginning in tunisia weeks ago. now many are wondering how far the wave will spread and what it means to the rest of the middle east, including israel, which made peace with egypt more than three decades along. nbc's veteran middle east correspondent martin fletcher has more on that tonight.

>> reporter: nobody is looking with more concern than israel. it's airline flew israelis out of cairo to safety. while the prime minister ordered a complete blackout, no israeli officials allowed to talk about egypt. at stake, israel's peace treaty with the arab world's largest country and friend. change in government in egypt could threaten three decades of stability on the border. a former israeli ambassador says it will only be a matter of time before a leader of egypt today revolution arises and he will come from the muslin brotherhood. the underground opposition there, and if they gain power, that will strengthen the hamas in gaza. ho hamas is known as the egyptian brotherhood, another fear that the egyptian revolt could spread to the palestinians

in the west bank. so far it's been quiet. in tunisia, the people forced the government to flee, now anti-government protests in other countries are scaring their leaders. in yemen, algeria, lebanon, jordan. analysts compare the egyptian riots to the fall of the berlin wall, a game-changing moment that has removed the barrier of fear. longterm resentment, poverty, corruption is boiling over. >> people are suffering more and more, and the situation is going down the drain. >> reporter: an ominous warning in jordan. the jordanian muslim brotherhood warned the unrest in egypt could spread across the middle east and align with the united states could be toppled. >> martin, you have lived there, how shocking are all these developments as you watch them

>> reporter: kate, actually, not really so shocking, you know? there has been so much discontent among so many for so long it was basically a revolt waiting to happen. what i think is shocking though, is the speed at which the anger in the streets builds and translates into violence. and of course the fear now is that the army will maybe in the end fire upon the demonstrators and then of course we've got no idea what would happen, kate. >> martin fletcher, thank you so much. for more on the u.s. response to the crisis in egypt, i spoke earlier with william cohen, former defense secretary under president bill clinton and longtime republican senator from the state of maine. mr. secretary, thanks for being with us. >> good to be with you. >> the national security team of the obama administration met this morning. what do you suppose they are taking into consideration as they advise the president about the next steps? >> i think they're watching very carefully what is taking place on the street, to be sure, whether the violence is escalating, whether the military is either being futuneutral,

protecting buildings but not shooting at people or harming people. perhaps most importantly is to see whether or not president mubarak is making the changes that president obama recommended to provide openness for greater dialogue and expression of freedom, both individually and also politically. >> is it a bit of a tightrope that the u.s. has to walk, though, in terms of wanting to promote democracy on the one hand but being a longtime ally of the mubarak administration? >> indeed it does. because it really doesn't know what the outcome is going to be. we would obvious li like to see an outcome where egypt remains a stable ally where it is committed to helping the united states in terms of the middle east peace process to the extent that it continues. whether it will be a strong voice against iran developing nuclear weapons. all of those things are critically important to the united states. >> you met mubarak when you were defense secretary. talk a little bit about him and the role he has played as an

ally for some five presidents now. >> well, he is a very strong-willed individual. he's a former military man. he believes in order, in stability, and he has had to confront an opposition which has threatened him with violence over the years. he is committed to maintaining peace, even though a cold peace with israel, he's maintaining a strong position with respect to opposing iran and what iran is seeking to do. so he is a man that we have relied upon to be that bulwark against the rise of religious extremism. president obama is doing the right thing, being cautious. he's trying to calibrate his words very carefully to make sure we stand for more and more freedom for the egyptian people. at the same time, we want an orderly transition as it unfolds, whether in weeks or months or in the future. but it should be orderly and not violent. >> secretary william cohen, we thank you for your time. still to come here, as we

continue on this saturday night, how the protests in egypt are hitting home in this country. tonight, signs of support across america. and concern for a loved one who may be caught up in that massive crowd in cairo. later, the winter of 2011 with more severe weather on the way. the battle to move mountains of snow.

back in this country now, the crisis in egypt is taking a toll. everything from the stock market

to air travel has been affected. and today people sympathetic to the protestors' cause took to the streets of u.s. cities to vent their own frustrations. nbc's lee cowan has that part of the story. >> reporter: with their country on the edge of history, thousands of egyptian-americans stood in solidarity today, from the nation's capital to the u.n. headquarters, to the sun-drenched sidewalks of l.a. the calls for egypt's political reform echoed a world away. >> i want to show my people back home that we support them. >> reporter: for many, protest was all they could do, given the cell phone and internet links that were lost. >> when the egyptian government severed the digital nerves that connect the two continents, information isolation left a terrible hole. >> i wish i'm there. i wish i can help. i wish i can do something. >> reporter: at this restaurant in chicago, the uncertainty is hard to bear. >> what about my father? what about my cousin? what about my sister?

>> reporter: near salt lake city, this man has his fingers crossed. his twent yi29-year-old daughte call out and said she too was taking to the streets in cairo. >> she was not asking for permission and i didn't ask her to refrain from dog what she wanted to do. >> reporter: in atlanta, while protestors joined in the chorus of displeasure, jewelry roy wasn't happy either. her parents had gone to egypt as tourists and now can't get a flight out. >> they have been told not to leave the front of the hotel area for their own safety. >> reporter: at jfk airport, just the opposite problem. >> my trip was cancelled, and i'm going home. >> reporter: a tour group scheduled to fly to egypt today was told instead to turn around. back in l.a., this man says that simmering resentment back home was inevitably going to boil over. >> when you push people, especially the poor people that represent the majority of a

society, they act as animal instincts. >> reporter: but watching those instincts kick in from so far away, he finds himself struggling with both pride and fear. lee cowan, nbc news, los angeles. up next, a winter's tale. how cities are getting rid of all that snow.

that's the scene in logan county, oklahoma, not far from oklahoma city as a wildfire raged today in a sparsely populated area. at this point, no towns are in danger, but the fire is three miles long. high winds, low humidity and dry brush all contributed to the blaze. here in the northeast, the

forecast is for yet more snow in coming days. even as many cities and towns continue to dig out from this week's big snowstorm. tonight we have the answer to a question on many people's minds -- just where does all that snow go? nbc's michelle franzen takes a look. >> reporter: the big apple looking more like a big snow globe these days. new york city has already received twice the average snowfall this winter with crews working overtime to clear the streets. cities throughout the northeast are facing the same dlem moo, what to do with all that snow. >> it is hard, because it is not just the amount of snow, it is the frequency of the storms. >> reporter: in boston, open lots and park space are now designated snow farms. >> we have a lot of snow we have to put it some place. we are fortunate enough to be able to identify some lots of land that we can put it in. >> reporter: worth having it off the streets, but all that snow removal is adding up fast.

boston has already spent more than two-thirds of their $16 million snow budget. new york city has already blown through its annual budget of $38 million clearing 56 inches of snow. even atlanta, which barely sees a dusting each year, has spent $9 million of its $10 million budget. new york city is literally burning through its budget ugz massive heaters to melt and recycle the snow. piles on this street alone have been trucked in from other areas of the city. >> that snow melter works pretty fast. we do over 240 gallons a minute. it's mother nature. we're giving it back to her, just cleaned up. >> reporter: inbergen county, new jersey, officials are getting creative to stretch the budget. >> people call it pickle juice, but it's a brine solution. >> reporter: crews use a brine solution on parking lots, a move that saves the county money. >> every penny we save is

fabulous. >> reporter: just as cities begin to get a handle on all this snow, another storm is expected next week. michelle franzen, nbc news, new york. >> and we're back with a late update from cairo, right after this.

before we leave you tonight, we want to go back one more time to cairo for an update on the crisis unfolding there. i'm joined once again by nbc's chief foreign correspondent richard angle. richard, the pictures look like everybody is out on the streets but it's a country of more than

80 million people, many of whom are not on the streets. what are they thinking as this plays out? >> reporter: the vast majority of egyptians, kate, are in their homes tonight. many of them are very afraid. they are carrying sticks and knives to protect their homes. they're also wondering, what is president mubarak's strategy in all of this? clearly president mubarak didn't want these protests, he doesn't like the protestors, it threatens his legacy, his presidency. but why did president mubarak suddenly pull all of the police off the streets? why did he send in tanks into cairo that took no action against the protestors and didn't take any action to stop the looters? is this president mubarak's way of telling egyptians, according to this theory that is now popular in cairo, that egyptians wanted chaos, well, now they get to try it out. and with the hope they will come back to president mubarak clamoring for law and order, clamoring for him to return to power and ask for everything to

be forgiven. that is a theory a lot of egyptians are wondering right now, as they look very suspiciously at what is going on in the streets. >> richard angle, a long day, long night for you. thank you for your reporting. we'll check with you tomorrow. i'm kate snow reporting from new york. thank you for joining us. that is "nightly news" good thank you for joining us. that is "nightly news" good night. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com good evening. i'm diane dwyer. it is time to say good-bye to the blue skies and high temperat.