fighting escalates in the middle east. all flights to chicago are cancelled because of the biggest storm in 50 years. we've been waiting all morning for a ship to arrive here. but within the last 30 minutes we're told it's not coming. we'll tell you why -- coming up. the ktvu channel it news at

noon starts -- channel 2 news at noon starts now. good afternoon. we begin with the crisis in egypt reaching a new level of violence erupts between anti- government protesters and those who support president hosni mubarak. what's happening on the streets and how the military is reacting. here's more. >> reporter: chaos breaks out in egypt as protesters clash in the streets of cairo. hosni mubarak and protesters in tahrir clash. the president said he would resign. he said he would not run for reelection -- >> all of his promises and declarations came too late. he has no political sense.

he's politically stupid. >> translator: he would go but he's worried about the country. >> reporter: egypt's military is calling for an end to the demonstration throwing support behind the leader hours after the announcement to stay in office. you have started coming out to express your opinions and you are the ones who will able to -- would are able to restore the life. >> reporter: meanwhile, foreigners from around the world are definitely desperate to get out of the country. thousands are trying to escape on aircraft sent in by their governments and others have seats on airplanes. >> i've been here at the airport the whole time. i'm tired but anxious to go home. >> reporter: the u.s. embassy hopes to evacuate some 1,000 u.s. citizens over the next two days on special charter

flights. our other top story, the massive storm moving across three quarters of the united states. as you can see in thissism imagine taken from a nasa satellite, the storm covers 30 states from new mexico to maine with eight states under blizzard warnings. so far chicago has been the hardest hit but with -- with the storm moving east. it's affecting a third of the american population. it's left hundreds of thousands of people without power. we have video from the midwest just in the -- just within minutes. this storm has fierced the cancellation -- forced the cancellation of 5400 frights. that's impact -- flights. there's impact here in the bay area. here's more from jim. >> reporter: the lines here are pretty short but it could be about an hour before the lines get really bad. people in the bay area can look

for more cancellations, possibly more tomorrow. american airlines and united airlines started to tabs cancel flighting -- cans -- started to cancel lat night -- last night because of the snow. >> i go to dallas instead of chicago. so i did go dallas and then milwaukee. >> reporter: delays and flight can'tlations are expected to hit the east coast today. >> we highly recommend that people before leaving their house check with their carrier and stay in cup with the carrier all day hong -- touch with the carrier all day long. >> reporter: if the storm starts to hit the northeast later today, we'll probably see nights into boston, new york, philadelphia and washington,

d.c. cancelled. if you are on a flight toward the east coast, you should constantly be in contact with your carrier to make sure that flight is gonna fly. back to you. >> thank you. chicago is looking at its biggest snowfall in 40 years. the snow was so heavy last night, lakeshore drive became a parking lot. some people were stranded in the cars for five hours. police officers and poofs -- firefighters used snowmobiles to rescue many of them and took them to waited buses to make sure no one was stranded in the freezing weather. >> the way we were determining the cars were empty was putting the -- putting the windshield wipers up three times in the air. that was the signal to determine they were searched. >> it's not just snowy.

it's cold. wind chills could drop to 0 below tonight in the -- 30 below tonight in the midwest and plains. power is out for 375,000 customers up to canada. you can checks up-to-the-minute weather and flight information at ktvu.com. the entire community of patterson continues to mourn the loss of juliani cardenas. ♪ this little light of mine >> hundreds of people gathered on the steps of city hall last night in patterson and sang and prayed for the family. the grandmother of the 4-year- old boy attended the gathering. patterson residents say it will take a long time to heal from the tragedy. >> i'm completely shocked. it's a small town. i grew up here. this is big. >> there were also prayers for

jack's mother and her unborn baby. the father is jose rodriquez. she's due to give birth next month. we're learning about a delay in this effort to bring a ship to mare island. claudine wong has learned the cause behind the delay. >> reporter: good afternoon. we've been watching this dry dock all morning long t was supposed to get in at about 11:00. a half hour ago we were told it wouldn't be coming. that's about the time that newschopper2 took these pictures. it started around:00 but the coast guard stopped it because they said they needed to do a safety check of the ship. so they did the safety check and the company says by the time that was taken care of, the captain decided the winds and tied had changed too much and he didn't want to go so the -- the scheduled arrival is know at 11:00 tomorrow morning.

the jobs will be starting after that. the union will apply the -- supply the initial labor. >> reporter: people came out hoping to get one of the pro -- one of the jobs. >> i already have like three in. cover letter. i grabbed -- grab bed an application for a cousin of mine. >> reporter: the ship will be brought into this dock to be cleaned up and recycled as part of the aging mothball fleet. until now there has been no site to get that done. >> the alternative to bringing the ships here is having the ships fully abated and ready to go to panama at a taxpayer expense of almost $2 million

and then burning the fuel to get it there. >> we hope it's a minimum of ten years. we hope for it to be longer. >> reporter: more years could be more jobs and nothing would make these folks folks happier. >> i couldn't tell you right off when the job is supposed to start. but you just have to come down every day like we do. >> reporter: back live out here at this dry dock here on mare island. it used to be a very busy area out here we saw a lot of workers on the dock ready to go in the last 0 minutes it's calmed -- last 30 minutes or so it's calmed down. live at mare island, claudine wong, ktvu channel 2 news. new details are emerging

about a pg&e pipeline as the utility tries to prove the pipeline is operating within safe limits. a survey shows that three leaks were found in a nearby pipe and describe the one that exploded as a steamed pipe when -- when it was initially seamless. concerns about pit balls is leading to -- pit bulls is leading to action from local restaurants. some people in the east bay hills are dealing with power problems and other issues. steve paulson will be along to talk about the forecast. also -- >> you got lots of families that are really hurting with -- with real problems. and we can solve 245. >> some bay area people came out to protest today because of housing concerns. n-opooal..

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some people in the oakland hills are inconvenienced today by a huge pine tree. just after midnight it fell against power lines and across the road at skyline boulevard and skyway lane. they cut up electricity to some people and made a few kids late for school. >> we got a phone call from the

family that usually picks our kids up and said we can't get down your road, there is a tree blocking it. so we had to figure out all kinds of things out. >> a pg&e representative just told us that nine customers are affected. service should be restored by 4:00 this afternoon. hundreds of san francisco property owners are disappointed. many were protesting ahead of the 9:00 a.m. lottery drawing. they are tenant in common owners who week loo to convert their -- who would like to convert their units into condos. but the law only allows a certain amount of people a year. most homeowners want to refinance into lower loans. >> you have paralegals, healthcare workers and they are first time homeowners.

they bought a modest property somewhere with their friends. and they have tough loans. >> protesters say many of them are facing foreclosure because t.i.c. loans are expect seven and they say the simple solution is to allow more. volunteers went door to door this morning alerting people about the pit bulls that mauled another dog. the owner was able to take the dog home after designating them dangerous dogs and paying fees. >> we're a group of concerned -- concerned parents. that fatal attack occurred on the woman and her pet.

we're very concerned that we have dangerous dogs living amongst us. >> neighbors say they will stay in touch with the animal control department if they keep an eye on pit pull -- pit bulls and monitor their behavior. some high school seniors are concerned they may not get into college. the entrance exams of more than 100 seniors were lost or damaged after they were sent to iowa to be scored. >> we talked to one student who took the test and they spent days preparing for the exam. >> ac the says tests get lost on rare occasions. the deadline has passed but the company says colleges are usually understanding and flexible in these circumstances. a massive cyclone hit northeastern australia today ripping off roofs and uprooting trees. it's the most powerful storm to

hit the area in nearly a century -- in nearly a century. winds gifted -- gusted up to 82 miles an hour. as the most and east brave a massive storm, punxsutawney phil has good news. >> ladies and gentlemen, punxsutawney phil! >> this morning, phil emerged and did not see his shadow. according to legend that means an early spring. despite frigate temperatures turned out -- fridge get temperatures thousands turned out for the annual event. well, for the last couple of weeks all we've talked about in the morning has been fog, fog, fog. that was not the case this morning. it was clear but it was also very breezy to winy.

we have -- windy. we have gusts 40 to 50 miles an hour. there are a few that have calm conditions. temperatures starting to rebound. a lot of upper 50s, row to mid- 60s. all right. so sunny, mild, 23 you are in the sun. but windy at times. tonight it will be clear and cold as we see this wind tail off and we'll see upper 20s and 30s tomorrow. the weekend a dry pattern. sunny and warm. there's no sign of rain yet. high pressure has decided to reload and park itself right along the west coast. fairfield, northeast 22. sonoma county airport says calm. east wind at oakland at 10. that's a beneficial win. some temperatures are starting to rebound here. the wind, up mount diablo. i know grizzly peak had gusting up to 45 miles an hour.

service high moving right three nevada will head 23450 the four corners and see that relax a little bit. low 60s already for some but the napa airport, 65. 6 234 -- 63 in santa rosa. a lot of upper 50s or low 60s including oakland and also san francisco at 61. a lot of out there. there's plenty of energy stretching all the way to the hawaiian islands. it's just not heading over to us. a very stable pattern except for the win. we have lost the fog. so sunny and breezy today. high, 60s for tomorrow. i think tonight there will be 20s into lake county for slows -- lees. 70 for santa rosa. mid-50s. berkeley, 6. oakland, 70. sanleandro, 68. 66 from mont, to 67 los gatos. mid-60s for many. low to mid-60s even on the

coast. no change her -- sunny side up and warmer after we lose the temperatures on friday and saturday. low os for many -- low 70s for many. >> wow going from flirts to 70 the high. >> yes -- 30s to 70 the high. >> no rain yet. >> nope. >> maybe around the 15th. >> okay. on robert murdoch unveiled a new magazine for the ipod. it's a new application that's specifically designed for the ipad to deliver news every day. murdoch says it's possible to offer "the daily" for just 14 cents a day because there's no expensive printing presses or delivery service. the debut was delayed last month because of technical

difficulties. what you may think of as ktvu.com is actually a numerical website address. under the system there are only 4 billion available and over the last 40 years, they have all been used. >> this week the last chunk of ip addresses was allocated to the registry that assigns them the service providers. >> this is not the end of the internet. there are new numbers under the version 6. internet service providers will have to make some adjustments to make sure the adjustments are finished. a beloved east bay landmark is having one -- is having some problems.

the tsa is responding to its critics. it's testing a more modest airport body scanning system. the system uses different software that does not display details about a person's body shape. in stead, travelers who are not carrying any objects will get a green screen that says okay. for those who trigger an alert, the screen will display a

generic body outline with a mark over the part of the body screeners need to test. it's being tested in washington, d.c., atlanta and las vegas. if you have plans to spend spring break in the sun you may pay more for airfare. jet bull is -- jetblue is charging a $5 fee for one-way tickets to puerto rico and then another knee for other -- and then another fee for other destinations. the claremont hotel and spa has heiled from bankruptcy, suffering from the decline of high-end travelers. roommates can exceed $00, putting it out of reach for most tourists. the openers plan to keep it open -- owners plan to keep it open during the reorganization.

google is accusing the microsoft-owned bing search engine of copying of its search results after a nonson sequell -- nonsensecy quell word showed up. they say microsoft published a report on the practice in 00. fair saw -- 2007. farrah fawcett's red swimsuit is becoming an icon. it was first made famous in a 1976 poster that sold about 12 million copies. it will be donated to the smithsonian museum by her long- time partner. her charlies angels scripts and doll will be donated. coming up on the news at

5:00, nasa scientists based here in the bay area have made an historic discovery in space. a previously unknown solar system 2,000 light years away. that kepler mission also found dozens of earth-like planets. why that discovery could pose an interesting decision for our grandchildren. that's when our next newscast is, the 5:00 news. thanks for watching. have a great day. ñz ;