hello, breaking news this hour, a rare deep south snowstorm has crippled parts of the area and up to 50 million people feeling the winter blast, including atlanta itself. the ninth largest city in the country is currently shut down because of the storm. georgia's national guard is sending military humvees into atlanta to help thousands of people still stranded in their cars. state troopers are going to schools giving food and water to the 2,000 students stuck at school since yesterday. students trapped on a school bus since yesterday, as well, have just been rescued. >> our buses just struggled to get here, then the weather got worse. >> i hit black ice. these roads are horrible, absolutely horrible. black ice, you can't even see. i come over that hill and it just pulled me down the hill. >> well, there have been more

than 900 accidents since the storm began, and atlanta mayor reid speaking moments ago and saying the city has lessons to learn from this storm. >> during the day we have 1 million to 1.2 million in the city and all of those people were out in very bad weather, so it hampered our ability too get crews on the ground. if there was one lesson learned in the middle of this challenge, that would be we need to stagger closings for private sector companies, government, and the school system. >> our greatest resource we're hoping for is thaw and none of these issues will begin to diminish until our city experiences a significant thaw. >> joining me by phone is paula mayburg, she was stranded in her car in atlanta since 10:35

yesterday morning. 24 hours you went through this ordeal. we're seeing some of the traffic snarl-up from yesterday and today. tell me about how you were found. >> well, through social media actually. a friend of mine posted on facebook where i was, i gave her my location and she put a shoutout to friends in the area and a friend of a friend of a friend picked me up. they live probably a mile from where i was. >> paula, as we get more details here about your ordeal here, it could be right out of a screenplay. you walked some one and a half miles to a gas station, is that right, where you were huddling up with 30 other people? >> yeah, there were a lot of people at the gas station, and it just stopped for miles, so you had to at some point decide, do i want to sit in my car and burn all my gas or get out and try to find some shelter, so that's what we did, and i'm

really grateful that somebody came and picked us up. >> give me a sense of your experience while you were in your car. you can only leave that engine running for so long to keep the heat going, but you got some help. >> yeah. it was really, really cold, you know, it's cold for down here. i think it was probably 8 below with the wind chill last night, and i think it was 16 outside. we would turn the car on until our toes thawed out, then we'd shut it down, then we'd try to sleep. really wasn't any sleeping going on. just try not to be so miserable, then crank it back up, let your toes thaw out, it was awful. >> paula, you were obviously watching the forecast in the area, you also saw the snow on the road. compare those two for me from what you saw, versus what you heard in the forecast. >> well, they were really predicting it to go much further south, and in birmingham in

particular, i was concerned because i wanted to get there and get back, because i was going to do my trip in one day from atlanta. they were predicting a light dusting of snow. my plan was to leave birmingham by noon maybe at the latest, but i wound up leaving my appointments, you know, went to one appointment, then got in the car and started to drive home and that was not soon enough. i would say within an hour and a half, every road was covered in ice. it's like an ice skating rink out there. it's really ridiculous. >> the mayor of atlanta there, largest metropolitan area in that region, made comments earlier and he was trying to say, you know, part of it was because of his own fault, he had sort of intimated in his comments on cnn. do you point your finger at anybody for what had happened, perhaps the warnings you wanted to get or did not receive or feel like this is something nobody could have predicted? >> you know, it's so widespread, you know, i'd love to point a finger, but it really was

widespread and everybody did their research. i don't know if, you know, the weather people missed it, i don't know that nobody thought this was going to happen, clearly, given the number of people who went to work, number of schools that were opened, the number of people like myself that traveled that day, so nobody thought this was going to happen, but we do need to have a better plan if it does, because we're all stuck. everybody is stranded. there's no food, there's no water. we were able to walk. there are elderly people that can't get anywhere. they are still there, they are still stuck. i just wish the national guard would come and bring people water. >> of course. again, there's your car which you had to leave behind. it is very difficult given that region of the country is not equipped necessarily with the equipment that is needed to handle what we're seeing has happened over the last 24 hours. paula, glad to hear you're doing well, you've been found, and you're probably headed to where

you wanted to go originally. thank you so much for your time. >> okay, thank you. >> we want to let you know georgia's governor, nathan diehl is expected to speak in about 25 minutes. we'll go to that right here on msnbc and, of course, continue to follow this story. the question for folks in washington is whether they are going to help that progress or hinder that progress, whether they are going to waste time creating new crises for people and new uncertainty, or are we going to create new opportunities. >> the other story this hour, president obama last hour hammering home his state of the union agenda in his first planned stop after last night's address. the other big story, the speech and the stump. the president hits a road in an effort from keeping his state of the union from being a one-day wonder. last hour he was in maryland, and be this afternoon he'll be in pennsylvania. he's got stops planned for

tomorrow, as well, in wisconsin and tennessee. >> mr. speaker! the president of the united states. >> let's see where else we can make progress together. let's make this a year of action. that's what most americans want. for all of us in this chamber to focus on their lives, their hopes, their aspirations. >> last night, the president took a less than confrontational tone with congress, telling them simply, we've got more work to do. >> a laundry list of modest proposals. is this a president who has scaled down his ambitions? >> no, this is a president who wants to finish a job. >> this morning, his speech is being criticized as small by some. his pitches, minimum wage, unemployment benefits,

immigration, too modest by others. all righty, joining me now, nbc white house correspondent kristen welker. kristen, the president is looking to kick off this year of action, and right after that big speech yesterday, he's on the ground doing that. how did he do? >> well, look, i think as is tradition, president obama hitting the road to sell the main messages of his state of the union address. he started that off this morning using costco as a backdrop for his call to increase the minimum wage for all federal workers. costco is a company that pays its employees more than the minimum wage, so you heard president obama last night say he was going to take an executive action to increase the minimum wage for contractors, also calling on congress to increase the minimum wage for all federal workers through legislation. i think that last night's speech and this trip that we're seeing the president take is really an acknowledgment of what president obama can do right now. the limits of his office and what he would like to see get

done by the end of this year and the end of his second term. the minimum wage, a perfect example. his executive action will only impact a couple hundred thousand people as opposed to the millions of people who would be impacted by legislative action. i also think president obama wants to put some pressure on congress to get some of these things done. that's why you see him mapping out these executive actions, and i also think he's setting the tone for the 2014 campaign. income inequality was a big focus last night, so not just his call to increase the minimum wage, but also to extend unemployment insurance benefits. these are things he'll be talking about at his next stop in pittsburgh, he'll be announcing another executive action to create a government-backed retirement savings plan for federal workers and for workers whose companies don't offer a good retirement plan, so i think those are some of the president's goals and part of his strategy. one thing i would highlight, richard, immigration reform. that is the thing to watch. last night you saw republicans

applaud president obama when he talked about the need to pass immigration reform. it is an area of possible, possible area where you could see some common ground. richard? >> kristen welker will be talking about that a little bit later in the hour, immigration specifically, thank you so much for that report at the white house. joining us now, former republican congressman from virginia, tom davis, and former for obama for america press secretary ben la bolt. you know, the president in maryland selling this message today as we were hearing from kristen welker. i want to play a little bit of what he had to say. >> people outside of washington are not waiting for congress, and i'm not either, so as a chief executive, i'm going to lead by example. in the coming weeks, i will issue an executive order requiring federal contractors to pay their federally funded employees on new contracts a fair wage of at least $10.10 an hour. >> ben, you may have written or rather read susan page's column

today in "the usa today." basically she's saying what a difference a year can make, more sweeping, more forceful. what surprised you in the speech? >> well, you know, i think unfortunately last year was largely overtaken by events. you had profound events like newtown, but you also had the issues of the irs and snowden that really focused the administration on other issues. i thought what you saw last night was a return to the themes of the re-election campaign, which are the issues that the american people are centrally focused on, restoring economic security for the middle class, making parents feel like their children can have a brighter economic future than their own economic future, and i think one of the president's messages in taking this on the road is that change doesn't just come from washington, that states and cities and others can take action even if congress won't pass some of these initiatives. >> did you think his energy harkened to former years before, 2013, chris matthews of hardball was saying it reminded him of

energy about original speeches that go back to when he spoke at the democratic convention. >> i think you could see that the president is absolutely passionate about these issues, not only the economic issues, but one of the big issues he talked about in the first campaign, which was ending this cycle of perpetual wars. i was thinking about the president's original campaign promises in 2008, providing affordable health care for everybody, restoring the economy after the financial crisis, ending the war in iraq and finishing the job in afghanistan, and if you look at those original promises, we've come such a long way, and i think he was both looking back and looking forward at the next challenge for american families, which is restoring their economic security. >> congressman, four responses to the state of the union from republicans. you were probably looking at all of them, including what many are calling a good message from representative cathy mcmorris rodgers, but then there's congressman's michael grimm's

threat to reporters, which we've been talking about. reflect on this, if you can. what does the state of the union say about where republicans are at today when we have all of that going on? >> look, the opposition party doesn't have to come up with a program. we've turned into basically a parliamentary system where republicans are now not the minority party, they are the opposition party. and that's about the only thing that binds them in terms of coming up with a program. we have different wings flapping in different directions at this point and we'll have a contest to see who leads the party in a couple years for president, and that will kind of decide it. but at this point, you know, the party doesn't have a defined program. it's hard to get it through the house with our divided caucus. >> you know, former new jersey governor christine whitman, the only other republican woman to give a state of the union response was telling "the l.a. times" mcmorris rodgers is window dressing, saying, "it's not about the messenger, it's at

the message. if the message itself doesn't get changed a bit, it's not going to work." was mcmorris rodgers the right person here to give the official response here? she's from the west, not at the top of most vice presidential nominee lists here. >> she is an elected leader in the house, she's the elected leader for the republican conference. i thought she gave a good speech. remember, she represents different factions within the house republicans, too. so she's got to give a speech that touches all those bases, is not offensive, so i thought she gave a very good address. "the new york times" said this, "he cannot raise the minimum wage for workers, overhaul the social system, reorder spending and taxes or even make necessary fixes to the health care law." and staying on that subject here, vice president biden seemed to signal a bit of a different message on the "today" show, if you could listen to this first. >> that's not what he said, he said i'll work with the

congress. i think you'll see much more cooperation in congress this year than you have the past five years, number one. number two, he said there's a lot of other avenues i can move, as well, for example on minimum wage, he pointed out all the state that is moved ahead on minimum wage, they are not waiting around for the congress to act, but we want the congress to act. >> so, is it one or both there? >> i do think it's both. there's nothing wrong with the chief executive of the united states making some executive decisions where he can to advance the ball for middle class families, but you can do a lot more with legislation, and there's a window of opportunity on immigration, it might be motivated by the republicans political interests, but that's fine. if we've got the opportunity to pass a comprehensive deal on immigration this year, then the president can advance the economic ball for middle class families as the chief executive. i think he'll pursue both routes. >> quickly, congressman, will this discussion on executive

order use coming up in the last three years, will that incentivize republicans to compromise? >> i don't think so. this president has issued fewer executive orders since grover cleveland. they paint the picture for the white house where they want to be. they are going into a midterm election now facing loss of control in the senate. it's important that he put the right markers down for their candidates and i think these are symbolic action. >> thank you former obama for america press secretary ben la bolt and congressman tom davis. >> thanks, richard. still ahead this hour, not the first and won't be the last. that's congressman michael grimm's response after accusations he threatened a reporter at the capitol last night. also coming up, what did the president say and not say about student loans in last night's state of the union? it's a hot button issue impacting lots of people around the country. ronan farrow joins me on the other side of the break to talk about that and more. stay tuned. gas at the same location.

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part of the president's theme of opportunity and bridging the income inequality gap last night was aimed at students specifically, current, future, and former. >> we're offering millions the opportunity to cap their monthly student loan payments to 10% of their income, and i want to work with congress to see how we can help even more americans who feel trapped by student loan debt. >> the reason why many say this is important, more than 40 million americans are struggling under the weight of more than $1 trillion in student loan debt. and today kids graduate with an average of $26,000 in loans. right now, at least 7 million of those loans are in default. joining me now, roman farrow, msnbc host of an upcoming new

show at 1:00 p.m. becky gall, public school teacher in nevada, who ronan had an opportunity to interview for an article that's on msnbc.com. first, i want your reaction to a specific issue of education. you tweeted, "income-based caps to student loan payments is a significant follow on to obama's push on loans in last year's state of the union." then go on to call it "wildly inadequate," then link to your article, the cost of a college degree has risen by 1,120% since 1998. you wanted more. >> i think it's a promising step. he abandoned many of his early education commitments from the previous year, as you may recall in 2013, president obama said he wanted preschool for everyone, which is an ambitious proposal, it's in my opinion the right proposal, but as with so many issues in this year's state of the union, he returned to it with a realization that there are going to be difficulties working with congress to

accomplish many of these goals. there's a silver lining in that he did mention this very specific proposal of caps to student loan payments based on income. that's real. it remains to be seen how he'll execute that, whether this is a subject where he'll actually threaten to use executive orders and work beyond congress. he didn't approach the larger fight on student loans where we see the higher education act, which governs these issues, set for renewal and a fight on the horizon on this. >> why don't you think he touched on that? >> i think his approach overall on this speech was one of realism and leaning on general rhetoric and discussions of the american dream rather than pushing specific policy proposals in congress which he now realizes is not willing to work with him more often than not. >> becky, as ronan writes, you have, what, $96,000 of student loan debt, you make about half that amount, right, a year, and you say in ronan's article, you don't feel like a priority to

congress. if you didn't listen to what the president said last night, or if you have heard what he said last night, what's your reaction to that, what is it that you want done? >> well, i think that he did not spend enough time talking about education last night. i don't think he spent a lot of time talking about a whole lot of specific items at all. i think he spent more time talking about preschool and pre-k than he did about anything else, and, you know, as somebody who is both an educator and a borrower, i have a lot of skin in this game, and i want to know, not only how is he going to help me as a borrower, but how is he going to help me as an educator, because my students are ninth graders, and they are going to be in college in a few short years, and i don't want them to be in the predicament that i am in. and he just did not go far enough for me last night.

>> ronan, so many issues related to education within itself. i was at an education summit earlier this month and all 900 of the leaders said it's just too political, but that's the reality here and we're talking about one element really when we're looking at student loans. >> i think partly because of that reaction from the community of educators, where they are fearful of losing resources, this is a touchy subject for them, he got that at the feedback at the white house earlier this month. president obama backed down from controversial political proposals from the last state of the union, among them, a promising system of rankings he proposed that would tie federal aid to colleges to affordability and how much they are making use of the resources they already have. that is urgently needed. obviously, we talked about how college costs are spiraling out of control at a faster rate than any other good american lifestyle, faster than housing, faster than food. that's not okay and it's partly re-enforced by this broken

student loan system which drives up demand, in turns drives up cost. >> 11%. ronan farrow, thank you so much. becky gall. of course, ronan host of a new show that premiers february 24th here at 1:00 p.m. eastern. coming up, breaking news we've been following, a snowstorm causing chaos in the south with motorists stranded for more than a day in atlanta. we expect to hear from the governor of georgia very shortly. we asked people a question, how much money do you think you'll need when you retire? then we gave each person a ribbon to show how many years that amount might last. i was trying to, like, pull it a little further. [ woman ] got me to 70 years old. i'm going to have to rethink this thing. it's hard to imagine how much we'll need for a retirement that could last 30 years or more. so maybe we need to approach things differently, if we want to be ready for a longer retirement. ♪ i have a big meeting when we land,

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>> i just wanted to ask you. why? why? this is a valid question. >> no, no, no. you're not man enough. you're not man enough. i'll break you in half. like a boy. >> so, that happened last night, if you missed it, that was a local new york reporter, michael scotto, who was interviewing new york congressman michael grimm, and michael grimm then making that threat to that reporter, but now we have a response, an exclusive of nbc, our kelly o'donnell spoke with representative grimm just a couple moments ago. take a listen. >> i lost my cool. it shouldn't happen, but that's why, you know, i apologized. >> where is the criminal finance in the investigation, do you have any idea, have you talked to the fbi or justice department? >> no, not at all. >> have you been drinking or

anything? >> no. that's silly. >> have you ever -- >> thank you, guys. like i said, i'm not going to answer anymore questions. i answered your questions. >> will you give us a statement? >> i think i've done that for the last two years and when you're done with the investigation, that's where it will be. >> okay. you heard it right there, now apologizing there in that exclusive with kelly o'donnell. victoria is a contributor and professor at the university of texas. jabel and suzy khimm, great to see all three of you. let's look at this, suzy. we saw what happened last night, we saw his response to kelly o'donnell, he's apologizing, so is this done? >> well, i think unfortunately for congressman grimm, it is just sort of the beginning of things. i mean, mind you, the reason

this is so -- this has come to light is not just the fact that he's made a physical threat to a reporter on camera for asking a perfectly reasonable question, it's the fact that it's tied to a series of questions about congressman grimm's behavior, his campaign finances, the people he's associated with himself, and this is sort of just the latest in a long string of troubling behavior and sort of questions that has arisen about the congressman's history. >> victoria, let me ask you this, congressman grimm released a statement after, as well, i want to read that. he says, in part, i was giving new york one a favor by rushing to do their interview first. the reporter knew i was in a hurry and only there to comment on the state of the union but insisted on taking a disrespectful and cheap shot at the end of the interview. i verbally took the reporter to task and told him off because i

expect a certain level of professionalism and respect. some might say if you're being critical about michael grimm, a republican here, just the tip of the iceberg of what is a larger problem that some may be putting together here. >> well, what about the professionalism and respect that we expect of our members of congress? you know, this tough guy stick just does not work. we've seen it fail with chris christie, and then about our society, how we've drawn the line with bullying, shouldn't we expect the same with the media, with our politicians? it's just a natural respect for somebody who's asking you a question. if you don't agree with that person, if you don't want to answer the question, say i don't want to answer the question. that's it. you don't have to threaten their life. >> kelly o'donnell joins us now. kelly, we were just showing that exclusive interview that you got with representative grimm. tell us more about his reaction to what had happened last night and your questions. >> well, good morning, richard.

we were waiting outside because we knew the congressman had cast a vote, and at first my sense is he was not anxious to speak on camera. he said that he had put out a statement and at the same time, i think given last night's events, he was willing to endure some questions from us, and we put several to him. he said he made a mistake, he called the reporter from new york 1, apologized and claims that apology was accepted. i asked him when he said it was passion, it was the long day, all human things, but why did these erupt in a way that they did? it was a physical threat. it was a threat made to a reporter on camera, and he said there's just no excuse. i asked him if he spoke to speaker boehner about that, he did not respond to that question. we asked him about some of these ethics allegations that have been raised against him, and he said he has been responding. he wouldn't speak to the specifics. this was, obviously, a very difficult episode. what makes it unusual is that

michael grimm is a frequent guest on television and does many interviews. he's from new york, so that is the largest media market. he has a lot of experience dealing with reporters, which also made this interaction stand out even more starkly, because the question asked to him was a reasonable, appropriate journalist question. the idea that a congressman is doing you a favor, there are times when they might move a schedule or accommodate you in some small way, but to speak to reporters is to speak to their constituents and speak to the public, so casting it as a favor last night in his original statement, obviously, he has moved off of that, perhaps with a good night's rest and maybe counsel from others, took the tack of a more direct apology. does this end the issue? well, it certainly becomes part of the story of michael grimm. the video last night has a way of living on. our conversation in the hallways winding along as you can see, he was anxious to move on to another place. i jumped on to the elevator with

him. in this instance, i felt that he would probably go along with our questions, and he did. he thanked us, he was polite, there was nothing in the way of the sort of demeanor he displayed last night. what a difference one night to the next day can make. this is an episode that he'll have to answer for, his constituents will have to answer for. he, in our conversation, kept going back substantive issues of policy, the flood insurance he's working on and talking about superstorm sandy. he's tried to cast himself as the fighter and explaining that spilled over into his interaction with a reporter, saying there are no excuses, he apologi apologized, but it's one of those indelible moments caught on tape. >> kelly o'donnell with that exclusive, thank you so much for that report. we have to go straight to breaking news, straight to the governor of georgia. nathan deal talking about the millions that were affected by the storm down there and answered questions, were they prepared? >> -- in their schools.

we have seen significant progress in that regard, and i want to say at this point, a thank you to the teachers, to the staffs, to the resource officers for those schools, the administrators, many of them were there with the children all night, and they have taken care of those children and made sure if they were staying in their school, that they were safe. they've also been aided by the state patrol, we sent state patrol officers to all of the schools where children were being kept, and they have worked with the local resource officers of those schools, because we were concerned primarily of their safety and of their well being, and i think everyone can report to you as you talk to those schools individually that there's been tremendous cooperation from the state level, from the city level, and certainly from the school and district level. now, that has been our priority.

let me tell you how far we have come in that regard. as you know, there were several school systems that were affected. some more dramatically than others. last night at midnight, fulton county schools had 99 school buses with children on the roads. by 1:30 this morning, it was down to 45 buses, and by this morning, there are zero buses on the roads for the fulton county school system with children on them. yesterday, at 6:00 p.m., fulton county schools had about 25,000 children who were either on buses or in their schools, various schools in their system. by 9:00 p.m., it was down to 5,000 children that were either on buses or in schools, and this morning, there are no children on buses, and there are about

2,000 of the fulton county school system's children that are still in their schools. now, what has occurred to be able to make that dramatic reduction is that they have been prioritized in terms of public safety personnel, primarily our state troopers, and our national guard. now, those children that are in those schools, who we are hoping will be transported as soon as possible back to their homes, we are having the national guard and the state troopers working and the national guard will provide lead vehicles as the school buses make their routes to return those children back to their homes. now, in the atlanta public school system last evening, they had about 1,500 school children that were either with them or on

buses. by 9:00 p.m., it was down to 1,000, and this morning there are only about 400. and here again, state troopers and national guard will be escorting those children back to their homes or escorting the buses as they attempt to, once again, return those children back to their homes. the murrieta school system at 9:00 p.m. last night had about 1,400 children. this morning they are down to about 480 students, and here again, local police are providing the escorts for buses to return those children this morning back to their homes. we've also had troopers, state troopers, at their schools there in the murrieta school system, as well. douglas county, they had about 800 to 900 children that stayed overnight in some 23 different schools, and this morning they were down to 220 children, and

they, too, are having the services of escort provided so that those children can be returned home. cobb county as of about 9:00 last night had anywhere between 1,500 and 2,000 students, some 320 spent the night overnight in their schools, and once again, the national guard and the state troopers are providing escort so that those children can be returned back to their homes. gwinnett county and they did not have any children stranded overnight, and all children had been returned home and accounted for in gwinnett system, as well as the decatur city system was in the same situation. dekalb county faired really well, they only had about six students that were being sheltered in a police precinct, and that was because of the

urgency of the situation for those six children. cherokee county had about 415 children that spent overnight in their system. they only had about 15 -- excuse me, about 50 children remaining as of this morning. we have been in contact with the officers of the school superintendents of each of these school systems that i have just enumerated. now, we, in addition to thanking the teachers and the staff and the national guard and the state troopers, who have been working to make those children a priority, i want to simply say thank you to the citizens of our community here in the atlanta area, particularly, and it's happened not only here, but it's happened in other parts of the state where this storm has adversely affected normal transportation, and that is that neighbors are helping neighbors and neighbors are also helping strangers, people that they

don't know, folks who have become stranded and they are offering assistance and any kind of help that they can. i think that is typical of what georgians do to help people who find themselves in difficult situations. now, the agencies that have been working together cooperatively with the mayor's office and city of atlanta personnel are numerous. i want to call on several of them to come and briefly tell you what they have been doing and the success that they have had up to this point, and first of all, let me start with the department of transportation, commissioner keith golden. if you would come up and give us an overview of what your folks have been doing. >> thank you, governor. and just an update of what we've been doing since last evening, we continued to work on our roadways. this has been a statewide effort for the department of transportation. we've had crews working throughout the entire state. late last evening as things started to break in the southern regions, we were able to start

repositioning some of our crews to come north, so throughout the day, through last night, we were moving some folks in from some of our northern districts on the eastern side of the state and this morning we're able to start moving folks from our southern districts up to help us. by this afternoon, we'll have about 70 snow plow trucks out working. the department of transportation really works two different plans, one is a statewide plan and one is a metro plan, and we have a statewide plan, we have to leave those forces in their districts until their roads are under control. in the metro plan, sometimes we're able to reposition those people and have an additional 50 or so pieces of equipment. we were not able to do that until later today, so we're in the process of doing that. we've been very focused on what the governor gave us directions last night on, make sure we get people home safely as we could, get them off the roadway, begin to move the tractor trailers off the roadway and focus on stranded vehicles so we could treat the roads. we have been treating the roads most of the evening, we'll

continue most of the day as we've got the roadways basically clear from traffic and we're making good progress in that area. thank you. >> we'll get your questions in a few minutes, and i'm sure you'll have questions of each of these individuals after they've made their presentations. next i'd like to ask colonel mark mcdonagh, head of the georgia state patrol, if he would bring you up to date of what our state troopers have been doing. >> thank you, governor. good morning, everybody. state troopers worked 1,254 accidents during this period. of that, there were 130 injuries. thus far, there have been two fatalities, one of the two is weather related, the other one is not weather related, so, as of the last 24 hours, 1,254 accidents, 130 injuries, and one weather-related fatality. state troopers have got three priorities in particular today, that's escorting d.o.t.

equipment to where that equipment needs to be used to clear the roadway. number two, wrecker services to clear vehicles out to re-establish lanes of travel. and, three, motorist assist. in particularly, two areas. if you've looked at i-20 westbound, i think all 48,000 commercial motorcycles showed up right in that area, and so we're concentrating on six flags hill to get that cleared and to try to get that moving. as a tractor trailer jackknifed across the river bridge on i-75 just before the interchange. we're backing resources down there to remove that and have d.o.t. to hit that again to try to establish that lane or corridor of travel. in particular, page porter of atlanta towing has been absolutely outstanding in assisting the troopers and the d.o.t. in this effort today, and we really appreciate her help in

particularly just getting the cars out of the way to establish those lanes of travel. so, we're working hard. troopers are working 16 to 20-hour shifts. we've brought in 110 extra personnel from around the state in our pre-planning, we have teams from each of our geograph geographical regions and we've brought them here and they'll be here for the duration. thank you. >> next, let me ask major general jim butterworth, who is, of course, head of our national guard here in georgia, to tell you what the national guard folks have been doing. >> thank you, governor. good morning. the national guard began yesterday at the encouragement of the governor and the gma director to ensure that our team was ready and in place for any possibility of the inclement weather. as a result and after a great deal of collaboration, we went into action last night. to date, we have cleared over 40 buses, over 100 passengers that

were stranded in buses. our mission continues to be critical need, and that is specifically food, water, and assistance, preferably assistance to provide transportation to shelters. we can use our resources available to provide that transportation and that is what the governor has encouraged us to continue to do. we received a mandate directly from the governor that we will not rest until 100% of individuals that may be in harm's way have been offered assistance. so we will continue that mission until we're complete. thank you, governor. >> we also have brought in our department of natural resources and commissioner mark williams. he'll tell you what his folks are doing, as well. >> thank you, governor. our dnr rangers are deployed throughout the entire affected region, but we've concentrated 15% of our entire force in the metro area. last night it was stranded children on buses was our

primary focus and stranded motorists. today, we'll move into priorities we continue to perform motorist assist, welfare checks of elderly and children as requested, assistance of local l.e. and transport disposal of water and m.r.e.s. i would also like to tell you about two motorists refuges we're opening. one at red top mountain state part on exit 285. that's to the north, and then to the south is indian springs state park exit 188, so those will be open for any stranded motorists to seek refuge. >> and then, of course, the individual who is overall responsibility through georgia emergency management agency, charlie english, will sort of give you an overview of how all of these various departments have been working together. charlie? >> thank you, governor. gma responsibility is if all the

plans work as planned, you don't have a lot to do, but in events like this, it supersedes all kind of preplanning, so you go into a crisis management mode. our job's to execute priorities of the governor, which was take care of the school children, clear the roads, and ensure public safety was maintained, and the efforts that you hear the state agencies that just spoke, is indicative of that type of teamwork and the task forces that were put together. >> thank you, charlie. let me tell you a few other things we have made sure as much as possible are functioning. in speaking to our health agencies of the state of georgia, that would be folks like our department of public health, department of community health, department of human services, and department of behavioral health, they feel that they are fully operational

and are able to serve the needs of the people who come within the jurisdiction of their respective agencies. we've also reached out to some of the hospitals, grady hospita particular. they indicate that they are open and open ratirational, and if td arises, they will be available to assist if those kind of health care problems do present themselves. before we open it up for questions, let me just say this. we're going to close state government tomorrow again. we think that's the right thing to do. because the weather conditions today, even though it is sunny, will not be warm enough to melt the ice and the snow that we're having to contend with. we would encourage businesses to follow suit and encourage their employees to state home.

and the reason is this -- we need to be able to get the stranded vehicles removed and we need to be able to treat the roads with the necessary solutions so as we can melt the ice and remove it as a future hazard. we can't do that if there are vehicles still scattered all over the roadways. so as much as possible, try to keep everybody at home tomorrow. they can telecommute, if that is something that is available within their department of state government, or within their personal business. and we would encourage them to certainly do that. now, those are the things that have occurred in a relatively short period of time. we do think that we have made substantial progress with the primary focus being on the school children, to get them off of those buses, to get them into places of security, and now to return them back to their individual homes.

and as i indicated, that is taking place. this has not been just the efforts of the state of georgia and its resources. it has been the coordinated efforts along with the city of tlapt. has had his people working independently and jointly with our state resources.atlanta. has had his people working independently and jointly with our state resources. let me ask the mayor to come forward for an update on what the city has done. >> i provided a briefing a short while ago, so i'm going to make sure the governor has time to communicate with all of you. we are planning to assist in any way in getting the interstates open. we have completed our priority one street sand and salt effort. we are going to continue that on a 24-hour basis, so we are going to continue to work nonstop to get our streets open.

the next thing we are going to do is get people off of the road and get them someplace warm. we've also been providing meals for students in the aps system. as the governor stated, we've got about 400 to 600 more kids that we need to get home today. but what we are focused on is making sure that the resources that we have at the atlanta fire and rescue department and the offices we have in the police force are off working in a coordinated way with the efforts of the state. >> that's an overview, so let me see what your questions might be. >> there are a lot of folks who have a lot of questions. say the buck stops with the governor. >> sure. >> and the question is, you said last night that this was unexpected. if you can explain how it was unexpected and how is it when a

storm like this paralyzes the city in less than three years. >> i did not mean to imply that we did not know something was coming. what i was referring to was that the national weather service had continually had their modelling showing that the city of atlanta would not be the primary area where the storm would hit. that it would be south of atlanta. you've already heard some of our agencies saying that based on that modelling, they had not brought in some of the resources earlier because they thought there were going to be other parts of the state that were going to be more severely impacted than the metropolitan atlanta area. now, just to give you an idea, as you look at what our interstates look like at 12:15 yesterday, just right after noon, at 12:15, the interstates were coated green. that means everything was moving. by 12:36, it was almost

exclusively red. so within a very short window of time, many more motorists got on the roadways and during that same timeframe is when the am of snow continued to come in a little higher quantity than many people had originally anticipated the modelling to be. so that was the unexpected part of it. now, with regard to what could we do to have avoided that, we can't control mother nature. just as we could not make better predictions, neither could school superintendents. that's why the school children were in the situation they were in because they were probably looking at the same modelling that some of our state folks were looking at as well. now, we have done a better job, i think, of responding quickly. and i might just add that our goal today is that there will not be anybody stranded in a vehicle on our interstates that has not been offered the opportunity to go to a place of

safety and security where they can be fed, where they will have access to restrooms, etc. some will choose not to leave their vehicle. we understand that. and that has already been the case in some instances. but in those cases, we are offering to them food, water, whatever they need in terms of a blanket or whatever else might make them more comfortable. one of the real problems that we have had, and i think that in talking with agency heads, that we have to probably pay a little more attention to, is the obstruction that is occurring because of the large 18-wheelers who are jackknifed across our roads. even under the best of circumstances, when they get crossways on the roadway, even though it may be a multi-lane roadway, it is virtually impossible for private vehicles to get around them. and that's one of the major obstructions we have. i might ask keith to come up and

talk about requirements that have been put in place that would require certain truckers to have chains on their trucks, and of course the idea being that you're not supposed to be inside the perimeter with an 18-wheeler unless you're making deliveries inside the perimeter itself. >> governor, the national weather service -- all between 6:00 and 7:00 this morning were forecasting two inches north of i-20. they were saying this morning that the storm is coming. and it hit in the middle of the afternoon. >> well, i've talked to some of your meteorologists. let me say that there were a couple who said they were disagreeing with the national weather service, and they were trying to get the national weather service to update their modelling. but it did not occur at the national weather service modelling quick enough for us to be able to rely on that as a

change of direction. >> you're not saying that you don't -- you're not saying that the meteorologists were right and the national weather service was wrong? >> i'm saying some of the local meteorologists were more correct on their predictions that the storm center might be 50 miles north of where the national service's modelling had indicated that it would be. >> so who made the decision here to let this unfold throughout the day as it unfolded? >> well, at 10:00 yesterday morning, we had already made the decision with regard to our state employees, and we told them based on weather conditions now, if you need to leave, you are free to do so. some of them did. we don't have control over what private businesses do. we don't have control over what school systems do. those are independent calls calls on their part. i think what has happened, and i don't blame anymore, mother nature has a mind of its own and

it does what it chooses to do, and even with the best of forecasting, i don't think anyone could have totally predicted that this was going to have the magnitude within the short window of time in which it occurred. i do think that some of our local meteorologists were much more correct than the national forecasters were. >> the national weather service issued a winter storm warning overnight, monday night. you had several hours prior to the -- you had six to nine hours of lead time to that. is the lesson here that you've got to take more advantage of that lead time that the national weather service issued? >> i think if you'll check what the national weather service did, from what i have learned in talking with some local meteorologists, is that they actually did somewhat of a downgrade of it. >> the night before. then they had upgraded it all

the way back up to a warning. >> okay. i'm not going to get into an argument about what the national weather service did. i want to pay tribute to the local meteorologists, that i think they were more correct than the national weather service forecasters. >> why did you declare a state of emergency before the storm hit rather than after? >> well, we did not think it was justified to do so. we were putting all of our resources in play without the official declaration. the official declaration doesn't really do anything in terms of getting outside help or whatever. all it does is simply say that the state's resources will be available to local levels of government if they choose to ask us for that. and there were a minimal requests even now, from local levels of government for additional state assistance. >> if you declare a state of emergency and tell people to stay home,