resource. great to have you on "the ed show" as we continue our coverage. that is "the ed show." politics with reverend al sharpton continues here on our coverage on msnbc. >> good evening ed. thanks to you for tuning in. we start with breaking news. rush hour in the blizzard of 2015. commuters making their way home as a dangerous storm slams the northeast bringing high winds, whiteout conditions and possible record snowfalls. about 29 million people across 250 miles are under some form of weather advisory from new jersey all the way to maine. with two two to three feet of snow expected in some areas. five states have declared emergencies. officials are closing roads.

public transportation systems as well. with new york city subway and buses shutting down at 11:00 p.m. the message to residents, don't take this storm lightly. >> this is a different kind of storm than we've a had before. this is the first weather event of this magnitude of this season thank goodness. >> this is a top storm. we should treat it as such. it will remain as such throughout the course of the storm. >> it will likely be one of the largest in the history of new york city. it's not going to be like other snowstorms. it's going to be by all indications be worse. >> the storm reeking havoc with air travel in the northeast with more than 6,000 flights cancelled today and tomorrow. all day long communities and residents have been in preparation mode stocking up on

supplies and bracing for the worst. >> biggest concern that i have and a lot of people on the coast is losing power. >> plan is to get home as soon as i can and be safe. >> milk eggs bread, butter all the good stuff. >> i don't want to go hungry. i need to eat. so i came out here. i didn't realize how busy it was. it's been a struggle to get in and out. >> joining me now on the phone is boston mayor marty walsh. mayor walsh, your city is going into snow emergency. how is it looking there right now? >> it's the last hour and a half getting snow in reverend. it's picking up. not a lot of traffic on the streets at least what i can see outside the office. public transportation has slowed in the city of boston now. i hope everyone follows what we've been saying the the last day and preparing for this storm.

i think that we're getting ready for a pretty monster storm here hitting our area. >> you say a monster storm. how many crews do you expect to have tonight clearing the streets? >> in a normal snowstorm that would bring 8-10 inches. that would be 550. tonight we have 800 pieces of equipment ready to hit the streets. we've been pretreating the streets prior to the snow. we're going to try to stay ahead of it as best we can. this storm is coming in bunches. we'll do one clearing and then we'll go right back out and do another probably. >> when are people expected to be off the streets in boston? >> a parking ban went in effect at 6:00. they get a couple hours to remove their cars. we're going around with police notifying folks to move their cars. at 8:00 we'll start towing so we can remain clear so as we do snow removal, we'll be able to clean curb to curb as we move forward here. >> as the city taken steps to

protect the homeless and elderly in this storm? >> we have put out notifications out to check on elderly neighbors and couple of non profits have been out picking people up. we're going to use our police department and ambulances to get people off the streets, get them into shelters. we've opened beds torrent. we've prepared shelters with two days of food. today we asked guests if they wanted to stay in all day today. they did not go out. a lot stayed in. we're going to try to get as many people into the shelter over the course of next few hours. we're asking if people see someone on the street contact local authorities so we can get them off the street. this is not the night we want to keep people out in the street. >> wow. what do you expect the storm to cost the city of boston? >> i haven't looked at the cost yet. i'm not concerned about that today. we've had a good winter as far as snow. we've had a few instances we had to use our equipment.

this storm i'm not worried about the price tag. i'm more worried about the safety of homeless elderly, disabled and also we close school down for two days for the safety of our kids as well making sure that tomorrow it's going to be obviously snowing all day and give us wednesday to clear the streets. right now the main concern is public safety, making sure people are safe. i'll worry about the cost later. >> mayor, stay safe and thank you for your time this evening. >> thank you sir. let's bring in msnbc ron allen live on long island new york. how's it looking out there? >> reporter: it's looking pretty bad reverend. it's looking worse and worse by the hour. you can see how thick the snow is falling. it's been falling steadily last few hours. lately winds have been gusting up. the predictions were for 30 inches of snow and wind gusts 50

to 60 miles per hour. we're hearing the snow is accumulating faster and winds blowing harder than originally forecasted. it could be worse than anticipated. behind us, we've been watching the traffic. for the first time in the last half hour or so the road behind us has quieted down. that's the long island expressway main roadway here. there have been cars all day heading into the storm. now it's slowing down. people are heeding the warning to get off the roads. as you know new york state, it will be a misdemeanor if you're out after 11:00 tonight. >> the governor announced all roads would be closing at 11:00. how many drivers would you say are still on the road. >> reporter: from what we can see, i can see traffic going by. still see trucks going by. they're banned at 4:00. they're trying to make their way home. it's a long way for people. they're trying to get there. good news is things are quieting down on the roads.

they're trying to get everybody off the roads except ambulances police cars emergency vehicles by 11:00 tonight. they seem to be heeding the warning. the governor said it's already very dangerous. we can see crews out all day trying to prevent the snow from building up. they're trying to keep ahead of it. it's going to be a struggle. this is gistjust the beginning. it's going to get worse tonight. >> how much worse do you think it will get tonight? what should people expect to wake up to in the morning? >> reporter: i think people should expect to wake up to several feet of snow perhaps. this is the part of new york long island where the storm is coming up the coast and going to hit this part of long island or further east. this could be the area that gets the worst of it. hunker down. stores were picked clean of basic supplies earlier. we've seen this coming for a

while. common sense suggests get off the roads, go home. be sure to charge all your appliances radios phones and so forth. keep batteries around. this is going to be a dangerous and treacherous situation. people are staying off the roads. this is just the beginning. worst is supposed to come midnight and morning hours. be mindful, this is not something to be played with. this is a serious, serious situation. >> it's very serious. ron allen, thank you for your time tonight. please stay safe. joining me on the phone now is an official at the center of new york city's effort to deal with the storm. sanitation commissioner katherine garcia in charge of all snowplows in the city tonight. commissioner thank you for being here. >> thank you for having me. >> tell me about what your agency is doing tonight. >> we are in full plow mode at

this point across the city. as anticipated, queens is seeing some of the worst of it right now. we anticipate the heaviest bans to come in at midnight. at that point in time by the time we go to shift change we'll have upwards of 2300 dsy vehicles out and have assistance of 250 from our sister agencies as well as from vendors. >> how big of a challenge will it be if drivers disobey the mayor's orders to stay off the streets? >> this is going to be a huge challenge with drivers off the streets. you can imagine it gets exponentially worse if cars stall and block the streets. we won't be able to get through. >> as we head into the night -- you say the worst is midnight --

what are your biggest concerns? >> being able to stay ahead of this storm. we know we need to be hitting not only the critical and highway routes but we're going to need passes in the secondaries so we end up not allowing them to get to a two foot mode before we've gotten to them. it's going to take multiple passes. you may wake up and think we haven't gone by your house. there may be 10 inches of fresh snow on top of where we already made a pass. >> when people wake up in the morning, they may see fresh snow. it doesn't mean your trucks haven't been through there? >> absolutely. this storm goes through most of the day tomorrow. we'll be continuously going over all of our highways all of our secondaries to try to keep ahead of this. >> well thank you so much for taking time to talk to us, new york city commissioner katherine garcia. >> thank you for having me. >> good luck. now let's go to providence rhode island. want to bring in nbc news

raheema ellis. what's the latest in providence? you're driving around. we're watching you. what's the latest there? >> reporter: actually reverend al i've made my way beyond providence and am now 30 miles south of boston. i should tell you when i was driving few hours earlier, these roads were clear. you could see the black top. at this hour they are covered with snow. i'm going pretty slow because it is slick out here. word to the wise is that everybody should be moving slowly. in massachusetts, they've said there is a state of emergency. they say they're going to ban all private vehicles from the roads later this evening. the reason for doing that is they hope to number one get people off the roads so they can be safe and number two to get the snow vehicles out on the road. they can remove the snow treat

these roads as best they can and do their best job when they're not hampered by private vehicles being on the road. this travel ban goes in effect tonight. it probably will not be lifted they say until some time wednesday. they're expecting this snow to continue throughout the night here in massachusetts and all up along the coastal area. they're expecting coastal flooding in the area. as many of you have been talking about, they're not measuring the storm in inches. they're talking about it in feet. they're saying to people get off the roads as fast as you can. the traffic has picked up considerably. we understand from talking to people that went to work earlier today, in an effort to leave work before the normal rush hour they could get home. we're out here monitoring what's going on to share that information with viewers to let them know why it's a good idea they not be out here. >> how do you feel driving around? what does it feel like? >> it feels like it's slick.

if i weren't doing this for my job, i tell you, i would be inside. i would take the advice we are giving people and what officials are telling people to get off the roads. we're in a sturdy vehicle, an suv. we can take off in about everything. people think they can stop on a dime. nobody can stop on a dime sitting on ice and slick roads. you have to go slow and be careful. they're treating roads with salt and sanding trying to prepare them for when the heaviest of the snow comes later tonight. they're trying their best to stay ahead of this storm reverend al. no matter what it's coming down. it's almost impossible task to think that you're going to prevent these roads from being snow covered. eventually they'll be snow covered, but the word with the travel ban is that they hope they can free these roads of the snow as soon as possible.

it is starting to get slick. we're being very careful going very slowly. >> do you have another camera to show us the road ahead of you? >> reporter: i think we might be able to do that. i'll have to ask tony my camera man, if we're able to get a shot of the road. it's dark out here. i think we can switch a camera. i think we're able to switch over to a -- the camera mounted on the windshield reverend al. are you able to see this shot? >> we can see it now. wow. this was completely -- there was no snow on the ground not long ago, right? >> reporter: absolutely. there was no snow. there was rain come down a little bit. these roads were clear. just a few short hours ago, we were out here earlier. these roads were good. now they're not good and going

to get bad before they get better. >> as you're trooifing, it feels slick -- you're driving, it feels slick. this is not to be taken lightly when officials say stay off the road. >> absolutely not. i'm going slow. there's traffic ahead of me. traffic has slowed ahead of me. i'm doing 10 miles per hour. even some people are a little more courageous than i am. maybe courageous is not the right word. they're going faster than i am. i'm in a heavier vehicle than many cars speeding by me. >> reporter: my intention is to be as safe as possible. in order to do that it means you have to slow down. i'm not feeling the slickness underneath me because i'm not challenging the car to see if it can go one way or the other. winds haven't picked up in this particular area yet.

officials tell us they expect the winds to pick up 30-40, 50 even 60 miles per hour. if you're trying to drive with 60 miles per hour winds and got blowing snow it's going to be treacherous out here. >> have you seen anybody trying to speed and slide? have you seen most people being responsible trying to follow what has been advised? >> i'm going to say reverend al most are being responsible. i should say too people in new england are accustomed to this type of weather. that does not mean some lose senses from time to time and try to be daring on the roads. most look like they're paying attention to warnings slowing down. seems most are trying to get home or to get to the supermarket or stores to get the last few supplies they need so they can hunker down and ride out this storm in the safety of

their homes. public transportation is going to be shut down later on tonight. it will not resume until sometime tomorrow. the travel ban is going in effect. they expect that to be in place all day tomorrow not to be lifted until some time wednesday. once people get home the expectation is they're going to stay there. as i mentioned, some are trying to get to stores. i suspect to get the last few supplies they might need so they can be at home be comfortable and be safe. >> all right. msnbc, thank you for your time tonight. please be safe and warm. coming up millions of americans settling in for a potentially historic blizzard on the east coast. we'll be back with more from the center of the storm and what you need to do to stay safe. stay with us.

you're looking at satellite images of the massive storm bearing down on the east coast. forecast predicts two to three feet of snow in some areas. let's go now to meteorologist bill. a lot seeing the snow has slowed a bit. >> they saw more than expected at this point. we were thinking two to three inches in new york city by dish hour. we've gotten almost five inches easily the leader. that's slowing down. now the blizzard is about to take place. the storm is quickly intensifying, winds picking up.

we're starting to get strong bands of snow oneonta thecoming on shore. go look out your window. this blue indicates a very heavy -- almost like a squall in the summertime going through. whiteout conditions, blowing and drifts of snow. probably get a quick two inches. it's going to the cape and then shifting to boston and providence. it's the bans of snow if we're going to get thunder snow which i think we will in these bans you'll hear the thunder and maybe flashes of lightning. where these set up later tonight is who is going to get hit the worst. mentioned the winds. not too bad on the jersey shore. it's an eastern mass. 30 providence town. that's where winds are the strongest, power outages could happen. a word to the wise. if you're in blizzard areas, what i tell i don't to do about

now, turn the heat up in your house. maybe normally you set it 70, 68 degrees. crank it up. get that house nice and toasty. if power goes out in the middle of the night, it will buy you extra time and warmth in your house. obviously hopefully you have batteries, extra firewood if you have a fireplace and test the generator before it gets too bad. last thing you want to do is get the generator to work in the middle of the blizzard. i don't think i'm going to change this much. that ban looks to set up in this blue. that's two to three feet of snow from portland boston worcester, definitely worcester hills, northern providence and areas in eastern connecticut. that includes the eastern half of long island. some will get over three feet of snow. the highest total may even approach 40 inches by the time this is done. big cities a foot and a half to two feet of snow.

if you set up under one of those bands, you could easily -- instead of new york city -- you could get six inches in an hour and jump up to two feet. these are rough estimates. philadelphia around 8-12 inches and not as bad. as we mentioned, go from midnight tonight to noon tomorrow reverend. that's when the blizzard when we'll have the strong winds. that's when people lose power. >> that's great information. thank you so much. we'll be right back.

we're back with more of our continuing coverage of the blizzard of 2015. joining me now is weather channel chris warren in providence, long island. chris, what can you tell us? report>> reporter: i can tell you it's getting worse. we're a few hours from providence, long island. this is an onramp to interstate 95. it has been slow going for most of the day. the northbound lanes is what we're looking at here. they have improved but southbound lanes with headlights coming at us that's remained slow several hours now. talk about the points i heard earlier when we were discussing this. the fact that some of these roads get treated and a few hours or minutes later they're covered with snow. that's what we saw here.

they plowed through. it turned wet a while. it started snowing again. it's cookie dough consistency. bill was talking about getting more than three feet of snow. i marked one foot two foot and three feet here. we barely have anything on the ground and roads look like this. it piles up. they come and wipe it away. then it happens again. another six inches wipe it away. this is not the worst of it. the band of snow coming in bill was talking about. we're going to deal with strong winds, gusts 50 miles per hour in providence. visibility is going to be way down. looking at dangerous conditions through the day tomorrow into the evening hours. >> now chris you've been doing weather a long time.

how does this size up to you in comparison to other situations you've had to cover? >> reporter: well what make this is storm unique is the scope of it. you can have these bands of snow that sets up and it is bad for some cities. maybe central massachusetts down to connecticut, a few areas. this is a big storm blowing up so quickly, you're looking at widespread areas. a lot of people ending up with more than a foot maybe even two feet of snow over a wide area. just the size of this storm. how much snow how long is what leads so many to say this is going to be a historic blizzard. >> chris warren thank you for your time tonight. be safe up there, chris. >> reporter: thank you. >> joining me now by phone is bill finch, mayor of bridge port, connecticut. mayor, first of all, thank you

for being with me by phone tonight. >> good to be here reverend. >> you declared a snow emergency today. what should residents be doing right now? >> caller: i'm glad you asked. we need the public cooperation. we have great public employees in the city of bridgeport. they're pretreating the roads, plowing. we're a lot like brooklyn and new york. many of you know those conditions narrow street cars on the streets. we've had residents to cooperate with our great public employees and get the cars out of the way so we can keep everybody safe and keep the roads open. >> has the city taken steps to protect elderly residents? >> caller: very similar to what mayor walsh was saying. it's all hands on deck. we have an emergency operation center where we have people that work with the disabled population senior homeless. our police officers are out scouring the city making sure

the vulnerable people the homeless are brought to shelters. we do have a travel ban in connecticut that governor maloy asked for at 9:00 p.m. police officers will stop people asking people where they're going. if it's a firefighter, public works person going to a soup kitchen, keep going to where you're going. if you're just out driving, you've got to go home. we've got to get people off the street. it's going to allow us to keep everybody safe. one thing we want to also ask for cooperation with is our fire department isn't going to want to battle fires in this settle. if power goes out, we're making plans for that encouraging people not to use candles. not to use space heaters. be cautious with anything that involves a flame during this time. firefighters will have a hard

time putting fires out. bridge port connecticut. thank you for your time tonight. please be safe. >> caller: thank you for your show reverend. you've been fighting the good fight on climate change. we can see the crazy climate. we'd like to have more of you down in washington. >> thank you. much more of this coverage of this storm ahead. we're checking social media for best shots of this blizzard. we'll go live to the heart of the storm where we will see the most snow. we're coming back live with the blizzard of 2015 here on msnbc. r

. a massive snowstorm impacting millions in the northeast part of this country. here's a live shot of time square in new york. we're in the midst of the storm. we'll be right back.

we're back with more of our breaking news coverage of the blizzard of 2015. cities up and down the east coast are shutting down as residents prepare for what could be one of the biggest snowstorms we've seen in years. five governors have declared state of emergencies. in some areas, meteorologists are predicting up to three feet of snow and winds blasting 5 miles per hour. thousands of flights have been

cancelled, streets and highway systems closed mass transit suspended. officials told residents not to underestimate the storm. >> the snow is coming. the storm is coming. it's going to be the most severe storm that we've seen in years, maybe decades. i need you to keep yourself safe and loved ones safe. >> governor after governor the same message, don't drive. >> i have signed a travel ban for the entire state beginning at 9:00 p.m. this evening. >> a travel restriction for all roads, state roads, local roads, city roads down roads except for emergency personnel. >> get off the roads as quickly as you can. obviously drive safely and cautiously. >> let's go to msnbc craig melvin at the world famous skating rink outside here at

rockefeller center. craig, what can new yorkers expect tonight? >> reporter: i tell you it's good to see new yorkers by in large heeding the warnings from cuomo and de blasio. this is as you know the height of the commute for a lot of new yorkers 6:30. just a handful of people on these streets. very few cars as well. i've seen empty bus, seen taxis. one thing i've noticed -- we've seen a number of tow trucks as well towing cars blocking the salt and plow trucks. one thing i've noticed speaking of salt and plow trucks. we've heard governor cuomo say one of the problems the next few days is because of speed and volume of the snow. plows that make their way through, an hour or two later, it will look like it didn't come through. a block away i saw that road

being salted then plowed about two hours ago. now it looks like a plow never touched it. that is going to be something we're going to see obviously over the next day and a half or so. it's good to see people by in large listening to their elected officials. not a lot of folks on the roads. >> craig melvin thank you very much. nbc anne thompson is a few blocks north of craig here in new york city. anne, how does it look on the streets? >> reporter: well, al let me show you. come on over and take a look at fifth avenue. this is the fifth avenue i've never seen before in the years i've lived here. it's relatively empty. there are very few cars on the road. as craig says it doesn't look like it's been plowed. a half hour ago, i saw a plow come through. stay off the road and be safe.

in new york city non emergency vehicles are banned from roads at 11:00 p.m. tonight. we don't know when they'll be allowed again. mayor de blasio says that won't happen until he knows the roads are safe. the subway and bus system shuts down tonight at 11:00 in new york city. the transit system shuts down. schools closed here tomorrow. if you live in new york city you don't have to leave your house because really there's no place to go. schools are closed. subway system will be closed. even central park is closed. stay home and stay safe. al? >> what do you expect to see in the morning commute given all of that? >> reporter: i don't think we're going to see much of a morning commute. if people pay attention to warnings from government officials -- first of all, if you're trying to get to work and driving to work in new york city you're going to look at

anything and get caught by cops. looking at a summons to an arrest. they made that clear. stay home. i don't think we'll see a heavy commute tomorrow. ideally we won't see any at all. al? >> nbc's anne thompson. thank you for your time. joining me by phone is hartford connecticut mayor. you declared a snow energy in hartford this morning. how are things looking now? >> caller: well we are still under a state of emergency. that's going to continue most likely until wednesday. we expect the brunt of the storm overnight. we've had preparations preparing since sunday morning. crews are going to be out there. this is going to be big, between two to three feet of snow. at some point we might have whiteout conditions which makes it difficult. we're ready to attack with as many resources we have on hand. we're asking the public's cooperation, make sure they stay home and get cars off the roads.

we have a parking ban since this afternoon. there's good compliance so far, but we need the rest of the people to have cars off the roads. we don't want them to get towed. we want cars off the streets in order forrous us to plow the roads. >> i want to ask you what is your city doing to keep elderly and homeless safe during the storm? >> caller: we've been working in close cooperation with the emergency center here in the city. we have department heads here. we have the health department, department of families. all the departments responsible for courting services. we have a program that works with our elderly to try to assist in any way we can. we have one particular shelter that is there to accommodate any elderly that has specific medical needs and might require assistance. especially in the event of power outage. we want to make sure people on

ventilators or need electrical source by which to power up equipment are able to have that access. it's very important. our senior citizen center -- one is used to accommodate the elderly population. we have volunteers that have been good in the past providing assistance. of course our public safety offices, police and fire. our fire department is our first responders. they have good equipment to get out in case of emergency. we hope we don't get too many white out conditions. under those circumstances you can't really plow. snow starts to accumulate. we don't want that to happen. we're hoping we don't have a heavy downpour in this snowfall even if we get inches of snow. >> all right mayor, thank you for your time tonight. stay safe. >> caller: thank you sir. thank you. you're watching our continuing coverage of the

blizzard 2015. we'll be back out on the roads and give you our latest weather updates, next.

we're back with more of our

continuing coverage of the blizzard of 2015. i want to bring in msnbc.com amanda who's at one of the city of new york salt depots. amanda thanks for being here. >> reporter: thank you reverend. >> what are you seeing at this hour? >> reporter: right now we're seeing a brief reprieve from the fat flakes falling earlier. this is the beginning of what's expected to be a long night. the sanitation equipment has piles and piles of salt. we've seen emergency vehicles come in load up and leave. they're putting down salt on slushy snowy streets of new york. city officials say they're dispatching 1600 vehicles to clear the roadways today. there is a fair amount of computer traffic going on here. city and state officials are saying they very much want

people out of the roads by 11:00 p.m. at the latest tonight so that we have enough room for emergency vehicles to clear the snow and really come in and make sure everything is safe for everyone here. >> thank you amanda. thank you for your time this evening. >> reporter: thank you. >> let's get more from new york city. joining me on the phone is brooklyn brooklyn president adams. >> thank you so much reverend. good speaking with you. it's good that the command center for emergency management is here in brooklyn downtown on the foot of the brooklyn bridge. the mayor has done an excellent job of reparation. the streets are a hazardous form. i'm still in the office. you can hear the street the trucks out as well as salt being

laid down. we're going to go out and look at trouble spots, but really pedestrians really should be home at this time. just allow the team that's been assembled to do their job. >> let me touch on that. are you concerned some residents may not take this storm seriously enough? >> caller: i think we learned from sandy that when the message goes out that this is a serious storm, it's one thing if you receive reports there are few snowflakes or that another snowstorm is coming but it's clear that the mayor, commissioner at emergency management and others have stated this is a big one, on a level of sandy preparedness and awareness. using the football analogy when the right team is on the field, we don't need the fans on the field getting in the way. we need to make sure new yorkers

get home safe and roadways can be cleared. >> eric adams, thank you for your time tonight. stay safe out there president adams. >> caller: thank you. you too. stay with us for much more of the coverage of the blizzard 2015. we'll be right back.

you are watching the live shots of the map of the incoming storm of the blizzard of 2015.

millions of people impacted many meteorologists predicting this storm may be of hiss storic proportions. we'll be back with full coverage right after this.

we're back with more of our coverage of the blizzard of 2015. let's bring in nbc chris palone live in boston. we heard from the mayor earlier in the hour. are you seeing many on the streets right now? >> reporter: no reverend as a matter of fact it's getting quiet in boston. a couple minutes before we came on the air, there's a van going around with a loud speaker reminding people that cars must be off the street by 6:00. they're set to begin towing at 8:00. just about an hour from now. they wanted everybody to get cars off the streets. over the last couple of days

forecasters have been saying this storm is really going to start to hit at 7:00. right on queue, in the last 10 to 15 minutes it's intensified after being a light flurry much of the afternoon. >> schools are closed next two days. have you heard reaction from parents and children to that news? >> reporter: i think everybody is taking that as the right move here. a lot of times school cancellations are debated whether they're necessary or not. with the nature of the storm -- sure nature gets a lot of storms and boston has school more often than a lot of places when it snows because they have the equipment to handle it. here talking about an unprecedented amount of snow combined with blizzard conditions and flooding. everybody seems to be in agreement. >> chris, thank you. be safe up there. let's check again with rahema ellis driving on route 9 toward boston. are roads getting worse as you

drive? >> caller: well not so much reverend al. let me tell you what is happening. we've seen in about 30 minutes, a real significant change in the volume of traffic out here. many people it seems have made their way to their destinations. we've not seen nearly as many cars on the road as we saw just 30 minutes ago. this is a major road that goes from boston all the way through worcester. this portion of massachusetts is a very heavily traveled area. not so much right now. the volume is decreasing. people are trying to get ahead of this storm, off these roads so that these emergency crews, these snow removal crews can prepare the roads as best they can. we were just in back of a truck that was spreading down a mixture we think of salt and sand to try to make it easier for those folks still out on the road to get where they need to

go. a travel ban is going in effect here in massachusetts at midnight. in addition, they're shutting down public transportation. it's every reason for people to be on the road now if they have to but get off as soon as they can. >> you be safe as you travel because clearly they are predicting that the worst is yet to come. we just approach the hours they're most concerned about. >> reporter: absolutely. we'll be careful. >> rahema thank you for your time tonight. stay safe and warm. mayor bill de blasio of new york is going to be speaking shortly. we are encouraging you to listen to the admonition of public officials. your safety and that of your loved ones is is pairramount to us. i'm al sharpton.

stay safe out there now. "hard ball" starts right now. good evening. i'm chris mathis. in washington we're following the massive storm that's now gripping the northeast at this hour with blizzard conditions on the way. up and down the region residents are warned to stay indoors and off the roads for what is going to be a very dangerous storm. the heaviest snowfall is expected overnight and into tomorrow. 28 million people are under a blizzard warning tonight stretching from the jersey shore on up to maine. when all is said and done, some areas could see more than two feet of snow or a lot more. states of emergency are declared in five states. officials throughout the region