hello everybody. thanks so much for joining us. 2:00 a.m. on the east coast, millions are bracing for even more snow and hurricane-force winds. we've already seen five inches of snow. the city that never sleeps virtually shut down.

right now looking at a press conference that was talking about a travel ban in new york last night that began at 11:00 last night and remains in effect. service on subways is suspended until further notice. restriction on affect in massachusetts, rhode island, 7,000 234r50i9flights have cancelled. at 4:00 a.m. high tide will roll in on the massachusetts coast and coastal flooding is expecting along with beach erosion. a lot is going on at this hour as this blizzard roll tluz. now live from portland maine.

what are you seeing there. >> it's starting to snow lightly but the forecast says it will pick up in the next couple hours cooped fall at a rate of an inch or two an hour through wednesday morning. they forecast as much as two feet of snow in portland. right now it's 11 degrees. winds gusting around 12 to 15 miles an hour. already a parking ban in effect through wednesday, noon to help the plows get through. schools closed on tuesday. airlines cancelled flights on tuesday. we were on the last flight to land in portland last night around 5:30 yesterday afternoon. that plane turned around and headed back to chicago. that was the last flight to leave portland.

right now they are batting down and getting ready for this storm. >> for good reason because it is not over yet. let's get the latest where this storm is and how far it has come to shore and all kinds of details we need to get. a lot of people want to know, all right, what is next. we keep saying the worst is still to come. >> we're getting into the worst of it now, overnight until 10:00 a.m. it will really persist all the way up into boston and the leegd leading edge already getting into maine. boston has been getting hammered. heavy snow from new york all the way up to boston even providence

is in on that. blizzard warnings stay in effect up and down the coast. serious wind gusts in providence 53 miles an hour. 69 in nantucket. it is significant winds. major problems for the road. you clear the snow and it blows right back. it will pose problems for shoveling too. the snow in massachusetts still fluffy. in wooster heavy snow. power outages more likely to the west. with the winds howling, that will continue overnight, pour outages will really be a concern, we will see that ramp up not only new england but further south as well. wind gusts 21 miles an hour in

iceland and 22 in new york, these will pick up. we will continue to see the visibility low, down to zero at times in new york all the way up into boston. it is very cold out there. insult to injury with the tempt minus one in boston, gotten colder in the past couple hours. even long after the snow we'll be looking at the cold for next couple days. feels like ten in new york 14 in philadelphia but that cold stretches all the way down into the district. everyone's getting in on it. wanted to show you this five-day forecast. temperatures will fall into the teens for the weekend. we're going to have a lot of freezing problems and shoveling problems for the next several

days. >> doesn't seem like this will be melting any time soon. for the kiddos is this good news. can they get out and build those snowmen that will last. >> it will be a little hard, ♪ . we have . >> we have fluffy snow coming down across massachusetts, it just depends where you are. kids like it they are just happy they're not in school. >> that is true. looking at the picture of time square rarely do you see it so decembero late down there. rarely do you see it so desolate right now. the temperature is 18 degrees. there's no cab out there going to take you home. so you will be footing it in the

teens out there. for good reason people are staying home and heeding the warnings on the street. road salt is being spread, but how effective is it when the temperature drops. we're live at the road salt facility. what's it looking like jane you know what, we just lost jane. we could be facing some storm difficulties. we'll get the latest on the road ways there for when they do lift that travel ban. as of this hour we have no idea when that will be. as this monster storm does move in local leaders up and down the east coast issued plenty of warnings. >> first big test will be high tide at 4:00 in the morning. >> our streets will only be available to emergency vehicles.

non-emergency vehicles need to be off the streets by 11:00 p.m. tonight. and we will continue that emergency declaration until the situation is safe. >> it is a serious blizzard. it should not be taken lightly. and could effect health and safety. the blizzard brings with it very high winds. gusts up to 55 miles an hour. and this is what makes the situation dangerous. >> we know how to deal with these situations. and i feel completely confident that the folks behind me and all the people that work for them are peeped. you never know how bad these conditions will be. >> i urge everyone to plan accordingly. >> all right. so there you heard. lots of travel bans a lot of cities say theg are prepared but

still bracing for what's to come, a lot of that includes the high wind that's a big concern especially in new york city with a lot of tall buildings. look at this photo. we'll try to get it up for you, in the photo the hands are at 6:30 6:30. there it is. see the hands on that the reason is because it is a safety precaution. moving the hands in that position protects them from high winds. who knew. all the things you can learn as the blizzard blows by. don't go anyway.

welcome back everybody as we continue to follow the blizzard of 2015. we've been talking about these winds sometimes hurricane winds up to 65 miles an hour. in massachusetts just over 1500 people are without power. the storm will intensify as the storm develops. high tide is at 4:30 this morning where a great deal of damage will occur. i'm afraid to speculate how strong the winds are where you are, mike. >> not quite hurricane force, gusting up to 54 miles an hour. hurricane force is 74 miles an hour. we may still do that but we're still in the early stages. the low is still to the south and it is still intensifying

don't have to worry about the rain mix here on the cape it may mix a little bit. you mentioned power outages, we have plenty of power crews, they're ready, sitting in the lobby, just ready to pounce on any kind of power outages, with this kind of weather, if the power goes out they will have to wait until the winds die down some, that won't be until this evening. what i want to show you is the power of the wind what happened happens with the snow. back here look at these drifts back in here these drifts are already over four feet. >> wow. >> whoa! >> be careful out there. >> and you get back here, you can almost get stuck. we're right on the harbor. we're protected from the high

tide. going to get hit hard along the coastal sea coast. down here we are is some flooding everyone talking about being concerned about losing power. in 2013 during nemo some folks without power for at least three days. we hope it doesn't come to that. it's going to be very cold this weekend. right now in the upper 20s. no bitter cold temperatures south shore of boston. it is just too dangerous. there's no reason to be out on the roads. we drove a block to the hotel but it was a nightmare.

you can see if you plow the road, soon as you go by the snow blows back across the road. we're going to have there later into this afternoon. the blizzard went from 7:00 p.m. last night into later tonight, 30 hours for a blizzard warning including 29 to 30 million people last check. this is a long term duration. blizzard is just a sustained white out, that's where we are now, our visibility is down to a block. >> yeah it's hard to see you. i don't know how far you are to see from your photographer but it is increasingly hard to see you. i have to say you seem quite optimistic although it looks pretty bad. we're talking about white outs and pretty much looking at one right now. how big will those drifts by the time this is said and done? >> that's a good question.

i could see seven or eight footers. when you were talking about two to three feet of snow back here they are already up over four feet andit is only 2:20 eastern. the snow won't completely end until early wednesday morning. the drifts are going to be a big issue, that's why these plows are trying to keep up with it. they may pull the plows off the road if it gets too bad. they have 3,000 pieces of equipment in massachusetts. all mass transit has been shut down. schools are closed today and again wednesday. so everybody should be home and watching and hopefully keeping the power on that's what we're hoping for, keep the power on and stay warm. once this stops we'll have the sun back out, tomorrow wednesday afternoon, and the winds will die down by tonight,

tuesday night. that will help with the dig out process. but this is why they need to keep people off the roadways so they can get the plows through. in buffalo in december they had 88 inches of snow hand to get to the trucks and plow them out. this way if no one is on the road they can come right on through and get that road open. i'll be all morning. >> it's quite remoorkarkable you will say everything will die down. a reminder it is only 2:00 a.m. on the east coast. we have a long time. i hear you're a little winded -- how ironic -- we'll be in touch with you shortly. let's get some more information outside.

how effective is it when the temperature drops, that's a key question. we're live in the new york city department sannitation road salt storage facility. good morning, jane. looks like things are fairly calm there, but the roadways are a big issue. >> yeah. the roadways are definitely still, you know they're working through and plowing them. on our way here we saw just parades of plow trucks and we can hear them going by. people have really heeded the governor's warnings to stay off the street. very few people are out. behind us is the salt storage facility the city has 50,000 tons of salt floor to ceiling inside there. all day yesterday and this

morning we're seeing trucks come in fill up and hit the streets again. 2400 workers out there today and every shift switches to a whole new batch of people. the number could rise to 1800 at the peak of this storm. we seem to have been spared the worst of the storm. we had 5.5 inches in central park and expecting 5 more not the three feet that was feared but significant amount for the 6,000 roadways in the city. >> that's a lot of stretch of roadway. for folks wondering when their roads be plowed. what is the plan for that? how will they tackle the city with salt. >> i think they are working to get everything done as quickly as possible but with this amount i think that is why they ask

people to stay off the streets. they are doing everything they can to clear it all up, if not by today then tomorrow. but with this quantity of roads, you know it's really they just have to plow through it so to speak. >> yeah, a reporter earlier said the main streets are what they were focussing on and will get to the outer areas after that you have to pretty much clear a path. we had a question that said at what point does salt really not work. i know there's a lot of science that goes into this and it deals with temperature what are you hearing about that. it's about 18 degrees outside, at what point is it too cold for the salt to work. >> and not that it is really cold but there's still quite a bit of snow on the streets, about three inches of accumulated snow that the plows are not getting to. so for the salt to work it will

have to get closer to the road which is a bit warmer than the snow. it will be a while until it starts kicking it. they were salting so much to try to get it under the snow. >> we were hearing something around 10 degrees. all right. thank you so much for the latest there. we do appreciate it. well the blizzard paralyzing air travel more than 7,000 flights scrapped since monday. airlines are waving the flight change fees. it could take days to get stranded flyers back. keep it here. be right back.

welcome back everybody. 2:26 in the morning on the east coast. and take a lock at these live pictures right now. this is plymouth massachusetts, you can see the winds are just blowing, snow is blowing through the air, mike siedel is there probably getting warm somewhere. the winds according to him are at over 50 miles an hour. that's pretty strong as you can see the gusts and the snow pretty much dusting the entire area. to give you an idea in what it

means to be a blizzard and what the criteria is, you have to have winds over 35 miles. this pretty much does it. and visibility under quarter mile an hour. the winds are definitely blowing hard and near white out condition. high tide is supposed to be happening around 4:00 a.m. in plij plymouth, massachusetts, that will be a major issue because we could see danger to the citizens living in that area although warnings have been up all day and through the night. it is already turning the roads into a very tresherrous

situation. take a look at this. jackknifed trailer happened on i-45. people were trying to beat this blizzard and get home. really trying to heed the warnings to get home. the streets are pretty quiet in new york city. that's where we find nbc's craig melvin who's been on the streets telling us what's going on. if you look at the live picture in time square it is pretty desolate for good reason the subways are shut down buss are shut down there are no cars except emergency personnel. you see one cop car there.

pretty much everyone is heeding to the warning and that's good news. let's look at the situation outside. my good buddy reynold did they turn off the lights. >> sometimes they do that. we had to go from dark to light. think of this as the center of a hurricane, we're on the outlines, because we're in northern parts the of new jersey. still things getting dark again. hopefully you can see me there go the lights again, roadways are in fairly decent conditions still governor christie put a travel ban in place because we might see a little bit more.

total amounts of five to six feet of snow fall cominge . >> five to six feet coming at nearly an inch an hour. we had issues of lack of travel in the air and will have days and days of the back log, it will be really tough for people. back to you while we try to figure out what is going on with the electricity. >> is that just a situation with the live truck you are or is the power out there where you are. we are hearing outages. >> we have seen a lot of power trucks around, they are well-prepared to get out and restore power that will inevitably go out across this area effecting millions of

people not just here but throughout the region. even if you get more inland strong winds will certainly knock down tree branches power lines, kind of a trainchain reaction which could possibly affect people for weeks to come. >> you talk about the strong winds knocking out power and we've seen tonight that ♪ seems to be fluffy. it doesn't seem to be watered down. is that a good sign. seems like when you have heavy weight snow that could cause a lost problems. >> you're bringing up a magnificent point. when you talk about the nature of the snow and you have the lighter stuff, the powder that is really a blessing in disguise because you doesn't weigh as

much you don't have as many issues in terms power. the wetter heavier stuff is more catastrophic but the one you want to avoid is ice. there may be glazing of black ice on surfaces which is why governor christie and so many other great governors across the northeast are keeping people off the roadways but icing may still be an issue on a lot of the over passes and bridges. hence avoid driving as much as possible. >> thanks so much for that report. take care. the subways, bridges and tunnels all shut down at 11:00 p.m. on monday so that meant a mad dash to get home. this was a packed pen station late yesterday, wall to wall people.

we'll have much more of blizzard 2015 coming right up.

and welcome back. very early here on the east coast 2:35 in the morning as we follow this blizzard through the northeast. how bad is it out there? >> well it's getting pretty bad. we're in the thick of this. the brunt of the storm is moving into new york. you can see where the worse conditions are from new york all the way up to boston where we have visibility quarter mile or less. that's certainly what we're seeing up through boston. it is bad. winds are whipping. advisability is almost down to zero in some cases. especially along the south shore. here's like at storm track. where the bright blues blossom that's the heaviest bans of

snow. we see it pushing up into the boston area. providence also getting heavy snow. this will continue right through the rest of the overnight into tomorrow. we still have a ways to go which means snow totals are going to be high so we're still on track in the new england area for several feet of snow even possible in some cases. dop lar radar in new york. now the brunt of this storm is over us. and long island has been getting pretty hard since the early evening now we're seeing that shift further east so new york and down through coney island pushing west so, morristown

getting it right now. this storm still has a ways to go. we're not out of the winds, yet. the winds will may for deteriorating condition, 50 to 60 miles an hour winds along the coast. the cold is there. and power concerns will be major. the feel like temperature minus 2 in boston. minor us 1 in heartland. this will stay percentent for the next several days. it will continue to be cold and hopefully the pour out adjectiveages

won't be too long. we already picked up five inches from this snow an additional five to eight will put us up to the 14 inch mark. philadelphia on the lesser end of that but still windy there and they will have serious road conditions as well. doesn't mean you're out of the woods because it will be slick and windy and we could be looking at power out ages as far west as philadelphia. everyone's getting in on it in one way or another even if it is not seven feet of snow. >> wait until you see where mike is. the winds have been blowing so strong. these back in it.

you're one braid man to be standing in those 50-plus miles an hour winds. >> we just had a gust 64 miles an hour that's just ten under hurricane force gust-wise. we're sustained at 40. this is a tropical storm. severe thunderstorms cut off is 58 miles an hour or 50 knots. these are the eight footers. you walk through here and wonder if you're going to get out. what i need is a pair of snow shoes to walk on top of these drifts. we will be in this most of today. by these winds are not really going to back off until dinner

time so we have warning through tuesday evening, through late tonight many a lot of locals concerned about the power going out. so far only two big power companies, about 2,000 customers, a very small number, but 245 will likely ramp up especially down opt caper, their winds gusted close to 70 miles an hour. this is not the kind of storm you want to lose your power. everyone is shut down here mass transit, schools are closed logan airport nothing in and out of there until at least wednesday afternoon and a travel ban here and of course a couple other sfats they want you off the road ways once the snow and wind can back up they can play

catch up and get the roads up and try to get normalcy back to life from this blizzard 2015. >> i hear even in your voice you sound winded as you are facing stheez 64 miles an hour hitting you and you're getting stuck in the snow drifts it's supposed to get even worse there, right. >> yeah the wind will gust higher than this. we whether have heavy snow during the morning hours so it will just add up and the drifts get higher and higher and the continuing howling wind may knock out a lot of power. again we're in the early stages of the storm. we will have this wind for easily another twelve to 15 hours. the saving grace this time of year is you don't have leaves on the trees like we had in october a few years ago when we had

millions without power. the snow out wetter than in brovt. when we cover this kind of wind i can tell you we usual will he see damage right rnd around 60 miles an hour we've seen gusts up to 64. so i imagine we will see the power outages ramp up. everyone's pitching in and ready to go. but again, in this kind of weather they can't really work. they will have to wait until this evening in most cases to start getting power back on if indeed we do lose power in the n 24 hours. >> it is painful to see you face these conditions with the winds

blowing so hard. you've been in a lot of storms we've been calling it historic epic, and darksngerous, is this going to stack up to what people have been saying on the forefront of this storm. >> i think it will. two years ago we had wind gust at logan at 76 miles an hour. may not be that windy but we're going to have more snow overall here. it's the duration of this event that makes it so amazing. we had a blizzard warning out now for 30 hours that's a long long time to have blizzard conditions, a blizzard is three consecutive hours, visibility quarter mile or less and winds have to gust at 35 miles an hour. we skiend of lowered the bar, used to be sustained at 35 miles an hour but out here we are sustained at over 35 and gusting

well over the few hours. we have a sustained white out here in plymouth harbor early on a tuesday morning. >> all right thanks for that report. we do appreciate the very important and valuable information you've been bringing us. thank you for that. >> let's go now live to portland, maine. different situation but still very cold. >> it is cold. the winds picking up and all those conditions mike was talking about are on their way here. they expect the snow to ramp up around 7:00 this morning. could be falling at a rate of as much as one to two inches an

hour throughout the day. schools are closed government is closed, parking ban is in effect to let snow plows through. already been laying down chemicals to get ahead of the snow. one good thing is they are less worried about coastal flooding in this region then other areas but they are still expecting somewhere between a foot and half and two feet of snow and now it is going to be a little way as from the record which was 31.9 set in february 2013. they are getting ready for a big blow here inportland. >> i see what looks like a

personnel. >> it's a snow powell. they are putting down chemicals the streets are pretty empty it is 2:45 here in portland. there's occasional cars but very, very few people out. >> so nothing is open. can't get a cup of coffee or go somewhere warm just not happening because everyone's being told to stay home. >> well it's not a big city either, it's portland, maine. it's not a city that doesn't sleep. this city does go to sleep and i think a lot of people are asleep right now. >> unfortunately we're not among them. thank you for standing in the cold. we sure do appreciate giving us the latest in portland. look at this stunning storm

picture from noass. ass. . .

welcome back everybody as we cover the blizzard of 2015.

my partner in crime in these overnight hours, back out there in the cold things out there don't seem as bad as they were 30 or 40 minutes ago. >> you're right. about 345 minutes ago the winds were a little harder. right here at this zip code we're seeing winds of 10 miles an hour. we're here at the 30 rockefeller ice rink which is now covered in snow. late last night there was no snow. they were zamboniing it. this is what we've developed in

the last three hours, about an inch and half. all of the different statues getting a good amount of snow. all this the difficult, you got about four or five inches. right after midnight what we were hearing from the mayor of new york city is we're going to get that one to two inches of snow and that did come to pass here at 30 rockefeller plaza and right now the temperatures feels like 15 degrees, what victor martinez that . >> like 15 degrees, what happens is the salt doesn't work as well. that's why we've seen the salt not working at this hour because it is too cold. >> so is the snow plows the only

thing out there working. >> you hit it on the head. the high point in terms of plows was 45 545 minutes ago, they did a run on the streets here we've now probably seen a development of an inch and half we are in the sweet spot between hour are two where it could get worse could get better as it makes its way north into new england. >> we're hoping it gets better. as of 12:30 a.m. central park had 5.5 inches and forecast calling for another five to eight inches. thank you richard.

meantime mayor reminded everyone about the dangerous of being on the street. it was a mad dash for food and supplies folks lined up to get inside the store. when a storm of this size bears down the superbowl has it's own dangerous. >> no matter where we live there's this thing we do when the big one is about to hit, we storm the super market. is it crazy or good planning? we could be stuck in the house for days. >> we want to get some cooking projects, we have egg whites to make pie and kids picked out some bubble bath. >> social media showed us pictures of long lines and empty

shelves and showed us storm essentials like cider and chips, ice cream and stout. >> what's the most important thing you have to have during a snow storm like this. >> well the beer is around the corner so. >> so you're ready to go. >> yeah i'm ready but there's been a raid on sausages. >> others in new york made more age-appropriate decisions. >> gram crackers, marshmallows and what's that. >> hershey's. >> schmores. >> the american way. >> people stocking up and being prepared. we have seven states who have issued states of emergency. people taking this very seriously. there's a travel ban taking place. this is i believe, plymouth

massachusetts where snow is blowing at 64 miles an hour at its height. stay right here for more coverage.

. well, good morning to you. i'm betty guy en. tens of millions along the corridor are bracing for more snow as well as hurricane-force winds. in new york city we've seen more than 5 inches of snow and even before the snow started to accumulate accumulate, the city that never sleeps virtually shut down. the travel ban which began at 11: 00 last night remains in effect. you can forget about trying to get around on the subway. service has been