. ♪ all right. so that's going to do it for this edition of "way too early." "morning joe" begins right now. >> mother nature has decided

once again to come visit us. >> this is potentially a dangerous storm with significant accumulation of know. >> this is going to be a significant storm. >> it is going toby all indications worse and people have to be ready. >> 52 million people are in the path of this nor'easter. >> on parts of the atlantic coast this will feel just like a winter hurricane. >> the blizzard began blasting new york this afternoon. >> got everything shut down here in boston. everyone is urged to stay off the streets. >> looks like three to four inch inches an hour. it's coming down fast. >> seven states at this hour. look at the mass exodus tonight. for the first time that anyone can remember new york city subways closing down for the snowstorm. >> central park is closed. the last time that happened was hurricane sandy. >> disruption rippled through the america's aviation system ahead of the blizzard. >> look at this. this is laguardia airport. it's essentially a ghost town tonight. it may be wednesday before the nation's airlines even attempt to put all their planes back in

the air. >> grocery store shelves are going empty. >> i don't know why the rush on bread, but what a heck. a lot more bread, i'm sure you're able to get it. >> only time will tell. reporting live from nassau county. >> i don't know what just happened there. >> new yorkers should go home and hunker down and wait to see the prediction of this terrible heavy storm. >> take precautions. be careful. a lot ahead of us. >> as ten of millions of people along the east coast have hunkered down for a storm, that was supposed to be the storm of a century, a storm that forecasters originally said could bring one to three feet of snow and punishing hurricane force winds. but the associated press is reporting that they've downgraded most of those numbers saying new england still could fair the worst, but even not as

bad as expected. the blizzard warning has been lifted for new york city. it's been replaced by a winter storm warning for new york. so at least new york city faired much, much better than expected. but, mika the storm still moves up the coast. >> a couple hours to go yet, joe. let's get right to where things stand at this hour with the potentially historic blizzard that has virtually shut down the northeast in the united states. eight states are now in a state of emergency as the brunt of the storm moved in overnight. but moments ago, a blizzard warning was lifted for new york city, as joe mentioned. earlier forecasts called for up to three feet of snow in parts of connecticut, massachusetts, and new york. the numbers have now been downgraded and parts of new england are now expected to see the worse, about two feet of snow and major snowdrifts. wind gusts are already topped 70 miles an hour in nantucket. right now there are 60 million

people under a winter weather alert and 30 million people facing blizzard condition. thousands are in the dark after losing power during the storm, including nearly 6,000 in massachusetts. we've got a live look right now at new york city. it's one of the many places that is virtually a ghost town after transit shut down and nonemergency vehicles have been ordered off the roads just as a precaution. why don't we head back into the msnbc weather center where bill karins has literally been camped out for the past 24 hours tracking this storm. the predictions have changed. it was somewhat difficult for forecasters to track. we've got different snow levels coming in right now. and bill has the very very latest. where do we stand? >> we stand now still dealing we're blizzard in areas of eastern massachusetts and connecticut. extreme eastern long island. but the storm end up being about 25 to maybe 50 miles further to the east. >> okay. >> if we look at the map, the heavy band of snow is the edge

of it was supposed to be somewhere right down the hudson valley just to the west side of new york city. instead of being where it was with the storm being 25 to 50 miles a little further offshore than expected the heaviest axis of the snow is through central new england and central long island. philadelphia had hardly any snow. new york city, eight to ten inches when we're all said and done. in areas of eastern -- you can get eight to ten inches in new york city, the twin forks probably close to 30 i rememberes of snow. that's only 50 miles. that's how difficult the forecast was on the western edge. that's where new york city fell. bus potential was high in philly, new york, and harlttford. those areas did bust. >> if you're waking up along the eastern seaboard boston to maine, what can you still expect if. >> this picture, still incredible -- the storm is as strong as was expected. the caveat was that it was 50 miles further to the east out to sea than expected. with those blizzard warnings

dropped in new york city 10 million people there and portions of the lower hudson valley, the blizzard warning is 30 million, chopped in half mostly because of the new york city area. still blizzard warnings continue. all of connecticut, rhode island, eastern mass and coastal maine. we still have that heavy band of snow. we're still getting areas two to three inches. another thing, the storm's dynamics may not have been quite as impressive as advertised. i didn't hear a lot of reports of thunder snow. there wasn't wide spread reports of lightning and the thunder where you get the three to four inches in a hurry. the area of greatest concern right now -- and this is where i thought the heavy band was going to set up right through this area the lull new london back to boston. you can see where that darker blue is. that's where a band is set up. it hasn't been moving. extends down towards the twin forks. that area has the best chance to get the two feet of snow. by the time we're all said and done we could get four-foot

snowdrifts. here's the wind gust map. again, what is now over providence newport, boston providence flew the islands, expected to be towards central long island in connecticut, also took the greatest winds and shifted them to the east too. it's still a full-blown blizzard in areas of boston all day today. providence down through the cape, the islands and near providence. >> we'll be following power outages and part of this story as they prepare for a storm this big, the airports in new york shut down. the subway stopped at 11:00 p.m. i've never heard of that before due to snow. >> i remember getting here and the blizzard where we had 27 inches of snow. i got from brooklyn here on the subways back then. >> not happening now for you, bill. we've got the storm covered on multiple fronts, from willie on the plaza to hard hit long island boston, massachusetts, and maine. and new york's always busy airports that are essentially shut down. john yang starts us off live from portland, maine, where the snow is coming downside ways.

john, tell us what you've got there. >> reporter: you've got it, mika. coming downside ways. this wind picked up p the snow is coming down more heavily than it has been before. we're in the teeth of the storm as meteorologist todd gutner at here station here in portland has tweeted out. the snow is falling in a rate of more than two inches an hour. it's forecast to keep up that pace all during the daylight hours today. and before it begins to taper off later tonight and end sometime tomorrow. they say the total accumulation should be around upwards of 18 inches. maine has now -- governor paula page of maine has declared a state of emergency. i think state of ver metropolitan has not declared an emergency. parking is banned throughout much of this area to wednesday

to let the snowplows get through. schools are closed. government offices are closed. and this is the -- sort of the teeth of it the worst of it. now beginning to set in in southeastern maine. mika? >> all right. nbc's john yang in portland, maine. take it easy. we'll check back in with you. snow total, update before we get to willie? >> i just updated the snowfall total. storm total, not what is expected to continue. new york city has seven inches of snow. it's going to end up eight to 12. maybe one to three inches in new york city at most. hartford, maybe another four inches if we're lucky. hartford total another bust city, 8-12. where john was located, providence to cape to boston still expecting two feet of snow to occur. three feet that we thought was maybe possible i'm still not

going to write it off until the storm is gone. >> joe, what we're also looking at with the wind and the snow is somewhat light, huge gusts and drifts developing in some parts of the country. take it away. >> all right. thanks so much. let's go to willie geist right now. willie in the middle of new york city. willie, i saw some tweets last night that millions and millions of new yorkers were horrified that they were going to be facing the possibility of not having internet service and actually having to talk to their families. even that appears to be a crisis averted. but new york city looks, still, even though the blizzard warning has been lifted new york city still looks like it hasn't looked rarely probably in your lifetime or many other lifetimes, practically deserted. >> yeah joe, it's crazy. i mean i think a lot of us woke up expecting to see these two-foot mountains of snow outside our door when we walked outside. that obviously didn't happen. it's windy and it's cold but, as

bill pointed out, only about seven inches of snow and some people thought it was going to be two feet of snow. to your point, as of 11:00 last night, there was no getting in or out of this city. the port authority closed all the bridges and tunnels getting on to the island of manhattan. subways shut down. the buses shut down. i actually like a lot of people who work here at nbc came in a little closer to 30 rock last night and stayed in a hotel in anticipation of not being able to get here from my home. that wasn't the problem. we didn't know that then. i took one of the last subways down here right before they shut it down at 11:00. as you point out, it was like nothing i've seen before. it was an empty subway car. the platform probably had two or three people on it. people really cleared out of this city. as i got off the subway walking towards my hotel i took a few pictures and one of the most remarkable things i saw was looking all of the way down park avenue. there was nothing. there were no cars. there were no people. there was snow on the street. and as i think i pointed out, you could have played snow football up and down park avenue

if you wanted to. it's up with of these things when we look back in hindsight you can say, well, some people will call this storm a did in new york city. seven inches is not nothing. but still definitely not the storm that we expected. >> all right willie geist, thanks very much. before we go to our next live report the key concerns here though up and down new england are power out ans. >> they still are. wind gusts 60 to 70 miles per hour. we thought we could get couple hundred thousand people without power. because we took out of the the equation of new york city area and long island we haven't had the strong wind gusts. and the problem in past years we were very worried about that because that goes down quickly. they haven't seen the really high gusts like they have in eastern mass. as far as power outages. if we're going the get a wide spread area it's going to be out on the cape in the boston area up towards coastal maine. those areas are battle tested. those areas get huge storms all the time. they can fair better than most areas can. so the power outages we have

thousands of crews lined up ready to run into these places. maybe the people that do lose it because there's not as many, they'll get it back faster. >> you mentioned long island why don't we go there first. adam, how concerned are officials there with power out amgs, wide spread ones? >> they are concerned. mika, 22 hours we've been going here, continuous snowfall the, continues to come down. just take a look here. it's flaky but it's getting thicker. and i want you to take a look mika. this is a long island expressway. governor cuomo issued a complete travel ban last night about 11:00. usually this is packed with cars. they call it the nation's biggest parking lot. completely empty, deserted. it's like a ghost town here. we do expect power out ans, trees down power lines down. we have the national guard out in force. there are 750 units plowing. there are 650 national guard units. if you don't have to go outside

today, stay home. stay warm. have a hot cocoa. mika, it's continuing to come down. it's pretty bad. winds are shifting. so we're just going to have to wait this out at least several more hours here on long island. possibly through this afternoon. mika? >> all right adam we'll be watching for that power outage story as well. >> you can see where he is it's not that windy. >> maine looks bad. >> maine and then all the people we have going in plymouth area. that's much worse than what long island is dealing with. >> they're still not out of the woods, new england, boston to maine. >> it will be all day. people need to stay off the roads all day up there. major cities across the northeast are paralyzed this morning after officials pre-emptively took action hours before the storm. tomorrow appears to be the best case scenario for many airline passengers after more than 7500 flights in and out of the region were canceled for today. airline officials say virtually

no activities is expected in major hubs including kennedy and laguardia airports in new york and logan airport in boston. public transit shut down across the east coast. the subways here in new york city. these hard to believe images from the big apple show empty subway cars in the city that never sleeps. but it's now at a stand still. trains are also not running in boston and throughout connecticut and new jersey. roads are deserted following travel bans in several states. only emergency vehicling are currently allowed out. drivers who ignored the ban in new york may face a $300 fine. >> and it is no joke to have people strachbded on edstranded on the highway. we've gone through that before. it is -- it is frightening how quickly a simple trip to the supermarket can wind up being

very dangerous. we've learned the lesson the hard way. i would rather err on the side of caution. in this situation, i don't even think it's a close call because if you spend any time on the roads or you look out the window you understand how difficult the situation is and it hasn't even started yet. >> had no choice bill but to make these -- >> no. the storm shifted 25 to 50 miles to the east. what if the storm had shifted 25 or 50 miles to the west than what was expected which was possible which is a lot of computer guidance was suggesting. one of our more computers were telling us 30 inches for new york city. how are you supposed to completely ignore that threat. you know i said 16 to 20. i kind of hedged it a little bit. i was nervous going higher than that. >> i heard you. >> and then it ended up busting lower than that. if the storm had shifted 25 to 30 miles the other way, we would be in what you just saw in

portland, maine, or the cape. then people are trapped on the highways and then it's a rescue situation and then it's even worse because then it's always better to have it not as bad as expected as compared to worse than expected. >> it is fine with me. there are still parts of the country up in new england that are not out of the woods. squloe joe, take us to massachusetts. >> i will in a second. i want to go back to bill karins. i remember being caught on the road the day after christmas probably three years ago when we were going to the family was going to be flying out. and i could -- that was a blizzard whose intensity shocked a lot of people. there were a lot of people caught out on the road. i was on the long island expressway. zero visibility. cars crashing left and right. it was a chaotic scene. if you have a storm like this let's say in the upper midwest that catches people by surprise that is very dangerous. but you add 15 16 million people to the mix, it gets much more difficult. and, bill this is predicting

this is much like predicting hurricanes. yes, sometimes the hurricane projections are not correct. but we learned in florida, you listen when they warn because, you know sometimes it's right. and when it's right, it's deadly. in this case like you said with new york city we're just talking a difference between 30 40 50 miles making a difference between this entire city being absolutely shut down. >> uh-huh. >> and how about poor mayor de blasio? first he deals with the storm where al roker criticized for him for not being aggressive enough and having the kids go to school buzz that storm was a little bit worse than expected and now he gets this storm and prepares for this storm and everybody does it and this storm, underprepares. >> probably be mad for him for that, too. >> he can't win. >> he can't lately. we're going to get to the politics of storm cover ran and storm preps with steve ratner who trudged in in the snow in just a few minutes. joe? >> let's bring in right now whdh

reporter victoria warren. she's live from millford massachusetts. victoria, i understand millford we're talking about dodging the bullet here. i see that mil ford is expected to get hit the hardest in massachusetts. no such luck for you in milford. >> no such luck. trust me i wouldn't be complaining if we did dodge a bullet on this one. you've been talking about than tense snow band of the two to three inches of snow an hour. that's pretty much what we're in right now. factor in the wind and it's literally like shards of glass just smacking you in the face. i'm going to show you a little bit of these whiteout conditions that we've been talking about. we do have the travel ban for non-essential folks, not allowed to be out on the roadway. pretty much we've just seen emergency workers. we've seen plow trucks. really this is why this visibility, this is what we're talking about, you know. you factor in the wind and the snow falling at this rate and

you really can't see where you're going. you come to a red light. maybe you get to stop. maybe you slide on through. those are the kind of dangerous situations that we're talk about. so we estimate we've got a little bit more than a foot of snow probably on the ground right now but then we've got this snow drifting over here. it clearly gets much deeper. this is a little bit of a snow pile leftover from a nuisance storm this weekend. most of this is the snowdrifting and the plowing that's been happening. this is the situation we've been talking about in milford. but in massachusetts we have an even more dangerous situation on the coast because they just went through a high tide cycle. there was some flooding out there. there were some voluntary evacuations happening. huh areally 10,000 or so customers without power. that's also another factor of the storm that we're dealing with here. we're live in milford, back to you dpis. >> the governor of massachusetts will have a news conference in 40 minutes. victorian warren thank you. still ahead on "morning

joe," much more coverage of the blizzard hitting the northeast. >> it still is a blizzard. >> yes. we are going to go live to more of the hardest hit cities and an update from connecticut governor malloy and plus a lot of strong images of the storm on social media. we're going to share the pictures with you this morning as well. stay with us.

joe." we have been covering obviously the blizzard of 2015, which at least for new york city has not turned out to be a blizzard. blizzard warnings lifted for gotham, but the storm is still barreling down on new england. and already the wind gusts have been absolutely devastating in some parts of new england. nantucket, 78 miles an hour. obviously a lot more snow

coming. in fact, there in the heart of the storm right now. we want to go right now to one of the hardest hit areas of the storm. up to four inches of snowfall per how has fallen overnight in suffolk county in long island new york. mcarthur airport. mika visibility is less than one quarter of a mile because of whiteout conditions. >> joining us now on the phone, suffolk county executive from long island new york. steve bellone. what's the latest? >> we haven't seen the worst case scenario in new york but out here in suffolk county on the eastern end of long island we're getting hammered pretty hard. conditions are bad. whiteout conditions. we've been driving in a plow all night. actually stopped to change some blades out. snow is accumulateingeaccumulating. very difficult conditions for the plow operators out here.

i would say the ban on travel vehicles has worked. that has been a success. we've not been in a position of having to take plows off the roads. we've been able to work through the night and make some progress. and very few accidents. i had a briefing from the police department this morning, and snowstorms like this normally very high accident counts. actually you can count them on less than a fewer than a hand the amount of accidents we've had so far. >> how prepared are you for power outages and other, you know things that you can't expect at this point? >> very concerned about power outages. fortunately so far we've been doing very well on that. we have a new -- relatively new power company out at pse&g. they're doing a good job at keeping the numbers low at this point. so far we're good on the power outages and doing fairly well. >> all right. steve, thank you very much. we'll check back in. with us now from laguardia

airport in new york city, nbc's luke russert. luke, you're probably all alone there. >> reporter: you are very astute observer, mika. you see behind me roads that would ordinarily be busy behind me starting out on the early shuttles. they're empty. i've got the tell you, mika the proactive warnings that you sort of saw by the officials yesterday, well, they really did their job. only a few dozen people had to spend the night here at laguardia. a lot of cancelations started yesterday, in the afternoon. almost all the flights -- in fact, all of them are canceled today so far. we see delays going into tomorrow. it's unclear when exactly air travel will resume. but because authorities were able to get the message out so early you do not have some of those horrific scenes we've seen in the past of people sleeping on cots not being able to charge their cellphones running low on food. the only people right here right now are really the media, a few

t tsa and security officials and one of the great people who opened up the shop inside the serve us bagels and coffee. aside from that most passengers got the memo and stayed put and rescheduled their lightflights. unclear when exactly the flights will take off. probably looking at tomorrow. they've still got to get the runways nice and clear. jfk we heard has more people camped out because you had the international travelers. but laguardia right now, it's empty but it could have been a lot worse had those warnings not gone on earlier, mika. >> all right. nbc's luke russert standing alone at laguardia airport where it's simply shut down until further notice. joe? >> let's go right now obviously it's very important whenever you have a storm like this or any breaking news situation like we have this morning. to go to. you're sherpas that can give you the local flavor, the local

feel. let's bring in right now one steve ratner. steve, i want to follow up on what willie was talking about. you look at the shots from park avenue. completely abandoned at 9:00 10:00, 11:00 at night. you look at empty subway cars. look at new york city this morning, you were gracious enough to walk in to us. you're a new york city native like willie. this has to be one of the first times you've seen this city as abandoned as you saw it last night and this morning. >> i can't remember. i've been through a fair number of snow storms in new york. i can't remember a mayor and governor so totally and thoroughly shutting down a city as these guys did. i walked down. i walked about 30 blocks to get here. and i think i saw one car. i don't know what he was doing there. other than that it was completely utterly desolate. and, of course the reason for -- part of the reason for all of this ends up being politics. >> okay. i'm sorry. somebody was talking in my ear. you say it was politics.

why is that? >> not that this was politics but snowstorms are a. touchstone in the political world. that we've seen most famously of course, maryland's 1969 have a blowup over a snowstorm. you saw mayor bloomberg have problems with a snowstorm. you seen mayor de blasio a year ago have problems with snowstorm. elected politicians react particularly vigorously to the prospects of big snowstorms. >> well, certainly, mika they act more vigorously and this is true of mayor bloomberg as well when they miss the first snowstorm. as bill karins said this would not have been an over reaction if the storm had shifted over 10, 20 30 miles more west because at that point the storm would have hit new york city right in the heart. >> yep. we still got a couple hours to go three up and down new eng which we're going to be covering here on "morning joe." coming up, how a response to a

snowstorm can make or break a politician. and the latest from bill karins.

all right. we are covering the blizzard which is barreling down right now on new england bringing massachusetts and other states in the region to a stand still. boston is not taking any chances. responding hours before the snow started to pile up.

roads are empty across the state after governor charlie baker who is having news conference in 26 minutes ordered a state of emergency and a statewide travel ban. logan international airport also empty just like in new york after inbound and outbound flights were canceled. boston public schools are closed through wednesday already. willie? >> a lot of politics surrounding this disastrous weather can sometimes mean bad news for politicians adding days of bad press on to the days of treacherous conditions. in atlanta last year as you remember miles of highway were left icy and jammed reminding some people of a scene from "the walking dead." it took some commuter 20 1/hours to get home. some school children were stuck at schools overnight. just a few years after another snowstorm that paralyzed the city for a week because of a lack of preparation. >> okay. thank you, mayor. good luck with the next storm. i hope that the two storms have helped a little bit. and if you would like to send us

some names of people who actually are responsible for the highways since you're not, i would love to talk to them. >> well, i feel terrible about anyone who was trapped on the highway and we did everything we could on a partnering fashion to clear our highways and to keep folks safe. >> who screwed up mayor? >> i think that we all have responsibility in terms of who screwed up. >> are you responsible or not? >> i shared what i was responsible for. images that you show -- >> oh, my gourd. >> -- as you talked about atlanta were often photos that were not in the city. >> but your government was still in session. you didn't cancel. >> it's just not helping you. >> that was a year i go this week mika talking to mayor reid. weather can also be devastated in places known for tough weather. in denver in 1982 the christmas eve blizzard shut down the city for days. it lost him re-election after 14 years in office. >> a year ago christmas day denver was hit with a snowstorm that dumped two feet of snow and

paralyzed the city for more than a week. there's a new mayor now and new snow emergency plan. >> in 1987 washington mayor marion barry rode out a d.c. snowstorm from los angeles while he was watching the giants and broncos play in the super bowl. snow brought down half century of machine politics rule in chicago and mayor richard daley died. michael was hand chosen as his successor but he lost reaekz because of his administration's snow response dubbed a manmade disaster. his "new york times" obituary reads in part, the city's snow removeal so terrible that people guessed mayor daley must have taken the snow plos splows with him. mayor john lindsey nearly saw his administration top until 1969 and that left 42 people dead and bureaus like queens got shoft with days of impassable roads while crews focused on manhattan. mayor michael bloomberg and governor chris christie both took it on the chin a little bit for being on vacation during

part of storms in 2010. >> we did not do as good a job as we wanted to do or as the city has a right to expect. when it works, it works and we take credit. when it doesn't work we stand up there and say, okay we did it and try to find out what went wrong and make that information public. >> i was not going to rescind my child's christmas gift especially once i was convinced we had a plan in place that this is not like in the 1800s when no one will be able to get me. believe me. my cellphone was ringing where i was much more than i would have preferred it to under normal circumstances when i'm away on a family vacation. but, you know, i was not going to look at my children and say, no, we're not going. >> and then there's our good buddy al roker who went after current new york city mayor bill de blasio a little bit during last february's snow. the mayor did not close the city schools claiming the national

weather service blew the forecast. al took to twitter to blast de blasio issuing his own prediction de blasio would only get one term. >> i respect al roker a lot. watched him on tv for many many years. it's a different thing to run a city than to give the weather on tv. so i am comfortable with our decision making. >> it's about safety. safety first for children. that's what we talk about. parents who can't afford to stay home, i get that too. what's more difficult, to know that your kids are going to stay home or all of a sudden figure out how to get them home when school let's out early. i made a prediction there would be only one term of his administration. i apologized for that. that was -- that was a little above -- below the line. >> al and mayor de blasio joe, have kissed up and made up long since. let's talk about what's happening over the last couple of days. a lot of people will second-guess shutting down the

bridges and up the ss tunnels and the subways. but you do have to say that politicians were decisive in the last couple of days whether it's governor malloy in connecticut or mayor de blasio governor cuomo, governor christie, let's get schools closed an not take any chances. >> i come from an area in northwest florida iks, i've been in new york over a decade. i've seen politicians that have overreacted and they are rarely if ever punished at the polls. i've seen politicians who have not reacted enough people have died because of it people have been stranded. we saw the chaos in atlanta. those are the politicians who are always punished. mayor de blasio obviously he made a decision. steve ratner said for political reasons. i think also if you look at this forecast. forecasters were telling us not politicians, that this was going to be one of the great blizzards of our time.

and speaking willie as you showed those clips of those politicians that have gotten in trouble. my favorite storm quote from any politician came in 1995. i was in washington, d.c. at the time. '95-'96, also obviously the new york area got hammered with a blizzard. marion barry's quote, god brought the snow god can take it away. >> wow. >> his plan -- his plan for snow removal not quite as aggressive as some of the residents of washington, d.c. would like. mika, i see that you have real news and would like to bring it to the table now. >> well, i mean before you make fun of the politicians for -- and quite frampgnkly you can't be in disneyland during a storm like this. we're not out of the woods. we have power out ams sages to report from hartford to boston. the governor of massachusetts is holding a news conference at 7:00 a.m. eastern time. just to give you a sense of how

prepared up and down the eastern seaboard you have schools closed harvard and m.i.t. canceled classes. in new york city the u.n. gave itself the day off. we have the stock exchange that's closed. the subway. i think this is the first time due to snow that subway service in new york city which really got people around i believe, during some major storms in the past, that was shut down as well. it's against the law in many major cities to be outside or on the road at this point unless you are a first responder, joe. >> but how absolutely bizarre. we right nowing looking at a scene going down fifth avenue just passing the apple store on 59th and 5th and now going straight down south 5th avenue. willie, how bizarre is it though? it's one thing if you have abandoned streets in new york city and you're in the middle of a blizzard but how strange to be seeing these empty streets with no snow? it's out of a will smith movie. >> i was going the say it looks

a little bit like "i am legend" when you walk around the city. it was that way last night, too. there were a couple of bars open with a handful of people in them, people who had to be in the city working. other than that nothing was open. only vehicles you saw on the streets at that point were emergency vehicles. and to wake up this morning and see during what should be really rush hour right now, no traffic crossing the bridges and tunnels that are jammed with people every morning. millions of people and no cars on the streets, nobody walking around. this city truly has been shut down. >> you know joe, sometimes we can be accused of being a little new york centric because -- just business it didn't hit here it doesn't mean in the next few hours we're not going to be watching this storm hit up and down the eastern seaboard. bill karins says at this point we're watching closely maine on down to massachusetts in terms of how hard this could be. >> yeah. it absolutely we talked to a

reporter in milford. they're expecting to get absolutely pounded over the next several hours. and across all of new england, boston still obviously the heart of the storm. willie geist, the good news is those are areas battle tested and battle hardened. electricity may go off and the streets may be impassable but they've been there before. they've done it before. i suspect the impact would not be as bad as it would have been had it hit let's say washington, d.c. which really there's always a question is washington a southern town or a northern town. and the answer is just wait until six inches of snow hit and then you find out that d.c. is still a southern town. but even new york city can be absolutely crippled by the type of snow that new england or sometimes just sort of brush off. >> yeah. and they're ready for it. again, the preparation that went all of the way down from washington up through maine, people took this storm very seriously, rightly so. as mika is right to point out.

maybe not going to be as bad as we thought in new york city. looking still at nearly two feet of snow up through connecticut con and massachusetts, this is a very serious storm. the other pat of it is the wind. that's the thing i noticed more than the snow coming in last night and this morning. the winds as you see up on the coastline there in plymouth massachusetts, are really really blowing. that can lead to tidal problems and flooding. they will have a lot to deal with up there. >> snow or no snow you are not going anywhere if you're in the eye of storm. amtrak is suspending service north of new york. there are no planes flying out of boston or new york at this point. and you're not allowed to drive. so you're not moving if you're north of new york city and in the eye of the storm. up next much more on the severe weather conditions. millions of americans are waking up this morning to a big mess. we're going to go live to the cities getting the hardest hit when we come back.

this morning the northeastern united states is virtually shut down because of a potentially historic blizzard. eight states are now in states of emergency as the brunt of the storm moved in overnight, but moments ago a blizzard warning was lifted for new york city. earlier forecasts called for up to three feet of snow in parts of connecticut, massachusetts, and new york. those numbers have now been downgraded, and parts of new england are now expected to see the worst, about two feet of snow. thousands are in the dark after losing power during the storm, including nearly 6,000 in massachusetts. we have full coverage. bill karins is bringing in the latest numbers and we have major travel troubles for anybody who wants to get in and out of new england. new york airports are shut down indefinitely as well as boston's logan airport and amtrak has

suspended service north of new york city. and in certain cities especially new york city and boston, you're not allowed to drive anywhere. basically if you are in new england you are not moving and you shouldn't be leaving your house at this point. the worst of this storm is not over yet. coming up is connecticut bracing for even more snow this morning as up to two additional feet could fall throughout the day. governor malloy joins us next on our special "morning joe" coverage.

all right. our special coverage continues. passengers on one virgin atlantic flight to london are waking up this morning at new york's kennedy airport. they have nowhere to go because of the travel ban in effect across new york city for nonemergency vehicles. the flight was canceled after it spent six hours waiting on the tarmac. that's a nightmare. airline officials say the 6:30 p.m. flight first returned to the terminal because of a sick passenger. the plane was deiced gaagain but a technical issue was discovered. this is a tweet from one of the passengers. the line coming off the flight he adds quote, we're stuck at jfk. no roads, no cabs no stores open, no hotel rooms. nightmare. virgin atlantic said we are doing everything that we can do ensure passenger comfort during this time and have issued meal vouchers and blankets in the airport. we're working closely with the airport authorities in order to minimize disruption and, yes,

they're doing their best. that's the bottom line here. everything is shut down. everything from maine down to new york shut down. there's no train service. boston's shut down its airports. new york have shut down their airports. smaller airports as well. we're looking at connecticut, no amtrak service, no plane service. the national guard has been called in to help respond to the winter storm. they're expecting up to three feet of snow. we're going to be hearing from governor dannel malloy in just a moment on that. also in boston the governor is going to hold a news conference the in a few minutes as well to see how the state of massachusetts is doing. wnd, also what's happening here in hartford i'm looking at this wire, is happening up and down new england as well. babyies tend to come during storms. i know personally that happens. a lot of people expecting babies are told to hang tight near the hospital in case that happens. so we'll be following that angle as well. coming up next, the governor of connecticut joins us for an update on how his state is coping and live reports from

cities getting hardest hit this morning.

mother nature has decided once again to come visit us. >> this is potentially a dangerous storm with significant accumulation of snow. >> this is going to be a significant storm. >> it is going to be, by all indications, worse and people have to be ready. >> 52 million people are in the path of this nor'easter.

>> in parts of the atlantic coast, this will feel just like a winter hurricane. >> the blizzard began blasting new york this afternoon. >> got everything shut down here in boston. everyone is urged to stay off the streets. >> looks like three to four inches an hour so coming down fast. >> and look at the mass exodus tonight. for the first time that anyone can remember new york city subways closing down for the snowstorm. >> no cars. there were no people. could have played snow football up and down park avenue. >> central park is closed. the last time that happened was hurricane sandy. >> disruption ripples through america's aviation system ahead of the blizzard. >> this is laguardia airport. it's a ghost town tonight. it may be wednesday before the nation's airlines attempt to put all their planes back in the air. >> grocery store shelves are going empty. >> i don't know why the rush on bread, but what the heck. you want more bread, i'm sure you're able to get it. >> only time will tell. reporting live from nassau county, stacey bell. >> i don't know what just happened there. >> a scene behind her there.

>> the wind picked up. the snow is coming down more heavily. we're in the teeth of this storm. >> it's literally like shards of glass just smacking you in the face. >> take precautions. be careful. a lot ahead of us. >> welcome to special "morning joe" blizzard coverage with joe willie, and me. we're going to get a full picture of exactly this storm stands with the governors of the states that are in the eye of the storm. we're going the hear from governor dannel malloy in just a few moments. also, a news conference by the governor of massachusetts, charlie baker, about to start. in an hour we'll hear from governor cuomo, as well, from new york state. new england is at a stand still at this hour. potentially historic blizzard barreling down at this hour on parts of new england after moving in overnight. it brushed by new york but eight states are now in states of emergency. earlier this morning the blizzard warning was lifted for new york city, as i mentioned. and a new york stock exchange

spokesman said today will be business as usual. they've changed their mind. the city turned into a virtual ghost town after transit has shut down and non-emergency vehicles have been ordered off the roads as a precaution. it's literally a ghost town on the streets of new york city. earlier forecasts called for up to three feet of snow in parts of kentucky massachusetts, and no, state. those numbers have now been downgraded. in parts of massachusetts and rhode island are now expected to see the worst. about two feet of snow. wind gusts have already topped 70 miles per hour in nantucket. right now there are 60 million people under a winter weather alert. and about 14 million people facing blizzard conditions right now. thousands are in the dark after losing power during the storm, including nearly 6,000 in massachusetts. we have a lot going on in terms of travel and getting the economy going again because new york's airports are literally shut down. subway service in new york city

was shut down as of 11:00 last night. i can't remember that happening. it hasn't happened due to snow. and train service from new york all of the way up into new eng gland is shut down as well. so if you are trying to get anywhere, you can't get anywhere because also streets are banned to drivers in major cities. definitely new york and boston and smaller cities as well. so we are right now looking at a section of the country, joe, that's literally at a stand still as we wait for this blizzard to pass through. >> it really is. of course new york stock exchange saying they're going to open today shows what a difference a couple hours over night makes. last night, of course as we heard in the open this was supposed to be a winter blizzard for new york city. last night and central park maybe six, perhaps seven inches. more of a gentle winter snowfall. that is not the case up and down the eastern seaboard. connecticut being hammered.

rhode island being hammered. boston, massachusetts, also still in the brunt of the storm. willie dpoois as we look at new york city it is a calm peaceful, gentle morning there. but completely shut down as you said last hour, like nothing you or new york native steve ratner have ever really seen. >> yeah. i think the only equivalent would be hurricane sandy. obviously those conditions were extremely different than what we saw today because this was all precautionary. i don't think a lot of us has seen an order as of 11:00 last night you could not get in and out of manhattan. all the bridges and tunnels on this island it truly became an you island last night were closed. subways were shut down first time ever. we may still have a picture. i rode the 1 train last night. as they got close closing time it was eerie. there were a couple of people on the platform.

when i got on the subway car i was the only person on the car. i can't remember even on a slow summer friday or saturday manhattan ever looking like that. once i got out on the streets, again, you look do you know iconic streets like fifth avenue, park avenue, no people no cars. maybe some people outside bars smoking cigarettes who had to be here working. but it's a strange feeling. then to wake up today and have that strange feeling of no vehicles and no people and yet not all that much snow on the ground. we're out here at rockefeller center. sidewalks have been shoveled. the guys have been out here working all morning. the streets look pretty good mika. it will be interesting to see at what point mayor de blasio and governor cuomo decide okay it's time to reopen the city and get back to business. >> smart move politically given what we've seen in the past. we've got connecticut governor dannel malloy joining us on the phone. i have a punch list for you. i know you brought the national guard in to help with snow removal. what's the status in terms of power outages? >> we're doing well.

power outages have not been a major problem in connecticut although we're having a lot of wind. we're not having wind with accumulation on wires and the like. and so we're in pretty good shape there. relatively few isolated. one situation caused by a plow hitting a pole because they were having visibility problems. >> what about the highways are they still shut down? >> highways are still shut down. we -- they're covered. i'm looking at camera pictures from around much of the state and in much of the state they are covered with snow. with this kind of wind what happened is -- and this is a light snow for most of the state. light snow meaning you know physically snow granular type of stuff. it's blowing. so you make a pass and within 15 minutes, the road is koved again. so we're going to stay on top of that. i think when the wind dies down we can really be on top of this thing and i look forward to, you know later in the day getting something back to normal. right now highways are closed. >> joe? >> governor obviously the state

of connecticut has at times many different weather patterns. certainly for fairfield county the worse has already passed. what about the rest of the state, is it an all clear for most of connecticut by now as far as future storms? >> i'm talking to you from the hartford area. and right on the hartford west hartford line. and, you know visit is very poor. there's a lot of wind and a lot of snow falling. i think what you're going the see in connecticut is a pretty wide range of anywhere of four inches in the western hills to as much as 24 inches in the southeastern portion of the state. with, you know a good swath of the state getting about 12 inches. 12 inches is a major storm here. it causes you know major traffic tie-ups and lots of accidents. the great thing about last night is in the state, on state roads we have a total of about 11 accidents. only one of those with injury because most people heeded our warning to stay off-roads that

we couldn't keep relatively clear and free flowing. >> that's great news. governor dannel malloy. dannel check back in with us. we're going to jump to massachusetts and new jersey right now. thank you for the update. let's dip into the shot of massachusetts. governor charlie baker is holding a news conference. we'll see how that's going. i think he's taking questions. i can tell you while we wait for this they get in place here new jersey has lifted their overnight restriction on travel for southern new jersey. here now are emergency officials giving a news conference in boston. >> main trans immigrationmission lines, basically the supply lines have gone down. first one went down over this evening and was -- they were operating at about 51% and while they were changing to that operational model, the second set of transmission lines went down. and due to safety and security

reasons, they are required to operationally shut down. they have two backup generators supplying power to the facility to secure the over all premises to make sure that all safety precautions inside the power plant are continuing on. so in is no public safety hazard at this time. typical -- >> we're watching -- we'll monitor this and see if any news comes out of it. they're talking about lines down at this point in massachusetts. the governor holding a press conference there with emergency officials that are monitoring the says. bill karins big picture. how is this looking, because i'm seeing travel restrictions in new jersey being pulled back a little bit. we heard about certain facilities in new york city deciding to open up here the u.n. in new york. it seems like some areas definitely got away without getting hit hard. >> i just got the update in. it's like there's such a fine

line between who gets nailed and who gets hardly anything. i just got the report in from sandwich massachusetts. 18 inches of snow already on the ground out here in cape cod. in the worcester area the oxford has 18 inches of snow on the ground. and in this worcester area in the 495 loop here you have 18 inches of snow on the ground and you still have about six hours to go in these heavy bands that will produce two to three inches an hour. if we get the three-foot totals they're going to be from the lowell area to worcester. providence, it's still snowing. wind gusts, highest was 76 miles per hour gusts reported on nantucket. in the boston area other areas toward the coast, it's less than that. right around 60 to 70-mile-per-hour. we had a foot and a half of the snow. we're at the peak of the storm right now. mostly eastern new england's problem. i. 95 from maine, bang door portland port smith area. when we go to the cameras and

reporters live towards plymouth and eastern mass it's a full-outrages blizzard. as we said hartford to new york city to new jersey it's going to be you clean up from a little might be nor snowstorm and go about your business later today. >> no doubt about it. as you said it is eastern new england's problem right now. that means it's john yang's problem because he's in the heart of the storm right now up in portland maine. john, we're looking at the maps. you are just getting absolutely hammered. tell us how bad it is right now and what a contrast it is in new york. >> joe, you're right. for the last couple of hours, it's been snowing at this rate. it's about a rate of a little more than -- more than two inches an hour. the winds have been about 20 miles an hour. not as strong as bill was talking about down south of us in massachusetts. but still, it's blowing the snow. you've already got the snow building up in drifts.

it is going to keep snowing at this rate all day long. the winds may pick up as the day goes on. it's not supposed to -- the forecasters say don't expect it to taper off until after sundown tonight and completely stop sometime tomorrow. payne maine governor said expect 18 inches. schools are closed. they've asked people to stay off the roads. the traffic you're seeing mostly snowplows. that looks like a delivery truck just passing behind me now. most businesses are closed. they are really hunkering down for this storm to be with us all day today here in portland. joe, mika? >> hey, john we're looking at traffic being suspended in most of the major cities it being a crime actually to go out in your

car. i see traffic traveling just fine behind you so i'm taking there's no restrictions there. >> reporter: what they've done is there are no -- there's not a mandatory ban. they've asked people to restrict non-essential travel. the streets are relatively clear. they've been plowing all night. they're snow covered right now. they've also been putting down salt or whatever chemical they use here to try to melt the snow. but traffic has been very very light. most of the traffic we've seen have been police snowplows, really actually we saw a mail truck earlier today, this morning keeping true to their motto of going through rain sleet, and snow and dark of night. but the traffic really has been relatively light, mika. >> john yang thank you very very much. and, joe, we're still looking at suspended travel though. so whether or not parts of new england get hit hard no with

unis going anywhere. >> john is getting absolutely hammered there. and then we go to the shot of willie in new york city. willie it's just like bill karins said the difference between being hammered like john is up in portland and in a relatively placid state that you've been there in new york city is a very small difference indeed. we see how lucky, you new york city was to dodge this weather bullet. >> you don't have to go up to massachusetts or connecticut. in new york city it feels like the snow has stopped. it's cold and windy but now the snow removal has begun. move east to long island we're getting foot and a half measurements at islip. and if you go to motauk it's more than that. the snow is heavy. i think there's a tech tags because so much of the media is in new york city they all wake up and look out their windows and say, well, this is a did. don't tell that to people in

long island or connecticut or massachusetts or where you saw john yang. this is a very serious storm for a lot of people. if not what it was billed to be in new york city. >> it is a serious storm for essentially new england getting hammered. as you said, eastern long island, also bearing the brunt of the storm as well. steve ratner you look at these pictures of this storm where it is actually having a major impact. you understand that could have been new york city. i suspect that most people will actually think that the governor and mayor made the right call last night. >> there's no question they made the right call because as bill karins, all of you pointed out, if that storm had been 30 50 miles to the west new york could be under two to three feet of snow. for new york it would have been completely paralyzing. so i think they made exactly the right calls. i think we're all happy that it turned out not to be that big a deal. i agree with willie. i walked down 30 blocks from uptown this morning and it was

an incredible surreal sight. incredibly beautiful. nobody out. nothing going on. and just the city that was very much asleep. >> the city of millions and millions of people mika all quiet right now but i suspect as you said with the news about the new york stock exchange opening up the united nations may get some work done today, i doubt it but they may. have to be political. that new york city is probably going to be waking up pretty soon and then those streets are going to get active. >> what i don't really understand is they're going to open the stock exchange but the subways are shut mass transit is shut still a travel ban. i'm not sure how anybody gets to these places to do any work. >> good question. all right. mika, what's next? >> the new jersey governor has lifted parts of the travel ban. also, as you mentioned, the stock exchange and the u.n. looking at getting work done but there's still a lot of ways in which this storm is impacting our lives and our economies.

with the airports and new york city and boston still shut down smaller airports shut down as well. amtrak, no trapes moving north of new york city and suspended service from new york to d.c. schools are closed all across new england. harvard has canceled classes for today. m.i.t. as well. also businesses shut down across new england. and to give you a sense of how big they thought this would be they stopped subway service in new york city as of 11:00 last night. they just shut it down which they haven't done before. you get a sense that they were preparing for a big one. and some parts of new england are still getting it. so still ahead on "morning joe," full coverage of this blizzard as many americans on the east coast are just waking up this morning. we'll go live to tom costello and a very empty laguardia airport. you're watching special coverage on "morning joe."

just moments ago parts of new jersey learned they are allowed back on the roads following a powerful blizzard that is slamming parts of the

east coast. governor chris christie lifting the travel ban for southern new jersey. that a plays to south of i-95. residents are still being urged to avoid driving if possible. new jersey transit remains shut down as are major bridges and tunnels. here with us now from laguardia airport, nbc's tom costello with the story there. tom? >> can you believe this? look at this. you're a new yorker, aren't you, mika? >> yes. >> can you believe this? >> i've never seen this tom. >> this is laguardia airport shut down. there are more members of the media here than there are anybody else. jfk, shut down. newark, shut down. you know, i heard you and joe talking during the break about what a small proportion of the population is actually hit by the snow. yeah, but, you know what? 30% of the nation's air travel comes through new york airspace. if you shut down the big apple and you shut down boston and you shut down philly the ripple

effect across the country this morning is profound. 4500 flights nationwide canceled on top of the 3,000 yesterday. nothing is moving today in the northeast. and that therefore, affects flights all over the country. chicago, atlanta, toronto, los angeles, dallas all of these cities being effected because of the decision to shut down these airports. you know, you're going tv the new york post and other papers questioning why they would do that on six to eight inches of snow. of course, they didn't know how the storm was going to turn out. the airlines today are not flying in here. there's not even a plane on the ramp here because they don't want their planes sitting here in the event of an ice storm or a blizzard. so the planes are gone. now they're going to have to figure out over the next 24 hours how to get them back in to boston, new york philly et cetera eventually and then resume operations. that's not going to happen today. maybe tomorrow.

there aren't even employees inside the airport. there's nobody here. so there's nobody to run the place at this moment. there are no planes. it's not doing to change today. this is going to really affect travel nationwide. by the way, about 300 people we're told at jfk airport spent the night. they were supposed to be on planes headed to europe and then for various reasons they got called back to the airport. we have some reports of people set on the ramp out there on their plane for hours, in one case we're told five hours. we haven't verified that. then they came back to the airport, spent the night. so there were some upset passengers at jfk. the story is going to be how this impacts the entire national transportation grid. amtrak also closed in the northeast corridor from new york up to boston. >> exactly. >> back to you. >> impact on business as well. there's a lot of business travel happening during the week that's just not happening now. >> yeah. >> clearly politically, might have been the smart thing to do to shut down the airports. but i want to ask you a little bit more about the ripple

effects since you cover aviation. how are the airlines going to be able to get these customers back on track, handle all these flights that have been canceled and how that impacts other airlines and also how they handle their customers. >> a couple of points there. if you're one of those people who have been displaced, i'm sorry to tell you but you're not going to get compensation from the airlines. they're not going to put you up on a hotel or pay for your meals because this is viewed as an act of god, right? you're on your own. you've got to i a for your own hotel. they are waiving the change fees so you should not have to be paying a fee for rebooking. it's going to probably take 72 hours or so once they resume operations to get everybody back in their seats and back to where they want to go. that said this is really one of the slowest travel periods of the year. nobody is on vacation. kids are in schools. everybody is back from the christmas break. so the truth is if this had to hit on a pretty slow travel week

this is a pretty slow travel week right now. and one other point. the airlines all -- they budget for this kind of thing in their fourth quarter and first quarter. it was a pretty easy fourth quarter for them. not a lot of delay or cancelations. even with modest snow and storms over thanksgiving and christmas. but they budgeted for this kind of event and they should be able to absorb it pretty easily. >> i just saw two human beings walk behind you. tom costello -- >> those are the two people who work here. >> there you go. we'll get back to you. just to keep you company. thanks. we go next to hard hit long island where msnbc's adam reiss is standing by. they're looking at power outages being the biggest point of concern there? >> mika, good morning to you. 24 hours almost continuous snowfall here on long island. take a look. we've got drifts two to three feet. you can see wind gusts earlier

were about 30 miles an hour down to about 15 20 miles an hour. look to my right. the long island expressway which is sometimes called the world's biggest parking lot right now completely empty. desolate. it's like a ghost town with sunlight we can actually see it but we haven't seen any cars. some plows coming through. about 650 plows on the roads here. clearing the long island expressway. it's difficult to keep up with this snow. like you said we're going to see some power outages, power lines down trees down storm surge on both sides. we're surrounded by water. if you're at home stay home stay safe. stay warm. have a hot cocoa. here we see a car comedy. hearty soul. we haven't seen many cars at all overnight. occasional cars but otherwise completely desolate. it's a ghost town mika. >> okay. that's the bottom line. adam reiss, thank you. coming up perhaps the biggest question for new england

as the storm bore down on massachusetts yesterday was this, will the patriots be able to fly to phoenix for the super bowl? good news, if you like the patriots, they got out. joe, are you happy? >> well, i tell you what. they got out obviously, mika. it's speaking of the patriots. about a year ago mark decided for the "new york times" he was going to follow one nfl player around and lucky mark lobovich he picked tom brady. his profile of brady's ups and downs this year. it's going to be on the front page of the "new york times" magazine this weekend, obviously for super bowl weekend. we're going to have mark here to tell us about that coming back. we've got a lot more news to cover. we're going to be covering obviously the blizzard that continues to rage across new england for the rest of the morning but also of course a lot more big news to cover. a saudi funeral coming up that brings together barack obama, john mccain, and condi rice

going over to saudi arabia just to show you how important they are as an ally. also the big news yesterday, the koch brothers talking about dropping about $900 million in the presidential election of 2016. making them easily the most powerful outside group. and actually now having them rival the republican national committee, for being the most influential. also some other news that we're covering. health care costs, much lower than anybody expected. we're going to hear what some experts are explaping why that is and what impact that could have over the next decade on budget deficits. that much more and mika will go back to the storm desk my friends, to continue covering the blizzard of 2015. >> blizzard warnings were issued from jersey shore to maine. new york is expected to get three feet of snow. i can't imagine how small the

footballs are going to be deflated in new england.

all right. our special coverage continues. we're going get to other news a moment. we also have sam stein with news washington, d.c. steve ratner is trudged in from the snow along with joe willie, and me. just some quick updates on the blizzard. travel bans in parts of new york including new york city have been lifted. so complete ghost town coming to

work this morning. the subways were shut down but it looks like the travel bans in bits and pieces are being lifted in new york city now, the travel ban has been lifted. the airports are still closed. laguardia and jfk are completely empty. same with boston and smaller airports up and down the eastern seaboard. and train service has suspended north of new york and partially suspended between new york and d.c. so this is really a business story and a travel story as well. what's that alex? all of new jersey is open now in terms of travel? okay. good. so the roads in new jersey are open. we want to look at other news stories this morning. this comes to us from "the guardian ifthe kurds have regained full control in kobani, expelling all isis forces from the area. kurdish militias say u.s. led air strikes in the three-month effort to remove the islamic

state. 90% of kobani is under control of kurdish forces. it took more than 700 strikes to help push the militants from the city. the political network led by the k ofoch brothers put a tries tag on the spending plan for 2016. it's poised to pump in $889 million ahead of the next white house election. that's a lot of money. more than twice the amount the groups raised during the last presidential campaign. as "the washington post" put it the koch network is challenging the political parties to influence when it comes from everything to get out the vote operations to technology and resources. joe, that's a big, big impact. >> that's a very big impact. sam stein, there are a lot of big donors including charles and david koch that made no secret of the fact they didn't like how the republican party had spent their money in the last elections. they certainly were angered as a lot of people were angered by

what the official republican party did, what carl rove did, what others did. and after 2012 they basically said we're going to take matters into our own hands. we're going to target ourselves because you people don't know what you're doing. as i hear this though i'm reminded of that phrase that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. we see this. there's always an,bb and flow. in 2008 barack obama raised over a billion dollars. john mccain didn't have enough money to campaign. you knew it was only a matter of time for this to rise on the right. just like you know this is going to i'm sure hillary clinton and bill clinton are not going to sit back scratching their heads as we go to 2016. this is a whole new ball game. it's not just democrats that have a reason to worry. it's the republican national committee and the establishment republican party in washington, d.c. >> yeah. i mean hillary clinton and bill clinton will be scratching a lot

of tickets for the next week just trying to catch up with the $889 million the koch brothers are going to put in here. the broader point is there's a ton of mop any coming into the political system. you're right. republican party is going to have to reto this as well. a lot of messages is going to be done outside the republican party. a lot of investments and candidates will be decided outside the republican party apparatus. essentially what the koch brother entities created is a third political party. put this in historical perspective. $889 million they're going to spend, i'm not sure they didn't round up to $890 but the $889 million they're going to spend is more than all the presidential candidates in the 2004 races spent combined. $720 million. so we have seen an exponential growth trigger bid barack obama's president decision in 2008 to get out of campaign finance funds and the supreme court decision with citizens united. >> steve ratner that really was a turning point when barack obama said he was not going

to -- that he was going to take public funds. he decided not to. he was able to raise and any politician would have done the same thing he was able to raise over a billion dollars. it changed the game forever. then citizens united came along. changed it even more. what's interesting here i can tell you as far as republican donors go this is also the sort of the free marketplace of ideas and also the free flow of money. carl rove is not going to be getting a lot of this money that the kochs are going to get. the rc rz not going to get the money. a lot of this is not new money to politics. a lot of this is going to be a transfer from republican establishment figures in washington, d.c. that tried and failed and people say, well, i gave carl rove a lot of money in '12. i gave the rnc a lot of money in '12 and they miserable. they are transferring the money

there. >> yeah. i think the point that you and sam have both made about this becoming a separate political force is right. you saw the koch brothers beauty contest the other day where everybody paraded in front of them to try to get their support. and it changed the dynamics of the republican party. on the democratic side where i spend my time, we don't really have anything quite like this. i think when you look at the numbers for 2014 you saw the democrats were able to be come pet competitive financially but in a more diffused centralized way. i'm sure they will again this time but again, in a different way than by having somebody like the koch brothers with $889 million to spend. >> het me just -- can i add one thing which is that one of the elements we're not discussing here is that while money to the parties and to the candidates is transparent, you have to list the name of the donors a lot of these entities being set up by

the, can koch brothers, we won't know who the dope nors s donors are. people write the checks and the public will never get a sense of who is writing the checks. that's the one element that i think needs to be discussed a little bit more detail because for campaign finance reform advocates that's the scariest part. it's not necessarily the size of the money. it's the lack of transparency around it. >> we're going to get -- >> mika obviously this is something that democrats are going to be doing as well. they haven't done it as effectively as republicans did in 2014. but as i said at the beginning, there is always for every action there's always in politics an equal and opposite reaction. expect hearing over the next several months a democratic response to this. >> yeah. some other news now. the government says the cost of covering millions of americans with health care policies is significantly lower than previously thought. according to the congressional budget office. the newest projections put the

cost at $571 billion from 2015 through 2019. that's down 20% from earlier projections of $710 billion. officials cite several factors for the drop including a slow down in the group of health care costs while subsidies to lower income americans will cost less than expected. they are still a substantial figure. and as many as 30 top officials will join president obama in a u.s.-led delegation to meet saudi arabia's new monarch and pay respects to his late predecessor king abdullah. reuters calls it a hastily scheduled trip that underscores the importance of the american relationship with the arab power. among those visiting senator john mccain, former secretaries of state james baker and condoleezza rice and john brennen. pretty extensive group, joe. >> it really is. willie geist, there have been a number of countries felt snubbed

by barack obama over the past several years. saudi arabia not one of them. in this moment you see just how important saudi arabia is to america's leaders. >> yeah. absolutely. and it's one of those relationships that is controversial because we have a relationship with them for obvious reasons, economic, oil, and others. but there are parts of that democracy that they call it that are not very democratic and things should be taken a close look at. it's always been not just for president obama, for all presidents with the relationship to saudi arabia a difficult relationship but an important one for obvious reasons. travel bans ending in much of the northeast now including all of new jersey and new york city. still, blizzard conditions are intensifying along the coast in cities like plymouth massachusetts. we'll have the latest information you need to know this morning on the storm. also ahead, why mark leibovich says top brady cannot top. he joins us next to inplain that.

. welcome back to our special coverage the office of new york governor andrew cuomo says mta and path service is expected to be restored system wide later today. just moments ago governor cuomo also lifted travel bans for all of the state except for suffolk county. streets in new york city and the rest of the state became virtual ghost towns as non-emergency vehicles were ordered off the roads but forecasters say the city in other areas got less snow thankfully than expected. it is a very different story, however, in suffolk county on long island. a blizzard warning is still in effect there. there you can see it sideways snow. and well over a foot of snow has already fallen at long island's airport. whiteout conditions were reported tragically police say a 17-year-old boy was killed while snow tubing last night. we're also watching new england,

airports closed up and down the eastern seaboard, boston and new york making for a lot of different changes and plans for airlines and business travelers as well. willie? >> governor chris christie also effectively opened up the state of new jersey for business again as well. travel ban lifted there. meanwhile, five days away from the super bowl. the new england patriots have arrived in phoenix. they left early to beat the storm. gearing up for the big game. before they left their home turf yesterday their fans gave them a big sendoff. in boston here's tom brady thanking the crowd at the rally. >> it's been a long ride. we started about nine months ago here in foxborough and the win last weekend was awfully sweet. to do it in front of our crowd, we have the best fans in america. we're going the go represent you guys in arizona as best we possibly can, as we have all season. >> here with us now chief national xoernt for "new york times" magazine new england patriots fan as well, we should

be pointed out, mark leibovich. he interviewed tom brady for the upcoming issue. in it mark asked brady to weigh in on deflategate. brady called the charge ridiculous that day but mark writes, when he called me from his home he seemed to be venturing into a most unbrady-like territory. nervousness. he said he was immersed in studying film of the seahawks and was in full ignore the noise mode using a belichick catch phrase. brady had previously said to me he tends to view most things in his life through prism of people who doubt him, his ability, his age, the legitimacy of his biggest achievements. and now his integrity. i was reminded of something brady said to me days earlier as we looked back on his season quote, like with all the stuff we've been through, he said it's not like here you go tom, silver platter, and here's the trophy. no, you had to go through all this stuff. how amazing if we win this super bowl. tom brady asked mark leibovich. amazing piece. it will be on the cover, i think, right, on "the new york

times" magazine this weekend. tom brady cannot stop it's called. he strikes me as guy -- i knew about he wasn't drafted until the sixth round, not a big star necessarily at michigan. a guy who really carries a chip on his shoulder. >> he does. and actually that's not uncommon among elite athletes. michael jordan still talks about not making ninth grade team or something like that. he does. and i think that that's been a great motivator for him and it has been through his career and in a weird way things like this deflategate thing can be something that the team uses to rally around. but also something that brady looks at through the prism of adversity adversity. what's interesting about him is there are these dueling narratives. on one hand everyone knows his story, he's the ultimate underdog. on the other hand, though, he's the most envied man in america in many ways. married to giselle, you know rich, football player good looking and all that. so these things kind of clash. one of the reasons i decided to

spend some time with him and to sort of see what makes him tick is because i thought he's one of the more narrowly drawn athletes out there and i thought it would be nice break from politics to sort of be in his orbit. >> you know mark what also clashes and i'm serious here is, you know, you've been a patriots fan your entire life. we remember the patriots back in the '70s, '80s. being a horrible team. you called them hapless but loveable. how strange now that for young kids the new england patriots have -- their stadium was a dump. you remember them playing at fin way. how strange now they become this ruthless killing machine and tom brady is the tip of the sphere? >> well, it's funny. there's this weird disdense among boston people over 40 my age, i'm over 40 the -- just i mean, teams like the red sox and patriots were really really known for their futility when we were growing up. all of a sudden you have a generation of kids 15 years old, who have lived through like

ten championships between the patriots and red sox and celtics and bruins. so it's weird. but, no it is strange to be rooting for such a nonunderdog in a weird way it's likenonunderdog. it's like rooting for the yankees, which if you're from boston is all good and true. >> i'm a yankees fan so i'm going to let that slide. part of it has to do with brady's age. maybe the end is on the horizon here. he's talking about playing deep into his 40s and motivated by things like the patriots drafting a quarterback last year to start that succession plan. he talks here about playing until he's 43 years old and he believes he can do it. >> he didn't put a number on it, but he seriously thinks he can play well into his 40s. one of the things fascinating about reporting the piece is seeing how meticulously he plans his life, his diet, his

workouts. he has very little else in his life besides football and family. it's a level of commitment that i think is quite admirable. someone like johnny manziel could look at. i u hope he makes it. i think when you're 37 and when you're in the nfl, you feel great one day and all of a sudden you don't. >> mark this is an incredible piece. "new york times" magazine cover story coming up this weekend, thank you so much. >> we look forward to it. still ahead, we go live to massachusetts, which is see ging a strong storm surge as the blizzard bares down on new england. more coverage here on "morning joe."

a little update no postal service for a large part of the northeast according to the u.s. postal service today. governor cuomo says system wide service expected to resume this morning. so we're opening up a little bit in some areas of the country. with us now from plymouth massachusetts, is where mike psi dell is reporting from. >> good morning, the tide has

backed off. let's talk about the snow. we have had least 16 inches. we have had wind gusts up to hurricane force. this is what happens 37 we have drifts out here about four feet deep. we have huge drifts around town. that's an issue. that's why it's hard to keep the roads open. but at high tide this morning about 4:30 the water from the atlantic came right through the harbor here and the entire front yard here at the east bay grill was under water. now the tide has backed off, but let's pan out there and you can still see the waves crashing on the sea wall. we have protection unlike other towns where they have had significant flooding and had volunteer evacuations. the water is still cascading in the parking lot. it was under water with wave action and white caps until an hour ago. but we're not done yet. we're going to have another high

u tide from 3:00 to 7:00 this afternoon. same areas sandwiched down to the cape. more coastal flooding beach erosion and a lot more snow from boston. travel curtailed at logan airport. probably no flights until tomorrow afternoon. mass transit is shut down in boston. at least here in massachusetts, the travel ban in massachusetts continues and for good reason. if you go out on the streets here, it's just a virtual whiteout. even though the snow is not coming down as hard as it was. a warning until tomorrow morning. that's because even though the snow stops we'll have the ground blizzards blizzards. winds are gusting over 50 miles per hour and will do that through a good part of the afternoon. this is about as bad as i have seen it in my career, the combination of snow and surge. it's like a winter time tropical

storm. >> what you're seeing with mike right there is why there are states of emergency declared in eight states. l certainly the storm is impacting much of the country. mike, thank you very much. still ahead, the latest on the blizzard. bill karins has the up to the minute track of the storm and exactly where it's headed in the next few hours, stay with us.

mother nature has decided once again to come visit us.

>> this is potentially a dangerous storm with significant accumulation of snow sdplp this is going to be a significant storm. >> it's going to be by all indications worse and people have to be ready. >> 52 million people are in the path of this nor'easter. >> on parts of the atlantic coast, this will feel just like a winter hurricane. >> the blizzard began blasting new york this afternoon. >> got everything shut down here in boston. everyone is urged to stay off the streets. >> three to four inches an hour. it's coming down fast. >> for the first time anyone can remember new york city subways closing down for the snowstorm. >> people could have played snow football. >> central park is closed. the last time that happened was hurricane sandy. >> 4500 flights nationwide cancelled. it may be wednesday before the airlines attempt to put all their plans back in the air.

>> grocery store shoef shelves are going empty. >> if you want more bread, i'm sure you're able to get it. >> only time will tell. >> i don't know know what just happened there. >> we are in the teeth of the storm. >> if you're at home, stay home, stay safe. >> take precautions, be careful, a lot ahead of us. >> all right, joe we're cover covering the blizzard and depending on where you are, it could be the tale of two storms. the worst appears to be on the way out in the northeast. governor cuomo who is holding a news conference right now has lifted the travel ban in new york york. today will be business as usual. new jersey governor chris

christie lifted the travel ban for his entire state. but the storm is still barrelling down on parts of new england. more than 13,000 people are without power in massachusetts. some areas have more than a foot of snow with more still expected. wind gusts of more than 70 miles an hour are being reported. charlie baker in massachusetts ordered a state of emergency there and a statewide travel ban. logan international airport is empty. after inbound and outbound flights were cancelled. more than 7500 total flights were cancelled through today across the northeast. that includes laguardia and jfk. we have thousands of flights being cancelled and the aftermath of that to cover. let's go straight to meteorologist bill karins for the latest on the storm track.

>> we're seeing the peak of the storm. the snow totals are coming as everyone is waking up. we're getting impressive reports. connecticut is the leader on the board at 26 inches of snow. now we have our first two feet snow reports coming in. just to show you what a difference it makes. central park and new york, eight inches of snow. we can drive east and get 25 inches of snow. out on cape cod, the latest was a foot and a half. i'm still waiting for boston areas. the last reports during the middle of the night towards early morning was around ten inches, but those totals have probably gone up. the storm exploded. it was just as powerful as expected. that hasn't changed. the storm was 25 to 50.

that was supposed to make it to new york city. that's why new york city only got eight inches of snow instead of the double of that. philadelphia hardly saw anything. there's still snow showers and still some slippery roads to d.c. and baltimore this morning. we still have snow through areas of southern jersey. it's very light. the heavy stuff is often in eastern new england. one thing we haven't had a lot of reports of is widespread power outages. i was most concerned with long island and the the history of this. but because. the storm is a little off the coast, all of the really strong winds that can potentially knock down trees and power was in eastern mass and cape cod. they are battle tested and built for 70 mile per hour winds. that's why we haven't had a lot of reports of power outages. they are still not going to be able to travel. the blue band from portland they were getting nailed. we're going to get someone close to three feet of snow it's

probably from wooster back through the norwich area in northeastern sections of connecticut. look at the latest wind gusts. 54-mile-per-hour wind gusts, that's how you get drifts up to five to six feet. again, it's really eastern new england's problem all day today and so far, so good on the power outages. but the snow is going to continue through the daylight hours. >> we'll watch that. let's bring in victoria warren live from milford, massachusetts, which is one of the hardest hit cities in that state. victoria, take it away. >> reporter: we are in that intense band and we have been for a few hours where the snow is falling the a a rate of two to four inches an hour. like you have been saying, the power outages aren't too widespread widespread. 22,000 customers without power. let me paint the picture. the winds have subsided just a little bit and that's helping with the visibility.

not so much of a whiteout condition as it was a few hours ago. over here this is about what we have in terms of accumulation. accumulation is one thing, but really what we're seeing a lot of with the winds are the snow drifts. it gets much deeper. this is the snow drifts pile that we have been talking about. i want to point this out. this right here is a fire hydrant. they are going to be going out and dig ingging them out. we still have our travel ban so if you're nonessential, people are abiding by that and that's very good news. the governor said so far, so good. this is a bad storm, but we are weather tested. we do deal with this 2013 was the last blizzard that we dealt with. speaking with some police officers, they say the drifts this time around are even worse than that. but so far, so good. if we can just get out of the band where the snow is falling two to four inches an hour we might be able to see light at

the end of the tunnel. >> let's go to new jersey now where the weather channel is live in new jersey. how does it look? >> it kind of looks snowy. . snowy and feels breezy. we have five to eight inches of snowfall. bill brought up a good point. he mentioned this storm were a few more miles closer less snow. we could be talking feet here. but as it stands, i would say five to eight. for the viewers across america, you'll notice the flakes moving from one side of the screen to the other pretty quickly. with that same wind we're going to have drifts. so people who might live in this region might step outside with a measuring stick and say we only got. five inches some got eight. but the drifts are going to pile up due to the wind. right behind me we have less of a pile on the roadways.

a few more cars out and about because governor christie lifted the travel ban. even though the ban is lifted, you're advised to stay off the road if possible. essential vehicles like this gentleman here, part of the police department. we have seen some of the other local departments out and about. at the same time plenty of snowplows. we're going to see probably less work of the snowplows into the overnight as drier air comes through. but still a lot of shovels that are going to have to move a lot of this stuff and try to get things back to normal. that's what i've got for you right here. trying to get out of the big three airports in the region it's going to be very difficult the next couple days. boston and logan, not going to happen at all. back to you. >> thank you so much reynolds wolf. let's bring in willie right now. as mika said off the top of this hour, it has been a tale of two storms and that really turned on the fact that the storm moved 25

to 50 miles further east than expected. of course, we saw through northern new england, they are going to get absolutely hammered today. but in new york city last night, you and millions of other people made preparations and started moving towards 30 rock last night. and what you saw was remarkable as a guy that's grown up in the new york area and also it's interesting. youp saw some things that you and other new york natives have not seen their entire life. >> i live 50 blocks noltrth of here, so when we have to come into work i assumed there would be no way to get here so i got a hotel room right up the street. riding the subway, they were all be empty before they were shut down at 11:00. the streets were nearly completely empty. if you look at park avenue. i had my run at the street. you could have played football up and down that street.

we are now though see ging the city come back to life. it was an extraordinary measure at 11:00 to shut down subway service, shut down the buss. we just got word from the governor that starting at 9:00 eastern time the subways and buss will start to come online and by noon they should have full sunday service, which means it won't be as frequent as it usually is during the week but you'll be able to get where you're going. word from the port authority that the bridges and tunnels that were closed sealing off manhattan have been reopened. governor christie reopened the state of new jersey. while the roads are open and you can be out if you need to, still better not to be out if you don't have to. most people have chalked this up as a snow day. but even just looking behind me now, i see taxis up and down fifth avenue. new york now after being shut down essentially for eight hours has started to crawl back to life. >> willie let's go to long

island, where adam reese is standing by. what are the challenges there? >> reporter: good morning, it's still coming down pretty hard. you can see the snow is coming down. we've got drifts here two to three feet. you see the wind gusts still about 20 miles per hour. it's about 17 18 degrees. it feels like 6 degrees. the governor said the hardest hit area is suffolk county. take a look over here. this is the long island expressway usually packed with cars cars. completely empty. we have seen a couple cars come out, but other than those few cars that you see right now, there have been plows on the roads here on long island. we'll be looking for power outages, trees down stay at home stay safe stay warm until this passes. it hasn't passed yet. it's continuing to come down hard. mika? >> adam thanks.

>> steve, let me bring you in here. we're following this storm across new england. new york city spared in part, but also the economic impact as mika has brought up is pretty devastate devastating. you look at all the air traffic that's been halted. you look at the fact that a business day has been lost. there's going to be a hefty price tag to the storm. even though new york dodged the storm by about 40 miles. >> absolutely, we were lucky in dodging the worst of it. i do also think that there are political leaders are going to come out of this well. even though perhaps you could argue we were overprepared for

it we were expecting a much worst storm and they dealt with it properly and bringing the city back online quickly. this will work to their credit when the storyies are written. >> steve, you're close to mayor bloomberg, so you have seen up close what the impact is on a politician especially a new york city politician when he or she doesn't respond as aggressively as they should to a storm like the one that we were expecting to get. you look at those pictures in our report earlier this morning of what happened when john lindsey did not respond the way he should have responded. this is a guy seen to have a great political future but it went up in smoke after that storm. >> yeah, it's an interesting thing about snow. it does seem to be a potential career render for a lot of politicians, as you said. in 1969 it ended john lindsey's career in a time he was hoping

to run for president. mayor bloomberg in 2010 happened to be away when a storm hit and he had to dig out from it. you saw the clips earlier in the show of him being very open and saying, look i screwed up. when i screw up i say so. what we haven't talked about is it was just a year ago when we had a relatively small storm, but the upper east side of manhattan didn't get plowed for whatever reason and people assumed it was some political undertone to all that. so part of the reason you saw him being so aggressive this time around is he had a bad storm a year ago right out of the gate. >> once bitten twice shy is the case not only with mayor de blasio but michael bloomberg and other politicians. you may be able to survive one missed storm, you can't survive two. all that said pollitics aside, i

don't think there's a meteorologist in north america that would fault andrew cuomo for reacting the way they did. this was lining up to be one of the great. blizzards of the past 25, 30 years. as bill karins has been telling us this morning, it actually came to fruition. it was the blizzard they were expecting, it just happened offshore and happened 25 30 miles further east than we expected. still it is hitting new england as we speak right now. >> and whether it was a pain in the butt or not for people trying to travel get on trains or fly somewhere or run a business it had to be done. steve just talked about a couple of events in the past couple years with chris christie going to disneyland with his family which didn't go over well when a storm hit new jersey. got. to be ready. politicians are in charge of making sure the government runs and that the trains go on time

or stop when it's too dangerous. they couldn't have been more careful this time around and it was worth it. we're going to take a look at the impact of some of these travel restrictions including the planes and the airports being shut down. bans have started to get lifted in terms of the roads in the new jersey area and new york area. the streets were opened in new york city, but it will likely take days for the airlines to recover as air space over the tri-state region is still all but empty following massive travel restrictions, which are still in place. we go live to laguardia, next on "morning joe."

we had a storm several weeks ago where i believe the forecast was for a relatively modest amount of snow and we then had seven feet of snow in buffalo. and we didn't close roads because we weren't anticipating seven feet of snow. i made a comment that the weather forecast was not 100% accurate, which offended weather forecasters all across the country and was degraded for days for criticizing the weather forecast. so on theory of live and learn and a little wiser, weather forecasters do the best they can and we respond to the best information that we have. >> that was new york governor andrew cuomo at his news conference with what he learned since his back and forth with

the national weather service during the last storm. let's go to bill karins with updates. >> we take so much heat for when we're wrong, so when we're right, it's like pile on. >> you nailed it it. how are we doing? where's this going? >> the blizzard is now about to become historic. up to this point it's been a blizzard. one that would occur once every two or three years. but this snow band the one we're advertising the last couple days has set up and has parked itself now over eastern sections of new england including the massachusetts area. the part that's about to become historic is what i've been advertising. wooster, massachusetts, just got 24 inches of snow. the band of snow is sitting over them. why historic? the all time record snowfall for one storm is 32 inches of snow. we're only seven inches away from the all time record. this band of snow is sitting and

parked right over the top of them and it should be there all morning long. here's the wooster area. the blue is where we get two to four inches an hour. it is cold it's a light, powdery snow. so sometimes you get a 10 to 1 ratio of a wet snow. this is like a 20 to 1 ratio. we're easily going to top this. wooster get be near 40 inches by the time it's done. we're in new york city, a lot of the media is in new york city it was a relative bust. but eastern new england, this is an historic event. thankfully we haven't lost too much power. >> that's epic what's happening in wooster. >> the wooster area if you talk to friends and relatives there, they'd be telling you this is one of worst storms they have

ever seen. we don't want to give the impression because new york city is now back up and running that this isn't an historic event. this is one that will go down in the record books and will be studied for many different reasons in eastern new england. i'll update you. probably three hours from now we'll probably hit the all time record snowfall record there. >> we'll watch what's going on. the big story in new york and boston and a little bit of washington is the travel story and the paralysis because of the shutdown of buss and trains. let's go to laguardia with luke russert, who is very lonely. are officials indicating when flights might resume there? >> it's unclear. there's over 4600 flights today being cancelled from these new york airports when you also throw in philadelphia. as far as when they are going to be up and running, well that is all dependent upon when the personnel to run the airports

can get to the airport. so that's when we had the announcement that the subway was going to be up and running and there's the lifting of the road band. from airport officials, they said that's the first step because in order to get the planes running, we need the personnel here. we need tsa and airline employees. it's more likely than not going to be cancelled, the flights are, here for the rest of the day. probably early morning tomorrow as well. if you're looking to get out here in the new york area probably tomorrow afternoon will be when the first flights take off. that doesn't mean anything to a lot of passengers who are stranded. i spoke to a few today who might be here until thursday spending the night in the cafeteria. it's not a happy scene. thankfully most passengers took heed of the warnings and realized they weren't going to be able to get out today and switched their flights and didn't come to the airports. we didn't have what we have seen during other storms like cots

set up and a shortage of food and water. there's a few people that have to ride it out for the next few days. all that being said tomorrow afternoon is looking like when the airport will be up and run ing ing. it's not welcome news for those who have to sleep it off at the cafeteria. >> thank you very much luke. >> as bill karins said, the storm is still a historic event we're going to go live to the hardest hit cities. wooster getting hit with possibly 40 inches of snow. plymouth as well. we'll also have some of the other headlines for you including a very shocking statement by lance armstrong or perhaps it wasn't shocking at all. we'll be right back with that.

the northeast blizzard of 2015 is shaping up to be a tale of two storms. more than two feet of snow are already on the ground and on the east end of long island those areas are not out of the woods yet with blizzard warnings still in effect. but travel bans are no longer in effect for the entire state of new jersey and much of new york including new york city. service will also resume later this morning and bridges and tunnels have been reopened.

so let's take a look now at some of the other headlines this morning in the morning papers. "the washington post," we'll start there. a man who crashed a drone on the white house grounds reportedly called secret service six hours later to report it as an accident. the drone's operator voluntarily called to tell them he was using the device recreationally when it crashed. the man told secret service he did not intend for it to breach white house security. the crash prompted a white house lockdown until the drone was recovered and examined. >> you know i looked at a picture of this drone that the secret service took. i've got to tell you it's the same exact drone that's like 30 feet up in a tree in my backyard. those things just get away from you sometimes, as we talked about before. that said, i don't know who is using drones for recreational

purposes around 1600 pennsylvania avenue. not a good idea. this article from politico former cia officer jeffrey sterling was found guilty by a federal court on nine felony charges for leaking classified cia information to a "new york times" reporter. term is sterling will remain free on bond until his sentencing. james ricin published an account of a cia operation in his book "state of war" prompting a federal investigation. sterling faces up to 100 years in prison but will most likely receive a much shorter term. >> so "usa today" disgraced lance armstrong says if he were to go back in time to 1995 he would probably use performance-enhancing drugs again. in his first interview since his admission of drug use, armstrong blamed the culture of cycle as

his reason behind his choice to dope dope. he would not use the drugs now because the climate of the sport is different. after admitting to using drug, he was stripped of all seven of his tour de france titles as well as his bronze medal from the sydney olympics. what do you make of that? >> he's a man i continue to be -- i just don't get. i have never really gotten lance armstrong. i have never gotten the fact that he somehow never repented for the terrible mistakes that he made to all of the fans the taxpayers that paid the united states post office to sponsor him for all those years, for all the children he let down for all the people he let down. everybody makes mistakes. lance armstrong still just seems incapable of understanding that he made a terrible mistake. the san jose mercury news facebook and instagram suffered

outages while conducting technical upgrades. a spokesperson denied cyber attacks and both worked quick lyly to get them back up and running again. both programs were restored fully in about an hour. rolling stone magazine sam smith has settled a copyright dispute with tom petty over smith's song "stay with me." the song's chorus has been observed for sounding like tom petty's "i won't back down." ♪ won't you stay with me ♪ ♪ cause you're all i need ♪ ♪ well i won't back down ♪ ♪ no i won't back down ♪ >> that sounds like two different songs, doesn't it? >> it really does. there are a lot of these copyright cases where you can

say they are completely lifted. those two -- i'm not sure why. i'm a huge fan of tom petty, but in rock and roll in popular music, there are only about three or four chords. they are the right chords but if you're comparing those two songs in any way, i don't understand it. i mean it's not like -- i love george harrison but it's not like "my sweet lord" and "he's so fine." the same with marvin gay's family going after a man whose name thankfully -- >> that one guy with miley cyrus. >> obvious ripoffs, ghost busters, a complete ripoff of "i

want a new drug." these two songs, not close. reps for smith confirmed that "stay with me" is co-credited to petty, but any similarities between the songs are completely coincidental. i agree, that's fascinating. >> you can usually tell in movies and songs, you can tell when something is stolen. still ahead, new york city may have shut down last night, but wall street will be open for business. brian sullivan joins us next for how the market will react.

covering all angles of this blizzard. passengers at one flight to london are waking up this it

morning at kennedy airport. their flight was cancelled after it spent six hours waiting on the tarmac. airline officials say the 6:30 p.m. flight first returned to the terminal because of a sick passenger. the plane was deiced again, but a technical issue was also discovered. one passenger tweeted, we're stuck at jfk, no roads, no cabs no stores open no hotel rooms, nightmare. in a statement virgin atlantic said we're going everything we can to ensure passenger comfort during this time and have issued meal vouchers i'm trying to think of where they could have used those and blankets in the airport 37 we're working closely with the airport authorities in order to minimize the disruption and we will continue to monitor the weather conditions closely. that is a nightmare. time for business before the

bell. brian sullivan, what are we look at today? >> a big drop for the dow with the markets opening. i'm glad you fought your way through the inch of snow to get to the office. microsoft, bad numbers last night. that stock indicating way down. the overall markets right now should be lower. a lot of traders aren't going to be able to make it in so you might no have the number of people trading and that tends to exacerbate price swings. the streak for gas prices falling is officially over. yesterday gas prices rose four tenths of one penny. still fantastic. gas is cheap. "the new york times" reporting that the obama administration on thursday may announce the opening up of the atlantic between virginia and georgia for offshore gas and potentially oil drilling. they have been trying to get there for 30 or 40 years and according to the times there might be a big win for oil being able to drill off the coast of

virginia. so a lot of news. russia's credit rating got downgraded to junk late yesterday so take your pick u. >> let's bring steve in here. the gas price story, double-edged sword? it's leading to some layoffs as well in this country. >> it is a bit of a double-edged sword. people in the oil complex are going to have a tougher time on the job front, but by and large, lower oil prices is going for this country because we still import a third of our oil and we have a lot more americans who consume oil than people in the oil complex. so lower prices are a good thing for us. >> i completely fundamentally disagree with that. >> go ahead. >> it's great for people to have more money in their pocket when they fill up with gas, but there's been more jobs created in texas the last five years than every other state combined. also a lot of the wage gains we

have seen -- oil jobs the absolute number of oil jobs are small. but if you have been to these places the indirect number of people every oil rig that's drilled there's 25 men working the rig. there's 400 additional people supporting that. we're seeing rigs come offline. texas, i think it's 1.4 million of the 2 million jobs in america have been in texas. the macroeffect of lower energy prices is going to stopt the booms that we have had. it's good for consumers with extra money in their pocket but i don't know i worry about it. i hope i'm wrong. >> brian, there's like 320 million americans who got the equivalent of a $750 tax cut with what's happened to oil prices over the last six or eight months. that money has gone in their pockets. every economist has revised up their forecast for the u.s.

economy as a result of oil prices going down not lowered them. >> i have been positive on the economy for about three and a half years. so i have been a guy that's been optimistic for a long time. i remain overall optimistic but i'm just pointing out there is a net negative from the oil price drop that i don't think we have felt yet. i hear what you're saying. you'll forgive me i have a lot of friends who are economists but sometimes i think -- >> it's a negative piece of a positive puzzle. >> we'll find out. time will tell. i hope i'm wrong. >> i hope you're wrong also. >> joe, jump in. >> you guys done? brian, thank you for being with us. we're going to talk behind your back now. i love brian. i think, though that when you go and cover the oil boom in the dakotas and texas where it has turned economies around i can understand what he sees what he

has seen in the past. as we have been talking about it for some time, america's economic renaissance is going to depend on a number of things including an energy revolution that's going to lessen prices and as we look forward and we look to manufacture in coming back maybe not with the dollars per hour they were when they left lower energy prices are an absolutely critical piece of the puzzle to have manufacturing and to have jobs from overseas coming back to america, aren't they? >> absolutely. i understand what brian is saying when you look at north dakota with its 2.% unemployment rate. you see the energy and activity there pfr oil prices came down. i get what he's saying. i agree with what you're saying that lower energy prices whether you look at the point of consumers or giving us a chance to do better in manufacturing

than we have been able to do lower energy prices are a great thing for america. >> mika, as you look at what's happening today in the news there's a reason why you have president obama, john mccain and others flying over to see a saudi king off and to pay respects to him and it's not because he was a great golf partner. it's because saudi oil and middle east oil have played a critical role in u.s. foreign policy over the past quarter century, over the past 30, 40 years. this also allows us to actually change our foreign policy and not be as interventionalist in the middle east in the coming years. that's a huge win for the united states and for american taxpayers and the men and women we send over to fight one war after another war after another

war because of our dependence on middle east oil. >> good discussion. the track of the major storm we're covering is next. part of massachusetts is still facing 30 feet of snow. we'll be right back.

more than 14,000 people in massachusetts are currently without power as a powerful blizzard barrels through new

england. well over a foot of snow is on the ground throughout the state, and in wooster, there's already two feet of snow. that's two feet. a statewide travel ban remains in effect. wind gusts of more than 70 miles per hour are being reported on martha's vineyard and flooding is now a major concern as well. up next, what did we learn today?

joining us now by phone is governor andrew cuomo. governor, thank you for be us. what message would you like u to send to your 20 million constituents? >> good to be with you, joe and mika. it was better in new york city than we had been led to believe, but it was worse in some parts of long island than we were led to believe. so we have some good news some bad news. we took the right preparations last night and i feel good about that. we did a travel ban at 11:00, which got the cars off the roads. how many people are traveling after 11:00 any way, i don't know. but getting the cars off the roads and putting away the subway and rail cars allowed us

to plow the roads, use the chemicals, we kept the cars safe so we'll come online faster than we would have otherwise. and manhattan is one situation. many of the pictures you see this morning, you're looking at manhattan, you see clean streets. that's always the difference between manhattan and the rest of the region. you look at westchester, it's a very different situation. and the roads are open and passable but they are not clean. they are dangerous. there's ice and snow on the roads. people need caution. >> so governor this morning everybody around the table has agreed with the decision that you made seeming to be overprepared, but only being overprepared because the storm went 35 miles further east than expected.

any regrets, any lessons learned by this near miss in new york city? >> joe, if your table agreed, that's saying something because you have a tough table. >> we agree. >> but look the national weather service does a forecast. everyone relies on the national weather service. it's not like we have our own crystal balls where we're making these decisions and you make a decision base the on the information you have. i have been burned both ways. i just finished a storm in upstate new york in buffalo where the prediction was for less snow. we left everything open. we wound up with seven feet of snow the highest snowfall in buffalo's history and that's saying something. and i have been in storms where people died. so you make your decision at the

time on the information. if i lean one way or the other, i lean towards safety because i'd rather be where we are today than the opposite in talking about a loss of life and people stranded on roads for 24 hours. so i feel good about where we are today. and i'm not even sure, joe, because the roads were empty last night we did a lot of plowing overnight and preparation of the subway system that we couldn't have done otherwise. so i don't even know that net we don't save time coming back up to speed. >> speaking of being up to speed, just trains planes and roads, when are we looking at everything being back in business? >> the roads are all open. i coordinated with governor christie this morning and we opened the roads at the same time because if one state is open we should have both open

so people -- the travel can be coordinated. the trains are coming online by noon noon. we'll have what we call sunday service which is about 60% of regular service. and the long island railroad and metro north, the same thing. the one difference is on long island where we'll have spotty service because we still have blizzard-like conditions on long island. >> governor thank you very much. joe, i take it the big story here in new york and up to boston is really the major travel cancellations. then you have parts of new england, wooster getting walloped with up to 40 inches of snow. >> there will be an economic impact in new york city and in the surrounding areas, but right now still, you're right, northern new england is still getting hammered by this storm that didn't