breaking right now. senior defense officials confirm to nbc news army sergeant bowe bergdahl who was held captive by enemy forces for five years in afghanistan will be charged with desertion. the formal charges could come down within the week we're told. right now you are looking at a live picture at the pentagon where we admiral john kirby is expecting to be holding his daily briefing. we expect you will be getting a number of questions about sergeant bergdahl when that news conference starts. we will take you there live. right now, the other big story today, the blizzard of 2015. new york city spared the brunt of this storm. not the same story though in other parts of the northeast. parts of the northeast getting absolutely hammered right now. travel slowly starting to get back to normal in some states. travel bans have been lifted in parts of new jersey connecticut, massachusetts, and here in new york as well. massachusetts, though, really

still in the crosshairs right now. snowfall expected to get more than two feet in some areas. coastal flooding becoming another major concern. also expected to get hit hard maine and new hampshire. both of those states still under a state of emergency. officials still urging people to stay off the roads and to stay at home. let's kick things off with our meteorologist who continues to follow the storm's track. who is getting hammered right now? >> right now eastern massachusetts and rhode island. they are in the brunt of the storm. we have impressive snow totals. this is a new update. for mass 30 inches. worcester 26 inches. boston, 21 1/2 with an inch of snow coming down per hour. still looking at heavy bands. we will see it lighten up. we can see it lighten up as we head through the afternoon so by

tonight the storm system will start to die down. we will not see these heavy bands of snow. they will start to lighten up. what we will continue to get is that blowing and drifting know. this is going to continue to be a problem through the overnight. here's a closer look at storm tracker. you can see where the blues are. that's where we do have possibly one to maybe even two inches per hour coming down. it's still a pretty -- mod date to heavy snow coming down from boston down through providence and new bedford and off to the cape. it's still life threatening along the cape with strong winds and low visibility. so it is tough over there. we had our highest wind gusts in s in nantucket this morning. that came in at hurricane force winds. 78 miles per hour. we have been seeing constant hurricane force winds along the coast. of course, they're getting the flooding with high tide and low tide with still bringing some flooding. the winds out of the east,

boston 28-mile-per-hour wind gust. 33 in newport. those winds will continue to pick up which is why we're seeing the blizzard warnings continue until 8:00 tonight for boston. it will go into early tomorrow morning up through maine. so still some time. they're still in the thick of it. >> a lot of the cities and towns are going to be digging out for the next few days. what's behind the storm? what does that system look like that's going to be move in? >> what's behind the storm is cold air. we could have a few more snow flurries but what's locked in here is the cold. here's a look at the current windchill. in boston feels like minus one. not so bad in hartford and new york. but still it is very cold. everybody up and down the east coast is going to get to the cold. we will not see temperatures get above freezing in boston until friday. and then they drop again for the weekend. we'll fall into the teens for daytime highs. >> meteorologist, thank you so much.

we will come back to you in 30 minutes. as i mentioned, massachusetts still getting hit pretty hard right now. as much as two feet of snow has fallen in certain parts of the state. travel ban has been lifted in four western counties but it still a applies to the massachusetts turnpike specifically. you just heard, worcester, massachusetts, 26 inches of snow. governor charlie baker says he was bladglad they were able to get in front of this thing. >> this is clearly a very big storm for most of massachusetts. and i'm glad we had a little bit of advance warning to plan for it. i think that's going to help us in terms of our ability to get out of it early and to make it possible for people to get back up and operating as soon as upon sometime tomorrow. >> msnbc's chris continues to stand guard there for us from boston common. 18.2 inches i'm told was the last calculation there in

boston. how are things looking right now? it looks like snow continues to fall. >> you know, craig, just a couple minutes ago i was excited to tell you that the snow is actually slowing down. it was just kind of meandering to the ground. in the last ten minutes now it's starting to fall harder again. obviously we're getting under one of those bands. i want to show you something. you mentioned governor charlie baker. he was talking today about why massachusetts is doing so well with this storm despite the fact that it snowed a heck of a lot in many cities and towns. i want to show you this snow. it's nice and light. it's very -- they were very, very small graen engranular flik flakes. very dry. it was so cold aloft when the snow fell it was very very light and dusty and powdery. and so it did not weigh down trees and power lines like they expected it would. and so today we are seeing far

fewer power outages than officials had anticipated. of course, there are still homes. last check about 20,000 homes. most of those were on nantucket that saw power outages. it could have been must have much worse. now what officials are dealing with are a little bit of coastal flooding but nothing too major. just simply the clean-up from all of this snow. the plows have to hit all the roads. there's a lot of snow to move. and that's what's going to be happening for us tonight into tomorrow. >> let me interrupt you. we want to get back to the pentagon right now. that dod briefing with rear admiral john kish by talking about bowe bergdahl being charged. >> so our thoughts and prayers go out to them. we also as secretary hagel made clear, stand shoulder to shoulder with our japanese allies in this their struggle against isil now. and we also note that they have been a major contributor to

humanitarian aid to the iraqi security forces and the iraqi governmentnd they continue to fight isil. whatever decisions the japanese people make about how they're going to move forward with respect to their -- this second hostage, is for them to make. and there will be no judgments cast from the pentagon about that. now, we -- >> i want to bring in colonel jack jacobs medal of honor recipient recipient, military analyst. admiral kirby there talking about sergeant bowe bergdahl facing charges. at that point he was talking about isis. before that he was talking about sergeant bergdahl being charge with desertion. how common is something like this? how uncommon is it? >> it's very uncommon. frequently you will have people charge with absence without leave. they'll leave and then they'll come back. sometimes they will leave for more than 30 days. usually that's the break point after which you charge them with

desertion. but when you come back you're charged with absence without leave. instead of desertion because one of the elements of proof is that you have to prove intent. not only do you go away but you have to prove -- you have to be proven to want to stay away. your intention of staying away. that's much more difficult to prove. the fact that he's charged with desertion indicates that they probably have plenty of evidence to indicate that. >> what's the next step? >> article 32 investigation is the military equivalent of a grand jury procedure. with this important difference the accused in a military proceeding can be represented by counsel and can cross-examine witnesses, as well. you don't have that in civilian grand jury procedure. the investigating officer then presents a report to the court-martial convening authority. in this case it will be a general. and will recommend what is to be

done. may recommend that all charges be dropped. may recommend that he be charged with one or more crimes. and the commanding general then makes a decision on whether or not he will be court-martialed, what crimes he will be court-martialed for, and convenes a court-martial. then the fun begins. you'll have a court-martial that's convened. the accused will be represented by counsel, both military and, in his choice civilian. and the jury will be made up of officers and sometimes enlisted men, and will decide his fate. >> colonel jack jacobs. thank you so much for that ensight again. briefing happening right now at the pentagon. rear admiral john kirby talking about the charges facing bowe bergdahl expected to be charged with desertion a little bit later in the week. colonel jack thank you. let's get back to the blizzard here. again, new york escaping the brunt of the storm. long island, though long island

smack in the middle of it. eastern long island getting more than 20 feet of snow. governor andrew cuomo says they're now shifting resources to help dig out suffolk county. >> this is one of those bad news/good news situations. the good news is the entire region was not hit as hard as we were expecting. the bad news is suffolk took it right on the chin. >> msnbc's adam reiss is live in plainview. what's it like where you are rights now? it looks like the snow and the wind have died down a bit. >> craig, conditions have improved tremendously in the last hour since you and i last spoke. the sun is out. the wind has died down. the snow has stopped. the l.i.e. behind me while many of the roads have been cleared but the public works together many long islanders have taken the governor's advice to heed and they have stayed off the

road. we're seeing a few cars here and there. mostly plows. mostly electric trucks. you see some of this snowdrifts here. that's what's next. this is what's next. handling the snow clearing it out. you can bet there's going to be some resourceful entrepreneurers in the next 24 hours going door to door, looking to clean up sidewalks, driveways, and the like here on long island. craig? >> adam reiss for us in long island. the storm just burying places all across new england. more than a foot of snow has been reported in parts of rhode island. they could get up to a foot more. also having an affect on electricity. national grid says roughly 1,000 customers do not have power right now. nbc driving along i-95 headed from massachusetts into rhode island. last time we spoke you were some 30 miles outside of prove derns. are you -- looks like you may be in providence now. >> we have made our way into providence. and it looks a little bit like a

ghost town here craig. very little activity on the streets. there's been a lot of snow that's swirling around. the temperature is only about 19 degrees or so. it's very cold out here. they've got a lot of snow. and people seem to be heeding the travel ban that remains in effect in this community. and they are staying off the roads. the roads are a bit of a mess. we just saw as i'm trying to turn this corner here. this car, you can see from our windshield camera. i saw him, had a difficult time as he was trying to make that turn. still very slippery out here so you've got to go slow. we're seeing more snowplows than we're seeing anything else. that's exactly the way officials in this state want it to be. they don't want private vehicles out here on the road. that's so that these snowplow drivers can do the job that is so critical right now for them to do. the snow is continuing to fall here. they say it's going to continue into the evening.

take a look at what's ahead of us from our windshield cameras. some folks are deciding to snowboard right down the middle of the street. but for the fact that we're coming in their direction, they would probably be having a pretty good time. >> i would say so. >> it's an extraordinary thing to do down one of the main streets in the city of providence rhode island. >> especially -- especially bizarre as you approach the capital building there. not a soul on the streets except those blizzard tourists. nbc's raheema ellis, appreciate it. perhaps the biggest headache is going to be travel. right now more than 5,000 frights have been canceled for today alone. there's the misery map that we like to show you from time to time. the airports in new york city in this area completely snarled over the last two days. some good news though that we can pass along to you right now. amtrak announcing a little while ago it is going to be resuming limited operations in some areas

in the northeast today. nbc's luke russert live for us at laguardia airport. luke, i know you spent some time or have been spending some time with folks who were stuck there overnight. at this point any hope they get to their destination later today? >> probably not later today for the majority of people that they've spoken to craig. i've been here since 4:00 a.m. literally two minutes ago before i came on your iriair, i heard my first airplane. making some progress. i can also report we've had one flight so targeting out tonight. it's a spirit flight 180 going to ft. lauderdale. i spoke to a passenger on that one. i said you must be happy to go to ft. lauderdale. yes, indeed so. there is a little bit of movement but i stress the word little. if you look at the big board almost every single flight with the exception of that one to ft. lauderdale still has canceled next to it. the big question when will the airport be up and running?

probably about mid morning tomorrow and by tomorrow afternoon it should be up to full strength. the republican realason is because the officials here in new york said they wanted to close the road shut down the subway keep things safe. that prohibited a lot of personnel that is necessary to run the airport from getting here to laguardia. so not really any tsa agents here. not a lot of airline counter individuals. the cafeterias are not up and running. very bare bones operation going on right now. that will probably be the case throughout the day until things get back up to normal tomorrow morning. >> luke russert for us in laguardia. thanks. the blizzard still hitting the northeast pretty hard. also buzzing on social media as you might imagine, these are the top trending terms that you're use right now to talk about it. #blizzardof2015, #snow me bed don2010. 418,000 tweets use that top

hashtag and it is still going strong. when the #snow meand we continue to track what's happening in the real world as well. a lot more on the blizzard right after this.

in canton. my little buddy here wanted to give us some idea how deep the snow is. he can barely move here. let's see what we've got. we've got the tape measure today. it's still about 19 inches. i don't think it's down to the ground there. it is just been coming down. quite a pretty big clip here. can you get out of here andrew? >> nbc's kristen dahlgren a

short time ago riding tout storm in can top. more than two feet of snow has fallen there. i can tell you at last check kristen and andrew have gone inside to enjoy some hot chocolate. back here in new york city though mayor bill de blasio defended the city's frantic preparations for a storm system that he previously had called historic but that ended up dufring less than ten inches on most of new york. >> god forbid this storm had not moved, you know what was ultimately 20, 30 miamiles to the east in our case. we would have then been hit by that incredible magnitude of storm and had people not been off the roads there would have been a lot of people in danger and probably not people would have lost their lives. we can't take that risk when making decisions about people's lives we have to protect our people. >> msnbc's trymaine lee is live near the barclays center in brooklyn, home of the brooklyn nets, the nets who did not play

last night. neither did the new york knicks. >> how are you doing, craig? here we are in brooklyn. it's been amazing over the last few hours to actually see brooklyn coming alive. we behind me passengers are far and few between. services running on sunday schedule reduced schedule. folks are beginning to come alive. behind me is the atlantic terminal center. the mall here folks have been shopping at target. i talked to one woman who said she was stuck in path mart where she works all night long. she said rather than brave the winter weather they decided to stay inside. so many people out here today are so thankful and said they dodged a bullet. they praised the governor and the mayor saying that the plan was effective, that it was better to stay off the roads rather than risk the streets. but again, this storm was not

historic by any nature but folks are freeleeling good. you saw children and families hading to the park to go sledding. you had other folks running their errands today. again, this was not historic storm but folks are glad that it wasn't just major impact. >> yeah. >> again, folks here are enjoying this weather. the sun is shining. here we go in brooklyn. beautiful day so far. >> msnbc's germane lee for news his hood, in brooklyn. new york city, brooklyn as well. all parts of new york city we should know here. blizzard still bearing down on beantown though in a big way. #bostonblizzard, full of tweets showing how residents are coping. some are sharing some snowy scenes there from boston. others passing the time tracking the movements of a social media phenomenon called the boston yeti of 2015. that's right locals taking

pictures of that retweeting him, or her, as surprise sightings of the snowman, those sitings seem to be spiking.

did your local officials over react or prepare adequately for the storm? you can take part in you online survey. you can also see the results of the survey at blizzardof2015.msnbc.com. coming up, stranded. talked to an airline passenger who said he endured a night of hell. his words. he is stuck at jfk overnight. stuck on a plane for about six hours. i'll talk to him after this. and now for more of the blizzard hitting new england as well. maine residents tweeting on the #maineblizzard sharing some chilling foet toss of snowdrifts in maine. they're braving some tough weather conditions with humor.

tweets like this user who joked, first one to lose power wins. this woman tweeting about the whirlwind of snow. expected to leave about two feet statewide in maine. and we have whiteout i'm dancing. we don't have a picture of her dancing. more on this storm coming up.

welcome back to our continuing coverage of the blizzard of 2015. let's get you up to speed on what we know right now. the storm continuing to barrel down on the eastern portion of massachusetts. but it is letting up on the western parts of that state. that's where governor charlie baker has lifted the travel ban. travel bans have also been lifted in new jersey new york and parts of connecticut as well. in fact, most of connecticut. another big part of this storm, travel. thousands of flights have been canceled all over the northeast with new york city area airports not expected to fully resume normal activity until thursday

morning. let's kick things off with meteorologist davis who has been following the latest on this storm's track. live from just outside rockefeller plaza. what do we know right now? >> we know right now that what we're facing is this storm that is still going through new england, through eastern mass and rhode island heavy bands of snow one to two inches per hour. it goes through 8:00 tonight. it extends longer until tomorrow morning for parts of maine. this storm is still very much going. i have to say the concerning things something we're all seeing along the east coast is this cold air. windchills are very cold. they are below zero through much of new england right now. here in new york it feels like it's in the teens. we are locked in this cold along the northeast. this arctic air is going to keep pouring in. this is something we're going to see for the next several days into the weekend, it will only get colder. that is certainly something we have to keep in mind especially

for where we have power outages along much of the cape plymouth most of those folks are without power. that is going to be a problem as we head into the evening with these bitter cold temperatures. >> last hour we were talking about some of the apologies that have been offered. and we actually pulled this particular apology. this is the meteorologist in charge of the national weather service, offering an apology on twitter for the incorrect forecast saying, in part, quote my deepest apologies to many key decision makers and so many members of the general public. he goes on to say, you made a lot of tough decisions expecting us to get it right and we did not. once again, i'm sorry. that's from one of the folks that runs the national weatherer is skriservice. what do you make of that? >> craig, i said before i don't think they -- what they want to do is up to them. i don't think they need to issue an apology. tell somebody right now in plymouth mass in nantucket, in

worcester that the storm didn't pan out. they'll tell you it did. in new york it didn't. down through the jersey coast, we didn't see blizzard conditions. but this storm was on track for much of the forecast area. i've been a meteorologist now for 15 years, over 15 years. i can remember when i first started, you know. i was reminded that whether is emotional for people. you know it's like the difference between partly cloudy and partly sunny. part anyly sunny says better. it's emotional, i get it. businesses have effected. i understand that. i get the frustration but i also think we have to keep in mind you have to keep people safe. the national weather service, that is what they did. if they did this on the toer side and they didn't preb dikt anything and worcester got hit with 30 inches of snow and lives were lost that would be a lot worse. so i think we would have to re-examine things. if the forecast was wrong in

that other way. >>,many s we'll leave it there, thank you. snow and heavy winds continue to pound the new england area including maine where the storm actually picked up strength early this morning. the snow is expected to reach two feet in some areas with winds of up to 60 miles per hour. right now more than 1500 folks in maine, 1500 businesses don't have power. a.j. burnett from our nbc station wcsh live for news portland, maine. what's it look like right now, a.j.? >> very snowy still outside, craig. we've got this very light, fluffy snow. i'm referring to the weight of the snow. if you think of it as kind of difficult to make a snowball that's at least one good portion of the storm. a lot of times when you get nor'easters in maine along the coastline especially you get a pasty wet snow that sticks to tree limbs and power lines and brings those tree limbs and power lines down. it is so cold craig right now,

it's 9, 10 11 degrees or has been through the better part of the day today that this has no choice but to be a very powdery snow. however, we've had a lot of wind today, numerous gusts past 60 miles per hour. as a matter of fact, both bangor and portland at the jet port where they take these measurements very fied earlier this morning as a blizzard. we're talking about three consecutive hours where visibility was below a quarter mile and he had sustained winds at least or frequent gusts of 35 miles per hour or greater. this is easily a blizzard here. right now 16 just under 16 inches of snow in portland. that trails storms like back in 1952 1979 2013 we're about here on the scale of the top three. so we've got a ways to go. we'll still have more snow through tonight and more wind before things settle down early tomorrow morning. craig, to you. >> a.j. burnett with the snowman scale for us there in portland maine. our nbc affiliate wcsh.

thank you. in long island the streets slowly, slowly starting to come back to life there. suffolk county orient got more than 28 inches of snow during the storm. that is where we find nbc's ron allen. ron, is it still snowing and windy on long island as well? >> reporter: take a look around. we're here at the far end of the north fork of long island orient. this is the place that got the hardest hit. 28 inches of snow. can you hear me? >> i can hear you just fine, ron. you keep going, brother. >> reporter: can you guys hear me? >> you know what let's go back to ron allen in a second. we're having some problems there with our satellite technology.

it's a blizzard. it's going to happen. air travel though slowly resuming at newark airport in new jersey. most flights remain canceled at laguardia and jfk airports. passengers on one virgin atlantic flight were left overnight in the deserted jfk airport in new york city. they were given nothing more than -- nothing more than a $15 mcdonald's voucher, we're told. they couldn't leave because of the city's travel ban. couldn't even get to their luggage. felix coones is one of those passengers and joins me now by phone. felix, you've been giving blow-by-blow accounts on your twitter page. we've been showing some of the images that you snapped. according to your recent tweets it looks like you and the other passengers have just been relocated. is that right? >> that's right, craig. we've just gone -- i've been here about han hour and a half shower and try to take a nap. there's so much excite on my twitter feed, i don't think i'm

going to get to that until i get on the plane. but that's fine. >> what happened last night? walk us through it. >> we had various issues. first a man was planted on the plane and then seemed to recover and then fainted again. we had to go back to the stand after an hour of deizeing and get him loaded with paramedic. and then we had to deice again. as we were taxiing the pilot came on and told us that we had to cancel the flight. each one of these items that i mentioned takes about an hour a time so we were on the plane for about 5 1/2 hours before it cancelled. >> what were you guys doing on the plane for 5 1/2 hours? >> being hopeful. every time something happened we would go okay this is it. this is it. we're going to finally leave. we're going to finally leave. then we didn't. >> in a statement virgin atlantic said to us in part quote, we are doing everything we can to ensure passenger comfort during this time and

have issued meal vouchers and blankets in the airport. is that do it for you? is that sufficient? >> let me clarify the -- because the $15 meal voucher, it was actually another restaurant kind of establishment open that was -- you have to walk further and a lot of passengers didn't know about that and virgin started giving out as many $15 vouchers as you wanted. they gave out one initially to each passenger. i think in the circumstances, there's not much more they can do. i mean you have to be super human to deal with an emergency like this and to get everyone to a hotel. there were no roads. how were we going to get anywhere? >> right. >> jfk ground crew the security there locally, separate from virgin, we had issues with those. we had to fight just for a cot or an area to sleep on. that wasn't pleasant. i used every bit of charm i had to convince them that we were just going to lay down on a

carpet rather than on the stone, as you can see in the images. it's just kind of where jfk didn't have any emergency, you know, setup, no cots no nothing like that. i think rather than virgin atlantic, only the ground crew but an airport should have provisions for this kind of thing. >> felix, i'm glad you made it home safely. >> i'm not home yet. >> oh. >> my flight is supposed to leave tonight. >> i thought you said you were at your townhouse. >> i'm sorry. hotel. >> oh, at the hotel. i misheard you. good luck. good luck getting out then. i i pol jiz. >> okay craig, thank you. >> thank you. wow. some folks still stuck in airports today. others though stranded at home are loving the storm. social media is the watercooler. this user got lucky around for snow mageddon 2015 if. a great day for sledding and movies and books and tweets.

others flocked to craigslistkrags craigslist to get cozy with last-minute blizzard boyfriends and girlfriends. #blizzard. starting to trend as well. there's beyonce. folks to get snowed in with. more on new york city coming back to life post-blizzard. post-blizzard, right after this.

the system is going to come back online much faster than it would have if the trains were exposed to the conditions and they were shoveling out this morning. >> new york governor andrew cuomo there this morning defending that decision to close down new york city's subways monday night. subway service resumed this morning, but it is the first time ever that the trains have been shut down because of snow. that's according to the mta. that's what they tell us. mayor de blasio today saying his

office did not get a lot of advance notice of the shut down. across new york city citizens ared a justing to a storm that brought far less snow to the area. forecasters predicted. less than ten inches for most of new york. that's according to the mayor. though eastern queens which borders long island got much much more. parks have reopened. schools will reopen tomorrow. today though many folks seem to just kind of be out enjoying the snow. msnbc's amanda is live in lower manhattan where she's been following what looks like a salt truck in front of you. no? >> exactly. hi, craig. nice to see you. we are here in lower manhattan. last night was actually -- it was at a stand still. it's a very unprecedented site to see in new york the city that never sleeps is suddenly just completely empty. but now we're starting to see it slightly wake up seeing people out on the streets and cars are driving by. that's thanks in large part to the sanitation workers. there's some 2400 of them out

here on the streets. we're behind one of the some 500 salt spreaders that are going across. if you look at the streets now, they're pretty clear in many of these large thoroughways. instead of more snow, we're seeing a lot of slush, a lot of ice. and right now it looks like it's mounting. but this salt that they're spreading now is really crucial to make sure that when it's supposed to go below freezing later tonight, that there aren't any accidents of any sort. but this really is unprecedented in having the city public transportation shut down. and people are starting to really grumble on whether or not this action was taken too soon. but we are seeing that now the subways have been open for about three hours now. so what little activity out on the street should pick up as the day goes on and as the trek outside is less treacherous. >> m amanda thank you. coming up we'll talk to the mayor of hartford connecticut.

he'll talk about how his city is moving forward now that the connecticut travel ban has been lifted. on social media, people are tweeting in anticipation, if you don't have to go out, don't. just because the travel ban has been lifted doesn't mean you have to. drive that point home. folks statewide tweeting what pictures of 20 plus inches of snowfall looks like in their backyards. wow. where is that? do we know? where is that again? connecticut. that's in connecticut. much more after the break.

since the ban went into effect we have only had 15 accidents on our state roads. that is remarkable under slight storm conditions we could expect upwards of several hundred accidents. >> that was connecticut governor dannel malloy there just a short time ago announcing the end of the travel ban in connecticut. all roads in connecticut, as of

2:00, open. despite heavy snow totals in places like hampton which got nearly two feet of snow 23 inches fell. connecticut appears to be mostly saved from the worst of this blizzard blizzard. metro north line, from connecticut to new york city is partial service today. amtrak, possibly resuming full service tomorrow we're told. the mayor of hartford connecticut, joins me now by phone. mayor, power outages in hartford. have there been any? >> absolutely none. there were several you know single digits but those have been -- but basically, no. we faired very well. we had lower amount os of snow than anticipated. we basically started to plan early. we basically had a good communications plan. the public was very good in terms of obeying by the parking ban. so we kept things together here very well. now we're finalizing the last

couple of side roads that need to be cleared. we expect to lift the parking ban this evening at 8:00 p.m. >> how are folks fairing there in hartford? how are they digging out from this today? >> well, you know we had great constituents' participation. by 1:00 last evening, last night, we had 100% compliance with the parking ban. that enabled us to be able to clear our primary routes because when you plow the homes, the regional hospitals, we wanted to make sure that anybody who needed to get to the hospitals can do so. ambulance companies report there were over 30 calls and there was no delay whatsoever in terms of getting folks to hospital. that's very good. but, you know folks, we're asking them still to please stay home. the parking ban is still in effect until 8:00 p.m. with we want to make sure we do the best possible.

schools are closed tomorrow but that's because we use our school parking lot as the overflow parking in order to accommodate the parking ban and bring the city back to normal as promptly as possible. we're on our way to recovery. we'll continue our efforts in snow removal during the week. after eight inches of snow it starts to become almost a hallway operation. so we want to make sure all our communities are freed of snow a as promptly as possible. we might be getting more snow on friday. >> mayor pedro, hartford, connecticut. mayor, thank you. >> thank you so much. let's go to massachusetts now where the travel ban in the western part of that state has been lifted. still in effect though for the eastern part of massachusetts. snow continues to pile high with more than 2 1/2 feet of snow in some areas right now. doctors and nurses at brig ham and women's hospital in boston taking some extrard marry measures to get to work.

actually skiing to work. those are some committed health care workers there. weather channel's keith carson live in boston where more than 18 inches of snow has fallen so far. keith, how are things looking light right now? >> yeah, craig we're still in the middle of the storm here in boston. yes just talked about people skiing and snowshoeing to get to work. that's what's happening here. we're in boston common. it's still ongoing. the latest snow total, boston logan airport -- >> skiers right behind you? there are some skiers right behind you there. >> yes. >> as if on cue. >> well, i paid them. obviously i paid them to do that. it didn't cost very much. that's good. also i am currently wearing snowshoes as well. this is something that i actually learned today to do for the first time. i figured what could go the wrong trying it on live tv for the first time. >> keith. >> this is the kind of a day it is here in boston. i got to get over this.

got to go over the hump. we're good. we're good. >> i don't want your weather channel bosses calling us. >> oh, well -- >> all of a sudden he plows into a tree. no no, no, this is keith venturing out on his own. >> as long as we don't lose cantore, that's good. >> or mike seidel for that reason. at least you know where you stand there. >> i know how it goes. we can -- i'm dispense i believe. so this is -- you know we got probably 15 16 inches of fresh snow on top of it here in the common. and it is that kind of day. people starting to get out and about. yesterday we went through phases. around the afternoon everyone was trying to get out of town. running last-minute errands getting the normal stuff, bread, milk wine. but by the nighttime the city was locked down. it's worth noting that they're still under a travel ban. this is the best way too get around. we're going the hear from the mayor shortly about whether or not he's going to lift that ban.

my guess is as long as people can still ski across the streets that ban will be in effect. >> who needs jim cantore, we have keith carson in boston. that is going to do it for a special coverage of blizzard 2015 right now. "the cycle" on the other side of this break.

digits at the northeast starts to dig out. you are in "the storm cycle." i think it was around 10:00, 11:30 today.

>>. i'm krystal ball. new york city was spared from the worst of it but new england is still getting slammed as we come on the air, parts of rhode island, mass marks new hampshire, and maine are still facing some blizzard conditions. long island, new york and connecticut have now been downgraded to a winter storm warning. that stretches north into canada. parts of new jersey and eastern new york state have a winter advisory. this storm tracked 50 to 75 miles east and that is why manhattan was spared and new england is still getting slammed. wind gusts in parts of massachusetts are 60 miles per hour. that's actually near hurricane force and is creating some dangerous whiteout conditions. some towns the snow is actually falling sideways. and now coastal flooding is a major concern, prompting evacuations. just look at these pictures. that's not even high tide. here's a run-down of who got how much. 30 inches in framingham massachusetts. just shy of