>>. 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 that in long island.

21 inches in boston. foot and a 1/2 in proveidence rhode island. the height of the storm, more than 28,000 homes were without power. among today's cancelations the u.s. postal service. delivery is suspended in connecticut, rhode island and massachusetts. experts put the price tag of lost business at half a billion dollars. that's low if you can believe it. 2014 polar vortex cost more than $50 billion. we can get into more of that ahead. start once again in the storm cycle weather center with domeica davis. >> all of the way up to maine. new hampshire getting a good clip as well. this storm is going for new england as it pulls away. we will see this finally pulling a way by tonight. we will improving conditions. here's a look at the blizzard warnings with ve in providence

up to bangor maine. it will end providence and boston by 7:00, 8:00 tonight, 10:00 tonight possibly. it will go late. and then tomorrow morning, early in the morning about 3:00 is the expiration time for bangor. we still have some time. we will see lighter snow showers push through the area by this evening. and then that will lighten up tomorrow morning up through the main area. we still have a ways to go. we're still talking in some wayses whiteout conditions and strong winds. here's a look at the heavy bans of snow moving through. eastern mass down through providence where you have those blues. that's where we're looking at moderate to heavy snowfall. you could see one to two inches per hour with the heavier bans that are moving through. out through worcester getting hit with a little bit of heavier clip there. this is still very much going. even the cape is still looking at some have been heavy rain. the strong winds have been a concern. now, much of the cape has been

looking at hurricane force ends with through the later half of the morning and this afternoon. winds are starting to die down which is certainly good news. but we still have some pretty significant wind gusts that are over the new england area. and that is going to continue into this evening as well. so blowing and drifting snow is going to continue to be a threat overnight and even into tomorrow morning. we've been talking two to three feet snowdrifts. that's pretty serious. along with this we have the cold and this is something that's going to stick around even after the snow leaves. the cold in here through the rest of the week right into the weekend. minus two in boston. minus three in portland. mine news eight in bar harbor. the cold is locked in. it will stay cold for the entire east coast over the next several days. this weekend we'll look at actual air temperatures along the east coast in the teens. so there will be not a whole lot of chance for this snow to melt.

new england needs it because where are they going to put it all? >> that's right the big question. thank you so much. we will check back with you shortly. now we head up to boston where chris malone is today. chris, what is happening? what are you seeing right now? >> you know ari, i keep telling myself that this has to end sometime. apparently i'm always wrong. take a look at boston common behind me. apparently people in boston are getting cabin fever. starting to see more and more people make their way out on to the common this afternoon going for a stroll taking pictures of this unprecedented blizzard here in the boston area. some of them are trying out some things i suspect they got for christmas. cross-country skis snowshoes, snowboards, as well as sleds. some people are making their way out. the roads for the most part are still generally free of traffic. that's because there is still a ban on driving among people who are not emergency personnel. so from time to time here in boston you do see plows going by

on beacon street in front of me. you see heavy equipment spreading salt and sand, trying to keep up with this continuing snow fall. you're not seeing a lot of regular cars out on the road. officials are appreciative of that. now, as you mentioned, more than 20 inches of snow officially here in the city of boston but you don't have to go very far to find places that have about 30 inches of snow just west of here and to the north where the heavier bands fell. it's going to be a long clean-up. but massachusetts governor charlie baker says things could have been much much worse. he said that because the temperature remained low, the snow is lighter and fluffier and dryer than it normally would be. if this were a heavier snow they would have seen a lot more trees and power lines coming down because of the weight of that snow bringing them down. so instead, right near we're dealing with about 30,000 power outages and many of those, about a third of those are on the island of nantucket which saw those 78-mile-per-hour wind gusts. otherwise it would probably be a

lot more power out here in massachusetts. so obviously going to be a digouts situation as they try to get streets cleared. but school is canceled here in boston and many other communities around here for tomorrow. so the clean-up will begin once this storm really is over. and they hope to have things back to normal by thursday. guys? >> chris pollone, stay safe. rahema ellis is driving around providence, rhode island. rahema, what's it like right now? >> well, the streets are pretty much deserted. i want you to take a shot of the view from our camera that's mounted on the windshield. and you can get an opportunity -- you have an opportunity to see what i'm seeing. that is streets that are virtually deserted. and this is by plan. the officials here in providence rhode island tell us the travel ban is still in effect. and for good reason. this city is trying to dig out from several inches of snow and it's taking them a while. you can see some of the black top here.

traveling around there's still so many places where you cannot see the black top. and it's slick and in addition to that it's very cold. we've got these blowing, driftingdrift ing bands of snow that whip around and you might be able to see a little bit as we are approaching an intersection here. it's rough going out here. people who may have had ideas about they were going to come outnd hang outside today, if they came out, i think they quickly changed their minds because the conditions are not ideal. in fact, they're far from it. this is an opportunity really for people to stay inside and let the folks who have to do the work to clear these streets do what's necessary to get that done. it's really cold and it's really cold and it's really a mess on these roads. you have to be very careful moving around. >> raheemma ellis in rhode island. thank you. here in manhattan we were prepared for two feet and ended up with eight inches. long island is a different story. nbc's adam reiss is there.

adam? >> josh good afternoon. we're about 30 miles east of new york city. s here have improved greatly. the sun was out a little while ago. the snow has stopped. the wind has greatly died down. the streets may be clear but mostly people took the advice of the governor stayed home. they're staying warm. they're staying off the roads. now trksz next phase of this operation is to clean all of this up. i want to give you a few tips we learned from the experts today in terms of shoveling. if you have a heart condition you don't want to shovel. if you just aelt you don't want to shovel. when you are shoveling you want to push this snow push it away from you as opposed to lifting it up if you can. when you do eventually lift it up use your knees and not your back. it's very strenuous exercise. you might best with -- a goed idea is to hire someone to shovel your lawn or your driveway or your walk. back to you guys. >> grag tip there's, adam. thanks so much for that. the airports they're starting to recover after nearly

it 8,000 flights were canceled impacting travelers across the nation. my own husband has yet to be able to make it home. nbc's luke russert is in queens new york. luke, what you got? >> well, krystal, that has to be a blast. two young kids by yourself in a snowstorm. >> real joy. >> where else would you rather be? i tell you where you would rather be laguardia airport, a ghost town behind me. it's been a ghost town since i here at 4:00 in the morning. i have a little bit of good news to report. there is one flight so far that we've seen come in. spirit airlines flight 180 from ft. lauderdale. i spoke to a few of the passengers about to board that flight. you can say they're a little bit happy none the least to go to florida. when do we think that laguardia will be running back up to normal? probably mid morning tomorrow tomorrow afternoon, the reason is as follows. you still have a lot of weather to the northeast of here. starting to clear up around new york city. but a byproduct of the

protective cancelations yesterday and of the subway being shut down and the roads being shut down well, laguardia airport does not have necessary personnel right now to run it full capacity. i'm talking tsa agents counter agents, people in the cafeteria. they are not here yet. they're trickling in. they're getting here slowly but surely. until they arrive and the manpower is here the juice is flowing, the airport can't get back up to normal. so thousands of cancelations as you mentioned. the airlines have been nice in terms of not charging for changes and what not. there were about 70 people stuck here overnight. i spoke to them. most of them said they got caught. it was one of those horrific scenes you see in other airport where's people are fighting over charger outlets and what not. if you were planning on traveling out of new york tomorrow probably going to need mid morning or the afternoon, and if you were on a flight that was scheduled today or late last night, early tomorrow check in with your agent if hopefully you

don't get stuck here until thursday or friday as one person who is here in the cafeteria. that's what happened to him. >> quick question here. we've been watching your reporting. you've been telling us everyone's been grounded more or less in the northeast. but you were out in washington reporting this story earlier. now you're in new york. how did you do that? >> good question. >> well, i teleport. i teleport. it's one of my many characteristics and talents. it's one that nbc should handsomely pay for me. i got to tell you. as soon as i got the call i batmaned from national airport to union station, threw a few things into my bag. made it here. uber to the hotel. got here at 4:00 in the morning. at the behest of my great cameraman sal. that's how you do it folks. when duty call i'm there. >> luke russert answers. thank you so much. >> you're welcome. up next long time boston mayor ray flynn talks to us about the challenge of digging out and about the cost.

plus a blizzard history lesson from walking weather almanac, our very own steve karnacki. and the political fallout for some local leaders in the northeast. here is a live look right now at the snow that is still falling on boston. "the cycle" rolls on for tuesday, january 27th.

as boston continues to get walloped right now the midwest corridor from pennsylvania to new york is beginning to clean up. we won't know the actual economic impact of the blizzard of 2015 for a couple of days.

but economists estimate the total tally in lost income and clean-up would cost upwards of $500 million for the region. joining us now is former boston mayor ray flynn who knows a thing or two about what it takes to get a city back upnd running after a snowstorm. mayor, thank you for being with us. so this $500 million, put that into context for us. is that a lot or could it have been much worse? >> oh, it could have been much worse. i think the key to reducing that figure is getting the active involvement, support of the people of the city of boston or whatever community it is. i was out early this morning, 6:00, and i observed not only the city workers, state workers doing their job. the mayor and the governor did an exceptional job in terms of this challenge that they faced. but in facing this kind of crisis, a storm, there are certain things you have to have. one, you have to be lucky. two, you have to pray a lot. three, make sure you have the fiscally prudent people around you. but most importantly, you need

the support of the public. that keeps the cost down. >> mr. mayor, when you say the support of the public obviously snow in the northeast is not new. you must will gone through a lot of similar storms. >> sure. >> what are the watch words for trying to get the city back up and running as fast as possible because that's the biggest part of the expense here, right? people go to work you don't shop. you have lost economic. how do you keep business as usual in boston. >> i was up at 6:00 this morning, cumberland the store getting the newspapers and talking to a number of people. you know people did find a way of getting to work. you know people have to work. and you know people depend on these various commercial enterprises. so people are dedicated. the public is very dedicated. but they need also the supposed important of maintenance workers and department of public works. if they all work together that really clicks for a community. and that's what happened in boston and massachusetts. today and was a good day for --

i think we saw the best of boston today. >> mr. mayor, i was looking at some of the numbers. and the number of billion dollar extreme events extreme weather events has been increasing really rapidly over the years. i think we have a chart we can show that shows those numbers up on the screen. have cities adjusted to the fact that these extreme weather events are coming more and more frequently? >> well, you just have to make sure that you really have a professional understanding of the extent of the storm. just don't react to sensational headlines and putting everybody on the payroll and putting them in the neighborhoods. make sure you surround yourself with the right kind of fiscally prudent people who can give you that level advice. we did that in boston to keep the costs down. i think that's what happened here, too, in massachusetts and boston with mayor walsh and governor baker. this was their first test. and i was anxious to see how they would respond. look, anybody can put all the

workers out there on the street and say that we're well prepared. but when the costs come then that's another issue. it takes a little bit of luck a lot of prayers, and some fiscally prudent people and good people like police officers and maintenance workers. as i said the most important thing in a storm or a crisis situation is having the support of the public. that's what boston had today. >> you mentioned prayers and fiscally prudent people. if you pray for fiscally prudent advisers then you can kind of combine them. mr. mayor, i want your input on how does the advice work for an executive? because we're always told that the hardest decisions are ones where you're getting good faith, expert, but conflicting advice from the public safety people and police commissioner or your press adviser or the people running the utilities. that's why big cities like boston and new york are hard to run. what have you done when you've had inclement weather, warnings or risk assessment to make and

you've had conflicting advice about how far to take your security precautions? >> you don't need up with 00 people giving you advice. you need your own instiskts. you need your own intellect and ability but you also need one or two good people around you that aren't in the business to make news fwou try to do the job as effectively as they can. and i think that's the critical issue. not news makers but people who are going to do the job effectively with the public support. >> yeah. while we have you here as former mayor of boston we have to get your thoughts on one other storm of a different sort. a storm of controversy you might say surrounding the new england patriots to do with a low-pressure system. >> oh. >> of another kind. your thoughts on deflategate. are the patriots cheaters? >> i'm a bit an athlete myself. i've been following sports since i was a little boy. i think it's greatly exaggerated, to be honest with you, that's coming from the

loyal boston fan. but also somebody can objectively look at this situation. if i thought the patriots had done something wrong, i would say it. i would say that they did. i don't think that they did. i think it's a great mis misunderstanding misunderstanding. you i think the national football league has to take more of an assertive step to place the control of the footballs in the hands of the referee, not in the hand of management. >> very loyal mayor of boston. thank you so much. i know you have a grandson to go probably play out in the snow. so we don't want to keep you too long. thank you for your time today. >> good to be with you. god bless you. how the markets are reacting. we'll check the board and get you up to speed on the day's other big headlines of the news.

also in the "cycle" today, president obama is the saudi

arabia attending funeral services for king abdullah that past away last week. secretary of state john kerry and senator john mccain is there. the president cut his trip short by a day in order to be there for the service. snow is not the only thing falling in new york city today. the dow is down triple digits after weak earnings news. the nasdaq and s&p are also down. which brings us back now to our continuing storm coverage. parts of new england are still under a blizzard warning for at least another five hours. here in new york city the city is slowly starting to thaw. msnbc meteorologist domenica davis is outside our 30 rock headquarters. domenica domenica, now it's about this bitter cold. >> it is. it is very cold. we're all under arctic air up and down the east coast. that is going to continue for the next several days right into the weekend. so temperatures aren't going to get above the freezing mark. i think we do have a shot at it friday. other than that temperatures will stay below freezing into the weekend as well.

we will see those temperatures drop into the teens. it's cold and the winds are picking up. our current windchills up through new england are dangerous because in a lot of places they are minus zero. i think we have minus eight up there in parts of maine. so it is particularly cold. a lot of places in new england have power outages because of the blizzard. that is still going through the area. that is going to be a major concern with the cold because some of those places plymouth lasted earlier this morning, plymouth massachusetts, they've been without it for probably more than six hours now in many cases. that is something we're going to have to think about. and also not only that but it doesn't give the snow a chance to melt with the cold. so we're not going to see that. we're doing to continue to see a black ice threat right through the weekend. the good news here is though things are getting back to normal here on the plaza. a lot of tourists coming out. and abby and i were out here yesterday afternoon.

>> it looks a little different today. >> doesn't it abby? really. first of all, you can actually see that my coat is black and my hat is -- for starters. but the ice skaters are out. it is really normal. it's just your january cold that we have. other than that it's looking pretty good out here. can't say the same though for new eng>> and. >> absolutely. domenica thank you. now as for the preparations for the storm, today some are asking too much or too little? before this storm was officially over many questioned whether governor cuomo and mayor de blasio overreacted with storm prep that turned this city into a virtual ghost town. today de blasio out on defense for the response. >> god forbid this storm had not moved, you know what was ultimately 20 30 miles 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 some 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. >> to that point, overpreparing can make for safer streets but also, let's be clear, for safer politics. look to further than little known jane burn who became the first female mayor winning after he botched the handling of the blizzard of '79. problems with roads and stranded trains and a my your claiming things were under control. or in d.c. mayor marion barry was criticized when he didn't return home from the 1987 super bowl in l.a. even as his beloved capitol got buried and all just basically messed up with 20 inches of snow. >> nice recovery there. >> thank you, krystal. majory major -- that led many to dub it the lindsey snowstorm.

howard fineman braved the blizzard here to be with us. >> hi, guys. >> let's start with some of what's hitting de blasio right now. take a look at this. game of thrones getting in the mix. this is last night. one of these internet ones that shows him ased in stark with the snow flapping in his face. winter is coming is what they say. people are having a good laugh. the onion weighed in with a headline, nyc mayor says reconcile yourself with your god for all will perish in the tempest while reading from a satire piece, of course but this shall be a tempest the likes of which will never be seen by man or beast. barring an unexpected intensification in the storm, normal subway and bus service would resume wednesday, end quote and satire. those are not real quotes from the mayor. >> thanks for make that clear. >> howard, they may not be fair. but talk to us first on the politics. how do you react as a mayor or

governor when you're starting to become the butt of this kind of of joke? >> first of all, if you're mayor de blasio you really almost any other politician you can't win. you're either going to overstate it or underdo it one way or the other. i love to beat up on politicians as much as the next person but i semp thisz with him a little bit because when he was elected mayor everybody said okay there were stories to this effect written saying yeah yeah, you're a progressive so-called, you know, sort of a parlor liberal. let's see if you can clean the streets during a snowstorm. >> right. >> he was kind of challenged as being an unrealist icic, impractical guy. and i think he responded, i thinkering on the side of caution by trying to keep the city calm and quiet and people off the streets and keep the transportation shut down for a while, waiting for this big nor'easter that never came. what does he do now? he, so to speak, weathers the storm. i think he probably will. the worst things you can accuse

a politician of than overpreparation. >> indeed. >> i'm totally with you. i've been frustrated all day with the critics. >> you were cold all day. >> i've been lucky because i've been able to be in a studio. i'm grateful for that. but here he is. he's the mayor of new york city. his number one job is to protect the people that have elected him to serve. what he heard was this could potentially be one of the worst storms to ever hit new york city. we were told similar things and we reported it here yesterday. he was precautious. if it were the other way around, he didn't put all that in place and things did happen everyone would be freaking out today. are we too harsh? are the american people wrong here? i think you're damned if you do you're da many,ned if you don't. >> on the other hand, there is no more concrete or real political task for any elected official than that that is presented to a mayor or a

governor or a county executive or whatever when there's a huge bunch of snow in the streets. because as you probably heard on this network earlier today, the late mayor of new york laguardia said there is no democratic or republican way to clear the streets. >> yep. >> right. >> and it's the most concrete manifestation of whether a leader is really a leader. >> no pun intended. >> so oh we. >> concrete streets. >> in the case of fire protection or even the police other people are involved more chance is involved. cleefring the streets is an organizational task. it's the most basic thing other than picking up the garbage that people do in elected officialses do. >> right. >> so they have to know how to deal with it. there's absolutely -- absolutely correct that mayor lindsay was clobbered back in the day and so forth. as mayor flynn said elected officials should pray a lot. >> we should pipe down.

>> i disagree with that. reason is this. you can take that political situation that you laid out there and take the lessons of public official to prepare as much as possible take as many precautions as possible never be blamed for having been caught unaware, having not done enough ahead of the storm. we have the first closure of the new york city subway for snow in its entire 110-year history. this is a system that has run not just through many storm of this size but through many storms of the forecasted size with two feet of snow. part of the whole reason that we built the subway is that it runs underground and doesn't snow underground so those people who do need to get around new york in a snowstorm can get around that way and doesn't have to brave the road. isn't this governor cuomo overreacting for political effect and being, look, i'm not going the risk anybody by leaving the subway open. it's something that no previous governor has felt the need to do. >> i agree with you on technical point, real one for new yorkers about the subway. the subway could have continued to operate. although i think what the mayor

and governor were thinking was, if this were a nor'easter that was going to hit smack into the middle of manhattan with 25 inches of snow that you don't want anybody out on the streets if you can possibly avoid it. i think it was a close call perhaps in retrospect they could have kept the subway open. but i understand why they did that, too. the storm of that magnitude, and that's what everybody was saying yesterday, two feet of snow in 24 hours in the streets of manhattan and the rest of the five bureaus, that would have been pretty close to an unprecedented event. you know i'm not going to hassle him too much on it. >> you know howard i agree with you. i think it's an impossible situation. i remember people last year complaining they kept the schools open rather than closing them for a variety of reasons. it is one of the situation where's someone is going to complain no matter what you do. to josh's point, these storms and the decision, for example, to close the subway that falls hardest on the sort of wage earning, working new yorkers who are trying to get to new york

and who might get fired from their job if they show up and then are left with no way to get there. >> yeah, i'm tempted to say that this is that kind of thing, especially with the subway, which naturally not being a new yorker i didn't quite think of in those terms. but you're right. but you're right. and it's fodder for those who say, de blasio talks a good game and supposedly has the working people in mind. but when it comes to the practical realities, as opposed to the rhetoric he really doesn't. and that's something he's been vulnerable to in the past and probably will be again. but most of the attacks on de blasio are not going to become from progressives worried that he isn't oriented toward the working people enough. most of the criticism of de blasio is going to come from where they've come from people who think that he's an anti-corporate, anti-money closet socialist. >> right. >> howard i hope you feel a little bit more like a big city mayor at the end of this segment because we have thrown every angle at you.

>> he can handle it. >> good seeing you. >> i like the subways. i do like the subways. next, we are heading to the ground in hard hit long island massachusetts, for live updates from the snow zone. you will get what you need to know and the one, the only steve kornacki brings his blizzard wizard here. you can bring them here. here is a look at the top trending hashtags. right there you can see it.

welcome back. boston mayor marty walsh is giving an update on storm recovery in that area. we're going go live to that now. >> so we can make sure that anybody that needs help will be able to get the help. the boston public health commission has reported shelter facility were able to remain at

adequate capacity for demands and continue to identify individuals in need of shelter. i know that police fire and ems have picked up holeless folks and brought them in to shelter to make sure they're safe. if you see someone out there call 911 so we can go out and get them because the storm is still going on and it's not over. some of our emergency services are also still remaining agentive. but everyone -- with everyone's cooperation to meet this ongoing challenge it's not the time for anyone to relax or be complacent. we're not doing that here in the city of boston. people should not drive. if they are not emergency personnel or have an emergency circumstance, i'm asking you to not drive your car. some of our streets still aren't plowed as people are going down -- i saw myself going through the city today people trapped in the middle of the street because their car couldn't pass it. people should be careful and should not be walking on the streets unless for emergency reasons. we've had reports from snowplow drivers that have had close calls with pedestrians walking in the streets. people wearing hats and

headphones and not paying attention to the circumstances around you. you need to pay attention when you're on the streets. we've seen a lot of people walking on main arteries, skiing on main arteries. be careful because the plow can't stop. you're talking about on snow with some packed in ice. be careful when you out there. i'm asking people not to shovel snow on to the street. we've had circumstances where we've had plows go down streets and then we've had people shoveling the snow into the street. i know it's difficult. there's not many places to shovel the snow. i'm asking you not to put snow back on the street because it's doing to cause a problem for public safety problem and issue with us trying to get plows around the city of boston and resources in other neighborhoods. we're also asking you as you're out there shoveling and people shoveling please do not forget to shovel your hydrants. if you have a hydrant in front of your house and you know where it is shovel it because if there's a fire in the case of a fire, that could save a couple minutes of the fire department trying to find the hydrants. also if you have an elderly

neighbor or house bound that lives next door to you, don't forget them and help them with a pathway in front of their house as well, to shovel. the city of boston -- >> that was the mayor of boston and other boston officials urging people not to ski on main arterial streets. it will be one of the record books there like 1978 which steve kornacki was talking about. >> this thing was truly a monster. in massachusetts you had up to 4 1/2 feet of snow in some places. you had wind at 70 miles an hour in boston 2100 homes destroyed. there were 29 people in massachusetts killed by this thing. so obviously it was a serious storm but it was also something that if you were 40 or over and you're from new england, you're still talking about this. you're still telling people about this. you still remember this. if you're under 40 you grew up hearing about it from all of those people. >> on a big new england weather day like today our coverage would not be complete without steve. now, i also grew up in

massachusetts and i also remember hearing lots of stories about this storm as a kid. what were the lessons from this that people are still taking? >> the number one lesson of the blizzard of '78, sort of applies to what we're talking about here in new york they were so underprepared. you had the forecasts coming in for the snowstorm in boston. february '78 where it's not going to be that much. supposed to start early in the day on monday. got to monday. everybody went in to work. it didn't start. it wasn't snowing. everybody relaxed. kind loeft down their guard. around 4:00 or 5:00 in the afternoon it just -- this is a rare blizzard. >> rush hour. >> what happened here -- right. you could see, it was so intense though. you're talking two to three inches an hour. what separated this blizzard from the others is typically in a blizzard you will have 6 to 12 hours of intense snowfall. 33 straight hours of intense blizzard level snowfall. talking about parts of eastern massachusetts. i mean, i heard stories up in their backyard for five feet of snow in some of these places.

eastern mass providence. the roading of the state, we talked about it in new york city roads being closed for 12 hours or whatever. we're talking about three or four days. interstates closed. complete downtown boston shut down. big hockey tournament being played in the boston garden the old sports arena while this was happening. by the time they let out of the first blizzard there was nowhere for people to go. 200 people were trapped in the boston garden for three days. ate hot dogs slept in the locker rooms. >> who were the politicians at that time and how were they viewed? this seems like, i mean what could you do to prepare for that? >> the mayor of the city of boston at the time kevin white, was in a tropical place. he could not get back to the city. he was out of the city. meanwhile -- >> tropical place. >> he didn't have bloomberg money. it was bad timing. unprepared. the other one was mikial dukakis, governor of massachusetts at the time. think about the climate in 1978. no cable television. no internet.

all you had was local television. the old dial with three channels. local radio, like three or four stations. dukakis for the whole storm, three or four days everybody is trapped in their homes, everybody is trapped in their offices, all they get is dukakis in the sweater giving the updates. heed ended up losing the primary that year which is shocking. >> did it have a zipper? >> a little bit like that. >> well, thank you so much steve. >> sure yeah. >> after seeing that you can understand why cuomo and de blasio did what they did. sorry, josh. up next new york acts like it's tough but are we wusses when it comes to the weather? that's next.

eastern massachusetts is still being hit by this blizzard. it's a dangerous situation. it's not stopping school kids from enjoying the school day. nbc's kristen dahlgren is in canton massachusetts, just outside boston. kristen? >> reporter: hey, josh. take a look at just how much snow we have. this is my car. parked it here last night. it is just completely covered. so you know that's more than a foot and it's been blowing off. we probably have two feet in total here. i'm going to walk out this way and hopefully my photographer kevin can follow along because he's about thigh deep in this snow here. i'll go out to the street. i can tell you that this street here occasionally a plow comes by.

so, you know there have been cars and trucks getting through. but this is how the neighbors are getting around on snowmobile today. they're all out enjoying the day off. it really has been a fun one for the kids. they just the kids. they just found out about an hour and a half ago they don't have school tomorrow either. this neighborhood was expecting to lose power. they never did lose power, but the snow still coming down. it's going to take a lot to dig those cars out, so we could be here for a while as well. back to you guys. >> and the city that never sleeps was put to bed during this storm. the subway was taken offline. a two-feet storm was predicted. we ended up with about 8 inches. as the big apple gone soft when it comes to the snow? chicago, don't answer that. we have the latest atlantic

piece in which politicians can never win when it comes to the weather. what is your verdict? have we gone soft here or are we just being careful? >> i don't know if we're soft but we're definitely dramatic about everything. >> new yorkers? >> yeah. the build up was all catastrophic crippling snowstorm. i can't believe it is only 6 inches. >> we're all very critical people. >> we have to find somebody to blame. we're almost mad there wasn't more snow. >> all the people who work in new york city, all 4 million of them make about $1.6 billion in wages every business day. this is really expensive to cause people to come to work when they get stuck or not come to work. should we be holding politicians accountable for this? >> it's true. no one has really talked about

what was the economic impact. nobody is going to go to work for basically nine hours. ideally, they would be weighing that against the cost of what is the disaster what if we can't get the roads cleared, and it's not really clear that anyone actually did make that calculation. it becomes more of a gut feeling. is this going to look bad for us? the consensus seems to be that cuomo is covering all of his bases. >> meteorologists must know new yorkers like to blame someone, because some of them this morning got on top of that. gary was one of them. he is a meteorologist in new jersey. for much of new jersey and for the philadelphia metropolitan area this is a big forecast miss. my biggest apologies. you made a lot of tough decisions expecting us to get it right and we did not.

once again, i am very sorry. what are you supposed to do? in the media, we're in a similar position as politicians. we were hearing this could be one of the worst storms to hit new york city. >> that wasn't something bill de blasio made up. it was something meteorologists were saying. >> or us. >> people have taken for granted we can predict these things. meteorologists have definitely gotten more accurate over the years, but they're not perfect. >> you're hitting son something which is actually deeper here. sometimes people don't like hospitals because they're afraid of death. the association of even getting near it. when you look at some of these extreme weather events which are captivating to people but also bursts the notion that we

have as sort of modern scientifically inclined sur urban sophisticates that we control events events don't control us. storms that kill and freeze a city that remind you that you don't control everything, or the flip side that we can't predict everything. >> there really is no perfect response that a city could do for a weather event, because it is impossible to predict exactly what's going to happen. there's no way to get -- no one knows what would be the perfect response. do you close the subway for a couple of hours or 12 hours? whatever it is you're going to get it wrong. >> who are you going to blame?

>> have we gotten lamer? this is something that people -- we never closed school. we walked with the bread bags on our feet. there's this sense that we have gotten a little bit softer and a little bit more diplomatically cautious. do you think that there's truth to that? we did close the subway system for the first time apparently ever? >> but there were probably a lot of storms in the past in which they wished they had closed the subway and they didn't. >> so we're getting smarter, not lamer? >> we just sort of plowed throw it, no pun intended because we had no choice. >> coming into work today, the streets were pretty clear off. 50% of businesses were up and running. for everything that could have happened i thought they did a pretty good job. >> people think that we were much tougher about this when they were kids because they were shorter.

they have all these memories of doing things with these enormous snow banks around them. it is because they were only three feet tall at the time. >> here is what it looks like outside on the plaza, but we know that we were lucky. there's still enough snow in the area for kids to get out and enjoy. here's a live look of kids out sledding in central park. that looks like a good time. we'll be right back. >> it is just about a mile southwest of belmont. it's time for the your business entrepreneur of the week. she saw a gaping hole in the health care industry. once you leave your doctor's office, who is there to help you stay healthy day-to-day? she launched an app that connects people with health coaches who are by their side 24/7.

wow, those are some pretty incredible shots there from the chopper in new york city. that does it for a very snowy "cycle." snowed under in new england, under under underwhelmed in new york. it is tuesday, january 27th, and this is "now." >> the dangerous winter storm. >> parts of the northeast will still getting pummelled. >> this is a lot of drifting snow. >> all power has been lost on the island of nantucket. you can see the ocean has just moved right in. >> this whole yard was under water for about an hour and a half. >> there's a lot of people who are still going to su