it's hard to keep your eyes open. this is really a day for goggles or even sulasses. the visibility, tom kierein was saying 1/10 of a mile at national, a quarter of mile, we're on river road at bethesda. you can hardly tell there's a road behind me. we've had a couple cars come up without their lights on. you should definitely have your lights on today. we've seen a couple of cars spin out or slip and slide on the main roads here, just think about the side streets. a plow came up this road from the state highway authority a little while ago, a as you see, the conditions are not very good. right over there, a car is moving down the street. here, very slow. you've got to move slowly, even if you have an suv. a lot of areas, restaurants, and supermarkets and grocery stores are not open, and driving is difficult. we talked to colin martin, and here's what he had to say about driving on river road.

>> well, hopefully at 8 and close at 9:00. i got enough stuff to get us through the next day or so. >> reporter: on river road, what about driving conditions? >> very poor. visibility's extremely poor with the wind and the snow. so it's actually, i think, worse than it was the other day. with the snowstorm, with the wind. >> reporter: do you have to stay on the road, or are you getting off? >> just getting off, going home. getting some gas and headed back as soon as i get home. >> reporter: all done for today? >> yeah, all done. >> reporter: we're looking live now at a truck towing a plow truck, right there under the crescent trail. they're both getting out. that's how tough it is on river road that a plow is being towed. here's a car coming up river road. he has his headlights on, or she, have their headlights on. if you look downriver roa riveru will see that you don't have much visibility.

now, this guy's moving at a good clip. he may be a little overconfident. he's got an suv, got a light flashing on top, and i think it's the washington suburban sanitary commission truck vehicle. so that's the situation here on river road in bethesda. tough visibility. wind, just started dying down. it was driving into our eyes when we started this report just minutes ago. now we're more into a fluffy flake. but conditions change and it's very cold out here. so bundle up. many layers and good luck. >> 21 degrees now. when i started this morning, it was about 30. so the temperature's coming down, the winds are kicking up, these drifts are kicking up tremendously out there. you know it's going to be a bad day when a tow truck is pulling a plow. and then they're pulled over on the side of the road. >> of coursing with there are private plow companies too that may be out there, but we heard that montgomery county had pulled third plows for now with

the whiteout conditions as they are. we'll continue to follow that, though. and as the snow continues to fall, it's important to take it in stride. >> that means, don't wait until the end of the storm to start shoveling. so liz crenshaw is here now to tell us why that is, and how we can all be better shovlers. >> jim and barbara, shoveling in stages is going to help you later. you want to do whatever you can to minimize the damage from this storm. as the snow builds up, you have to think about melting. i know that sounds strange, but you have to think about it. alvin saks is a construction consultant who specializes in protecting homes from water damage. he suggests that when you're shoveling, don't forget to clear the areas around your downspouts, so when that snow does begin to melt, it has somewhere to go. also, remember to shovel around the doors and any openings surrounding in the foundation of your home or your business. this includes those sliding glass door areas, the opening to your basement. don't forget to clear the drain at the bottom of the outside stairwells. it's recommended that all these areas be cleared three feet from the structure.

now, if you're worried about your window wells and they're full of snow, avoid using a shovel to avoid that snow. it might break the glass. instead, use a plastic bucket to empty the snow out of your window wells. and clear the snow from other areas of your snow as well. they include the drier vent. i've never thought about this before, but clear the dryer vent outside your home if it's covered with snow, it could spark a fire inside your home. also, clear that snow off the heat pump. they won't work properly if they're covered. it will overtax the motor and you could burn your heat pump out. and if you need to drive, don't forget to clean the snow from that tailpipe to avoid carbon monoxide poisoning. we actually had a fire in this area over the weekend because a dryer vent was blocked. >> very good advice. >> if you're home doing laundry, thinking, oh, i can get ahead, get outside and clear the dryer vent. >> we all have them. liz, great tips. appreciate them.

we'll check back. tom kierein and monitoring all the stats for us, how these numbers are changing. tom, give us a time line. are we still looking at things getting worse this afternoon? >> no, the conditions we have now, we are going to maintain here for the next several hours, so near whiteout conditions. now, this is right near the airport. there's the potomac river, somewhere in the distance. this is our city camera. and you can see the visibilities are very low. in fact, at the reagan national airport, visibility now only 0.10 of a mile with blowing and drifting snow. and look at the blizzard warning area. it covers an enormous area, all of the state of maryland is under a blizzard warning right now, all the way into this evening. and also, the direct of columbia, northern virginia, the highlands of west virginia, a blizzard warning in effect there near whiteout conditions in west virginia and all around this region in red. it includes delaware as well. these are the lates wind gusts. we've had the gusts not quite as high as they have been the last

couple of hours. but they're still certainly at blizzard criteria. now just had a gust in annapolis at 38. the latest gust at reagan national in dulles, 30-mile-an-hour gusts. as a result, the visibilities are down to just a quarter of a mile in those locations with thos gusts over 30 miles an hour. so visibility is certainly going to be an issue. you don't want to be even walking, let alone driving, because not only is the footing treacherous, but nobody can see you. the emergency vehicles that will be driving will not be able to see you until the last minute. and there's no -- a lot of the sidewalks are not walkable now. as we look at the windchill, with that wind gusting over 30 miles an hour, and the temperatures that are just now near 20 degrees, it feels like single digits. the windchill in washington now is just at 7 degrees. now, the latest radar showing that the intensity of the snow has actually decreased a bit, and in these areas of dark blue, where we're still getting some

moderate snow, but earlier, we had them up in the green zone here in the precipitation scale, which was heavy snow. so thankfully, we're not getting the heavy snow any longer, but we are continuing to get moderate snow in washington, prince george's montgomery, fairfax, arlington, loudoun, into frederick county, howard county, and washington county, panhandle of west virginia, this entire zone, still getting moderate snow. but it is going to be gradually decreasing in intensity as we do get into the afternoon hours. look at some of the totals we've had so far. tabulating those for us this morning has been veronica johnson, who joins us now with all the latest. veronica? >> thanks a lot, tom. totals have been coming in by way of e-mail to us. continue to send those in. continue to go out and take those measurements. steve in dunkirk reporting 6 inches of new snow. probably has 7 inches now, and winds up to 40 miles per hour. you probably heard tom and chuck say this morning that we've seen close to 50 miles per hour around pax river and around frederick, maryland. speaking of frederick, steve

bear, frederick, maryland, reporting 13 inches of new snow. same thing up nearer sermont, maryland. jim reporting 15 inches of new snow. we asked earlier to send in your ideas of what we should do with all this new snow, where to put it. from burke, virginia, dan duncan ys, with all that snow out there, those who live near railroad tracks, you might consider packing the refrigerator cars and send all that stuff to vancouver to help with the olympics, because as you know, they've got a shortage up there. miranda in fredericksburg, virginia, says the same thing, send the snow to vancouver. snowiest months after, february, 1889. and this month, right now, with

so much snow across the area, 24.8, and stilled adding to that. and we've been showing you some of the scenes from back then, 1899 with more than 35 inches. can you imagine how long it must have taken them to get out, dig around, get around, well before suvs. >> those are amazing archival photos. those are scenes in washington way back from 1899. the snowiest winter ever. he locally, we have temperatures just near 20 degrees right now, it is continuing to be very cold. and the blizzard warnings are not only here, they extend up towards new york city, long island, as well as all the way back into southern pennsylvania and into west virginia. we've got this coastal low pressure system that is continuing to deepen. that is what is drawing in some very cold air, coming down over us on these very strong winds. we are seeing these near whiteout conditions. this low will be tracking off to the north and east and pulling away. and as it does so, it will take the snow away with it, but still

give us some whipping winds here, gusting over 40 miles an hour, leaving in its wake, 10 to 15 inches of new snow, commonly, across much of the region. then, finally, we'll get some sunshine back with diminishing winds tomorrow. and finally, enough calm weather to be able to dig out and to come back to some semblance of normalcy, perhaps, by first part of next week. now, jerry, how is the traffic and the road conditions looking? >> tom, we're still, obviously, crews are quite challenged as we take a live look along interstate 66 and route 50 on the approach to the roosevelt bridge. earlier today, you could actually see some travel lanes, but not any longer. it's all drifted over and really impassable, 100% impassable at this hour. let's go up to maryland and show you what it looks like along the 270 corridor northbound and southbound. we have reports of an accident up in clarksburg on 270 southbound, also route 301 at the nice bridge remains closed. that's due to the whiteout conditions out there.

there have been multiple accidents, so it appears that folks may be trying to venture out, which is certainly not a good idea. stay put for the time being, state police are asking us to ask you just to stay where you are for the time being and let the weather clear, which hopefully will happen sooner than later. >> thanks, jerry. 11:11 is the time right now. our coverage of the blizzard 2010, round two, continues in just a moment. >> hang in there, keep it indoors, and stay with us. we're coming right back.

welcome back to our continuing coverage of the blizzard 2010, round two, as we take a live picture outside in washington, d.c. >> i think that's pat collins. >> that is either the abominable

snowman or pat collins with a cup of coffee. i'm scared. two cups of coffee, one, i hope, for his camera person. pat, we'll be talking to you in just a little bit. again, welcome back. >> that picture is on connecticut avenue. pat's been hanging out there for the past five days. he does go home at night. tra tracee wilkins has the latest now from northwest washington, d.c. how's it looking? still coming down, i see. >> hey, tracee, you've been hanging out there a wile for yourself. >> reporter: yes, look, we have a live truck full of coffee. the folks over at the sticky finger bakery brought us a whole bunch of baked goods. so we're good. thank you so much to people of columbia heights, for taking such good care of us, and also watching us from on high. let's me show you some pictures that one of the neighbors

e-mailed to me, so sweet. wendy, thank you so much for this picture. but this is a great shot of what it looks like from above. take a look at our city from above. these are the kind of pictures that are hard to get, because you can't bring a helicopter overhead for you to take a look at how snowy the intersection is and how much snow we've been getting over here, but it is pretty serious out here. we were talking with one gentleman earlier, who was telling us that, yes, he is a snow lover, but even he is tired of all of this snow. so you have to go to work this morning? >> yes, i do. >> reporter: if you didn't have to go to work, would you be out here right now? >> well, i went out last night for the dupont snowball fall. >> reporter: oh, so you would be out here? >> well, i think we're all getting kind of tired of the snow at this point. >> reporter: there were snowball fights at first, all of this excitement, now kind of like, i'm over it? >> a little bit. i think it's called snowverkill right now.

>> reporter: that's classic. how are things going for you, getting to and from work? >> it's been fine so far. i have an underground station near me. the trains are running slower than usual, but they're still running. >> reporter: snowverkill. how about that one? that's one for the books. love it. so we're back out here at irving and 14th in columbia heights, and this is what we're thinking about now, as we're thinking about things coming to an end for us and how we're going to get home. part of the problem with this situation is that we've got these slushy roads, roads thatp you've got roads that have been plowed, here where they'd done all the shoveling, this morning, this was completely invisible, covered in snow, hard down here at the bottom, compacted and all this fluffy stuff on the top. you mix in this visibility, it's almost impossible to see with this snow and these high winds and then you put your car in all

of that and it's just a real mess. so folks, you've got to be careful. if you have to, or if you can, stay home. the roads are just in really bad condition. we haven't seen a plow come through this way in a while. so you just really need to know that when you get out there, you're dealing with who kws what. i mean, even in the daylight, we had to experience turning up roads that looked just fine. we drove down them a little while and before we knew it, we were in high snow, because maybe the plow didn't go all the way up the road. these are the kind of things folks need to think about. since we put that picture on just a little bit while ago, i hear people yelling from on high, guys. they're up there watching, we appreciate it! but they have definitely been taking good care of us out here in columbia heights. i really want those people to go ahead and stay inside. here we have a lady right over here, walking down the center of the street. you know, this is the kind of stuff that makes it difficult for pedestrians, also for drivers. these pedestrians, you know, the

drivers cat see until they get right up on you. the sidewalk is the best place to be. and i just showed you what a sidewalk's looking like here. they're not the bestooking sidewalks, we really just need to give folks some time to clean up this city for us, then we can come out when it's safe to come out. some of the people i'm seeing out here are doing a lot of grocery shopping. i see a lot of giant bags, so i understand that. we've got to get that food. i doubt they'd be in this mess if they could stay inside. northwest washington in columbia heights, i'm tracee wilkins, thanks to y'all. >> all right, tracee, stay safe. >> tracee just mentioned she hasn't seen a plow go by for a while. a lot of areas, jurisdictions aren't plowing right now. we hear that's the case in alexandria. let's talk to the fire chief there, adam steele. >> good morning. >> good morning. >> so you pulled your plows for a while? >> we did pull them for a will. the visibility got down to zero, so we temporarily suspended all of our plowing operations.

we've been fortunate that visibility has improved somewhat, and now drivers are back plowing, at their discretion, with a pretty strict safety margin. >> are you hitting the main roads right now, or are you trying to get into any neighborhoods a this the juncture? >> we worked the primary and secondary streets after the last storm and had a monumental effort to get down every single local street to make it passable for emergency vehicles. now with this new storm, we're working primary and secondary streets again, and with the blizzard and the witness we're having a tough time of it. our drivers have been working, literally, around the clock since friday morning last week. >> you mentioned emergency response, what kind of calls have you head for emergency response, and have you been able to get to everyone you've needed to? >> you know, we're getting to them. it's a real challenge. we have a number of four-wheel drive support units on the road, getting assistance from the national guard, have mutual aid units here from several locations across the state. so it's really a huge effort to get into some of our neighborhoods, even with the great work that's been done by

all of our plow drivers, but this is an unprecedented event. >> well, we thank you for telling us what's going on out there right now. we hope everybody's safe and we'll stay in touch with you, see w things are moving in alexandria over there. adam teal, thank you. >> let's find out about the situations at bwi marshall airport. on the phone with us is paul wheedfield, at what can y tell us about any operations that are going on there? >> we've been bugging away all night, obviously, like everybody else, we were able to keep one runway open, just until recently, which allowed us to get some cargo flights out of here, both fedex and u.p.s. right now we have shut down the ra runways. as you know, all commercial activity has been canceled for the day. we're urging people to get on the airline's website and check their flights. and when they do come to the airport, to consider parking in the garage, will make it a lot easier on everybody, particularly when they cut back. >> paul, were you able to get

caught up with folks who hadn't been able to get out over the weekend on yesterday? >> yeah. in fact, i just completed a whole walk-through of the terminal, and literally i counted three people, i talked to each one of them, and for different reasons, they're staying in the terminal, but basically the terminal is totally empty. >> and what do you know about tomorrow? >> right now, we're watching it, literally, by the hour, and so are the airlines. we'll have to keep an eye on what happened on the conditions at the airfield as well as the weather and stuff. they'll make their decisions. as you know, they're juggling not only this airport, but all the airports in the mid-atlantic and up the east coast. they'll have to decide how they're gng to deploy their planes based on that. >> speaking of deploying planes, are a lot of aircraft equipment on the ground at bwi trapped and can't get out? >> no, no. in fact, the airlines here, i think, really played it smart. they did cancel early and moved things out of here so they didn't get trapped.

we've all experienced the trouble of digging out a car, you can imagine digging out a 737. they were really smart to be able to get them out of here. now they can fly back in tomorrow morning and start getting people out. >> paul wheedfield, thank you very much. >> we're going to take a break now at 11:22, 22 degrees out there. our continuing coverage of the blizzard of 2010, round two, will continue.

look at all that snow, and whiteout conditions. you really cannot see beyond a couple of houses if you're traveling along. there's a car coming down, about to cross connecticut. 21 degrees is our current temperature here in the nation's capital, with the snow continuing to fall. and welcome back. >> let's check on conditions in virginia. we're going to go to kimberly suiters, where she's been out in vienna all day long, begging for food -- i mean, observing the conditions, as they are out

there. >> she did find a couple places open, and hopefully you are well fed, kimberly. how you doing? >> reporter: i'm doing great! we just talked to this great lady over here who's from slovakia and she's trying to fly out of vienna, virginia, trying to get to vienna, austria. of course, her flight was canceled. but the people of vienna have been great. a lot of the businesses were open. the pharmacy was open, mcgruder's, the grocery store, the vienna inn for breakfast, starbucks just closed. we had a great coffee thi morning. but take a look at these conditions. this is what people are dealing with this morning in vienna. take a look, also, at some video from earlier today, oh, about an hour ago. a nice family pulled in, they wanted to show us the chains on their tires. they swear by them, they say, look, this is a public service deal. we want people to know that this is the only way to get aroundn this storm. listen in to what bruce moose has to say about changes on your

tires. >> well,uch better traction on the astrovan, here we only have rear-wheel drive, and i would rather have this than four-wheel drive with no chains. >> reporter: i thought some places don't allow them anymore? >> actually, in the state of virgia, according to some of the tire chain websites i've looked at, they're required in snow emergencies. so looking at the tire chain websites, we have seen that they actually require them in these conditions. >> reporter: and your pomeranian is turning white. tell me about her. >> this is atlas, you can find him on youtube under "atlas the pomeranian." and he likes to catch frisbees when he's not out in the snow and hike on the happappalachian trails. >> reporter: they also have chai on their shoes. she's from new york, so she's used to this stuff. back now, live, if you will. we are in downtown vienna on

maple avenue. that is essentially their main street. you remember when we talked to the pharmacist about an hour and a half ago. he brought his sleeping bag. he drove all the way in from leesburg and he had a shovel. and i told him his shovel was dinky. so you know what he did? he sent his colleague out here to send me a shovel, so i could get to shoveling. these are the two shovels that the pharmacist brought us. people have a good sense of humor here in vienna, virginia. we're not going to get very far with these. we do, actually, have a big shovel to dig ourselves out of this parking lot. and just in case we can't do it, the kind people of vienna, a gentleman just drove up a minute ago, he's a contractor, he handed us a card and he said, if you can't get out, i'll come get you out. we're being well taken care of here in fairfax county. i'm kimberly suiters, with nbc 4, now back to you in e studio. >> and bruce moose moved along now, or is he still there with you? >> reporter: bruce moose has moved along. are you kidding?!

he's doing doughnuts in the parking lot across the street. no, in all seriousness, no, barbara, you don't want to be driving out here. the conditions are abominable. i was talking to some vienna firefighters -- rather, police officers, this morning. they were saying this storm, they think, is much worse than the last storm. not only because of the piles of snow, but also because of the poor visibility from the driving snow. they said that they've almost witnesses accidents where people are pulled over to clear their windshield wipers and you don't see people stopped in the roaded in until you're right up on them. they recommend people just stay inside. >> thanks, kimberly. let's check on tngs now in bethesda. news 4's chris gordon is there. he joins us live from river road. >> reporter: now, i have something to add to what you were just talking to kimberly suiters back.

we just got a notification in an e-mail from the maryland state highway authority, issuing a warning of danls drigerous driv conditions, saying that ssh state highway authority plows are being pulled off the roads in some instances because of poor visibility and poor road conditions. they also advise that montgomery, prince george's, and frederick county plows are being pulled off the road until conditions improve. we also have a situation in howard county, only emergency vehicles are being allowed on the streets in howard county. we want to show you some videotape taken by roth gibson. now, he worked at channel 4 nbc in i.t. he's one of our i.t. people, but he was driving on river road to show how difficult the conditions are. as he was driving along river road, you can see the blowing. the visibility is very limited. he was on his way into work and

he was shooting. now, we are also joined by and talking to live oscar garcia, now from the montgomery county fire ems. he has come out to join us. first of all, what are your observations and what can you tell us? >> definitely, very limited visibility. when you drive across the road, a lot of the snow from the trees on the border lines, obviously, that's coming across. very dangerous conditions as far as motorists stopping, because, basically, their windshields are freezing over, their windshield wipers are freezing over, therefore, they don't have any visibility in that aspect. they're stopping, making it hazardous r people coming up on them. they're coming up on them, short visibility already, and they're stopped, so they're obviously going to create a hazard for anybody. and again, our fire skpeand ems going to have to respond to those type of emergencies. if you stay off the road, it will help immensely. >> reporter: let's talk about what kind of incidents you've been responding to today. >> so far, we're responding to trees down, responding to medical emergencies throughout

the county, are responding to collisions throughout montgomery county. and again, that's why we advise just to stay home at this point. there are things you can do at home. check your supplies, make sure you can share them with neighbors as this storm continues to hit the region. again, we are going to have to work together within the community, also. fire and rescue is ready to respond, but, they can't be everywhere all the time. so the most you can do for yourself is going to help us out immensely also. >> reporter: n, we're dealing with a one-two punch. the other day, we were seeing that fire trucks and ambulances were having trouble with streets that haven't been plowed. now we have additional inches, we have snow and blizzard conditions. are you able to get through? >> well, in some cases, we are able to get through. we do have resources from the state with regards to the humvees. the typical car that we usually take firefighters is taking half a dozen firefighters to respond to. besides assessing and treating the patient, other firefighters are making their way to the call with regards to shoveling and four-wheel drive vehicles.

it is challenging. most of the roads are paved, but with this second round of snow, it's going to be difficult, but we are ready to challenge that. >> reporter: over the weekend, we were able to shovel out, but there's still the danger of heart attacks. you must have been had some examples of that. >> absolutely. we definitely recommend -- there is a lot of help you can do by clearing your walkways and your driveways, but, again, just take your time. don't try to tackle it all at once. go ahead and tdo a little bit a time, get some rest, while you still have power inside, get rest, get warmed up. >> oscar garcia from the montgomery county fire and rescue, we thank you for coming out and joining us to channel 4 viewers the latest information. we're in bethesda along river road, back to you in the stio. >> let's see what it looks like in northwest washington. >> let's talk to pat collins who's been out there all morning. in fact, he's been out there most of the week. we started friday seeing you. what's it looking like today?

>> reporter: it's blowing hard. snow. visibility is about maybe that much. but with me is charlotte and george the snow shark. if you watched last saturday, you'll know the story. tell me how george the snow shark works, charlotte. >> well, you sleep with him on the night before you want it to snow and then the next day, it snows. >> reporter: and last friday night, you slept with george the snow shark? >> yes, i did. >> reporter: and we all know what happened on saturday, right, 25 inches of snow. last night, did you sleep with george, the snow shark? >> yes. i did. >> reporter: charlotte, let's get rid of george the snow shark. let's put him on ebay or something. >> maybe we can sell him to vancouver. >> reporter: good idea. vancouver! let's get george the snow shark to vancouver, immediately. fedex. bring in that little box. let's get him out of here. charlotte, come on over, giv me a measurement.

now, as you recall, yesterday we cleaned off the table here. here. get by with george. get over here, charlotte, get up there. we cleaned off this table to bare wood so we could measure just the new snow. and so this just the new snow measurement. charlotte, stick it down in the table, tell me what you see. how many inches? >> 4 1/4. >> reporter: how many? >> 4 1/4. >> reporter: 4 1/4 here on connecticut avenue, as the snow continues to blow, and we finally have our hands on george the snow shark and we're going to send this guy off to vancouver. >> as you do the snow dance. i never -- >> reporter: stop it all! >> never thought of sleeping with george. thanks a lot, pat. >> thanks very much.

let's take at look at the forecast. we'll go meteorologist tom kierein now in storm center 4. >> we still have blizzard warnings in effect throughout much of the region this morning and into the afternoon hours. the blizzard warning does continue. and look at the visibilities there. we still have blizzard conditions. we've got near whiteout coitions that was a live view from our city camera right now national airport. we have blizzard warnings in effect for the district of columbia, northern virginia, and the entire state of maryland is under a blizzard warning, as is delaware and the panhandle of west virginia, the highlands of west virginia have had near whiteout conditions there and they've had up to a foot of new snow there. the winds have been gusting up to around 30 miles an hour, locally, in the last hour. so that is diminished, actually, from what it was earlier this morning, when we had gusts over 40 to nearly 50 miles an hour. so the winds are gradually diminishing, but they're still going to be on the levels of, unfortunately, blizzard conditions. and the visibilities are about a quarter of a mile to even less than that at times, when we have

those stronger gusts. but the visibilit right now in washington is about a quarter of a mile, as it is in prince george's, montgomery, and fairfax counties. look at the windchills. it's only in the single digits. it's very cold. temperatures are only in the 20s. right now in washington, it's only1 degrees. and that wind combined with those windchills and all that snow make it really very unpleasant to be outside. look at the radar. this has actually improved over the last hour. it's stillmoderatinge imoderate though, y where you see these areas of dark blue. into frederick county, maryland, into carroll county as well, panhandle of west virginia, all these areas are getting moderate snow. light snow farther to our south. some of the totals coming in from observers. we appreciate you sending in ese amounts. we've had up to 8 inches here in northwest washington of new snow since this all began yesterday, up to 10 inches in montgomery

county, about a foot of new snow has fallen and even some higher amounts in frederick county, maryland, and into washington county, panhandle of west viinia as well. and we've got this coastal low pressure system that's continuing to evolve and deepen. and as it continues to deepen, it will keep cranking in moisture off of the atlantic, giving us more snow heres and also drawing cold air into it and giving us these gusty winds. but it should gradually pull away as the evening goes. so, we'll have generally, maybe 10 inches to as much as 15 inchinch s in a few isolated spots. sun returning tomorrow with diminishing winds and sunny on friday and saturday as well, giving us a breather and a chance to dig out from this latest storm, the double whammy of 2010. now, the road conditions. jerry, how's it looking? >> still very changeable. but we have a little bit better visibility right now here in northern virginia. don't get your hopes up. we haven't seen plowing crews out in virginia for a while, and

that is by design, as we've already told you, that crews have been pulled off the roadway for their safety. look at that. there's people saying, this is rush hour, away they go. let's head over to maryland to take a check on things, see what the conditions are like up in maryland. not quite so good over here, visibility still down on the beltway around university boulevard. now, i did see one plow or grader, to be technical, up on new hampshire avenue. but he might have been just been preparing to move from point "a" to point "b." it's just not wise to get out there, folks. in downtown washington, we saw 301 closed at the nice bridge as a result of the whiteout and reduced visibility. we've had multiple accidents, folks that really don't need to be out. and again, the bottom line, we've been saying it ever since the first storm began, is you have to leave the roads open and available for crews to go out there and clean the roadways, get things repaired, and for the rescue and police and emergency crews. they need to have free access to all the roadways for folks who do get in trouble.

and i've been monitoring the situation from police, fire, and rescue. and unfortunately, a lot of folks are getting sick or having heart attacks or falling down and the rescue crews have to get there. so, please, stay off the roads and let them get where they need to be. >> good advice. thanks very much, jerry. >> thank you, jerry. our coverage of the blizzard of 2010, round two, continues in just a moment. >> as we take a look outside at vienna, virginia, west maple in vienna, stay with us.

well, welcome back to our coverage of the blizzard of 2010, round two. looking at a live picture, actually, we are looking at the potomac river. it's hard to tell, the snowbank along the edges there. i'm not sure where we are, perhaps right here in the district for that picture. and we have seen snow falling there, as we have all around our region, throughout the night and

going to be a long haul. many of the equipments cannot handle this snow. we have our repair shop operating 24 hours a day. equipment is falling down. the governor, my understanding is, going to be talking to the secretary of homeland security, to try to get some additional equipment into the region. so we're hoping that will happen by tomorrow.

but right now, it's just really, really awful. our citizens, please, please, stay off the road and allow the emergency vehicles to continue operating. >> jack, share with us, if you're aware of emergency calls that are coming into your responders there in prince george's county, what's the situation like, getting people unstuck, to hospitals, what have you heard? >> well, our biggest problem is that we do have a list of 250 people that we have to transport between today and tomorrow, either to chemotherapy treatment or to dialysis clinics. so those are just things that we have to do and we have some of the snowplows and other people operating snowplows are going in, bringing the people, putting them on the trucks, and taking them to these centers. in addition to that, there are

110 centers that we have identified who live by themselves and need food and so we have prepared food for them and the snowplows are taking the foods to the particular seniors. these are the normal situation that we create in a normal snow event, but it really amplified today the other issues that we have, is that we are having a number of people that are suffering chest pains and other things. we don't know whether they're heart attacks, and they are being transported, as i speak, you know, some could be a heart attack, or what have you. >> so we want people to, if it's an emergency, please call 911. that's what we want people to understand. we will get to you and get you to the hospital. >> jackson johnson, county executive in prince george's county, thanks so much for joining us and good luck was we try to weather this storm.

>> oh, we need it. thank you. >> thank you very much. chuck bell is standing by live now outside our studios with more on the images a lot of you have been sending in to see. >> what do we have, chuck? >> it's been a great day to get a couple of pictures and send them into us here at channel 4. the address you should send your pictures or video to isee@nbcwashington.c isee@nbcwashington.com. that's the preferred address for people who know how to get pictures to us here at nbc 4. if you have any snow reports, send them directly to me at chuckbell@nbcwashington.com. tons of snow coming down. let's take a look at some of our pictures here. we'll be able to show you, oh, t the tension, the stress, there we go. a lot of great pictures coming in. we appreciate everybody sending them in, just all over the place. prince george's county, out towards annapolis, a lot of good snow pictures there. a lot of barbecues look like

that these days. a fresh 15 or 20 inches of snow on the barbecue. that's very typical of visibility right now. visibility now less than 500 or 600 feet in many locations. that's why driving has gotten to be so dangerous out there. a lot of back porches and patios buried under the snow first thing this morning. and there's another great shot of ow terrible the visibilities are. and these visibles aren't going to be changing much here over the next bit. dogs in the snow, ohy gosh, some dogs love it, some dogs are thinking, what are you doing to me? birds, had a couple of e-mails from folks, wanting us to remind you to throw a little something out for the birds to eat, because i have yet to meet a robin that can dig through 27 inches of snow to find a little something to nibble on. a lot of great pictures, a lot of driveways. people who had spent all day sunday and monday digging the driveways out, now the driveway's under another fresh coat of 10 to 12 inche of snow in a lot of spots. look at those flags. not just at full furl in the wind, but holding on for dear life out there.

winds have been averaging 35 to 45 miles an hour in almost every one of our news 4 neighborhoods, and those contions are not really going to improve much for the reinder of the day. so, obviously, we're telling everybody to stay off the roads and not really get out and go too far from home, but nonetheless, there's a lot of great pictures you can get of your front lawn or your dogs or your kids getting outside and trying to enjoy what has absolutely been a furious pounding of snow from mother nature here over the last couple of weeks. we'll continue to show you as many as we can. and the address is isee@nbcwashington.com. >> thanks, chuck. >> let's go to tracee wilkins once again, take a live look at northwest washington, d.c. i the columbia heights area. >> hey, tracee. >> reporter: hey, good morning, guys. as i was standing out here, i started to feel my left cheek go a little numb, just a little bit on this side. it's so cold. and when that wind starts to blow, you really, really feel it

out here. this is how it's been for hours now, nonstop. the snow has been whipping around, left and right. the wind has been so high. and i'm telling you, i was walking over to the cvs just a little while ago, and just the walking conditions on the sidewalks, unbelievable. at 3:00 a.m., when we first came out here this morning, it was just a slight covering. you could see the sidewalks, you could see all of the work for the sidewalks that had been shoveled and the streets that had been plowed and now look at this, with it's completely covered. we got 3 to 4 inches. here is the other thing that is so interesting. and part of this, also, could be because of where we're standing over here at metro. this stuff is really hard. when i was walking over there towards the cvs, it was fluffy and that hard working out your muscles kind of snow. look at that. when they say, zero visibility, this is what they're talking about. look at that wind just whipping around there. you can't see anything. i mean, just take a look at that. and there's someone trying to cross there in e middle of

intersection. this is the problem. i mean, you guys are witnessing this as it happens, because i'm standing out there talking to you, and, you know, it's okay, and then all of a sudden, that strong wind picks up and you can't see at all. that's what makes this really dangerous. let me show you a look from up on high here. we were talking about people sending in pictures. this is from wendy. she lives right around this area, has been looking down on us this morning and watching us on channel 4. we appreciate that, wey. this is her picture of the intersection. we've gotten a little more snow since she took this picture, but look at how it looks from on high here at irving and 14th. just a lot of snow. most of the people we're seeing walking around out here, they've got their grocery bags, they're coming from giant, because giant is open. a lot of the small, private delis and coffee shops are open. people open for business who need some place to go and want to get out of the house, but it's so dangerous.

you can't walk but so far out here without coming into what could be a very difficult situation because of the conditions on the sidewalks, because of the conditions on the roadways, and because of the few vehicles that are trying to get around. we're not seeing a lot of vehicles. in fact, earlier today, most of the folks who we saw trying to get around out here absolutely had to. are you tired of it yet? >> no, it's kind of fun. >> reporter: really? >> yeah. >> reporter: no one else has said that. why do you think it's fun? >> it's just different. how often do we get snow like this. >> reporter: whoo do you think of this, our second storm? >> it's amazing, but i'm trying to get to children's hospital. i'm one of the operators at children's national medical center. i'm talking to them now, engineering is going to come pick me up. >> reporter: and what about the roads. how are the roads doing for them getting around, getting to everybody? >> it's a mess. it's real hectic, it is. unbelievable. >> reporter: when they say essential personnel, you, of course, are essential. you've got to get there. >> yes, we do.

>> reporter: this is what we're talking about here. it is hard to walk in this snow. he's got his sunglasses on, helping to cover up part of his face, don't blame him. it's so windy and so cold. it's like a cutting cold when this wind is blowing, mixing in with the snow that's coming down here. this is a blizzard. and it's a serious situation. so, folks, if you can stay in the house, stay in the house. they've taken a break from plowing the roads. there's no telling what you could drive into, especially with this wind and this zero visibility out here. i'm tracee wilkins, live in northwest. back to you all in the studio. >> whatever you drive into, it won't be pretty. thanks very much, tracee wilkins. it is 11:51. our coverage of the blizzard of 2010 round two continues in just a moment. >> stay with us. we're coming right back. ñq

welcome back to our coverage of the blizzard of 2010. we're following round two, some may call it round three, if you count that first storm that we had about a week and a half ago. traffic getting by, we're looking at a live picture in vienna, virginia, west maple avenue, traffic barely getting by with the whiteout conditions that we continue to have, all through our region. >> let's check on things in bethesda right now. chris gordon is along river road. let's see what that looks like. chris? >> reporter: well, it looks empty. and we just got a call from montgomery county police spokesman paul starks to say,

basically, thank you, everyone, for heeding the call to stay off the roads if you don't have to be on the roads. as a result, montgomery county police are receiving fewer emergency calls. and that's a good thing. driving conditions are very difficult and that is because visibility is limiteded. you see here on river road, there is some traffic. mechanic donald's h mcdonald's has closed. there's a plow going down the street. let's talk to one of the driver we talked to earlier. al of people are now wearing this kind of hat, the elmer fudd hat. most people think it looks a little funny. can i tell you one thing, you've got it on backwards? >> well, what do you know, you're right, i do. that's better. now i can see. >> reporter: you had a little trouble driving. >> yeah, i added a little spinout. i had a little spinout.

but it's not so bad. there's not a lot of cars out, not a lot to hit except for snow banks, and cars that look like snow banks. >> reporter: the interview started pleasant, funny enough about the hat, but it's serious, he had a spinout, and he said, we're in a position where we can't tell snow banks from cars. so be forewarned were forearmed, and stay at home and watch 4. that's it. back to you. >> thank you. going to get a check of our forecast now. let's go tom kierein, who is keeping an eye on things. busine busy, aren't you tom? >> we certainly are. we appreciate all the observers and all the weather watchers who are giving us their updated amounts as the storm does progress and giving us their updated conditions. we have blizzard warnings in effect all across northern virginia, all these counties in red, including the district of columb columbia, all the state of virginia around a blizzard warning. just had a wind gust of 43 at

pax river and a gust of 46 at reagan national. those are in the range for blizzards and the visibilities are down to 0.25 mile to 0.5. temperatures in the single digits, and total amounts around the region around 5 to 15 inches of snow now, as piled up, all coming from this coastal area of low pressure. 10 to 15 inch total amounts by the time it ends tonight. >> stay with us. our continuing coverage of the blizzard of 2010, round two, continues.