it looks like a car grave yard on highways in and around atlanta after snow stranded travelers. a major cleanup is under way, not just in georgia. we have winter weather up and down the east coast. that includes our area, too. but, as you can see on storm team4 radar, it has now moved off the coast. coming up, the positive turn our weather makes in the next few days. and president obama just spoke at a costco store in prince george's county. the message he is taking from his state of the union speech to

the people across america. and good morning, everyone. welcome to "news4 midday," i'm barbara harrison. it's wednesday, january 29th, 2014. and right now, the hard freeze is affecting the deep south. six states declared emergencies. georgia is one of the hardest-hit areas. right now, the mayor of atlanta says people are still stranded on the highways because of the icy roads. this morning, georgia governor nathan dooel ordered the national guard into their humvees to rescue stranded students on a bus and drivers stranded on the highway. thousands of people never made it home last night. many drivers abandoned their cars on the highway and walked to safety. more than 900 accidents were reported in georgia in the last 24 hours. well, the same system that brought a fresh coating of snow overnight in our region, news4's melissa malay said -- it

happened -- >> reporter: -- i may look like i have a lot of sun, but it's 12 degrees here. we have a couple inches of powder here on the ground. very easy to dust off. you can see the roads here behind me, in they were treated, not a big deal. same situation with parking lots. lots of kids here in charles county, very happy to be out of school today. oh, the sounds of snow. shovels scraping. plows pushing. blowers -- well, blowing. after repeated punches by old man winter, you'd think james jones would want to duck, bob, or weave. >> just trying to get it done before the businesses open. >> reporter: we drove through charles county, into king george, virginia, back to st. mary's. most of the roads were wet, slushy, but a slick spot can creep up on you. this man was headed on 228 when he spun out. on crane highway, plows treating the roads, pushing snow. by later in the morning, traffic

moving just fine on main roads. and though he likes the snow, he does have a problem on his hands. a little issue with his car. >> my windshield washer froze up, so i've got to get something to melt that out. >> reporter: still, a lot of work to do in this neighborhood. untreated, unplowed, everything blanketed in snow. >> this is just white powder snow. that's all it is. that's all we've had this year. >> reporter: nearby, alton brown is brushing off his church van prepping for a day of deliveries. >> yeah, they need the help today. >> reporter: he and dozens of other volunteers taking donations into the woods of southern maryland today, clothing blankets, toiletries, tents, as they try to take a survey of the homeless here. >> at least we're going to prepare for at least 300, 400 people today. >> reporter: and offer help in this brutal cold. >> if they're living in their vehicles, we're looking to give them gas cards, meal cards that they can go some place and get a hot meal.

so we're trying to see what their needs are, as well. >> reporter: it's estimated there are 100,000 homeless living in southern maryland. you can see them loading up this van to deliver those items. of course, very, very needed especially in the cold weather. they're going to get the head count today. this is happening across the state, help the folks, of course, with the services that they need. very important thing they're doing. group is lifestyles of maryland. if you'd like to help, go to nbcwashington.com. live in la plata, melissa malay, news 4. >> all right. thank you so much. stay warm out there. daylight is giving us a better picture of the snow that brought people in hampton roads to a standstill. now, snow blankets the boardwalk. streets are covered in historic williamsburg. today, schools and government offices across hampton roads are closed. many cities declared a state of emergency, which could allow them to be reimbursed for snow cleanup. we're seeing sunshine out there, as you can see.

storm team4 meteorologist chuck bell is in for chuck and joins us with the first midday forecast. chuck? >> good morning, barbara. good morning, everybody. the sun is shining, but it's still oh, so very cold outside. here's the radar loop on storm team4 radar over the last 12 hours. so from this time yesterday when we had the snow moving in, there it is racing across the coastline there. and as advertised, the heaviest of the snows were south and east of the washington area. snow on the boardwalks from atlantic city to rehoboth beach, ocean city, towards virginia beach and norfolk, as well. snowfall amounts down in southeastern virginia were in that 4 to 6-inch range. in and around here, on storm team4 radar, nothing happening now. current wind chills are, though, close to zero in many neighborhoods. so there's still a real chill in the air. and air temperatures themselves are only now in the mid to upper teens. coming up, the last of the really cold nights is coming up tonight. the sun will really start to help the meltdown tomorrow. of course, all eyes on your super bowl weekend plans. talk about that with your seven

day in a few more minutes. barbara, back to you. >> thanks, chuck. if you have a flight today, you may need to change your plans, especially if were you supposed to fly south. 1,500 flights are cancelled nationwide. that's double since 6:00 this morning. about 60 of those were supposed to be out of one of our three airports, but travelers in the south are feeling the most pain. airports in places like atlanta, houston, new orleans, and raleigh top the list for cancellations today. new orleans says it's unlikely any flights will get out of there today. many airports in the south say they simply don't have the deicing equipment to make planes safe. well, you can stay ahead of the storm and keep up to date on all of the current conditions with our storm team4 weather app. download by searching nbc washington weather on apples' app store or google play. and right now, the president is kicking off a four-state tour to promote jobs and manufacturing. he just finished speaking at a costco in lanham, maryland.

un yang has more. >> reporter: he called costco a model company for success due to fair treatment for its workers. he talked about the need to raise the minimum wage for americans, a message he highlighted in last night's state of the union. the president said he would take steps to expand opportunities for families with or without help from congress. >> i'm choosing this to be a year of action, because too many americans are working harder than ever just to get by, much less get ahead. the scars of the recession are real. the middle class has been taking it on the chin since before the recession. the economy's been growing for four years now. corporate profits, stock prices have all soared. but the wages and incomes of ordinary people haven't gone up in over a decade. >> the president also said this could be a breakthrough year to overcome economic hardships from the last five years. his next stop is pittsburgh where he is expected to talk

about his retirement plan proposal. let's go live to darcy spencer in lanham with reaction to the president's speech. darcy? >> reporter: well, un, as you can imagine, there was a lot of excitement out here this morning. workers who work not only here at this costco, but the one in beltsville, wheaton, hundreds of costco workers were given a special invitation to come and watch the president give his remarks in person. >> oh, it's awesome. it's good. yeah, it's our privilege to have the president here. >> reporter: they lined up in the bitter cold and amidst the fresh fallen snow for a chance to see the president of the united states. >> i am elated. i am elated. i'm very happy. so glad to have the opportunity to do this. >> reporter: and he was right here where they work every day. costco. employees received a special invitation to witness his remarks. did you ever expect him to come to costco? >> no, but i -- i really

appreciate it. you know he's a great guy, and we love him. >> reporter: the president speaking about his state of the union proposal to hike the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour for federal contract workers. there was a rally outside the costco supporting the increase. >> america needs a raise, because $7.25, no one can live on that. >> reporter: costco workers told me they make more than $10.10 an hour, but they support the increase for lower-wage workers. >> that's great. i got children coming up, they need that money. >> reporter: yvonne mitchell is a single parent struggling to make ends meet. she says a bump in the minimum wage is a start to help low-income families like hers. >> it's still not enough. i mean, by the time you pay your rent, buy food, and any other necessities you need, your money is gone. >> reporter: now, we heard -- have heard criticism from republicans in congress about the president's proposal, but no one we spoke to here today at costco was opposed to the plan. reporting live from prince

george's county, darcy spencer, news4. >> thank you, darcy. in just a few minutes, we'll break down key points of the president's state of the union address. we'll talk with nbc senior political editor mark murry, and we'll have in-depth coverage on nbcwashington.com. and right now, howard county investigators are asking for your help in finding out new information about the suspected gunman in that deadly shooting at the mall in columbia. police are handing out flyers with 19-year-old darion marcus aguilar's picture to sources at the mall. a taxi service said one of its drivers called police after the shooting on saturday. he took a weird-looking guy to the mall. the driver picked up aguilar in burtonsville. investigators want to know what he was doing there since he lived and worked in the college park area. right now, the house is voting on a farm bill. it's a bill lawmakers have been working on for two years, and

it'll make cuts to food stamps. plus more on the student and the response from both democrats and republicans. we'll also bring you the emotional conclusion to that speech. stay with us.

right now, we're waiting for the house to vote on a farm bill. the $100 billion a year beale includes small cuts to the food stamp program. republican leaders support the measure, even though they wanted those cuts to be deeper. senate democrats think they have enough votes to pass the bill, assuming the house approves it today. we'll send you an alert to your smart phone as soon as that vote happens, if you have the nbc washington app. well, president obama is hitting the road to promote his state of the union proposals, and he says he's prepared to go it alone. >> america does not stand still and neither will i, so wherever and whenever i can take steps without legislation to expand opportunity for more american families, that's what i'm going to do. [ applause ]

>> well, that was the theme for the president last night. he says he'll use executive orders to protect federal lands, raise gas mileage standards for big trucks and establish a backed retirement program, and raise the minimum wage for federal contractors. the president did appeal to congress to pass immigration and tax reform last night. the speech is being described as an agreeable speech. with more on that now, we're joined by mark murray, nbc political editor. good morning. >> good morning, barbara. >> agreeable. >> it wasn't a confrontational speech. sometimes in state of the union, we've seen confrontational, where the president says, here's what i'm for, here's what i guess, and, boy, you opposition party, you're screwing it up. president bush said, here's what i'm for. i'm for increasing minimum wage. i'm for immigration reform. if they can agree to that, i'm willing to make a deal. if they can't, i'm going to take the actions i can under the law

to get some of the stuff done. it was more about in tone, and i wouldn't be surprised because of the agreeable tone, if this polls well in the short term. >> are we getting any reaction? >> there was one instant poll by cnn that showed 76% of the people who ended up seeing it liked the speech. now, one thing worth noting in these instant polls with the state of the union, the majity of the people who are watching these are usually democrats. they want to watch their president, their political party. so it was stacked for the democrats' favor. in a way, you look at the things he talked about, the language he use, poll tested, and in good way in which people say, oh, i agree with that, or that doesn't sound menacing or problematic to me. >> there are some democrats who criticizing the speech. who are they? >> folks in the right states. we saw some statements, and one from alaska mark begich, louisiana senator mary landrieu, and they're all for re-election in states where president obama did not do well in 2012.

one of the things that's interesting, the statements they end up giving, it's as if some of the statements were written beforehand, before the speech came out, look, i'm against this president with low approval ratings. >> just to protect themselves. >> the whole big takeaway, you look at the different policy proposals, these are ones that could unite the red state and blue state democrats on immigration, minimum wage. >> you said yesterday we'd have a three-prong republican response, but i understand they all brought up the affordable care act. >> they did. one thing was interesting, they were talking about in the framework of the affordable care act. in some ways, the comment that struck me the most is cathy mcmorris rodgers, the republican congresswoman from washington state, and ended up saying we can't go back to the status quo, what it was before. that is a new thing that republicans are talking about. and it was really interesting. >> let's have a listen to what she said. >> republicans believe health care choices should be yours, not the government's. >> well, that was her main

statement, wasn't it in. >> and that is the standard republican statement. but what really did strike me was she was basically saying, all right, let's take the obamacare framework and add our ideas to it. >> do they have any other points, quickly? >> just, i think the president is going on the road, talked about it in maryland, tomorrow going to tennessee and wisconsin. we'll see if that message stays in the news. >> thanks so much, mark. >> thanks. >> for more from the political new team, check out firstread on nbcnews.com. today is take two for larry hogan's announcement he'll be running for governor. last week's major snowstorm cancelled the original announcement. the event will kick off at 7:00 near annapolis. hogan served under robert ehrlich, you may remember. three other republicans are vying to become the party's nominee. of course, the primary is coming up this june. storm team4 meteorologist

chuck bell jones us with a look at our forecast. it's still cold out there, chuck. >> oh, yeah. don't be fooled by the sunshine. there's plenty of cold air left outside. it will be another really cold night tonight into tomorrow morning. most of the suburbs will once again be down into the single digits by tomorrow morning. this morning, though, we had to deal with the snow. sometimes we talk about shovable snow or sweepable snow. this was a blowable snowstorm. this is out near my live shot in forestville, maryland. these guys literally blowing the sidewalk clean with a leaf blower, at 4:15 in the morning, just outside of a starbucks which opens at 5:00 a.m. critical, of course, to have all of the sidewalks cleared leading into those hot spots for early morning commuters. a lot -- a lot of folks down at the starbucks early this morning as they were headed off to work and all grateful to have a hot cup of coffee and ice-free sidewalk. outside, this was the actual map

that we had yesterday for forecasting the snow. a coating to about an inch in and around the metro area, and one to three in southern prince george's county and 3 to 4 in far southern maryland. that was the forecast. here's what actually came down in southern maryland this morning, where i was in forestville, only an inch. andrews air force base, camp springs, all about three inches of snow. three inches in waldorf, la plata, four inches toward mechanicsville, five inches in leonards town and four inches in king george county, virginia, the overnight snow totals. now, as far as social media goes, had a lot of people tweeting me this morning with the snow pictures. this is the best way to stay in touch with us. the facebook page or any of the twitter addresses. mine is @chuckbell4. now, there's a look at storm team4 radar. a wide shot. the last of the rain and snow long gone off of our coastline. a little bit of sleet and freezing rain off the outer banks of north carolina, but in and around home, things are on

the up-and-up. now, full sunshine, bitter cold. 18 degrees now at national airport. it is 16 in winchester. 19 in fredericksburg. and 16 in annapolis with wind chills still generally in the single digits. so we'll see an improvement for later on today. temperatures climbing only into the mid-20s, so it will stay awfully cold. a look ahead for tomorrow, another day, teens inside the beltway, but a lot of single digits on the map tomorrow morning, and a cold winter sunshine will last through tomorrow, and then the warm-up really starts to take hold as we get towards thursday afternoon. i think a lot of neighborhoods, even in town, even if just briefly, above freezing, so sunshine and temperatures at 34. that'll really help the meltdown for tomorrow. clouds start to come back in on friday, but our next chance of anything coming out of the sky looks like it will be rain and not snow, and it looks like it's a sunday/monday threat at the moment past. >> so we better start planning

on the shorts and flip-flops. >> 52 will feel strangely warm. >> isn't it great to use the leaf blower to blow the snow? >> i've never actually seen it done before. so i was very impressed. i'll tell you, the folks going in and out of the starbucks were happy about that. >> all right, thank you, chuck. we'll see you again. >> all right. >> it is 11:22. coming up, what happened when a woman in labor got stuck in the snowstorm that has paralyzed much of the deep south today. you'll want to see this. and what a congressman says to a reporter after the interview that is gettg a whole lot of attention today. first, here's a look at what's hot on nbcwashington.com.

a death row inmate in missouri has been given a stay of execution just hours before he was supposed to die.

the supreme court ordered the execution be put on hold temporarily. he was supposed to day after midnight. his lawyers asked for a stay because the state wouldn't reveal its source of the drug being used in his execution. a new york congressman is defending himself this morning. it comes after a video surfaced of him threatening a reporter following a state of the union. take a look. >> why -- >> let me be clear to you. you do that to me again i'll throw you off this balcony -- [ bleep ] -- >> that was republican michael grimm's reaction after a reporter from new york 1 tried to ask him about an investigation to his campaign finances. grimm released a statement afterwards saying that he was doing the reporter a favor and was only there to comment on the state of the union. he called the question disrespectful and a cheap shot.

this morning, social media is buzzing about one particular moment during last night's speech, but it had nothing to do with politics. president obama introduced a soldier who nearly lost his life in afghanistan, and the response was emotional. >> corey is here tonight, and like the army he loves, like the america he serves, sergeant first class cory remsburg never gives up, and he does not quit. [ cheers and applause ] sergeant first class remsburg was hit by a roadside bomb in 2009. he spent months in a coma with shrapnel in his brain. he's still blind in one eye, but he's walking and talking today. the president ended the speech with his story, and remsburg received a nearly two-minute-long-standing ovation from the crowd. and we're getting brand-new information out of atlanta. the city is dealing with a huge mess because of the snow and ice. the mayor and governor just held

a press conference. the live desk will get you up to date on that. storm team4 meteorologist chuck bell will get you up to date on the weather and the warming trend, i really hope so. he says we've got some better weather coming. and in the next half hour, we'll also take an in-depth changes by creigh

i'm un yang at the live desk. the governor of georgia has declared a state of emergency and has called in the national guard to rescue children and drivers stranded. now, thousands of drivers are going on 22-hours-plus stuck on roadways in atlanta after winter storm paralyzed the city. 1,200 crashes have been reported in the city. look at this video now. it's wall-to-walekars there. atlanta's mayor spoke about what he says caused this mess in the

first place. >> the error, and we have shared responsibility for the error, was everybody letting out at once, which caused a massive traffic jam. so private-sector businesses, the government, and the school system all let out at once. and so, during the day we have 1 million to 2 million in the city, and all of those people were out in very bad weather. >> hundreds of schoolchildren spent the night stuck in their schools, as well, because it was too dangerous for buses to move and parents could not reach their children either. we'll have much more on the story, the latest on news4 and on nbcwashington.com. barbara? >> thank you, un. one good story to come out of traffic's nightmare, a police officer helped deliver a baby girl alone the highway last night. officer tim sheffield told the "today" show he was on his way to an accident when he spotted the car on the side of the road. >> when i got there, you know, the dad -- it was just happening right then, so i had time to get

the glove and then the baby had -- the head had -- the father started pulling, and i said, no, no, don't pull, and the baby come out, and it just happened that quick. >> how exciting. an ambulance did eventually take the mother and daughter to the hospital. we're told both are doing well this morning. well, take a look at this photo we posted on our facebook page. the capitol looks like it's in a snow globe. isn't that beautiful? this was taken just as last night's state of the union address was wrapping up. 800 liked this photo on our nbc washington facebook page. we'd love to see your pictures. send them to isee@nbcwashington.com. we're going to check in with chuck bell for the latest on the forecast. he's outside on the storm team4 weather deck. did you finally get to see that picture just now? >> i did. i've been hearing about that picture all morning long and hadn't had a chance to get a real good look at it. beautiful picture there. of course, we'd love to see your snow pictures.

please, send them on to the isee washington address, or the storm team4 facebook page, and here's the reston town center looking westbound. that's the control tower at dulles right there. plenty of snow still lingering on the ground, though they didn't get anything yesterday. the view from prince george's county with the capitol beltway crossing the potomac in the distance, lots of ice on the potomac and can't say it often enough. none of the ice that you see on the local pond, streams, creeks, river, knob of that ice is thick enough to hold anybody safely. so stay off the ice. there's the view again from the tower cam, looking down over the memorial bridge in the foreground, and that's the control tower at reagan airport on the right-hand side of the screen. it's cold. yeah, the sun's out. but it's only 18 degrees downtown, and it's going to stay in the upper teens to low 20s for the next couple of hours. event you'lly up into the mid-20s, and another night with single-digit low temperatures in the suburbs by tomorrow morning. when i see you next, barbara,

we'll talk again about the beginning of melt counsel and the warmer weather for the weekend. see you in a few. >> all right. we want to hear that. thanks a lot. virginia state senator creigh deeds says the mental health system failed his son. the politician is speaking out about what happened the day his son attacked him and the changes that need to be made to the mental health system. dr. josh weiner joins us with more on the changes. let's talk about it. deeds is proposing that the commonwealth create a psychiatric bed registry, and expand the time limit for emergency custody orders. can you explain what that means? >> so an emergency custody order is an order by a magistrate where somebody can be held for up to six hours, for them to be observed and a determination to be made as to whether or not they need to be hospitalized, even against their own will. so he wants to extend that to 24 hours. allowing people more time for observation. so i think that's a good idea. i think that, you know, six

hours is kind of a difficult period of time in which to make a quick decision about whether somebody's imminently in danger of doing something to themselves or to others. the psychiatric bed registry, that was an issue in the son gus, they were trying to get his son hospitalized. there weren't any hospitals that had availability, from the ones they called, but since they found out that nearby hospitals did have availability, just waneveryone to be aware where there are beds, so in certain situations, you can get a loved one hospitalized if need be. >> do you think even though creigh deeds had seen this behavior that made him feel his son needed to be hospitalized, could his son have had a jekyll & hyde reaction once he got to the hospital? >> yes, you can. so sometimes people -- they're just barely able to hold it together, where when they're in a controlled environment, maybe when a police officer is evaluating them, or a mental health professional, they can just hold it together so they look like they're doing better

than they actually are. which is why this situation, as i've talked about numerous times, with trying to determine whether somebody's imminently dangerous to themselves or others, is so, so difficult for doctors and psychiatrists and mental health professionals. it's just so difficult to assess whether somebody's really going to do something, because people can hold it together. they can fake it for just enough time to be let go. >> how big is the problem of not being enough beds available? is that a -- >> it's a very big problem. in particular -- for everybody, both adults and kids. but i see this as an even bigger problem for kids, because there's such a shortage of beds. there are people who need their kids to be hospitalized and they're sitting around, waiting for a week, two weeks sometimes before their kid can be hospitalized. again, people need to recognize if somebody is imminently dangerous, they can be held against their will even if there's no psychiatric bed available. you can be held for up to 72 hours, but by the end of the 72

hours, you have to go in front of the judge, and a determination needs to be made as to whether they continue to hold you or whether they let you go. >> it has to be pretty scary for a family to have a child that they know has a problem, frustrate federal government they can't get help and the child refuses to get help, or the adult refuses help. >> it's terrible. i deal with this in my practice. just this week i had this situation. >> you think we need a big change? >> we do need changes. we need to look at the laws. we need to decrease the -- i think we need to lessen the criteria that are necessary for somebody to be hospitalized against their will. and i really think we have to focus a lot on treatment of mental illness in kids, because if you can address a lot of the issues when they're young, where you still have a say, you can prevent some of these problems as people get older. >> a good point. all right, thank you very much, dr. weiner. the explorer of the sea cruise ship will dock back in new jersey today, two days before it was scheduled to come home. more than 600 passengers aboard became sick during the cruise liner's trip to the caribbean.

members of the centers for disease control boarded the boat earlier this week to try to pinpoint the outbreak of the sickness. ship's medical team says the problem appears to be a noro virus, a fast-moving and contagious stomach bug. and right now, police in silver spring are looking for the person who robbed this pharmacy. it happened last night at the medicine shoppe on new hampshire avenue. police say they're trying to figure out if this robbery is connected to other holdups across montgomery and prince george's counties. would you want to be alerted every time your child downloads something that asks for their personal information? that's what a new program is -- will do, that's being rolled out by verizon. it's an online privacy company. and here's how it works. you register online at privo.com. once you register, anytime a website or app needs parental consent, you'll be notified through the framework. the goal is to make it easier [ male announcer ] when your small business has verizon fios,

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