our fred pleitgen joins us live in boston where it is snowing sideways. assachusetts. i have the old ruler with me here. we'll just stick it in the snow and see. we are at about 7 1/2 inches of snow. right now here in boston. it varies from place to place because there is a lot of drifting going on. if we go out i can show you on the streets and you can see with the wind a lot of those snowdrifts here going across the street. that's going to be a major problem for the snowplows that are going around the city of boston alone has about 500 snowplows that are going around the streets right now. the state of massachusetts more than 3,000. as you said, some places in the state of massachusetts are expecting more than two feet of snow. there are some places that already have up to 18 inches of snow. some of the coastal areas some flooding so the northeast is really getting pummelled by this weather by very high winds and all the snow coming down. it's going to be very, very difficult for a lot of people when they wake up tomorrow morning, natalie. >> we can unde

right now in boston that's where we find our fred pleitgen out in it for us. e part of the march of the penguins. this place is feeling more and more like the south pole. the temperatures are really plummeting here. the winds as you said are picking up and the snow is piling up. i want to show you how high it's actually gotten. it's probably gotten over 7 1/2, maybe 8 inches. the snow is really powdery. this is one of the things that's making it so difficult for the road cruise here. if you look around some of the cars you can see how the snowdrifts are starting to engulf these cars. a lot of these people will have to do a lot of shoveling in the morning. keep in mind it will keep snowing another seven or eight hours as hard as it is now if not even worse. so there is going to be a lot more snow piling up. it's very bad here in boston, actually even worse on the massachusetts coast where in some places about 18 inches of snow have already fallen. some places are expecting up to two feet of snow there. so certainly road crews around massachusetts are going to be

cnn's fred pleitgen, nick paton walsh and elise labott. on the ground in damascus. how is the syrian government reacting to this diplomatic uproar? first iran was participating in the peace talks and now they have been effectively kicked out. what are they saying in damascus? >> reporter: wolf, the syrians have always said that it's important for the iranians to be there. they've lobbied for them to be there. they say that this conference is not about creating a transitional body but to them it's about fighting what they call terrorism which is, of course, what they call all groups fighting against the government. i want to listen real quick to what bashar al assad said on sunday to the afp. >> translator: any political resolution that comes out of geneva talks without considering fighting terrorism will have no value. there cannot be political work while terrorism is widely spread, not only in syria but in neighboring countries. >> reporter: wolf, another interesting note from that interview, bashar al assad not only said he doesn't think

right now in boston that's where we find our fred pleitgen out in it for us. more like we're part of the march of the penguins. this place is feeling more and more like the south pole. the temperatures are really plummeting here. the winds as you said are picking up and the snow is piling up. i want to show you how high it's actually gotten. it's probably gotten over 7 1/2, maybe 8 inches. the snow is really powdery. this is one of the things that's making it so difficult for the road cruise here. if you look around some of the cars you can see how the snowdrifts are starting to engulf these cars. a lot of these people will have to do a lot of shoveling in the morning. keep in mind it will keep snowing another seven or eight hours as hard as it is now if not even worse. so there is going to be a lot more snow piling up. it's very bad here in boston, actually even worse on the massachusetts coast where in some places about 18 inches of snow have already fallen. some places are expecting up to two feet of snow there. so certainly road crews around massachusetts a

fred pleitgen is joining me. >> reporter: wolf, one of the places under siege is a place that used to be a palestinian refugee camp in syria. it's turned foo a district of damascus and under rebel control and it's under siege and now as sort of a goodwill gesture before the geneva conference, the regime has let some people out and aid supplies in. we were there when it happened and this is how it looked. after months of hunger, cold, and violence, for some of the weakest, the nightmare is over. the youngest, shown here, is only 15 days old. >> translator: there's not enough food inside. i simply didn't have enough food for him, his mother says. this is the area a few miles from central damascus, inhabited mostly by falling into a year ago. under siege by pro assad forces since september, activists inside say dozens have died of starvation and lack of medical care. this 75-year-old says the lack of food is devastating. most of the people want to get out. they are hungry. there's no food and hunger is the killer, he says, as gunshots ring over the area. he has seen fierce battles betwee

fearing an onslaught by jihadist, fred pleitgen visited and there are graphic images. om damascus. set the scene, fred. what did you see? >> reporter: wolf, there's been high-profile attacks by islamists on christians and they fear for the existence of christianity in this country. churches have been attacked, churches have been burned, bishops have been kidnapped and killed and now a major attack on a montestary. we visited that site today and here's what we saw. a statue of jesus christ but at the saviour's feet, a gruesome sight. dozens of badly mutilated and charred bodies. the dead are rebel fighters who tried to storm a montestary. they attacked from that mountain back there and destroyed our front gate. the montestary is not a civilian target these days. it's filled with pro-assad fighters, mostly christians, and army forces as well. there's artillery, tanks, and mortars stationed inside. in the last couple of days there's been a massive increase in the violence in this area. in the past few days alone, 40 mortars either hit inside the montestary. rebels have oft

fred pleitgen is there braving the elements.people in boston just hide indoors with their snuggies and cocoa? >> reporter: i would say now is about the time that if you're going to go inside, it's probably a good time to do that. we can look down the street here. as you can see right now, the road conditions aren't too bad at the moment. that's because a lot of roads were actually pretreated with salt beforehand. there have been snow plows going past here a lot but now it's really the time when things are beginning to intensify. we can feel the snow getting worse. we can also feel the winds getting a little stronger. it will be more and more difficult to keep the roads clear. the other thing that's going to happen in the overnight hours is that the temperatures are going to drop here considerably. it's one of the things the governor of massachusetts said is going to be very, very dangerous for people who are outside, these freezing arctic temperatures that will happen. also as we have been saying, flights are going to be impacte

cnn fred pleitgen is live for us.we say snow emergency, how much snow is expected there? >> a lot of snow expected here. up to 16 inches in some places. as you can see, up until now, there's already been some snow that's accumulated. we think it's about 2 inches so far, but that's nothing compared to what's going on in the evening hours when the snow is going to increase considerably and the wind is going to increase considerably as well. i have been on the roads here in the state of massachusetts earlier today, and right now, the roads are actually okay for the amount of snow that's coming down. a lot of them were pretreated with salt. also, there's about 2,000 snow plows on the road right now in the state of massachusetts. that's going to become more difficult when the snow comes, when the winds comes. the snow drifts are going to make it extremely difficult for crews to keep the roads difficult. the state of massachusetts has sent all government workers home. it's urging private businesses to do the same thing beca

frederik pleitgen is in rome this morning for us. hi, fredporter: hi, christine, and welcome to a very rainy rome this morning, where as you said, the secretary of state has just landed. you're absolutely right, the main things that they're going to be talking about is syria and the middle east, of course, some very important topics at this point, and they are also very important topics to pope francis. he held a ground-breaking speech yesterday where he talked all about having to start some sort of peace process in syria and also keeping the peace process going in the middle east. it is something that is very central to this pope. he talked about how civilians have to stop being harmed in that country. and of course, one of the main things that's key to the vatican as well is the fact that a lot of christians are suffering in the middle east, too. so, those are some of the topics the two are going to be talking about, and of course, it comes at a time when the secretary of state is trying to drum up support for a peace conference in syria an

one of the hardest-hit cities by the first major winter storm of the year, cnn's frederick pleitgen is there. fredld is it getting? >> very cold. i can tell you, just the time we've been here, so far the temperatures have already started to plummet. we're now at maybe five degrees above zero, but we expect the temperatures to go down to at least 7 degrees below zero in the time we'll be here the next couple hours. today was a day, of course, jim, where many people were digging out of the snow and now preparing to be in the deep freeze. let's have a look. after the big snowstorm -- >> i thought it was going to 1 or 2 inches, but it's like blizzard. >> reporter: -- comes the deep freeze. >> first time i've ever had to jump-start it. >> reporter: communities in the northeast found themselves battling heavy novel through the morning hours. now officials warn the cold will become even more dangerous. >> it is deceptively cold. it is the coldest it's been all year, and people i think sometimes think it doesn't feel so bad, but if you stay out there too long, it would feel bad and will feel dangerous. >>