i'm megan gilliland. baltimore county with what you can expect this morning straight ahead. >> reporter: i'm joel d smith live in westminister where the snow is great for smac making sw ode to the subway premium big hot pastrami sandwich. your name speaks volumes. big? check. hot pastrami? yes indeedie. and premium? no doubters here. with your piled high, piping hot n' tasty pastrami, pickles, spicy mustard and melted cheese, you've made us the kinda believers... that'd follow you blindly... like nearsighted bison on a flavor stampede. small price to pay for all that taste. try one today. subway. eat fresh. >>>next on fox 45 morning news, in the roads are going to be slippery but they keep in m me n business. >>> how another winter morning blast will affect your commute. >>> do your kids have school today. the closings and delays. >>> cross across the fire for you ♪ >> could the mile high city hit some high notes. the most memorable denver american idol audition. >>> good morning. it's wednesday, february

i'm megan gilliland. long it's going to take you to get to your car straight ahead. >> reporter: i'm joel d smith, live in westminister where plow drivers tell us this is the >>> welcome back to fox 45 early edition. 5:29 is the time. you're waking up this morning to more winter

megan gilliland is live at the baltimore city falls road salt yard in north baltimore with more on their strategy heading into the storm. here we go, megan. >> reporter: good morning, patrice. it feels like the calm before the storm. it's quiet at the salt yard and we are told that is because all of the crew members are at home resting preparing for a 12 hour shift that will begin 38 ter thilater thismorning. it's a huge job for all of these folks. we're talking about a major operation here in the city. over 300 workers will be out in full force. their top priority the primary roads out there. across the region plow trucks are loaded with salt and strategically located around and officials are gathering at the operation center staring the storm in the eye. a lot of work to be done here and there's even something you can do. >> don't go out if you don't absolutely have to he go out. i mean, that's a major, major help to the plows.

joel d smith is live at westminister, megan gilliland is reporting from baltimore county, and jessica starr is here in the city all with the latest of the current conditions out there. we want to keep you up-to-date. said that, we want to keep you up-to-date on the school closings as well. here is a list of the schools that are closed. anna run dell dale, county, ally county, baltimore city, baltimore county, cecil, frederick, harford county, st. mary's and washington county schools are two hours late today. and just remember whenever severe weather hits, tune in to fox 45 news. our morning news ticker will have the latest closings, delays, traffic conditions, that ticker updates automatically and it even runs during commercials. we need to check on the roadways, candace dold is here with a look at the traffic edge report. good morning, candace. >> reporter: unfortunately it's going to be all about the dig out this morning. we want to show you, this is what the main lines look like. here is 695 moving at 83. you can see the cars are moving and the roads look pretty clear so no snow th

i'm megan gilliland. how road crews plan to keep up with mother nature, straight ahead. >>> i'm joel d smith, live in east baltimore where the grocery stores have been slammed. you can still get your shovel but if you're looking

i'm megan gilliland. fox 45 morning news. >>> if you haven't already, you may want to hit the grocery store sooner rather than later. megan from canton sent us these pictures from a safeway there. that was early yesterday afternoon and the store was already packed. later at that same store melinda took some pictures and we saw that the aisles were more crowd. we can only hope that the things will look better at the grocery stores, but that is not the case because people are not just stocking up for the storm but the super bowl this week. joel d smith is live at the santoni's, you do have to have a super bowl. i understand why people are at the stores rorks i figure. >> reporter: i figured out the question earlier, if you lose power, you can do cereal. it's easy. i found out the reason for the serial. this is -- cereal. this is busy for 7:00 in the morning. >> we have a shot online order santoni's and we have maxed out our delivery slots. we have 30 orders and we're trying to get those out as soon as we can

megan gilliland is live at the baltimore city falls salt yard with more of their strategy. they have been working hard this winter, megan. >> reporter: they are patrice. we have had a couple of storms under their belt and spent most of the week loading up trucks. but right now silent, the calm before the storm. these crews are at home resting for 12 hour shifts that will begin when the first snow flake falls later this morning. it's a huge job ahead of them. we're talking about a major operation. here in the city over 300 workers will be out in full force. their top priority will be the primary roads first. across our region plow trucks are loaded with salt and strait testrategically located around. highway officials say they are going to use a new weapon this year to battle mother nature today. >> these oshkosh, very large dump trucks that have two plows on them, a front and a side he plow. that's a good reason never to pass a plow truck, because you never know where the blades are. they could be covered in snow. we may have to bring those into the metro area depending on w

how are the conditions so far, anything a megan gilliland is ot there telling us. are you happy out there, megan or are you all alone. >> reporter: i'm all alone. and i heard you about the school closings and there's no way that the kids could come to school. the snow can be somewhat deep in some spots. the most amazing thing once you make it down here, this looks freshly shoveled and plowed. last night are dealing with good two inches of slush and snow on here. shoveling it off is a feat here because we're dealing with ice. to show you what kind of ice we are dealing with here, this may be the best way to show you. we got snow here and the ice underneath making it for slick conditions on the roadways. and we saw that freezing rain earlier, but really that snow and wind is what is picking up now. and if you take a look here. we have tacked out here at rogers forge forever. this parking lot was plowed last night. we are starting to see it fill up. i'm worried that we could be spending the night here at rogers forge. you are elated we broke the record, why don't you c

megan gilliland has more in tonight's cover story. cycle of violence. >> in 2009, violence raged against innocent animals in our region. in february, a dog was dog shot. in march, a dog strangled, kicked and stomped on in annapolis. and another beaten to death with a shovel in salisbury. in may, a young pit bull named phoenix made national news. after she was doused with gasoline and set on fire. in west baltimore. she had to be euthanized. october, a kitten mutilated and tortured in edgemere. these are just the ones that made headlines. >> serious violence going on in our community. >> already, this year, two dogfighting busts. >> what we are learning in major streets like baltimore, dogfighting is becoming a very underground crime. it happens in back alleys t happens in basements without a lot of notice. >> without much of a trace. the boston arundel county last month happened because of a concerned neighbor took notice. in baltimore county, investigators were on a drug raid, when they found dogfighting paraphernalia in the home. cr

how are the conditions so far, megan gilliland joins us at rogers forge. that is pretty familiar territory to you, megan at this point. >> reporter: we have been here all weekend long and we have seen this neighborhood clean up after the storm. this is was a sidewalk that they had scraped off and made manageable. now overnight we are looking at 4 inches or so over the top of the sidewalk if we can get to it. therthere it is. but a lot of snow overnight. since we saw the snow overnight and we saw freezing rain. we saw it crunchy and it's a layer of ice, new snow that has fallen overnight. you can imagine what that has done to the roadways. still looking at all of the old snow that we had before that you have to get through and trudge through to get to the roads. once you get on to the road, look much better than we have seen before. although these look clearer and although they have been plowed, it's slick out here. freezing rain we saw in the last hour or so, has made things slick here. as we drove into rogers forge, we could feel our car sliding here and t

megan gilliland is live at rogers forge with a look at conditions. wwe were talking to you on saturday and we started getting names but at 5:00 in the morning it's too early to get them out. >> reporter: we have seen the sleet and the snow. and if you're peeking out from your window, when you look at the roads it may not look so bad. it's very slick out here. a lot of slush. this was plowed overnight. wwe're looking at the pavement but the real issue this morning is the ice we have been talking about. i want to show you how thick the ice is. we saw this car completely uncovered and to the bare bone and now we're talking about not just snow but really ice. if you can hear the layers of ice underneath the car here and if it's on here, that means it's on the roadways as well. when you're out there thinking it looks much better, we're talking about the ice layer on top of it. if we're looking at more snow where jess and steve are saying. then the next issue becomes where we put it all. we are dealing with mounds of snow here at rogers forge digging out y

megan gilliland spent the day showing us the hazardous conditions there. >> i will tell you what, these conditions just continually -- continue to get worse as the morning continues. blustery snow continuing to fall. this was the sidewalk that we were walking on earlier this morning. now covered with up to 7 inches of snow some parts nine, where the wind has thrown around. and of course it is one thing for me to tell you it is windy. best way to show you is the umbrella out here. we have tried to put it up before. whether it will go up at point. not a good idea. my boss will be upset i just broke fox 45 news umbrella. but an example of the gusts out here. and road conditions. my goodness, if you don't have to go outside, it is probably not the best situation. getting to the road, difficult task. and daunting and tiring. we have been out of breath all morning trying to get to the roadways to show you what they look like. we have been out here all morning, since 4 a.m. not one plow has gone through. dealing with several inches of snow. ice under it. no salt trucks at this point. they are