>> smith: good evening, katie is off tonight. some are calling it a hurricane with hole? a final storm for 2010 and one for the record books. it dumped 32 inches of snow in some places, and concealed cars under drifts five feet high. all of it delivered by fierce wind, some gusts topped 80 miles an hour. the snow and wind made travel difficult and dangerous, blamed for at least a dozen deaths on the road. air travel stopped. about 6,000 flights have been canceled turning airport terminals into makeshift dormitories. states of emergency have now been declared by seven governors and a look at where this storm has been over the last 24 hours explains why. from virginia to maine, snow and more snow. since christmas eve, tens of millions of people snowbound or close to it. we have several reports on the storm and we begin with national correspondent jim axelrod in new york's midtown manhattan. >> reporter: it was a nasty one, harry, and while it's clear now, as you can tell from the looks of things behind me, it's going to be several days until life returns entirely to normal around here. plows were getting stuck. at the storm's peak, 68 mile per hour winds left 43,000 without power in new york. the city's 911 service had a backlog of 1,300 calls and left the mayor pleading for emergency calls only. >> 911 has to be free for the genuine emergencies. people's lives depend on it. >> reporter: the three major metropolitan airports were closed. 2,000 flights were canceled and tens of thousands of travelers were stranded. american airlines has already canceled all of its flights for tomorrow add laguardia airport. many new yorkers started this past holiday weekend disappointed there was no white christmas. they ended the weekend reminded of the old saying "be careful what you wish for." the 20 inches of snow makes tits fifth-snowiest storm ever here. in less than 24 hours, new york city got nearly four times the amount of snow it usually sees the entire month of december. the winds howled up and down the eastern sea board. in philadelphia, the eagles game was postponed until tomorrow, setting up the first n.f.l. game on a tuesday since 1946. wind gusts up to 80 miles per hour knocked out power to 30,000 customers in rhode island and massachusetts. four people died in weather-related traffic accidents in north carolina. this was a storm of rare intensity. the barometric pressure similar to a category two hurricane and packing enough energy to produce thunder and lightning-- called thunder snow. >> there are meteorologists who live their entire lives and never get to experience thunder snow. so it is pretty rare but in a nor'easter is typically when we see it happen. >> reporter: but new yorkers have a way of shrugging off even the toughest obstacles. how long do you think you could stay out in the snow until your fingers felt like they were so cold they were going to freeze together? >> um... ten. >> reporter: ten minutes or ten hours? >> ten hours. >> reporter: five-year-old francesca dicurtis wasn't exaggerating. endlessly dragging her mother up and down the snow-covered hill and turning a city's brutal blizzard into a child's perfect play day. who gets colder first-- you or mommy? >> um... mom. naud [no audio]. >> smith: jim axelrod in midtown manhattan. now to the travel nightmare brought on by this storm. whether going by plain, train, or automobile, many travelers in the blizzard zone ended up stranded. it was one long day of hurry up and wait. michelle miller is at new york's laguardia airport. michelle, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, harry here at laguardia there are just ten flights on the arrival board and with just two departures set to go out tonight, it isn't likely this ma travelers waiting here will be flying out. at new york city's laguardia airport, stranded passengers could do nothing but watch as plows worked late into the day to clear off more than a foot of snow. so far, only one of laguardia's two runways has been reopened. >> thank you. >> reporter: tanya myck was headed back to bozeman, montana, with her dog charlie but they've been stuck here for the last 24 hours. myck was among the 250 people who toughed it out overnight on cots, chairs, even the marble floor. >> you just make your peace with it. all right, i'm stuck here for 24 okay. >> reporter: so how many nights have you been strandd? >> four nights in total. >> reporter: london native antonio christopher began his journey to the caribbean last week just as a blizzard socked london. he spent two nights stuck at heathrow airport, another at jafk and he hopes tonight's stay at laguardia will be his last. if that flight doesn't leave tomorrow... >> if it doesn't leave tomorrow i'll have to give some serious consideration whether i'm going to continue the leg of the race. >> reporter: passengers on el al flight 002 to tel aviv thought they were going to escape the winter blitz, but their plane never made it off the tarmac at j.f.k. airport. they were stuck on the runway for nearly nine hours. >> well, they gave us full dinner and entertainment. fortunately, i have nothing to complain about. >> reporter: it was a different story for passengers trying to leave kennedy by subway. >> nine hours. we're not going nowhere. nine hours on one damn train with no heat. >> reporter: susan judd spent the night on the train, describing conditions in a phone call to wcbs t.v. >> we're doing okay. most of the people are just waking up now and there's no water and bathroom so it's a little difficult. just about everybody on this train was coming from kennedy airport. there was no other way to get out of the airport. >> reporter: amtrak canceled 21 trains yesterday and today. as service resumed this morning, stranded air travelers from new york's airports came to manhattan to see if they could get out by other means. >> i'm trying to get to d.c. and give up on my travel plans. >> reporter: authorities worked around the clock to rescue hundreds of trapped motorists. across the region, station stations were held in an icy grip with service only returning slowly as the sun came out. and airport officials are warning passengers to call ahead and check on those flight times. they say keep in mind just because one airline is canceled the full flight schedule doesn't mean that they all have. harry? >> smith: how many days do you think it will take the folks at laguardia to compensate for all of these days of backlogged flights? >> reporter: we spoke with the general manager here and he says it will take at least one full day if not two. keeping in mind that the airlines are on a completely different schedule and program. >> smith: all right, michelle miller at laguardia tonight. thanks. this blizzard was a big one, but luckily it moved through the northeast at a pretty good clip. tonight, what's left of it is centered over northern new england and it is beginning to dissipate. but even in its waning hours, the storm still left a mighty big mess. seth done tze in boston tonight. seth, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, harry. adds you can see, the snow has tapered off here in boston, but the wind is continuing to kick it up into two to three-foot snowdrifts. you know, there's been a lot of attention paid to the snow totals in this blizzard, but the real story here in massachusetts is the wind and the waves. in the coastal town of scituate, even the national guard was called in to assist with evacuations. >> during the high tide last night, i stayed up to keep an eye on the tide and it just... the water came up really fast. >> reporter: more than 80 people from one neighborhood were helped to safety by troops working with local firefighters and police. all trudged through the icy water. >> they tried their hardest as ever to get down there. we saw them wade through chest-deep water. >> reporter: high winds fanned the flames of two homes that caught fire. flooding made it much more difficult for firefighters to do anything about it. the town of quincy was waterlogged as well. >> i've never seen the water like this before. ever. it's like a river. that's crazy! >> my electronic system, i guess failed and it just stopped on me and i couldn't go any further. >> reporter: along the new england coast, the hurricane-force wind pushed waves as high as 30 feet. at boston's airport, more than a foot of snow blanketed runways. logan reopened late this afternoon, but it will likely be days before the airport can operate normally. >> trying to get to new orleans. unfortunately i don't think it's going to happen for me today. they said they can book me on a thursday flight. i'm supposed to come back on thursday. >> reporter: the roads were as quiet as the runways as many heeded official warnings to stay put. >> this is horrible. >> reporter: horrible? >> horrible. >> reporter: you're a bostonian. aren't you guys used to this stuff? >> no, not this much. a little bit's okay. this is too much. >> reporter: the city of boston received 16 and a half inches of snow, but it's expected to get warmer here later in the week and that should aid to cleanup effort. harry? >> smith: seth done in boston. thanks. here's your chance to witness the blizzard of 2010 in fast-forward. this took 20 hours in realtime starting yesterday afternoon in belmar, new jersey. using time-lapse photography, it takes only seconds. inch by inch, hour by hour. by the time it was over, almost three feet of snow was piled on a backyard table and umbrella. this monday after christmas was expected to give retailers one final sales boost for the year, but here on the east coast, the big storm kept a lot of shoppers home. however, this 2010 holiday shopping season has already been a good one. spending was up 5.5% over last year. that makes it the best since 2007, which was a record year. coming up next on the "cbs evening news," it gets marines into the fight on a cushion of air. but why should a new one cost so much? the pentagon's war on red tape when we come back. and reaching into the past to create a new tradition of giving. ah, it's stinging a little bit more than usual! yeah, you'll get used to it. the longer you keep your high mileage car, the more it pays you back. get castrol gtx high mileage. it helps engines last longer by fighting the main causes of engine failure. i think a dime went up my nose. yeah, it happens. don't change your car. change your oil to castrol gtx high mileage. its more than just oil. it's liquid engineering. i couldn't sleep right. next day it took forever to get going. night after night, i sat up. sprayed up. took a shower... or took a pill. then i tried drug-free breathe right advanced. and instantly, i breathed better! i slept better. it felt...better. thank you, breathe right! 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(laughs) >> reporter: that's why, although sam stone has long since passed... >> i don't think it's anything we went to let die. >> reporter: ...the spirit of b. virdot now seems poised for immortality. steve hartman, cbs news, canton, ohio. >> smith: that's the "cbs evening news." for katie couric, i'm harry smith. thanks for watching. good night. captioning sponsored by cbs captioned by media access group at wgbh acce