[ male announcer ] the rhythm of life. [ whistle blowing ] where do you hear that beat? campbell s healthy request soup lets you hear it in your heart. [ basketball bouncing ] heart healthy. [ m m. ] great taste. [ tapping ] sounds good. campbell s healthy request. m m! m m! good.® jon: right now a look at brand new stories still ahead this hour. we will review a high-profile murder trial getting underway in north carolina. a woman accused of helping her husband lure and kill his former girlfriend. we ll have the latest on the search for a missing woman who vanished near her in-laws texas home after returning from a trip around the world. amazing new research on detecting illness. why some scientists say we might be able to smell when someone is about to get sick, coming up. patti ann: breaking now. growing concerns, a propane shortage is getting worse as millions cope with bitter cold temperatures. emergencies have been now declared in 31 states. that is effort to get fuel to
homeowners faster so everyone can stay warm. garrett tenney live in a very frigid illinois just outside of chicago right now. hi, garrett. reporter: hey, patti ann, it is negative 21 degrees with the windchill. frigid temperatures across all the entire country have come at a horrible time with the pope train shortage. propane shortage. more than a million businesses do as well. this propane shortage is causing all the people to cut down on their propane usage. you mentioned 31 states that declared a state of emergency trying to get more of that propane into those states with the people can fuel their homes. now this low supply and high demand come from the really frigid winter we ve had so far this year, that has combined for some of the highest prices they have seen in propane in more than 20 years. we talked to one homeowner who
we ll give you update. meantime, is it getting ridiculous yet? more arctic air blasting the country bringing dangerous windchills to the midwest and northeast. in the dakotas it could be minus 60. mercury dropping like a rock for so many millions of others. some states are struggling to get above zero. it is like minus 10 in places like indiana, ohio. real temperature, minus 10. ongoing cold leading to shortage of propane gas in 30 states. that s what you do not want. state of emergency declared for many. garrett tenney is live in sheridan, illinois, outside minus 21 with the windchill. garrett, how is it going? reporter: you feel every bit of that negative 21 degrees. we have a couple inches still on the ground. this propane shortage, bill, as you mentioned, more than 30 states are affected by this so far. more than 14 million people across the country use propane to heat their homes.
just breaking records left and right, neil. we ll continue to monitor it. back to you. yikes. that arctic blast not just driving up home heating bills. it s driving up costs for super bowl parties. what s going on? reporter: this nationwide propane shortage is not good news for anybody. 14 million households use propane to heat their homes. so, is propane shortage is going on, the prices have gone up as well. prices at the highest point they have been in more than 20 years so home owners bills are more than three times what they were three months ago. so those propane bills, 14 million households, that s how many people use it to heat their homes. we know a lot more people than that will be tuning in for the super bowl and a lot of them will be grilling so propane prices will affect them as well.
more than three times as expensive as just back in october and november even. take a listen. hopefully mother nature will let up on us a little bit and give us a break here. obviously this cold weather is not helping at all. so, right now we re just hoping we re going to have enough propane to get through this. reporter: he is just hoping they can get through this, but the shortage is not expected to let up. expected to carry through the spring and to make matters that much more difficult, state officials are asking people to try to conserve the propane they too have, but with these type of temperatures, that s pretty hard to too. why there is a propane shortage? reporter: you know, that s a great question. i learned that propane is used to help try out corn. in this last fall they had a huge corn crop that came through and it was very wet so they used huge chunk of the propane to dry