to-do list on his desk. at the top, fighting for jobless benefits, and figuring out if he needs to fix the nsa. just how big are the obstacles in his path? hello, i m wolf blitzer, reporting from washington. we start with a severe winter cold that s gripping much of the country. the snow, the ice and the brutally low temperatures have caused school closings from minneapolis to birmingham. chicago, cleveland and kansas city, also among those cities with no school. this is what it looks like. look at this in indianapolis, the city s travel warning at level red for the first time since the 70s. that means no one is allowed to drive, unless it s an emergency. looking at the airports, more than 3,000 flights have been cancelled, and you can expect certainly that number to rise. we re covering all angles of the cold blast. self stephanie elam joining us
from minneapolis, victor blackwell monitoring from the south in atlanta. alexandria steele is checking the forecast from our severe weather center. and renee marsh in washington, d.c., checking the nation s airports. let s start with stephanie. stephanie, the temperatures well below zero. what is being done to reach a lot of these folks who may be in real danger from this weather? reporter: yeah. wolf, it actually feels like it s getting colder here. it s really it doesn t take long for the shivers to start setting in. we have been out here for maybe about five, seven minutes now, and already you can start feeling the chill come in, even though we have on so many layers. and what they have been doing we talked to the police department. they said they have been out patrolling, really looking for people who were in danger, who needed to get inside. taking them to hospitals, taking them to shelters, whatever they needed to do. they say crime has gone down a lot, because it s just so