>> streets are deserted and thousands of flights are canceled as the blizzard of twif slowly rides up the northeastern east coast. >> some of the most severe weather is making impact now and over the next few hours. widespread travel bans are in effect. in some states, if you're caught driving you could get cited and fined. mass transit is shut down in new york city and other big metropolitan areas. >> the snow started monday night. for many the worst is yet to come. part of massachusetts could see up to three feet or 90 centimeters of snow. nearly hurricane-force wind gusts could cause widespread power outages. the message everywhere -- stay home and stay safe. >> whiteout conditions and treacherous roads will make drivinging any inganywhere extremely dangerous. i can't stress this enough. please. >> look at this geographical breakdown of where emergency declarations have been issued. so far, seven stays. they include the five you see here plus rhode island and new hampshire. for almost everyone it's going to be a tuesday without work school or travel but with a heck of a lot of snow. >> that snow could keep falling into wednesday, especially in eastern new england. >> derek van dam has been posting from new york. you've been there for a number of hours as the snow tons accumulate. explain to us how the conditions have been so far and compare it to what's about to happen here in just the next few hours. >> reporter: we're in a bit of a lull outside of central park. we're in columbus circle on the west side of manhattan. and we had snow bands come through that were clocking two to three inches per hour. significant, heavy snowfall. we haven't seen the very persistent snow that places like boston and providence rhode island are experiencing at the moment. they have upwards of two to four inches per hour. those guys are well in sight of that two foot to three-foot range by the time the storm is all said and done. when we compare new york city to the biggest blizzards of all time within in -- within this mega tropolis, they had 26.9 inches will we break this? probably not. new york city and the hudson river on the outer periphery of the heavy ever bands, you have to travel up the new england coast boston to the extremely heavy snow and strong winds. >> all right, derek van dam there in new york city where things don't appear to be too bad at the moment. the point being that the reason just -- the region to the northeast is going get the brunt of the storm. heavy band of snow we should see continue to hit as the morning continues, right, derek? >> reporter: yeah. we've got the worst of the storm still to come. i don't want to diminish the fact that new york is still getting hit hard with heavy snow and they have several hours to go before the system finally starts to pull out by tuesday morning. roughly about lunchtime. you can hear behind me the plows are in full force. music to the ears of the governor and the people of new york city. it's clearing the streets. but it's almost futile rosemary and errol. by the time that they're done plowing, the snow aaccumulates right back on the grown again making the roads tricky and difficult to travel on. >> hopefully they continue to churn and work through the night to make the impact tomorrow morning that much less. derek van dam, we'll connect with you later. as we mentioned, further to the northeast is where the impact the brunt of the storm will hit. massachusetts one of the states in fact under emergency declaration right now. >> yeah. in boston 700 pieces of snow-moving equipment, and 35,000 tons of salt are ready for use. public schools will be closed today. the city's mayor says a major effort now is making sure people stay safe. >> make sure your neighbors are safe particularly the elderly or disabled. make sure they have enough food and supplies to get through the next couple of days. i ask everyone please stay off the road. i'd rather you be safe. don't get curious and walk around. plows can't see you. cars can't see you. if you see homeless folks, call 911 so we can get all the homeless off the street. we've been doing that all day. be courteous of your neighbors and make sure everyone's safe. >> good advice. nick valencia is on the streets of boston. you've been there for a number of hours. how bad are conditions this hour and how bad do they expect it to get? >> reporter: yeah. we've been here for a couple of hours in what was expected to be the worst part of the storm expected about 4:00 a.m. eastern, a couple of hours from now. what we've seen the roads for the most part are clear. if you can see in front of us, emergency vehicles are on the road for the most part. that's what we've seen. there are a handful of residents continuing to come out despite that travel ban/warning. we have seen many people more people than we expected to see on the streets. some that i've spoken to said they wanted to be a part of something historic. other people you talk to though, say this storm is nothing extraordinary, that this isn't living up to the hype of what some meteorologists were predicting. we have that incremental increase in snowfall though. these roads, even though plows have been working since we spoke to one emergency worker since 7:00 p.m. trying to clear the streets, you know it still is difficult to drive here. we are taking our time at some portions of our drive, we've had trouble with traction on playing tires. other portions we've just tried to take as easy as possible on the roads. the travel ban is in effect for everyone except emergency workers with the exception of some in the media. we were granted that exception. it's allowed us to cruise through the streets. for the most part boston is a ghost town with some people coming out to try check out to see what the weather is like outside. >> on that subject, you raised the hype. it's much better that people are ready and prepared in a situation like this than it be in the reverse. the big concern in conditions like this is always the possibility of power outages. there t hasn't been as bad as it could have been. why is that? >> you know it has to be a credit to the state agencies and the local officials. the massachusetts governor of out front and center yesterday telling the residents in the state that this is going to be bad. this has the potential of being an historic storm. and to the credit i think, of the local officials for really getting out in front of the storm and making sure that the residents were prepare for that that they were stocked up with groceries, that they had charged cell phones they had flashlights on hand and extra warm clothes in case they did lose power. cruising throughout the streets, we haven't seen any stop lights out. we've seen people's poach lights stay on. seen people traveling in front of us now. more snowplows going on in front of us. so it of course could be a lot worse. but you know the local and state officials telling people to temper their enthusiasm about going outside and trying to witness what they are expecting to be historic events. so far, so good. rosemary? >> it appears that the preparation, the planning has been pretty good this time around. nick val enya there from the streets of -- valencia there from the streets of boston. boston, a big city. a lot of snowplows, resources available. we should note that smaller northeastern communities also getting hit hard by the storm. coastal communities, in fact, only -- not only dealing with the snow but the strong winds. we have the latest from new york and rhode island. >> reporter: we're on the very end of long island. this is montauk which is a small fishing community currently getting pummelled. you see the snow just blowing all across the roadway here. this is main street. this is the downtown area. you see not a soul in sight as the storm really bears down. this is an area expecting to get two to three feet of snow by the time this is over. in fact, that's supposed to continue well into tuesday afternoon. the biggest concerns here are not just the snow but the high winds. wind gusts that are near hurricane force that are also pushing a huge storm surge into this island community. they are anticipating possible coastal flooding. they're anticipating possible erosion of the beach as 15-foot waves battled the shore. there are multiple multiple challenges for this community and power outages is another big concern. we saw pout our for weeks -- power out for weeks after superstorm sandy in this area. that is something people are watching and waiting for to see exactly what happens. rosemary errol? >> reporter: we're watching wind gusts pick up in providence rhode island. you see a good example when you look down the street. you see the snow blowing in the wind. but keep in mind there are no cars on the road. that's a good thing. sfroishls told residents to stay off the road. there's a travel ban throughout the night. snowplows doing their best to clear the road. the snow is expected to fall faster than these plows can keep up with. the other big concern is along the coastline in the state of rhode island. there are many communities in low-lying areas. we know that the wind gusts will get from 60 to 70 miles per hour something that people will have to keep watch of especially as high tide sets in. the other thing that is important as the snow continues to fall people who could get stranded or trapped in homes, officials are asking neighbors check on neighbors. make sure they have the food water, necessities to hunker down and get through what looks to be a multi day event. george howell, cnn, providence, rhode island. >> thanks to both of our correspondents there. we are, of course going to have more on this massive snowstorm as it continues to hit the u.s. later this hour. in the meantime head to cnn.com for photo galleries of the storm and the latest track. #cnnsnow on social media. a three-day visit comes to an end with president obama calling for an even stronger relationship with india. we will have a live report coming up. plus kurdish fighters celebrate a major gain in the fight against isis. stay with us. eeeeeeeeee financial noise financial noise financial noise financial noise president obama finished up a talk discussing his strong relations between india and the u.s. we have more live on the details. this was a positive relatively feel-good type of trip as far the staging of events. in obama's speech he did touch on the persons of religious tolerance there in india. quite a sensitive topic. what did he say? >> definitely a lot being said about that. i mean this whole trip has been called a bromance in the indian press. it's been talked about in the u.s. press, as well. it's mostly been all of this feel-good sent. and show. you're right. now commentators are analyzing what he said in his speech talked about the partnership and the turning a page opening a new chapter in this relationship. then some are wondering if this was, as they put it a sort of parting shot. talking about the importance of religious freedom and not letting religious tensions divide a country and hold back progress. some thought he was referring directly to tensions between hindus and muslims here in india. that's something that was really front and center during the career of prime minister modi. the consensus is that he was talking in a more general sense and wasn't specifically referring to any part of india. and here's part of what he said during his speech. >> the united states welcomes a greater role for india in the asia pacific where the freedom of navigation must be upheld and the speech must be resolved peacefully. even as we acknowledge the world as it is we must never stop working for the world as it should be. a world without nuclear weapons. that should be a goal for all of us. [ applause ] >> reporter: talking about resolving disputes peacefully following the rules. that is a reference to china. when he he visits another asian country, the shadow of china, the relationship with china not only between the u.s. and china but other countries in the asian pacific, that overshadows everything. so now much is being said about that. how the chinese are seeing this. it was interesting yesterday when the chinese put out a statement sort of doubting the real depth of closeness between india and the u.s. you now the chinese are saying well, isn't pakistan more of a natural ally to india than the u.s. is? maybe that relationship should be explored and improved. so there's this complexity there. india does have a relationship with china, but there are concerns that china is going to this as moving more closely aligned with the u.s. that's going to change the india/china relationship. certainly there is a shift in close not between the u.s. and china and trade most certainly will expand after the series of meetings. what that means down the road we'll see. that's really a big topic of conversation now. how the chinese are perceiving this. the u.s. officials here in the strip even responded to that chinese statement when they were asked about it. they said that they see it as very telling that the chinese even felt a need to respond to this meeting since it doesn't really involve them yet. in many ways, it does involve them. errol? >> i was going to say in many ways it does. michelle kaczynski with us from new delhi, approaching 1:00 in the afternoon there. thank you very much. we do want to check some other news now. we have this just in. a fly dubai flight from the uae into baghdad landed there with fuselage damage possibly from small arms fire. fly dubai says no passengers were injured, but it's suspending flights. the company will monitor the security situation in bag before it resumes flying there. so far, we have not heard from iraqi officials about this incident. former cuban president fidel castro is offering his pop restoring diplomatic ties with the u.s. in a statement in cuba's state newspaper, castro says "i don't trust u.s. policies and have not exchanged a word with them. this does not mean, however, that i would oppose a peaceful solution conflicts or threats of war." argentina's president wants to dissolve the domestic intelligence service to make intelligence gathering more transparent. now this comes after the controversial death of a prosecutor investigating a 1994 bombing in bennors aires. albert -- in buenos aires. he was found dead before testifying in front of congress, is to speak about the bombing of a jewish center which tehran denies. greece's new prime minister set to name the cabinet members in the government in the coming hours. alexis tsipras linked his anti-austerity party to the right wing independent greeks party. he pulled out the historic win on sunday and was sworn in as the country's younger prime minister in 150 years. still to come the blizzard of 2015 already shut down major cities in the northeast. we'll take you live to new york and boston for the latest. [bassist] two late nights in tucson. blew an amp.but good nights. sure,music's why we do this,but it's still our business. we spend days booking gigs then we've gotta put in the miles to get there. but it's not without its perks. like seeing our album sales go through the roof enough to finally start paying meg's little brother- i mean,our new tour manager-with real,actual money. we run on quickbooks.tha t's how we own it. when it comes to your credit, in the know is the place to be. transunion.com makes it easy. we give you 24/7 access. you get instant credit alerts to keep you in sync. you can even lock and unlock your transunion credit report from your phone. and all that information feels pretty good. come to transunion.com and get in the know. welcome back. the massive storm in the northeast is causing headaches and travel bans in many states. the exception, emergency vehicles. amtrak is shutting down train service between new york and boston today. public transportation is shut down in new york. more than,000 flights are canceled out of new york new jersey philadelphia and boston airports. that's sure to have a effect all over the world. let's bring in our meteorologist pedram javaheri. so far do you think the storm is as bad as expected? is it delaying the worst parts or not? >> you know i think the worst of it is still in the next couple of hours. i think new york city potentially may miss out on some of the tremendous snowfall that was forecast in the general region. i still think a foot is possible maybe 15 inches, triple what you've seen so far this season. 20 25-plus for the city looks to be unlikely at this point. take a look. the broad perspective, 3,000 kill orms 2,000-mile -- kilometers 2,000-mile cloud field out of the tennessee area united states well offshore is where the center of the storm system is. we know the city itself of course 1,800 plows working on the streets. 12,000 tons of salt also. and the officials in new york city saying they have some 6,000 miles, about 10,000 kilometers of roadways in the city to clear in the next 12 or so hours. that means going to los angeles and all the way back to new york city in a matter of 12 hours, that's how much in the way of roadway they have to clear across the region. you know the flight impact significant, about 7,000 flights canceled. some 4,000 across the major metropolitan airports and we know the pattern here. at laguardia saying no flights expected on a typical day, 4,000,0004,000 flights leave and enter the airport. here's the radar imagery, want to show you what's happening in new york city. the gray area shows light snowfall. at this hour light snowfall pushing in toward new york city. we had bands of heaviest snow, the heaviest confined to eastern long island. portions of bridgeport in connecticut, eastern massachusetts also getting in heavy snow as well. boston a mix of heavy snow also moderate snow beginning to push in toward the region. the bull's eye looks to be confined toward the area and to the north. of course, the winds are going to be howling, 44 to 55 miles per hour. closing in on about 80 to 95 kilometers an hour getting toward boston 65 to 75 miles per hour. now we're talking 120 kilometers per hour with the storm system. power outages certainly going to be really a problem on the immediate coastline. that's where we take -- we think widespread power outages a responsibility. farther scattered inland. interior new england, spotty in nature. the winds have not reached peak over the areas. in montauk, we had a gust closing in at 50 miles per hour. we think that will get up to 65 to 70 the next couple of hours. reason i think there's more to come the storm system parks over the gulf stream. the water temperatures relatively mild. this is really going dry out significant moisture when it comes to accumulations in the region what we're watching the next few hours. more coming up. hello, and welcome to our viewers here in the united states and across the world. i'm rosemary church. >> i'm errol barnett. in top stories, roads are closed thousands of flights canceled public transportation shut down in some of the region's biggest cities. parts of new england could see up to three feet of snow before all of this is over. president barack obama wrappeded up a visit to india with a speech on the future of u.s./india relations. he said the world would be a better place if the two democracies stand together. prime minister modi has promised an open business environment, and both announced progress on civil nuclear trade and deeper defense ties. the headline for you here after a four-month battle kurdish fighters are celebrating their push of isis out of kobani. multiple soerz multiple multiple sources say the kurds have full control of the town. more coming up in a few minutes. back to the blizzard that's wreaking havoc along the northeast u.s. the snow is now falling faster the winds, we understand getting stronger as well. let's get to cnn's nick valencia on the streets of boston. nick you've been driving around there for the past few hours. boston's expected to get the greatest accumulation of snow essentially starting now. just tell us what you've been seeing what you're seeing now. >> reporter: well you talk about the wind errol. that is an issue. winds clocked at 35 miles per hour. that really has been a factor that is leading to this troubling weather conditions right now. what we can say is the good news here in the last 30 minutes, the snow. seems to have decreased a little. what we're doing now is driving in the area of the famous fenway park where the boston red sox play here. we've seen a lot of plows in this area working to clean the sidewalks, clean the streets. that sort of is a microcosm that we see throughout the city. we've seen so many state crews here state agencies local crews trying to clear the streets and make sure that things aren't as bad as they could be. errol? >> in some ways, bostonians are used to this type of weather. times that i've been here i've had to drive through blizzards. this is something that's dealt with there regularly. although the storm is supposed to be quite severe. as far as you can tell as far as snowplows and residents taking the advice of officials to not drive, are bostonons so far following that advice? >> reporter: yeah for the most part there are a handful of people ignoring advice. they say they want to be part of something historic. they drove by one of the local parks. we were surprised to so many people out. we hear people on social media weighing in saying they love the quiet. they feel this is their time to see boston as quiet as they can see it. but for the most part, the travel ban that went into effect 2.5 hours ago, the ban by the massachusetts governor for the most part people are staying off the roads. just a little while ago, we did see one car stranded. that's the only sort of incident that we've seen on the roads. i talked to a local police officer here as well asked if he's seen anything extraordinary, anything special on the roads since he's balance here. he said for the most part it's been quiet. i'm sure the local agencies hope it stays that way. >> hopes them at least clean up ahead of the additional snowfall to make it just that less difficult tuesday. nick valencia there cruising slowly around boston past 2:30 this the morning. we will reconnect with you later. chris welsh has been braving the elements in new york city and joins us live. looks like you've taken shelter in the blizzard mobile there. it's just after 2:30 in the morning in new york city. what's the scene on the streets, and how bad are conditions there? how bad are they likely to get? >> reporter: yeah. we're pretty lucky we're in a heated blizzard mobile. we're in a blizzard mobile with fwour-wheel drive. that's the good news so far. what we've seen over the last several hours is really you know we went through a period around 7:00 or 8:00 tonight that saw pretty significant, steady snowfall. decent amount of win, but nothing too outrageous. nothing like the potential for the hurricane-strength winds that we've been talking about with this storm. for the last couple of hours, it has sort of come and gone. we've seen heavier spurs of snow. if you look at our camera out the front of the car here, you can see it's really -- it may not even look like much on camera. it's a fine snow now. almost looks like it creates a haze or fog in front of us. and the winds, though have picked up a little. what we can tell you is a lot of the forecasters were thinking here in manhattan, we could be on the edge of something. so a lot of folks have thought by now we might have seen more snow. i can tell you that the official reading as of last check in central park was just over 5.5 inches. a lot of folks thinking we might have had more this time of night. of course, the night is not over. we have been close. it's a slow moving heavy band of snow. we've been close to getting that. it's still too early, too tough to tell what we could wake up to. road conditions slick from the snow that's been pack down from the few inches that we've seen so far. it looks like you see in front of us, we're on thewide highway along the hudson river in new york city. and there is no traffic whatsoever. the only traffic we've seen had been the sporadic groups of snowplows. we've also seen a couple of other passenger vehicles. for the most part the passenger vehicles that we've seen have been other media vehicles. >> that has been just -- it's extraordinary looking at this scene in new york city. so quiet. of course you mentioned the sanitation vehicles with the snowplows attached to them to clear the snow. how big a difference has that made and how would you assess preparation of planning in the lead up to this blizzard and compare it to past years. >> reporter: new york's mayor de blasio has been touting the teaspoons arsenal of sanitation vehicles and of snowplows in general. yesterday they were saying we'll have about 1,500 snowplows on the street. today the mayor at the office of emergency management they're holing a joint press conference. he said that number had been up to 1,800 snowplows. they've aed snowplows on to the garbage trucks, on to the sanitation vehicles. while they're not collecting garbage tonight, those trucks will also be assisting in the snow removal. when all is said and done they have about 2,300 vehicles in total that will have the capability for snowplows. we're also talking about tens of thousands of tons of salt that the city would be spreading. and they were doing this before today. before the storm even began. they were doing their diligence, the mayor says to get the salt on the streets. he even said they repaired potholes they repaired 1,000 potholes prior to today. and their goal was to get through another 800. it sounded like they were trying to get as much done before the storm as possible rosemary. >> chris welsh there driving around on the blizzard mobile on the streets of new york city. it is just eerie in fact seeing the scenes upon many thanks. we will see what happens in the coming hours. this is bringing productivity to a halt. one person think this is actually the perfect time for a blizzard. >> what about this? cnn commentator mel robbins says people can use tuesday's snow day to veg out and reconnect with family. how about that? and you can read a column "why i want the power to go out" on our website and cnn.com. >> okay. you don't want the power to go out if you want to connect with your facebook friend while you're stuck inside. that's an issue now, it's a badly timed outage for facebook and instagram users. if you are trying to stay in touch while this happens, you might be out of luck. >> about 2.5 hours ago, some users of the social media sites found a message saying sorry, something went wrong. other couldn't access the sites at all. users in australia and new zealand are also having trouble. a facebook spokeswoman says they are working to fix the problem as quickly as possible. lots of complaints. >> absolutely. all right. 70 years ago today, prisoners were liberated from auschwitz. coming up a disturbing and detailed look at one of the most infamous nazi concentration camps. we'll be right back. how much money do you have in your pocket right now? i have $40 $21. could something that small make an impact on something as big as your retirement? i don't think so. well if you start putting that towards your retirement every week and let it grow over time, for twenty to thirty years that retirement challenge might not seem so big after all. ♪ ♪ huh, fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. everybody knows that. well, did you know words really can hurt you? what...? jesse don't go! jesse...no! i'm sorry daisy, but i'm a loner. and a loner gotta be alone. heee yawww! geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. jesse? welcome back. nato's chief has dismissed vladimir putin's claim that nato forces are fighting in ukraine. >> putin on monday called ukrainian army nato's foreign legion. nato's secretary general called the allegation nonsense. fighting in eastern ukraine between government forces and pro-russia rebels has ramped up. the comments came as ambassadors of nato countries and ukraine met machine to sort out a response to the fighting. the ukrainian governmentness an investigation into alleged crimes against humanity. that comes in the wake of a missile attack that you saw a clip of in the city on saturday. >> a senior u.n. official says civilians were targeted. city officials say at least 30 people were killed including two children. ukraine says russian-backed rebels are responsible, but russia blames ukraine. nick paton walsh was there on monday as loved ones buried the victims. >> reporter: the processions will keep coming to the edge of this hard scrabble town. 30 of them. first to be buried olga. she once appealed on social media to putin to help this windswept poor city. ukrainian officials say russia sent grand missiles instead which slammed into the civilian suburbs of this town saturday. as the war ebbs and flares wildly loss mounts. now there's not even a cease-fire here in name. both sides seeking vengeance. she curses putin and asks he die like a dog adding "he brings tragedy to ukraine that brings tears to mothers." in this nearby hospital separate to these, the blasts hit victims including her 3-year-old daughter. she survived in intensive care. very awake and coming to terms, relatives say, with the loss of her left leg. >> what she saw, the explosion, the death of her mother, and her screaming for help. she remember everything. >> reporter: a car's dashboard camera caught some of the blasts. along with cleaning up comes a task in mariupol of working out who were been the september 11 deaths and who you blame -- behind the civilian deaths and who you blame. investigators conclude the rockets were fired from the north and the east. both from directions of areas held by the separatists. sleepy streets now pock marked by the rockets. plastic sheeting running out to replace windows. this home in its basement -- and its basement bearing witness to how powerful the rockets were. "the they went straight through the floors into the car." the firepower used like the rhetoric and death toll of over 5,000 escalating daily. nick paton walsh, cnn. this is the 70th anniversary of the elizabetheration of auschwitz. the noz concentration camp in german-occupied poland. >> soviet troops liberated the camp this day in 1945. survivors are returning from ceremonies later today to mark the anniversary. henry corman is one of them. he talked to ivan watson about the seemingly random life or death decisions that happened as prisoners arrived at auschwitz. >> mr. corman have you ever been back to auschwitz? >> no. today's the first time. i see here looking around here. i see this gate -- i would run through here. i think -- i think it was right here there was an assessment mangala was working here. you know who this was. this was life. this was death. >> reporter: you saw him? >> sure. he was passing by. i was naked, only shoes. depends. strong -- what can i do? i didn't know if i remain like this i wouldn't be here today with you. >> henry corman was referring to joseph mangel, the nazi doctor who sent so many prisoner to the gas chambers. >> the nazis killed more than a million people at auschwitz. most of them jews. we show how the camp became the most galling example of torture and death. in mid 1940 in this nazi annexed area of poland the nazi regime established the first of the auschwitz camps. the chilling writing on its main gates translated as "work makes you free." it could not happen further from the truth. this of a camp to enslave, imprison and exterminate. polish political prisoners and criminals filled these converted artillery barracks. a prison that grew ever larger through the forced labor of its captives. in this area of the camp of the feared block 11, a punishment facility. a prison within a prison. connected to it the black wall. in front of which groups of prisoners would be shot dead. here in block ten, this is where female prisoners were subjected to horrific sterilization experiments. but what happened at a later edition was even more horrifying. victim here were gassed and burned. now the killing expanded on an almost industrial scale at auschwitz two. the construction started here in october, 1941. it was designed to hold 100,000 inmates. and with four major crematoriums each with gas chambers. as prisoners arrive from across europe by train, they were immediately split into two groups. those able to work and those who would be murdered. the elderly, infirm children and the mothers were sent direct three the gas chambers. twins and family with genetic disorders often escape the gas chambers only to be subjected to the murderous and mutilating experiments of s.s. captain dr. joseph mangala. prisoners were allowed to bring a small number of treasured items to auschwitz, but they were confiscated on arrival. here in the area known as canada, people's precious belongings were cataloged and the stolen valuables sent to germany. even in death, auschwitz prisoners were robbed with hair and teeth removed from their bodies. forced labor was the focus at auschwitz three which of created in 1942. prisoners deemed fit enough to avoid the gas chambers worked producing rubber and fuels at a nearby factory owned by i. go. farbin. same company that held the patent on the deadly gas used in the death camps. now eventually this camp became the center of a network of forced labor sites 45 in total, scattered across hundreds of kilometers. auschwitz was more than a camp. it was a nightmare smeared over nazi-occupied europe and leaving an indent e dellible-- an indelible stain. cnn. >> survivors tell amazing stories of courage and strength. and you can hear some on our special "voices of auschwitz with wolf blitzer." international viewers can catch it tuesday at noon and 2100 gmt. viewers here in the united states can see it on tuesday at 9:00 p.m. eastern. we'll be right back. female vo: i actually have a whole lot of unused vacation days, but where am i gonna go? i just don't have the money to travel right now. i usually just go back home to see my parents so i can't exactly go globe-trotting. if i had friends to go with i'd go but i don't want to travel by myself. someday. male vo: there are no more excuses. find the hotel you want, and the flight you want, and we'll find the savings to get you there. the governor in the u.s. state of pennsylvania declared a state of emergency, and that's despite reduced snow totals projections upon what's happening? cory angel is the press secretary for the emergency management agency. and cory governor tom wolf urged everyone where you are to be ready, but the storm appears to be more intense the further east you are. it doesn't appear to be as bad as where you are, where it was projected. bring us up to speed on the conditions where you are now. >> reporter: well certainly we were glad to see that all the snowfall totals dropped, and the storm seem to have moved a considerable amount east. and not just because of its impacts on pennsylvania. it's not a good thing for pennsylvania and our neighbor new jersey. we were watching new jersey and seeing what they were doing, wondering what second and third order effect might affect pennsylvania because there's impacts in new jersey and i know they had made the call at 11:00 last night to basically shut down all state roads which, of course our penndot folks had to look and make a determine to lighten up the boards electronic communication boards on the highway system to help give advance notice to drivers that might be headed into the new jersey area particularly commercial drivers and thing like that. that way they're able to re-route themselves before it's too late and they're kind of committed and pile up on the new jersey border. but in any event, we're grateful that we continue to monitor the weather in the southeast, particularly philadelphia area bucks county. the county eocs in the area are active aid. >> and penndot of course being the department of transportation therement many different agencies having to coordinate and work together, not just within pennsylvania. as you mentioned there in new jersey, across state border lines. the good news here pennsylvania not being hit as hard as expected by now. this is by no means over. the press secretary for the pennsylvania emergency management agency. thank you very much for connecting with us on cnn at this late hour on the u.s. east coast. a wintertime back yard attraction that may put all others to shame. >> forget about snowmen and ice rinks. a canadian dad has built something a bit faster. david shield respects. hate the sound of ice melting in the morningment. >> reporter: for some building a snowman for their kids is a big deal. or maybe an outdoor rink for hockey practice. blair mcdade is no ordinary dad. he's built a luge track in his back yard. >> it's quite silly. i just take myself very seriously. >> reporter: this isn't a short track either. there's enough speed in force to keep going around the entire back yard. so how much thought and work has gone into building this? a lot more than you may think. >> no, it's snow ice, tires -- the initial base track is built out of leaves to get the initial curve, and that's how the whole thing started. >> reporter: mcdade built a ramp for his 7-year-old daughter's birthday party last month. since then, neighborhood kids have flocked to the site. mcdade says the whole thing has been worth it. >> it's good. they scream -- her and the neighbor's kids. they're getting better at it but initially even before it was this fast now they're getting braver. >> mcdade is not sure how long this track's going to last. if the weather holds, it could be up until spring. david shield cbc news saskatoon. >> ideas for people surrounded by snow. >> in a town called saskanot too,too tootoo -- saskatoon, i imagine that's what you do. >> we'll be right back with the latest on the blizzard hitting the u.s. northeast now. they're coming. what do i do? you need to catch the 4:10 huh? the equipment tracking system will get you to the loading dock. ♪♪ there should be a truck leaving now. i got it. now jump off the bridge. what? in 3...2...1... are you kidding me? go. right on time. right now, over 20,000 trains are running reliably. we call that predictable. thrillingly predictable. well, a mortgage shouldn't be a problem your credit is in pretty good shape. >>pretty good? i know i have a 798 fico score thanks to the tools and help on experian.com. kaboom... well, i just have a few other questions. >>chuck, the only other question you need to ask is, "what else can you do for me?" i'll just take a water... get your credit swagger on. become a member of experian credit tracker and find out your fico score powered by experian. fico scores are used in 90% of credit decisions. you used to sleep like a champ. then boom... what happened? stress, fun, bad habits kids, now what? let's build a new, smarter bed using the dualair chambers to sense your movement, heartbeat, breathing. introducing the sleep number bed with sleepiqtm technology. it tracks your sleep and tells you how to adjust for a good, better and an awesome night. the difference? try adjusting up or down. you'll know cuz sleep iq™ tells you. only at a sleep number store where you'll find the best buy rated mattress with sleepiq technology. know better sleep with sleep number. it could be a matter of life and death. that's not being overly dramatic. >> states of emergency. governors sound the alarm as a blizzard packing near-hurricane-force spin slams into the american northeast. the u.s. president lands in the saudi capital in just a few hours. we are live from riyadh to look at the significance of that trip. we'll get you live to poland this hour where survivors of auschwitz return to mock the 70th anniversary of the concentration camp's liberation.