Stuck going up the hill. Storm knocked out power to 645,000 customers. Rhode island has the second most outages. Frustrated flyers waking up in airports this morning. So far, airports canceled more than 5,300 flights through today. Newark liberty airport had been closed. But expecting to open this hour. So are we close to the end . Well get the latest now on the forecast. Snow totals from nbc meteorologist bill karins. Good morning to you. Good morning, alex. An amazing storm conditions. Were not done yet. All our friend up in maine are still dealing with brunt of the storm from portland to Southern New Hampshire and boston, very cold and very windy. Typically a satellite picture of the clouds that i show you during hurricanes, this one i used because it looked so impressive. And now up in the gulf of maine and dragging off to the east as we go throughout the day today. Underneath the clouds this is what radar looks like. Blue and white shows you where the snow is. The blue bands where the heaviest snow was and overnight, that set right over the top of areas of central connecticut, where we have widespread twofoot reports. 34 inches reported in hamden, connecticut. And areas of New Hampshire and maine that band sat there overnight and probably see two to three feet easy in those areas. At midnight, the last observation from logan, portland, 10 to 15 inches. A report near 24 from downtown hartford. Buffalo, 7. And were waiting for updated snow totals in areas of eastern mass, where we should see 24 to 30 inches of snow. This lived up to the forecast and the hype with the Power Outages, a long day of cleanup and winds and windchills wont help at all. Thank you for the update on that. New york city may be the city that never sleeps. Certainly quieter than usual today. A foot of snow on the ground in some parts. Joining me now is Stephanie Abrams with a smile on her face. Good morning to you, stephanie. Whats it like there . Alex, good morning. Were doing quite well in times square. The front page of the new york post. Nemo bites, snowstorm socks city. The plows have been going around. Let me show you what the streets look like. A little snow, a little slush, but plowing and on the back end of the plow trucks, salt poured out behind them. A great job in times square. Look at the sidewalks, totally fine. A lot of people know that li in new york, the mound of snow that they push to the sides of streets. Snow is over for us, people should get their sleds, bundle up, very cold out here, feels like lower 20s, go to central park and have fun. That is you, certainly someone who knows how to have fun when time warrants. We are not seeing big, massive piles on the side. Thats been a problem in some places, where has that snow gone . Or did the salt really get rid of it . I think the salt really is melting away, but alex, look behind me, a huge mound of snow right in the middle of the street. So we definitely have massive piles that will either sit there or have to be removed. They do exist around the city and some streets arent as well cleaned. When i was coming to work, really thick snow on some of the streets. Thats good. They wont lose many tourism dollars in the times square area. Open for business soon. Thank you, steph. Lets go to the city, where the snow is still falling, and will be for several more hours. In 2003, the city had a record 27. 6 inches. Will that be beat . Lets go to nbcs jay dwgray li in boston. Lets get the totals. It is still coming down. It will break records it looks like. If i was a gam lick recorbli would say well break the record. 25 inches. Did you see behind me, the public library, crews trying to work now that the sun has come out. The blowers, but it will take time to dig out of the torrential blizzard. The winter storm pounding the northeast continued to strengthen overnight into a fierce and relentless blizzard. Making matters worse, hurricaneforce winds, gusts to 75 miles an hour. Creating blinding conditions. The projected snowfall totals are staggering. Up to throw feet of snow expected in parts of new england, including boston. The storm has literally stopped most of new england in its tracks, more than 1,800 cancelations at new york area airports, 4,700 Flights Canceled nationwide. The governor of massachusetts ordered all cars off the roadway starting at 4 00. A move that made sense after this 19car pileup in maine, scattered cars across the road and into ditches. Please, please. Exercise caution and use common sense. This historic storm is the result of two converging systems colliding over the northeast. Conditions are horrible. Horrible even for veteran snow plow operators. Last year, a very mild winter. Very mild. And i guess Mother Nature is making up for last year. A powerful pump tonch to a r still recovering from superstorm sandy, which struck just over three months ago. It will take a while to dig out from this the plows out, making progress. But a really tough go right now. I dont see anybody out on the streets any time soon here. Jay gray, have you the mask up. How much is the wind coming at you . I know you get a sand facial sometimes if you are down by the beach. How does this feel . The same. In fact, last night and into Early Morning this morning, it was very rough. Hurricaneforce winds, and the snow just pounding. Were getting a break. In fact, ill take a chance here alex. Its me, see. Not as strong as it has been, but it comes in waves and when i pull the mask off, we get a burst of wind, but its coming in waves, going to continue. Blizzard warning stretched to 1 00. Well see conditions for a while yet. Listen, i appreciate you taking it off and showing us. But you can put it back up, thats okay. Doesnt look pleasant there. Byebye. Thank you so much. We talked about Power Outages, right now, nearly 37,000 without power in connecticut. Thats just so far. Whiteout conditions, left stranded motorists on the highways, and joining me now from the hartford, connecticut, capital, is mayor pedro segarra. How does it look in hartford . Really bad. Weve gotten over two feet of snow. We tried to keep up last evening, but at some points, getting 4 inches per hour. We had to suspend snow removal operations it will take a while to dig us out of this. Asking everyone to stay at home. The governor and myself locally issued driving bans and so were asking everyone to stay home. Not much further that they can get on the roads and just blocking it and making hard for us to plow. Well use the rest of the weekend and hopefully will make a dent into the storm. Yeah, you know, always worry some when you hear about emergencies. Any in hartford that cause concern . We havent heard of any in hartford. We are trying to keep a routes which provide access to hospitals open. I dont have reports of any major emergencies, other than the fact that everyone is pretty much stuck at home and we need to clean this up as soon as possible. People need to get to hospitals for therapies and just trying our best to do that. Sure. Mayor segarra, people say you get the plows out to get the roads opened first, and then you get your power crews right after that. How is the power situation in hartford . We have had minimal Power Outages, weve not been affected as those community on the connecticut coast. We have minimal Power Outages in our city, so in that respect, were faring better. Okay. Hartford, connecticut, mayor, thank you for your time on this busy day. Wish and you your constituents the best of luck. Question of the day for all of you, how are you riding out this winter storm . If you are affected by it . Sends tweets to alexwitt. Ill share responses a bit later on today. Authorities have bbut someh reason, did and some people regret making move. Well take a closer look at monitoring the nightmares in a moment in just a moment here on weekends with alex witt. All stations come over to mission a for a final go. This is for real this time. Step seven point two one two. Verify and lock. Command is locked. Five seconds. Three, two, one. Standing by for capture. The most Innovative Software on the planet. Dragon is captured. Is connecting todays leading companies to places beyond it. Siemens. Answers. [ female announcer ] some people like to pretend a flood could never happen to them. And that their Homeowners Insurance protects them. [ thunder crashes ] it doesnt. Stop pretending. Only Flood Insurance covers floods. Visit floodsmart. Gov pretend to learn your risk. Approaching quarter past the hour. The sun is up in reveer beach, massachusetts, but lock at that spectacular picture. It is dangerous, certainly, but it is beautiful as you look at those massive snow totals along the water and the shore front. People are going to take a long time to get plowed out and dig out from underneath all of the snow totals, its been falling all night there, and massachusetts is still not out of the woods yet. Many places have snow falling, expecting six inches or snow in various parts of massachusetts. Lets go to new yorks long island. Drivers struggling to get around. Many caught out in it, and you are getting a look at nearly 100 cars stranded in the snow. Many drivers just abandoned their cars. Others have reportedly been stuck inside their vehicle through the cold night. Lets get to greg cergol from wnbc, live in port jefferson. Give us an update of how it is there. Reporter alex, you talk about stranded cars. A perfect example of what weve seen this driver trying to make it into a parking lot in port jefferson, snow piled up around the vehicle, he or she just left it here. Partial until the roadway blocking traffic. Situations like this all around long island today. As you said, reports from the local police of hundreds of vehicles stranded in the snow snow. One cop told me a little while ago, the conditions are absolutely miserable. Everywhere you turn he said, cars are stuck. Even Police Vehicles that were sent out to try and help people who were stranded, they have become stuck as well. Plows, fire trucks, you name it, everyone have problems getting through. We spoke to the county executive in suffolk county, and he said while cars are standed it appears most of the drivers have been taken safely taken away safely. No injuries reported as a result of the stranding, thats good news. But the conditions persist and because so many cars are stuck in the roadway, plows cant make it through to get the snow out of the way, so its a situation that seems to have no end. Where we are here, you can see plow truck is already working mountains of snow to be out here in port jefferson, about 20 inches of snow has fallen, to the west of us in a Community Called setauket, they had 28 inches of snow. I spoke to a woman who is a member of the fdny, drove out here from new york city. Maybe 40, 45 miles. Took her four hours to get here, and and she was absolutely giddy because she made it through the minefield of blowing snow and stranned cars. Like this through much of the day. A lot of work ahead for the plows and payloaders to clear everything out of the way. Hey, greg. Im getting a look at your satellite truck there. Are you not going anywhere, any time soon. My goodness. No, we are not. You guys are stuck. Well come back and speak with you. Talk about hunkering down. Hawk about hunkering down. You are there. Are you hunkered, thats it. Were living on bottled water and some potato chips. I hope you get home in time for dinner then. Greg, thank you so much. Sure. Monitor the storms path, check the forecast in your neighborhood. All there for you on weather. Com. Lets get to some politics, a few hours, First Lady Michelle Obama will attend a funeral in chicago. Hidea pendleton, 9 5yearold honor student shot and kill just about a mile from the obamas family home. She participated in inaugural events just a week earlier. The president is warning the economy will get hit hard if automatic spending cuts scheduled for next month arent delayed. The result could be a huge blow to middle class families and our economy as a whole. If the sequester is allowed to go forward, thousands of americans who work in national security, education, or clean energy are likely to be laid off. Small businesses could be prevented from getting the resources and support they need to keep their doors open. All of our economic progress could be put at risk. Republican senator Mitch Mcconnell says he knows that the cuts will have consequences, but has faulted the president for failing to put guardian acceptable plan to replace them. Joining me now, congressional reporter for the washington post, ed okeefe and correspondent for the hill, amie parnes. Is it bad in d. C. . Not at all. Not even a snowflake. We wish we had some snow. No, i want through on time. No snow. Is the white house starting to worry it wont be able to strike a deal to reverter delay the automatic spending cuts . I think there is always a worry on the back side of their minds, but they feel president obama feels they are on the right side of the debate. Challenged republicans, egging them on, saying we know they are right on this he will go out and talk to people about it. He used an event yesterday, saying goodbye to secretary panetta to say this would be bad from the economy. I expect to see more of that coming up. The gop is willing to dig in its heels and bet the president will take the blame in the court of public opinion. Charles krauthammer says the republicans finally have leverage, they should use it. The republicans need to reiterate that the sequester was the president s idea in the first place. Do they run of risk of having this backfire . Look at the polling, republicans end up on the shortened of the stick and get the blame. Republicans in congress signed off on this deal, whether or not they were the ones that pushed for it in the end, they did agree to it and did vote for it. Blame can be passed off to both sides on this issue, certainly, republicans doing their level best to try to put the blame on the president s lap. Whether it succeeds, look, two, 2 1 2 weeks to go until the deadline. Well see if they can gin up enough interest and blame. Were back to pointing fingers on who is to blame all of this. You think the democrats are convinced they have the best political leverage now. The National Conversations are switching their way . They do they generally feel pretty upbeat when it comes to look at polling that suggests who is to blame for fiscal issues and dragging the feet. Republicans get the blame. Immigration reform and control, the ones advanced by democrats are getting support. They feel confident that things are shifting in their direction. Lets shift gears with you, amie. Chuck hagels team pushing back hard on reports that he might drop out as secretary of defense . My sense is hell be confirmed, taking a little longer, but white house is confident they have the votes to push him in. He is getting ready for the post, so i anticipate it will happen in the coming days. Ed, whats behind the Senate Armed Services committee, still not scheduling a vote . Republicans on the economy want to know how he made money in recent years. Worked with a lot of foreign outlets and hasnt disclosed that information. He says fiduciary responsibility not to get into that you need 60 to hold off a filibuster. Five republicans in the senate wouldnt support a filibuster. No cabinet nominee has ever been filibustered in the senate, not in modern times, if that were to happen, the wheels would come off in the senate, the democrats will woo get apoplectic and change the rules as punishment. Might they wait a few more days to get month information . Yes. Is chuck hagel going to lose his confirmation vote . No. And the white house isnt that worried. Lets take a look quickly at the state of the union speech with you, amie. The president will focus many remarks on the middle class. What does that mean in terms of policy proposals . I think he needs to strike a balance. You know, im hearing from democrats that he spent so much time lately talking about gun control and immigration and even climate change, that he rales needs to focus back on what he was talking about during the campaign. Why he was reelected. A significant portion of the state of the Union Address talking about what the is he is. How it would be right now and how to get it back to where it should be. The president will devote a majority of that speech to that. Okay, amie and ed, thank you so much. Stay dry up there in new york. In a moment, the blizzards impact on the economy, and the noreasters paralyzing affect on travel. [ female announcer ] want younger looking eyes that sing wow with olay, heres how. New regenerist eye and lash duo the cream smooths the look of lids. Softens the look of lines. The serum instantly thickens the look of lashes. And the award for wow eyes in just one week goes to you. With multiple lacerations to the wing and a fractured beak. Surgery was successful, but he will be in a cast until it is fully healed, possibly several months. So, if the duck isnt able to work, how will he pay for his Living Expenses . Aflac. Like his rent and car payments . Aflac. What about gas and groceries . Aflac. Cell phone . Aflac, but i doubt hell be using his phone for quite a while cause like i said, he has a fractured beak. [ male announcer ] send the aflac duck a getwell card at getwellduck. Com. At 26 past the hour, called the epicenter and that is why. The combination of high winds and snow totals. Boston crews trying to get the sidewalks cleared for those who might be out. Working on the streets as well. Governor Deval Patrick says lets take off the roads to allow plows to do their jobs, everyone. You want the Power Companies to get right in their wake and get the power restored for those of you out. 645,000 without power across new england. You know they want that repaired as soon as possible. A short break, and well be right back with nbcs ron mott in providence, where pictures are equally daunting. Stay with us on weekends with alex witt. Citracal slow release continuously releases calcium plus d with efficient absorption in one daily dose. Citracal slow release. Prego . but ive been buying ragu for years. [ thinking ] i wonder what other questionable choices ive made . [ club scene music ] [ sigh of relief ] [ male announcer ] choose taste. Choose prego. To compete on the global stage. What we need are people prepared for the careers of our new economy. By 2025