All right. So thats going to do it for this edition of way too early. Morning joe begins right now. Mother nature has decided
once again to come visit us. This is potentially a dangerous storm with significant accumulation of know. This is going to be a significant storm. It is going toby all indications worse and people have to be ready. 52 Million People are in the path of this noreaster. On parts of the Atlantic Coast this will feel just like a winter hurricane. The blizzard began blasting new york this afternoon. Got everything shut down here in boston. Everyone is urged to stay off the streets. Looks like three to four inch inches an hour. Its coming down fast. Seven states at this hour. Look at the mass exodus tonight. For the first time that anyone can remember new york city subways closing down for the snowstorm. Central park is closed. The last time that happened was hurricane sandy. Disruption rippled through the americas Aviation System ahead of the blizzard. Look at this. This is Laguardia Airport. Its essentially a ghost town tonight. It may be wednesday before the nations Airlines Even attempt to put all their planes back in
the air. Grocery store shelves are going empty. I dont know why the rush on bread, but what a heck. A lot more bread, im sure youre able to get it. Only time will tell. Reporting live from nassau county. I dont know what just happened there. New yorkers should go home and hunker down and wait to see the prediction of this terrible heavy storm. Take precautions. Be careful. A lot ahead of us. As ten of millions of people along the east coast have hunkered down for a storm, that was supposed to be the storm of a century, a storm that forecasters originally said could bring one to three feet of snow and punishing Hurricane Force winds. But the Associated Press is reporting that theyve downgraded most of those numbers saying new england still could fair the worst, but even not as
bad as expected. The blizzard warning has been lifted for new york city. Its been replaced by a winter storm warning for new york. So at least new york city faired much, much better than expected. But, mika the storm still moves up the coast. A couple hours to go yet, joe. Lets get right to where things stand at this hour with the potentially historic blizzard that has virtually shut down the northeast in the United States. Eight states are now in a state of emergency as the brunt of the storm moved in overnight. But moments ago, a blizzard warning was lifted for new york city, as joe mentioned. Earlier forecasts called for up to three feet of snow in parts of connecticut, massachusetts, and new york. The numbers have now been downgraded and parts of new england are now expected to see the worse, about two feet of snow and major snowdrifts. Wind gusts are already topped 70 miles an hour in nantucket. Right now there are 60 million
people under a Winter Weather alert and 30 Million People facing blizzard condition. Thousands are in the dark after losing power during the storm, including nearly 6,000 in massachusetts. Weve got a live look right now at new york city. Its one of the many places that is virtually a ghost town after transit shut down and nonemergency vehicles have been ordered off the roads just as a precaution. Why dont we head back into the msnbc Weather Center where bill karins has literally been camped out for the past 24 hours tracking this storm. The predictions have changed. It was somewhat difficult for forecasters to track. Weve got different snow levels coming in right now. And bill has the very very latest. Where do we stand . We stand now still dealing were blizzard in areas of eastern massachusetts and connecticut. Extreme eastern long island. But the storm end up being about 25 to maybe 50 miles further to the east. Okay. If we look at the map, the heavy band of snow is the edge
of it was supposed to be somewhere right down the Hudson Valley just to the west side of new york city. Instead of being where it was with the storm being 25 to 50 miles a little further offshore than expected the heaviest axis of the snow is through central new england and central long island. Philadelphia had hardly any snow. New york city, eight to ten inches when were all said and done. In areas of eastern you can get eight to ten inches in new york city, the twin forks probably close to 30 i rememberes of snow. Thats only 50 miles. Thats how difficult the forecast was on the western edge. Thats where new york city fell. Bus potential was high in philly, new york, and harlttford. Those areas did bust. If youre waking up along the eastern seaboard boston to maine, what can you still expect if. This picture, still incredible the storm is as strong as was expected. The caveat was that it was 50 miles further to the east out to sea than expected. With those blizzard warnings
dropped in new york city 10 Million People there and portions of the lower Hudson Valley, the blizzard warning is 30 million, chopped in half mostly because of the new york city area. Still blizzard warnings continue. All of connecticut, rhode island, eastern mass and coastal maine. We still have that heavy band of snow. Were still getting areas two to three inches. Another thing, the storms dynamics may not have been quite as impressive as advertised. I didnt hear a lot of reports of thunder snow. There wasnt wide spread reports of lightning and the thunder where you get the three to four inches in a hurry. The area of greatest concern right now and this is where i thought the heavy band was going to set up right through this area the lull new london back to boston. You can see where that darker blue is. Thats where a band is set up. It hasnt been moving. Extends down towards the twin forks. That area has the best chance to get the two feet of snow. By the time were all said and done we could get fourfoot
snowdrifts. Heres the wind gust map. Again, what is now over providence newport, boston providence flew the islands, expected to be towards central long island in connecticut, also took the greatest winds and shifted them to the east too. Its still a fullblown blizzard in areas of boston all day today. Providence down through the cape, the islands and near providence. Well be following Power Outages and part of this story as they prepare for a storm this big, the airports in new york shut down. The subway stopped at 11 00 p. M. Ive never heard of that before due to snow. I remember getting here and the blizzard where we had 27 inches of snow. I got from brooklyn here on the subways back then. Not happening now for you, bill. Weve got the storm covered on multiple fronts, from willie on the plaza to hard hit long island boston, massachusetts, and maine. And new yorks always busy airports that are essentially shut down. John yang starts us off live from portland, maine, where the snow is coming downside ways. John, tell us what youve got there. Reporter youve got it, mika. Coming downside ways. This wind picked up p the snow is coming down more heavily than it has been before. Were in the teeth of the storm as meteorologist todd gutner at here station here in portland has tweeted out. The snow is falling in a rate of more than two inches an hour. Its forecast to keep up that pace all during the Daylight Hours today. And before it begins to taper off later tonight and end sometime tomorrow. They say the total accumulation should be around upwards of 18 inches. Maine has now governor paula page of maine has declared a state of emergency. I think state of ver metropolitan has not declared an emergency. Parking is banned throughout much of this area to wednesday
to let the snowplows get through. Schools are closed. Government offices are closed. And this is the sort of the teeth of it the worst of it. Now beginning to set in in southeastern maine. Mika . All right. Nbcs john yang in portland, maine. Take it easy. Well check back in with you. Snow total, update before we get to willie . I just updated the snowfall total. Storm total, not what is expected to continue. New york city has seven inches of snow. Its going to end up eight to 12. Maybe one to three inches in new york city at most. Hartford, maybe another four inches if were lucky. Hartford total another bust city, 812. Where john was located, providence to cape to boston still expecting two feet of snow to occur. Three feet that we thought was maybe possible im still not
going to write it off until the storm is gone. Joe, what were also looking at with the wind and the snow is somewhat light, huge gusts and drifts developing in some parts of the country. Take it away. All right. Thanks so much. Lets go to willie geist right now. Willie in the middle of new york city. Willie, i saw some tweets last night that millions and millions of new yorkers were horrified that they were going to be facing the possibility of not having Internet Service and actually having to talk to their families. Even that appears to be a crisis averted. But new york city looks, still, even though the blizzard warning has been lifted new york city still looks like it hasnt looked rarely probably in your lifetime or many other lifetimes, practically deserted. Yeah joe, its crazy. I mean i think a lot of us woke up expecting to see these twofoot mountains of snow outside our door when we walked outside. That obviously didnt happen. Its windy and its cold but, as
bill pointed out, only about seven inches of snow and some people thought it was going to be two feet of snow. To your point, as of 11 00 last night, there was no getting in or out of this city. The Port Authority closed all the bridges and tunnels getting on to the island of manhattan. Subways shut down. The buses shut down. I actually like a lot of people who work here at nbc came in a little closer to 30 rock last night and stayed in a hotel in anticipation of not being able to get here from my home. That wasnt the problem. We didnt know that then. I took one of the last subways down here right before they shut it down at 11 00. As you point out, it was like nothing ive seen before. It was an empty subway car. The platform probably had two or three people on it. People really cleared out of this city. As i got off the subway walking towards my hotel i took a few pictures and one of the most remarkable things i saw was looking all of the way down park avenue. There was nothing. There were no cars. There were no people. There was snow on the street. And as i think i pointed out, you could have played snow football up and down park avenue
if you wanted to. Its up with of these things when we look back in hindsight you can say, well, some people will call this storm a did in new york city. Seven inches is not nothing. But still definitely not the storm that we expected. All right willie geist, thanks very much. Before we go to our next live report the key concerns here though up and down new england are power out ans. They still are. Wind gusts 60 to 70 Miles Per Hour. We thought we could get couple hundred thousand people without power. Because we took out of the the equation of new york city area and long island we havent had the strong wind gusts. And the problem in past years we were very worried about that because that goes down quickly. They havent seen the really high gusts like they have in eastern mass. As far as Power Outages. If were going the get a wide spread area its going to be out on the cape in the boston area up towards coastal maine. Those areas are Battle Tested. Those areas get huge storms all the time. They can fair better than most areas can. So the Power Outages we have
thousands of crews lined up ready to run into these places. Maybe the people that do lose it because theres not as many, theyll get it back faster. You mentioned long island why dont we go there first. Adam, how concerned are officials there with power out amgs, wide spread ones . They are concerned. Mika, 22 hours weve been going here, continuous snowfall the, continues to come down. Just take a look here. Its flaky but its getting thicker. And i want you to take a look mika. This is a long island expressway. Governor cuomo issued a complete travel ban last night about 11 00. Usually this is packed with cars. They call it the nations biggest parking lot. Completely empty, deserted. Its like a ghost town here. We do expect power out ans, trees down power lines down. We have the National Guard out in force. There are 750 units plowing. There are 650 National Guard units. If you dont have to go outside
today, stay home. Stay warm. Have a hot cocoa. Mika, its continuing to come down. Its pretty bad. Winds are shifting. So were just going to have to wait this out at least several more hours here on long island. Possibly through this afternoon. Mika . All right adam well be watching for that power outage story as well. You can see where he is its not that windy. Maine looks bad. Maine and then all the people we have going in plymouth area. Thats much worse than what long island is dealing with. Theyre still not out of the woods, new england, boston to maine. It will be all day. People need to stay off the roads all day up there. Major cities across the northeast are paralyzed this morning after officials preemptively took action hours before the storm. Tomorrow appears to be the best Case Scenario for many Airline Passengers after more than 7500 flights in and out of the region were canceled for today. Airline Officials Say virtually
no activities is expected in major hubs including kennedy and Laguardia Airports in new york and Logan Airport in boston. Public transit shut down across the east coast. The subways here in new york city. These hard to believe images from the big apple show empty subway cars in the city that never sleeps. But its now at a stand still. Trains are also not running in boston and throughout connecticut and new jersey. Roads are deserted following travel bans in several states. Only emergency vehicling are currently allowed out. Drivers who ignored the ban in new york may face a 300 fine. And it is no joke to have people strachbded on edstranded on the highway. Weve gone through that before. It is it is frightening how quickly a simple trip to the supermarket can wind up being
very dangerous. Weve learned the lesson the hard way. I would rather err on the side of caution. In this situation, i dont even think its a close call because if you spend any time on the roads or you look out the window you understand how difficult the situation is and it hasnt even started yet. Had no choice bill but to make these no. The storm shifted 25 to 50 miles to the east. What if the storm had shifted 25 or 50 miles to the west than what was expected which was possible which is a lot of computer guidance was suggesting. One of our more computers were telling us 30 inches for new york city. How are you supposed to completely ignore that threat. You know i said 16 to 20. I kind of hedged it a little bit. I was nervous going higher than that. I heard you. And then it ended up busting lower than that. If the storm had shifted 25 to 30 miles the other way, we would be in what you just saw in
portland, maine, or the cape. Then people are trapped on the highways and then its a rescue situation and then its even worse because then its always better to have it not as bad as expected as compared to worse than expected. It is fine with me. There are still parts of the country up in new england that are not out of the woods. Squloe joe, take us to massachusetts. I will in a second. I want to go back to bill karins. I remember being caught on the road the day after christmas probably three years ago when we were going to the family was going to be flying out. And i could that was a blizzard whose intensity shocked a lot of people. There were a lot of people caught out on the road. I was on the long island expressway. Zero visibility. Cars crashing left and right. It was a chaotic scene. If you have a storm like this lets say in the upper midwest that catches people by surprise that is very dangerous. But you add 15 16 Million People to the mix, it gets much more difficult. And, bill this is predicting
this is much like predicting hurricanes. Yes, sometimes the hurricane projections are not correct. But we learned in florida, you listen when they warn because, you know sometimes its right. And when its right, its deadly. In this case like you said with new york city were just talking a difference between 30 40 50 miles making a difference between this entire city being absolutely shut down. Uhhuh. And how about poor mayor de blasio . First he deals with the storm where al roker criticized for him for not being aggressive enough and having the kids go to school buzz that storm was a little bit worse than expected and now he gets this storm and prepares for this storm and everybody does it and this storm, underprepares. Probably be mad for him for that, too. He cant win. He cant lately. Were going to get to the politics of storm cover ran and storm preps with steve ratner who trudged in in the snow in just a few minutes. Joe . Lets bring in right now whdh
reporter victoria warren. Shes live from millford massachusetts. Victoria, i understand millford were talking about dodging the bullet here. I see that mil ford is expected to get hit the hardest in massachusetts. No such luck for you in milford. No such luck. Trust me i wouldnt be complaining if we did dodge a bullet on this one. Youve been talking about than tense snow band of the two to three inches of snow an hour. Thats pretty much what were in right now. Factor in the wind and its literally like shards of glass just smacking you in the face. Im going to show you a little bit of these whiteout conditions that weve been talking about. We do have the travel ban for nonessential folks, not allowed to be out on the roadway. Pretty much weve just seen emergency workers. Weve seen plow trucks. Really this is why this visibility, this is what were talking about, you know. You factor in the wind and the snow falling at this rate and
you really cant see where youre going. You come to a red light. Maybe you get to stop. Maybe you slide on through. Those are the kind of dangerous situ