Nor the mayor second guessing those calls today. I dont know this wasnt the more prudent course of action in any event because at the end of the day, it may actually have brought us back to full operating capacity sooner. Would you rather be ahead of the action or behind . Would you rather be prepared or unprepared . Would you rather be safe or unsafe . And neither rain nor snow nor sleet nor hail is supposed to stop the postmen but apparently it will today in new england. No delivers in massachusetts, connecticut or rhode island. We have reporters in those places though throughout the northeast, massachusetts, lets start in boston with Chris Pallone who only slept maybe two or three hours last night. Snow Power Outages, still happening there, are people venturing out or are they still hunkering down indoors chris . Yeah craig, its pretty funny. Boston common where im standing right now has been a virtual ghost town as has the rest of boston. You have the one stragleer to decide to Cross Country ski to work or needed to walk the dog, but we really saw nobody for most of the morning today. In the last half our or so people have gone stir crazy. I want to show you some of the common behind me. Look at what weve got. In my eyesight here i dont see too many people but there are a few dog walkers out there. Just down a little bit further down beacon street i can see a bunch of kids playing on sleds. Ive seen people with snowshoes and person with a snowboard a couple of minutes ago. They are starting to come out to Boston Common a little bit to get out of the house to use whatever they got for christmas maybe, but a few people on the streets now but its not crowded and not a normal tuesday by any stretch of the imagination. Chris describe the snow for me as its falling right now and how much do you think that youve got on the ground where you are there on the common . The last official number i had heard from the National Weather service was a foot and a half. This is a good couple of hours ago. I will say, just every time that i thought that the that it was starting to sub side a little bit, another band would kickback up. Its still snowing pretty good right now. Weve obviously crossed the 20inch threshold here in boston. You dont have to go very far from here go up 20 miles for closer to 30 inches of snow. Chris pallone for us from boston. We will come back to you in just a bit. Normally busy highways in new england. Pretty empty as crews do their work the task not even safe for the few braves those brave plow drivers who do it. This one stuck in a ditch along i95, just got this video in a short time ago. Rerehema ellis heading for massachusetts into rhode island. Rehema, ive been following your reports here for the past 24 hours or so. How is it looking out there right now versus how it is looking this time 16 hours or so ago . Reporter craig, its amazing. You could drive and not be worried about the pavement or what was below or be neej your tires, now the roads are a mess. Theres a reason why the travel ban is in effect. You talk about the snow plow driver we saw a short while ago stuck in a ditch. Clear for the rest of us. I talked to a state trooper about this a little while ago. Listen to what he had to say. Are people obeying the travel ban . They are, very good out here. Very few people on the road. Reporter as you can see its not an easy job. Its not. Reporter surprised this happened . A little bit. Usually do a pretty good job but when he did go off the road couldnt see, it was a little difficult for him. Wasnt his fault. Very difficult job. Reporter these are seasoned drivers. Hes been on for 20 plus years so reporter so if a guy out here whos an experienced snow plow driver finds himself in a ditch, you know it means that its pretty rough going out here for anyone. Thats why if youre out here like we are trying to keep an eye on what is going on to report back to everyone else weve got to take our time and be careful and thats exactly what were doing, craig. The roads really are a mess. Are you heading into rhode island now or are you there yet . Reporter we are about 30 minutes or so outside of rhode island outside of providence. Thats our destination. We understand that theyve gotten pretty significant snowfalls there. We want to go check out whats happening in that community. We want to get a sense of what the roads are like and how things are how people are holding up there. Were going to check in with folks along the way as we make our way into rhode island and more specifically into the providence area. Rehema ellis on 95 seems to be literally the only car on that stretch of 95. Be safe my friend and well check in with you later as well. While the blizzard decided to mostly skip new york city by and large, this storm was a tale of two new yorks, the storm absolutely slammed new yorks long island covering parts of long island in up to a foot of snow. Im joined now from plain view adam reiss. A lot of commuters on long island. It would seem as if most folks based on what ive seen so far decided to stay home today is that accurate . Reporter so far, craig, they are staying home. In the last hour i would tell you that conditions have changed dramatically. They have improved dramatically. No snow. No wind. Were actually seeing some sun here but this is whats next. Were going to have to contend with these snow drifts and plows that have pushed the snow over to the side. Behind me the long island expressway they usually call it the biggest parking lot in the country, is still pretty much desolate a bit of a ghost town. People staying home. We want to report last night a 17yearold boy here in hunting ton died when he was sledding in an intertube. They were taking turns and when he got on it going down the hill he hit a light pole and he was killed. But for now, officials are saying stay home stay safe. Stay warm. They are concerned about power lines coming down and trees coming down. Weve seen a lot of power trucks coming through with the snow plows coming through here on the l. I. E. Its still a bit of a ghost town. People are heeding the governors call and staying staying home. New york city Public Schools open tomorrow Long Island Railroad back online although operating on a limited schedule. Some flights resuming here in new york city as well. Nowhere near as busy as they usually are. Many passengers stranded. Some had to spend the night at laguardia. Im joined by nbcs luke russert. Luke, ive been watching you and understand youve talked to some of these stranded paengss. How are they holding up . What are they doing . How are they passing time there at laguardia . Reporter kind of the same way the media is passing the time, craig, sitting in the cav cafeteria and looking at their phones and enjoying the one coffee place thats open and lunch place. Ive got to tell you, theres been criticism of the governor and mayor de blasio for preemptively closing the roads and shutting down the subway saying that that was too much for too little of a storm. But, when the airlines started canceling flights last night, that really did allow for a lot of people to check into a hotel or alter their travel plans. So thankfully we didnt see these horrific scenes that usually accompany a blizzard of this magnitude where you have people sprauled out on cots not enough food or chargers. All of that being said for the 70 or so that spent the night, not too pleasant. Take a listen to what they had to tell me. Did you spend the night here . I did. Reporter how did that go . Fairly well. You know just made it work. Reporter do they give you a cot or anything . No no they said there was some but i didnt see any available, i just chilled in a chair. Reporter did you spend the night last night . Yes. Reporter how did that go . Very bad. I want to go home. Im tired. Reporter good for those folks, craig, it looks like the flights should be resuming by about tomorrow morning or tomorrow afternoon. The weather is Getting Better around here but one of the byproducts of that preemptive shutdown all of the necessary personnel at the airport, they are just trickling in. They are not here tsa agents and counter agents and folks in the cafeterias and make the deicing on the planes. They all have to come in here and use the subways and roads. As they trickle in there should be enough manpower to get laguardia back up to snuff. Probably not until mid morning tomorrow or tomorrow afternoon until we see this resume fair amount of service. Luke, really quickly. You mentioned the planes. At this point do we know when those planes are going to be brought back to laguardia . A lot were scattered today yesterday ahead of the storm. They got them out of the airport to protect the planes themselves. Any word on a timetable there . Reporter we think there should be a few tonight. Thats what their goal is but i really honestly think not until tomorrow morning for planes tore back and and tomorrow afternoon before you see a decent amount of traffic come through here. Luke, well let you get back to the cafeteria. High above seaside heights, this is a live look. You can see the coast there, the new jersey coast, blanketed. And you can also see highways and streets that look by and large from this vantage point, a lot of those streets, major thoroughfares appear to be relatively clear. Domenica davis is standing by and well talk about how much longer the storm is going to last. Is it a matter of hours at this point or going to be longer than that . It is definitely going to be longer than hours. They are still under the blizzard warning. Still from providence all the way up into maine they are looking at blizzard warnings that will go until tonight. The snow will continue into tomorrow as well. Conditions will be improving by this evening but they still have a ways to go with the storm and we are seeing more Power Outages now in the massachusetts area especially the closer you get to the cape. Its not bad out here in new york. Were improving certainly. I would say further south down i95 youll improve. Its the northern half where the storm is really deepened and now just stalling to the south of cape cod as predicted. They are still getting heavy snow bands and that is going to continue through the duration of the afternoon. All right, theres a look at the Snowfall Forecast there once again. Doxenica davis where it looks to be pretty nice day here at 30 rockefeller. Coming up well talk about this idea that forecasters and perhaps computers got this forecast wrong. Well talk about that as the storm continues its way through new england. Ill talk to the mayor of danbury, connecticut, they received more than a foot of snow so far. As we head to break, im going to show you these pictures pictures of some flooding in nantucket. Thats going to be a major story for a lot of coastal communities as well over the next days. This is a picture that was posted on twitter by the local Police Department there in nantucket, show being the coastal areas of massachusetts really taking a hit. Were just Getting Started here. Stay with us. This is msnbc. Eastern connecticut is still receiving and continued snowfall. The 385 area is the hardest hit. The high winds will remain along the coast but coastal Flood Warning has been lifted. That was dan malloy this morning saying parts of the state have been walloped up to 28 inches. He did lift the statewide travel ban but the snow continues to fall in much of connecticut. At this point it is not clear when things are going to get back to normal entirely of the danbury mayor Mark Boughton joins us by phone. There were only 15 traffic accidents statewide, 1500 people in connecticut without power right now. Far lower than what they were expecting. Safe to say that the nutmeg state also dodged a bullet . I think well survive the latest apocalypse. Were in good shape but in cleanup mode hopefully get schools open tomorrow. Are folks off the roads there by and large in danbury as well . They were great. We just lifted the travel ban literally about an hour or so ago. Leading up to that never seen such cooperation, real sense of community and people pulled together and the men and women in hur Public Works Department worked their tails off. Very proud of all of them. Getting any criticism you went too far . A little bit of that. We did get a decent amount of snow and a lot of blowing. People figured there wasnt going to be a lot happening in the morning. This was a real miss in new york city and thats something thats going to generate a lot of discussion. But boston is getting pounded and eastern connecticut is getting pounded. Weve got enough here to keep our folks busy all day. You think by and large danbury and most of connecticut will be operating as usual tomorrow . No doubt well be open for business. You tweeted out a photo from your office this morning. Which one . We follow your twitter account very closely. Our team of producers love to follow your tweets. This is a view from ice station zebra, your office. Whats the back story there . Nothing at all, i try to keep myself entertained and good nature joking around at the end of the day, this is the way i engage the public and get them to register to vote and finding out whats going on in their local government. Its all in good fun. And people seem to respond really well to it. Thank you so much for the update. Good luck in your town as well. Thanks all the best. Travel bans have been lifted in new Jersey New York city area, other parts of new england as well although the travel ban still very much in effect in rhode island were told. Cars heading back to the snowy slushy roads and that means aaa is getting ready. John nielsen joins me by phone. Talk to me about the condition of the roads there in massachusetts and what you folks are telling drivers. Well really in the metropolitan eastern side of the state, theres still a lot of snow coming and we expect more. As we look to the western side of the state, the travel ban has been lifted in several counties and things seem to be a little bit better there. The key message is that you should stay off the roads until the all clear is given. Heres another part of the story i would think. Once the snow does finally stop the winds die down. Youve got a lot of snow on the roads there and temperatures expected to remain below freezing for a while. All of this or much of this turns to ice correct . If we get that temperature up to 33 or 34 degrees and little bit of it melts and go back below freezing thats when the roads really get treacherous. As long as we stay below freezing, nothing is going to thaw and we should be all right. Watch yourself for any runoff on the back roads but the key thing is the first time we get a little above that temperature and get that fresh water on the roadway, it will freeze up on us. John nielsen, thanks for your time. We want to get to breaking news Senior Defense officials telling nbc news that Bowe Bergdahl will be charged with desertion. Those charges are based on allegations that he abandoned his post in 2009 to avoid hazardous duty or important service. Bergdahl held captive by enemy forces in afghanistan for five years. He was released in may of last year. We are expecting to learn a little bit more about the charges and circumstances surrounding those charges coming up at 2 00 eastern. There will be a briefing from the pentagon when that happens, well bring it to you live in the 2 00 hour. A new isis video says two hostages being held by Islamic State have less than 24 hours to live now. That video apparently shows japanese hostage kenji goto holding a photograph of a jordanian military pilot. The recording demands the release of an iraqi woman sentenced to death in jordan for her involvement in the 2005 terror attack. President obama has left saudi arabia after paying respects following the death of king abdullah. He defended the United States willingness to cooperate with saudi arabia. Saudi arabia is one of washingtons most important arab allies. Just ahead here an often forgotten element of major snowstorms. What happens to the thousands of Homeless People who live on the streets in our reporter went along for a ride with the coalition for homeless. Shes going to tell us whats being done to help them after the break. These are some pictures of the some of the thousands of homeless stranded in the storm. While new york city may not have been slammed the way it was expected. It was still a very rough night for the citys 60,000 who do not have a place to live. They went out for the coalition for the homeless handing out foods and other things as well. Tell us about the experience last night. What was it like . Well as you said i went out with coalition for homeless a privately funded advocacy and direct service organization. They were kinds enough to let me ride along in the feeding van. Every night they send out three vans to Lower Manhattan and the bronx and they deliver about 200 meals typically. Last night because they were anticipating a bunch of people would have gone indoors, they had about 100 meals. We gave all of it away. What we found were a good deal of people still on the streets who dont like shelters. Why not . Weve heard various accounts. One man said that the whole system was corrupt. Another man said that shelters were for people who were slow. Theres definitely a stigma associated with staying in shelters and thats how you get these dozens of people on the street even in unprecedented storms. The folks who braved it last night, the home lesson the streets. Where did they sleep . Where did they take shelter . Some people sleep on trains i dont know if they were aware the subway system would be shut down. They prefer the trains to shelters and others were out. I asked one woman, she was 61 are you getting to a warm place tonight . And pointed to her snow suit and said, no im fine im just staying out tonight. So theyve done it before. New york city has seen bad weather and Paul Fitzgerald who was driving us around he knew a bunch of these people for years. One man had no shoes, had bags for shoes and said he had been there since he joined the organization. Clearly they know how to survive on the streets and in a lot of cases they prefer it to shelters. Thanks so much for stopping by to share that story with us. While the storm is hitting in new england theres another place the blizzard has had major influence. As you might imagine, folks who dont have to go to school or work they tweet. They instagram, mike i