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Us 18, New York 12, Massachusetts 10, Boston 10, Connecticut 8, Alex Witt 7, Maine 7, Hartford 6, Logan 4, Portland 4, Alex 4, Superstorm Sandy 3, Aflac 3, Nbc 3, Ron Mott 3, Providence 3, New York City 3, Miami 2, Amie 2, Bill Karins 2,
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  MSNBC    Weekends With Alex Witt    News  News/Business. New.  

    February 9, 2013
    4:00 - 5:00am PST  

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so why do banks do it? hello? hello?! if your bank doesn't let you talk to a real person 24/7, you need an ally. hello? ally bank. your money needs an ally. breaking news at the top of the hour, it could be a storm of epic propositions. possibly the worst ever for parts of the northeast. some areas of the northeast getting nearly three feet of snow, and new concern for trapped drivers in abandoned cars. we have careports from connecticut, massachusetts, and gro throughout the area. video cominging in to us from new york. that is where nearly 100 cars are stuck out on the long island expressway. no word on when they will be
rescued. a car accident killed a 74-year-old pedestrian in new york state. drivers encountering standed cars across the region. >> it's the cars before they plow got stuck and now they can't plow around them and you can't pass them, that's where you getting stuck. >> a dozen or so cars, getting 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? we'll 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. we're 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 two-foot 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 we're 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 won't 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. what's it like there? >> alex, good morning. we're 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. that's 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 aren't as well cleaned. when i was coming to work, really thick snow on some of the streets. >> that's good. they won't lose many tourism dollars in the times square area. open for business soon. thank you, steph. let's 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? let's go to nbc's jay dwgray li in boston. let's get the totals. it is still coming down. it will break records it looks like. >> if i was a gam lick recorbli would say we'll 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, hurricane-force 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 19-car 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 don't 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. hurricane-force winds, and the
snow just pounding. we're getting a break. in fact, i'll take a chance here alex. it's 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 it's coming in waves, going to continue. blizzard warning stretched to 1:00. we'll see conditions for a while yet. >> listen, i appreciate you taking it off and showing us. but you can put it back up, that's okay. doesn't look pleasant there. >> bye-bye. >> thank you so much. we talked about power outages, right now, nearly 37,000 without power in connecticut. that's 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. we've 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 we're 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. we'll 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 haven't heard of any in
hartford. we are trying to keep a routes which provide access to hospitals open. i don't 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, we've not been affected as those community on the connecticut coast. we have minimal power outages in our city, so in that respect, we're 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. i'll share responses a bit later on today. authorities have been warning people not to drive during the storm. but some people, for whatever reason, did and some people regret making move. we'll 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.
. 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, it's 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. let's go to new york's 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. let's 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 we've 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, that's good news. but the conditions persist and because so many cars are stuck in the roadway, plows can't make it through to get the snow out of the way, so it's 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. i'm 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. we'll come back and speak with you. >> talk about hunkering down. hawk about hunkering down. >> you are there. are you hunkered, that's it.
>> we're 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 storm's path, check the forecast in your neighborhood. all there for you on weather.com. let's get to some politics, a few hours, first lady michelle obama will attend a funeral in chicago. hidea pendleton, 9/5-year-old honor student shot and kill just about a mile from the obama's 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 aren't 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 o'keefe 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 won't 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 good-bye 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. we'll see if they can gin up enough interest and blame. we're 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. >> let's shift gears with you, amie.
chuck hagel's team pushing back hard on reports that he might drop out as secretary of defense? >> my sense is he'll 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, what's 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 hasn't 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 wouldn't 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 isn't that worried. >> let's 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, i'm 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 re-elected. 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 blizzard's impact on the economy, and the nor'easter's paralyzing affect on travel. [ female announcer ] want younger looking eyes that sing wow with olay, here's 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.
so, if the duck isn't 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 he'll be using his phone for quite a while cause like i said, he has a fractured beak. [ male announcer ] send the aflac duck a get-well 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 let's 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 we'll be right back with nbc's 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 i've been buying ragu for years. [ thinking ] i wonder what other questionable choices i've 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 we could have 20 million jobs without enough college graduates to fill them. that's why at devry university, we're teaming up with companies like cisco to help make sure everyone is ready with the know-how we need for a new tomorrow. [ male announcer ] make sure america's ready. make sure you're ready.
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right now lease a 2013 tiguan for $219 a month. ♪ at precisely half past the hour. a spectacular picture from revere beach, massachusetts. look at the snow build up on branches, despite the howling winds. the bear blips of a flag fluttering in the wind. a beautiful coastline. they will have big troubles trying to get out from underneath all of that snow later on today when the snow plows are able to get through right along the coastline. water as well. high tides happening in three or four hours. a very close watch on that welcome back, everyone, to "weekends with alex witt." bill karins will join us with snow totals in a minute. let's go to rhode island. where meteorologists are calling for up to another half a foot of snow in the next few hours. joining me from providence, ron
mott. the winds have picked up from the last time we spoke. >> they have, alex. we thought we were on the tail end of this, but winds have picked up. flakes starting to get big again. we thought most of the snow had fallen here. went out direct until front of the statehouse, just behind the path of the camera 20 to 24 inches we think perhaps at the capit capitol. crews working all night, trying to keep arteries open downtown. there is no traffic. these streets head to the trauma centers in the area and want to keep some of the major thoroughfares open. i'm on francis street. saw someone walking their dog a few moments ago, the dog lay down in the snow and had a good frolic in the snow. a serious issue here in rhode island with power. 40%, almost 40% of customers of national grid are without power at last check, 185, 187,000
customers. a lot of folks in the dark this morning and in the cold. and it's cold out here this morning. high temperature expected only to get up to the mid 20s or some of we're about 18, 19. windchills probably single digits. winds strong. a frustrating day for a lot of folks in rhode island. up to connecticut and massachusetts as well. what they are asking folks, obviously, don't get out here if you don't need to be out here, a lot of work to do, especially for those without power, got to get the snow out of the way before power crews come in as far as ohio to help. before they can get into neighborhoods to see what they need to do to get power back on. big concern about elderly people, young children who might be cold. folks, if you have someone there with you to bundle up. keep your body heat together, a tough day for a lot of folks, alex. >> despite the look of the clear road behind you, standing right
in front of a pile of snow, where it's all been plowed. ron mott, take cover. thank you for that live report from providence. >> okay. >> bill karins has the latest snow totals for us this morning. bill, good morning. >> an amazing storm continues this hour. effects on the way into areas of new york and connecticut and portions of western massachusetts. not done yet. friends in maine dealing with the brunt of the storm from portland to southern new hampshire and boston, getting very cold, and still very windy. this is typically a satellite picture, a picture of clouds that i show you during hurricanes. i used this up with because it looked so impressive. the center, tracked south of cape cod and the gulf of maine. dragging to the east throughout the day today. underneath the clouds, this is what radar looks like. blue and white shows you where the snow is. blue bands, where heaviest snow is. and overnight. that set over the top of areas
of central connecticut where we have widespread two-foot reports, 34 inches in hamden, connecticut. a 27-inch report from long island and areas of new hampshire and maine. that band sat there overnight and two to three feet easily in those areas also. official snow forecast. at midnight, the last observation from logan and portland, where we had 10 to 15 inches. a report of 24 near downtown hartford. 8 in central park. and waiting for the updated snow totals in areas of eastern mass, where it should end up 24 to 30 inches of snow. this storm lived up to the forecast, lived up to the hype. with power outages, and a long day of cleanup. winds and windchills won't help at all. >> okay, bill karins, we'll keep a heads up. the storm is creating havoc for flyers, the airlines have canceled more than 5,000 flights before the storm began.
let's go to rehema ellis, live at laguardia airport. we were surprised to learn that the airport stayed open, despite not having flights. >> u.s. a technicality i believe, alex, because as you can imagine, have you a flight destined to take off from miami, you are not having any weather problems there, so those folks would want to know that there is an airport technically open that can receive a flight in new york. a few minutes ago, i looked out. could see snow plows clearing the runways and there are no planes at the gates from the window where i was looking. this hallway behind me is the way to terminal d, the gates to terminal d for american airlines. the gate is closed. nothing leaving or coming in from this particular area right now. very quiet here. expectations they might be able to get the airport up and
running, hopefully before the end of the day. new york's airport did not get hit with a amendment of snow that some were fearing, might be able to get things moving a lot faster than expected. some people who didn't get the word or couldn't afford to stay in a hotel slept in the airport. we have a picture of 20 people sleeping on cots. they put out 60 cots, but something only like 20 people spent the night here. one person says she was on vacation and simply ran out of money and couldn't stay in a hotel anymore, so spent the night here. >> that's one way to wind it up. definitely showing people on cots there at the airport. rehema, you mentioned someone in miami wanting to know if their flight will make it, what are the ripple effects here? do they extend nationwide? >> absolutely. this is one of the busiest airports in the country.
when things back up here, they back back up everywhere. heathrow had canceled something like 40 flights that were scheduled to come to the new york area. that did not happen. all across the country and parts of the world are impacted when things happen here it faeks people everywhere. >> okay. thank you rehema ellis, there from the airport, we appreciate it. let's switch gears, three big money headlines, blizzard edition. the storm's economic impact. guzzling gas and taking to twitter. joining me is morgan brennan. smack dab in the middle of the storm. damage assessments far from complete. but can you give us an estimate of how this might affect the economy? >> they are far from complete. we don't have to worry about the $60 billion price tag we saw associated with superstorm sandy, if previous storms from 2003 and 1996 are any indicator,
we are probably looking at costs in the low billions for the storm. a lot of ifs there, the biggest issue will be short-term crimps on demand. big box retailers will feel the affect. the airlines with 5,000 flights canceled. a lot of questions to be answered. and events like fashion week will be impacted by this. a big one for new york city. >> wow, haven't thought about that. any type of good news for a boom for certain business? >> there are winner as far as the business is concerned. home remodeling companies like home depot and lowe's will see some upparticular in consumer activity like we saw with superstorm sandy. people can't get on the airlines. this is pretty interesting. wine sales and alcohol sales tend to go up with storms like this, and ski resorts.
which have obviously seen a very dismal 2012 and were on track to have another weak year, snow on the mountains indicates more people hitting the slope s. >> gas, i went and filled my car up, and i waited 40 minutes in line and paid a pretty penny. people aren't taking chances there. >> i feel your pain, alex. we have seen gas prices at the highest levels we have ever been for early february. 30 cents higher than a month ago. and even a week ago, this is not from the blizzard two other issues that we're seeing, oil prices, which gas is tied to, is up and maintenance issues at refrr refine refineries, which crimps supplies. >> how it looks right now at new york times square in a moment. we'll go up the coast to massachusetts as well many to check in on another hard-hit area, but times square not looking too bad right now. guys out clearing the streets
and sidewalks, want to be open for business and all your tourism dollars when things get under way a couple hours from now. stay with us, you're watching "weekends with alex witt." boom. clothes look amazing, and daddy's a hero. daddy, can we play ponies? right after we do foldies. tide boost is my tide. what's yours? when you lost the thing you can't believe you lost.. when what you just bought, just broke. or when you have a little trouble a long way from home... as an american express cardmember you can expect some help. but what you might not expect, is you can get all this with a prepaid card. spends like cash. feels like membership.
how am i supposed to run a business here without an office?! [ male announcer ] fast, reliable deliveries worldwide. fedex. it's being called the epicenter of the storm. hardest hit area. lock at boston, snow totals are significant. they think they may break records. we've had our folks out there tell us they have at least 20, 21 inches so far. the record, 27.3 inches, they may get to it. b but lock at the howling winds as well. stay off the roads, they want the snow plows to get through, clear it, and get power companies right in the wake as soon as they can. welcome back to "weekends with alex witt." joining us from another hard-hit area from seabrook, connecticut, is amanda rouse. what is that? a snow blower? >> reporter: yes, alex.
we have a snow blower, people tossing the shovels and going for the snow blower, over my shoulder here. a good two feet of snow that snow blower has to go through. you can see is it it struggling a bit. not only the light, fluffy snow we're having now. underneath, a heavier snow and a layer of ice, last night, we saw freezing rain and sleet really just pound this area, and, of course, it's going to be a lot to clean up, we did have flows just down the street a little bit ago. but they actually left, because they were spinning out, you could hear their tires going round and round. sometimes d.o.t. crew has to go and pick out shovels and shovel out areas so they could maneuver the truck. another thing that people will have to watch out for here, see all the cars? this is what people will wake up to. some of the cars have been here for the duration of the storm,
it's not just new snow they have to clear off, we're at the old saybrook inn. this looks to be two feet here, a little bit deeper in some areas, just watching where you step. but it's just going to be a very, very hard time to clean up, and it's going to take a lot of time, alex, back to you. >> i bet it's going to. amanda, with regard to the snow blower, that's the only one around? if so, that guy is going to be working for hours? >> reporter: well, here is the thing. they brought out the snow blower, but i know for a fact that this hotel does have a plow. it does have a -- like a ford pickup truck typestyle that has a plow on it, and they were using that last night. so i'm hoping that it's not just the snow blower, because if that's the case, our truck is never getting out of here tonight. >> so you are in old saybrook, outside of your hotel is that as far as you could get today to make a live shot. you could not get further?
>> reporter: that's true. we parked it here last night. and here until 11:30, went into the hotel, waking this up morning at 5:00 and coming back out here. the people at the hotel were laughing as me as i was struggling to get out the door, because the steps were all covered with snow, thankfully one person with a little more muscle than i did, forced it up, and it was just probably -- i would say probably about ten feet we had to walk in. another good thing, thank goodness my photographer took pity on me and he took the shovel and cleared out the truck and didn't make me do it this morning. >> they are usually very gentlemanly. with regard to power outages, more than 36,000 folks are out in connecticut. do you see evidence of that in old saybrook. are there lice ghts on? >> old saybrook is not one of the places in connecticut that are being hit.
the totals have increased to 37,000 now. that's with connecticut light & power, ui had just under 200. which isn't bad. they serve a little less of the population in connecticut. some of the towns are really shoreline towns that we're seeing major outages. here in old saybrook, doing pretty well. >> amanda, thank you very much. we appreciate that. let's go to boston. the meteorologist jim cantore there. always where the worst situations are. are you in copley square? >> right across from the fairmont here. official, 21.8 inches at boston's logan airport, the observation as of 7:00 a.m. this morning. still snowing, but that certainly puts this one into the record books, a top ten storm now in boston at logan, probably got easily 20 inches here. shoes on, we'll go for a little walk, because it's deep.
it's deep. i brought the shoes with me on this one, alex. that means i plan on dealing with some big snow here, but, you know, as i'm going out to the park here, you can see the wind picking up, and even though the intensity has come down a little bit, everybody -- we have the plows out here, clearing off church stairways, church parking lots, waiting for us to leave so that they can get in through here, these winds are just howling through the building s t the present time. hats off to the city boston. they have kept up with this thing. the reason for that, the governor stating the other day, look, i want everybody off the roads. friday at noon. i'm going to shut down the t. and once they did that, they could keep up with the snow on the major thoroughfares. i think boston will have a very good chance of getting up and running. that said, we have 400-plus without power in the state of massachusetts alone.
650-plus, new england wide. new york wide. so we've got a long way to go because they're going to have to remove the snow, alex, before they can actually get in to repair the poles and lines. back to you. >> our most intrepid weather channel correspondent jim cantore. with the snowshoes. that's the only way to get around there. thank you, jim. best of luck riding it out. >> you got it. in just a moment, a big political storm brewing. stay with us. [ man ] ring ring... progresso this reduced sodium soup says it may help lower cholesterol, how does it work? you just have to eat it as part of your heart healthy diet. step 1. eat the soup. all those veggies and beans, that's what may help lower your cholesterol and -- well that's easy [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup.
welcome back to "weekends with alex witt," everyone. take a look at storm tracker. that white, that means snow. and heavy bands of snow with the red and the green. we are in the clear so far according to bill karins in new york city. and the whole area up the hudson river valley. look at revere beach, massachusetts. that is not out of the woods yet. lots of winds driving winds still. you can see the bay outlet.
we'll bring you snow totals here on msnbc. but let's now get to the game of chicken which is developing in washington over budget cuts. they're known of course as the sequester. as republicans and democrats each wait for the other side to blink first. this morning, the president used his radio address to warn that the cuts will deal a huge blow to the middle class. but senator mitch mcconnell said we know the president's requester will have consequences. joining me now, nancy cook correspondent for the national journal. good morning to you, nancy. >> good morning. >> so, we've gotten so familiar to the up to the minute deals. the fiscal cliff, you remember that. do you expect that to happen again? or is there a chance there's not go tyke deal and the sequester will not take effect? >> i think there there be a lot of political talks the next few
weeks and average americans and what the cuts will mean but i do think we'll go past of the march 1 deadline and those cuts will go into effect not for rest of the year, but probably for a few weeks. but it does seem they will go in effect because the two sides are so far apart. >> and nancy, what happens if they do go into effect? what's the effect to the economy? >> well, that's the biggest concern at this point. the white house yesterday put out a briefing and a memo who talked about how the cuts will affect everyday people. it's going to affect everything from cuts to fbi personnel to cuts to food safety inspection. headstart, preschool programs. but the biggest concern, of course, as well, it will have a drag on the economy. the congressional budget office which is like the official budget score keeper of washington, put out a new budget outlook for 2013 this week. and it really talked about how, yes, the economy is recovering.
housing prices are slowly going up. but the economy is still really are fragile. unemployment remains really high. and anything that puts a drag on the economy, including spending consults at this point say concern. >> but you can help me out here because here's some irony. the sequester was described to be so awful that congress would have to prevent it. but the national review reports, that would be willing despite their concerns over the cuts to defense spending. i think that's actually the preferred position, according to tom cole from oklahoma. how did this sequester go from something as the worst in the word to something that republicans would prefer to see happen? >> well, the thing about the sequester, both parties voted for. so everyone agreed to it. and it's a policy that everyone got behind. but i think republicans have changed their tune about sequester. republicans have been
reputationwise, more hawks about it. the republicans have changed their tune a little bit. they feel like it's part of the fiscal cliff deal. they did not get the spending cuts that they want. did they not get chicaany chang the federal health programs. they say, well, if this is the way to get spending cut and tackle the deficit immediately, we're willing to and see what is happening. >> thank you, nancy. that's a wrap at this hour. of "weekends with alex witt." join me for a two-hour edition of the show at noon eastern. but straight ahead, more political talk with "up with chris hayes." among his special guests, gloria steinem and marlo thomas. stay with us. our financial advice is geared specifically to current and former military members and their families. [ laughs ] dad! dad! [ applause ] [ male announcer ] life brings obstacles. usaa brings retirement advice. call or visit us online. we're ready to help.

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