But first we begin with the lows I guess with weather temperatures you've got this massive storm already hit parts of the US more than 75 million Americans are on a winter weather alert and you've got these threats now of heavy snow high winds and dangerously low temperatures that's right the storm is actually stretching the entire width of the.
Continental U.S as far west as California and as far east as Maine forecasters predict the Upper Midwest will bear the brunt of the severe winter weather the Minneapolis area could get more than 20 inches of snow today and more than two feet in total over the coming days yep and that could cause a travel glitch hundreds of flights in and.
Out of the Minneapolis Saint Paul Airport they've already been canceled today and those cancellations are impacting thousands of people including this young mother I was supposed to go get my daughter in Dallas today and we drove from Grand Rapids and because of the weather it took us seven and a half hours they told.
Me that they can't give me a voucher to get a hotel or anything like that or food for my son so we're kind of just stuck here joining us now for my very chilly Minneapolis the CBS News correspondent Christina raffini taking one for the team Christina uh good to be talking with you forecasters are saying that.
Minneapolis there may see more snow over the coming days than it has seen in three decades tell us what it's like right now so far it's been freezing uh but drivable this is the result of one of the 800 snow plows that are out about I'm gonna try to get down off this snow without embarrassing myself on live.
Television mission accomplished um look this is a region that's used to snow right so so far this is just winter but people are actually taking These Warnings seriously and one of the reasons is what you said this could be the most snow they've seen in decades the last time they got 17 inches in a matter of 24 hours it actually collapsed.
The roof of a stadium around here so people are preparing we talked to people when I was flying in here I was talking people on the airplane they were getting right from the airport to the stores to do their shopping and hunker down the roads are passable they're empty which is good it makes me think that people are heeding this morning because the.
National weather service has said it could be impassable tonight and early tomorrow morning so the worst is yet to come and that's a good point you make Christina because this is a part of the country used to this type of weather the clothes they've got the plan and as you've mentioned they've got the stock up the food plan but you your point.
About the roads being impassable here soon and you know our credit to the snowplow workers who are up early making sure things are clear how else are officials responding considering of what's expected so far it's a lot of wait and see but it looks like they want to be prepared if they do get that Deluge blizzard that.
They're anticipating the National Guard is essentially on standby they're working on communicating with the local officials police fire rescue our local station went to the local hospital here and they said look they've got snow tires on their ambulances and they've got sleds and they're going to get to their patients however they need to so.
We're just going to have to see how everything goes the other big issue is as you talked about is the airport there are people in our hotel this morning who are already stranded their flights have been canceled that young woman trying to get to her daughter that's going to affect this area for for some time to come because you got to remember all.
Those people who got kicked off their flights tomorrow there's a knock-on effect right they try to book the next day and the next day out and the next day out so you can see ripples of that throughout the system for for a couple days to come yet Christina I love that sled detail and how dedicated those EMS workers are but given that this is going.
To be a multi-day event does that change the way that officials prepare I don't think so like you said they are used to snow in this part of the country just maybe not so much of it not so quickly but this is you know our crew here is local they were kind of making fun of me this morning and saying it's not that cold it's just winter.
Clearly my Colorado Roots have left me and I've spent too much time in DC but um I think it's just a matter of you know everybody being safe everybody heating the warning from officials and they're trying to kind of already establish those lines of communications you know schools are closed not only here but in the Dakotas and Wisconsin.
For the rest of the week they're on online learning which is kind of devastating if you think about school snow days when we were kids you got to go out and sled but the sledding is going to have to wait because the good news is the electric power lines on Wi-Fi are still working so hopefully everybody stays safe everybody stays off.
The road and everybody can get through this in one piece I can't even I like I think of snow days with blizzards like this that's oh those poor kids I'm so old I used to have to wait for it to go across the TV to see if my school was canceled now you just get a text message so you know well it's good we've got your experience to use in this story.
Christina um and keep your crew warm yeah even though they say they're used to it we appreciate you joining us thanks very much Christina raffini thanks guys
The Statue of Liberty is gonna be below water and I will seemingly be riding a Jet ski around it.
Place home and hopefully you’ll have generators Appears to be like every needs no longer lower than one
I’m hoping this is in a position to perchance recovering soon