argument to the friends and allies of ours that if they warrant a society that is going to be able to sustain itself in this age, then they're going to have to change how they do business. >> you can watch fareed's full interview sunday morning at 10:00 eastern. that does it for me here in new york and for brooke baldwin in boston. "the lead" starts live from new york with jake tapper. women come to "ed lead." i'm jake tapper. i'm live just across from central park. the blizzard of 2015 may not have been as bad here as predicted, but farther north and east it is still going strong. officials in new england are very concerned. high tide is just minutes away. floodwaters are rising. storm emergencies are in effect and millions of people are delling with a real disaster. long island got more snow than noishg city close to 30 inches but new england is ground zero and it's not over.

as many as 32 1/2 inches of snow so far, almost three feet. and snow drifts completely cover covering dront doors and windows. and it is not only snow and ice. it's also fires and floods adding to this misery. right now rescue teams are plucking people out of homes philadelphia filling with water in the coastal town of scituate massachusetts. officials cut power to prevent more fires there and a nearby seawall crumbled. our reporters to spanned out from massachusetts to mannontauk, long island. let's go straight to boston and cnn's brooke baldwin. she's been outside in that brutal weather all day long. what is it like there now? >> reporter: it is really kicking up jake right in my face. we are in the boston harbor area. fan well wall is this way. the water is this way. walking through this stuff, it's incredibly thick and continuing to come down.

we just heard from the mayor of boston just minutes ago saying this could continue until 1:00 in the morning t. is possible this could be a record setting snowfall. this blizzard is keeping much of the northeast shut down at this hour. heavy snow continues to fall here in boston there is well over a foot of snow and forecasters predict the state capital could get close to another foot. nantucket massachusetts, is definitely among the hardest hit areas, the police chief tells cnn the entire island is without power after the storm brought heavy snow flooding and wind gusts close to 80 miles an hour. >> nantucket, by the way, has been hit particularly hard with respect to power outages. >> reporter: the storm continues to blanket the reason. by midday worcester, massachusetts already had at least 5525 inches of snow and that number is quickly rising. earlier firefighters there battled intense flames in blizzard conditions after this

multi-family home went up in flames. right now officials aren't only worried about the piling snow but a potentially more devastating aftereffect, coastal flooding. officials said areas of plum island, massachusetts, that flooded this morning. could still flood again. further south, this seawall crumbled in tuesday morning's high tide. there's a concern that more to collapse during this afternoon's high tide possibly flooding homes right in that area. officials are learning about snow drifts learning about the high winds and light powdery snow. amtrak canceled trips on several of its busiest lines between new york and boston. thousands of flights have been canceled. and many roads remain closed. >> it is very bad. these roads are not safe.

the snow is still coming down, several inches an hour. >> reporter: in rhode island where the windchill could dip as low as minus 3 degrees, the snow is expected to continue through wednesday morning. you know, the good news jake i just had the fire commissioner here on my show moments ago. he was saying to me people really have heeded the warnings. this is boston. they know snow. they've stayed off the roads. i've asked him about power outages. i want to show you something. this is the snow here. it is incredibly light, powdery snow, and that is the great part. it's so so cold here so it's not heavy snow. we're not having the snow sitting on the power lines or sitting on those tree limbs, which would then be many many more power outages than they're reporting so far here in boston. but we'll be up riding this out another night to see if they could eclipse 2003. >> brooke thank you so much. as you can see, the storm is not

close to being over in many areas. i'm joined now by cnn's chad myers to tell us how much more we can expect. chad, thanks for being here. >> certainly. >> it looks like it's over here in new york. but what's going on in new england? and how much longer will it last? >> the storm is doing a rotation in the ocean. the reason we didn't get anything here, well we got 6 to 10 inches, whatever. the storm is 100 miles too far to the east compared to where the model thought it would be. if it's 100 miles away what is 100 miles away, 30 inches near islip. that's what new york was supposed to get. >> islip, the airport on the north part of long island. >> right. you're talking an hour and a half drive from here or even less you're at 30 inches of snow. that's what should have been here, but it moved to the east. so we're not seeing the winds either. this is quite pleasant right enough. we should have winds of 50. it's not happening. >> comparatively. >> everything has shifted to of the east and it's in boston where the snow continues.

and 32.5 i'm going to see numbers probably 36 inches even more than they predicted there. we got significantly less. they got our share. >> we'll go to some of the coastal areas in a minute. i want to ask you what exactly is going on there. why is there such concern? what's different about the fact there's high tide today than say, two days ago? >> it already breached a brake wall. there's a brake wall that's been breached the first high tide in scituate. now we're coming back up again. without the break water the wall, the water will poor into the streams. >> the storm killed it one time. >> it already broke it and it will smash it now because the waves are 15 to 25 neat. >> chad myers, stick around. i want to go to one of the coastal areas. millions of people are under a flood warning, the town of scituate massachusetts, on the south shore may be in the biggest danger zone as you heard chad say, high tide roaring in.

alexander field is there. alexander alexander, how bad is the flooding right now? >> reporter: high tide is about an hour away. we're hoping what they see next isn't as bad as they saw this morning. let me show you this backyard just filled with water. if we pan down this street, you can see this is filled with water. this is more important and significant when we put this into perspective, jake if you follow me, you'll see that the beach is all the way down that road. so the seawall was breached, it flood these neighborhoods, four or five feet high in some basements. the water rushed around the back of their houses and even went across streets here. there are a couple of people in scituate who were stir crazy enough to get out for a walk. this is the time to do it because the high tide comes in the next hour. we went up to see the seawall, to see where the water had come

in from this morning. already even before high tide we're seeing the waum being breached, waves are flashing over the wall. we actually determined for our crew it's too dangerous to be up there with the wind and the water. we don't want to be driving around or put ourselves in the kind of instance where we'd be driving through floodwaters. we cleared out, came back here. these power lines are a big issue of concern at this point. scituate took a precautionary step and shut down power to part of the town last night because they did not want to compound problems with the possibility of having an electrical fire and having roads cut off for first responders. this is again the water people are dealing with right now. in the next hour we'll see if the water breaches that seawall again and if it comes as far back as this street and into these neighborhoods where we've seen it sitting stagnant all day jake. >> alexandra, are the people in scituate, massachusetts, used to this kind of thing happen willing? how many of them are still around if any? we just saw a few of them.

>> reporter: yeah jake. this is actually pretty interesting. this is an area where i have come before to cover storms because weather is not so unusual here given the fact we have the seawall and you've got the harbor over here. the seawall really is the issue. when you talk to people you see that their houses are built on these stilts. they know that at some point when you've got that high tide and you've got that surge coming that they're going to see flooding. but a couple of people i spoke to who live up the road say they've been in this community all of their lives, have never seen this amount of water come this quickly into their homes and travel this kind of distance. not so unusual to see some kind of breach, some kind of water on the roads, but this volume in this neighborhood sitting under water here basically flooded, this is a lot more than they're used to seeing. >> alexandra field, stay safe. cnn of course will continue to check in as high tide hits in roughly an hour. we're going to turn to neighboring marshfield. police tweeted this picture of

the seawall. this could be very bad news of course, when that high tide approaches this evening. brian todd from cnn just arrived in marshfield, massachusetts, just minutes ago. brian, what can you tell us about the damaged seawall. what are you seeing? >> reporter: jake we can tell you that the seawall was breach breached early this morning. several peoplee evacuated from their homes. alexandra just mentioned high tide. it will be back in less than ran hour, and they're worried that the rushing seawater could actually short out some things, if power is on in some of these homes and start fires. that's an issue. i'm going to show you also out the front window of our vehicle, as we're trying to get to that scene in marshfield check this out this is a complete whiteout situation. this is what the crews are working against as well as they try to help the people who are stranded in their homes in that section of marshfield that was flooded. look at this. this is complete whiteout in

front of you'reour vehicle. we had to stop for a second to meet someone who is going to take us to the scene, and this is what the rescue crews and others are going to be facing later on if they've got to go back to the scenes of flooding jake. >> brian todd in marshfield thank you so much. it's not letting up in boston of course. the city bracing for up to another foot of snow and that snow combined with the high winds, it's all making it very difficult and extremely dangerous for first responders to do their jobs. all of this of course as high tide approaches on the coast where flooding could be the biggest problem as you just heard from brian and alexandra. so how are emergency management officials dealing? how are they preparing? we'll talk to them when we come back.

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welcome back to "the lead" live from new york city, where it's bitterly cold but nothing compared to new england. coastal communities are dealing with widespread power outages

and flooding in boston they're bracing for another foot of snow on top of the nearly two feet already on the ground there. joining me now by phone is peter judge from the massachusetts emergency management agency to talk about how fist responders are dealing with this. mr. judge thank you so much for joining us. first of all, how are the people -- have there been any fatalities? serious injuries? >> no. no word of any fatalities. not aware of any storm-related injuries at this particular time. >> that's great news. what are conditions like along the coast right now? how concerned are you about the high tide? is that the most pressing concern right now? >> that is the most pressing concern. we're coming right into the afternoon high tide. you've shown some of the pictures of what it looks like along the coast. we expect it to be maybe a little bit more impactful than what we saw at 4:00 a.m. today. in that regard we're kind of geared up for the potential of

some major impacts from this high tide all along the coast from north of boston to cape cod and the islands. >> we know that a foot section about 80 to 100 foot section, of a seawall collapsed in marshfield that brian todd was visiting a few minutes ago. has that caused significant flooding in the marshfield area? >> no really, no. it's really very localized. it really impacted one house, and it was a vacant home. so no lives were kind of put in harm's way there. a lot of those areas that you see the flooding this is not an incredibly nieshl thingunusual thing for them. these people have sort of been down this road before so to speak. it's just raised up to a different level. that's what we're concerned about. we have those people out of there. they've all pretty much self-evacuated because they know what's coming and earlier this morning some local officials with some help from national guard actually helped a handful

of folks in marshfield scituate and hull leave their homes. it wasn't an emergency evacuation. they had just changed their lives about leaving and realized the water was too deep for their automobile. >> i know you're not done with this storm yet. it's still affecting massachusetts. but how does it compare historically with other storms you've had that were officials, governor included, were saying this was going to be like a top five storm for massachusetts. is it? >> oh definitely going to be a top five storm. there are areas that will get over three feet of snow before all is said and done. the snow has not stopped in most of the state, and it's going to be impactful. we were just very very lucky that this turned out to be light and fluffy snow and not the wet, heavy snow that we were anticipating. we were expecting lit alleyerally hundreds of thousands of outages. our top number today was like 36,000 total and the number is going down as we speak.

so that's the giant bullet we dodged today, the lack of power outages only because mother nature decided to give us a break on that. >> thank god for that although of course the poor people in nantucket are facing an islandwide power outages. peter judge thank you so much. really appreciate it. of course it's not just officials in massachusetts keeping an eye on the coastal flooding. krn we are live in montauk, long island, new york state, where what are the conditions where you are, ana? >> reporter: still snowing, still gusty conditions, and waves up to 16 feet high are battering the sea shore here in montauk. of course this is the very eastern tip of long island one of the areas hardest hit when it comes to the state of new york. it's not just the water that we're concerned about here of course. the snow is still continuing to pile up on top of feet of snow that have already fallen, and you can see looks are very

deceiving because you don't know exactly how deep the snow is in some locations, given all of the drifting that's been happening because of the very high wind gusts. in fact 60-mile-per-hour wind gusts were recorded at the west hampton airport, just down the road in where we are. across the bay they're seeing up to 30 inches of snow earlier this morning. and so that snow continues to pile up, still making a very dangerous situation for drivers. and the winds also scaring a lot of residents here overnight. while no major damage was recorded we talked to the woman who lives at the hillis torque montauk lighthouse, the caretaker there. she says it rivals what she saw during superstorm sandy and even scarier because the height of the storm hit at night. listen to her. >> being by yourself, what was going through your mind? >> well i was just praying i didn't get sick or the roof didn't blow off whaxt. what was i going to do. you know no one is coming to get

you. you're at the end of the line here. no one's coming to save you. >> reporter: she's breathing a sigh of relief today, and much like a lot of the folks here in this community. grateful that no major power outages, no major damage is reported. sadly, jake, i do need to mention that two people have died in the storm in suffolk county a 17-year-old boy was out tube being trying to enjoy the weather and got into kind of a tubing accident suffered injuries and couldn't be saved. there was also an elderly man with dementia who we were told who was found by his wife outside and frozen this morning. so it's still dangerous weather conditions we're experiencing here in new york. back to you. >> very sad, ana cabrera, thank you. bostonians are being told not to let their guard down. blizzard warnings in effect and first responders are pleading with people in boston to stay off the roads. i'm joined by boston police commissioner william evans.

commissioner, thank you for joining us. tell us what the road conditions are like right now. >> the snow is still coming down pretty good. i just met with the mayor and we expect probably another six inches so we're still hoping people stay in their homes, off the roads so we can get our plows in and get the city back so we can open for business tomorrow. >> so if boston gets another half a foot of snow, as predicted, are you worried about the fact that the power outages might be much worse in not just massachusetts but more specifically in boston than has happened so far? >> no. i mean for the most part we haven't been hit too bad with the power outages. i think this is the lighter snow. our main concern honestly is getting the streets plowed the secondary roads so people can get back to work tomorrow. we've been pretty lucky. we've gotten a tremendous amount of snow but we really haven't been, at least in the city hit

too much with the power outages. >> are you worried that because of this kind of lull in the storm, people might get lax? they obviously responded and adhered all the warnings emergency officials put out before. are you worried that boston might let its guard down? >> yeah. that's why i was just with the mayor and he did a press conference where we again reiterated to people that you know, we expect this to go until 1:00 a.m. it's no time to think you can bring your car out, you know. the more people we can keep off the roads, we can move our police vehicles our fire vehicles and emergency medical technicians around. so again, for people who are listening, we've got a long way to go still with this storm, and i encourage them to stay in buckle down for the night and let us do our job. >> keep your car parked in the yard, as they say. commissioner william evans, thank you so much.

coming up, stranded in the airport. why passengers aum thell the way on the west coast are dealing with this blizzard in the east. but first, he spent years as a prisoner of war held by the ataliban, but will bowe bergdahl also face prison time for desserting his post? the army is close to making a decision on how to proceed. that's next. 6 meet the world's newest energy superpower. surprised? in fact, america is now the world's number one natural gas producer... and we could soon become number one

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. welcome back to "the lead "oif. you're looking at live pictures the result of the storm. that's boston, massachusetts, hit hard. they're going to get about another half foot of snow we're told. we're going to have more on that nasty blizzard and the potentially life threatening wind keeping much of the northeast shuttered today in a moment. but we're going to turn right now to another breaking story. our national lead. sar janltergeant bowe bergdahl who spent five years in tag s ins in taliban custody, the obama administration brought him back last may.

trading five taliban detainees held in gitmo, some say, was too high. now cnn is learning it might be a matter of just days before bergdahl finds out if he could face even more years as a prisoner of sorts, this time in a u.s. military jail. today a senior defense official told cnn that a decision on whether to charge bergdahl with desertion or any other crime will come down very soon. as of this morning, the commander officer in charge of the case has not signed or forwarded a charge sheet we're told. let's bring in lieutenant carnal jeffrey corn a former attorney in the jag corps, now a law professor. sir thank you for being here thank you for your service. other news services have reported that the army is ready to charge bergdahl. here's how john kirby addressed that just a few hours ago. >> let me just put a fork in

this right now, if i can. no decision has been made with respect to the case of sergeant bergdahl. none. >> kirby also said there's no timetable for a decision, but like i said we expect a decision within days. what do you expect, base on your knowledge of the case that the army is going to do? do you think they will charge bergdahl? >> i think it's really speculative. i think there's certainly evidence from what we've seen that would support charging him with an unauthorized absence and potentially desertion. but there are other factors that play into the equation. the commanding officer that has the responsibility to make this charging decision has to consider all factors, deterrence questions good order and zis mrin in discipline in the force and also candidly to look at what he's been through and whether or not further criminal proceedings would be justified. i wouldn't be surprised if the

decision is made to charge him, but there's no guarantee that will happen. and i'm not surprised either that the admiral made that point so emphatically. because the first step when you charge a soldier is that the charge sheet is served on the soldier. and there's been no information or news that bergdahl has actually received a charge sheet and been called in and told that he's been charged. so i think it was speculation from the outset. >> well colonel corn you're saying that it's possible that the army might decide there is evidence that he deserted and, as we heard on my show and others members of his platoon, members of his brigade saying that he did desert his post but there are extenuating circumstances because he spent five years in taliban custody so they might -- obviously this is all speculative -- take that

into account and say we'll give you a dishonorable discharge or just let you discharge? >> well let's be clear. he cannot receive a dishonorable discharge unless he's charged and brought to trial by a court-martial and the charge would have to be desertion. a dishonorable discharge is a punishment discharge. there are other ways you can essentially fire a soldier and give him less than an honorable discharge. for example an other than honorable discharge through an administrative proceeding that would have a hearing but wouldn't be a criminal trial and wouldn't result in a criminal conviction. and that's always a possibility. let me make another point. it's not the army that's going to decide this. it's his commander that's going to decide it. that's the commander's responsibility norunder the military code and it's a solt ememn responsibility. the commander will get input from the military lawyers that would have to try the case if it

were brought to trial. but ultimately we expect the commander to use his best judgment to decide what justice demands in this case. and there's no rule that says you have to be charged simply because there's evidence an offense offense was committed. as i say, i wouldn't be surprised if he was charged, but there's no guarantee that's the disciplinary action the commander will select in this case. >> lieutenant colonel corn thank you so much. let's go live now to alexandra field in scituate massachusetts, with the latest on the rising water. high tide is approaching. alexandra what do you got? >> reporter: jake this is exactly the moment people here in scituate have been bracing for, this water coming over the seawall right now. we're still about a half hour from high tide, but this is the kind of floodwater the wind forces we've been talking about. this is the storm surge that has created tremendous problems for

people here in scituate. this water is flooding down into these neighborhoods behind me. it's coming up over the seawall. that's why so many people woke up this morning with feet of water flooding their basements and pouring down into the streets. this is the situation that became incredibly difficult and dangerous out here this morning for people who live in this community who are used to seeing flooding who are used to seeing high tides breach this seawall say what they saw this morning when high tide rolled in was more dramatic than something they've seen in all of their time here. power lines are a tremendous concern. power has been shut down to a number of neighborhoods in scituate. we have seen police out, the national guard out. they evacuated people this morning and have been back out here again doing evacuations for people who want to get out in the areas most prone to flooding. one more look at this. this is probably the closest we'll get to the seawall for some time. these waves only picking up steam, the wind only picking up here and the water just rushing into these neighborhoods, jake. >> alexandra, as you know from

covering these storms as i do sometimes you get dead enders, people refusing to leave the neighborhood no matter how dangerous it gets. is there anyone like that there, or are people leaving scituate? >> reporter: absolutely jake, there are people who have decided to stay here in their homes. some of them coulddo have power, they have heat. they have stocked up provisions. they say they've weathered storms before and even if this is bad, they don't want to leave. national guard was coming through helping people get out if they wanted to. police have been coming up through the streets in high axle vehicles reminding and warning people if they want to get out they have to do it before high tide, which jake is exactly what we're going to do. we're going to peel back now as this water continues to breach this wall so we requestcan get a little further inland. >> it looks like the wind is hitting you pretty hard alexandra. as you get out of there, just

describe for us if you could, is it tossing you around? >> reporter: yeah. i'm bracing myself about as well as i possibly can here. i've been knocked around if i try to move. a little bit earlier the reading was that the temperature out here was about 14 15 degrees so very cold. we're told that the wind gusts were about 30 miles per hour. i have to say, you know, i can't measure it myself -- >> we just lost alexandra field. i'm assume willinging she will head to safety along with her photojournalist. our thanks to her. coming up the travel nightmare continues. more than 7,000 flights canceled canceled. passengers have been stuck in airports for hours, even more than a day in some cases. and the worst part of it travelers throughout the u.s. and even around the world are now being impacted by this blizzard. when is this mess going to be over? will it be days? weeks? that's next.

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welcome back to "the lead." the money lead now. the ripple effect of this blizzard felt across the country. thousands of flights have been canceled, some grounded until tomorrow. >> and that is affecting airports nationwide. let's look at just how much snow fell here in the northeast 11 inches recorded at laguardia here in new york more than 20 inches in boston. take a look at auburn massachusetts, 32.5 inches there. that's almost three feet. about an hour's drive inland from boston. let's go to aviation correspondent renee marsh live at laguardia airport. renee, it will take days for airlines to get this intricate system back on track. >> reporter: it is going to take some time and also consider at

boston's logan airport, the runways are still shut down there. but although you look around you look at this airport, laguardia, one of the busiest, it doesn't look like it, but, jake, there is small progress. we saw it today. one of america's busiest airports nearly deserted. the ticket counters empty and about 60 passengers called this terminal their hotel for the night. >> i slept right here on the floor by the window. used some clothes as my pillow and just bedded down for the night. >> reporter: stranding passengers like kenzie knob who has been trying to get to denver. >> at this point, my family just wants me home. we're looking for the earliest time in the morning. >> reporter: at boston's logan airport the car mack is buried in snow. in atlanta, exhausted passengers are everywhere. >> well we were able to find some seats to pull together and

kind of -- i had a blanket luckily with me. pulled the seats together and tried to get some rest. >> reporter: even las vegas saw canceled flights. international passengers also felt the pain perhaps the worst was at jfk. this virgin flight was canceled after a six-hour delay stranding passengers in the terminal at midnight. one airline company estimates the storm impacted more than 400,000 passengers costing upwards of $235 million. and the price tag for airlines about $10 million. here at laguardia, there was some good news this afternoon. the first flights started arriving and departing. and that meant knopp was on her way home. >> reporter: you just got some really good news. >> i did. i'm getting out of here at 2:45 today. i'm so excited. >> reporter: well spirit airlines is the only carrier we

see operating here at laguardia at this hour. limited flights at jfk as well as at newark. airlines are saying that they hope to get to more normal operations by wednesday. fkt of course we'll wait and see. we still see cancellations listed for wednesday. >> rene thank you so much. coming up stranded on nantucket. a desperate situation on that island, right now completely cut off from the rest of massachusetts and out of power. how residents there are handling the power outages and the flooding and more. that's right ahead. begins with the cloud. this is "titanfall," the first multi-player game built and run on microsoft azure. empowering gamers around the world to interact in ways they never thought possible. this cloud turns data into excitement. this is the microsoft cloud.

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welcome back to "the lead." i'm jake tapper live today from new york city the city that dodged the brunt of this massive blizzard that is now crippling parts of new england. more on that in a bit. i want to shift to some other news right now that is also

rocking. phrases like "you want to go to a yankee game" may have been trade craft for russian sprys. joe johns has the details. >> reporter: he claimed to be a russian banker working in his company's new york office. but the justice department alleges he was actually one of three russian spies who have been under surveillance in this country for years. the u.s. attorney said two decades after the presumptive end of the cold war russian spies continue to seek to operate in our midst under cover of secrecy. >> when the berlin wall came down, the russians never stopped spying. they continued to run sources in washington. they never reduced the size of their station in washington. or in new york. >> reporter: the investigation started almost five years ago when ten other russian agents seen in these fbi surveillance individualees including the now infamous anna chapman, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and were shipped back to russia as part of a spy swap. fast-forward to 2015. documents says burr acough used

two other men to relay information back to russia. that the three intelligence agents would schedule meetings over the phone using code words that they needed to transfer things like tickets to sporting events or movies they never attended or other items like books or hats. they met on dozens of occasions between 2012 and 2014 watched by the fbi. meetings usually occurred outdoors where surveillance was more difficult where one man would hand a bag, magazine or slip of paper to another. prosecutors say they tried to recruit u.s. citizens as intelligence sources in new york. the target people working for major companies and young women with ties to a university located in new york. intelligence of interest included information on u.s. sanctions against russia and u.s. efforts to develop alternative energy sources. >> the russians are in trouble right now with the price of oil, having halved over the last six months. they look at this as in fact a

saudi-american conspiracy to take down their oil industry. >> reporter: the spies seemed disillusions about their jobs frustrated that the real life world life of a spy isn't like the movies. in one conversation quoted in court papers, saying it wasn't even close to the james bond movies and i also thought that at least i would go abroad with a different passport. >> you're my wife. >> reporter: a story that could have been lifted straight out of the tv series "the americans." >> if you make any noise, i will kill you. >> our thanks to joe johns for that report. let's go back to the weather. cnn meteorologist chad myers here braving the cold with me. chad, what are you expecting from the storm this evening? i guess we're okay but new england is still in trouble. >> you look down at that street it's wet. why is it wet? not because of salt. because the sun's been out. as soon as the sun sets behind this building which it will do pretty soon every single road in the city will re-freeze. >> they haven't been salting them. >> not very much. >> they'll have to go up and down with the salt trucks silt s.a.l.t.ing them.

be careful walking across the streets. sidewalks are pretty good. but the streets will re-freeze. boston, you're actually getting more snow. not a lot. but six inches. every swoop of snow that's coming in is slightly less intense as the last one. but did you see the wind at scituate? alexandra field was being swept off her feet. still 50 to 60 miles per hour. >> that's tough. people in boston and new england, take it easy. chad myers, thanks for sticking with us for the hour. coming up, imagine being stranded on an island with no power, no help to get to you. that's what my next guest is dealing with. he's on nantucket with his family, including a 3-month-old baby. he'll join me right after this.

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listen to that.

that is a blistering wind hitting nantucket off the coast of massachusetts. it's downright miserable for the people on that island right now. most of the island of nantucket has no power. about 15,000 people live there year round, stranded on an island only accessible by ferry or by plane. tyler herrick is one of them. he lives on nantucket with his wife and 3-month-old baby. he joins us. tyler, thank you for risking your cell phone battery to join us. how are you doing? is your family okay? >> yeah, our family is okay. the temperature in our house has dropped down to about 54 degrees so we're going to be moving over to our friends' house who have a wood stove. >> that sounds like a good idea. when did the lights go out at your home? did you think it was going to last this long? >> honestly, after we woke up at about 1:00 and saw how hard the

wind was blowing, we thought for sure that the power would have been out about then. but i think the power went out about 7:00 this morning. >> ferry service to nantucket has been suspended so it could be what another day maybe before power crews get there? you have a 3-month-old baby. you're going to your friends' house. what have you been doing in the meantime to stay warm? >> we've just been kind of staying covered up lots of blankets. i've been constantly going in and out of my truck trying to keep my phone charged. we've just been putting every layer we have on our child. >> in addition to power outages, has there been any damage to your police report your-- property your truck, house? >> we had a downed tree in our front yard this morning, just missed our house. and a big limb actually broke

and snapped on the hood of my truck, which took the better half of the morning to clear out. but it seems to be still working so we need to leave now, it's totally possible. >> the main hospital there, nantucket cottage, is running on a generator. that must cause concern for you. >> that's right. >> just in case something happens and you need medical care. >> no doubt about it. they're great over there at the hospital, though. i know they would risk themselves for others. you know i just spent a good time over there with my son being delivered on nantucket. i know how much they care for their patients there. so i know that they'll definitely be there. >> how bad is the damage around you? any major flooding? >> yeah. the whole downtown is completely under water. i mean not completely but i'd say there's probably about 1 to 2 feet under water.

high tide is going to be in the next hour or so so along the wharf and along of the downtown businesses right now are definitely under water. >> tyler herrick, keep us updated. our thoughts and prayers are with you and your family your baby. keep in touch. that's it for "the lead." i'm jake tapper. now i turn you over to wolf blitzer in "the situation room." happening now -- coastal calamity. it's high tide in new england as millions battered by a massive winter storm now face the threat of major flooding. and the snow keeps falling whipped by near-hurricane winds with some places buried under 30 inches and counting. travel meltdown. highways closed rail service suspended, flights closed. system malfunction? there's growing concern that airasia flight 8501 may have been brou