seems a little odd that the black kid are there with a white santa. it s all good. to each his own. you was scared of santa. he s got the cutest things. you can t really see my phone. there s a black santa and white santa stocking that we found. ryan, you re the best. thank you. cnn this morning continues right now. so glad that you could join us this morning on the eve before the eve of christmas. good morning, everyone. poppy and kaitlan are off and i m here with the lovely and smart and talented sara seidner. i was wondering where you were going with that but you re good. we re going to catch you up on the five big stories this morning. more than half the population is under winter storm and wind chill alerts as a major storm moves across the country. it s not like a snow day when you were a kid. this is serious stuff. please take this storm extremely seriously. more than 820,000 power customers are in the dark, thousands of flights have been cancel
right now we ve got a lot of rain and high winds across parts of the northeast, possibly taking power out and also causing major delays as far as the air traffic system goes. it sounded like a summer thunderstorm in new york this morning and the roads are slick. so it s going to be pretty dangerous out there to drive or walk. can you put this into context for us? we always have a very bad habit in the news business of saying this is the worst storm ever. how does this storm stack up with storms of the past? it s very interesting, it s like fingerprint, no one day is exactly a like. however, this system has similarities to a major blizzard that happened in 1978. over 40 years ago we had a cyclone that caused problems. the forecasts were not great and it gives you an idea of how far
and i encourage people, if you do want to leave, do it now before we really get strong hurricane conditions. it just the conditions today, to be out driving are going to gradually get worse. put safety first. if you can stay at home, please stay inside. this is not the time to try to get a great photo-op. it s just too dangerous. yep. i think people forget and so often when we cover these storms. folks drive on the roads, they think it s a few inches of water and before you know it, they get washed away. i hope folks are listening. i know they have experience with hurricanes there, hurricane hugo in 1989 devastating. how does this storm stack up based on what you know now to past hurricanes that have hit the area? every storm is different. they can change quickly. i really don t want to compare
please stay safe. the human crisis is overwhelming, but you can help. check out our website, cnn.com/impact to find out how you can help lend a hand to those suffering after this storm. you ve heard the super typhoon described as possibly the biggest storm in recorded history. that is no exaggeration. at the time of landfall, the winds were clocked at 195 miles per hour with gusts reaching as high as 235 miles per hour. i want to bring in meteorologist chad myers in the cnn severe weather center. chad, given what we know now, how does this storm stack up to the other monster storms we ve seen? we think it s the biggest. at least making landfall. there probably were other storms that may have been bigger but not on land, in the middle of the ocean just spinning making waves. what you will notice on my list here, jim, is that three of the top five typhoons, hurricanes, cyclones of all time, all hit the philippines.