Im paula reed in washington. For a ferocious freeze complicating Rescue Efforts after a deadly winter storm pummeled the u. S. Freed warnings in effect across the u. S. Snow and sheets of ice. The storm blamed for at least 26 deaths. Roads impassable in Upstate New York after a monstrous blizzard. For nearly 12 hours it was almost impossible to go anywhere in a vast majority of the community. This is an area with approximately 500,000 residents between the city of buffalo and the suburbs. It was such that we had to pull Emergency Rescue vehicling off the roads. The bitter cold icing over the christmas celebrations. This morning parts of the south seeing the coldest christmas in decades and making a mess of holiday travel. 1,800 Flights Canceled again today. We have a team covering this all tracking the latest Winter Weather developments but beginning in buffalo, new york. Paw lo sandoval is there. Last time we spoke we did see some trucks on the road. Whats the latest there . Reporter we showed you the plow trucks. There is more of that activity today. It does change when that Snow Band Shifts northward over lake erie but it is not compared to friday and saturday with the blinding, whiteout conditions. This is what many of the streets look like in and around downtown buffalo. Suburb areas outside the city officials focus on to begin to help folks basically leave their homes. You see many people have been stuck there since friday. There perhaps the lucky ones, folks strapd stranded in cars for two days. You can see the overpass. Get to the video that our Colleague Tom captured. You can see the situation from overhead. It is good to see few vehicles on the road right now. The few vehicles we have seen mostly emergency responders. The driving restrictions in place. Priority number one is to get aid to the folks stranded in vehicles. B, really see who needs help in the homes, especially with Tens Of Thousands of Power Outages recorded and seven deaths in erie county alone. Back to you. Thank you. Earlier i spoke with new york governor about the rescue and Recovery Efforts in the state and the dangers many are still facing. Im a lifelong buffaloian. For a city with the reputation for Epic Snowstorms this is the worst of the worst. There are many reasons. Well analyze the impact of Climate Change but the extreme weather is more extreme. Flooding from lake erie. The frost and the freeze. Literally five weeks ago we had a four or fiveday event with the most snow to fall in state of new york in a 24hour period. Seems like every month we break a record. It is dangerous and deadly. Whats the biggest challenge that you face right now in this area . Two major problems. We have hundreds of National Guards men and women ready to come in. 200 on the ground now. I need more. They get stuck themselves. Had to have rescues for the National Guard and the ambulances and the fire trucks and the state police why they fall prey to the zero visibility. The Blowing Snow Drifts and dangerous to be on the road and overcome a great deal. Cold weather or not christians in Upstate New York are celebrating the christmas season. The Catholic Diocese of buffalo celebrating a virtual mass. The roads are treacherous there from ice and snow. The church live streamed the mass for those wishing to attend. How long will the frigid air hang over the u. S. . We go to britly ritz. Is warmup on the way . It is. We are starting to notice it now. It is not as drastic or as quick as we would like it but on the way. 3 degrees. Above 0 in minneapolis. Doesnt feel like it factoring in the wind. Feels like 10 below. 14 degrees in columbus. Finally. Getting closer to freezing. In atlanta 36 degrees. But the winds when all of that is factored in you get what it feel likes and wind gusts in watertown, new york, of 43 miles per hour. In the south we have hard freeze warnings in effect for southern georgia, Southern Alabama and florida panhandle. Upper 20s tonight and tomorrow morning. For now jacksonville at 47 degrees at the moment. Highs today all across the ohio valley back into the Tennessee Valley below freezing but getting down into the south where we have had the sun and dallas at 50 degrees. Its cold. We have that wind pushing down from canada and waiting for the warm front and going to bring us above average into tuesday, wednesday and thursday. Temperatures are expected to climb back up into the 60s in atlanta. Again still dealing with the snowfall in the great lakes. This is waterton, new york. Blizzard warnings are still in effect. Thank you. Lets check in with Carlos Suarez at Atlanta Jackson airport. It a not Merry Christmas . Atlanta . Reporter thats an understatement. Theres a mix of frustration and at that point just desperation for a lot of passengers. You can get a sense of that. 228 Flights Canceled out of the airport. The busiest line is the rebooking counter at the delta counter. Hundreds of passengers trying to get on another flight. Everybody all but given up hope to be home for the holiday and trying to see if they get on a flight at this point monday, tuesday, wednesday or thursday. Talking about the overall number of canceled flights in the u. S. That number is quite high. Looking at several thousand flights and nearly 5,000 delays across the u. S. Because of the bad weather. We caught up with a passenger who toll us at this point he is so desperate to get home he is going airline by airline just to see when he might get rebooked. We were supposed to fly to denver this morning on frontier. Flight is canceled. Now trying to go to every Airline Counter to get out. Today is supposed to be an easy travel day. Turned out not to be so. Reporter whats the backup plan . Stay in atlanta, unfortunately. Reporter a difficult day for folks in this airport. Atlanta is leading the country with total canceled flights. 228 out of atlanta canceled. Well over 1,800 across the u. S. As the cold weather set in but the airlines are trying to work through the backlog of the passengers . Paula . Thank you so much. If you are traveling this Holiday Weekend you are likely under stress. Lets get advice how to avoid a travel nightmare. With me now is clint henderson. I want to get your reaction to the travel mess. When can we expect it to clear up . So Mother Nature gave us a bad blow this christmas. We dont like the present under the tree as the huge storm. Good news is it looks like it is going to get better the next couple of days. This is the biggest meldown since the summer. So that just tells you the scale of what we have seen this week for christmas. People spending the night in airports. Do the pictures of poor folks at the airport, what are things to do at the airport seeing the flight is canceled . You should go to the airport with a backup plan. One of the people to talk to earlier said airline to airline to see if he can get rebooked. But there are tricks that you can do to minimize that. Have the airline app on the phone. Sometimes rebook yourself. Follow them on social media. Sometimes they answer that way when they dont pick up the phones. Return to the lounge. If you have Lounge Access use that. Sometimes the agents help you. Some airports have minute lounges. Check those things out. Go in with a backup plan. Know the operators on your route. A train. Hotel it is stay at if youre stuck. Have the plans in your back pocket. Some Airlines Offer waivers. Yeah. I will say the airlines are much more proactive for Weather Waivers meaning they put you on a competitor flight, rebook yourself for days in the future so thats the good news. Bad news is if its a Weather Waiver it is an act of god and not required to compensate you. You can always ask and this is where if you have elite status sometimes that helps you but they dont necessarily have to compensate you but if you booked with the right credit card sometimes the credit card will reimburse you for the charges. Book with a credit card that has the insurance benefits. We have seen the insane lines at the airport for days why what is the best advice for not being trapped in a line . Have the arm app installed on the phone. Direct message them on twitter or instagram and try to find the toll free number for an overseas division. Sometimes you get through to the australia call center if the call centers in the United States are overwhelmed. Thats a little hack there. Thats great. Thank you so much. Merry christmas. In just a matter of days republicans will take control of the house and theyre already out with plans. Setting the stage for tense clash in a divided congrgress. What you can expect, next. Something better . . Wile will you create somemething entirely new . Our Dell Technologies advisors provide you with the tools and expertise you need to do incredible things. Because we believe theres an innovator in all of us. You pour your heart into everything you do, which is a lot. So take care of that heart with lton. Because sippin On Unsweeted Lipton can help support a healthy heart. Lipton. Stop chuggin. Start sippin vo tis the season to switch to verizon. Its your last chance to get our best deal of the year. scrooge tis . cecily tis vo this Holiday Season verizon gives you the new iphone 14 pro thats in stock now. Plus apple watch se, ipad and beats fit pro. All on us. Dont miss out. Verizon. I was born here, im from here, and im never leaving here. Im a new york hotel. Yeah, im tall. 563 feet and 2 inches. Im on top of the world. Im looking for someone who likes to be in the middle of it all, but also likes some peace and quiet. You hungry . I know a place, and few others nearby. Its the city that never sleeps, but hey, if you need the rest, ive got you covered. Young lady who was, you know, mid 30s, couple of kids, recently went through a divorce. She had a lot of questions when she came in. I watched my mother go through being a single mom. At the end of the day, my mom raised three children, including myself. And so once the client knew that she was heard. We were able to help her move forward. Your client wont care how much you know until they know how much you care. New year brings a new congress. Just over a week from now on january 3rd republicans take control of the house, the first day of the new congress and when lawmakers decide who will be speaker of the house. Republican strategist Alice Stewart joins us now. Thank you for joining us on christmas. Will the gops Kevin Mccarthy be able to pull off a win outright to become speaker or a floor fight . Oh, paula, thats the great question. It looks like he will have more of a challenge than he thought. Trying to garper support for the votes which is critical. Theres a vocal group of republicans in the house that are really making their desires known to him and not afraid to speak out publicly and one of the key provisions to see added to the provisions is the opportunity for them to allow the speaker to vacate when it suits the purposes. It looks like that might be a provision to concede to get the support. These people are really doing a lot of disservice to the republican party. Republicans in the country rallied to get control in the house and now like the dog that chased the car. We have the car and they are not ready to drive it down the road in a successful way. Without a designated speaker. It is harder to hire staff an form committees. Conservative voices are critical saying they are harming the process. Hopefully Kevin Mccarthy with move forward with a strong commitment to the American People and the commitment to america which i think is a great way to get off on the right foot for republicans and he is outlying the opportunities to get the americas economy in order. Address inflation and making sure that our communities are safe and americans have freedom and a government thats more accountable. I would like to see republicans get behind him. Have him be speaker to follow through with that promise. As republicans said for a while to launch investigations into the president s son hunter biden. What do you think republicans stand to gain out of those investigations . A lot of that is just vendettas a republicans have. Look. Republicans need to go into the new year and legislate and not not investigate. There is some valid oversight that they plan to look at and that is investigating the doj as well as the fbi. This is i think important because this is not just republicans saying look into the agencies. They get many, many whistleblower complaints within the agencies that have raised serious concerns and that is part of the process. Oversight is a key function and responsibility of congress and specifically the house in power. I hope they spend more time on legislation for the American People opposed to investigations. Same time they can walk and chew gum at the same time. While they also look into issues that think are important. The incoupling House Oversight chair is seeking testimony from twitter employees. But as you said is this where the party should be focused considering inflation and Immigration Policy or should they be focusing more on legislating . Absolutely should be focusing on legislating. Theres different committees and assignments. They can look into twitter, hunter biden, the fbi and the doj but the majority of republicans that i speak with, the rational, common sense republicans are eager to address the economy, inflation, crime thats rampant across the country and delivering on the promises that they were elected to do. The economy and the Financial Issues plaguing the American People and many are looking forward to the opportunity to be in the majority and address the pressing issues. I want to talk to you about something in d. C. Last night. A cnn crew watched migrants dropped off outside the Vice President residence. Some people in tshirts. What is the reaction to this . It is heart breaking. It is a true humanitarian crisis spilling over into the states and the countries across the country and what Border States and towns have been dealing with for months and a time for action, to secure the border and also enforce the existing immigration laws. They are saying enough is enough. The mayor of el paso asked for federal assistance to help him. Im not saying dumping people on the street is an answer. It is not. It does raise awareness to the crisis that they deal with and the patrol have reported Record Number encounters and something needs to be done and securing the border is important. As americans and we look at the images of the people put out across the country i encourage people to look at the faithbased organizations and the red cross and make sure that the short term needs are met with regard to making sure they have clothes and food and as you know there are little kids out there and missing christmas because of this and the more americans rally behind this to address the short term needs is important but up to congress to Work Together to look at Long Term Solutions to securing the border to address this humanitarian crisis of immigration at the border. Alice stewart, thank you. Thank you. 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