And forced people from their homes. But first, the Severe Weather thats refusing to let up in the south. Heavy rain, devastating flooding, and tornadoes. Overnight, the death toll going up. At least 15 people now confirmed dead. Cnns nick valencia is following this latest weather system and the damage that its done. And a lot of damage that were looking at, nick. Hey, there, deb. Its been absolutely devastating for portions of the southeast United States. Atlanta, actually, got hit pretty hard Christmas Eve with some torrential downpours. It brightened up on christmas, but the front end of the states did get the brunt of the damage, especially alabama which is still under a state of emergency. Severe weather batters several southern states. Heavy rains hammer parts of alabama. The water made some roads impassable. Rescue crews helping residents trapped in their homes and the National Weather service said a potential tornado touched down in birmingham, causing damage to several blocks. The damage was done, it was confined to approximately one square mile. We had three structures, three houses that collapsed. We transported one patient from there were two others that were removed from the structures, but we reported no injuries. Reporter alabamas governor declared a state of emergency because of widespread flooding. At least 117 homes overcome by water. In georgia, the rain damaged roads and made driving treacherous. And in mississippi, flood warnings and relentless rain add more misery to areas already devastated by tornadoes, that killed at least eight people in the state. Many roads are flooded and some people are dealing with rising water in their homes. In rent, mississippi, victor and tameka hail watched as their home of ten years was overtaken by water. The trailer just floated away. Garbage cans, everything gone. We had to get out of here. The rain was coming way too fast. The couple and their 9yearold son now homeless and staying with relatives. Its discouraging. We lost everything. My child, he didnt get none of his christmas items. Heres some good news from the storm prediction center. They say the risk has dropped dramatically for violent weather, but the threat is still out there. 15 people have had their lives claimed by this storm. Another two people are still unaccounted for, deb, in mississippi, so this death toll could still very well go up. Deb . Its just crazy to watch the various weather across the nation. Nick valencia, thanks so much. Appreciate it. And we are now looking at live pictures of that wildfire burning in Southern California. Its forcing mandatory evacuations and scorching more than 1,100 acres so far. Officials have shut down parts of two major highways. The 101 and the Pacific Coast highway. More than 500 firefighters are battling these flames. They know they are in for a tough hall. The fire captain saying, quote, we are seeing embers all over the place. Sara sidner is following the story from new york. And sara, youre usually in los angeles. How significant is it that theyre closing these parts of the highway in terms of their ability to fight it, their ability to contain it, and their ability to keep people safe . For the firefighters, its good news, because they can get in and out much easier, theyre not going to be blocked by traffic. There is always traffic, as you know, in Southern California. Ventura county, though, a little bit less. Its about 800,000 people, which sounds like a heck of a lot of people, but this is burning in the hills. And so when you have u. S. 101 closed and when you have Pacific Coast highway closed, which is absolutely the most beautiful thing that people like to do on the holidays, kind of drive slowly. Its a beautiful view. People tend to take their time, believe it or not, in los angeles, this is significant. Because those two highways feed so many other areas. This is happening, basically, Ventura County is between Santa Barbara to the north and malibu to the south. This is a place where people want to go, go to the beach, and enjoy themselves. And they simply are being told to stay away from this area, but it is not the whole of u. S. 101, which is really a workhorse. A lot of people use this road throughout Southern California and beyond. And Pacific Coast highway is more of a Pleasure Center for people. They like to go down there during the holidays, but a lot of people live up and down there. The great news is, this is not a highly populated area where the fire is burning now. If you look at the pictures, you can see that. You can see its in the hills. I think its threatened about 35 structures, burned a couple, and they have said that there are evacuations now for some people in the area, because, like you said, the embers are all over the place, and thats what were hearing from fire officials. Its crazy, youre from california. When you think about the fire, here in new york, the thought of a fire raging that close in your state is a little bit disconcerting. And the people under there now, is this an ordinary part of their life or what is the sort of mood . It is and it isnt. If youre close to it, its a lifechanging event. You suddenly think, what am i going to take out of my house. How am i going to get my kids out of the house. If you have animals, what are you going to do with them . What are you going to bring with you . Because so many times this has turned into disaster in california. And we are told, because it is such a terrible drought, this is probably going to happen a lot more Going Forward than less. Absolutely. Sara sidener, thank you so much. It is frightening to watch and clearly frightening to be in the center of. We really appreciate it. Thanks so much. And snow and ice could be causing a travel nightmare in a different part of the country. Cnn meteorologist Allison Chinchar joins us. Tomorrow people will be heading home from the holiday. What can we expect . You could be dealing with snow in some spots or you could be dealing with heavy rain with flooding and Severe Weather in other spots. The big question is, where are your travel plans to and from . Heres a look at the national map. We have very heavy rain that could cause some flooding in the eastern half of the country. The central portion of the country will be dealing with severe storms, including tornadoes. But on the backside of that, we have blizzard conditions. Lets start with today. We have Severe Weather, stretching from san antonio, all the way up towards cincinnati. The bullseye, being right over top of dallas. And that does include an enhanced threat for tornados and damaging winds. That means if you have travel plans in, out, or around dallas, be careful, be patient, and be prepared to deal with some delays today, especially with flights. Tomorrow, that system begins to push a little farther east, so now cities like little rock, memphis, and new orleans are now also added into the mix, again, with the threat for tornados and damaging wind. We still have the flood threat in about a dozen states going on right now. You can see flood watches, flood warnings, and even flash flood warnings in some areas. More rain expected on top of some areas that have seen too much. O oklahoma, missouri, also into arkansas. Were talking 6 to 10 inches of rain. Mississippi, alabama, georgia, and tennessee could pick up an additional 4 to 6 inches. But keep in mind, theyve already had areas already get 5 to 10 inches. Thats on top of what theyve already had. Then we look at the winter side of this storm. We have winter storm watches and warnings for minnesota, south dakota, and also into nebraska. Then were talking about the blizzard warnings along i40. Again, thats going to cause huge travel delays down there. This system, again, as it pushes east will push through its way into texas. Now were talking winter storm weather, including snow and ice, stretching from texas all the way up towards chicago by monday. And again, the Severe Weather threat begins to push a little farther east as well. So weve got several different types of weather scenarios on one of the busier travel weekends of the year. Mother nature did not plan this very well. I have a feeling well get a lot of reports from airports having trouble getting people in and out because of this weather. Allison, thank you so much. We appreciate it. And coming up, a fugitive known as the affluenza teen is still on the run. Did a mistake by Law Enforcement give this teen a head start . Well talk to a former director of the fbi, coming up straight ahead. In a german dance group. I wore lederhosen. When i first got on ancestry i was really surprised that i wasnt finding all of these germans in my tree. I decided to have my dna tested through ancestry dna. The big surprise was were not german at all. 52 of my dna comes from scotland and ireland. So, i traded in my lederhosen for a kilt. Ancestry has many paths to discovering your story. Get started for free at ancestry. Com. Okay funs over. Aw. Aw. Thirsty . They said it would make me cool. They dont sound cool to me. Guess not. You got to stick up for yourself, like with the name your price tool. People tell us their budget, not the other way around. Arent you lactose intolerant . This isnt lactose. Its milk. This isnt lactose. Its milk. vo some call it giving back. We call it share the love. During our share the love event, get a new subaru, and well donate 250 to those in need. Bringing our total donations to over sixtyfive million dollars. And bringing love where its needed most. Love. Its what makes a subaru, a subaru. And this now breaking. Several european cities are being warned of a possible terror attack. That is coming from police in vienna. They received a warning from a friendly Intelligence Service and they are now taking the necessary precautions to make sure that nothing happens. Theres increased vigilance in terms of empty suitcases and bags. A lot of people traveling, obviously. And they are making sure that high public events, a lot of people, are also being monitored closely. We want to talk more about this and the possibilities of these implications with our cnn analyst, tom fuentes, formerly of the fbi. And tom, clearly, were going to be getting a lot of these warnings, especially during the holiday time. But how much credence should people put in this . Especially Law Enforcement. Well, the problems is that it depends on how many of these come. If you cry wolf every single day, theres a warning here, a warning there. After a while, the public will tune them out and just say, okay, its just more false alarms. And i think thats the problem. We dont know the source of this warning. They say a friendly Intelligence Service. Well, none of the services in europe or in the United States or the western world would be considered hostile services. So theyre all friendly. And if any one of them received any kind of Source Information or intercept, you know, phone messages, or other messages, indicating that some type of attack is going to happen, theyll alert the other services to put out the warnings to their people. So, at this point, we dont know the source of it. We just know that it was enough for them to go ahead and put a warning out. And im sure you feel the same in terms of these kinds of warnings. This is sort of the new normal. Everybodys going to be high alert from now until indefinitely. All right, we do want to switch gears a little bit to a different story. Theres new information, tom, on the search for a privileged teen whos on the run, along with his mom. This is a story you may recall. Ethan couch was 17 when he drove drunk and killed four people in 2013. But instead of prison time, a judge gave him probation, because of something called affluenza. The affluenza defense, meaning that he was a rich kid, his parents didnt set any limits for him, he was indulged. Well, now hes 18, his case is about to be transferred to a Different Court and that could have meant jail time. So before the hearing in which he was supposed to appear, he failed to check in with his Probation Officer on december 10th. New reports now saying that the Probation Office wasnt notified of this lack of appearance until five days later. Now, texas police are trying to make up for lost time. At a News Conference this week, Police Revealed couchs house had been emptied and his moms truck was gone. Tarrant county Sheriffs Office is offering 5,000 for any kind of information leading to ethans arrest. And tom fuentes, back with us again. Tom, its interesting, why, when the Probation Office notify headquarters that he simply had failed to show. Especially given the timing of the hearing. Well, i think thats a great question. And you know, they may have been just become come pl complacent , figuring for the last two years while he had been on probation, he had checked in or kept in touch. They may have felt, you know, its just no big deal, hell turn up pretty soon. And maybe were very lax in doing it. And i think theyll be investigating that aspect of it and try to figure out what happened. You know, its interesting, because he got off, basically, given probation after killing four people, because of this affluenza defense. Now his mom is basically driving him away, again, from his responsibilities, so he doesnt have to face potential jail time. This case has clearly sparked so much outrage in the community. Could the lack of action really have added fuel to the fire. You know, is Law Enforcement are they a little bit at fault for not putting more pressure, more heat on this kid . Well, Law Enforcement didnt make the decision to put him on probation. Youve heard the sheriff has been outraged since day one in this particular case. You know, its bad enough that Law Enforcement deals, oh, the poor kid had such a tough childhood, he cant be responsible. Now we have, the poor kid had such a great childhood, hes not responsible either . Who is . And i think Law Enforcement is really not, you know, its not their fault. Now, maybe an individual Probation Officer whos part of the court system, not part of the police, you know, may have been lax, may have caused this, but certainly the Sheriffs Office, from day one has been outraged by the fact that this kid was put on probation and for the reason, that he just had it so good, he cant be responsible. And police are always, you know, talking about this, the fact that the courts are too lenient on criminal defenders. They let them out too soon, they dont enforce the sentences that prosecutors want. So its sort of a revolving door that Law Enforcement simply cant win against. All right. So many different roads to pursue on this conversation. Tom fuentes, thanks so much for your time today. Happy holiday. Happy holidays. Thank you. And coming up, tension remains high in the holy land during the christmas weekend, after several attacks. Were going to be going to jerusalem for a report, straight ahead. Toto the nations capitalut to support an important cause that can change the way you live for years to come. How can you help . By giving a little more, to yourself. I am running for my future. People sometimes forget to help themselves. The cause is retirement, and today thousands of people came to race for retirement and pledge to save an additional one percent of their income. If we all do that we can all win. Prudential bring your challenges® tension remains high in the holy land this christmas weekend. The Israel Army Says that a palestinian rammed his car into Security Forces who were manning a checkpoint just north of jerusalem. An israeli soldier was injured. The suspect also hurt after being fired upon. The incident follows several recent stabbing attacks targeting Israeli Citizens and one today against a police officer. The violence has left many people in the holy land on edge. Now more from our jerusalem bureau. Reporter it is a subdued christmas in the holy land this year, in the biblical birthplace of jesus christ, the beginnings of christianity, festivities next to manger square not as big or as crowded as they have been in previous years. But there was still very much an effort to hang on to a celebration of Christmas Eve, to forget if only for a moment the violence and tension surrounding the holiday in israel, jerusalem, and the west bank. And you could feel it. There was a very large security presence in and around manger square, but it still felt very much like Christmas Eve. The faithful coming out to celebrate and to take part in midnight mass. But the violence continues here. Since the beginning of october, some 20 israelis have been killed and more than 130 palestinians have been killed, approximately 70 of which israeli Authorities Say were killed while carrying out attacks. Because of that number, some Palestinian Christian communities in the west bank have scaled back their christmas festivities, as a show of solidarity with all palestinians. That, unfortunately, is the reality that hangs over christmas in the holy land. And it is a reality that does not seem to be on its way to ending anytime soon. Orrin lieberman, cnn, jerusalem. And coming up, model Beverly Johnson has accused bill cosby of drugging her and trying to sexually assault her.