Its off. Prince harrys race to the south pole canceled. That doesnt moon the royal is giving up on his mission to reach the bottom of the world today, sunday, december 8, 2013. Announcer from nbc news, this is a special edition of today with lester holt live in soweto, south africa, and erica hill live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. Welcome to today on this sunday morning. Im erica hill alongside jenna wolfe and dylan dreyer. As we mentioned, lester holt is in soweto, south africa, where the official events to honor the life of Nelson Mandela are under way today. Good morning, lester. Reporter good morning, erica. Today was the official day of prayer and reflection. All that notwithstanding, it continues to be a day or a week of celebration of the life of Nelson Mandela. People here in the streets in soweto once again celebrating his life. Well tell you about that. Well tell you about the Services Held across south africa today from parks to churches as people gather to remember the father of their country. We will also tell you the specific plans now that we know about president obamas visit along with some other u. S. President s here to south africa later this week as we report from soweto. Lester, looking forward to that. We will get back to you shortly. We want to get to todays top story in the u. S. , another round of both powerful winter storms creating treacherous conditions at this point from california all the way to new england. The weather channels mike seidel is in a very chilly leesburg, virginia, this morning. Good morning. Reporter good morning. As we await the first wintery weather west of washington, dallas is encased in ice. The west coast got slammed by a second storm on saturday. In barts of north dakota and montana, temperatures have stayed below zero since thursday. No break in the wintery blast as a new storm moved into california. Heavy snow in the mountains made the roads unsafe. Its slippery and dangerous. You try to change lanes and youre going sideways. Reporter icy conditions saturday went as far south as los angeles county, putting a total freeze on i5 cutting off the major route between loss ang also its ice from here all the way to oklahoma, r i35 was impassable until the sun came up. Over at the airport theyre trying to get hundreds of stuck passengers in the air following more than 2700 canceled flights over three days. A frustrated traveler posted this to youtube. Well, this is day three, terminal d here in dallas, texas. All Flights Canceled once again. Reporter work crews are trying to restore power to about 100,000 customers still in the cold and the dark. Getting out sleeping bags, moving the couch to the fireplace and huddling around. Reporter it was cold. Only 26 degrees on saturday, more than 30 degrees below average. So cold these palm trees in tyler are wrapped in installation. The Rangers Baseball park is covered in snow. You can play ice hockey on the streets of dallas. Newburgh, indiana, is good for skating, too. Head farther north and it really gets cold. It was 18 below in billings, montana when these hearty souls took the polar bear plunge. Wow, 47 jumped into that frozen lake, all for a good cause, racing money for the special olympics. By the way, the windchill was 35 below zero. Back here, a whole lot warmer, around 30, as we await the seasons first snow, sleet and freezing rain. Erica, i cant get over the guy plays ice hockey on the streets of dallas. That is crazy video. I cant get over jum in the water when the windchill is 30 below. Mike seidel, thanks. Dylan is here now with a closer look at what we can expect coming our way. Well see a little bit of everything with this. Starts as snow, changes over to ice and eventually rain when its all said and done. You can see in pink in parts of kentucky down into areas like western virginia and West Virginia itself, its the pink in here that creates all the problems, the icing that coats the trees and power lines and we end up with Power Outages. We are going to see the freezing rain take over eventually. Its dropping down to 31 in roanoke. It went from rain over to an icy mix. Even washington, d. C. Dropped to 31 degrees. Naturally we have your winter storm warnings with a few ice storm warnings down in north dakota of all places. In roanoke, virginia, theres the possibility we could end up with close to a half inch of ice. That is what will create perhaps widespread Power Outages. Further north, new jersey and new england, around. 10 inch before it changes to rain by early tomorrow morning. Erica . Dylan, thanks. Turning back now to lester in south africa. Lester . Reporter all right, erica. As we mentioned, South Africans are observing a national day of prayer and reflection. It is the start of the official events to celebrate the life of Nelson Mandela, culminating in a state funeral one week from today. Nbcs Michelle Kosinski is just to our east in johannesburg. Michelle, good morning. Reporter lester, you can imagine in churches around the world today mandela might be mentioned. Here people were basically encouraged to do their own thing, reflect on the message of this champion of freedom. People in enormous numbers actually felt better gathering together including members of mandelas family. It had the feeling of a sunday revival. Here a few hundred gathered in the tent at mandelas offices, anything but quietly reflective, full of joy. Whenever theres death, we dont all crying, we need to celebrate his life. Reporter soweto gospel choir that performed for mandela so many times in his life, felt his loss. He will come and say how much he loves us. Reporter there were Many Services to day. Winnie mandela and the South African president attended. Ahmed cath rata is one of mandelas closest friends and advisors, spent decades in prison together, knew each other for more than 60 years. Last time they met, he held his hand in the hospital. I left from there knowing that he wont be long with us. Reporter the National Grief made lighter day by day in celebration of that powerful legacy. The feeling out here is absolutely jubilant. More people than weve seen so far, all over south africa. Down in capetown this morning, the hard core surfers gathered in a big circle in the ocean on their boards and joined hands in tribute. One described it in one word, goose bumps. Lester . Charlene hunter galt is an nbc news special correspondent who has lived here in south africa and interviewed mandela on a number of occasions. Great to be with you. Great to be here, especially here. An amazing moment to be he n when he was first released from prison. Talk to him about how people review him as a mythical character. He tried to downplay that. It makes me wonder how he would view all of this. Let me say how nostalgic it is. I was just across the street when he first got out of prison. I think hed actually be pleased. Hes a very modest man, but i think he also enjoyed the fact that people appreciated him and what he was trying to do and his message. And i think hed be thrilled by this actually. Look around you, look at all the young people here that were born after he was released from prison, after he left office. We called them the born frees. I wonder if theyve gotten the message, if in your view they appreciate what a different south africa this is from what their parents experienced. I think many of them appreciate it. You see white people out there walking unafraid with their little babies and everything. Thats a big difference. You see interracial couples. I think a lot of these young people it will be interesting to find out how many of them dont have jobs. Because thats the biggest challenge in this country, joblessness among young people who are the largest cohort of unemployed. I was going to mention that. There is a widening gap here between black and white. As we celebrate Nelson Mandelas life and give him the credit for leading this country to democracy, are we too obfusive in our praise when we look at the progress. We have to separate our praise for mandela with whats going on in this country. There is a widening gap between the poor and the not poor. Some of the black people in this country have achieved middle and upper middle class status. The issue is it hasnt trickled down to the vast majority. I think the real concern here today, not just this moment, of course because theyre celebrating madiba, but the real concern is how is this country going to accommodate the vast majority of unemployed, undereducated and many uneducated who in that 18 to 35 age group. Charlene hunter galt, great to see you. So happy to be here. Well head back to the studio now with erica. David gregory is making a rather sunday appearance here in new york hosting meet the press from new york city later this morning. Nice to have you here. Nice to be here. Weve been hearing a little bit this weekend, further plans for president obama when it comes to the events in south africa this week, and former president george w. Bush, former president clinton, former president carter. Who will their role be as u. S. President s at these events . I think just to be there, to pay tribute, to give the sense of moment it deserves, International Recognition that it deserves. I think for all of them at different levels. President bush who i covered didnavdela but no doubt respected him. Bill clinton, of course, very close. And president obama in a unique way, encouraged to go see him when hes still a senator. Mandela encouraged to meet with this upandcoming star in politics. And for our president to be so moved by mandela, to really have his own place in the civil rights struggle against apartheid i think makes it very meaningful. His presence will be significant. When it comes to president obamas presence on the international stage, we know hes talking about this potential for comprehensive agreement with iran yesterday. He said its 50 50 or, frankly, it could be worse. His approval numbers very low here. When it comes to the international stage, how is his capital right now . I dont think its exceedingly high. I think a lot of americas allies, particularly in the middle east from israel to some of the gulf countries think america has lost its nerve in some regard, particularly when it comes to confronting iran. So i think there is some difficulty with ourbili because our Economic Standing has some impact as well. It doesnt diminish americas overall power in the world and americas real influence in the world. That is still very, very strong, even if some people have doubts about president obama. How much of a focus is there for president obama in terms of international, seg tear hagel making his way to afghanistan. Obviously something needs to be achieved there. Its so difficult. I think as you look toward next year, disengaging from afghanistan become as huge priority. Really iran is going to be the big test. Thats the scary piece, the big security element. I think its true. No one knows whether iran will ultimately do what president obama wants it to do, which is basically dismantle any pretense towards a nuclear weapon. David, nice to have you here. Well see you a little bit later. We vel a preview of meet the press later. Meantime jenna is here with the mornings top stories. Nice to see you. Nice to see you, too. 85yearold war veteran Merrill Newman is back in california after being detachbd for more than a month in north korea. North korean Officials Say he was being held on charges of hostile acts against the regime stemming from his service in the korean war. He was finally reunited with his family in San Francisco on saturday after the North Koreans deported him. Its been a great homecoming, and im tired but ready to be with my family. A spokane medical examiner is set to perform an autopsy monday to determine what caused the death of a teenager on a Delta Air Lines flight on saturday. The flight from seattle to atlanta was forced to make an Emergency Landing in spokane shortly after takeoff. Investigators says it appeared the 16yearold died of natural causes. The teen was the son of a soldier based in washington. He and his family were flying to atlanta for the holidays. Thousands are expected to turn out today for a tribute to fast and furious star paul walker. A memorialar cruise is scheduled this afternoon in valencia, california in honor of the late actor. Walker was killed in a fiery car crash on saturday. Olympic Gold Medalist lindsay vonn returning to the sloping for a third day in a row. The schedule has her peaking just before the sochi olympics. She placed 11 during saturdays downhill race. It was an improvement from friday. Remember we told you yesterday about 23yearold general far grat from boston, doesnt speak a leak of arabic, but entered the arabs got talent and was one of three finalists. She didnt win. She placed third. She considers the experience a success. Im sure youre wondering who won, wait for it. It was a syrian dance troop. Which one . Sima. No, no. It wasnt the other o what do you call someone who makes the seemingly impossible possible . Not our hair and makeup team with me every morning. What . The auburn football team. You remember last weekend auburn, impressing every fan and nonfan out there in a stunning iron bowl win over alabama. The team won saturday against missouri in the sec championship. A record 304 yards on 46 carries. Final score 5942. Next up for the very lucky auburn, playing the lottery, finding world peace and organizing all the pictures on my phone. If they can come up with those two wins, Everything Else should be pretty easy. Can we have them pick some tickets for us. Now to dylan for a look at the national forecast. Much funn sorry i let you down. You stepped it up. I appreciate that. Everyone does. Thank you very much. Really bitterly cold temperatures. 11 below in billings, 5 in denver. Even dallas is only at 27 degrees. Were certainly not seeing any melting of that ice. Bismarck, about 2. Salt lake city, 28 degrees. These are your high temperatures for later this afternoon. Its not going to warm up much from where it is right now. Ice storm, icing possible in kentucky and eventually up through virginia especially. Thats the weather throughout the country. Now heres a peek out your window. Good sunday morning, everybody. Im meteorologist chuck bell. Winter weather advisories and winter storm warnings are posted across the entire area for the rest of today and tonight into your monday morning. Temperatures way below freezing in Northern Maryland, right along the freezing mark along i95. Falls church and maryfield. Along 81 as well. Light snow coming into parts of Southern Maryland. Could see a little accumulation of snow before thats your latest forecast. Erica . Dylan, thanks. Up next, extreme conditions at the bottom of the world forced the cancellation of prince the bottom of the world forced the cancellation of prince harrys race, but his as your life changes, fidelity is there for your personal economy, helping you readjust along the way, refocus as careers change and kids head off to college, and revisit your investments as retirement gets closer. Wherever you are today, fidelitys guidance can help you finetune your personal economy. Start today with a free oneonone review of your retirement plan. 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But, as we like to say, the show must go on. Thats actually part of the plan. Nbcs Kristen Dahlgren is here with more. Good morning. Good morning, this is for a good cause, to benefit Wounded Warriors. Instead of competing, the teams will cooperate, all fighting together to complete what has been a more difficult trek than expected. Three teams, almost 200 miles across some of the worlds harshest terrain. Famous faces like prince harry and actor Alexander Skarsgaard leading teams of Wounded Warriors to the south pole in the bitter cold. Its minus 30. Apparently its plus 30 where you are. Reporter after five days of harsh wind and brutal conditions, organizers decided the race had gotten too dangerous. Over the last couple days i felt a little uncomfortable with some of the stress being placed on the team members as a result of very harsh terrain conditions that were encountering. Reporter that doesnt mean the trek is over. Far from it. In fact, there are still almost 70 miles to go. So teams will now Work Together to make sure 12 servicemen and women who once faced lifechanging injuries will stand on the south pole by next weekend. The former competitors now united in a common goal which, in the end isnt much different than how harry described the race before he started. If im given the opportunity, it means i can help these guys out, creating more awareness for them or whatever, then so what to minus 50 and 19mileanhour winds. It is serious conditions out there. They had a day of rest yesterday and theyll be driven to the same spot all starting that 70mile trek. It is great theyre continui, though, for such a good cause. Thanks. Up next, we want you to see what happened last night on snl. It was fanta