Losing sponsors. Hes here live speaking out for the first time only on gma. And the force is strong with this one. The last jedi soaring to an out of this galaxy opening. Now, the second largest of all time and its just getting started. And good morning, america. Welcome back from the weekend. Also a big welcome to our weekend anchor paula faris. Thanks, george. Great to be here on a monday. Boy, it was not a happy weekend in atlantas airport. My brotherinlaw was one of the million that was stranded. My sisterinlaw said he had a hard time calling her. The communications were bad and he was literally and figuratively in the dark and wouldnt let him leave the airport. Hes still there. 11 hours of chaos. What its like there. In you see the airport cloudy and foggy. There you see it right there. The planes on the tarmac live. Adding insult to injury, thousands were stranded in darkness last night wandering through the airport and others stuck on planes on the tarmac for hours forced to walk back to the terminal in the cold and abcs marcus moore is in atlanta with the latest. Hi there, marcus. Reporter chaos and frustration as the worlds Busiest Airport goes dark. I just want to get home. Its a nightmare. We have to go through the tunnels that are pitch black. Reporter thousands try to catch sleep wherever they can. Absurd. People are sleeping on the floor. Reporter hundreds of planes stuck on the tarmac is there they said we couldnt flush the toilets because their water was below 20 . Reporter the emergcy announcements had many fearing terrorism. The lights flickered once. That was really scary. A couple minutes later it went out again. Because we dont know the source of the fire we have no way of absolutely knowing that our system have been tampered with in order to create this kind of chaos and confusion. Reporter people using flashlights to shine a path through dark passageways. Frozen escalators and airport workers and volunteers trying to help. We were carrying old people down the escalators. Reporter after 11 hours a thunderous applause. The power finally back. Its like there is an end to this hell. Reporter the cause a fire in the substation making it difficult to fight the fire with the noxious fumes. This morning lolo jones among those frustrated and stranded many passengers trying to figure out what to do next. Not only are they not booking us on an early flight but it might be another day were here. Reporter a woman was here since noon sunday and this may not be over yet as they could be impacted through the weekend. Okay, marcus, thanks very much. Brandnew photos coming in of what the underground tunnel looked like. Thats what it looked like this morning. We want to get more from the president and ceo of georgia power, paul bowers. Mr. Bowers, thanks for joining us this morning. Any indication now, any sense of how this all got started . George, right now were going through a process of investigating what exactly happened. But right now we do know there was a failure in the switch gear that caused the fire that absolutely created the issue for us from our feeds from this airport. Do we know if this was set deliberately . No, we do not know any of that right now. Thats what the investigation is going to go through. But there is dual feeds, two separate redundant feeds to this airport. When that switch gear actually ignited, it created the flames that you saw in the pictures that impacted our cables and the cables coming from two Different Directions and thats what ultimately caused the outage. A lot are wondering, how is it both the main system and the backup system both failed . So, you have seven cables that come through this airport. One tunnel and this tunnel is the feed source, if you will, for both directions. That switch gear sits on the bottom of that tunnel, and when it ignited, it burned up that wall where you see the cables coming through. Theres, like i said, seven cable, four coming from one direction, three from another direct, but that is the safeguards that we have. I imagine this is a pretty intense investigation. How long will it take . Right now, were in we have our investigators in the tunnel this morning. It will take the remainder of this week. We will fix that cable this week and have all the service back to normal operations by the end of the week. Right now were feeding from two Different Directions. George, one of the things that we absolutely know is that, you know, this is an inconvenience. We are apologizing for this occurring and like the mayor said last night, you know, we wanted to make sure that everyone is safe before we entered into that tunnel. But right now our focus is reliability ensuring this doesnt happen again. The final question i have from what you know now, any steps you can take to prevent this from happening in the future . Yeah, thats one of the questions well have with the airport. What else can we do . Do we concrete encase the cable or separate it in different areas or not but thats a question well have as we talk to the asht. Mr. Bowers, thanks for your time this morning. Okay, thank you, george. This power outage being felt across the country. Abcs gio benitez is tracking it on flights and holiday deliveries. Good morning, gio. Reporter hey, george, good morning. Things are just getting going here at atl. Weve only heard a few planes take off and land and this is such a big deal. This is the Busiest Airport in the word. Youve been saying it all morning. Take a look. Every single day about 275,000 passengers fly through on 2,500 arriving and departing flights and yesterday many were stuck and still may be unable to leave for days to come. Now, so far airlines have canceled nearly 1,600 flights between supplemenday and today y continue to climb. To make things worse, a dense fog has blanketed atlanta and the airport stretching all the way to dallas so even if your flight hasnt been canceled you may have trouble getting off the ground. That means the Ripple Effects will be felt all across the country and could affect holiday deliveries as well. Reporter so far its too early to know how big that will be but for delta passengers are going to have a real headache because delta has 60 of its flights coming through this airport every single day. 300 have already been canceled. 900 were canceled yesterday. But for holiday deliveries, u. P. S. And fedex tell us their delivery schedules were not impacted so thats good news. Thank goodness for that, gio benitez, thanks for that in a whole lot of inconvenience. Out west to our big story and the battle against that massive california wildfire. The thomas fire has been burning for two weeks now and its on track to become the worst wildfire in californias history. So far its destroyed 270,000 acres and more than a thousand structures and forced more than 100,000 people to evacuate. Our Senior National correspondent matt gutman is in montecito, california, this morning, where the flames are still raging. Reporter good morning. That fire just ripped through here. You can see behind me it is still smoldering in this palatial home. All that is left is dangling roof tiles. Now, what is incredible is that firefighters lost the battle but managed to save countless homes here in montecito. One of the most exclusive neighborhoods in the entire world and overnight some of the celebrities tweeted their gratitude. Rob lowe having some of them over for dinner. Oprah tweeting her gratitude but worrying about firefighters fatigue. Its grown over the past couple of days as we approach the holidays to 8500 and overnight another firefighter injury. He was hurt on the side of a mountain and had to be taken down on that stretcher and medevacked. He will be okay but as you mentioned this fire continues to grow, and it is likely to become the biggest fire in california history either today or tomorrow, paula. You mentioned that firefighter was injured but one firefighter already lost his life and saw a great amount of support for him and his sacrifice over the weekend. What can you tell us about that . Reporter such a moving procession for engineer iversco iverson. He left behind a pregnant wife and young daughter and you can see that moving through southern california. Firefighters and regular folks saluting him standing on those overpasses to pay their respects. Now, the Santa Barbara fire chief says this is the perfect storm. There is wind and singledigit humidity and this fire does not seem to want to relent. Paula. Looks like its going to go into the new year which is not welcome news. Matt gutman reporting from california, thank you. We get the latest on the russia investigation amid new tensions between the trump team and Robert Mueller. The president was asked if he would fire mueller. Are you considering firing Robert Mueller . No, im not. No, what else . What, are you surprised . This comes after one of the president s lawyers claim mueller unlawfully obtained emails from the trump transition and mueller dismissing the charge and Pierre Thomas has the story. Reporter good morning. Youre right. Today more evidence of increasing tension between special counsel bob mueller and attorneys representing the president and his interests. Weve learned that muellers team has requested a series of emails sent by trump transition officials this morning, and attorneys for the transition are crying foul and have sent letters to congress alleging the emails were illegally provided to mueller. Muellers spokesperson said, when we have obtained emails in the course of our ongoing criminal investigation we have secured either the account owners concept or appropriate criminal process. The debate comes after trump attorneys last week pushed for the appointment of a Second Special counsel to look at muellers team specifically whether theres bias. There could be a critical meeting this week in this investigation. Reporter thats right. They might be trying to meet to get an assessment of where things stand. Some of the white house have suggested that the investigation is nearing its end, especially given that many white house officials heav already been interviewed, george. But with the recent guilty plea of Michael Flynn we have no clear indication that this investigation is anywhere near over. Okay, pierre, thanks very much. More on this from dan abrams here with me. Lets start out with this letter from the Trump Lawyers complaining about muellers obtaining these emails. Well, it seems there are two arguments. First of all that the organization that oversees the transitions, the gsa never should have turpined these over in the first place. That argument borders on frivolous because its interest their server. Government documents. Government documents and clear when you begin the process there is no expectation of privacy and this is a federal criminal probe so i dont think thats a real serious argument. The number two argument is the documents that they did receive involve privileged documents. Then they cite all sorts of privileges, one which doesnt make sense this idea that somehow there was a president ial communication privilege. Youre talking he wasnt president. He wasnt president yet. The one thats potentially series is Attorney Client and whats always very serious. The idea that some documents they obtained should be protected by the Attorney Client privilege. Theyllave to be very specific about what documents those were. Very specific about who the lawyer was, et cetera, and well have to see but even if Something Like that happen, the remedy is you cant use those documents. This first step was more a Public Relations maneuver. The idea of going to Congress First maybes it feel like a stunt because youre saying, oh, we want to make sure this doesnt happen again. Yeah, the next time there is a big issue about the president ial transition, we want to just make sure that, you know, that just doesnt make any sense. This was a statement from trumps team to the public saying, we want you to know we think this whole process has been unfair. One of the most significant things of the letter is that the trump team only found out about them this week. Look, that does indicate that they are not doing a great job of staying in contact with people who they probably should be to determine exactly where the investigation is. Because were talking about something that happened months ago that theyre only finding out about in the last week. Final question, this meeting between the Trump Lawyers and muellers team if it happens this week, significant . I think the only thing that could make it really significant is whether the discussion is does donald trump come in and talk to muellers team. Otherwise its just a typical conversation between lawyers and i dont think its that significant. Dan abrams, thanks very much. Paula. It is a busy day in washington. President trump is set to give a major speech on National Security. Congress meantime, is preparing tore that big vote on the republican tax bill as early as tomorrow. So lets go to our senior White House Correspondent cecilia vega for more. Good morning to you, cecilia. Reporter hey, good morning. You know what, the president said he wanted it on his desk by christmas and looks like hell get it. Lets look at what it would do for so many deductions so Many American families claim. It will reuse the amount you can claim on your mortgage by 750,000 and republicans really cant afford to lose many votes on this one. Senator john mccain is suffering and suffering from that rare form of brain cancer. He is back home in arizona in the wake of treatment so is expected to miss this vote but republicans, two key republican senators did end up flipping their votes froms to yes so looks like its all but a done deal and calling it a cripple gift for middle class families but this nonpartisan congressional tax analyst that says that those who stand to benefit the most, paula, are the rich and big corporations. Moving on, cecilia, today in washington the president is also going to lay out a new u. S. National security policy. What can we expect . Reporter weve been talking about aides. Two key headlines. He is expected to call china a strategic competitor and also going to take a break from the obamaera National Security policy and President Trump wants to make a big deal of it. Usually its not a ceremonial event. This will be a big speech for him. Cecilia reporting from the white house. Than thanks. Christmas just a week away and today may be your last chance to ship gifts without breaking the bank and Rebecca Jarvis here with details. What are the deadlines. Christmas falls on a monday which means you have the full weekend to shop but adlines come earlier so if you look at things today is one of the last days to get things out. Ree days, tomorrow, tuesday, s december 19th is the deadline forfedex express saver and u. S. Postal first class are your cheapest option, wednesday, december 20th, fedex twoday, u. P. S. Twoday air and u. S. Postal priority mail. Theyll cost you more but still get there by christmas. Thursday, december 21st, fedex overnight, u. P. S. Next day air and the last option, really here is friday, december 22nd, u. S. Postal Service Priority mail express will guarantee it gets there by christmas day. You also have the fedex same day option on christmas day. The longer you wait the more you pay. Exactly, you really need to get it done earlier. Lastminute shoppers, what are the best options. Amazon, frankly, if youre going to go online and make this happen online your best option is there because you if youre a prime member and you can sign up for the membership youve got twoday shipping on december 22nd, december 23rd, one day and can wait until the last minute christmas eve. Wow. If you need to. If you need to. Rebecca, thanks very much. Good thing santa is always on time. We want to go to ginger with more on the fog this morning across the south. As if you hey there, if you needed more of a challenge in atlanta thevisibility droppia quarter mile. Look at dallas, this is love field. The dense fog advisories in between louisiana, mississippi and alabama, too. Local weather in just a moment, select cities brought to you by walmart. Reporter good morning everyone, Storm Tracker 6 live double scan with most of our light sprinkles moving east of philadelphia. Theres a possibility of drizzle drop on your windshield in the northern suburbs. Slow it down in case theres a frozen patch here or there on the roads. Overall a decent morning to get around, not much wind, most of us in the 30s. Lease city hall on sky6 live hd. Breezy and beautiful tomorrow, 56. 45 wednesday and 42 thursday. S out for the first time live only on gma. With advils fast relief, youll ask, what pulled muscle . What headache . Nothing works faster to make pain a distant memory. Advil liquigels and advil liquigels minis. What pain . Were on a mission to show drip coffee drinkers, its time to wake up to keurig. Wakey wakey rise and shine oh my gosh how are you . Well watch this. I pop that in there. Press brew. Thats it. So rich. I love it. Thats why you should be a keurig man fullbodied. Are you sure youre describing the coffee and not me . Fullbodied. This holiday, the best gift you can give, is your time. Volunteer at neighbhorhoodofgood. Com. State farm. Give extra. Get extra. Good morning im tamala edwards, 7 23 a. M. , monday, december 18. Lets head over to matt pellman to take a look at traffic, good morning. Matt. Reporter tam, i know a lot of time people are having nightmares after fridays ride home on the schuylkill expressway. Now a big travel time on eastbound a minute over an hour to get to the blue route to the vine, police are on the scene four vehicle pileup. 202 to king of prussia single digit speeds. Ridge pike, route 2, route 30 alternates. Theres a wreck along 611 and horris avenue involving a pedestrian. Emergency crews on the scene there. Bad crash in wilmington, avoid Lancaster Pike westbound by 141, tam. Lets take a break and come back to your accuweather. At college inn we craft a deeper, richer broth because every detail matters. We select allnatural chicken and flavorful herbs and spices. College inn broth helps you make every meal delicious. College inn, d