Tracking temperatures in the 60s as we close in on christmas. Thats a good way to start monday. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [laughter] veronica in the middle of december. After the story about the airport, that makes it a little bit better. Autria we say good morning to you. Im autria godfrey. Adrianna and im adrianna hopkins, in for larry smith, who is caught up in this mess. Autria you ask yourself, what would i do . Veronica the weather cooperating, across the eastern storms,the country, no but things will be changing as we get closer to the holiday weekend. Dulles, 37 degrees. Gaithersburg, germantown. Even 37 right now. Fredericksburg, warrenton, just dipping below freezing over the last hour, warrenton included. Highs 50s across the area. 46, thatsperature, why we say it will feel a bit like a spring day for us as far as cloud cover goes today. We have seen some jerking through with the weather system that came through just a few hours ago. There will be a few clouds later today and a few clouds tomorrow, but still looking very pretty. Its all part of your weather headlines getting out the door. The coldest day will be the winter solstice on thursday and then we will talk about the rain and the timing coming up. Angela . Angela starting out and a great fashion on the weather side. A couple of hot spots, but for folks traveling on interstate 66, 1 dollar . 75 is the toll right now one dollar 70 five cents is your toll right now. We have picked up a serious the glenmont area on connecticut avenue. Three vehicles invve probably lane closures, be alert and be prepared to stop or be detoured through the stretch. Traveling on the red line this morning, we have got some track problems, so you will have delays on the red line towards shady grove road. Autria . Theia breaking overnight, outage is over. But the travel might mayor is not. And 11 our power outage at the Atlanta HartsfieldJackson International airport grounding thousands of flights, including flights in and out of dulles. That is where we find Suzanne Kennedy live this morning with the latest. Absolutely, despite the fact that the power is back on, the damage is done and there will be a cascading impact on what happened yesterday. Take a look behind me, we are at the delta counter. Who aree those here trying to fix their what happened early sunday afternoon. The outage was due to a fire in an underground area in an electrical facility that damaged the backup system. As a result, more than 1000 flights were impacted. The Atlanta Hartsfield airport is a hub for delta. Passengers spent the night in dark terminals while others were stuffed for hours on arriving or departing flights. As of around 10 55 last night, they recorded more than 1100 flights that were canceled. The number climbed overnight. My flight was bumped to about 8 45. My first little boy, his first birthday party, i got here in my flight was canceled. Suzanne is any good news for delta passengers it is the fact that in atlanta they have more aircraft and more flight attendants than anywhere else in the system simply because atlanta is the hub. We have a flight coming in here 7 15. Les at around we will check in with those people who spent the night in atlanta when they arrive. Reporting live, Suzanne Kennedy. I am in right now larrys seat this morning because he is stuck in atlanta and is hopping a flight back to dulles in a few hours. We will be checking in with him live at 6 45 to hear about his experience lacks night at Clarksville Jackson last night at Clarksville Jackson. We have no way of knowing at this time if our system may have been tampered with in order to create this kind of chaos and confusion. Adrianna atlanta saying that this outage could well be an act of terrorism. Hes waiting on final word about what could have caused this and he says in till they know for sure it is entirely possible that someone may have deliberately set it. Abc 7 is staying on top of every development, including the impact for you as you try to hop a flight. Autria also happening today, contracted workers at dulles are announcing a potential strike, saying they will walk off the job if their employer does not give them the right to join a union. The workers will announce whether they will be allowed to do that by 2 p. M. We are expecting new information this morning on the plane crash that killed people heading to maryland. It was on its way to frederick from kansas city when it went down in indiana. In a few hours we should learn the names of the people on board. Newanna county. Flames tearing through a home in burke. This was the scene. We know that firefighters called at least one alarm while working to get more details on what happened. We will update you as we learn more information. Family and friends in california saying their goodbyes to the firefighter who died battling the thomas fire. The support for iversen was remarkable as dozens lined up to watch the funeral procession as it traveled through the charred hillside. What was most impressive to me was the show of support of all the citizens that were standing here with american flags. They were here with their sons and their daughters to support cory and his family. Iversen is the second person to die in the thomas fire. So far it has burned 400 square acres and burned 750 homes and this morning it is not even 50 contained. John mccain is back in his home state of arizona after being released from walter reed. That means he will miss this weeks critical tax vote, but his absence is not expected to affect the outcome. Mccain had been hospitalized for side effects of his Cancer Treatment and he is now recovering at the mayo clinic there in arizona and says he looks forward to returning to washington in january. The 1. 5 trillion tax overhaul will be this years first major legislative a competent for President Trump and gop leaders. The treasury secretary says that by lowering business taxes, wages will rise and jobs will be created. Breaking overnight, the Carolina Panthers will soon be up for sale after the owner was accused of misconduct. In a letter to the Team Richardson says he believes its time to turn the franchise over to new ownership and will put it up for sale t this comes after Sports Illustrated reported that the team settled with for former employees regarding sexual harassment. Today, making noise in dce people who plan to protest by doing nothing but shouting. Plus . My gosh. And out of this world report. The millions of dollars the pentagon didnt want you to know it was spending and the at the d. C. Lottery, we not only love this place as much as you do, we heard you loud and clear when you voted for six new neighborhood scratchers. Dont forget to enter the secondchance drawing. You could win 500,000 that may be used towards buying a home in your favorite neighborhood. Happy monday morning. Im in this morning with meteorologist alex liggitt, getting ready you for the work week. Unfortunately, our days will start slipping off towards the end where i can say that unfortunate fortunately if you want the cold, the first day of winter, today and tomorrow, upper 50s is expected in a few especially tomorrow. Tickets force a gets four stars today and tomorrow. 30 degree temperatures this morning with clouds around 55 to 56. The temperature by the time you get off the bus, under a partly sunny sky. Milder conditions this morning across the area. Some of our computer guidance showing that there could be other pockets across the area early on tuesday. Something that we will be watching, taking a look at the new information coming in. We will track the colder air and our next chance for rain, coming up. No major troubles on the main roads . Angela you can see behind me on the big picture map, in the green for the most part. Traveling into Silver Spring we are starting to see some color on the outer loop. We sky track 7 in the beaten glenmont area, they are quickly leaving the scene because the lanes have been reopened northbound on connecticut avenue. You may see some residual delays, but quickly back to the map as we update you on whats happening for the folks making that ride, the lanes are still blocked eastbound. Road, you may have to you are watching good morning washington, on your side. Autria the secretary of be in baltimore today. Adrianna but not all of the students she will be speaking with one her there. Melanie hastings is at a live desk to explain why. Melanie students have protested over the last few weeks, saying that betsy devos shouldnt be invited to speak because she is hostile to Public Education and indifferent to civil rights. You should be so proud of yourself. Of course, they are no stranger to protest like this one. In february of last year protesters try to stop you from entering Jefferson Middle School in dce in d. C. Spokesmansport says that security plans are in place for todays speech. Whom adrianna there is a rally outside the center for Disease Control office because of a Washington Post article that said that the Trump Administration recently banned seven words and fruit seven words and phrases including fetus, evidencebased, and sciencebased. At 8 20 the protesters went to shout those in a show of support for scientists. Are we alone in this big universe . Apparently the pentagon will pay millions to figure out if the truth is out there. Look at that thing. That mysterious black object that was recorded in 2004, it was part of the pentagons advanced aviation threat identification program. They ran the covert office for five years. Something like this was a pet project by senator reid and some of his colleagues. Something they thought needed to be investigated. The real question is, was it worth 22 million for two or three fascinating videos . Autria the pentagon confirming that they ended the program in favor of other higher priority issues. Steelers fans waking up pretty upset this morning after a call that cost them the game. Here it is, down three with 30 seconds left. To jesse james for the touchdown. At least it looked like a touchdown. But take a good look and watch as james falls to the ground. The ball comes loose. The referees take another look and its called incomplete. On the next play hes picked off and the patriots take this one, 27 to 24. A wild call to a weird way to measure a first down. Take a look. Never seen this. Looking at it from above . You have to raise that to a 90 degree angle, right . It has to be dead vertical. He put a card in between it. It. Hat is one way to do a spot so close t place it between the ball and the stick even to measure. They gave dallas the first down. 6 he has got a technique, thats what it is. Autria i dont understand what it did. 6 i dont know. You now how we have the quirks in the way that we do things . Thats it. [laughter] are you a raiders fan this morning . [laughter] whats going on with the weather . The truth, legit, it will be mild today. The temperatures, well above average by 10 degrees. Averagelooking at the High Temperature that we would typically hit, 46 degrees, on the right. Way warm. Looking at your hourbyhour forecast today, upper 30s and upper 40 11 a. M. This morning, continuing 2 00, 3 00, ad Beautiful Day for doing some of that lastminute shopping. I say lastminute it is who waits this late . Lots of people. My husband, for one. And hes probably watching. Thursday we will get a temperature drop. We had a system coming through this morning that gave us a tiny chance for rain but because we are so much above freezing, not seeing anything slick spots. Rain coming your way on saturday with a front coming this holiday weekend. Look at the temperature. Wanted to show you the wider view here. Look at it,rday, from new york city down south of the gulf of mexico, the system then gets hung up and pushes back to the west with a slight we might have to add showers to sunday. Monday, currently, Christmas Day looking dry with the perhaps fall as the front comes through. Christmas day, your forecast, folks, with High Temperatures at 58 degrees. Six 21, dont talk about the people, maybe some of them planned to shop today after work. So we are ok. Or they are ok. We are doing ok around the capital beltway, but for the folks on 66, what you want to know right now is your tolls are at 4. 75 headed into the district. Getting to the capital beltway on eastbound 66 we are starting to see the sluggish flow of traffic to the sutley area. Through manassas you will have plenty of brake lights. Nothing to get in your way on your trip towards the capital beltway. In the meantime we have the overturned vehicle in Upper Marlboro on brown road. Prince georges county police will be there to direct you around. That is the watch. Autria coming up, a scare for skiers. What went wrong that led to this scene on the slopes . First, your weather on the go, an early look at your christmas forecast. Z2momz zi0z y2momy yi0y it feels good to be back. You are watching good morning washington, on your side. Of skiers injured after a chairlift malfunctioned. Kendis gibson has the latest. Gma firstrning in the look, these are the terrifying moments for a group of skiers, stuck dangling dangerously from their ski lift at least 20 feet in the air. Take a look at these photos, police say that a malfunction occurred on the left. The resort telling abc news that one of the chairs slipped backwards, causing a domino effect, sandwiching passengers, trapping them between the chairs. My jaw drop. I just sat there for a while and just watched everybody. Was watching the Emergency Personnel come up. They were on the scene right away. Five people were injured. Rescuers taking an hour to lower them to the ground, one by one. With your gma first look, kendis gibson. And wed like you to be part of ours. So our chevy employee discount is now available to everyone. You pay what we pay. And not a cent more. Were so happy to share this with you. And welcome to the family. The chevy family. Use your employee discount for everyone to get fortyfive hundred dollars below msrp on this 2018 chevy equinox. Find new roads at your local chevy dealer. Just became whatever whayoure about to dout to do after you get coffee. Nothing comes before coffee. Thats why were introducing a new line of cafequality espresso drinks from mccafe. Get a small peppermint mocha for just two dollars. Now, good morning washington, on your side. The power outage might be gone, but the delays are here to stay. What to expect this morning after a massive blackout in atlanta . Adrianna im in larrys share this morning because he is one of the thousands of travelers stuck in that mess, stranded at the airport. I can imagine being in an airport that they and the lights go out . So scary. Autria i would have a heart attack. Adrianna that i would go to a hotel to try to come down. Terrifying. Be backthe lights might on, but the delays, its a Ripple Effect across the country. The good news is that veronica has been saying there are no weather delays out there. None whatsoever. Nothing traumatic, weatherwise at all. Out the door this morning, just a jacket is what you will need. A warm jacket with a heavy coat they can stay away until midweek. Midtoupper 30s this morning. 51 at lunchtime, its 56 for your afternoon rush. Today will feel nice. Damp roads, just a few out there this morning with some overnight rain. Not seeing any slick conditions. Temperatures have been above freezing for a good chunk of the night. We got a green light for heading home. The next big system we will be keeping our eye midweek. Taking a look at the midatlantic, watch the rain as it comes through north carolina. There is some indication from some of the guidance that it will beginning closer to us but for right now we will be keeping an eye on that. Windchill temperatures wednesday, continuing to drop into the 30s, coming up. Angela we continue to monitor the closure on eastwest highway for folks traveling to hyattsville. Sky track 7 over the scene, eastbound lanes are blocked and what we are doing is alternating traffic using the westbound lanes to get by. Westbound getting by, it will be a slow go for you. Take university boulevard, New Hampshire avenue, that will all to you around it. In a meantime, we have got an accident with an overturned vehicle in Upper Marlboro. As you approach ritchie marlboro road on brown road, we have got prince theyre waiting on the tow truck. Hopefully, that will be out of your way, momentarily. Delays on the red line, headed towards shady grove, we have got a signal problem causing those delays. Autria . Great gifts to the middle income people of this country for christmas. Autria President Trump promising big changes from the gop tax plan, one that will likely pass in a number of days. At the liveings is desk. What does it mean for the average person . Melanie the middle class will get an increase in the standard induction. But there are concerns that the gops final tax will will unfairly benefit wealthy americans over the middle class. Friday, two senators who said they would vote against the bill to pledge their support, bob corker and marco rubio. Meaning republicans should have the suppt this could be this years first major a competent for President Trump and gop leaders. Steve mnuchin says that by these taxes, wages will rise and jobs will be created. The vote could come as soon as tomorrow. John mccain, in the hospital, his absence not expected to affect the outcome of the vote. The gop has a majority in the senate. President trump weighing in on accusations that the special counsel at the head of the russian accusation improperly obtained emails. The president saying that he is not worried. Cant imagine that there is a thing on them, frankly. As we said, there is no collusion. Adrianna the trunk transition lawyers say that Robert Mueller acted unlawfully but he has no the expansion of its safe Drug Disposal program. Joined by the d. C. Attorney general and police chief. For the first time you will be able to bring unused medication to select locations in d. C. And it will be disposed of in a safe and environmentally family manner. Muriel bowser is declaring war on rats. Today she will take part in a Community Walk in ward six as part of a Community Demonstration for an innovative rat abatement tactic using dry ice. P. M. Att starts at 3 12th and eighth streets in northwest. Toria well, the countdown the Royal Wedding is on and now you can save the date. Kensington palace announcing that prince harry and Meghan Markle will tie the knot in 2018. The couple will involved in the planning and they will say there i dos at st. Georges chapel in windsor castle. Windsor is a special place. He was baptized there. He and megan spent a lot of time there. Its a place that they really enjoy. Its also the place that his father and stepmother received a blessing in 2005. What royal tradition they plan to keep is the carriage ride. Adrianna right now we are on your side with a little holiday stress relief. 100 gift card to hand and stone massage. number seven is the winner. The number to call is 7035287334. If you dont win this one, keep it right here, we have another gift card giveaway in about 20 minutes. Good luck to you. Also new this morning, whats not to newest panda cub. People have to enter into a lottery to get into the viewing area, its so popular. Camera, a heartfelt rescue in maryland. Why this effort to save a life could turn into a lifelong friendship. Mild today, even though the winter solstice arrives on thursday. Autria check this out. A dog, rescued from freezing water in prince georges county. Thats a 10yearold woman retriever who fell down the embankment. Rescuers brought the dog back to the firehouse, they dried him out, warm jim up, they fed him, gave him inept. If they cannot find the owner, the firefighter who rescued him plans to adopt them. Talk about a lifelong friend. So cute. It melts your help your heart. The mild temperatures will continue to go up today. It was a pretty nice weekend and we are morning here. Ashburn, virginia, centreville, you are at 33. One of the colder pockets out there. I have seen a lot of upper 30s to lower 40s. Today, 55 degrees if youre headed out to the food truck for lunch. Its a great day for that. Tomorrow, temperatures in the 60s. Trackrees by 7 00, i will the rain and the best chance for rain, coming up. Veronica got a track problem their advance. The tolls are five dollars from the capital beltway into the district. Lets go to sky track 7 if we can. The water break is on eastwest highway where the lanes are completely blocked and we are using the westbound lanes to get both sides of traffic through. Try to be prepared and packed her patience. Quickly as we head back to t going on in terms of accident activity, clearing it crash on 236. Adrianna thousands of travelers with nowhere to go, including larry smith. We are checking on the delays live with him in atlanta, coming up next. Twitter, pulling the plug. What does the site what if more of the came from Renewable Resources . What if the electric grid could detect, fix and even prevent Power Outages . What if our grid were less vulnerable and more secure . What if all these what ifs became a reality . Well, they are. At dominion energy, were completely transforming our power grid and the way we think of energy. To move from what if to whats next. Dominion energy. Your attention, please. An emergency has been reported in the building. A complete nightmare. Autria breaking overnight, the lights are back on atlanta. Adrianna 11 hours of Power Outages leading to massive delays up and down the east coast. One of the thousands of people stock, our very own larry smith. Autria you have been forced to put on your reporter hat this morning. Whats it like down there . Larry its crazy. They just a drop me off with a railroad car, its a half hour process. Stranded, trying to not only get to where but just trying to find their luggage. It is full power now, thats the good thing. Adrianna i couldnt imagine being there in that huge airport, busy as it is, and then the lights go out . Larry i was talking to people last night, some were sitting on the tarmac for five hours and than once they were released there was nowhere to go, there was no information because there were no computers. Everyone was literally in the dark. People just Walking Around trying to find a hotel, couldnt get car service to the terminal because they were not allowing any cars appear. Today again it will be a long day if you are right, there are Ripple Effects across the country. Well, hopefully you make your flight without any issues in we will see you back here when you get home. Larry thank you, guys. Adrianna safe travels. Autria Suzanne Kennedy is at dulles this morning with how things are there. Suzanne . Well, in just a little while, we will have one of the first flights come into dulles International Airport and it really interesting to hear what those people have to say about how they were impacted with this incident that took place, obviously, on sunday afternoon. The outage was due to a fire, as we have been mentioning, in an underground facility that also damage the backup system. As a result, more than 1000 flights were canceled. From the event International Airport there, we have more than 900 flights. Its a hub for lot of people were impacted. Passengers spent the night in dark terminals, as you heard from larry. Here is what one person that we talked with this morning had to say. We can go, but in atlanta there is no flights. Not a connecting flight at all. I dont know. The plan for vacation, gone. That person, very disappointed by their circumstance. When they turn around, they had no way to get to the Cayman Islands from atlanta and they will the going home to start from scratch. They had been looking forward to that vacation. If there is a silver lining, its the fact that it happened in the delta hub. Be able toopefully get staff and equipment to the airport as quickly as possible. We have got a flight coming in at 7 14 this morning and we will try to catch up with passengers to find out their situation overnight. Reporting live, Suzanne Kennedy. Autria chickfila workers, delivering meals on a sunday. Thats how you know it was serious there. They are usually closed on sundays, as you know, but they made an exception last night to help the people stranded in atlanta. Abc 7 is staying on top of every development, including the impact it will have on you if you try to grab the flight. We will have the latest as soon as it comes in. New overnight, a massive response and fairfax county. Flames tearing through a home. This is the scene last night. In the last few minutes we learned the fire started on the porch. Two people were inside of that home, but they were able to get out on their own. Still a word, exactly, on how the fire started. The thomas fire northwest of los ang 45 contained, but firefighters are dealing with another strong round of wins. They are trying to prevent the fire from spreading to the homes there. The thomas fire has been spreading for two weeks now, becoming the Third Largest in californias history. Destroyed 750 homes. To the twitter promised crackdown on file and hate speech, it begins today. Melanie hastings is at the live desk with the details. Whats going on here . Earlier this year twitter announced that they would change their moderation policies, including new prohibitions on hateful imagery and display names and those who or display bios names to engage in abusive behavior and they said they would Police Violent hate speech on and off the platform. In the past few months, users one gotten mixed sick rules how it will work. In the last month, the site verified Jason Kessler the organizer of the violent neonazi rally in virginia, later halting verifications to review policies. We will have to wait and see the full impact of the change. Theanna a big shakeup in nfl this morning. They owner of the Carolina Panthers says he is selling his team after an investigation heats up into allegations of sexual workplace misconduct against him. The panthers settled with at least four former employees regarding at appropriate Workplace Behavior by richardson. The nfl says it is now investigating. Announcement, already garnering a lot of interest in the team. Ditty, music mogul, tweeting out that he wants to buy the panthers. He promised that if he comes the owner, it will sign cap her neck, have the best halftime shows, and win multiple super bowls. Seth curry says he wants a deal, at 2. 4 billion. The critical shipping headline deadline today. Today is the absolute last day to mail your gift in time for christmas using amazon standard shipping. Its also the last day for ups three day shipping. The other major deadline you need to know about, tomorrow, tuesday, the most popular cut off date for retailers to make sure that your packages arrive on time. After that you will have to pay more for expedited shipping with most sellers. This next story will warm your heart for the holidays. Adrianna an xbox being given to a nine euro boy by microsoft because his as he rejected the offer to have it purchased for him and wanted to spend the money on the homeless. He was once homeless himself and wanted to spend the 300 on blankets. He knew what it was like to not have a blanket. Thing you wanted to do was get a blanket he could keep. Surprised withs an xbox by microsoft. Employees at the Microsoft Store gave him plenty of games and accessories to go with his gift. What a happy kid, too. Veronica happy before he got the xbox. Thats great. Adrianna veronica a pretty sunrise. The best sunrise is when we have a few clouds out there to work with, you might say. From sunshine to more sunshine, very mild temperatures today, bus stop this morning, not too cold at all. Etween 45 and 33 degrees into the mid 50s today, great day to be out. This will be your warmest day of the work week. Given this evening, it will be quiet. A fairly mild evening. Milder air coming our way for the overnight, mainly a little biof we get ready to roll towards 60 degrees tomorrow afternoon. We are tracking some changes, tuesday and wednesday, 45 degrees for thursday. The first they of thursday, the winter solstice, arriving on thursday. With a little bit of wind and a cold front coming through, the wind chill factor. Upper 30s on wednesday, not touch of a difference thursday. The coldest day is coming up midweek. As far as Christmas Day, take a look. We are talking about temperature mid50s. He around syracuse, rain in nashville, making its way very slowly out to the east. It may have to introduce more rain into the forecast for your monday. Right now, Christmas Day, 58 degrees and mild. We will talk more about your extended forecast on news channel 8. Hope you join us there. Five dollars is the district 66 right now. Hyattsville, the chillum area, if you have not heard, 400 10 eastwest highway, these are your lanes that are completely blocked. We are using the westbound side to get traffic through in both directions. Take university boulevard or New Hampshire boulevard, any of those to get around the closure. Making the ride on the capital beltway, collision reported near connecticut avenue on the outer loop. We are already slow traveling from 95 to 270. It will cost you 25 minutes on that ride. Garrisonville, the drive time now is 26 minutes from dale city to the capital beltway. Thats 95 in virginia. Traffic land cameras on 95 in maryland, dealing with a crash southbound after maryland 32 on your approach to 216. That is your latest from traffic watch. Adrianna abc 7 stress relief. A 100 gift card to hand and stone massage. Pick up the phone right now and treat yourself. number seven wins, 7035287334 collar number seven wins, 7035287334 collar number the caller who is seventh, wins,. Wins, 7035287334. Warsa the newest star installment brought in 270 million, the second highest Opening Weekend of all time, second only to its predecessor. Once international showings are factored in, it is expected to have made a total of 450 streaming and gaming are only as good as your internet. So get the best internet with the 100 fiberoptic network. With fios gigabit connection you get the Fastest Internet available with download speeds up to 940 megs plus tv and phone for just 79. 99 per month online with showtime and multiroom dvr Service Included with a twoyear agreement. Switch now and get out of your contract with up to a 500 credit to help cover your early termination fee. Get our best new offer. Go to getfios. Com good morning, america. Holiday travel nightmare. A blackout at the worlds Busiest Airport sparks chaos and confusion. Thousands of passengers suddenly in the dark in atlanta. Planes stranded for hours and people forced to sleep on chairs and floors and more than a thousand flights canceled. The rip effect and how it will affect you. President trump and the republicans on the verge of passing that massive reform even with senator john mccain facing that Health Battle and missing the vote. The president still promising a Christmas Gift for the middle