seems a little odd that the black kid are there with a white santa. it s all good. to each his own. you was scared of santa. he s got the cutest things. you can t really see my phone. there s a black santa and white santa stocking that we found. ryan, you re the best. thank you. cnn this morning continues right now. so glad that you could join us this morning on the eve before the eve of christmas. good morning, everyone. poppy and kaitlan are off and i m here with the lovely and smart and talented sara seidner. i was wondering where you were going with that but you re good. we re going to catch you up on the five big stories this morning. more than half the population is under winter storm and wind chill alerts as a major storm moves across the country. it s not like a snow day when you were a kid. this is serious stuff. please take this storm extremely seriously. more than 820,000 power customers are in the dark, thousands of flights have been cancel
pass a $1.7 trillion spending bill. that s trillion with a t, folks. republicans calling it a terrible christmas gift for americans already feeling the pain from high inflation. listen. we re two days away from christmas. the christmas season is a season of giving. but in congress, it appears the season of giving will line the pockets of democrats special interests and stick the hard-working americans with the tab. in moments, new york republican congresswoman nicole malliotakis. but first to senior congressional correspondent chad pergram reporting live from capitol hill where all of the action is happening today. chad? anita, the house and senate are now aligned on the omnibus. the vote 225 to 201. one democratic nay. alexandria ocasio-cortez. nine gop yays. most gop members railed against the bill as republicans claims the majority on january 3. in 11 days, this all changes. we re going to reclaim this body s integrity and service the american people. after this in
it led to very high water. we had flooding that occurred further east out long island. at the battery in lower manhattan, that was the highest water level since super storm sandy in 2012. you show this, 1.3 million power outages in that cluster in the mid-atlantic and up to the northeast. that s all related to the powerful wind gusts. look at this. for the middle and eastern part of the country, you re waking up on christmas eve. these feels-like temperatures are windchills. they re brutal. six below. first thing in new york city, 14 below in chicago. look at bismarck. close to 40 degrees below zero first thing saturday morning, a knee that? yikes. 47 degree temperature drop in new york city overnight. that is wild. it couldn t be worse timing either. the busiest travel day of the year. bundle up, avoid being out on the roads, if you can. anita: a lot of people putting power on their christmas
the storm system is beginning to more closer to the eastern shore of lake erie. you can see the roads are still relatively drivable. that s because the temperature has not plummeted as much as it expected to later today. here in buffalo, about an hour s drive south from here recorded an eight degree temperature drop in only six minutes. that gives you insight and perspective into how fast things will change and deteriorate. we were here last month when we saw record snowfall. this is not going to be so much a snow event as it will be a freezing and flooding event. the intersection behind me, if you take a left, you eventually end up on the lakefront. that s why there s a mandatory evacuation order south of here. is it necessarily the flooding i m sorry, is it necessarily the snow but the flooding in some of those coastal communities that could potentially see up to two feet
the wind chills will be as low as 60 degrees below zero. these are dangerous conditions, prolonged exposure on naked skin could lead to frostbite. colorado s governor activating the national guard. the denver coliseum is converted into a 24 hour warming center. nearly 1,000 flights, probably more than that canceled across the nation. chicago s o hare airport leading the way. denver s airport following after that and denver actually saw a very rapid temperature drop. 37 degree temperature drop in just an hour. there is some good news on the horizon. the temperatures are expected o start by christmas. they could see highs of 50 degrees fahrenheit. with the cold weather comes a strong flu season.