of the state. buffalo and other cities are struggling to dig out of 43 inches of snow and freezing temperatures and power outages. i ll talk with the buffalo police commissioner this hour. many americans are still feeling the effects of the arctic blast, including millions of air travelers. southwest airlines experiencing massive disruptions, with more than 65% of its flights canceled just today, adding to the holiday travel chaos. also tonight, vladimir putin claims he s ready to negotiate a solution to the ukraine war, but a key ukrainian official says the russian president needs to get back to reality, as moscow continues to slaughter innocent civilians. welcome to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. we begin this hour with the deadly weather emergency in western new york. governor kathy hochul is calling it, and i m quoting her, the blizzard of the century and she is warning it is far from over.
our dive team, our scuba dive team, they ve got all the warm weather gear. they re used to being on top of the ice. our s.w.a.t. team, we re working with the new york state police, but the s.w.a.t. teams, new york state fire, parts, corrections, everybody is bringing equipment. we ve got numerous search and rescue teams divided in various parts of the city and they re working through calls. commissioner, what should fellow buffalonians be doing to stay safe? stay home. don t go out. the unfortunate thing, we re seeing a lot of cars are driving on the street and they are becoming a part of the problem. some of them are getting stuck and blocking our recovery efforts. unfortunately, that s what we re doing is recovery efforts. we have the fire department out doing ems calls. we need people to stay home. nothing is open. you re safest in the house. i couldn t be more proud of the work that our police department