good friday morning to you, it is christmas eve eve. i m jim sciutto. let s begin with the massive winter storm slamming the u.s. with dangerously low temperatures, record-breaking wind chills and heavy snow, only becoming stronger today. the storm stretching from the canadian border to the mexican border is expected to become what s known as a bomb cyclone as it moves into the great lakes today with intense pressures matching that of a category 2 hurricane. right now across the country hundreds of thousands are without power, travel plans upended for many going into the holiday weekend. more than 3,100 flights canceled already today. dozens of governors creating emergency response plans heading into this holiday weekend including opening temporary warming shelters just to get people out of the cold. i will speak with one of those governors, kentucky s andy beshear in just a moment. let s get to our team covering what s being called a once in a generation storm. we begin in u
generation storm. we begin in upstate new york where a blizzard warning is now in effect for the buffalo area. the city and neighboring communities forecasted to see feet of snow, major wind gusts approaching 70 miles per hour. cnn s polo sandoval braving the cold there. tell us what it s like. reporter: you know, jim, pictures tell you everything you need to know. i ve stood in many hurricanes, many tropical storms where the wind gusts of about 50 miles an hour and rising were slowly getting to at least tropical storm force winds here in buffalo. four hours ago i was standing here in a place zero rain, zero wind t just speaks to how fast the conditions have been deteriorating here in western new york. the intersection that you see behind me if you actually follow this street it will take you to the lakefront close to downtown buffalo and that s where a big part of the concern is right now. this isn t going to necessarily be a snow event, this is going
reduced to zero. people in the town described the scene as terrifying. we were like yelling and running around it in the hallways and going outside. no one knows what is going on because no one has ever seen this before. i thought at the were having a tornado. i almost cried. red dark sky dust was coming our way. i ducked like it wasn t going to take me away. all of sudden got pitch black. teachers reminded us not to look back because it was just wind t was pitch black outside. dirt like this i never seen it. been here five years and never seen that. jenna: haven t seen dirt like that either. no ininjuries were reported. the national weather service says the dust storm was a by-product of the persistent drought just wreaking half vok over texas right now. jon: that is so sad. new video of a tour bus crash just into our newsroom. rick folbaum has some more information on it. reporter: jon, scary moments this morning on the roadways just north of new york city.