Now his apology. I had a severe and continuous lapse in my judgment. Why hasnt youtube pulled his account. Assive lottery prizes up for grabs after no one strikes it rich on Mega Millions overnight combined with powerball now the jackpot is worth more than 850 million. And we do say good morning, america. Perhaps winning that big jackpot would make you forget how cold it them. 15 states are on alert for that bitter winter blast. You look at that storm right there. It is taking aim at the entire east coast causing trouble on the roads. Look at that statue that froze in that state. The know and ice is moving north and ginger starts us off. Explain what the bomb cyclone is. Many of us have never heard about it but you say its rather cory winter. A bomb cyclone youve seen that on social media and gone, oh, no, whats happening. This storm, it is powerful form, already freezing rain and snow in georgia and north florida. You have a coastal storm coming at you. A lot of warm air on one im ta colder than weve seen this winter coming in on the back end. That temperature gradient helps to make this storm deepen rapidly. The pressure falls 24 millibars in 24 hours or more and as that deepens and it will by thursday night it is going to bomb out as we call it close you will see extreme wind, certainly heavy snow in some places and it is going to make travel nearly impossible so weve got those warnings up and down, blizzard warnings in maine and eastern massachusetts where eva pilgrim is this morning. Reporter good morning, ginger. It is already freezing here. We are here south of boston at what would normally be a very busy ferry terminal. It is closed down this morning. The problem, this right here, ice, that dock behind me is closed because it is frozen over. And more cold weather is headed this way. The eastern half of the country crippled by severe Winter Weather. Blinding snow in buffalo, grounding planes at the airport and causing a deadly pileup on this highway. One person losing their life and another seriously injured after 22 vehicles crashed along the new york thruway. Hundreds of cars backed up with nowhere to go completely shutting down a portion of the highway. You couldnt see a gosh darn thing in front of you. Reporter 25 states under Winter Weather alerts. On frozen waterways like the hudson and chicago rivers crews working to break up the ice by whatever means they can. This is the sound of a ferry breaking through the icy waters of lake superior. Subzero temps also freezing water mains causing them to burst in massachusetts. Missouri and in baltimore, turning the street into an ice rink. A brutal commute for those in chicago. I cant even describe it. Its unbearable. An er doctor h telling us theyve seen more than a dozen cases of frostbite in just the last few days. The deep freeze heading south. Cars sliding along icy highways in houston. The thing to remember is if you get into ice, dont jam on the brakes, youll put a lot of steering input into it. Reporter one of the Major Concerns is a higher than normal storm surge as it comes in on the back side of this, even colder temperatures. Robin. All right. Eva, as you alluded to the south getting hit so we go to Victor Oquendo in tallahassee as schools are closing as a storm moves in there. Good morning. Reporter thats right, good morning, robin. Riding along with the florida Highway Patrol along interstate 10. You can hear that cold rain coming down. Parts shut down because of the icy conditions and seen a number of accident, cars slipping all over i10 as well. Captain ryan martina nice enough to give us a ride. The patrol car was frozen over. It was. Ever seen anything like it. Very uncommon. A look at another uncommon sight. This fountain completely frozen over. See all that ice. The problem with ice in florida, not exactly a state equipped to ham those types of conditions so now being told instead of salt, theyll now be laying down sand to battle all ice and snow accumulating here. It doesnt get more florida than that. Combating the snow and ice with sand. A way of looking at it. I love how the officer kept his eyes on the road. Doing his job. Lets bring in ginger. The storm isn on the track. You can hear it in victors shot. That is sleet and he was talking about freezing rain that was glazing the cars. That happened in lake city, florida, and you could see tent start to accumulate. As the storm that developing low starts to push north, it throug and georgia this morning then South Carolina and North Carolina this afternoon and tonight and thatall those scho down throughout the southeast. It clips the midatlantic, the farther east you are, the more snow and the more wind you tigh storm that is off the coast that is where youre going to see the heaviest snow and certainly wind gusts, 0 Miles Per Hour. Some of the places here in new england could have over a foot. Robin. Oh, my, okay, ginger, well get back to you in a bit. Airlines bracing for the travel chance to reschedule or cancel their flights now before the worst of it hits and our Senior Transportation correspondent david kerley is at Reagan National tracking the latest. Good morning, david. Reporter good morning, robin. Some of gingers colleagues, the forecasters have been watching this storm too and know its going to cause problems. Especially at airports that dont normally deal with these cold, icy conditions so starting this morning at jacksonville they start to expect some problems and theyre canceling flights and north, a couple of big hubs will be affected. Atlanta and charlotte so theyre all watching this very closely, already a couple of hundred flights have been delayed today. A couple hundred cancel mostly in the southeast and there is concern for the airlines that their passengers will be affected so offering waivers. This means if you have a flight to the affected area in the southeast all airlines are saying we wont charge you a change fee. There are other areas being covered by some of the airlines. Check with your airline. If you want to stay away from the storm you could get that change fee waived. Robin. Good to know. David, thank you. The latest now on the standoff between President Trump and north koreas leader kim jongun. As the two leaders escalate their war of words over Nuclear Weapons there are new signs this morning of possible cooperation between north and south korea with the restoration of a hotline to reduce tensions between the two countries. Lets bring in Martha Raddatz and, martha, the president s tweet last night really sparked a huge reaction on social media. Reporter it sure did, george. Social media lit up over this one with fear and shock and some calling for the president s twitter account to be shut down. The tweet came in response to kim jongun saying he had a Nuclear Button on his desk. President trump in what sounds like a playground taunt about manhood tweeting i too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger and more powerful one than his and my button works and as we read that, a reminder were talking about nuclear war here with a north korean dictator who values nothing more than his personal power and comes as kim jongun is perfecting a Nuclear Tipped Missile that could reach the u. S. , of course, we also have tens of thousands of american troops in the region, george. Yeah, that rhetoric alarming. At the same time you see this possible rapprochement between the north and south between the north and south koreans. Reporter hes liking trying to create a wedge but there is great relief this Communications Line between the north and south is once again reopened after two years of silence, that line is on the border there in the socalled truce village. There may be inperson talks next week which would largely center on whether north korea would participate in the olympics but it is a start and south korean Officials Say this will not hurt its relationship with the u. S. Although the u. S. Says any talks wont be taken seriously if the north does not stop its nuclear program, george. Yeah, martha, in some past olympics north and south korea have competed together. Under the same flag and i think thats what the south is hoping for here. Thanks very much. That tweet on north korea just one of 16 the president sent yesterday and new years burst from the white house. Cecilia vega is there and, cecilia, they included in that burst fresh attacks on Hillary Clinton and the president s own Justice Department. Reporter not to mention a major Conspiracy Theory attacking the Justice Department as a deep state working to undermine his presidency. On Hillary Clinton he is going after huma abedin suggesting she should be punished for her handling of certain government emails. Take a look at that tweet. He said, quote, jail deep state Justice Department must finally act, also on comey and others. Now, right here in the Briefing Room i asked Sarah Sanders whether he believes the deep state is a real thing and whether he believes the entire 100,000 people in the Justice Department are part of it. She said to me, quote, obviously he doesnt believe the entire Justice Department is part of it. But he is keeping up the pressure right there. He has been unhappy with his attorney, jeff sessions, congress is back today as well. One of the things they pushed off they passed that tax bill was the spending bill for the whole next year so creates the possibility again of a Government Shutdown in january. Reporter yeah, were just days away from it on the 19th. There will be a big meeting on capitol hill and top republican, Top Democrats from nancy pelosi, chuck schumer, representatives of the president will be in that room and have 16 days to keep this government open. The da deal is likely to be part of that. Democrats are certainly going to try to tie a fix for these undocumented immigrants brought to this country illegally as children to that now. Senior officials tell me the president wants funding for a border wall as part of that. He needs democrats to get this fix done but, george, as youve seen hes bashing them and back to bashing them on twitter again so 2018 sounding a lot like 2017. Democrats not likely to go along with the wall, thanks very much. President trump facing big changes on capitol hill losing a key ally, utah senator orrin hatch announced he will retire at the end of this term. A lot of speculation mitt romney will run for his seat. Our senior Congressional Correspondent mary bruce has more. Good morning, mary. Reporter good morning, robin. Well, this is a real setback for the president. Orrin hatch, the longest serving Senate Republican is the top trump supporter here on the hill. But despite even personal pleas from the president hatch announced he is retiring after 41 years here, the former boxer said its time to hang up his gloves. This now opens the door for mitt romney to make a possible run for the utah seat. Romney has become an outspoken critic of the president and could be a powerful foe on the hill. He hasnt said what he plans to do next but check this out overnight he changed the locator on his twitter account from massachusetts where he was once the former governor to utah where he is a longtime resident. Everyone up here reading these twitter tea leaves to try to figure out what he might do next. When he did that people are like, hmm, whats up here. Orrin hatch is just the latest powerful republican to indicate that hes going to leave office. What does this mean, mary, for the midterms . Reporter yeah, were seeing a real exodus, hatch joins jeff flake and bob corker in announcing they will not seek reelection while in the house you have at least 28 republicans who announced plans to retire or resign. Now, many of these are lawmakers from deep red states, but this does make what is expected to be an already difficult Election Year for republicans even more difficult and, remember, republicans have already lost that key seat in alabama, the Democrat Doug Jones is expected or will be sworn in here later today. That brings the Senate Republican margin down to just one vote which will make their agenda likely more difficult to pass. Does seem that way. Okay, mary, thank you. Retimes a big tea leaf. The latest on the swatting incident that led to the death of a 28yearold father accused of placing the call due in court this morning and matt gutman has the story, good morning, matt. Reporter hey, good morning. We are now learning that the suspect is believed to have been behind dozens of similar swatting calls. Hes even served time for swatting. The kabc building im standing inig believed the fatal call was triggered about i a dispute by two online gamers neither of whom had any apparent connection to their victim. I have shot him in the head and hes not breathing anymore. Reporter this morning Wichita Police are investigating how this chilling 911 call from a man claiming to have shot his father led to the death of an innocent unarmed man over a thousand miles away. Thursday night Kansas City Police raced to the wichita, kansas, address where the caller claims to be Holding Family members hostage. I already poured gasoline all over the house. I might set it on fire. Do you have weapons on you. Yeah, i do. Reporter but when Police Arrive they dont find the alleged caller, tyler barriss. He was 1300 miles away in los angeles, allegedly playing a but officers dont know that. So when 28yearold andrew finch opens the front door, officers surround his house and order him to put his hands up. Show your hands. Reporter its at this Moment Police say he lowered them. One officer fearing finch was reaching for a gun opens fire killing him. Investigators believe that fifrp was a victim of swatting in which a person reporting false criminal activity in order to trigger a s. W. A. T. Team response against an unwitting person. Even celebrities like justin bieber, Ashton Kutcher and miley cyrus have been victims of swatting in the past and swatters themselves are notoriously hard to pin down. These cases are difficult to investigate because they happen online. And these hackers oftentimes are very sophisticated about covering up their identity. Reporter now the mother of the innocent victim in that deadly prank is looking for answers. My son wouldnt have hurt anything, he said they did not give him a warning. Reporter now finchs mother says she wants the Police Officer who pulled the trigger charged. But first we are likely to see barriss extradited to kansas, possibly to face charges of Second Degree murder. Now, whats so disturbing, george, Law EnforcementOfficials Say hundreds of these swatting calls are made every year. Unbelievably irresponsible. Thanks very much. We switch gears to the lottery jackpots climbing in the new year. Powerball is still out there as well and now the two jackpots combined more than Erielle Reshef here to break down the numbers. Lets start with the biggest ones of all, odds against winning both prizes, 88 quadrillion. Yeah, but you cant win if you dont play, george. So you got to play the odds even though theyre not so great. Not in your favor. This is only the second time ever that both jackpots have been this high at the same time. So lets take a moment and dream maybe about what we would do if we won. If you took home tonights 440 million powerball jackpot, guys and you chose a lump sum youd instantly become 278 million richer, that means youd have more money than jennifer lawrence, brad pitt and leonardo dicaprio. If you were to beat the 1 in 88 quadrillion odds george just mentioned and fridays Mega Millions so that the two together, youd win a combined 539 million lump sum and that would make you wealthier than pop royalty like beyonce and taylor swift and almost be as rich as real royalty, queen elizabeth. You could buy more than 100 lamborghinis. Could buy 150 private jets or 5,000 private islands. I think we own want our own private island with this cold weather but experts say they have big tips if you want to go long on this, you need to play the range of numbers, so dont go with your birthday because months only have up to 31 days in them and you can play up to 69. There are some really big i love this. Telling me how to win the 8 quadrillion to 1. I quadrillion was a number. 15 zeros, robin. Erielle, thank you. Back to ginger. Even colder air moving in behind the storm . Even colder. If you want to warmmaybe alaska. Thats a place where this morning the temperature in anchorage a warmer than jacksonville and tallahassee florida. Its been warmer bridge on the t coast it drives the big deep trough so yes, even colder air. Wind chill advisist palm beach e go into tomorrow morning. Lets get to the sunny cities brought to you by pet smart. Hi everybody. Were off to a very cold start but we are dry on storm tracker6 live double scan. Heading outside lots of sun, temperatures in the teens across much of the region, singleand western suburbs. Not a lot of wind but this afternoon in your exclusive accuweather 7day we do moderate a high