a winter wipeout. millions hit by high wind and ice and snow as they try to make their way home for the holidays. japan's prime minister commemorates the pearl of harbor attacks in hawaii. a war of word, fights, disturbances and chaos in malls across america. a twitter hack leads to a celebrity death hoax and how one generous man is putting his wrapped up air miles to good use. "early today" starts right now. good morning, everybody, thank you for joining us today. i'm betly gyuyen. millions of people a

storm and whiteout conditions to parts of the planes in upper mid-west. for the first time, we are hearing a mother's survival story, hiking 26 miles in the snow after her family's car got trapped near the grand canyon, nbc's gabe gutierrez has details. >> reporter: the upper mid-west is digging out after a relents will christmas blizzard. >> how the heck am i getting out of here. >> many of roads impassable. i-94 shut down. a foot of snow blanketed bismark, while treacherous wind snarls air traffic. >> we pulled up to check our bag at the curbside. they told us the flight was canceled. more than 300 flights canceled. in arizona, an out-control situation near the grand canyon is an incredible survival story. >> if i don't find shelter, i'm not going to make it another night. >> reporter: from her hospital room, karen klein is speaking

after being rescued. she hiked for 30 hours of 26 frigid miles to find help, when her family's car got stuck in the blinding snow. >> i pulled a muscle in my leg and one of my shoes got packed with snow, so i had a sock and in order to move my leg, i had to physically move it up to move it forward. so it can only move ten steps at a time. >> reporter: fear detroit the up to of frazier, michigan, is under a state of emergency after this huge sink hole expanded, forcing families to evacuate. >> the stories there, they are eye opening. we are now just 24 hour day remembers though, from the inauguration, overnight, president-elect trump, while taking a holiday vacation at his mira lag go resort, took to twitter to defend his namesake charitable foundation, tweeting quote, i gave millions of dollars to djt foundation, raised or received millions more, all of which is given to charity and media won't report. and the

most foundations, never paid fee, represent, salaries or any expenses. 100% of money goes to charities. they took a moment to take credit for wall street gains and holiday shopping revenue, posting, the world was gloom write before i won. there was no hope. now the market is up nearly 10%. christmas spending is over a trillion dollars. now, a war of words is developing between president obama and politic trump. this after obama said if he had run for a third term, he would have beaten trump. he was the president speaking for the aids weekly podcast. >> i am confident in this vision because i'm confident that if i -- if i had run again and articulated it, i think i could have mobilized a majority of the american people to rally behind it. >> well, trump respond, via his

posting he should say that, you be i say, no way! citing, jobs, isis and obamacare as key reasons. it is a turf war following last week's surt council vote, a vote from which the u.s. abstained. as the world body trump now refers to as a quote club for people to get together, talk and have a good time. and while senior white house aid ben rhodes says the u.s. did not dra st the resolution, prime minister's benjamin netanyahu spokesperson clearly blames the u.s. >> well, we have proof. i don't believe we know it. we will share it with the incoming administration with the appropriate channels. they can decide if they will share wit the american people. we will not share it with this administration, because this administration is hype it. >> the "new york times" reports they are

settlement despite the u.s. vote. prime minister shinzo abe and president obama are in hawaii. abe has arrived in hawaii, where he has already marked the solemn occasion with visits to various serm cemeteries. today, he will be joined by president obama to remember the more than 24 hour 00 american lives lost during the attack that thrust the u.s. into world war ii. for more now, we are joined by edward lawrence, now significant are today's events? >> reporter: this is the first time an official visit will be made by a japanese minister. 2400 americans died at pearl harbor in a surprise raid. the japanese prime minister is not expected to apologize for that raid, but hsu se going to express sympathy for the victims. you may remember president obama last may visited the hiroshima peac

for the u.s. dropping two nuclear bombs on japan, basically ending world war ii. during this vis ut, both world leaders are expected to express the same message, saying we must not repeat the horror of a world war. betty, back to you. >> definitely a solemn event to be remembered today. all right. thank you so much. an update on that syrian bound russian military jet that killed all 92 people on board. this morning, russia's defense ministry says it has found a flight recorder from the plane after it crashed into the black sea. it crashed two minutes after taking off in good weather from sochi t. newly found recorder could help russian officials pinpoint an exact cause as vladimir putin's spokesman says an attack was unlikely. . the city of chicago is finishing another year marked by endless and increasing gun violence. there was no letup this weekend, when dozens of people were shot, 11 fatall

>> reporter: christmas night, unseasonably mild with another round of unrelenting gun violence in chicago. >> it sounded liable i was in a war zone it wasn't a normal gun. i mean, 15, 20, 2005 shots. >> reporter: outside this south side home, seven shot, two dead, brothers. a holiday weekend with at least 43 people struck by bullets, 12 losing their lives. >> this is the sickening reality. it shows yet again our penalties for carrying and using does here in chicago are just not an effective deterrent against repeat gun offenders. >> today's largest metropolitan area has been besieged by shell casing and death. at least 763 homicides. both stark increases from a year ago. more murders than new york and los angeles combined. in the next two years, mayor ra

fire for the continued violence has pledged to hire nearly 1,000 police officer, targeting the documented gang members authorities say are responsible for much of the bloodshed. >> reporter: if you pick up a gun and shoot somebody, you should go to prison. period. over a million dollars in fur stolen from a new york store and a shocking heist is caught on camera. just watch this, as a thief breaks through the glass door of this madison avenue boutique. from there, though, they get to quickly working heading straight to the priciest goorksdz according to shop owner. the heist occurred during the early morning hours of christmas eve. the thieves had their faces completely covered and are still on the loose, now police are hoping this shocking footage that caught the rop robbers in the act land them in jamie. a mall melee and disturbances across the country

first, meteorologist bonn fisnider, with millions of americans heading back to work. so what's it looking out there? >> rainy and icy across parts of the northeast and new england. we are not expecting too much in the way of accumulation. just about an inch of lake effect snow around the lake areas. keep in mind, we're looking at another storm on thursday that may bring more substantial snow. in the meantime, temperatures are unisn'tably warm. we had record she's across the country. that's a look at the beg weather story of the day. now, here's a closer look at the day ahead. temperatures are cold into the northern planes, but the snow has stopped and the blizzards over if rapid city, 35 degrees there, into the 40s across the mid-west. another mild one with a potential for record breaking numbers in the southeast. so, betty, very mild temperatures across much of the country today and tomorrow, by the end of the week, that may change. >> we'll enjoy it while it

fists fly in the streets of peru. plus another sony hack is taking aim at britney spears. we'll fill you in.

>> check this out. this, they were flying in the streets of peru this christmas. don't worry the brawls were all planned as a part of an annual fighting festival, to settle all scores and start the new year fresh. community members say it resolves conflict and improves relationships, if you could believe it. new rules this year only allow men to participate. women and children are invited to watch from the stands. >> that is just wild. leading the news, these may not be professional fighters, but there was fighting and chaos in a bizarre rash of violence at malls across the country yesterday. separate disturbances occurred in nine

if connecticut, multiple fights broke out. self arrests were made, one officer was assaulted. in illinois, fights caused shoppers to flee in fear. someone yelled out gun after a chair slammed loudly. multiple shoppers were injured as they evacuated the pauls. be careful out there, folks. the man hunt in tennessee, one inmate is at large after six escaped from the county jail. the prisoners managed to escape behind a hole behind the toilet t. bolts rusted out and there was earlier damage to the concrete from plumbing repairs. after getting through the wall, they had to kick through a tin door and climb a barbed wire fence to make it out of the jail. just ahead, if you are returning holiday gifts. how a teen's birthday party turned into a major public event. we have those

zblrmts

. in today's quick hits around the world and 49 day, that is a new solo sailing record broken by the french sailor thomas caldwell. he celebrated his arrival with lots of champaigne and

for the coming of age bash grew international attention after they posted a video invite on facebook and forgot to make it private. it definitely was fought private and call him a seal-ebrity. this seal led police on a tasmanian chase and caught leaving his dent on a car t. 440-pound miami was captured, given a medical check-up an released back on the beach. the post-holiday frenzy is in full swing, many stores offering big sales, millions heading back with those returns. if you are returning items, you better read the fine prin. nbc's morgan radford has details. >> reporter: a record-break holiday season. an estimated $1 trillion spent on gifts selling out in stores. but the reality is, there are some things you just don't leak. >> we got finding nemons

>> reporter: 10 percent of gifts are returned every year, valued at a whopping $66 billion. >> i'm too old to wear the kind of stuff. it's like lacing with all this stuff, i didn't like it. >> reporter: if you are in the return line, beware, lots of stores have new rules. you have two weeks to return drones to places like target and wal-mart. kohl's, a january 31st deadline for top shelt shelf electronics. in some stores, you need to bring your receipt and i.d.. tooed is a great time to buy. >> i bargain shop for stuff for next christmas. >> millennials burning off gift cards they got if their stockings. eight if ten say they'll shaf after christmas sales with some prices cut in half. >> 50 to 60% off, a $10 skew upon they gave you, like getting it for free. >> just be sure to pack your patience. morgan radford, nbc, new

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congratulation, are you being rescued. >> action there, the "rogue one" taking in $4 million. "theme" came in 2nd. third "passengers" starring jennifer lawrence and chris prattt. >> actress sarah michelle gel lar, her offer of condolences for george michael turned out to be an epic twitter failed. many paid their respects to george michael. gem lar mixed up george michael with another british pop star boy george. uh-oh and a tweet that has since been deleted. she wrote, do you really want to hurt me? i guess you do, 2016, rip boy jompblg as can you imagine, fans quickly schooled her about the embarrassing mistake. she immediately apologized. she

since insisting she knows the difference and she apologized again saying lesson learned. yeah, that's definitely not the kind of mistake you want to make. >> no. >> i guess george is the thing. they're both british. a big drimps. all right. taylor swift made a surprise home visit for one of her super fans, you have to see this. >> aah! >> can you imagine, there's a knock at the door and standing there is taylor swift? she vis ied up with of her biggest fans 96-year-old cyrus porter. now, he is a world war ii vet and is reportedly the oldest swiftee as they call him, swift fans. mr. porter says he's attended multiple swift concerts with his 20-plus grandchildren. swift performed an impromptu concert, singing her megahit "shake it off" in his living room. >> tha

going to a swift concert. that is a true fan. all right, here's britney spears in her famous video t. internet, though, exploded when a tweet went out from sony announcing the pop star's death t. tweet said, quote, britney spears is dead by accident with a #ripbrittany. apparently, sony was hacked again, there is a screen grab of it. no comment from sony, but a rep from britney spears did confirm she is alive and well and brittany tweeted this photo showing she is very much alive. thank goodness for these celebrities. >> people can't get it straight. >> fake news out there today, all these other things, it's easy to believe. just ahead, an inspiring story about a man who helped others get home for the holidays. more "doing chores for mom" per roll

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good morning, everybody. wow, it was warm. >> look at the temperature on the screen. >> what's going on? >> not a typo. it is 72 degrees in parkersburg,

west virginia, right now. in the middle of the night, 70s. >> that's like swimming weather. sni >> temperatures which were stranded in the 40s all day yesterday have been rising overnight as the southerly wind has increased. a few showers around here this morning. quite breezy and really mild outside today. most areas above 60 degrees for a brief time this afternoon. be back in the chilly 40s coming up tomorrow. and a bit of a rain chance this morning. not everyone is going to get rained on. showers headed for the i-81 corridor here. they could be arriving here as we get toward 7:00 this morning. so grab the umbrella first thing, but you don't need the winter coat today. 57 already here in washington. a look at the new year's eve weekend forecast coming up in a little bit. >> we've got a

in laurel. it is on route 1 down near academy lane. we did have a pedestrian hit now. they're requesting the northbound lanes of route 1 to be diverted. do be cautious and be careful. northbound travel being turned at the icc. also, we've had this accident for a while on the outer loop of the beltway. apparently weave got equipment on the inner loop of the beltway. we'll keep you posted. back in to you. it's 4:28 and the breaking news this morning in the case of a missing d.c. yoga instructor. her family has said on facebook that police found her body. police are not confirming that information just yet. this comes hours after police found her missing toyota. they also took a man into questioning who they say matches the description of a person of interest in this case. investigators released a

of that person of interest who they say may have been driving her car. the search began after she did not show up to christmas dinner at a friend's house on sunday night or board her flight to utah yesterday. on facebook her brother is thanking the community for their support. new developments, we're tracking here on nbc 4. also go to the nbc washington app for the latest information. now to this developing story in the tacoma area of the district. a man was shot near cedar street and eastern avenue. it happened around 8:00 last night. the victim's identity has not been released. and we are working to learn more about a grim discovery. members of a cleaning crew found a man's body inside a ruth chris's rest room. police have not identified him but he was not an employee at the restaurant.

foul play in his death. and take a look at this video. it was a cleveland park metro station and you can see that watter gushing down the steps. crews will be working to prevent that from ever happening again. crews are actually working to improve the storm drains in that region. the work is expected to last through friday and in the meantime, the parking lanes will be closed to quebec streets from 9:30 in the morning to 3:30 in the afternoon. we are seeing big problems in several places. take a look at this video from north dakota. more than a foot of snow behind. the storm forced dozens of flights to be cancelled too. karen kline, her husband and her son were on their way to the grand canyon when they drove into a ditch. they were stranded for almost