blaine alexander has more. >> reporter: down south where temperatures rarely dip this low, the bitterg a toll on the water system in city after city, pipes snapping, leaking, and leaving thousands without running water. at south carolina's largest fod bank, a burst pipe threatened the food supply for thousands. water forced atlanta's busy airport to temporarily close a gate the issues span from memphis to selma, to jackson, mississippi, a city long plagued by water problems there, officials issued a boil water alert on christmas day were you able to cook christmas dinner >> no. it was very disappointing. >> she's already been without water five times this year that means spending her days waiting in line for cases of bottled water. >> take a bottle of water to wash our hands so the then brush your teeth that's another bottle. >> so those cases are gone in a day then you have to go back and do the whole thing all over again the next day >> yes >> in a statement, city officials say we continue to struggle to return pressure, citing significant leaks in the system that we have yet to ide

we want to start with blaine alexander and marissa para. marissa, you just arrived in buffalo, talk about what you're seeing there. >> we have only been on the road. the buffalo airport closed for obvious reasons. the only way to get here is by driving. my producer and i spent about four hours in the car driving from cleveland. we made our way through ohio, through pennsylvania. the roads were looking good. the hardest part of our journey during that part of this was getting a rental car. we know rental car facilities are inundated with these flight cancellations and people trying to bypass all of that. once we got here, well, you can see a little bit of it behind me. i've only been here about ten minutes or so. you can probably see a light dusting of snow on my cap. behind me, the roads not so great. even though crews have clearly been on these roads, that snow that is packed on stubbornly remaining, though clearly cleared just enough for cars to still be able to pass through. i will turn over this way so you can see how much has gathered

nbc's blaine i will aecblayne alexander joining us from atlanta.t does the aftermath look like >> reporter: good morning to you. it's still going on. we haven't even hit aftermath because there's still a number of passengers trying to rebook flights and thousands more today who are dealing with newly canceled flights the numbers really tell the story in all of this when you look at the fact that southwest airlines slashed more than 70% of their flights yesterday and already today we've seen more than 2,500 cancellations from southwest airlines just today. now, that's stunning when you look at that compared to the other airlines, just over 300 or so cancellations for the other airlines southwest is saying this is unacceptable they've said that in a statement. they're apologizing to their customers. they're also saying they can't control the weather. they said they did what they could to put the right amount of staffing and personnel in place to deal with possibly potential delays, but they say weather is something that's out of their hands. the depa

yesterday and has already cut another 2500 today let's go to nbc's blayne alexander at the atlanta airport. the last time i was there, blainemost efficient airport in the world that slogan is going to be put to the test. >> reporter: and it will hold that title today for you, kayla. the absolutely for passengers who travel during the holiday season typically we have delays or travel inconveniences but for southwest passengers, the types of disruptions we're seeing now are simply unprecedented that's something the c o has acknowledged we're talking about slashing more than 70% of flights yesterday and today when you look at the cancellations compared to other airlines, it is stunning. we're talking about already more than 2500 southwest flights have beencanceled for today compare that with just over 300 or so cancellations for other airlines across the board. now southwest airlines in a statement is apologizing to customers calling this unacceptable but also pointing to the weather saying that they did what they could do to get ahead of this, any sort of delays and inconveniences, having the proper staffing in place, but the