steven romo joins me now to talk about this.st of all, glad you made it back. >> me, too. >> tell me about this experience. what was it like in that crush of people and dealing with the headaches. >> i covered a lot of travel troubles before. nothing like this have i ever experienced. we were supposed to fly out on monday. our flight was canceled abruptly. there was no text message, no notification, no phone call. i just happened to check the app the night before and it said the flight was canceled. so we ended up trying to rebook for standby the next day. rebooked for the next day, same thing. both of those ended up canceled. we ended up getting a rental car, driving to louisville, borrowing my mother-in-law's car because there were no rental cars and finally made it there on that united flight and made it back. a lot of people are not as lucky as we are. >> given the fact that people are still stuck in some cases, did you learn anything, any sort of pro tips you might give to somebody else starting the experience that you had?

aaron. >> steven romo with us today. steven, thank you. >>> let's turn to an nbc news exclusive.s hackers linked to the chinese government stole at least $20 million in u.s. covid relief benefits. it is the first pandemic fraud tied to former state-sponsored cyber criminals that the u.s. government has publicly acknowledged, but law enforcement sources say it could be, quote, the tip of the iceberg. nbc's senior investigative producer sarah fitzpatrick joins me from washington with a closer look at all of this. sarah, what do we know about the chinese group behind this? what more can you tell us about the extent of the fraud? >> reporter: apt41 is a hacking group based in china and has been well-known to american law enforcement officials over the past decade. in recent years the group has increasingly focused on infiltrating american critical infrastructure and state governments on behalf of the chinese government. this is primarily for espionage purposes. the true extend of the fraught is unknown. today we reported on one case that the secret service was willing to confirm publ

some of the busiest airports finding more than a third of their flights canceled steven romo among the southwest passengers impacted. >> phone system is down right now. earlier they told us we couldn't get back until friday. the line here for the ticket count irstre counter stretches all the way across the building, but the tsa line is basically empty. >> reporter: frustration mounting amid a holiday week marred by continued disruptions. >> i'm just bewildered i guess is the best word this isn't what i wanted to spend my holiday doing >> nobody wants that thanks to emily for that report. >>> meanwhile, power has been restored to thousands in washington state after a series of attacks on electrical power stations it may be the latest in a series of attacks on the nation's power grisd. here's tom costello. >> reporter: it happened early christmas morning. three sub stations in the tacoma area targeted and vandalized another on christmas night arriving officers found blue flames, the perimeter fence cut. 14,000 people left without power. amanda clark left without electricity and well wate

a third of flights canceled today southwest airlines nixing more than 60% of its flights nbc's steven romo among the southwest passengers impacted. >> the phone system is down right now, but earlier they told us we couldn't get back until friday the line here for the ticket counter stretches all the way across the building, but the tsa line is all but deserted, giving you some indication of how many flights are actually getting out. >> reporter: frustrations among travelers everywhere mounting amid a holiday week marred by continued disruptions. >> i'm just -- just bewildered, i guess, is the best word this isn't what i wanted to spend my holiday doing. >> all right, emilie ikeda joins us now live emilie, i want to go back to that ongoing rescue situation in buffalo. authorities worried people could still be trapped in those frigid conditions? >> reporter: tom, that's right urgent search and rescue missions are playing out as we speak with the help of authorities at all levels 400 national guardsmen on the ground today. a travel ban remains in place in the city of buffalo to prevent people

. >> as steven romo tells us this gives the story of doggie paddle a new meaning. >> meet bear.ly on new york's upper west side. that training was put on hold last weekend. >> he took off, ran down the block. somebody else tried to grab him. >> reporter: ellen was walking the pup to get a new harness and bear slipped out of the collar. bear ended up running 30 blocks north ending up in this area where someone saw him jump into the hudson river where he disappeared. >> i didn't know the dog could swim. i ran home. i googled. i called 911. they had boats out for him. >> reporter: after two and a half days and when the family had given up hope, this radio call came in. >> all members of the fire department. the fire boat is need in the south pier of independence harbor for a dog stuck. >> reporter: bear spotted by the first responder a half mile across the river in edgewater, new jersey. >> in the area where we hear barking, i think you will access the pier and get eyes. >> i thought he was joking with me. he was out there for two and a half days by himself. >> reporter: firefighte

steven romo is joining us now. and we're hearing from the student's parents, what are they saying?level of concern. they call this very out of racket for him and of course something they are deeply worried about. ken has been studying abroad at a university in france and a senior at st. john fisher university in rochester. but his family has not heard from him since late last month when he was boarding a train in southeast france. his family fears the worst and they want him to be found. they say he was supposed to come home this weekend for the holidays when his study abroad program is set to end. and his via vees a is set to expire. >> and this is not characteristic of my son. if in the every day, it was every other day we'd hear from him. so this is concerning. >> and so they are here at home worried about all this stuff happening overseas. they have set up a website where people can send in tips to try to help find him. >> how responsive have the french authorities been to the family? >> his father says that he's been reaching out to authorities and the embassy and france but h