From CNN, I'm Erin Matheson, with the five things you need to know for Friday, December 26th.

Storms are lashing the east and west coast of the U.S.

Great Lakes and northeast regions of the country are experiencing heavy snow and ice from a single winter storm,

and it's leaving power outages and travel headaches in its wake.

Nearly 45,000 homes and businesses had lost power in Michigan as of late afternoon,

while more than 23 million people around New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey are under winter storm warnings through Saturday.

Meanwhile, in California, a final round of heavy rain is

drenching the state and threatening to bring more flooding and debris flow. The days-long

storms have killed at least four people since last weekend and forced evacuations and countless

rescues, with some orders still in place across parts of Southern California.

More news coming up, including updates on the U.S. attack in Nigeria and the latest on the

Melody Buzzard investigation.

President Donald Trump has said he was the one who ordered a deadly strike on what he said

were Islamic State terrorists in Nigeria.

In a post on True Social, Trump said he directed a powerful and deadly strike against the group,

who he said had been killing innocent Christians.

CNN's Kevin Liptack has more.

What U.S. Africa command says is that multiple terrorists were killed as part of these strikes.

And what we've heard from the Nigerian government is that they were consulted.

Now the security status in Nigeria is highly complex.

You know, both Christians and Muslims have been the target of violence, and it has been due to a host of different reasons.

It's religious persecution to be sure, but also just, you know, normal crime disputes between herders and farmers over land and limited resources.

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