Parts of the country are still under feet of snow this morning as the death toll from a major

winter storm continues to climb. In western New York, rescue crews are going car by car

searching for stranded survivors. This, as chaos unfolds at some of the nation's busiest

airports, thousands of flights have been canceled, as many Americans try to head home for the holidays.

We'll have the very latest on the travel delays. Also this morning, with the war still raging on

in Ukraine, Ukraine's foreign minister is hoping peace talks by the end of February. We will get

expert analysis from the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, Richard Haas, later this hour.

Good morning and welcome to way too early on this Tuesday, December 27th. I'm Corey Coffin in for

Jonathan Lemire. Countless towns across the country are still in the process of dealing with this weekend's massive winter storm. NBC News has now confirmed at least 57 people have died nationwide from weather-related emergencies this weekend. That includes 27 in western New York's Erie County. Snow continued to fall in that region on Monday, and officials are expecting an additional

eight to 12 inches into this afternoon. An emergency driving ban remains in place in the Buffalo

area as authorities plead with residents to stay home so they can continue to clear the snow.

Crews are currently focusing on plowing streets for ambulances, police, rescue vehicles, and medical workers.

New York's governor, Kathy Hokel said that scores and scores of vehicles are abandoned in ditches

and snow banks, including some snow plows and rescue vehicles that are trapped, all of that

complicating efforts. Hokel also confirmed yesterday that the Biden administration has

declared an emergency

disaster declaration for that area. And in a show of support New Jersey's governor, Phil Murphy,

has deployed New Jersey Task Force One. That's an urban search and rescue team to Western New York,

because as Murphy put it, that is what neighbors do. Now, meanwhile, holiday travel chaos continues as more than

17,000 flights have been canceled in nearly a week and thousands more have been delayed. Southwest

Airlines, by far the most disrupted carrier in the last five days, it has canceled about 8,000

flights. According to flight tracking app, Flight Aware, Southwest says that its plan is to

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