A deadly plane crash on a remote mountain shares her harrowing 48hour journey to rescue. I got this surge of will power. Im like, there is no way i cant die without hugging somebody again. Her remarkable story in her own words today friday, july 17th, 2015. From nbc news, this is today with matt lauer and Savannah Guthrie live from studio 1a in Rockefeller Plaza. And good morning, everyone. Welcome to today on friday morning. Matt is back on monday. Were prepared to get our country on this morning. Absolutely. Alan jackson, one of the biggest stars of all Country Music is going to be outside in concert today. 15 million albums over the course of his career. Look at the fans out there on the plaza. Hes amazing. Well have more from him in a moment. We want to get to the top story. The deadly shooting rampage at two military facilities in chat chattanooga chattanooga, tennessee. Authorities are pouring through the gunmans background. We have all of there covered this morning. Were going to start with Gabe Gutierrez at the scene. Good morning. To date search for a motive is intensifying. Investigators have been here throughout the night. Right now u. S. Officials suspect that this could have been an isis inspired terror attack because of several reasons, the type of targets, military offices and the timing of the shoot shootings, coming tend of ramadan. Dem ing demming. We dont know if investigators uncovered any toefdz conevidence to i light this candle for a wounded marine. This morning chattanooga is shaken after four marines were massacred. Our nation mourns the loss the senseless loss of four of our nations heroes. All units responding. The chaos erupted thursday morning. A gunman identified as Mohammad Yousuf abdulazeez fired 25 rounds into this military recruitment center. It sounded like a jack hammer, bam, bam, bam, just really bad. I saw him take a shot and then consistent shots after that. Then he drove seven miles to a Naval Reserve center and opened fire again. There is a mass casualty incident. Four marines were killed, so was the gunman. Three people were wounded including responding Chattanooga Police officer dennis petigo who was shot in the ankle. We have no idea what his motivation was behind this shooting. Reporter Sergeant First Class robert dodge is one of the survivors. He served four tours in iraq but only 35 days at this recruitment center. Got down on the ground and moved to a secure location in the back of the office and waited for the all clear. Reporter Curtis Henderson fought in the korean war. This hit him hard. How devastating it is to hear about Something Like this . Sorry. These poor men gave their lives like they were on the battlefield. This community really is devastated. Overnight we learned the identity of one of the four marines killed. Thomas sullivan was 40 years old and native of springfield, massachusetts. Nbc learned that u. S. Authorities are looking into the gunmans travel in 2014. He left the u. S. In april, returned in november and he traveled through jordan. Today the search for that motive continues. Guys . Back to you. A heartbreaking question. Thank you. Were also learning more this morning about the gunman, 24yearold Mohammad YoussufApril Abdulazeez born in kuwait. Kate snow has that part of the story. Were in an upscale neighborhood in the hills outside of chattanooga, tennessee. This is where Authorities SayMohammad Abdulazeez was living with his parents after that eight month stint where he was overseaed in the middle east. Investigators are looking at that travel very closely and other information trying to figure out what would drive someone to conduct a killing spree. Reporter well educated and engineer with a background in martial arts. That is the portrait emerging of Mohammad Abdulazeez, the 24yearold accused of the deadly shootings in what may have been a lone wolf terror attack on american soil. We dont have flig that directly ties him to an International Terrorist organization. Reporter he was not someone federal authorities had on their radar prior to this but his father was once briefly on a terror watch list. Authorities are now pouring over emails and other data according to site intelligence group, he maintained a blog posting three days before the shooting, life is short and bitter. And muslims should not let the opportunity to submit to allah pass you by. The blog is not confirmed by nbc news. Following the shootings, authorities began searching the family home where police say the suspect lived with liz parents and siblings, one woman present was seen handcuffed but later said that is common practice for the safety of officers. Nbc news spoke to a neighbor. I believe the family were devout muslims. The sister wore the burqa. And he is always very sweet and kind. Reporter a relative of abdulazeez spoke with nbc station kprc saying her thoughts are with the familiar lives the victims. Were sorry and, i mean, we we grieve for them as the rest of the nation. Reporter abdulazeez was a naturalized u. S. Citizen from kuwait, a High School Year book quote caught attention, quote, my name causes National Security alerts. What does yours do . After high school, abdulazeez trained in mixed martial arts including this fight posted to youtube. Not a violent kid at all. His trainer knew him during a six month period. Average kid. I mean, average 18yearold. Just out having a good time with friends. I mean, learning something new, enjoying the moment. Reporter more recently, he had minor run ins with the law charges with speeding in ohio in 2013 and a dui arrest from april. And the fbi is looking at all his recent activity including those blog posts that we mentioned. Back to you. Savannah . Thank you so much. Lets turn to shawn henry, former assistant director of the fbi and now president of crowd strike services. We saw a brief profilest gunman. Its too early to know what his motive is. But when you look at what we do know, this does seem to bear some hallmarks of one of these isis inspired attacks. Yeah, i think thats right, savannah. You have to look at the totality of the circumstances. Certainly the investigation is still young. Its going to take a lot of time. But when you look at the target of being a recruiting station, you look at the weapons that were used, some of the writing thats have not yet been con dirmd confirmed but have religious overtones demonstrating convictions to islam, you look at all that and appears that perhaps thats an avenue obviously that is going to be pursued. That wont be confirmed until this investigation is well under way. Wear heergre hearing about the blog post. We dont know if its authentic. The electric electronic trail is incredibly important in the investigation. The fbi is looking for two things. First of all, theyre looking forward. They want to make sure there are no other people that are tied to this specific attack. Are there other pending attacks that are in play here . And they want to make sure that they are protecting society and citizens there in chattanooga and around the country. Looking backwards though, theyre looking at the motivation. And thats where theyll be going through all this information to see why abdulazeez acted the way did he, took the actions and, again, who else is he connected to . Thats all happening simultaneously. Theyve got all their resources fully deployed right now. This is 24 7 and this will go on indefinitely. Hopefully we get answers soon. Shawn henry, thank you. Severe weather spawning powerful tornadoes in the midwest and al is tracking those for us. Al, good morning. Weve got some amazing video to show you right now. I mean this storm, you watch what happens. You can see the main storm. But now you start to see other what we call multiple for vortices coming out of the storm. A care sellousel tornadoes as Power Transformers start blowing. You can see the damage. Look at that twisting. Thats amazing video to see. That is about 200 miles west of chicago. Look at the damage caused in nearby cameron, illinois. Structures completely wiped out, buildings damaged. Thankfully, hard to believe whether you see this damage, there were no reported injuries yet. We got more of this possible for today. Weve got this ring of fire, a huge dome of High Pressure and so what happens is the jet stream is up to the north so this southern ridge tornadoes and severe thunderstorms ride up and over this ridge and thats where you get the thunderstorms firing up and they probably will again today. The secondary thing is hot, humid weather. Temperatures 10 to 15 degrees above average. So for today, the dakotas under the gun. Hail, damaging winds, isolated tornadoes and look at these temperatures to dafrment the feels like temperature again, well above 1 hundred degrees from chicago all the way down to new orleans. And that continues again tomorrow. And it will continue right on into the weekend where temperatures kbinld with high humidity will make it feel awfully oppressive, dangerously hot and, again today we have to worry about more strong storms where they saw them yesterday. All right. Incredible video. Thank you. To ballistics now, the donepolitics now, donald trump is having a bigger impact than a lot of people expected and that is leading to a war of words between the real estate mogul and political rivals. Good morning, kristen welker. Good morning to you. It seems like every day there is another headline with Donald Trumps name on it. He is rising in a number of polls despite making controversial comments about mexicans and immigration. In addition, trump doesnt have to worry about money. And its clear the other candidates are being forced to take him seriously. Reporter it was classic donald trump on display in New Hampshire thursday. Bold, brash, and taking on his challengers. Now hillary raised 46 million. Thats a lot of money. The good news is i got well the good news, how much do i have . 10 billion. The last thing we need is another bush. Jeb bush, the target of many of trumps verbal grenades, has consistently fired back and sources say hes taking trump seriously, prepping for expected attacks about it billionaire in next months debate. I have a big disagreement with mr. Trump about his tone and what he is saying because its not accurate. Former Texas Governor and president ial candidate rick perry whos lagging in recent polls also had harsh words on thursday writing in a statement what mr. Trump is offering is not conservatism. Its trumpism, a mix of demagoguery and nonsense. For all of the controversial rhetoric, polls show trump is surging with one this week putting him ahead of the republican pack, even besting jeb bush by three points. Hes on top now but that lead might not last. Still, lesser known candidates are paying a price. For the men and women below donald trump in the poll, it is very, very tough. For one person that seems to be enjoying it all, democratic frontrunner hillary clinton. Shes trouncing trum notary public a general election matchup. I have just one word for mr. Trump basta enough and last night yet another poll this one from fox news showing trump leading the republican field. The big test for the gop candidates coming up, how theyre going to respond to trumps attacks whether they meet in person for next weeks first debate. Savannah and willie, back to you. That is highly anticipated, to sat least. Thank you very much. President obama now the only sitting u. S. President telephoner visit a federal prison. His tour of the El Reno Correctional Institution in oklahoma is part wlaf has become a bipartisan push to reform the nations prison system. While he was there, president obama met with six inmates locked up for drug offenses engaged in candid comments about the need for second chances. When they described their youth and their childhood, these are young people who made mistakes that arent that different than the mistakes and the mistakes that a lot of you guys make. We have to be able to distinguish between dangerous individuals who need to be incapacitated and incarcerated versus young people that are in an environment in which they are adapting built if given different opportunities, a different vision of life could be thriving the way we are. Thats what strikes me. There but for the grace of god and that, i think, is something that we all have to think about. When the president says for the grace of god, he is talking about his own admitted recreational drug use as a young man. As you pointed out this is a rare issue where there is bipartisan movement on sentencing reform. Well see what happens. There pretty extraordinary to see him walking the halves als of a prison. And you talked about the lasers in the airport. The faa is now investigating. They expanded the investigation into the airline strikes expanding the laser strikes with pilots in at least ten states now reporting being hit wednesday night alone. At least 35 commercial flights were apparently targeted on both coasts including delta, american, jetblue and united. This year there have been more than 2500 laser strikes reported. A manhunt is under way in maine after four people were shot and three separate locations overnight. Police are reportedly looking for a lone gunman possibly in a black pickup. No information on the identities of the victims or their conditions. It was a close call aboard the International Space station on thursday. Nasas scott kelly and his russian colleagues will to flee the space station after a piece of an old russian Weather Satellite flew their way. They took cover inside the capsule for an hour while the frag fragment pasted. Happy there was no impact, excellent training. Kelly is four months into his year onboard the space station. Authorities say two people were hurt in a house explosion overnight in st. Louis. The victims were trapped in the wreckage but eventually freed by firefighters. Authorities say the explosion leveled the home and damaged homes on both sides of it. Still no word though on what caused that blast. Sentencing in the colorado Movie Theater massacre could begin as early as next week. An thursday a injure foundjury found james holmes guilty of killing 12 people and injured 70 others. The families expressed relief. I look at him when the verdict came out. I wanted to know, what is his response . And there is just nothing. Which, i mean, thats how i feel towards him is nothing. The 27yearold holmes could face the death penalty. Police in los angeles are looking for a bungling burglar who took a selfie with liz victims iphone. Apparently recording himself inside the house after reportedly entering through an unlocked door. What a dope. As you see, he took off with the phone but the owner was able to access that video remotely and police are hoping somebody can put a name to the face of the not very smart burglar. Im guess theg figure out who that is. They know what the cloud is now. Thank you so much. Thank you, natalie. Al . Lets take a look at the rest of the country and show you what we got going on. Severe storms in the plains. Wet weather down through florida and into southern alabama and georgia. Were also expecting showers through the southwest. Monsoonal moisture Getting Started there. The heat is on in the pacific northwest, portland, oregon, getting up to 88 degrees today. Its going to get even hotter this weekend. Were going to get to your local forecast coming up in the next 30 seconds. Hi im andy allen, and ive partnered with visa checkout and williamssonoma to save you time to throw the perfect east coast clambake. With visa checkout, you can get what you need online in fewer clicks so that you can spend less time planning and more time sipping rose with friends. Plus, with help from williamssonoma, ill make sure you get everything just right from decor to food to that refreshing bottle of rose. Watch the time to savor summer series and save even more time on williamssonoma. Com with visa checkout. The easier way to pay online. Im meteorologist kari hall. Still some low clouds in San Francisco, but we will have some sunshine today and highs reaching 70 degrees in the Mission District. Pacifica 67 degrees, while it will be warm in the south bay reaching into the mid to upper 80s. Oakland topping out at 75 and the trivalley expect highs in the 80s, even low 90s in spots like livermore. Have a great weekend. And thats your latest weather. Al, thank you so much. Coming up, inside her ordeal, the 15yearold who hiked to safety after surviving a plane crash shares her remarkable story. What she says kept her going when she was just about ready to give up. And on a report, how to save the life of someone who is bit by a poisonous stake. Is what you see in the movies really the best advice . Well tell you. First, this is today on nbc. Movies really the best hey there fellow californians i know youre staying golden by managing your energy use. Which means managing water too sfx rawr especially during a drought. Learn to save water, energy and money at energyupgradeca. Org come is that a new washing machine . Yeah, its a samsung with activewash. Its got a builtin sink to pretreat and help get stains out. How about this . The samsung washing machine with activewash. 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