Trial after an elite New Hampshire prep school. Could he go to prison for decades or will he walk free . And the agony of track superstar usain bolt mowed down and bolts smooth revolverry today friday, august 28th, 2015. From nbc news this is today with matt lauer and Savannah Guthrie live from studio 1a in v rockefeller plaza. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to today oifrment 7 00 on the west coast on a friday morning. Youre going to see that video of usain bolt getting hit fwha guy on the segue all over the place today. Its interesting video but this could have ended so much differently. Its incredible to stee how e recovered and what a good sport he was. The announcer said it best when he said mamma mia. If he was injured, that would be a different storey. Floridas governor declaring a state of emergency ahead of an expected hit from erika. Its a storm carving a path of devastation across the caribbean. Al tells us where erika is headed in a moment. First, we have a reporter in puerto rico. Good morning to you. Good morning. Its been a devastating 24 hours for the small island of domonica. 25 now reported said by local media there after Tropical Storm erika devastated the island with floodwaters and mudslides that washed away homes and cars and at the airport it looked like the planes were bobbing on the tarmac. There was so much rain. 12 people officially confirmed dead. Local media saying 25 and perhaps that number could even rise because searchers cant even reach the most devastated areas. As Tropical Storm erika moves west into places like we are in san juan, puerto rico, were seeing the rain bands here. On the Southern Side of the island, there are reports of damage in terms of wind and power lines and trees down. This island is in drought. They need the rain. They dont need the destruction that the heavy winds would bring as this Tropical Storm continues to move through the region. Matt, back to you. Janet, thank you very much. Al is tracking the storm. Hes in new orleans this morning. Well explain the reason for that in a second. Al, a lot of the impact in termenterms of the Southern United States gendz on what erika does today. Absolutely, and the path it takes and where it goes, what landmasses. Lets show you right now live radar out of puerto rico. You can see the heaviest rain is to the south, actually to the south of san juan. And so as this pushes away, were going to be watching this path very closely. Right now erika is 90 miles eastsoutheast of the Dominican Republic. 50 mileperhour winds. It is moving at a good forward clip at 17 Miles Per Hour. Right now were looking at the possibility of storm impacts 4 to 12 inches of rain. Mudslides would be a big problem over haiti and the Dominican Republic because they got mountainous areas that would bring all that moisture out. The other thing it would do is probably shred this storm fairly effectively and were not even sure its going to make land fall as a tropical entity as we get into early monday. Were going to continue to track this, obviously. The cone of uncertainty spreads out 420 miles by tuesday. So were watching this rainfall amounts probably going to be around 2 to 3, maybe 4 inches of rain throughout parts of southern florida where they need the rain, where theyre in drought as well. Guys, back to you. All right. Al, thanks so much. Hell have more on erika throughout the morning and a look at new orleans 10 years of katrina. There was a powerful scene in roanoke, virginia last night. Hundreds gathering outside of the television station where a kanld will light vigil after two employees were shot and killed during a live broadcast this week. Nbcs Stephanie Gosk has more on the tribute and an exclusive look inside the gunmans home. Steph, good morning. Good morning. It looks like Vester Flanagan may not have been planning to commit suicide. Items found in his car made it look like he was getting to run. They obtained document thats after the shooting he sent a text message to a friend about having done something stupid. The two blessings that we have today reporter crowds gathered Late Wednesday in the wake of the shocking murders. Remembering the two lives lost. Many rallying to reform gun laws. An issue stressed by andy parker in the wake of his daughter alisons murder. How many times are we going to see an incident like this happen, you know, newtown, charleston, the movie theaters, you name it. Its got to stop. Reporter meanwhile, a clearer picture of the shooter Vester Lee Flanagan is starting to take shape. On thursday, authorities searched for evidence inside this apartment where flanagan lived until yesterday. This video provided to nbc news shows a near empty interior, aside from the refrigerator which flanagan covered in photos of himself. Flanagan shot himself in his rental car. Inside that vehicle, officers found six magazines of ammunition, a todo list, 17 stamped letters, three license plates, wig, sunglasses and a shaw. Thursday the general manager gave details about flanagas incidentplagued time at the station. The manager said he generally showed poor news judgment. He con fronted an anchor in the hallway. At that point, management made the determination it was the appropriate time to separate him from the company. Reporter following his termination, an altercation ensued. Parts of which were actually recorded by victim adam ward. Flanagan insulted him and flipped the camera off. Similar conflict existed more than a decade earlier at a local station in tallahassee, florida. I think he had a short fuse. Reporter clg a female coworker who said he physically con fronted her for noting he made a slight on air mistake. He wanted to take it outside. He didnt handle constructive criticism very well. He always appeared to be personal with him which really wasnt. Meanwhile this morning a medical Examiners Office tells the Associated Press that both adam ward and Alison Parker died from gunshot wounds to the head. Matt and savannah . Stephanie gosk, thank you very much. Let us turn to politics now and the president ial race. Democrats are descending on minneapolis for the summer meeting of the Democratic National committee. Stakes are especially high for Hillary Clinton. Nbcs Kristen Welker is there. Good morning to you. Matt, good morning. Secretary clintons goal today, convincing democrats here that she is the strongest candidate but there are a the love folks who are still waiting for Vice President joe biden who still mulling a run and back in d. C. Reporter in minneapolis, secretary clintons mission is clear, reassure the Party Faithful she can weather the political storm caused by her emails. Her strategy thursday, go on the offense, take aim at republicans. Extreme views about women we expect that from some of the terrorist groups. We expect that from people who dont want to live in the modern world. But its a little hard to take coming from republicans who want to be the president of the United States. Reporter republicans fired back releasing this statement, for Hillary Clinton to equate her political opponents to terrorists is a new low for her flailing campaign. Some Top Democrats say clinton should more aggressively address nagging questions about her emails. The American People are concerned about this, even people who love hillary are concerned about it. Reporter overshadowing it all, the potential candidate whos not here, Vice President joe biden still weighing his options. But members of the draft bibide super pac are here in force. We would love to see him and folks you talk here are excited for it. Now secretary clinton met with Top Democrats here last night. The latest polling shows she is still the strong democratic frontrunner. In fact, Vice President biden comes in third behind Bernie Sanders. If he gets into this race, he does have his work cut out for him. Matt . When it come to the people who would like to see joe biden running for president , are they starting to get a little jittery that hes waiting so long to make up his mind . They are getting a little jittery, matt. It is certainly getting late. They want to see a sign that the general consensus here is if Vice President biden gets into this race he would either win the nomination or make secretary clinton a stronger candidate in a general election. There are some folks who say wait a minute, if secretary clinton turns the corner on this email controversy, it could make it hard for Vice President biden to make his case and then theres this reality check. Hes been holding high level meetings. He met with the top labor leader yesterday. However, he hasnt started to actually lay the groundwork, take any of the practical steps you would expect to see at this point. And Vice President biden himself said he is still undecided earlier this week to democrats. He said he is still very much mourning the loss of his son beau. I am told by those would are closest to him that a decision is still several weeks out. Matt . Thank you very much. Interesting side note to this. With more than a year until the lection, a lot of people have already made decisions about how they feel about the candidate. Thats right. A University Survey registered voters nationwide, did the normal survey and poll. But then also asked people to describe the top candidates using any word that first came to mind. So for donald trump, the most popular description, the word air ganlt, blowhard and word that came up the least, winner. As for the rival, jeb bush, it was his last name that made the top of the list followed by family, honest, weak, and brother. Lets make sure this is again from the survey, not our words. The top words used to describe Hillary Clinton, liar, dishonest, untrustworthy. Good news for her though, the word least associated with clinton was unqualified. All right. One last note from the campaign trail. Donald trump wants you to know his hair is really real and really his. After the New York Times reported on a radio host who called him the man with the toupee. Yesterday to prove it, he enlisted help from the crowd during his rally in South Carolina. I dont wear a toupee. Its my hair. I swear. Come here. Come here. Come here. Come here. Im going to were going to settle this. Just come on up here. You have to do an inspection. This is getting crazy. There is crazy. Just real quick. We dont want to mess it up too much. I do use hair spray. That i do. Come, come. It is mine . Look. It is. Absolutely. Say it, please. Yes, i believe it is. Thank you. Careful words. She believes it is. Yeah, thats real. Dont make me touch it. We have a look at the news. Natalie is off. A scary situation at a school overnight. Very scary. Good morning, everyone. A Georgia University was put into lockdown thursday night after a deadly shooting on campus. It happened at Savannah State university. Students say a fight broke out between several people in the cafeteria. Junior Christopher Starks was shot and rushed to the hospital where he later died. No arrests have been made. Austrian Officials Say the number of migrants found dead in an band on truck has risen to 70 people. Police found that refrigeration parked on the main highway connecting vienna and budapest. Three people have been arrested in connection with the deaths. The war in syria led to record numbers of migrants attempting to cross into europe from africa this year. Frightening moments in south florida. A neighborhood there thursday when a food truck exploded. Officials say the truck had 100 gallon propane leaked, caught fire and then blew up. The explosion sent wreckage and debris flying 100 feet and shattered windows of homes nearby. In all of that, no injuries were reported. And some spectacular pictures out of hawaii to show you where the kilauea volcano is erupting again. The flow has moved more than 1 half mile in less than 24 hours. It is now threatening a subdivision of homes about three miles away. And slowly but surely summer is winding down. We know that. So its a good time to soak up sun. And what better place to do it than here. This is a wind turbine, the top of it is 200 feet in the air. This is drone video. The pilot surprised to see of all things a sunbather in this unique location. No word on how he got there. But we figured he climbed up. There a local Radio Station is reporting this is a monk who works for the abbey. That is a way to find perfect zen. Looking for privacy. And hope they dont turn on the fan. No problem at all. Thank you. Just using the old noggin there. Al is in new orleans. Hey, al. And, of course, youre closer to heaven up there. You got it. There you go. Lets show you what we got weather dz wise. Out west, things looking decent. Were talking about sunshine in seattle. 72 degrees. San francisco, 78. Toasty one in l. A. , sunny and 92 degrees. Phoenix, 109. Denver look going, partly cloudy skies and high of 86 degrees. Billings looking partly sunny and temperature of 92 degrees. Were going to get to your local were going to get to your local forecast coming up in the next easy way to pay online. N enter your username and password. A few clicks. And check out. Simple as that. No reentering payment and billing info. You feel like youre onestep ahead. Say hello to visa checkout. Visa. Everywhere you want to be. Good friday morning. Im meteorologist kari hall. After all of that sunshine today our temperatures will be eating up to 93 degrees today in los gatos, palo alto 89 degrees, in San Francisco the low to mid 70s, in the north bay up to 93 degrees, 94 am in concord and 92 degrees in danville. Hot temperatures today, but it will be turning much cooler and just am time for the weekend. Have a great day. And that is your latest weather. Were here live in new orleans because tomorrow marked the tenth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the deadliest hurricane in u. S. History, making land fall tomorrow. Ten years ago tomorrow. Well, yesterday president obama was here to commemorate the occasion and we will see president s bush and clinton here in the next couple of days. But in the meantime, few forget katrina. Its been ten years and four storms. But people in this region still call it the storm. Lives were lost that day. Others changed forever. It was an america few recognized. More than 1800 people died. Half a million left homeless. With more than a billion dollars in damage. New orleans was broken. Ten years later, 80 of the population is back. Theres a new levee system that officials claim is safer than before and the economy is strong. But the recovery has been uneven. The story of the lower ninth ward isnt even close to being finished. Everywhere else in the city has come back except for down here. Reporter this woman and her husband rebultd their home. It took seven years. But few in the lower ninth ward own property and without titles, there was no relief money. Many just never returned. How hard is it when you walk past, drive past the empty lots . It is bothersome because wherever there is an empty lot, there was a familiarly. We try to figure out where that family may be and do they want come back home . Reporter a lot of restaurants found their way back home. People needed a place to eat. There wasnt much to look forward today by day. But a meal, a sandwich or something you could look forward to. Reporter jay nicks says he got lucky. They came by with a bucket truck and you have any po boys . I said, no, we dont have electricity. Sow took the bucket truck and turned the power on at the pole. We just opened and cooked as many food as we could. And everybody came and it was wide open free. Reporter he made repairs to the shop and it is thriving, standing as a beacon of hope. A lot of this area reporter across down, the man on the front lines of the recovery in the perish gave us a tour of his neighborhood. This guy built back up elevated. Reporter he has a levee in front of his house. Thats what he built. He is starting to protect yourself. Reporter a beloved neighborhood barber in broadmore discovered his shop ten feet underwater. When i opened the door, i started crying first. Reporter so he started cutting hair in the streets until a helicopter landed. I was like well, god, who would send a helicopter in the middle where im cutting at and this blow my operation away. But the guys jumped out of the helicopter and got a hair cut. After that, that started all the First Responders getting haircuts. Reporter he never gave up. Later he got a donation and opened a brand new shop in his neighborhood. Its a familiar story here. Ingenuity, determination, and love helps to bring people back. You may knock me down, but eventually im going to get up. And thats the greatest thing about resillency. New orleans and each individual who helped rebuild, we will stand together. And, you know, here in the french quarter, of course, they were fairly untouched by katrinas wrath. Well, in the ninth ward, they still have no grocery store, no bank, no pharmacy. But those places people are pledging to build them back. So the two watch words here that you hear over and over again, hope and perseverance. And it is bearing that mark and its an amazing story of resillency, guys. All right. Al, such a wonderful, wonderful city. It s im glad you are there to remind us of the progress. All right. Thank you very muc