Towns could get 12 feet of snow and Hurricane Force winds. Yosemite National Park closed. 100 miles of interstate shutdown. Were live with the storm thats just getting started. Scorched. The largest wildfire in texas is state history is growing. Everywhere you go, it is everywhere. Entire neighborhoods gone. More than 1 million acres charred. The latest on the search for what sparked the flames and forecasts that could make the situation worse. Aid from the air. President biden announcing the u. S. Military will begin air dropping muchneeded food into gaza within days. The move coming 24 hours after the ais delivery turned deadly. With dozens of palestinians killed. Were live at the white house with the latest. On the edge. A firefighter risking his life to save the driver of the semi truck dangling over the edge over the ohio river. Once i reached her, she was calm and helped me do what i needed. Well take you inside that rescue. All that and blockbuster. Movie theaters springing to life with dune part 2. Will the epic movie filled with stars be the cure . Today, saturday, march 2nd, 2024. Announcer from nbc news, this is today with Peter Alexander and laura jarrett. Live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. Welcome to today. Thank you for waking up with us on saturday morning. I dont know if you saw dune but people are hyped for dune 2. This is a bigger hype than barbie. This will be the thing that takes me to the theater. We can only hope. We have a lot to get to this morning, including polar opposites when it comes to weather. The west coast this morning is getting slammed with a monster blizzard. Were talking 12 feet of snow. The wind also a major concern. A ski resort near lake tahoe recorded winds of 190 miles an hour. Whipping winds are making for a dangerous situation in texas where firefighters are battling the largest fire in that states history. We have full coverage and including the forecast ahead. Lets begin with Steve Patterson in the elements in truckee, california. Steve. Reporter guys, good morning. This storm is relentless. It exploded overnight dumping several feet of snow across the region and with near record winds recorded in higher elevations. There is no sign of this slowing down. This morning, waves of windwhipped snow pounding the california sierras. The National Weather service issuing a blizzard warning with the blankets of blinding white whiteouts on the roads. Accidents like this big rig flip near truckee. Cars stranded with the roads closed by the chp. If you dont have to travel, do not. Skiing is not that important. Your life is more important. We want you to be safe. Reporter yosemite to lake tahoe can see 5 to 10 feet of snow and 12 feet of snow gusting at over 100 miles an hour in the mountains. The storm of the winter so far. We will hunker down. There is no fun here. You cannot ski. Reporter several resorts shutting down lifts. Local rest accidents preparing to be snowed in. Ice melt. Lanterns and batteries. Anything you can think of that you need for a power outage or severe storm. They are coming in for it. Reporter at the worst, officials warn of 2 to 4 inches of snow for days. This is a 96hour cycle. It will affect us in the next 24to48 hours. Reporter this morning, an entire region bracing for impact. If that were not enough, the rare california tornado spotted near fresno. It was seen ripping up tree limbs near an elementary school. This is all back here. Crews are doing all they can to race to keep up with the snow. Back to you. Steve, thank you. We move on to texas with the states largest wildfire has burned hundreds of structues and shows no sign of slowing down. The area charred more than the state of rhode island. For context here, we have guad venegas with more. Guad, good morning. Reporter peter, we had a handle on the fires with a 15 containment on the largest fire here in texas. Things are expected to change. We expect higher temperatures and more winds, which is why fire crews are on full alert. This morning, the texas panhandle now a charred landscape. The scope of devastation captured from the air showing the sprawling terrain turned into scorched earth. It is everywhere you go. Reporter the city of stennett, texas, unrecognizable. The smoke house fire that ignited on monday burned more than 1 million acres and becoming the largest fire in texas history. Crews coming in from out of state to help. With warmer temperatures and high winds expected to move in, fears are mounting that hot spots could light up the terrain. Everyone must remain vigilant. Winds will pick back up. The right elements for a fire will be around. Reporter Officials Say fires across the state are responsible for at least two death and destroying as many as 500 structures. In canadian, texas, jim lost his entire ranch. Nearly 200 cows gone. You take care of the animals when they are sick. Reporter we met melody across down. This was a two bedroom. Reporter the fire spared the hotel she manages, but not her home. What was it like when you returned . When i returned, i felt grief and sadness. Reporter she is now taking legal action. She alleges a downed utility pole owned by xcel Energy Helped spark the fire. Xcel is conducting their own investigation to determine the causes of the fires. And when we talk about the damage to the cattle ranches, we need to keep in mind that most of the ranches in texas are in the panhandle. 80 . Those that lost the herds will look for the ones that survived and try to treat them and feed them which is complicated and for other areas of the panhandle, it is a battle to protect the herds still left. Thank you, guad. For more on the region, lets bring in angie. It will be problematic, guys. You can see all of the alerts we have across the west. We have 6 Million People under winter alerts and a blizzard for california and nevada. Wind alerts up to 16 million. You see the bright pink, those are the fire alerts. 7 million included from texas to the Northern Plains. We do have out west the heavy snow happening across the sierras. You will see through the day today is the rockies start to get in on the action. We are seeing the winds impacting folks in the region, too, which is why the travel is impossible. Especially along i80. That is a spot that is nearly impossible to travel. Wind gusting today up to 65 oils Miles Per Hour for vegas. Reno up to 44 miles an hour. We add on the snow in the sierras. We have another 3 to 8 feet possible and it is impactful for today and tomorrow and into monday. Meanwhile, we talk about the fire weather, this is going to last as well. We saw a little bit of relief with temperatures in the previous days. Unfortunately, the low humidity and dry air and warm air is with us and the strong winds up to 40 Miles Per Hour will not help. We have the alerts in effect right now. This is what were expecting today. Still dealing with the same areas with the low humidity and it is difficult for firefighters to battle that fire today which, of course, is barely contained. Even into tomorrow, it is not better in the panhandle of texas and stretching into oklahoma and kansas as well as colorado. This is going to be something that we deal with for the next couple days. It doesnt look like we will see a lot of rain in sight as we head into the weekend. Angie, thank you. Former President Trump is back on the campaign trail today as republicans are holding their latest round of caucuses in idaho and missouri. It comes amid questions of the four criminal trials. In georgia, the judge in the case said on friday he expects to rule within two weeks whether District Attorney fani willis would be disqualified which could be a death sentence for that case. In florida, in the case with the former president accused of hoarding documents after he left the white house, the judge left the trial in limbo. Holding that trial before the november election would be unfair. Laura, as people digest the criminal trials, does this mean the only trial we will see before the election is the hush money trial . That is the upshot of the political and legal calendar have shaken out at this point. All of this, also, remember the Supreme Court this week threw everyone for a loop saying it will take up the issue to make or break the prosecution against him for having tried to steal the last election as he is running for this election. The Supreme Court will take up the issue whether he is immune from prosecution completely. By doing that, they put everything on pause as it relates to that case. That could affect the georgia case and the florida case. That is why the court took it up. Supreme court not going to hear the arguments until late april. We will not have a decision until june. The case doesnt just spring back to life if they rule in june. You have to tack on another three months. The calendar here really working in his favor. That is why the strategy from the jump has been delay. It is a lot to make sense. We are trying to keep track of it these days. To washington where President Biden announced a step to ease the humanitarian crisis in gaza. The u. S. Will soon drop aid by air. Nbcs Aaron Gilchrist on the north lawn has the latest. Aaron, good morning. Reporter peter, the air drops could start as soon as today with the readytoeat meals and medical supplies. President biden made the announcement in the oval office on friday before meeting with the italian prime minister. The u. S. Military will work with jordan to coordinate. The white house acknowledging that air drops are not the most efficient or Cost Effective way to deliver aid. The president saying israel needs to allow more trucks in now. No excuses because the truth is aid flowing to gaza is nowhere nearly enough now. It is nowhere nearly enough. Lives are on the line and childrens lives are on the line. We will not stand by until we get more aid. We should get hundreds of trucks in, not just several. Reporter President Biden referencing the deaths of palestinians earlier this week as they were trying to access humanitarian aid trucks in northern gaza. He called it heartbreaking. The white house said the incident speaks to the urgent need to get aid to gaza faster. Peter, the israelgaza war and hostage crisis will play a significant role in the president s state of the union speech next week. Peter. Scheduled for next thursday. Aaron, thank you. Lets turn to moscow where thousands of people openly defied Vladimir Putin by gathering to pay respects to his biggest critic. Opposition leader alexi navalny. Navalny died two weeks ago in russian custody. We have keir simmons with more on this one. Keir, good morning. Reporter laura, good morning to you. In washington, in kyiv and governments around the world, they will assess this morning what yesterdays impactful events mean for the future of russia. The overriding message will inn fewer rate president putin as they lowered navalnys casket into the ground and played the Frank Sinatra song my way. In the open casket, the body of alexi navalny. Putins famous opponent. His family struggled to find a church willing to hold the service. Outside, on the streets of moscow, thousands of supporters threw flowers as the casket passed by. Each one risking freedom to be there. They chanted his name. Openly calling putin a murderer. Despite the heavy presence of Russian Police and dozens of arrests across the country, russian prison Authorities Say navalny collapsed while talking a walk. His wife, yulia, said he was poisoned. She did not attend the funeral over safety concerns. She posted a message of thank you for the 26 years of happiness. I will try to make you proud. As navalnys left the church, people kissed her and told her thank you for your son. At the cemetery, she kissed him one last time helping cover his head. A moment of closure, but as dark fell, navalnys mother was still there and some were many thousands of ordinary russians. Look how united we are, this woman says. If the kremlin thought this would silencesuppsupporters, they were wrong. With the events around the elections that matter most and the live stream of the events was watched by 250,000 people throughout that day. It shows the impact and reach. Keir, thank you. Back in this country, the new york man who killed a woman after the suv she was riding in made a wrong turn into his driveway was sentenced to 25 years in prison on friday. The judge in the case handed maximum sentence to 66yearold kevin moynahan. He was sentenced for fatally shooting kaylin gillis. She was shot trying to leave the winding driveway after realizing they were at the wrong home. Time for the check of the national forecast. Angie is back with that. Good morning to you. We have some rain to talk about across portions of the northeast. We talked about the west coast, but still impacts here as you get through saturday from parts of South Carolina to new york. We will see periods of the heavy rain through the day today. Unfortunately, it will be soggy. Notice rainfall totals from. 25 to. 50 in spots closer to the coast with 1 inch of rain that you will pick up between now and this evening. That will move out of here in a hurry tomorrow. It will nice and mild across the northeast. We have to deal with the rain. The middle of the country has the fire risk. We have record highs. Some temperatures 10 to 40 degrees above normal across the midwest and Northern Plains and we have the h good saturday morning at 5 18, we are dealing with that rain. Heavy at times going through parts of the bay. Im going to zoom it in with stormranger, mobile Doppler Radar, and areas you should see shaded with light purples, thats snow on top of mountain saint helena and the east bay we just got a thunderstorm over walnut creek, parts of concord and into the diablo thats the look at the forecast. Guys, in the middle of the country, the groundhog was right. And again its raining on a saturday. Angie, thank you. Still to come, an anxious moment with a truck dangling. That was crazy. Can you hear me now . Why your Old Fashioned land line phone could soon be gone for good. But first these messages. What do i see in peter dixon . I see my husband. The father of our girls. I see a public servant. A man who served under secretary clinton in the state department. Where he took on the epidemic of violence against women in the congo. I see a fighter, a tenacious problemsolver. Who will go to congress and protect abortion rights and our democracy. Because he sees a Better Future for all of us. Im peter dixon and i approved this message. Democrats agree. Conservative republican steve garvey is the wrong choice for the senate. Our republican opponent here on this stage has voted for donald trump twice. Mr. Garvey, you voted for him twice. As your own man, what is your decision . Garvey is wrong for california. But garveys surging in the polls. Fox news says garvey would be a boost to republican control of the senate. Stop garvey. Adam schiff for senate. Im adam schiff, and i approve this message. We are back on a saturday morning with the weekly download. We have joe fryer with that. Among the headlines, a changing of the guard on capitol hill. Its time for the next generation of leadership. Longtime Senate Republican leader Mitch Mcconnell is stepping down in november after an impressive 18 years leading his party. Mcconnell will finish his term. Prince william appeared in the public eye. His noshow causing rumors to swirl about the health of his wife. Kate middleton, we are, as she. We have not seen her in the year of 2024. A spokesperson for Kensington Palace said the princess is recovering and doing well. The palace will only provide significant updates. Prince charles is out of the public eye receiving cancer treatment. This potentially could be a road map for other states to restrict access to ivf. Please use your voice. Hundreds of patients and doctors rallied at the alabama statehouse calling for ivf protections after the alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are children. State lawmakers advanced legislation to protect ivf. The senate and house still need to vote on the unified bill before sending it to the governor for his signature. Im paranoid about everything in my life. At home, on my stationary bike, i have a rearview mirror. Comedian Richard Lewis passed away after suffering a heart attack at his home. He gained a new round of fans on curb your enthusiasm. You never call me. Are we married . I dont understand. Close friend larry david said he had that rare combination of being the funniest person and the sweetest. Today, he made me sob. Richard lewis was 76 years old. The gophers on the board. Clark again. Somebody is in her bag. Iowas Caitlin Clark broke another record. This time passing kansas jayhawks legend for the most points by a Major CollegeWomens Basketball player. Finally, a 6yearold name connor was able to hear clearly for the First Time Ever when he was fitted with hearing aids. Here is the moment he could finally hear his moms voice. Can you hear us . Can you hear me . I love you. It doesnt get sweeter than that. That smile. The hug and the tears. Its a beautiful thing. A difference for so many families. Those opportunities. Coming up, a lawmaker trying to stop scammers after what he saw happened to laura. And the new song by miley cyrus and pharrel is causing a stir. Thats after these messages. Good morning. Thanks for joining us on this saturday, march 2nd. Im kira klapper. Developing right now stuck in the sierra middle of a blizzard. The situation growing more dire as people have been trapped in cars for hours last night into this morning with temperatures dropping down into the 20s. One driver told us he was driving back from reno to california with his dog when he was forced to pull over