pacific in a small boat. how did they manage to make it without food or supplies? one of the men who rescued them will tell us "today." captions paid for by nbc-universal television and welcome to "today" on this friday morning. i'm amy robach. >> and i'm carl quintanilla. matt and meredith have the morning off. perhaps joining all those black friday deal hunters who are out early at malls like this one in paramus, new jersey. i don't see matt in that shot, but if we do, we'll call him out on it. >> look at all those people. it amazing. some stores opened before midnight. what are the hottest items you should be targeting? and if you're still at home, have you already missed out on all of the bargains. we have everything you need to know ahead. also still ahead, a warning to driver, deadly danger deer pose on the roads. we have more on that coming up. >> on a much lighter note, if your kids are still asleep, wake them up. >> that's right. >> 16-year-old pop sensation justin bieber who was just named artist of the year at the american music awards will be here live, we have a big crowd outside. warming up their pipes. >> but let's begin with the black friday rush. nbc's rehema ellis is braving those crowds just a few blocks south of us at the manhattan mall. how is it looking there? >> reporter: it's crowded here, but it's not a frenzy and some people started lining up here at 10:00 thanksgiving night. as one person said, people were ready to shop even before the turkey was cooled. the stores here at the manhattan mall, they opened around 4:00 this morning.k people came rushing in looking for those bargains, looking for those door buster deals. i talked to a few people and i asked them why do you come so early? they said, i'm afraid if i don't get here retailers are hoping a lot of people have that notion. they're expecting something like 138 million shoppers will be spending money this black friday shopping weekend, and they say that's up something like 3% from last year. so they're feeling optimistic and they're offering a lot of those bargains to try to lure those bargain hunting into the stores. >> rehema ellis, thanks so much. and brian dunn, the ceo of a bust buy is inside a best buy in eden prairie, minnesota. mr. dunn, good morning to you. >> good morning, amy. >> i believe your doors have been open since 5:00 a.m. are you happy with the crowds you're seeing there now? >> i'm very happy with the crowds we're seeing right now. it looks like the lines are longer this year than they were last year and so far, so good. >> how much weight does best buy put on this day? we talked about it every year. and it seems like perhaps black friday started even earlier this year than in years past. >> it certainly -- we had a number of events over the course of the month to stimulate the customer and let them know that we have some great values, even before black friday. black friday is a really important event for us, because it really is the gateway to the holiday selling season. it drives a lot of enthusiasm with our employees and our customers. >> i think people have become very savvy to black friday shopping, they have been expecting those deals, they have been scouring the newspapers and internet. what is best buy trying to do to accommodate those savvy shoppers who are looking for real bargains? >> i think those savvy shoppers are best buy's friend. we're out early with our ad, we're in social media with our ad. and with bargains. we really endeavor to talk to our customers where they are, whether that's through an insert, through an aggressive television campaign this year, or an area such social media. >> earlier this week, consumer reports came out with their ten best black friday electronics deals and at least five of those ten deals listed best buy as the retailer. but i think we were mentioning how savvy the shoppers are these days, and yet how competitive you have to be to keep your prices low. how difficult is that in this economy? >> i don't know how difficult it is. it part of our nature. it says best buy above the door for a reason. we do that every day of the year. we're focused on making sure we're providing a great value. it gets amplified on black friday. but it is a place that we place an awful lot of emphasis making sure that we're market right for our customers. >> and we know that electronics are always hot every year. people wanting to get those laptops, ebook readers, camcorders, tvs. it is usually the same every year. but for those people who are sitting at home, who didn't brave the crowds at 5:00 a.m., is it too late to get a deal? are those early bird specials gone? >> an awful lot of them are going fast. there is still lots of great values in the store. i obviously encourage everybody to get off the couch and come in and see us. >> brian dunn, thanks so much. enjoy black friday. it is now 7:06, and here's carl. >> amy thanks. now to what can only be described as a thanksgiving miracle. three teenaged boys set sail on the south pacific back on october 5th, but they never made it back to shore. their families assumed the boys were dead, but incredibly they have now been found alive by the crew of a fishing boat 50 days after their ordeal began. one of the rescuers shared the remarkable details with us. >> as we got closer, we could see that it was a small speedboat and that it had three individuals inside of it. once we are in calling distance, i did ask them if they needed help, and one of the boys relied yes, and in the same sentence, he said we have been adrift for two months. once hearing that, i immediately got my crew active into launching the rescue boats. it was just amazing to see them in that state as they come on the boat. they were, as you can imagine, seeing their physical being, it was very heart breaking and just incredible how they were still living. they only had a few coconuts for the first couple days of their ordeal. and they more or less sustained themselves on this fresh rain water they captured every night. and they did manage to catch a bird, a sea bird about two weeks before we did rescue them which probably did give them enough nutrition to carry them for those next couple of weeks but they were just skin and bones, their skin was just falling off their bones, but their spirit, their mentality was just overwhelming. they were smiling, as we extracted them from the boat. i believe it was just a real miracle that we did come across this boat, by this chance that we were traveling in such a pleat area of the western pacific. their spirits were just so high, incredible. and i just couldn't believe they had this will power still after so long. >> just incredible. he says the boys are in great spirits, they're currently receiving medical attention at a local hospital. they have already started to put on some weight. just an amazing story. almost out of the movie "cast away." >> i'm already seeing a made for tv movie. or ripped from the headlines. what an amazing story. >> and to be discovered on thanksgiving. they got a lot to be thankful for. >> let's begin with a check of the morning's other top stories. msnbc's thomas roberts is in at the news desk while ann is on assignment. >> good morning, everybody. we begin in south korea where the sound of artillery fire was heard earlier this week. richard engel joins us from south korea. and richard, did yeonpyeong island receive any new direct hits overnight? >> reporter: no, it did not. no direct hits, no hits anywhere near the island we're told by senior u.s. military officials. but there was a tense moment today. what happened was people on this island that was attacked on tuesday heard explosions, they thought it was yet another attack by north korea. it turns out that it wasn't, that it was explosions within north korea proper. it was apparently a message by north korea however to the united states to south korea that it is not letting its guard down and that the situation remains tense and that the north koreans remain on guard. >> and as we have been covering, the "uss george washington" moved into the waters there. what does the latest round of escalations mean for the sunday joint military exercises that are supposed to take place between the u.s. and south korea? >> reporter: north korea says these exercises are reckless and that they bring the region to the brink of war. it is also threatening to respond aggressively against north korea if any of these warships, u.s. warships, south korean warships enter any north korean territory. the u.s. however is going forward with these joint exercises, the u.s. government and south korea believe that these exercises are important to show solidarity and to show north korea that it will not accept any more provocations, any more attacks from the north into the south. >> richard engel in south korea. richard, thank you. the number of cholera cases expected to grip haiti has been doubled. the u.n. now projects that 425,000 will contract the disease by spring. meanwhile the death toll has skyrocketed to more than 1,500. dramatic images coming from rio de janeiro where brazilian police and marines and tanks rolled through a shantytown at the center of a nearly -- of nearly after a week of violence that has left 30 people dead there. france will relaunch a search for an air france flight that crashed in the mid-atlantic ocean in june of 2009. the victims' families have pressured the government to find the wreckage and determine the cause of the crash that called all 228 people on board. russia is now dismantling one of the darkest legacies of the cold war. the former soviet union has created a new facility to destroy its massive stockpile of chemical weapons in anticipation of a 2012 deadline. russia has the world's largest collection of weapons of mass destruction. on a much different note, this is not george, but a man of irish descent named clooney who is the top dog in his field. the irish setter was declared best in show at the national dog show on thursday. at just 3 years old, clooney is considered quite young to win such a prestigious award. congratulations to clooney. it is now 7:11. back over to amy, carl and stephanie. >> all right, thomas roberts, thanks so much. al is off this morning, so the weather channel's stephanie abrams is here with a look at your forecast. >> we have a look at the bad weather on the east coast, up and down 95 is where we'll see all the clouds and rain today. behind that, much colder air. look back towards minneapolis and chicago, that is heading >> here's the view of sun coming up, but the temperatures are not up. you can see in the numbers this morning, we dropped into the 20s and 30s. san jose is 33 and 42 in san francisco. 39 in oakland. another record for oakland, but you will see high clouds for the afternoon. those will hint at rain coming in for tomorrow. we will see highs in the 50s for most of the bay area. 40s across the north bay. as you check out the temperatures there towards the lake port, plan on rain for your saturday. clearing and breezy for sunday. >> the football forecast, here's how it is. it will be on the cold looking, it's going to be on the cold side, so you're going to have to bundle up, or maybe you volunteer to cook. that's how you stay warm, right, when it's cold out. here are the temperatures, right around 40 degrees with partly cloudy skies. carl? >> stephanie, thanks. now to politics, the woman who became a face of americans struggling in this difficult economy. velma hart made headlines when she told president obama she was tired of defending him and was worried about her future. velma hart recently lost her job. we're going to talk to her in a moment. but first, here's cnbc's chief washington correspondent john harwood. john, good morning. >> good morning, carl. velma hart burst into the nation's consciousness by telling president obama directly her frustrations about the economy. now we know that she was under more pressure then than any of us knew. this is the life that velma hart told president obama about this fall at a cnbc town hall. >> i'm one of your middle class americans and quite frankly, i'm exhausted. i'm exhausted of defending you, defending your administration, defending the mantle of change that i voted for. >> reporter: hart became the face of the president's problem. >> a black lady financial analyst veteran. we have found obama's crypt knight. >> the gap between the promise of his campaign and the reality of his presidency. the self-described finance geek was even signed up as a cnbc contributor. but she wasn't just exhausted, privately she was scared. the recession was threatening her nonprofit job. but you had a secret. >> when i was talking to the president on september 20, i was thinking about that. but if you look at our cash position, it wasn't very good >> reporter: last friday, hart was laid off. >> they called me in on a friday afternoon and said they had made a decision. >> reporter: she still supports president obama and worries he has been hurt by midterm elections, but now she has more immediate concerns. >> could it take me two years to find a job? wow. that's a scary proposition for me and my family. but right now, what i want to focus on the positive and be optimistic and assume that somehow things will work out. >> reporter: now as a finance professional, velma hart bases her optimism on data that the economy is getting better. that helps her personally and professionally. john, thank you. as john said in his piece, you have been the chief financial officer of this nonprofit for a while, you know the economy is bad, but i'm wondering when you're called into that office and you're told that your job is being cut, are you prepared to hear anything like that? >> i don't think anyone's ever prepared to hear anything like that. certainly in this economy you don't want to be out job searching. the beauty for me, though, and i truly was blessed in that i've been just such a help to many in my circle over the last couple of years who have lost jobs, i think in many respects they helped to strengthen my resolve and at least appreciation for what had to be done. and i'm grateful for that. i consider myself immensely blessed, i have told people that hundreds of time. i'm in far better position than some people who are living through unemployment. >> your husband does work, but you have two daughters in private school, one's about to go into college. you seem relatively optimistic, but i'm wondering if privately if you are scared. >> as john said in the piece and as i affirmed in a number of interviews i've had so far, of course i'm scared. i don't think anybody can be in this situation and not be a little uncomfortable. but i'm a person of faith and i believe that things happen for a reason. i believe in the old adage when one door closes, a window opens and i'm waiting for my window of opportunity. >> you did some work for the democratic party during the campaign. if you had the chance to pose another question to him now, what would you ask? >> i think i have gotten a little bit shell shocked of asking public questions. i do have questions and i would be glad to ask them if i ever had the opportunity. i think there are a number. >> are you still supportive of the president? >> my condition isn't directly attributed to any individual. i supported the president before, i support him now. >> you have become something of a symbol obviously for people who are frustrated with the white house. i'm wondering if you were prepared for any of that and if you think it was worth obviously the disruption it has brought to your life so far. >> that's actually a great question. i don't think anyone can prepare for this type of attention, especially when you think you're regular, you're just like everybody else. what i think i have decided to do is seize the opportunity to speak for people who don't ordinarily get an opportunity to speak. you know, i get messages and e-mails and even calls from people all over the country and these last couple of days have been just wonderful and i just want to interrupt for a second and say thank you to all of you who are trying to support me, lift me up, keep me encouraged, i appreciate it. i'm passing that on to people i know who are also affected by unemployment because i think that's very important. but i'm also trying in my small way, my small opportunity here to pass on a message that affects everyone, small businesses are being affected. my nonprofit community, which i love, is being affected. we're all just trying to struggle through this in the hopes that our political leaders and business leaders will make good decisions going forward. and i'm excited about what's going to happen in january and i hope people will get serious about leading this country. >> final question, any of those phone calls involve a job offer for you? >> people are approaching me and i'm grateful for that. ironically, the thanksgiving holiday, i haven't had much time to act on those things, but i do plan to call people back and if nothing else, thank them for even considering me. so i'm hoping something good will happen, i'm keeping my prayers up and my prayer circle active and we're continuing to do what we do. i'm doing what everybody else in this country who's become employ -- unemployed is doing, i'm pulling my bootstraps up and i'm going to go out and find a job because that's what we do. we're in the here and now, and we're not in some of the theater that's going on in our politics right now. >> velma, we wish you the best. thank you for your time. >> thank you very much. i appreciate it. it is 7:19. here's amy. >> if you're driving home after thanksgiving, be careful, this is mating season for deer and that's making the roads incredibly dangerous. nbc's tom costello has the details. tom, good morning. >> reporter: hi, amy. good morning to you. you know, the trouble is that bucks get tunnel vision as they're chasing after a doe and the morning and evening rush hours, that's when the deer are the most active. a warning here, some of our video might be a bit disturbing. from a dashboard camera mounted on a west virginia taxi, video of an all too close encounter with a deer. >> what was that? >> reporter: with deer mating season now peaking, november is the peak month for deer accidents and nowhere did it get more personal than in minnesota recently. >> broken bones in my sinus cavity and both my eyes, both sockets of my eyes are busted. my nose is broken. my upper jaw bone is broken. >> reporter: the blake family was on their way to a pizza restaurant when an oncoming car hit a deer sending it through the windshield of their pontiac vibe, first hitting chris and sue in the front seat and then slamming into olivia in the back seat before flying out the rear window. >> i said deer, and about that time, it was like a scene from twister, with the cow, only it was the deer and a split second later there it was. >> after she said deer, i just kind of blacked out. >> reporter: nationwide, deer collisions are up 21% over five years with state farm estimating nearly 2 million annually. the greatest risk is in red states led by west virginia with one in 42 drivers hitting a deer each year. in montgomery county, maryland just outside of d.c., they pick up 15 to 30 dead deer every day. >> the numbers are staggering. because now they're everywhere. they're living in areas that you don't expect to see deer. >> each one of these red dots represents a deer traffic accident. and in our county alone, we have close to 2,000 accidents a year. >> reporter: 2,000 just in this county? >> 2,000, yes. >> reporter: rob gibbs is in charge of the county's deer management program. >> be aware if you see one, there is more than likely going to be more deer there. >> reporter: t