an interview with his father today, tuesday, september 6th, an interview with his father today, tuesday, september 6th, 2011. captions paid for by nbc-universal television and welcome t"t welcome to today on this tuesday morning. i'm ann curry. >> a lot being used to describe the ways with the wildfires in texas, one is catastrophic into more than 60 new fires popped up across the state in the last three days and one is considered the worst in texas history. destroying at least 476 homes. the flames are being fueled by strong winds, dry conditions created by the state's worst drought in more than 50 years. wrerp we're going to get the latest in a live report ahead. >> we're going to talk to governor perry later in the show. amanda knox appeared upbeat in court at her appeals court. coming up, a close friend will tell us how knox is holding up as that case winds down. also this morning the "real housewives of beverly hills" it premiered last night with th members of the cast. discussing the suicide of taylor armstroj's estranged husband. >> what people are saying as we're joined live by three of the women featured on that show. >> that's right. but we begin with the devastating wildfires in texas. nbc's jay gray is there with the latest on this story. hey, jay, good morning. >> good morning to you, ann. yeah, the situation took a turn for the worse overnight if you can believe that. the fire covering more than 40 square miles and growing faster than crews or this community can really handle right now. shadows from the fading sun can't hide the overwhelming evidence that texas is under attack. >> this entire state, especially central texas, is under a siege right now. >> reporter: a ribbon of flames runs through the state, dozens of wildfires wrapping around the melting away everything in their path. the worst of the fire seems to be in bastrop. it's been two full days and still firefighters are no closer to gaining the upper hand on the blaze. >> the bastrop fire is still not under any degree of control. >> reporter: 450 homes have been reduced to ash. >> that house is gone. his house is gone. david and heather's is about half gone. >> reporter: 5,000 families have been forced to leave, many watching as smoke continues to fill the sky and wondering what might be left when the air clears. >> i have no insurance or nothing. that's everything i've worked for. it's the chaos of getting through getting assistance and the wait. what do we do in the meantime? where do we go? >> reporter: monica turner's place to go is gone. >> we just lost our house. we just found out that our house has been destroyed. right now i'm sitting and praying to god because i don't know right now. >> reporter: there are so many lingering questions from those pushed from their homes. >> we have no idea what's happened to our kids. we're going to go try now and see if they will let us go and check. if the house didn't burn, we can save the pets. >> right, right. >> and we just don't know. and not knowing is awful. >> reporter: in east texas, though, knowing is even worse. a young woman and her 18-month-old daughter died when they could not escape the wall of fire that swallowed their home. as a wave of fire continues to wash across the state, crews and survivors are being pushed past their limits. >> oh, my god. total devastation. >> reporter: concerned for thousands in texas, growing almost as fast as the flames. fire crews were forced to respond to dozens of new wildfires that sparked overnight. the manpower and equipment here is being spread thin as you might imagine. in fact, the texas forestry service has issued an appeal to all available firefighters to show up as quickly as possible and to plan on working this fire for quite some time. ann? >> all right. jay gray, thank you so much for your report. we want to get more on the situation in texas and also we want to talk about the remnants of tropical depression lee, still dumping torrential rains on the east coast. for both those things, let's go upstairs. al roker is joining us now. good morning to you. >> good morning to matt and ann. here's texas, it's not horrible news but not great news. the good news, the wind is dying down just a little bit. it's going to be sunny, hot, 89. the winds north-northeast 7 to 12, same thing for tomorrow but not seeing any moisture in this system, anything to help the firefighters there. we could take some of this moisture from lee. we could really use it in the northeast. as you can see, right now we've got tornado waheffs einect from south carolina all of the way into southern virginia. the remnants of lee streaming up along this frontal system and trough as you look and the rainfall amounts we've got flash flood watches, flood warnings and flood watches stretching from knoxville to caribou, maine. rainfall amounts we're talking anywhere from two to six inches. from raleigh to charlottesville, we could be looking at eight inches of rain between today and thursday. as we move up the coast, the heaviest rain, seven to nine inches to maybe ten inches in central pennsylvania, on into central new york. where they don't need it in vermont, they're going to pick up another two to three inches of rain as well. hurricane katia, right now it's still a major hurricane. category 3 storm. the good news is, that trough is picking it up, the one that's cut across the country. that's going to bring it away from the u.s. but we will still see really strong rip currents and dangerous swells from miami all the way up to portland. ann? >> thanks for bringing us up to date, al. we'll get the rest of your forecast in a few moments. first now, let's turn to politics. the 2012 presidential race. the fires in texas led governor rick perry to cancel an appearance at monday's republican presidential forum in south carolina. but the candidates who were there had some tough words for president obama. nbc's kelly o'donnell is in columbia this morning, hey, kelly, good morning to you. >> reporter: good morning, ann. you're right. the republican presidential candidates hit the president hard over jobs. they talked about their own conservative values and social issues. all that without the first of this campaign showdown between rick perry and mitt romney that so many here expected. abruptly off the campaign trail, a detour back to texas for governor rick perry to confront those wildfires. >> i'm not paying any attention to politics right now. there's plenty of time to take care of that. people's lives and their possessions are in danger. that's substantially more important. [ applause ] >> reporter: perry's absence left a south carolina conservative forum with just five republican candidates. instead of journalists, south carolina's senator jim demint led the questioning. >> what would you change about our foreign policy? >> a lot. first, i would have one. >> reporter: today romney is jumping ahead of president obama's thursday's job plan by unveiling his own. previewed in a "usa today" op-ed. i will introduce a plan consisting of 59 specific proposals, with lower taxes and less regulations. >> that's what we've lost in washington, too many people think that business is bad. >> reporter: congresswoman michele bachmann gave a subtle dig to romney on his massachusetts health care program, but hit the president more directly. >> current united states government and its framework is acting outside of the bounds of constitution. probably the most obvious i would say, jim, would be this, obama care. >> reporter: not in the race but in the fight, sarah palin continued her tea party tour in new hampshire. >> see, candidate obama didn't have a record while in office, but president obama certainly does and that's why we're here today. >> reporter: controversy kicked off the president's jobs event in detroit monday when teamster's president jimmy hoffa jr. tried to rally democrats with a raw swipe at the tea party. >> everybody here has got to vote. if we go back, keep the eye on the prize, let's take these son of a -- out and give america back to america where we belong. >> reporter: when the president spoke later he was tamer calling out republicans. >> we're not going to wait for them. we're going to see if we've got some straight shooters in congress. we're going to see if congressional republicans will put country before party. >> reporter: and the president said he didn't want to give too much away in that speech in detroit, leading up to his big address on thursday night where he'll unveil his jobs speech. he'll do that before congress. mitt romney today will have sort of a different background to unveil his jobs plan. he'll be doing that in las vegas at a trucking dealership. matt? >> kelly o'donnell. kelly, thank you very much. coming to us from south carolina. chuck todd is nbc's political director. chief white house correspondent. he's here with the results of the latest nbc news/"wall street journal" report. people sending their kids back to school, report cards a couple months away. but the report card is here for the president and members of congress. when we look at the approval ratings for this president right now they are absolutely not good. >> that's right, matt. it is a record low. 44% approve of the job that the president is doing. also a record high disapproval number, at 51%. there is some silver lining here for the president. over 70% still find him likable. but the problem is among most of his policies, only 38% approve of those, matt. >> and obviously the economy is issue number one right here. jobs, the slow economy, that debt ceiling debate we all just lived through. 37% of the people approve of the president's handling of the economy. 59% do not. >> look, another record low when it comes to his approval rating on the economy. but it's a pretty pessimistic public that we polled. 49% think we're headed into another recession. 72% believe we still haven't hit bottom regardless if it's going to be a recession or not, matt. >> you talk about pessimistic. when we ask people, this is a question we often ask. is the country headed in right or the wrong direction. look at the number of people who say the wrong direction. 73%. >> well, i tell you this, as a theme to this poll, another record low in the obama presidency. pollsters will tell you, our pollsters will tell you this, matt, right track, wrong track tells you more about what's going to happen in the next election than any other number in a poll. that's grim for the party in power. the question is, there's a couple of parties in parts of washington's power. >> that's right. anybody in congress who may be looking at this saying, wow, the white house has a real problem, they better stop and look at their own house, as well. how about this number, 82% of the people in our poll disapproved of the job congress in general is doing. >> matt, another record. if congress really wants to grab this one. first time we have ever recorded a disapproval rate for congress over 80%. when you think about over the last 30 years, all of the different ways that congress has made the american public angry, nothing has made it -- given them worse numbers than that debt ceiling debate. 82%. it is bipartisan agreement on that, it is over 80% on republicans, democrats, and independents. >> 54% would like to vote the whole bunch out. let's talk about the gop field for the 2012 race. got some names at the top here. rick perry, who we'll be speaking to later in the program, heading the field. >> it is. it is the rick perry -- you would say is the front-runner right now. 38%. romney sitting at 23%. that 38% for rick perry is important for a couple notes. number one, highest we've recorded any republican in the republican primary field to date so far. he's showing consolidation. he gets 45% among those republican call themselves tea party supporters but he also leads romney narrowly among non-tea party supporters. by the way, matt, the big loser in our poll you will see is michele bachmann. she went from a high of 16% in the republican primary matchup last month, her support cut in half. it all went to rick perry. >> real quickly in the 30 seconds i will left. the president is speaking to a joint session of congress, obviously to the american people as well, all about creating jobs. how is the white house handling expectations on that speech? >> well, suddenly they're trying to back it down a little bit. the venue itself raises the expectations, but i can tell you this, they're facing a public that is not just skeptical, it's a public on president obama that seems to be almost giving up on him. 54% told us in this poll they believe he's facing a long-term setback. when that number went over 50% for president bush, his presidency was essentially over. that happened just after katrina. he never could get his footing back. >> chuck todd in washington this morning with the results. the new nbc news/wall street journal poll. thank you very much. >> you got it. as we said, we're going to talk to governor rick perry in texas a little later this morning. but for now let's get a check of the rest of the morning's top stories. savannah guthrie is in for natalie. >> good morning. in the news this morning, several wildfires are blazing in southern california this morning. in concern county, more than 8600 acres have been scorched along with dozens of buildings. in los angeles county the fire has spread to 500 acres. we know the saying, neither snow, nor rain, will keep the postal service from making its deliveries, but it's skyrocketing debt just might. the postmaster general heads to congress today to plead for federal assistance. without that help the postal service said it could default and face shutdown early next year. new video has surfaced of united flight 93's crash site in rural pennsylvania. nearly a decade after 9/11. a nearby resident shot the video after he felt an explosion that shook his house. after he died earlier this year his wife decided to release that clip. overseas a hostage situation had australians on edge this morning. nbc's sara james has the latest from sydney. sarah, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, savannah. that hostage ordeal which lasted nearly 12 hours has ended peacefully. a 52-year-old man has been arrested and his young daughter is described as very distressed but safe and has been reunite with family members. now, the ordeal began this morning local time when the man went into a legal office and his behavior was described as very erratic. he seemed to, in the words of eyewitnesses, simply snap. he then barricaded himself into a room. he had his daughter with him. he claimed to have a bomb. he then paraded about in front of the window wearing a legal wig, smashing the window, dropping notes down to the negotiators below. the negotiators were there on the scene though talking to the man and they also evacuated the building. now, all of this is happening, of course, just one month after sydney teenager madeleine pulver, a young student, was strapped to a fake bomb collar in her own home while she was studying. that had this city very much on edge. there is a sense of relief that this situation has been resolved peacefully. again, the suspect is in custody. and again, the young woman in this case is all right. there is no knowledge yet, savannah, of why he did it. >> all right. nbc's sarah james in sydney this morning, thank you. now to wall street, cnbc's mandy drury is at the new york stock exchange. this morning. good morning to you. >> good morning. the u.s. stock market has a lot to contend with today and this week. you've got the sovereign concerns over europe and you also have concerns of growth here in stalling. indeed for the markets the focus on president obama, what he could announce to create jobs will also be something that will be very directional for the markets. and if you own gold, well, it's getting more expensive as is perceived as a lower risk place to park your money. oil prices, on the other hand, are moving lower as, of course, lower growth here and abroad could mean lower demand for energy. the u.s. dollar, on the other hand, is getting stronger. back over to you. >> mandy, thank you. and from austria, amazing video of former laboratory chimpanzees seeing the light of day and going outside for the very first time. they had been used for medical experiments until the american pharmaceutical company baxter bought that lab and ended alhat testing on chimps. they will now live out their retirement together with plenty of sunlight in an animal sanctuary. it is now 7:17. back to matt, ann and al. >> it's kind of bittersweet to see them. it's great to have them out but they look like they've -- well -- i'm glad they're released. meantime? >> when are we going to see the sunshine around here? >> it's going to be a few days before that happens. we're going to be dealing with the remnants of lee for a little while longer. and we're continually watching the tropics. there's another tropical wave about 600 miles southwest of the southernmost cape verde island. 60% chance of becoming a tropical depression. within the next 48 hours. if it becomes a storm, it will be maria. risk of strong storms along the mid-atlantic cost. mid atlantic coast. wet weather into the northeast. western two-thirds of the country, plenty of sunshine. where we don't need it is texas. hit or miss showers and thunderstorms, monsoonal moisture in the southwest. fant weather in the pacific northwest with plenty of sunshine and temperatures in the 80s. here's what's happening in your neck of the woods. >> good morning to you. a lot of cloud cover right at the surface. this is a live picture of san francisco. it's not going to last long. watch out for reduced visibilities up in santa rosa. futurecast shows the fog bank will retreat out to sea. you're going to get clear conditions in san francisco, a warmer day than yesterday. 5 to 10 degrees warmer. make sure you're ready for it. 95 in concord. we drop off toward the weekend. weather. ann? >> al, thanks. new developments in the appeals trial of amanda knox after the court heard from the police official who conducted the original murder investigation on monday. nbc's lester holt is in italy with the latest on this story. good morning. >> arne, good morning. trial watchers seem to agree the case against amanda knox has taken some serious body blows from scientific experts who simply shredded their scientific evidence. right now this morning the prosecution is fighting back. we saw much more upbeat amanda knox entering the courtroom this morning who offered a smile to her father curt with the august summer break behind her, the end of the appeal trial is in sight and it's clearer than ever to both sides that the outcome will hinge on the dna evidence that helped send her and her ex-boyfriend to prison for the murder of knox's roommate, key evidence that now has been thoroughly discredited by court-appointed experts. are you all feeling stronger and better based on what you heard in court? >> i think we're feeling more hopeful. >> reporter: on monday one of the independent experts held firm on the conviction that the dna evidence used in the original trial was of such a minute amount that it could have come from virtually anyone in the courtroom. carla gave little ground on her intense prosecution questioning. how is it going? >> you tell me because you're seeing what happens from the outside. i believe i did my job in the way it should be done. >> reporter: as the weeks started off, the sister of victim meredith kircher sent a letter to the family lawyer saying, it is extremely difficult to understand how the results, which were obtained with great care and presented in the first trial as valid, could now be regarded as irrelevant. kercher's father