Troubles, sunday, august 11, 2013. From nbc news, this is today with lester holt and erica hill live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. And welcome to today on this sunday morning. Im erica hill. And im kraig mall vin alongside jen na wolf. A great way to start the broadcast here. Dylan. People think were identical twins all the time, craig. In for lester today. And very nice to have you here. Were all excited to have you here, but were not the only ones. Your wife, lindsay, posted something very sweet on facebook this morning and we couldnt help bringing it up saying if theres ever a good reason to set the alarm on sunday, i found it. My husband hosting the today at 8 00 a. M. Thats so sweet. Its sweet. And to think i screwed up the start just like that. No. Not at all. Thank you. Now we know why she loves you too. Wow. I might be able to get through the show now. Great to have yu here. Thanks for your hospitality. A lot to get to this morning especially when were talking about the rescue of 16yearold Hannah Anderson in the idaho wilderness. Her alleged kidnapper is dead. Joe is live in cascade, idaho, with t very latest. Reporter good morning, erica. Authorities plan to reunite Hannah Anderson with her father at some point today in idaho. And the fbi is giving them all the resources they need after such a traumatic week. A sigh of relief this morning after a week long manhunt that started with a fire in Southern California and ended with gunfire in idahos rugged wilderness. It was here on saturday authorities in a helicopter spotted James Dimaggio and hand na handerson at a website. Fbi agents moved in on the ground leading to a confrontation. Suspect James Lee Dimaggio was shot and killed by an fbi tactical agent. Obviously we would like mr. Dimaggio to surrender and face justice in a court of law, but thats not going to be the case. Hannah appears to be in good shape. Hannah is safe, and that was our First Priority from the very beginning. Reporter in san diego hannahs family erased the message on their car that said bring our hannah home replacing it with welcome home hannah. Were just so happy. So happy and relieved. And hannah will be fine. Well make sure that she has everything she needs and wants. Shes a strong girl. Shell be fine. Reporter still, relatives are left to mourn the loss of hannahs mother and brother. Investigators believe dimaggio killed them, set his house on fire and then kidnapped the 16yearold girl. Thanks to an amber alert they were spotted in the idaho wilderness on wednesday and by friday investigators located dimaggios blue nissan which was towed away from the scene. What authorities arent saying is what led to the deadly conclusion of a weeklong ordeal. I know its not good for you all because everybody wants to know what happened. Whats important here is hannah is safe tonight. Reporter the fbi is sending a special team here to investigate the shooting. They plan to interview witnesses to determine exactly what happened. Erica. Joe, thanks. This is obviously a huge relief for Law Enforcement whod been looking across the west for hannah hoping theyd be able to bring her home alive. And now thats reality. Andrea deirden with the idaho county sheriffs office. Good morning to you. Good morning. What can you tell us first of all about how the manhunt ended and how the rescue itself went down . It was really a very challenging rescue. It began on saturday afternoon. And what happened is they were spotted, the pair believed to be hannah and dimaggio, were spotted from the air by those Law Enforcement teams that were flying overhead. They saw them on the ground and could not get close enough safely to the pair, so they had to land about a two and a half hour hike away. They sent two teams in by air, landed those teams on the ground as safely as possible and then those tactical teams did move closer to the camp. Took about two and a half hours to get to the camp and surround that area so that they could have good visuals of what was going on. And as soon as they were able to see that hannah was separate from dimaggio, then thats when they moved in and rescued her. What happened in the woods that led the fbi agent to shoot and kill dimaggio . None of that information is being released right now. That is exactly what the shooting review team is on its way here to determine. They will interview witnesses, interview everyone involved. And it is that teams job to get those pieces of information and all of the evidence together. And that will happen in the next few days and weeks ahead. Aiden county sheriffs department. Andrea, thank you. Youre welcome. We want to turn now to hannahs maternal grandparents who join us this morning. Thank you both for joining us. And our condolences because we know this is a tough morning and a mix of emotions for you as youre mourning the loss of your daughter and grandson, obviously celebrating the rescue of your granddaughter hannah as well. Take us back to that phone call you got from your soninlaw, brett, yesterday, and what happened when you heard the news ha hannah had in fact been found and rescued . Well, we got the phone call from brett yesterday afternoon. All he did was say can you come over to his house and we have some news. So we got in our car. And we didnt know if it was good news or bad news. And it was a long drive there. We werent sure what to expect. And then when we got there, brett greeted us. He said hannah was safe and jim was dead. And then hugs, joy. We were so happy. Can only imagine. I know youre both wearing tshirts this morning with hannahs picture on them. You must be pretty anxious to get your arms around your granddaughter. Do you know when you may be able to speak with her or see her . No, we dont. Shell be in the hospital for a bit. And i imagine when they feel the time is right, well be able to speak with her. Jim dimaggio has been described as a close family friend, the kids called him uncle jim. Ralph, you both have known him as well. When all of this happened and his name was associated with this tragedy, was it a surprise to you . Had you noticed any change at all . Not really. It was just complete shock. He was uncle jim. And he helped. Weve known him for years. When hannah was born. And just complete shock. Does hannah know at this point about what happened to her and her brother . We dont know. We dont know what she saw or heard or we dont know any of that. Hannahs the only person that knows what happened that night. Weve heard some wonderful things though about your daughter and about your grandchildren over this past week. Sarah, is there something you would like us to know about tina . She was a strong person. She loved her children dearly. Very protective of them. Shes like our family. Our familys very strong. She was an excellent mother. Would do anything for her children. And apparently she just trusted jim and we all trusted jim. There was no reason not to ever. He was great to the children and to everyone in the family. And, you know, we just dont know what happened. Let it serve as a warning. Thats all we can say. It is unimaginable. Please know that so many people are really thinking of you and sending you their best this morning. We appreciate you taking your time to share with us. We hope you get your arms around hannah very soon. Thanks again. Thank you. Want to take a look now at some of the mornings other top stories. Theres also new information about the victims of the plane crash thats landed on two homes in connecticut. Jenna has the latest on that. Good morning, everyone. A community is in mourning today after learning two sisters were killed in the deadly connecticut plane crash. Police confirmed the sisters ages 13 and 1. They were inside the home when the small plane hit. Their mother was able to escape unharmed. The pilot and his son were also killed. Investigators say the pilot was coming in for a landing when the plane hit the home. It will be torn down this week. A week of car bombings killed more than 60 people in iraq as they celebrated the end of ramadan. The attacks took place in mostly shiite neighborhoods on saturday. They happened within an hour of each other suggesting they may have been coordinated. No group has claimed responsibility as yetd for the bombings. Almost all the embassies and consulates overseas closed last week are back open this morning. Outposts across the middle east and africa shut down over a potential terrorist threat. The embassy in yemen will remain closed. And finally music fans are remembering eyiedie gorme. She sang solos like the 1960s hit blame it on bosonova. In 1963 she joined steven allens tv show later became nbcs tonight show. She was 84 years old. Firefighters are getting an upper hand on the Massive Wildfire in Southern California. The socalled silver fire is 70 contained. It charred 30 square miles in three days and burned 26 homes. That is the news. Now back to craig. Jenna, thank you. Now to colorado and the search for the missing in the week of that massive flash flood that swept cars away outside Colorado Springs. Leann greg is on the scene for us. Leann, good morning to you. Whats the scene like right now . Reporter good morning, craig. Well, this morning the crews will continue to search for the missing after that wall of water raged through this downtown area surging more than 12 feet above the creekbed. This is one of the buildings that was damaged. Later this morning the cleanup crews will continue to sort through the debris. They will also pump water out of the low lying areas. It happened extremely quickly on friday night. More than an inch of rain fell in less than 30 minutes causing flash floods and mudslides. The downpour west of Colorado Springs was in an area burned by the waldo canyon fire, vulnerable to flash flooding because charred soil just doesnt absorb very much water. The roads turned into raging rivers rushing up to 30 miles an hour, sweeping away cars and buildings in the resort town. The storm hit during Business Hours forcing visitors and residents to scramble for higher ground. Officials report one person is dead, several injured and two are still missing. The rain let up, much of the downtown was covered in debris. Several roads impassable. Colorado is one of six states this week that has suffered from severe flash flooding. Now, the volunteer cleanup crews are going to be told to leave by early afternoon. The town is concerned about more flooding. Craig. All right, leann greg for us there. Thank you. Severe storms could be on the way for parts of the country today. Dylan is keeping an eye on all of that for us amid those fears of more flooding. Dylan, good morning. Good morning. Good morning everyone. We are seeing this setup where we could see some severe storms today across the northern plains, but this type of setup with mild dry air to the north and very hot and humid air to the south and along that line you have that stationary front that is producing some heavier downpours. Look at what weve seen since the beginning of august. We have already picked up about 10 to 18 inches of rainfall in parts of southern missouri. Right now though things are quiet. And it should be mostly quiet over the course of the day today. But tomorrow more wet weather is going to move in. And between monday and tuesday we could end up with another two to four inches of rain in already rainsoaked areas of kansas, oklahoma and into missouri and arkansas. So especially tomorrow well be stepping up those flooding concerns once again. Craig. President obamas trying to get a little r r today as he and the first Family Vacation on marthas vineyard. Of course no president really gets to unplug really. He has a number of major issues on his plate. David gregory is moderator of meet the press. David, good morning. Hey, craig. Good morning. Gun control, immigration reform, grand bargain on the budget, all of those things of course are on hold right now. Has the president s secondterm agenda, has it already stalled out . It does seem to be a neutral in a couple ways. One, there are the distractions, those things the president didnt count on including the leaking of this nsa program, the series of programs hes got to defend and try to reform. You mentioned gun control, other issues. I also think he has some of these interact problems especially with issues like immigration. This is the legacy item, this is a big campaign item and it does not appear to be heading in the direction that the president would want, let alone the fact you refer to the budget and continuing to fund the government, that comes up in september. We could see repeat then of fights weve seen over the last couple of years. In his News Conference president obama practically dared republicans to shut down the government. Is the president gearing up for a showdown with congress when it returns in september . I think he is. I think theres a different strategy too. I think youre seeing it from the president whos out there traveling around saying that they want to republicans want to cut programs that are necessary for people, that the sequester is an undue burden, part of an irrational scheme of cutting spending in washington. So i think he wants to push republicans harder. And almost dare them to shut the government down feeling like hell win that battle politically. Mr. Obama used his News Conference attack on the nsa spy program announcing among other things this task force to review the program and propose possible changes. Do task forces like the one that president obamas proposing, do those have a history of working . Well, not necessarily. I think this is really going to be about Congress Working with these kind of strange bedfellows, these various coalitions both on the right and left to say how do we deal with privacy. This long after 9 11 can we review how we institute or rather execute the surveillance programs in the u. S. So how they put some of those safeguards in place become very difficult. I keep going back to a former director of the nsa who said the programs may have to be less successful in order to be more politically sustainable. David gregory, well check in with you later for a look at whats coming up on meet the press. Thank you. Thanks. We want to check in with dylan one more time. She got a Little Something more for us, rielgt, dylan . Yeah, we are looking at that threat of severe storms especially up across parts of kansas and nebraska today stretching into iowa. Biggest threat would be for some hail and gusty and thats your latest forecast. Craig. Dylan, thank you. Up next, a football dream come true for a young man who was wrongly convicted of a serious crime. That story right after this. This day calls you. To fight chronic osteoarthritis pain. To fight chronic low back pain. To take action. To take the next step. Today, you will know you did something for your pain. Cymbalta can help. Cymbalta is a pain reliever fdaapproved to manage chronic musculoskeletal pain. One nonnarcotic pill a day, every day, can help reduce this pain. Tell your doctor right away if your mood worsens, you have unusual changes in mood or behavior or thoughts of suicide. Antidepressants can increase these in children, teens, and young adults. Cymbalta is not for children under 18. People taking maois, linezolid or thioridazine or with uncontrolled glaucoma should not take cymbalta. Taking it with nsaid pain relievers, aspirin, or blood thinners may increase bleeding risk. Severe liver problems, some fatal, were reported. Signs include abdominal pain and yellowing skin or eyes. Tell your doctor about all your medicines, including those for migraine and while on cymbalta, call right away if you have high fever, confusion and stiff muscles or serious allergic skin reactions like blisters, peeling rash, hives, or mouth sores to address possible lifethreatening conditions. Talk about your alcohol use, Liver Disease and before you reduce or stop cymbalta. Dizziness or fainting may occur upon standing. Take the next step. Talk to your doctor. Cymbalta can help. We want to update you this morning on a story weve been following. We told you about brian banks, he was that promising Football Player whose career was cut short when he was convicted of a crime he didnt commit. So he spent a decade clearing his name, but today hes making his nfl dreams come true practicing with the Atlanta Falcons just days after playing in his first game. The story now from michelle franzen. Reporter before the first down of the first preseason game was played when brian banks burst out of the tunnel, the longest yard was already behind him. I played an nfl game today. Reporter thats something banks couldnt have dreamed of 11 years ago. At the age of 16 he was a highly recruited prospect, a College Scholarship and a possible nfl career was ahead of him. All of that was suddenly snatched from him when he was falsely convicted of rape. Hed served five years in prison and another four on probation before his accuser recanted shed made the whole thing up. I know what ive been through. Reporter a year ago was his name cleared banks began mounting a comeback. Thursday night after standing on the sidelines for three quarters he got his shot with the Atlanta Falcons. A 28yearold rookie, but no rookie nerves. Nervous is when you walk into a courtroom and you dont know what your fates going to be. Nervous is when you walk into a prison yard for the first time at the age of 18. Reporter hes credited with making a tackle in the game. And while he might not make the teams final roster brian banks may have already achieved his greatest victory. I feel in just that one game if it all ended yesterday that that dream was fulfilled. Reporter for today, michelle franzen, nbc news. Such a great story. Still ahead this morning, the woman who accidentally got up close and personal with a venomous snake. Sounds like that woul probably be the worst thing that could happen to you on that day. Maybe not. Not after you get stung by something else. Well explain. First these messages. Ive got something for you too. announcer fancy feast delights with cheddar. A meal that is sure to delight your cheese lover. Now available in the classic form she loves. Fancy feast. The best ingredient is love. Living on cloud nine with that uverse wireless receiver. You see in my day, when my mom was repainting the house, you couldnt just set up a tv in the basement. I mean, come on nope. We could only watch tv in the rooms that had a tv outlet. Yeah if we want