This morning, we reveal that painting to the president s mom, former First Lady Barbara Bush live. And daves departure. David letterman announces his plans to retire like only he can. What this means now is that paul and i can be married. Well look at some of the top ten moments from his late night run today, friday, april 4th, 2014. From nbc news, this is today with matt lauer and Savannah Guthrie live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. And good morning, we welcome you to today on a friday morning. And how about that news from David Letterman . Big surprise. It really is. Hes retiring, not immediately, this takes place some time in 2015. Some time over the next year. No date has been given. But this is a big deal in the world of late night television. It is. Hes given us a year to emotionally prepare. Have you heard about that painter from texas . George w. Bush with his first art exhibit. These are incredible portraits hes painted of the World Leaders he encountered along the way. Fascinating discussion with his daughter and the unveiling, as it were. Well look forward to that. Well get ready for our top story now, though. And it is the severe storms on the move this morning after causing damage and injuries from texas to indiana. Lets get to nbcs Kerry Sanders. We find him in memphis, tennessee, this morning. Kerry, good morning to you. Well, good morning, savannah. The worst of it rolled through here in memphis under cover of darkness in the Early Morning hours. No damage here, but other parts of country, not fortunate. Areas known as tornado alley, not so lucky. In hunt county, texas, the sheriff reports a suspected tornado targeted a mobile home, destroyed a farmhouse injuring four people and taken to the hospital. But fortunately this morning, there are no reports of any lives lost. Reporter from texas to the midwest, a miserable night as more than half dozen suspected tornadoes touch down. At the university of north texas in denton, students hunkered down in hallways. Earlier thursday, baseballsized hail and wicked winds smashed cars. Also damaged, a dormitory. Friends offered to help a class mate, but she said for her car, it was too little, too late. Amazing pictures at the Opening Night for the frisco rough riders, the Minor League Baseball team. The game was called as baseball fans ran for shelter. Warning signs in st. Louis, lightning at the arch. An ef1 tornado with winds of 110 Miles Per Hour damaged 100 homes and left thousands without power. We heard our daughter screaming, get in the basement we jumped out of bed and as we were getting out of the room, the front windows, the glass started flying. Thats a beast. Thats a big one. In franklin county, missouri, anxious moments as a flash flood trapped one man in his truck. Rescue teams eventually pulled him to safety. In nearby aston, 16yearold brittany creach was holed up in a safe room for hours. She tweeted, got to go to the basement because theres a tornado, but first, let me take a selfie. She talked to nbc news while waiting for the all clear. Its definitely nervewracking. 30 miles away ross buch rode out the threat alone in his bathroom. A big storm like this moves through. Reporter missouri governor jay nixons twitter page, an impressive picture snapped in osage county. An ominous warning of the looming threat. Amazes amazingly, that picture was taken with the car turned around, but safely the car turned around and made it out. Savannah . Kerry sanders, thank you. Lets check in dylan dreyer. Shes in for al this morning. So how long are we in for this rough weather . We are going to see another round of severe storms later on today. But its not going to be as severe as it was yesterday. These storms are sliding east, but take a look at the radar. Yesterday, here we start at 1 00 p. M. And watch how these storms sorry about that. Watch at how these storms did fire up. And they started to spread to the east and then they produced a lot of hail and a lot of wind damage. We have reports of eight tornadoes. We have not yet confirmed all eight of those. But wind report, 92 of those and hail reports, 159 with that baseballsized hail in parts of texas. You can see the red here right through birmingham, alabama. That is still our tornado watch until later on this morning. And the yellow boxes indicate where we have a severe thunderstorm watch. So this line of thunderstorms can still produce that Severe Weather today. With the hail and damaging wind gusts which certainly causes a lot of damage. As for tornadoes, a fewer tornadoes today, but we are looking at the possibility from mississippi up into southern ohio. It is certainly going to be a little bit active again today, but it shouldnt be as bad as it was yesterday. Thank you. Were learning more this morning about the gunman behind wednesdays deadly shooting at ft. Hood in texas. Investigators now focusing on several theories to explain the motive behind specialist ivan lopez rampage. Well hear from friends in his hometown in a moment, but first, nbcs Gabe Gutierrez is at ft. Hood with the latest. Gabe, good morning to you. Reporter matt, good morning. Military Officials Say the gunman was treated for depression and anxiety and sleep deprivation. And while investigators arent ruling anything out, an argument on base might have led him to snap. Reporter this morning in the search for what set off Army Specialist ivan lopez, military officials are zeroing in on something that may have happened right before the shooting spree. There may have been a verbal altercation with another soldier or soldiers, and theres a strong possibility that immediately preceded the shooting. And authorities confirm to nbc news, theyre looking into whether lopez was upset he didnt get more time off to attend his mothers funeral last year. He was upset, but didnt show he was upset. Reporter neighbor rayshawn turner says lopez brought up the issue of delayed military leave earlier this week. He was like, yeah, i have ptsd. And i said what happens when you have ptsd. He said sometimes i shut down. Reporter lopez joined the Army National guard in puerto rico when he was 19, later signed up for the Army Infantry in ft. Bliss, texas. He was deployed to egypt and iraq as a truck driver. But military Officials Say he was never in combat. As his family left to grieve privately, authorities confirmed lopez bought his handgun legally at the same shop where Army Major Nidal Hasan bought his weapon before the bases 2009 shooting rampage. Once again, flags flying at half staff in kileen. Among the injured, keisha fountain and patrick miller. Among those killed 37yearold Sergeant Timothy owens, a counselor and tenyear army veteran. I cant believe this has happened. I just cant. What am i to do . Reporter three of the wounded have been listed in critical condition. Today, they have been upgraded to serious condition. Meanwhile, a Memorial Service is being planned here for next week. Matt . All right, gabe. Thank you very much. Specialist lopez grew up in a small town in puerto rico. Nbcs Stephanie Gosk is there this morning. Stephanie, good morning to you. Reporter good morning much, matt. This is a quiet town on the south coast of puerto rico. The reaction to the news out of ft. Hood here was disbelief. Its a tightknit community. Almost everyone we met knows lopez family. Very prominent in the community. His mom was the head nurse at the local hospital and his father played the guitar every sunday in church. Guayanilla, puerto rico is where ivan lopez grew up, a town of 21,000 where residents say as many as half of the High School Graduates will enlist in the u. S. Military. His friends describe him as humble and fun loving. A very good person. Laughing all the time. This is a guy that you knew really well, you guys grew up the same exact way. And never thought Something Like this could happen. Alex and jose were percussionists with lopez in the High School Marching band. They say they are both in a state of shock. You know, to know your best friend is involved in Something Like that. The mayor of guayanilla was the band instructor. The former teacher worries the months in iraq may have taken a toll on his student. He must have been suffering, he says. Lopez was back in guayanilla last november when his mother died suddenly of a heart attack. Back only for 24 hours. His friends say he was frustrated he couldnt get more leave for the funeral. But didnt notice anything different about him. He had this this gift, he knew how to hide emotions. So if anything ever happened, nobody knew. He was joking, trying to make the best of the situation. Reporter the people here in this town are very proud of the men and women who join the u. S. Military. And there are a lot of them. Right now, theyre trying to reconcile the memory of a man they were very proud of with a man who could have been responsible for that deadly shooting spree. Matt and savannah. Stephanie gosk in puerto rico. Stephanie, thanks very much. Natalies got the story of sad news in afghanistan. Very tragic. Two journalists working in afghanistan shot there today while covering the countrys nationwide elections. One of them an Associated Press photographer was killed in that shooting. Nbc chief Foreign CorrespondentRichard Engel is in kabul with the details. Richard, good morning. Reporter good morning. This was a horrific attack. These two women journalists, both of them veteran correspondents, wellknown were traveling in a convoy with election volunteers. The convoy delivering ballots. Elections are supposed to take place here tomorrow. And this convoy was protected by Afghan Security forces and then suddenly, one of the Afghan Security forces and afghan policemen walked up to the car, where the two reporters were sitting they were in the backseat and began shouting allah and firing into the car. The photographer, a german photographer, anja niedringhaus, 48 years old, was killed instantly. And kathy gennan a canadian one of the bestknown correspondents who has covered this country for decade was injured. We are told she is in stable condition. Natalie . Horrific news. And highlighting the dangers ahead with the elections there. Richard engel in kabul, thank you. The desperate hunt is still on for the black box in Malaysia Airlines flight 370. The clock is ticking because the batteries will soon run out. Nbcs katy tur is in kuala lumpur. Katy, good morning. Reporter hey there, natalie. Heres where things stand right now. It is friday night in kuala lumpur. And the search is ongoing. Today as theyve done every day, they slightly tweaked the search zone as theyve been doing every day. Still, generally, though, it is off the coast of perth, australia in the southern indian ocean. Today, they were able to deploy the pingers weve been talking about. The pingers able to detect the black boxes underwater. Also getting ready an unmanned submarine to scan the ocean floor. But time is really of the essence. Monday marks 30 days in. And as you know, the black boxes, the beacons, the batteries on them run out after 30 days. Which means after monday, this search could change quite a bit to more of a radar and sonar scanning of the ocean floor, which would be a massive undertaking. But natalie, it is how they found air france. All right, katy tur in kuala lumpur. Thank you, katy. Powerful aftershocks rattling nerves in chile three days after the massive earthquake on tuesday. The biggest is 6. 1 and residents there are facing water, electricity and fuel shortages following tuesdays 8. 2 quake killed six people and damaged 2,500 homes. Displaced residents are living in tents that theyve set up in parking lots and hill tops. You have to see this out of this world video literally. It was captured by a sky diver by a recent plunge in norway. Aders just pulled his chute when a meteorite screamed past him, he was incredibly lucky not to be hit by that space rock. It was in dark flight, thats when it slows down so much it no longer glows. This is the first time a meteorite was captured on camera in dark flight. That is incredible video. Kind of crazy. Yeah. That little piece. Can you imagine the bad luck of being hit by that . How do you explain that . Dont want to be hit by that. Yeah. All right. Natalie, thanks very much. You going to talk more about the tornadoes . Another round of strong storms is certainly possible today. Not as bad as yesterday, but we could see wind damage, hail and isolated tornadoes. The area in red right by the cold front through the Tennessee River valley right down into the little section of louisiana. So the gulf coast states will also be on alert for some of those storms this afternoon. Thats a look at the weather across the country. Well get your local forecast in 30 seconds. Which rewards her for responsibly managing her card balance. Before receiving 25 toward her balance each quarter for making more than her minimum payment on time each month. Tracey got the bankamericard better balance rewards credit card, which fits nicely with Everything Else in life she has to balance. Thats the benefit of responsibility. Apply online or visit a bank of america near you. You made to the at the end of the week. You might be surprised to see as much activity on radar. Youll notice a lot of this starting to push into the Central Valley. Lingering heavy rainfall over livermore and the trivalley getting some lingering cells but at the tail end of the system. Well continue to clear out. Temperatures in the 50s. Headed to the 60s. Forecast. Dylan, thank you very much. Another major shakeup is coming to late night tv. To the surprise of his audience last night David Letterman revealed his plans to retire from his late show duties. Its been great, youve been great, the network has been great, but im retiring. With those words thursday night, David Letterman announced the start of his long goodbye. I think at least a year or so but sometime in the not too distant future. What this means now is paul and i can be married. Letterman started his late night career with an 11year run here at 30 rock. Im very excited about this new show. And its a big three or four days for nbc. Before heading a few avenues over to cbs and the ed sullivan theater where for over two decades hes been the king of the oneliner. How you doing . Fine . Thanks, high praise coming from you. And the awkward question. What is a rehabbing, first of all . What is on their list . What are they going to work on when you walk through the door . Among his most frequent guests Brian Williams who has appeared 22 times over the years. He was the kind of wise guy among the late night comics. Dave was the guy throwing watermelons off the roof and taking the studio audience down the block on a field trip. And ive enjoyed some rather unusual moments with dave as well. Listen, matt how come youre not at home taking a nap . Well because this is a chance to fulfill a lifelong dream, dave to break into the ed sullivan theater. I cant argue that point, matt. Lettermans announcement comes less than two months after his longtime rival jay leno passed the tonight show desk over to jimmy fallon. No question, this is a generational shift. The approach is different. All the use of the internet the way they frame their shows. Theyre bringing their own style. Its a new style. But beyond the top ten list number seven, before getting on ride operator checks your inseam. Wait a minute, thats not a bad deal. And stupid human tricks. Thank you. Lettermans legacy will last beyond his final monologue. I think hes one of the very few icons of the past three decades in television. Thank you very much. Well miss him, but not for a while. Because, again there is no specific date just some Time Next Year and well wait and see if he announces that in the near future. How long before people start guessing who is replacing . A nanosecond. Exactly. Put a woman in there. Funny enough, thats why im here. Social media on fire with people giving their picks. I wont put you on the spot yet. But well give a list of what folks had to say today. As i mentioned, lots of tweets coming in. The president s account, running like Dave Letterman does down the street. This is the president s account. And there are more than 10 reasons, davidletterman will be missed. Its not directly from the president , but its from his account. Jimmy kimmel one of the challengers to the throne says David Letterman is the best there is and ever was. I love this Albert BrooksDavid Letterman announcing he will retire next year cbs frantically looking for someone named jimmy. Love that. Heres some of the leading names. Bill carter from the New York Times says Stephen Colbert or Neil Patrick Harris. So we put together faces here guys. Kind of a top ten list. Craig Ferguson Chris rock ellen degeneres, Chelsea Handler, lewis c. K. John stewart and jay leno. Let us know well let you know some of the results. Putting you on the spot. Mr. Lauer, who do you think . Im not going there. No. Ill go there. I think Neil Patrick Harris hed be great. Ellen degeneres. I like that one. Dylan, i think its ellen or chelsea. Time for a female on the network. Is. Tina fey