Wednesday, july 9th, 2014. From nbc news this is today with matt lauer and savannah guthrie. Live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. And good morning, everyone. Welcome to today on a wednesday morning. Want to talk about wails, the crying from brazil could be heard here. My gosh. 81. 71. Its like the last goal brazil scored, germans were like you should have one. Its your world cup. You should have one. You hosted it. I googled the rule. It looked like it might actually get worse than this. It was 50 in the first 30 minutes. The game was over before it started. Look at the crying in the crowd. My goodness. You feel for that country. We do, indeed. On their home turf as well. Well get is the latest from the world cup in a moment. But lets start with the weather. The storms that unleashed torrential rain and damage through the midwest to the northeast. It is not over yet. Nbcs ron mott is in clarksville, missouri. Good morning to you. Reporter good morning. We had the same system in the east coast with the deadly results. You can see the Mississippi River. It is flooded. It will crest today at 35 feet. Ten feet above flood stage. Back east, families are mourning the deaths after the storm that hit in a flash. Eight children injured and one killed when a fast moving storm moved in on a camp of kids and adults in maryland. Overnight, the camp posted a statement. An official saying in part the storm came upon them in a quick and severe manner before the children reached the building. Nine children were injured. Im sad to say, one of the children died from his injuries. Pray for all of these children and families. Elsewhere, in madison county, new york, east of syracuse, four people were killed in Severe Weather there when four homes were destroyed, others damaged by a line of storms that toppled trees and power lines. It is the latest from the system that blew across the country triggering the thunder and lightning. Adding to flood fears in the midwest where water continues to rise in places. Here in clarksville, missouri, the Mighty Mississippi is cresting after the rise. Arent you tired of it . Yes, but we love this place. So we try to do it better the next time. Reporter while the threat from further flooding may be over for now, residents here know the worst often comes after cresting as the water is much slower to recede back into its banks. This flood takes ten days to disappear. In maryland and upstate new york, officials will be out today to assess the damage there to see if tornadoes were responsible for the damage there. Here this water is expected to last for another 10 to 12 days. The mayor says because they just paid the last years bill for flood protection. They were told that they are on their own. So all of this flood protection was done by volunteers. They were happy to have the help here. All right. Ron mott, thank you so much. Dylan is here for al. Well check her forecast in a moment. Another major story this morning. How to handle what is a crisis on the u. S. Border. President obama travels to texas today. This on the heels of his request of nearly 4 billion from congress. Nbcs Peter Alexander is in dallas with the president. Peter, good morning. Reporter willie, good morning to you. People here in the state of texas know the border crisis as well as anyone in america and president obama late today will hear from some of them. Particularly faith leaders and local elected officials including republican governor rick perry who has even questioned this administrations competence. President obama on the road shooting pool with colorados governor late tuesday and taking more heat. His next stop, texas, on the front lines of americas still uncontained immigration crisis. Citizens cannot be forced into allowing undocumented kids from Central America to be housed in my blighted community. Reporter the issue so heated here in dallas it was standing room only at this commissioners meeting tuesday on plans to house kids from the border. Some argued sending them home would be wrong. Thats not only immoral, ungodly, unkind, unfeeling, untexan, unforgivable. We will be judged. Reporter as for this afternoons texas showdown, president obama will meet with local leaders including republican governor rick perry. Who just this week insisted the president doesnt care if the southern border is secure. But on tuesday, the white house unveiled a proposed solution. 3. 7 billion in emergency spending. Nearly half of it to help care for unaccompanied children whose numbers have skyrocketed in recent years. Especially those from Central America. Three years ago u. S. Customs and Border Patrol agents apprehended nearly 4,000 children. In 2012 it was more than 10,000. A year later, double that. And since last october, an explosion. Nearly 40,000 Central American children caught entering this country illegally. Putting political pressure on all sides. While the republicans and the democrats play political pingpong with this issue, the reality is that hundreds of children continue to cross the border. Reporter this twoday texas trip will be dominated by Campaign Fund raisers, three to be held in dallas and austin. But we hear from white house aides today, they insist there will be no stops at the border. All right. Chuck todd is nbcs chief white house correspondent. Chuck, good morning to you. Lets start with peter left off. What is the harm in visiting the border . Is there something larger here . Is there a reason why the house doesnt want to make this gesture . You know this president well. You and i covered him together. They get stubborn sometimes. They dont like getting bullied into a situation. They made the decision they would not go to the border. Theyve gotten a ton of pressure. And theyre digging in their heels, but their way to split the baby on this is they hastily set up this meeting today. This private oneonone meeting with rick perry. But they were sort of forced into this. They are acknowledging the photo op i think might be bad politics on either side of this issue. So they want to stay away. And they argue that maybe the president s presence there may take away from security measures. But they clearly are a little bit concerned about the politics of it. Speaking of the politics on the congressional side of this, i know the ask for 3. 7 billion has got a lukewarm reception. Something passed in the senate and dead on arrival in the house. What do you make of that . Is it where members of congress would rather have the political issue than the resolution . I think members of congress dont want this at all during the fall campaign. Theres two issues. Immigration reform totally dead. Thats not going to happen. The president s challenge might be greater with his own party. Than for republicans. First you have to change the 2008 law that doesnt allow for the quick deportation of these minors. Right . The law allows for quick deportation of mexican or canadian children. Not from nonmexican or noncanadian. So that is going to have to get changed. I think he can get republican support of that, but its democrats including major democrats diane feinstein, bob menendez, who doesnt want to see that 2008 law changed. Afraid they wont look compassionate if they send these children back. Chuck todd, thank you. There has been a dramatic escalation between israel and hamas. Craig melvin has the latest. Good morning, guys. The israeli armys defensive is intensifying this morning. The army says it has attacked more than 160 sites today alone with strikes from the air and sea. Ammann mohyeldin has the latest. Reporter thats 400 by the military that have been struck since the beginning of this operation 24 hours ago. According to medical sources, 35 people have been killed and 200 injured. Among those killed, nine children and six women. Here in tel aviv, sirens have been going off through the night and morning. Indications that israels two largest cities including jerusalem has fallen within the reach of those rockets. It doesnt look like either side is willing to back down. There is even talk of possibly invading gaza with military forces. The military called up 40,000 soldiers. That has people concerned here war could be breaking out in the coming days. Ayman mohyeldin, thank you. A wild scene in rio. Hundreds of people ran away from copacabana beach in a panic as a mass robbery was taking place. Dozens of young people snatching beach bags and jewelry. It happened as fans gathered to watch brazil and germany play in the world cup semifinal match. Ill have more on the match coming up. A weakened but dangerous typhoon left two dead on the okinawa islands. Typhoon neoguri. It had wind gusts of over 140 miles an hour. The major concern now is torrential rain and flooding. 200,000 people were told to evacuate. Tokyo may see heavy rain on friday. The impact on the capital is expected to be minimal. A top official at the va has said hes sorry after the whistleblowers. Four staffers testified tuesday in front of the House Veterans Affairs committee. Scott davis, a Program Specialist in atlanta says after he reported problems that included the deletion of thousands of Veterans Health records, he and others were harassed by superiors. I think thats the problem with v. A. A complete lack of accountability. And when people know that they can engage in behavior without consequences, somethings got to change. An independent federal Investigative Agency is pursuing 67 active complaints of harassment. And what looked like a Massive Oil Spill off san diego turned out to be something entirely different. That dark blob spotted in the water monday, actually a huge school of anchovy. Students from the Scripps Institute of technology dove in with cameras attached. Scientists are not sure why the tiny fish came so close to shore, but the Biggest School of anchovy theyve seen in more than 30 years. Wow. You guys take anchovy on your seafood salad . I cant. No. I pick mine off. Too fishy. Those anchovies are safe. Stay right where you are. Thank you. Dylan has a check of the weather. Lets get a check of the weather. Were actually talking about some of the storms in the southwest. We had a lot of storms in the northwest. More than 400 reports of wind gusts over 58 Miles Per Hour. But in the southwest i want to point out to you it is monsoon season. This is the time of year you get those heavier down pours. And some of them produce heavy rain. Others just produce the wind gusts. Then you get the dust storms. So we could end up with dust storms especially in arizona as we go through the day today. You could see a lot of lightning. And because it has been so dry, some of that lightning could lead to fire. So it is worth watching for the monsoon season out that way. Over the course of the next three days, we could end up with half an inch, up to an inch. But in some of those down pours, the ones who produce the heavy rain, we could see higher amounts. Also keeping an eye on nebraska and kansas today, we could see a large risk of slight hail and damaging wind gusts and through the southeast. These would be scattered showers and storms. Just the heat and humidity feeling some of those storms later on today. Thats a look at the weather across the country. Your local forecast coming up in 30 seconds. Live in the same communities that we serve. People here know that our operations have an impact locally. Were using more natural gas vehicles than ever before. The trucks are reliable, thats good for business. But they also reduce emissions, and thats good for everyone. It makes me feel very good about the future of our company. Good morning to you. 7 14 now. A live look at a foggy sky over tiburon. We are nice and clear in s will as we head throughout the day. At the coast you will hold on to that ocean believe and comfortable temperatures. 64 in San Francisco. 76 on the east shore. South bay at 82. The warm spot will be out in the tri valley at 88 degrees. And and thats your latest forecast. A disturbing story out of maryland. This is supposed to be wiped off the face of the earth but actually smallpox, the virus, was found in a closet at National Institutes of health in bethesda, maryland. Tom costello has this story for us. Good morning. Reporter good morning. Smallpox is one of the deadliest viruses known to man. The government keeps very small quantities under lock and key at the cdc in atlanta in case they need a vaccine in a bioterror case. They found vials of it in a storage room that should have been destroyed decades ago. It was a startling discovery here at the National Institutes of health, the nations premiere medical research fa silgty, where employees moving equipment inside a Storage Facility stumbled upon six vials containing samples of smallpox, the deadly disease eradicated 35 years ago. According to the cdc, last tuesday scientists found the vials in an unused portion of a storage room of an fda lab. And the cdc says the vials may have been sitting there for decades. The agency says they appear to date all the way back to the 1950s. Its considered a category a agent which is the highest risk that government places on potential biological agents. Reporter International Law mandates smallpox can only be stored at two official world health repositories. At the cdc in atlanta and a facility in russia. As for these samples theres no evidence, says the cdc, the vials were tampered with. It adds, onsite biosafety personnel have not seen any exposure. The cdc and fbi are investigating how it ended up here. The smallpox vials have been transported to cdc to test it to see if its viable enough to make anyone sick and then will be destroyed. The smallpox threat is nil to the general public. Reporter this incident comes on the heels of another scare at the cdc. In june the agency vaccinated 80 employees out of concern they were exposed to anthrax. Now they say those workers were likely were never in any danger. Now questions about how the smallpox vaccine was mishandled for so long. Guys, back to you. Tom costello, thank you very much. Lets turn now to the world cup, the host country brazil, as we mentioned, bounced from the tournament in an historic rout that nobody saw coming. Craig has more on the blowout. A lot of folks still in shock this morning. A lot of folks in shock. Brazil did not just lose to germany, they got trounced on home turf in semifinal, the host lost to germany by the unbelievable score of 71, a match that dropped jaws and left an entire nation in tears. The most shocking results ever. Reporter it was deutsche distribution. Germany absolutely annihilating the host country of brazil 71 in the world cup semifinals. At one point, scoring four goals in just six minutes. Unbelievable. Beyond belief. Reporter coming in, brazil had not lost a game at home since the ford administration. But when the final whistle blew, team brazil suffered its worst loss ever. Youre not imagining things. Reporter tears were flowing with players and fans overcome with the devastation of the moment. The last time they hosted the world cup, brazil, in 1950 they lost in the final to uruguay. This loss is so much bigger and so much worse than that one. Reporter the reaction on twitter was immediate. Everything from oprah handing out goals to new takes on brazils flagged to versions of christ the redeemer. The goal in the 33rd minute made neymar alltime leading goal scorer unthroning brazils scorer. From here germany heads to World Cup Final but for brazil that established a Government Commission just to investigate why their team lost 1998 cup final, there will be serious soulsearching. The ripple effects will be massive. This will be looked at for the rest of brazilian soccer history. Germany will take on the winner of of todays match. Neymar is not good for six goals. Hes good, but youve got four more years to catch up. Let me guess. This was big online . Oh, man. The seven, an impressive number. Guess, 200 million likes, comments, i dont know, interesting things said, on facebook alone. And, ladies and gentlemen, 35. 6 million tweets, the most tweeted about single sporting event ever. How many fewer do you believe the super bowl got, guys . Its right there in the prompter. We dont cheat. Of course, incredible numbers on social media put up there. And some interesting comments. From gary, he said about the game, someone needs to pick up the other playstation controller. I had to have that joke explained to me, but now you get it. Some also say the logo told the story. You know, this of captain picard, this is coach of brazil. Tim howard could not save them. The big game, netherlands argentina, well see what happens there. People can be canny. The hands in the face, christ the redeemer statue. The one with oprah, you get a gold, you get a gold. And ron burgundy saying, well, that escalated quickly. Coming up, the investigation into the death of a georgia toddler in a sweltering suv is taking a new turn as the boys mother visits her husband in jail. George clooney blasting a popular tabloid this morning. What he says one newspaper did to put his family in harms way. 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