Treatment. And high on the hog. Bacon prices at an alltime high. Why it is costing us more to pig out. Today, monday, august 4th, 2014. From nbc news this is today with matt lauer and Savannah Guthrie live from studio 1a in rock feller plaza. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to today. We have carson and dylan in for al. Boy, we have a big story out west. Thousands of people waking up this morning in california stranded. Two different towns are affected. Take a look. Heres why. Torrential rains triggering mudslides like this one have left roads buried under feet of debris. I want to get right to nbcs Miguel Almaguer, this morning. Miguel, good morning to you. Reporter savannah, good morning. The fire sparked by lightning. The gulch fire exploded in size over the weekend. A state of extremes. Just outside los angeles, a scene many could not believe. Monsoonal thunderstorms brought mud into oakland. The town of 1,500 cut in half. One person was killed when the car was washed away. Another rescued. 1,000 people, including 500 at a nearby retreat stranded, but all are safe. Rescuers are on scene trying to make access and connect the town and remove the debris from the road. Reporter this morning, california is in a state of emergency. Not just floods, but fires. 14 major wildfires are out of control. Several growing rapidly overnight. On the frontlines, crews are exhausted. Be ready. Everyone knows we are in extreme drought. Get ready for the season to be extreme. Reporter conditions are explosive in oregon. Now one of the largest wildfires in state history, the gulch fire scored 50 square miles. Three homes, including judy troutmans are gone. It is not a small fire. It was not a small fire. And it came in like a tornado and just wiped out everything. Reporter loss is everywhere in neighboring washington state. Just a few miles away from where a record 300 homes were destroyed. Another eight swallowed in a fastmoving inferno this weekend. Fires and floods ravaging the west. Back here in oregon, the gulch fire grew overnight. This blaze is roughly 20 contained. The air attack behind me is critical to douse hot spots that are difficult to reach. A long day for the firefighters on the frontlines. Savannah. Miguel, thank you very much. The water emergency in toledo, ohio, appearing to be over. The mayor lifted the ban that left people without water for cooking and bathing and drinking. We have Anne Thompson live in toledo this morning. Anne, good morning. Reporter good morning, savannah. You can hear a sigh of relief. The water is safe to drink. Now you can add toledo to the list as people can turn on the taps after a frustrating weekend. From across the state, safe water rolls in by tank and bottle, but people here are weary. I appreciate the donations of water, but if it lasts longer, it is a problem. Reporter state labs tested the water, but News Conference came in monday, there is no all clear yet. I have instructed our people to go resample and retest. Because i am not going to take any chances with this communitys well being and health. Reporter a half Million People in and around toledo, including some in southern michigan, cant use tap water to drink, brush their teeth or cook. The problem is an algae bloom in lake erie contaminating the water supply. If ingested, it can cause diarrhea and liver damage. We had algae blooms in other parts of the country. This scale is not heard of. Reporter the algae bloom is caused by runoff from farms and Sewage Treatment plants. When the water is safe again, the Ohio Governor says the algae issue will still exist. It intensified. Last year, we are doing better. It is a challenge for lake erie, but a challenge for the country. Reporter city officials are urging people to run the taps before they start using the water again. Carson and savannah. Anne thompson on the story in ohio. Thank you. Now we move to the ebola crisis. Some positive signs this morning for the americans infected with that virus. One of the americans is now being treated at Emory University hospital in atlanta and the other is preparing to join him there, perhaps, as early as this weekend. Nbcs National Correspondent kate snow has more on this. Kate, good morning to you. Reporter good morning, savannah. The family of dr. Kent brantly says hes in good spirits. They learned he received an experimental medicine back in liberia before coming to the United States. While they say theyre confident in the care hes getting here, some were not so happy about his arrival. Kent brantly shocked a lot of people when he walked into the hospital with just a little support from a paramedic. On meet the press, the head of the centers for Disease Control defended the decision to bring him stateside for treatment. Hes an american citizen. What our role is in Public Health is to make sure if an american is coming home with an Infectious Disease, we protect others so they dont spread it. Theyre very professional. They know what theyre doing, but one mistake and its all over. Reporter thats a sentiment that popped up all over social media this weekend. Am i the only person who thinks it was a horrible idea . Ive seen this movie. You were in the car right behind the ambulance . Right behind the ambulance. Reporter dr. Alex isakoff was in charge of transporting brantly through atlanta streets. He was in that suv directly behind the ambulance. He says there is no risk to the public. If i had ebola and i was touching your hand, maybe you would be at risk for contracting it. If i cough or sneeze in your face, you would be at risk for contracting it. Thats how its transmitted. Not from standing a room away from someone. Exactly. Not from being in an adjacent room, not from casual communication. Reporter brantlys family has been talking to him to him through a speaker in a glass partition. At a Prayer Service in abilene, texas last night where the brantlys first met, a friend read their words. We are amazed and humbled by the worldwide response and prayer to this crisis. We cannot share any news of kents condition, but please know that we believe kent will be healed and that healing will come from the hand of god. Nancy writebol, the american missionary, will be the next to arrive here possibly as soon as tomorrow. While people are being evacuated, peace corps volunteers, for example, out of west africa, meantime African Leaders from the across the continent are now in washington for a summit with president obama. Back to you, savannah. All right. Kate snow, thank you. Weve just gotten new numbers tied to the Ebola Outbreak released overnight. We are now at 1,440 cases. 826 deaths. We want to turn now to dr. Jay varkey, an Infectious Disease specialist at Emory University hospital. He is part of the team treating dr. Kent brantly. Dr. Varkey, good morning to you. Good morning. I know you cant say much, if anything, about the patient under your care. Let me just try. Can you confirm that hes improving this morning . I really cant comment on the clinical condition of the patient. Thats from the request of the patient and his family. You got it. I know dr. Brantly arrived over the weekend. We just saw those pictures and so many people were surprised if not shocked to see he was able to walk under his own power into the hospital. Is that something that a person dealing with ebola typically is able to do . You know, i think this is a really important point. I think, you know, this is part of getting away from thinking of ebola. Yes, its a new virus, but its not particularly infectious. The key issue here is making sure that meticulous procedures are in place to make sure the virus doesnt spread. Which is why im glad hes here at emory. Absolutely, i guess back to the point of if hes well enough to walk, i think a lot of people expected to see someone grappling with ebola come out on a stretcher. Here he was well enough to do that. Is that unusual for someone whos been through so much . Well, exactly. Dont get me wrong. I was thrilled to see him walk as well, but i think its important to think of ebola as a spectrum of diseases. There are people who have recovered. There are people with terrible outcomes. We are hoping that to do our best and that dr. Brantly not only walks into the hospital but walks out of the hospital in the condition that he should be in. You mentioned a few moments ago some of the precautions that are taken in this specialized unit at emory. How confident are you and can you tell us why you are that this is not going to spread beyond this unit . A lot of people are happy hes getting the treatment he needs but worried too. Sure. Im 100 confident the procedures we have in place. The key thing about this unit is it was designed 12 years ago to contain Communicable Diseases far more infectious than ebola. Sars is an excellent example of something more infectious than ebola. We are going above and beyond whats necessary to contain this virus. As dr. Freedman has said, the director of the cdc, any hospital that practices proper Infection Control procedures outlined by the cdc should be able to manage a patient with ebola. Dr. Jay varkey, thank you very much. Great to get your perspectives and best of luck with the treatment. Thank you. Meantime, natalie is here with breaking news out of the middle east. Good morning. The Israeli Military has pulled most of its troops out of gaza. But will that end the fighting . Richard engel is in gaza city. Good morning. Reporter good morning. Natalie, in a word, no, it is not ending the fighting. This war is still continuing as israel has pulled out most of its troops from gaza. There is now a temporary truce in place here as israel is under growing pressure especially from washington to do far more to limit the number of civilian casualties. An israeli tank shell rips through a home in northern gaza overnight killing ten members of an extended family. Israel said it will continue to target hamas militants and their weapons whenever and wherever it finds them. But israel a coming under growing pressure including from washington to stop causing so many civilian deaths. After another attack on palestinians taking shelter at a u. N. Run school on sunday, washington issued its strongest condemnation yet of its allies. The u. S. State Department Said it was appalled by the disgraceful shelling. U. N. Officials say israel targeted a perspective militant. U. N. Officials were shocked israel chose to attack where it knew so many civilians would be in danger. Ten were killed. Do you think enough precautions were taken in this case . I think clearly the evidence shows the strikes were too close to the schools. We have multiple civilian deaths. We have injuries both inside and outside of the shelter. The strike should not have taken place where it did. Reporter the u. N. Secretarygeneral has called the strike a moral outrage and a criminal act. On the diplomatic front, palestinians have sent a delegation to cairo. Each are calling on israel to send a delegation of its own to work out a permanent ceasefire. Thank you, richard. Rescue teams are digging through debris of survivors of the earthquake in china. Nearly 400 people were killed and more than 1,800 injured in the 6. 2 magnitude quake. Many are struggling to get to the area due to landslides. The ferry carrying hundreds has capsized in bangladesh. Up to 250 passengers were on board. Dozens were able to swim to safety, but unknown how many are still missing. Ferry accidents are common in bangladesh due to poor safety standards. The Obama Administration secretly employed young latinamericans in cuba to spark political change. This is according to the ap investigation. The ap says the project began as early as 2009 and it secretly used a venezuelan and puerto rican youth in order to provoke a rebellion. They worked under cover and posed as tourists and in one case tried to recruit activists. In all a dozen served in the program. And football is back. Now, its only the preseason, but still exciting nonetheless. The bills and the giants faced off in the hall of fame game in canton, ohio. A game seen right here on nbc. Eli manning and the giants off to a rough start there when the ball was knocked out of mannings hands. The bills recovered. But the giants would get the last laugh. Finding cory washington who pulls it in and races to the end zone for the 73yard touchdown. It is a nice one there. The giants holding onto that win 1713. Okay. Youre all caught up in sports and news. Widowers and widows this fall, get ready. Get ready. Its coming. Thank you. Dylan, whats going on in the weather . Falls in the air here too. Chilly in the east, rainy in the desert. Things are all over the place today. Start with the western flooding. Weve got flash flood watches. We are looking at perhaps a couple of inches of rain with this monsoonal moisture continuing to produce heavy downpours and creating rain. This will move in las vegas itself. We have rain to the north of fresno. Most of nevada seeing rain. We could end up with 1 to 2 inches of rain there. Too much rain too quickly causes those mudslides because the ground has been so dry recently. Were also focusing on Tropical Storm bertha. Its not a threat to land at this point. 250 miles to the east northeast of the bahamas. Moving at 16 miles per hour. Its fairly slow moving right now. Watch what happens. Its going to split the difference between bermuda and the carolinas. Its going to continue on this turn perhaps strengthening to a category 1 storm and then move over the water. We will see some rough surf perhaps Cape Hatteras and the outer cape in massachusetts. So we will see some rip currents and rough surf, but for the most part its a nonissue. Your local forecast is coming up in just 30 seconds. [ man ] cortana, when my wife calls remind me to tell her happy anniversary. [ cortana ] next time you talk to caroline, ill remind you. [ siri ] oh no, i cannot do that. Oh, and remind me to get roses when im near any flower shop. Sure thing. Remind you when you get to flower shop. I cant do that either. Cortana, its gonna be a great night. [ beep ] oh wow thanks for the traffic alert. I better get going. Now that is a smart phone. Oh, wait its cause you make me smile and were seeing some drizzle and some low clouds to start the morning around the bay area like were seeing in San Francisco. Were also watching moisture thats going to be coming out of the sierra approaching bait area towards the afternoon which will introduce showers later today and possibly across the rest of the bay area as we head into tonight and early tomorrow. Muggy conditions at times. Next couple of days, close to 80 in san jose. 60s near San Francisco. 70s but a chance of scattered showers in santa rosa and low 80s in the trivalley. A lot of people talking about the toxic water in toledo. We just got the update from Anne Thompson. We know the details of whats happening there. We expect more information to come in. But something interested happened online as this story broke. The emptyglasscity which of course toledo, ohio, known for its impact on the glass industry. Thats where the nickname comes from. You saw a lot of images of the algae in the water. Store shelves where there was no water to be found. But then the conversation took a positive turn with a tweet like this from the red cross. Love how everyone has come together to help. Springfield high school this afternoon. Fullglasscity. And providing water to the Community Based at this high school. And this adorable tweet came in from desiree. Thanks to my friends and family who gathered water for us. We should be set until this passes over. Its nice to see people helping. Of course this does not erase the situation in toledo. Its a serious situation, but these nuggets of hope mean a lot. Tamron, thank you. Coming up, where is she . An oregon mom missing for 11 days possibly spotted on a ferry. And a sizzle of whats fueling the price of bacon and what you can do about it. First this is today on nbc. Fueling the price of bacon and what you can do about it. First this is today on nbc. Coming up, the search for a suspect that walked away with a Million Dollars in diamonds and accessories from the largest closet in the country. And on trending, beyonce raps about that dustup between her sister and jay z. Well tell you all about that. But first your local news. So, duke, what do you think of our new bushs baked beans video game . I think im getting the hang of it. [ jay ] okay, now pick up the specially cured bacon hit it with the brown sugar now roll that beautiful bean footage yes [ jay ] bushs baked beans are slowcooked according to our secret family recipe for a big flavor. High score you get to put your name on the wall of fame [ beeping ] whoa game over. Aww, youre no fun. [ jay ] enjoy bushs baked beans. Still made from our secret family recipe. Where the reward was that what if tnew car smelledit card and the freedom of the open road . A card that gave you that im 16 and just got my first car feeling. Presenting the buypower card from capital one. 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