With matt lauer live from philadelphia and Savannah Guthrie live from studio 1a. And good morning. Welcome to a special splitedition of today on this wednesday morning. Its 7 00 on the west coast. Its 10 00 here in the Port Richmond area of philadelphia. And as the sun comes up, matt, you are seeing such an awful scene there. Philadelphias mayors going to take part in a News Conference at any moment, including other officials as well, but i think he really put it best overnight. He walked the length of those trains. He saw the scene, and he said it was an absolute disastrous mess, the worst thing he had seen in his life. Thats right. Its a pretty accurate description. That News Conference, by the way, will happen just feet from where im standing. Meanwhile, look over my shoulder. About 150 yards down that road, thats where this all took place. Also, we can take you above. Well go to a live look from our philly stations helicopter, and you can see just what the damage is, the tangled mess. Cars from amtrak train 188. One of those cars nearly flipping over completely, coming to rest almost on its roof, another just about perpendicular to the tracks and the other cars. This all happened last night, about 9 28 p. M. One passenger said there was a feeling of a rapid deceleration and then some terrible shaking and then the car he was in started rolling over. 243 passengers and crew members were on board that train. Again, at least six people killed. About 140 others have been sent to about four area hospitals. By the way, the searchandrescue efforts are ongoing. This morning, as we first got here, they brought three heavy cranes to the scene. Theyre being used to lift this wreckage up. Each crane is lift about 220,000 pounds. Thats so they can see if anyone is still remaining in the wreckage or even under the wreckage. It is the busiest rail corridor in the nation, or at least part of it. Some 2,200 trains travel between washington and boston every single day. And now this route, the area between philadelphia and new york, expected to be shut down for some time to come. Nbcs tom costello is here. Hes been up in a helicopter covering the story. Tom, good to see you. Nice to see you, matt. Terrible conditions, though, and circumstances. We were up at 2,000 feet, and you really get this birdseye view of what a tragedy this is. These cars looked like they have just been twisted and bent, really as if its some sort of a can thats just been crushed. When you talked about looking for survivors or looking for other victims, thats critical, because they dont know if there might still be somebody underneath or others underneath those cars. And so, the ntsb today, as they begin their investigation, we still have an urgent, ongoing searchandrescue operation, and the question really is, what in the world caused this train to derail overnight . Keep crawling, okay . Reporter in the dark smoke and chaos go, go, go. Reporter passengers crawled and clawed their way out of their mangled train cars. Help me . Reporter into a scene of confusion. Some in shock, others lying in the traps amidst the twisted metal, barely identifiable as an amtrak train. The brakes were hit hard, and then our car, we were about third to the last, started going to the right sorks i braced my arm against it. It is an absolute disastrous mess. Reporter firefighters were forced to use hydraulics and cut into the train to rescue those inside. After the engine and cars derailed, three on its sides, one car nearly resting on its roof. Theres debris down there, sharp objects, so its a dangerous situation to respond to, even more dangerous for the riders down there. Reporter train 188, the washingtontonew york run, had just left its scheduled 9 07 p. M. Stop at philadelphias 33rd street station headed north, when at about 9 28 p. M. , the train derailed with such force, it ripped the steel rails right from the tracks. The overhead electrical wires torn down. It happened at this curve on amtraks heavily traveled northeast corridor. We just rolled and rolled. And next thing i knew, we were pushing out the emergency exit and i was outside and there were people screaming and bleeding. Reporter now investigators are just beginning to look for clues. Among their questions, was the train traveling too fast . There is a curve. We have no idea what kind of speed were talking about, what else happened out there. Reporter among those trapped on the train, former pennsylvania congressman patrick murphy, capturing the cafe car turned on its side. And nbc news producer Janelle Richards. This morning, the worst amtrak train accident in more than a decade, and its still too early to know what happened and why. A lot of anecdotal stuff going around this morning, but a lot of passengers saying they felt that the train may have been traveling faster than normal, at a quicker clip than normal. We simply dont know yet. We talked about those cranes that are right now trying to pick up those trains. Not only, of course, are they looking for possibly more victims, theyve got to start looking for clues. Whats the condition of the track . What about the wheels . Is there any sense at all that there may have been a mechanical problem . And of course, theyll also be looking at the human conditions. Lastly, you talked about the northeast corridor. 11 Million People last year used the northeast corridor. This is a vital artery on the east coast. And weve got the ntsb in there to secure the location. Theyve got to do their investigation. Then they have to remove the wreckage, and then those tracks are going to have to be repaired. So, its going to be some time before trains are moving on that corridor again. I think its a very real possibility were not going to see activity until the end of the week at the earliest. Right. The investigation i would think is going to take months. All right, tom. Thank you very much. I want to mention, amtrak has set up a phone number if you have someone you think was on that train and you havent heard from that person and you have questions. The phone number has been set up. There it is right there, 18005239101. Again, 18005239101. That is simply to call and inquire about a loved one who may have been on amtrak flight 188. Lets bring in former congressman patrick murphy. His pictures from inside the train have been something weve been showing you all morning. Patrick, good to see you. Good morning. Good morning. How are you feeling . Im a little banged up. Im lucky to be here. You were in the third or fourth car of this train. Describe to me what you felt and what you saw. Well, it was a normal trip. The senator was expecting me in the other car, and the next stop was trenton, new jersey, come right over the river. Everything was fine. I was banging out work on my laptop at the table, and all of a sudden, you felt these vibrations. I dont know if they were brakes or what not, matt. And then, you know, a tilt to the left of the train go north and then all of a sudden, end over end and we fell to the side and it kind of jackknifed from there. And the car you were in ended up on its side. What was happening in the car at the time . Was there panic . Were you seeing a lot of injured people . Yeah, everybody was hurt and there was blood from pretty much everybody, seems that way. And i know for me, it was just bodies all together. Everyone from the left side of the train flew over to the right side of the train. So, i went over there and we were sliding for a little while. So once it stopped, i was, frankly, upside down on my head, and i just checked my legs and arms to make sure my extremities were there. First instinct, sure. Yeah, and saw i was okay. Then i had to pull myself up. Tlp was a lot of crying, a lot of moaning, and the guy next to me wasnt moving. And you know, so, i kind of grabbed him and got him up, and he was unconscious, but he came to. So, then i pulled myself up, frankly, up on to the bench area. And the ceiling was then the window, the emergency side it was upside down. Yeah, so i pulled myself up so i could stand up and punched it out. Then once that happened, because it was so dark in there, matt it was dark and there was screams and debris everywhere, it was dusty. At that moment, once i pushed it out, there was people who just it was human nature took over and they were just running, stepping over people to get out. I want to mention, you did try to assist a lot of the other passengers. I want to tell our viewers, youre an iraq war veteran, so much of this is the training that you had that kicks in. Once you were able to get out of that car, patrick, what did you see around you . It was dark, but could you see the condition of the rest of the train . Well, matt, in the military, we have an ethic, you leave no one behind. So i didnt, like the other ones, we didnt leave right away. We stood there. There was people that couldnt get out. One was, frankly, probably paralyzed, couldnt feel his legs or arms. And that was just a few feet from me. And the other person was bleeding profusely. But once we got the First Responders there, i gave them a head count, there was 11 bodies. I told them the two most serious. The cops and firefighters were there within minutes, i mean, it was eight ambulances, were hearing. It was unbelievable. And i knew the fire captain. He said, hey congressman, hey, murph . I said 11 bodies, two there, that guy in the corner and this guy over here. And i know for those of us who were able to walk away from that, i know im very, very lucky. Like the rest of us, youre hearing the casualty figures, six now confirmed dead, 140 wounded. You must feel very lucky this morning. Yeah, its emotional a little bit. My heart goes to those families, you know. I know for me there was times in iraq that, you know, you thought it was going to be the end. And last night in the middle of that madness, i thought it was the end. But i knew i was going to fight through it, if i could, and we all fought through it. And my heart goes out to those, not just the six people, but the dozens and dozens, matt, that are in serious condition. And their families. Were happy youre all right. Yeah, thank you. Patrick, thanks for sharing the story. I appreciate it. And nbcs Stephanie Gosk is also here in philadelphia as well. Shes at one of the hospitals that is treating the injured. Stephanie, what can you tell us . Reporter good morning, matt. Well, you look at that crash scene and consider the fact that there are no seatbelts on amtrak trains. And its not difficult to see why there would be so many injured. You mentioned the number 140, either seen or treated. 26 of them came here. This is a hospital about a mile and a half from the crash scene, the closest. At another hospital across town, that hospital received 54 patients. And the doctor there said he saw injuries that you would imagine broken bones, lacerations, other kinds of trauma. He said the more severe injuries were those a little bit closer up to the front of the train. And looking at those cars, you can see why that might be the case. Over the course of today, what theyre going to try to do is take the manifest of that train and match it to the people that are either in hospitals or that made it out and try to account for everyone. And in an effort to do that, theyre asking families who have any questions or who are looking for loved ones, amtrak is giving them that hotline, and well give it to you one more time. 18005239101. Again, 18005239101. And as you mentioned earlier, the search is still on at that crash scene. Matt . All right, Stephanie Gosk. Stephanie, thank you very much. Were going to have much more this morning from philadelphia coming up. Officials preparing to hold a News Conference just a few feet from where were standing. Well bring that to you live. But right now, lets go back to savannah. All right, matt. Stand by there. Meantime, another story, the search expanding for a marine helicopter that vanished during an aid mission in quakeravaged nepal. Nbcs katy tur is in kathmandu this morning with the latest. Katy, good morning. Reporter good morning. The death toll now stands at 65 and this region still in a complete state of shock after tuesdays quake. People too afraid to go inside buildings, too afraid to even get too close to them. Once again, sleeping out in the open. As fears grow also that a u. S. Helicopter is still missing. The search has resumed this morning for the missing helicopter like this one carrying six marines and two nepalese soldiers. The chopper suddenly lost radio contact yesterday while dropping supplies and evacuating earthquake victims in a remote village. There had reportedly been brief radio chatter from the helicopter about a fuel problem, but then total silence. The rugged terrain makes rescue efforts difficult, putting search crews at risk. The missing marines are part of 300 u. S. Military personnel who began arriving just after the first earthquake on april 25th. This latest quake forces thousands once again to spend the night out in the open as dozens of aftershocks continue to rattle the region. Telling everybody is scared. Right now nobody stays inside. Everybody is in the road. Reporter across the country, already weakened buildings crumbled, sending clouds of dust into the air and bringing more misery. This morning, International Search teams are out once again searching debris and hoping to find survivors. The small glimmer of good news is that they were able to pull some people from the rubble here yesterday. Theyre still looking for more. Theyre still trying to see who they can find. Just a bit of good news among the utter devastation. Back to you. Katy tur, thank you so much. We want to send it back out to matt near philadelphia, where a News Conference is just about to start. All right, savannah, thank you very much. Were going to pause now so our stations can have this nbc news special report. Announcer this is an nbc news special report. He news special report. Heres matt lawyer and Savannah Guthrie. All right, we welcome you to this nbc news special report. I want to take you live right now just feet from where im standing. Mayor of philadelphia, michael nutter, now addressing reporters on this tragic and deadly amtrak train crash that happened last night. Lets listen in. Partners who are here with us now. As i mentioned to you earlier this morning, we were anticipating the arrival of the National Transportation safety board. Their members are on the ground now. And board member Robert Zumwalt and vice chairperson denzar. For amtrak, Board Chairman anthony kosha, amtrak vp of operations d. J. Stadler, chief of Amtrak Police chief hanson and deputy chief trugman. On the ntsb side, they have approximately seven personnel on the ground with more personnel coming. They are represented in the form of investigator in charge, the chief of railroad division. That would be Mike Flanagan and Georgette Gregory respectively. Mechanical investigator, signal investigator, track investigator, operations investigator and Human Performance investigator. We have full cooperation from all the agencies, of course, who were here last night, Philadelphia Fire Department, Police Department, the department of Homeland Security within the Police Department and other federal agencies working with us. Septa police as well and a number of other agencies. This is a fully coordinated operation. Everyone understands their role. We train for these kinds of incidents, although every one of these incidents, and this is a tragedy, are very different. Again, from last night, we can only confirm that, unfortunately, we have six deceased. We have transported now hundreds of people to various hospitals, and sam phillips can give you more details in that regard. We also need to get out information about how people can contact or find out about any of the individuals who were on the train, and to the extent that we have information about them, obviously, theyll get that information as well. Sam phillips is going to come up and give you some of that information. Then youll hear from ntsb, their representative, as well as amtrak. Well come back with any wrapup information, open up to questions. Well answer what we can answer. Everything still at this point, 12plus hours into this tragic event, is still preliminary information and subject to change. With that, sam phillips, director of Emergency Management for the city of philadelphia. Sam . Thanks, mayor. Theres a few things i want to go over. Our focus today is to gather all of this patient data that we have. Were dealing with lots of different types of manifests, one from the railroad and then also from our hospital community. Our hospitals treated over 200 patients last night and this morning. We are in the process of making sure that everybody is accounted for. So, we have a couple of things that we need help with. One, if you are looking for somebody or need information about somebody, please call amtraks 1800 number. Thats 18005239101. Again, 18005239101. If you were on the train and are doing well, please call in and report that to amtrak so that we can link that data together. We do have a friends and Relatives Center open at 3400 frankfurt avenue. Frankford avenue. We will keep that open for the bulk of today, but we will eventually be transitioning to a full Family Assistance Center operation that amtrak will be running located at a hotel in center city. More information will be coming on that. So, again, please, share information with us so that we can do our job, making sure that everybodys accounted for. Thanks. Thank you, sam. Board member zumwalt will now speak on behalf of ntsb. Board member . Mayor nutter, thank you very much. My name is Robert Zumwalt, thats sumwalt. And as mayor nutter said, im a board member with the National Transportation safety board. And we have had investigators arriving on scene between 4 00 and 5 00 this morning, and weve continued to be arriving from washington throughout the morning. Certainly, before i go any further, id like to express our sincere condolences for all of those who have been affected by this trage