And orlando adventure. Savannah and al scream their way through 25 years of fun and thrills at universal Orlando Resort as the one and only pit bull helps us take our Concert Series on the road, friday, may 29, 2015. Announcer from nbc news this is a special edition of today in orlando with matt lauer, live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza, and Savannah Guthrie live from universal Orlando Resort. Good morning everyone. We are splitting up on this friday morning. Im matt lauer along with natalie morales. Savannah and al at orlandole at universal Orlando Resort. Hows it been going . Its awesome out here. We have beautiful weather, have al roker will travel and pit bull ready to take the stage. Thats right. Were ready. We have a huge crowd and a lot of fun planned later today here from universal at lanorlando. I know youre following breaking news on the weather. Well get to that now. Well see you in a few minutes. Texas is hammered once again by record rains and flooding. The weather channels dave malkof is in dallas where people are stranded on roadways. Davg, good morning. Reporter listen to this for a second. Hear that . That is the sound of dallas drying out after a wild, wild morning. Torrential rain followed by the most flooding they have seen in a long time. The most swift water rescues in five years. These vehicles down here under this overpass, we didnt even see them when we arrived in the morning because the High Water Mark is right here. This is how much water was pour on the ground ver these vehicles. The answer to were there people in the vehicles is unfortunately yes. The Dallas Fire Department we were with the Swift Water Rescue Team pulling people out of vehicles, but not everybody was so lucky to have the First Responders right in front of them. This is sams brand new bmw. He was inside and he had to self rescue. This was a terrible night in dallas. And its going to be worse as the water comes back. Dave down in dallas this morning, thanks very much. Well have more on that situation in a molt. Another story, this one in new york. Passenger planes leaving jfk airport targeted by laser pointers. Nbcs tom costello covers aviation. What can you tell us . 9 30 and 10 00 p. M. Last night about four miles northwest of farmingdaily, new york, the recent case of a person or people on the ground pointing a potentially blinding laser at a cockpit. The planes flying at 8,000 feet hit by this green laser, at least three of the four had taken off from jfk airport. The flights were american 185, Shuttle America 4213, delta 2292 and delta 2631. The Police Report no one was injured but it follows a spate of laser attacks. In march 2 chopper pilots suffered eye injuries after they were hit tracking down the source of a laser being pointed at planes landing at laguardia and an air canada pilot hit in march. Nobody reported injured from last nights incident but the faa and police are working to track down whoever might be responsible. Tom, do they have an area where these pointers were probably coming from . All they know is that it was northwest of farmingdaily. You know, Authorities Say its almost as if if somebody on the ground is bored and they point one of these green lasers that you can buy online or Office Supply store and point this to a plane overhead. The trouble is that flash of green laser light can light up a cockpit, it blinds the pilots and makes it impossible for them to see out their cockpit windows or even look at flight controls. The crime pretty serious, punishable by up to 20 years in prison, so the faa and fbi are serious about prosecuting anybody responsible. A dangerous situation. Tom, thank you. Lets get more on that historic flooding down south as we showed you overnight parts of texas receiving exactly what they do not need, more rain. Nbcs Gabe Gutierrez has more on that. Good morning to you. Reporter matt, good morning. A few minutes ago the sun peeked out but overnight we got a lot of rain here in wimberley, dumping a lot of water in the blanco river. To the north austin authorities had to rescue a house boat that had broken free from its dock. Flood alerts are in effect for almost 800 miles from missouri to texas. Overnight dozens of people were rescued from flash flooding in Central Texas as Emergency Responders struggle to cope with the wettest may on record. The water shut my truck down and the water started rising immediately. Reporter in Johnson County south of dallas, at least 45 roads have been shut down. In oklahoma, fastrising waters also stranded drivers. It went from not being anything like this and dramatic. Reporter stepping in to help. We put them before us. Its the right thing to do. Reporter across texas swollen rivers threaten homes, parts of lubbock under water. Near houston voluntary evacuations as others clean up. Its just everythings gone and destroyed. Reporter with more rain in the forecast, some in hard hit wimberley wimberley, texas arent taking chances. They are leaving. It was last weekend when it seemed the water would never stop. The blanco river gusting into a living room, captured on cell phone video. How in the world did you keep recording . I dont know. I was in shock. Sarah perez and her husband were on a memorial weekend vacation, their 4yearold daughter sleeping in the next room. The water came through like a train. The only way to describe it. Reporter that water so powerful it knocked their suv into their neighbors house. Did you ever think it would stop . No. I didnt. Reporter the river did stop just in time and rescuers were able to pull the family from their second floor window to safety. Just terrifying. Reporter today the couple is thankful. They saved my daughter. Reporter and the family still in shock. Oh, no. Reporter hope they never have to face this horror again. Reporter the death toll in oklahoma and texas to 25, 14 other people are missing. The search continues today. Savannah. Gabe gutierrez again in wimberley, thank you. Al, almost impossible to believeieve this region isnt going to get a break. They are not until at least early next week as we look at whats going on out there. Right now were loe looking at more rain, the wettest daily ever. Probably on the way to the wettest month for dallas. Its the wettest month ever for the whole state of texas. As you watch this area just push on toward the gulf, down toward houston, texas, weve got a wide swath, 52 Million People at risk of severe weather, damaging winds, hail, isolated tornados. As you watch on the future radar were going to see more storms sweep across the region, first this morning, dissipates, then a second front pushes in, more heaven the thunderstorms saturday into sunday bringing from another 3 to 5 inches of rain to the region. We do not see a break at least until early next week. When finally, they will get a chance to dry out. In the meantime, flash flood watches and warnings go into saturday and sunday in that region. Historic. Well get the rest of your forecast in a bit. Matt, up to you in new york. Now a newly unveiled indictment getting attention, former House SpeakerDennis Hastert accused in a scheme to pay millions in hush money to a person from his home state. Nbcs Pete Williams has the latest on this. Good morning to you. Reporter good morning. This grand jury indictment revealing the charges raises but doesnt answer two Big Questions who does the government claim the former speaker was paying, and what was the past misconduct a grand jury says was worth millions to keep quiet . The charges were filed against Dennis Hastert now 73, who was speaker of the u. S. House of representatives from 1999 to 2007. Capping a quarter century in public life. Prosecutors say the charges involve payments to someone from yorkville, illinois where hastert was a teacher and wrestling coach in the mid 1960s and 70s, a point of pride when he became speaker. As a classroom teacher and coach i learned the value of brevdy. Reporter documents said he agreed to pay 3. 5 million in apparent hush money from the person identified only as individual a, someone who is known hastert for most of that persons life the government says. The documents say hastert agreed to make the payments, quote, to compensate for and conceal hills prior misconduct against individual a that occurred years earlier. The documents do not say if individual a is a man or woman or what the misconduct was. Prosecutors say hastert paid almost 2 million, with drawing money from his accounts, 50,000 at a time, but cut that back to less than 10 thoutz at a time to illegally evade Bank Transaction rules. The indictment says when asked he lied to the fbi saying he didnt feel the Banking System was safe and, quote, i kept the cash. Thats what im doing. This inif dietment was shocking not only because who it involved, denny hastert, but that the investigation had been a secret. Reporter no response from hastert. A spokesman for the lobbying firm says hastert resigned. He will make his First Court Appearance in chicago. You talked about the two Big Questions. What was the misconduct, and exactly who was he paying off . At what point during the Legal Process does the public get that information . As a technical matter maybe never. Its not essential to prove the charges to show why he was doing this, the fact that he was structuring the payments and lying to the fbi about whether the cash was for himself or someone else. If this thing does progress flew the courts im sure at some point it would come out. Pete, thank you very much. Natalies here now with a dramatic twist at a very closely watched trial. Good morning. Good morning again. Were hearing for the first time a chilling interview with james holmes, the admitted gunman in the deadly attack on a colorado Movie Theater in 2012. The interview conducted by a stateappointed psychiatrist is now being played for jurors. Jacob rascon is in los angeles. Good morning. Reporter good morning. This marks a shift in the trial, more than 150 First Responders and witnesses have already testified about the horror that day. Now we move to the crux of the case, the mentality of the mass shooter. I only they were like collateral damage. James holmes sat almost motionless showing no emotion. Psychiatrist william reed who conducted the evaluation last year, testified today holmes was mentally ill but legally sane. The defendant james eegp holmes met the definition of legal sanity. Yes. What brings you to tears sometimes. Just regrets. Regrets about . About the shooting. Theres gun shots. The Defense Attorneys admitted holmes carried out the attack but argue he was in the grips of a psychosis. His diary detail his philosophy on life and death, good did and evil followed by eight pages of the word why repeated over and over. What he calls a self diagnosis of a broken mind, about illnesses and finally the plot, page after page of diagrams, alternate venues and methods, serial murder, writing the obsession to kill since i was a kid became more realistic. Finally the last escape. Mass murder at the movies. The doctor will take the stand again and for the next several days of court, the jury will hear all 22 hours of his interview with the shooter, a second psychiatrist is also expected to testify that holmes was legally sane but a third expert for the defense is expected to disagree. Back to you. Jacob rascon, thank you. Amid a massive Corruption Scandal soccers body the fifa will vote on its president. His only challenger is aly bin hussein of jordan. The vote comes two days after swiss Police Arrested seven soccer officials as part of a Corruption Scandal and so far u. S. Investigators have not disclosed any evidence that blater had knowledge of misconduct. A volcano on a remote Southern Japanese island erupted blasting plumes of black smoke in the sky. There were no immediate reports of injuries to the 140 residents whose only access to the outside world is by boat. Evacuations, though, are under way there. Japanese Prime Minister told reporters they will do everything they can to make sure the islanders are safe. And a trip to the stanley cup times on the line tonight as the new york rangers host the Tampa Bay Lightning in game seven of the eastern conference finals. Catch it on the Nbc Sports Network 8 00 eastern time, 5 00 pacific, game seven of the western conference finals between the ducks and the blackhawks tomorrow night. Its going to be exciting tv. This is definitely no way to start your work day. In oklahoma deejay walking into his job at a skating rink. Here is what happened as he steps on a snake and it bit him. It turns out its a fourfoot bull snake. Good news its not strenvenomous. The make was caught and will be released back in the wild. That is going to leave a sting. On the cell phone not paying attention. Thats a big snake. Hazards of walking into snakes. Thanks very much. Back to orlando, get a check of the weather from al. As woody would say, theres a snake in my boot. Lets show you what we have again. A Beautiful Day along the eastern seaboard after we had heavy showers and thunderstorms down to the stouxt weve got a lot of wet weather, big swath of rain from the plains to the gulf, slight risk of strong storms texas into oklahoma and the western third of the country looks spectacular. Well get to your local forecast coming up in the next 30 seconds. E. Camrys are so reliable. Yeah. And you gotta love that bold new styling. Here you go. Whoa wow. Those balloon towers dont make themselves. During toyota time, get 0 apr financing for 60 months on a bold 2015 camry. Offer ends june 1st. For great deals on other toyotas, visit toyota. Com. Thanks jan. Thanks jan. Now you both have camrys. Yeah toyota. Lets go places. Good friday morning. Were waking up once again to lots of low clouds. Misty skies. Still cloudy in san jose. 75 later on with a few high clouds moving by for the afternoon. Temperatures around San Francisco still in the low 60s. 76 in napa. Well see temperatures closer to 80. Especially out toward concord and pleasanton. Weekend forecast will be warm to start and trepding cooler as a few chances north bay showers sunday afternoon. Thats your latest weather. Heavy rain moving into e the new england area. Well detail that in the next half hour. Thank you very much. Now to politics and the everexpanding list of candidates in the president ial race as we go by the numbers. Reporter with the entry of former pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum the republican field just got a little more crowded. But a new poll out of Quinnipiac University shows theres no clear front runner yet. In the top tier with 10 Jeb Bush Ben CarsonMike Huckabee marco rubio, and scott walker. And in the second tier senators rand paul and ted cruz with donald trump and Chris Christie in single digits. And who among them all provides the most competition . For the Democratic Front runner hillary clinton. Well in a headtohead matchup, the former secretary of state has only a slight lead against senator rand paul. And also with senator marco rubio. On the democratic side, her competition is about to increase with Martin Omalley expected to join the race over the weekend. Were still a long way out. Its going to get more and more interesting. You can always count on drama in politics and apparently at the National Spelling bee as well. There was plenty to be had during last nights thrilling finale. Peter alexander has more on the dramatic finish. Peter, good morning. Reporter good morning to you. Break out your dictionaries. Scherenschnitte. Well tell you what it means in a minute. The spelling thats up to you. It was a spell binding final round of the National Spelling bee. Your two champs went back and forth so long the judges ran out of words. Nunatak. Correct. Reporter the judges threw the book but both Vanya Shivashankar and gokul. These are the real letter winners. 285 word wizards about half boys half girls. Twothirds from Public Schools chosen from 11 million entrants in regional contests. For the scripps National Spelling bee. Thats become an unforgettable cult favorite. Kabaragoya. What . Reporter leaving audiences in a spell and creating some unlikely stars. Thats correct. Reporter some as young as 6. The official pronouncer won on a glitch in 1980. He won after paige misspelled the word glitch. Reporter 1984 winner Dan Greenblatt now the voice of a video game. Spelling the act of looking forward to win the 2002 bee. But he didnt know hed be back on tv in the world series of poker. For this years cowinners these may be the most important College Acceptance letters. So for an unprecedented second year in a row, you have cochampions. Vanya is the first sibling of a past champion to win. Her sister won in 2009. Matt and natalie, can you spell dynas