So, when will he release his returns . Hurt and humiliated. Erin andrews in tears as her father testifies at her civil lawsuit. Shes terrified. Shes depressed. Shes not the girl that we used to know. And he says that secretly recorded video of his daughter in a hotel has left her a shell of herself. And hot pocket an ecigarette battery suddenly explodes in a mans pants, catching them on fire. The warning now being issued to millions of users today, thursday, february 25th, 2006. 2006. Issued. Today thursday, february 25, 2015. From nbc news this is rockefeller plaza. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to today on a thursday and he lives back in the land of the living. I dont know since ive seen you. Its so nice to be out of my apartment and to answer the most often asked question yes, i got a flu shot. Well talk more about that later. Let me see. Okay. Im amazed you even touched me. Thats good. Me, too, actually. Lots to get to this thursday morning. Lets start with the storms hammering the eastern half of the country. The death toll climbing to at least eight people. Four died in virginia where a state of emergency is now in effect. More than 238,000 people without power this morning from the carolinas up to maine. And get this, since tuesday, there have been at least 34 confirmed tornadoes. Weve got it all covered, including the impact on travel. Lets start with nbcs Miguel Almaguer. Miguel, good morning to you. Reporter hey, matt, good morning. As you mentioned, this storm took at least eight lives. Three were killed in this region alone. The storm whipped right through this community, shredding it to pieces, taking off roofs, destroying walls and toppling trees. It was a powerful and deadly another night of severe weather. In pennsylvania, some 50 homes damaged. Dangerous winds in new york city. While in long island, firefighters rushed to distinguish cars on fire and clear downed trees in neighborhoods. In washington, d. C. , hammering hail. But it was the smallest towns hit with the biggest damage. Overnight rescues in virginia. Some communities wiped off the map as homes were destroyed, tornadoes dropping from an ominous sky. It took my truck up in the air, and the glass was coming in, and i thought the truck was going to turn over on me. Reporter frank rose witnessed the deadly twister blow through waverly, virginia. I saw the roofs flying everywhere everywhere, and you know, what can you do, you know . Youre caught up in it. Reporter the wild weather claiming the lives of two men and a toddler, tossed from a trailer 300 yards, adding to the storms death toll. Another man killed in south snapped a tree on to him. The guy, he was laying down, and the tree was on top of him, and he was hurt. He was hurt. Reporter the powerful storm system battered the gulf coast. Among the hardest hit, a trailer park in convent, louisiana, where a tornado killed two and shredded 150 homes. It looked like a blender. There was stuff lying around. Reporter some parts of florida also reduced to rubble. More than 200,000 lost power. This morning, while the storm is diminishing, the scope of the damage is just being realized. Later today, virginias governor will visit some of the hardest hit communities like this one. While that storm system passed over in just a matter of hours in places like this one, it will certainly take months to rebuild. Matt and savannah . All right, Miguel Almaguer in oxford, north carolina, this morning. Miguel, thank you. You might effect the of this weather as well. Blake is at ohare in chicago. Good morning. Reporter good morning, savannah. Airlines trying to hit the reset button this morning after more than 2,000 flights were canceled nationwide yesterday. The Worst Airport in the country for those cancellations right here at chicagos ohare. Winters wallop dumping even more snow overnight, more than a foot in some parts of northwest indiana stretching into the chicago suburbs. Blizzardlike conditions cracking warnings from emergency officials. It is terrible. Its going to get worse. Stay home. The roads are ice underneath the snow. Reporter hundreds of accidents snarled traffic across the region. Thankfully, no children aboard this school bus in lynwood, illinois, when it was sent sliding. Chicagos two major airports became ground zero for 1,300 Flights Canceled wednesday we actually changed our flight. We were supposed to leave at 1 30 today. And then united contacted us and tried to move it up so we could get out. Reporter cancellations stretching across the country, including syracuse, new york, where one airline bought pizza for this flight from atlanta that had to be diverted because of the storm. Were already seeing more than 300 Flights Canceled here this morning, even though the worst of the weather has moved out. There are a lot of planes and crews out of position, and its going to take some time to get things back to normal. Matt, savannah . Got to work itself out of the system. Blake, thank you. Lets turn to mr. Roker for more on all this. Thats right, and a really interesting situation developing off the north rockaway coast here in new york. Theyre actually airlifting people who got stuck on a boat. Carolina queen 3, a fishing boat. This is just moments ago, far rockaway, new york. The coast guard sent out a Coast Guard Boat to try to rescue them. The Coast Guard Boat capsized. Luckily, all five members of the coast guard who were on that boat are okay. But as you can see, right now the coast guard chopper rescuing people off that fishing vessel. But that gives you an idea how bad this storm was. And how dangerous the work of the coast guard is. Exactly. And they do that every day. But really amazing stuff. The good news is the worst of the storm is over as far as the heavy winds and rains. Were still going to be dealing with that, but you can see it is now the heavy rain pushing off. What were concerned with now is whats behind it, colder air filtering in, and you can see so, what were going to be looking at, we wont call it technically a blizzard, but we will have wind gusts of up to 40 miles per hour, Poor Visibility down i75, i80, parts of i90. Traveling. Snowfall amounts not going to be the worst, but the winds will that will give better visibility. Behind the front temperatures are much milder, but look at some of these accumulations were looking at. Cleveland about two to five, bloomfield, west virginia, 3 to 6, elkins, west virginia, 4 to 8 inches of snow. So, the good news is weve got warmer weather coming, milder weather, but folks are still going to be digging out and dealing with the mess thats been left behind by these more than 34 tornadoes that touched down. All right, bud. Thank you very much. All right, al, thank you. Now to the president ial race and a notable shift from republican marco rubio. The florida senator going directly after donald trump, and so is the last republican nominee, mitt romney. Weve got it all covered this morning, beginning with nbc National Correspondent peter alexander. Hes in houston where tonights final Republican Debate before super tuesday will be held. Peter, good morning. Reporter hey, savannah, good morning. This is the tenth republican president ial debate tonight, the lonestar state showdown, first without jeb bush on the debate stage, and perhaps most importantly for Donald Trumps cruz, their last stand before super tuesday. Anyone not named donald trump now looking for a little Southern Comfort i can win. I can unify this party. I can grow this party. And i will win this election. The question right now is how do we prevent nominating a candidate who loses the general election, or for that matter, if donald wins the general election, who the heck knows what hed do as president . Reporter for ted cruz, everythings bigger in texas, including the pressure to hold court in his home state. The crown jewel of super tuesday is the great state of texas. Reporter new polls show the freshman senator commanding a 15point lead, but will it hold . Trump taunting his rival on twitter. When ted cruz quits the race, ill get most of his votes. No problem. The rubio campaigns calling on trump to repudiate reported protrump robocalls from the leader of a White Nationalist group the white race is dying out in america and europe because we are afraid to be called racist. Dont vote for a cuban. Vote for donald trump. Reporter trump responded to nothing in this country shocks me. I would disavow it, but nothing in this country shocks me. Reporter the billionaires already hinting at a running mate to balance out his outsider status. Were going to probably choose somebody thats somewhat political. Reporter and now rejoining the political fray, the 2012 nominee mitt romney. Frankly, i think we have good reason to believe that theres a bombshell in Donald Trumps taxes. Reporter four years after he was pressed to release his returns, romneys challenging the 2016 frontrunner to do the same. Either hes not anywhere near as wealthy as he says he is, or he hasnt been paying the kind of taxes we would expect him to pay. Reporter its an issue trump first addressed on today the morning after winning the New Hampshire primary. Will people be surprised at the rate that you pay . Lower or higher than expected . Nobody will be surprised. Taxes. I hate the way the government spends my money. Reporter late wednesday, trump fired back at romney, calling him a fool whos now playing tough guy. Cnn quoted trump saying theres no bombshell at all, other than government wastes the money. Other polls here in texas show the race even closer than 15 points. An interesting dynamic tonight, former president George Herbert walker bush, 91 years old, and his wife, barbara bush, theyre expected in attendance, their first time crossing paths with donald trump since his attacks against their sons jeb and the former president , george w. Bush. Matt and savannah . All right, peter alexander, thank you. Chuck todd is nbcs political director and moderator of meet the press. Nicolle wallace is an nbc news political analyst. Guys, good morning. Did i miss anything . All right, last gop debate tonight before super tuesday. Five people on the stage. Anyone whose name is not donald trump had better do something tonight to try to slow him down going into tuesday. Realistically realistically, what are their options . Listen, winning the nomination is like climbing to the top of everest. Donald trump is halfway there with half of the pack and a lot less oxen. Its possible, but extremely difficult. What do you expect, chuck . Rubio and cruz and kasich, they have to make their move. What i expect and what they should do are two different things. I think the rubio plan is to stay the course, go after cruz, play this one more long game, hope cruz is eliminated after super tuesday and hope next wednesday morning he gets to wake up, come on the today show as hes done after these nights, and say, hey, i finished second in the delegates, now its a twoman race, and hope somehow by march 15th he can overtake him. Theres a lot of ifs there. Way too many ifs. Looks good o real support, he has to show he is tough enough to take on trump. Does trump absorb the punches, land a few good one liners or use this opportunity to take the turn and try to become more president ial than they are . Ahead what he might do is start to make the turn to look more president ial. The real vulnerability he has even among supporters is his temperament. His supporters said i like you are different. I am worried about your impulse control challenges. Every time he has had an opportunity to display a better temperament he passed on it. I would expect him to act more president ial but i dont think we can expect that from him. That is not the way he rolls. That is not what his voters like. I think he goes lets talk about cruz. He went through marco rubios set of circumstances that would allow him to emerge. If cruz loses texas what do the polls show now . It shows cruz ahead. Pick your poll. He has to work hard. Strategy on super tuesday. Put your historian hat on for me. Every poll i look at doesnt show marco rubio having a shot of winning any state on super tuesday. Has anyone secured the nomination going 0 for primaries . They have an answer for that. What they say is that everything about this cycle is historic in nature and that Washington Post stunning editorial about stopping trump. They feel urgency to stop trump and that would create historic rush towards them in the final days and weeks. This issue of taxes. Mitt romney thinking there is a bombshell there. Pay high taxes. Does it matter for trump . I dont think it matters. The only thing that matters to trump would be what romney brought up if his net worth is not what it was. Mitt romney is doing to donald trump by just sort of openly speculating what harry reid did to mitt romney four years ago when he said i heard he is not paying taxes. Mitt romney, this is his way of participating in the stop trump movement. Trump is running against a rigged system. This is the real feature of the campaign, i heard this. Thanks for bringing me up to speed. I appreciate it. Big new developments in ongoing fight over the u. S. Supreme court. The white house said to be considering republican governor Ryan Sandoval of nevada as possible nominee to the high court. Former federal judge, supports abortion rights. Nomination of a republican would be seen as attempt by president obama to stop the blockade of choices. The u. S. Olympic committee preparing athletes and staff ahead of games in brazil. A usoc doctor testified. He said the committee is considering several steps including pretreating closing of all usoc personnel and providing bed nets. They predict they will have a zika vaccine ready for phase one Clinical Trials by this summer. The scandal involving defective air bags. Uncovered evidence that takata was deceiving automakers for years. Internal emails said the defective. If the customer request records or makes an audit we will have a lot of failures, sometimes 38 . Takata disputes whether that employee had direct knowledge. Regulators are under pressure to expand the recall to include every takata air bag in america. Encouraging news saying this years flu vaccine is most effective in years. People who the got the vaccine have been 59 less likely to get the flu. Cdc recommends everyone get a flu shot every year. Usually half of americans get that. Did you read that with your fingers crossed. I got a shot in november but it didnt work out. Frightening scene at a kentucky Convenience Store. This guy on the right suddenly his pants. He runs outside, takes the pants off. The man says an ecigarette battery blew up in his pocket. He suffered burns on his legs. He is able to walk. The local Fire Department warns ecigarette users to keep the batteries away from copper and other metals including car keys an loose change. That is not a little flame. That is a big deal. More on the weather from al roker. Looked like he was ready to take off. Lets show you what we have right now. A Beautiful Day out west. Temperatures will be in the 60s in the Pacific Northwest. We have windy, snowy conditions. Calmer west returns. We are going to get to your local forecast coming up in the we are going to get to and thats your latest weather. Coming up, erin andrews and her father tearing up in court as he takes the stand in her civil lawsuit. Testimony. And Melania Trump defending her husband and revealing what happens when they disagree. First on a thursday morning this is today on nbc. Disagree. Coming up, is Johnson Johnson baby powder safe . A jury awarded a woman 72 million. And lucky dogs, kathie lee and hoda intern as groomers after your local news. Our business, i think its time we start acting like a business. Here we go. Oh, look at this. No personal items are. So those will need to come down. Well be doing some and theres also a strict no dating policy. Uh, but honey, were married. Grow your business with the online shipping tools from fedex. Eat up, buddy. Youll get it this time. 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Today, cdot hopes to open two lanes on i70, through glennwood canyon. They are still cleaning up last weeks rock slide. Opening a lane in each direction should ease the traffic backups. Shoe still expect delays though up to an hour. Lets check weather and traffic now with tarhonda and marty. One hour is a lot better than five hours that they were predicting. Oh, yes, he will take that