This morning, you will hear his call to 911. Who shot her . Me. How did you shoot her . The gun was in the bed. I went to move it and put it to the side and it went off. Was it a terrible accident . And vacation surprise. A british couple visiting new york is surprised when their baby arrives 11 weeks early, but the shock is the hospital stay. How the kindness of strangers is helping them. Today, january 3rd 2015. Announcer from nbc news, this is today, with lester holt and erica hill. Live from studio 1a in Rockefeller Plaza. Good morning. Welcome to today on saturday morning. Im lester holt. Im erica hill alongside Sheinelle Jones and dylan dreyer. What is the song . Reunited. I looked for you in times square in the crowd, but i could not find you. I thought we would meet. Maybe next year. Anyway we will talk about how our new years went. We begin with the top story. The wild weather system is wrecking havoc in the southwest and northeast. Here is the scene in amarillo texas. Snow piling up to make it difficult for cars to get through. We are seeing similar scenes playing out in the northeast. Dylan is keeping an eye on it. It is a mess everywhere. It is a system that is stretching over the country. Road conditions were treacherous during the height of the storm. So bad, New Hampshires one major highway was shutdown for hours. The worst accident on 93 in my career. Reporter that was one of two pile ups on the New Hampshire route 93 on friday. Only a couple of inches of snow fell but it came down fast swirling into whiteout conditions and worse yet, turned immediately to ice on frozen roads. Drivers had no chance to react. Literally, came out of the fog of snow and it was right there. We just slammed into it. People started hitting us. Reporter one after another until 25 vehicles left wrecked and burned. Police say a dozen people were taken to hospitals. None had life threatening injuries. Texas and oklahoma expect another day of wintry weather today. Black ice is tripping up many unsuspecting drivers. This pickup is one of the vehicles that crashed around san angelo texas friday. The same conditions left highways littered with trucks and cars. Firefighters racing to the scene in missouri spun off the road trapping crew members inside but everyone escaped unharmed. Parts of new mexico are keeping up with heavy snow. And usually sunny arizona began a new year with enough snow for a snowball fight. This is going to be mainly a rain event for most of the east coast. You can see on the Northern Edge including chicago and Southern Michigan and down into parts of pennsylvania that is where we do have some ice. Sleet and freezing rain. It doesnt take long for just a little bit of ice to make it slippery. Because of that freezing rain advisories across southwestern pennsylvania. Winter weather advisoryies and winter storm warnings in new england. We also have strong storms. We have the snow ice and some Severe Weather especially today right down near the gulf coast. New orleans and jackson, mississippi and mobile alabama. We already had a couple of tornado Warnings Issued this morning. Here is the breakdown. We will start off with the wintry mix, including northwestern parts of new jersey up into upstate new york. We will see it changeover to rain. Tomorrows High Temperature in new york city should be in the 60s believe it or not. It will quickly changeover to rain. We could see several inches of rain especially near the gulf coast. As far as the snow is concerned, it will take until sunday morning before it turns to rain in central new england. We could see up to 9 inches locally. Boston could pick up a couple inches. Including chicago. It is the ice that is dangerous. 10 of an inch of ice. We could see up to. 25 of ice in the blue shade here including the plateau and south of buffalo. We have a lot of aspects to the storm. It is the ice that coats efforts. Dylan, thanks. Turning to a brave girl recovering this morning. She is the sole survivor of a horrific plane crash. Somehow this 7yearold managed to walk away trekking through a mile through dark woods for help. Nbcs john yang has more. Reporter the small plane crashed in kentucky friday night. State Police Identified the victims as marty and Kimberly Gutzler of nashville, illinois. Their 9yearold daughter and 14yearold cousin died in the crash. The 7yearold daughter survived. Friday night, a man heard a knock on his door and stunned to find the girl outside with blood on her legs and face. She had to walk close to. 75 of a mile through woods with downed trees and briars and everything else. She was barefooted. One sock on her foot. Reporter the family was flying from key west, florida to mt. Vernon illinois in a twin engine plane. They reported engine trouble. She said her mom and dad were dead. Reporter that little girl the sole survivor now recovering at a kentucky hospital. John yang nbc news. Remarkable. Awful on so many levels. She had the wherewithal to get up and walk through the woods to find help at 7 years old. The state of shock that keeps you going. Kind of blindly. Tell you about a major discovery overnight in the java sea as search crews discover two huge pieces of airasia flight 8501. The plane crashed into the water a week ago. Of course, what went wrong is still a mystery. Kelly cobiella is on the ground for us in indonesia. Kelly, good morning. What is the latest from there . Reporter lester they are struggling with the weather again today. The high waves making it difficult for them to get under water cameras below the surface to look at the large objects spotted by sonar. One is 30 feet long and 15 feet wide. A search crew brings more bodies to shore, ships at the wreckage site investigate the most promising lead yet. Two large objects. The head of indonesian search ands are cue told reporters this morning, i can confirm this is part of the airasia aircraft. Investigators believe airasia flight 8501 may have stalled mid flight in bad weather and fallen out of the sky. They found an inflatable slide and emergency exit door. Clues some analysts think could point to another theory. The pilot landed on the water and passengers were unable to get out before it sank. I find it unlikely this crew was intentionally trying to put the airplane down on the water. From High Altitude especially loss of control, it is a high speed impact. Reporter on friday the second of many funerals airasia founder Tony Fernandes helped bury the flight attendant. His airline is under more scrutiny. Flights from surabaya to singapore are grounded because airasia did not have the right permit. At the home in surabaya they are planning more funerals. He lost his brother, sisterinlaw and mother and 9yearold niece. Do you hope to hear something soon . Reporter he said he is optimistic they will find the bodies but it is in gods hands. His sisterinlaw was the first plane crash victim to be identified. She was laid to rest lester on thursday night. Kelly cobiella this morning. Thank you. The United States is imposing strict sanctions on north korea. Sheinelle is following that story and some other stories. Good morning. The u. S. Says the new round of sanctions slapped on north korea over the sony hack attack is the beginning. On friday the president signed executive order authorizing the sanctions and ten people who worked for the government. U. S. Assets will be frozen and barred from the u. S. Financial system. The sanctions put north korea on notice that payback is not directed to those behind the attack. Back home a father and son from texas are under arrest after a violent multistate crime spree. It came to an end in West Virginia on thursday after a traffic stop turned into a shootout with suspects and police. Two officers were wounded. Two dead bodies were discovered in the suspects truck. The two suspects also face charges in the deaths. Bono says he is not sure if he will ever play the guitar again after a bike accident in new york. On a blog on the bands web site he says recovery has been more difficult than he thought and shared an xray of his elbow. His arm was shattered in six places and required hours of surgery. Bono will have to concentrate hard before the tour in may. Madonna is speaking out after an internet frenzy of pictures online of dr. Martin luther king jr. And nelson mandela. The pictures have string on their faces. Madonna released a statement friday night saying she was not comparing herself to them. She also defended herself accused of racism. And finally, a thrill seeker in las vegas gets more than he signed up for. The man was stuck dangling from a zip line more than 100 feet above a busy street for more than an hour. Firefighters rescued the man. I can tell you he was not injured. I looked it up. 40. You got a full refund. At the very least. I found that little bit. At least he did not get a ticket for another ride. And insult to injury. Could he take the 40 and bet it . You would. Dylan is our gambler in the bunch. Not a gambling problem. I enjoy vegas. You do not gamble on the weather . The weather, im confusing myself a bit today. There is so much going on. Im going to try to sum it up and break it down. Lets focus on the Severe Weather we have down near the gulf coast. This is where we could see isolated tornadoes and damaging wind gusts. Mostly rain across the eastern half of the country. We have the wintry mix on the Northern Edge of it. This could coat the ground up to. 25 of ice through chicago and detroit and western new york state and pennsylvania. On the northern side of, that we will see eventually snow. We could end up with about 6 to 9 inches of snow before it turns to rain sunday morning. We have the secondary cold front producing a bit of light snow in the Northern Rockies and upper midwest. This is going to make it extremely cold. Coldest air good saturday morning. Meteorologist Michelle Grossman. Get ready for a soggy saturday. Potential for rain developing and sleet, freezing rain also some snow. Temperatures cold for this time of year. 42 to 45. Winds out of the east at five to ten miles per hour. Showers still continuing on sunday but warmer 64 degrees. Monday much much colder 37. Right at the freezing mark. Maybe a snow shower tuesday, 32. Its wednesday and thursday b. Thursday, High Temperature of just 23 degrees. And thats your latest forecast. Lester. Dylan, thanks. Concerns this morning about the growing flu epidemic. Already responsible for the deaths of at least 15 children and it is now spread to three dozen states. Unfortunately, if you got the flu vaccine this year you might not be entirely safe. There are, however, some things you can do to keep your family safe. Our natalie azar is our nbc contributor. Good to be here. January and february is the peak. A different strain of h3n2. Is this a worst season . We are predicting a worse season than normal because of the strain you mention circulates frequently. It predicts a more severe season. It happens to be a more verilent virus in general. Half of the h3n2 strain has drifted. The vaccine production made last february and march is not a perfect match. It is always a moving tar getgettarget. This happens right in the heat of this flu season in january and february. The w. H. O. Experts will predict which strains will be active for next year and production begins then. This strain drifted last march a month after they chose it. I got my shot september and october. Did i waste my time . You did not waste your time. This is the message we want to get out. It may not be a perfect match, there is partial protection from the flu vaccine. Additionally the flu vaccine covers a number of other strains which may predominate. Remember too, the vaccine when you get it if you get the flu, will make your symptoms less severe and hopefully of less duration. And finally, if you do end up with the flu, you dont have to sit home and take it. There are treatments. Absolutely. We advise if you are young and otherwise healthy and have mild symptoms you need rest and hydration. If however, you are very very sick or what we call an atrisk population the elderly, pregnant woman, chronic illness. Pediatric population you want antivirals within the first 24 to 48 hours to lessen the duration. Dr. Azar thank you very much. Happy new year. And in just a moment pundits have been waiting for this moment now we are firmly in 2015. We can officially talk about the president ial election next year. Who will be running in 2016 . Here is nbcs peter alexander. Reporter before crews get the sweptingeping away the confetti. The political rerun. Reporter consider the names. Bush clinton, paul. Obama announced his candidacy 21 months before election day. I stand before you to announce my candidacy. Reporter people need to move quickly to get the sugar daddy, the donors with deep pockets. Hillary clinton had an email announcement which was a fund raising letter for the family foundation. Clintons inner circle indicates she may not announce until spring which could throw a wrench into democrats plans. The Biggest Issue for Hillary Clinton is coming up with a message. A real reason she is running other than she is Hillary Clinton. Reporter among republicans, jeb bush is actively exploring a run. This week resigning all of his corporate and nonprofit memberships, including with his education foundation. Chris christie says he would discuss it with his family over the holidays. Ted cruz has never been shy about his ambitions. A recent twitter issue with cuba with rand paul and marco rubio had 2016 all over it. It is an intoxicating resolution. Winning the white house. For today, peter alexander, nbc news washington. Across the country, we have seen a huge drop in gas prices. One that has been welcomed by a lot of people. That trend should continue into the new year. This morning, some people are actually seeing a slight increase. That is because of gas taxes that went into effect on the 1st of january. Here is nbcs tom costello. Reporter if you are looking for the cheapest gas, look no further than the midwest. 90 of the stations in missouri are selling regular for under 2 a gallon. Nationwide gas prices are down 1. 08 from where they were a year ago today. A gallon for regular, 2. 23. Remember just a month ago, we were at 2. 76. Reporter how staggering . In 38 states motorists can find gas for less than 2 a gallon. For oil and gas analysts it is uncharted territory. The aspect we never witnessed before is gas prices plunging as the economy is chugging. Reporter what stunned Global Market is saudi arabias decision to pump the oil to drive out iran and russia and the u. S. This seems to be the beginning of the end for opec. What we are seeing is the weaker members of opec venezuela and nigeria and libya all want saudi arabia and kuwait to turn off the spigot. Reporter the lower pump prices could cushion the impact in the five states that raised taxes on january 1st. Pennsylvania up nearly 10 cents a gallon. In florida, up a fraction of a penny. Up a penny in north carolina. 3 cents in maryland. Up 5 cents in virginia. I dont like it. I pay virginia enough tax. If it helps it is fine. I dont think it is a big deal for me. The lower gas prices overall have been great. If we pay 4 for gas right now and there is a 5 cents increase that is huge. If you are paying 2 and change a difference. Reporter the drop in pump prices should mean savings for families. 500 per vehicle. Tom costello nbc news washington. Who would think turning down a billion dollar offer would be bring about a if you were to get 3 billion for your start up company, if you are like us you would take it and run. That was the offer to snapchats founder. He declined. It turns out it was a good decision. Dylan dreyer has more in the orange room. After hearing this story, you will add snapchat to send pictures that vanish and a few seconds to the list of things you wish you thought of first. Ill give you 10 billion reasons why. That is what the company is valued at right now. Making Mark Zuckerbergs offer of 3 billion to buy it seem like chump change. Sorry, mark. Facebook bought instagram for 1 billion. I dont use snapchat. I use instagram more. Lets put 10 billion evaluation into perspective. Ten times the value of lyft. Seven times the value of barnes noble and five times the value of an abercrombie and fitch. How about buying 50,000 lamborghinis. If you are feeling generous why not give everyone in the United States 30 and still pocket half of one billion. I think we need to work on an app after this one. If you have any ideas, orangeroom. Who values these things . Doesnt it remind you of the dotcom boom. I was covering technology in San Francisco. Everybody got caught up in it. It is worth millions or billions. You say where does it come from and what are you buying . Advertisement . I dont know how that works. That is why none of us have billions. It is the simple ideas that work. We will work on the simple good morning. Im rosemary connors. Lets check in with meteorologist Michelle Grossman. Just a couple hours away. Were going to see ant wintry mix north and west. A nuisance throughout the day. Looking at mostly cloudy skies in the pocono mountains. A little wintry weather today for them. Thats good news. For the most part we are dry. You can see stuff on our doorstep but that will take a little while the reach the ground. 33 in fulfill. 31 in millville. For today, plan on rain. Wintry mix north and west. It will be breezy before it switches over to rain. 43. Sunday, showers and warm 64. Cold on on monday 37. Cold week thursday. Bitterly cold and windy. High of 23. New from overnight. A standoff is over in bucks county. Police there tell us they arrested a man whom they say threatened Family Members and neighbors. They were on the scene in levittown near a house on ice pond road. S. W. A. T. Team responded around 9 30 last night. They were there for much of the morning. Officers took the men into custody around 5 30 this morning. A mother and another relative inside the house were not hurt. Police tell us the man had 20 to 30 guns with him. This morning were getting a better look at the damage left behind from a fire that burned three row ho