And who they believe was behind it. And airborne. A tornado lifts a bounce house more than 50 feet with kids inside. Oh bounce house the dramatic images and a warning for parents today. Tuesday, may 26th 2015. Announcer from nbc news this is today with matt lauer and Savannah Guthrie live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. And good morning, everyone. Welcome to today on a Tuesday Morning. Matts got the morning off and what a situation down south all weekend long. Yeah. Were talking historic storms arent we . They have never issued a flash flood emergency for the city of houston. Right now schools and the Mass Transit System shut down. It is our top story this morning. This unprecedented flooding in texas. New downpours overnight and it has created new misery for tens of thousands. Weve got all of this covered from the hardest hit cities to the threat of even more storms today. Well begin with Janet Shamlian. Janet, what can you tell us . Reporter savannah good morning to you. This historic flooding in houston today, Authorities Say it is the worst flooding weve had here in 30 years. Right now hundreds of people are still stranded in their cars. People who tried to get home starting at 9 00 and 10 00 last night. Unable to do so. This morning there are still people in houstons Toyota Center after last nights nba playoff game because they cant get out. And no one can get in. The city is crippled and because it is still dark here, the full extent of whats happened still isnt known. Historic heavy rains in houston. Flooding roads and stranded drivers leaving 80,000 residents without power. Parts of the city almost doubled the alltime record for rainfall in just one day. Excited about their big win over the warriors tonight. However, we are stuck inside for a little bit. Reporter there was so much rain rockets fans were warned to stay inside the Toyota Center after the nba playoff game. Dwight howard staying on the court working to keep up the spirit of the stranded. It sucks all these people cant get home to their loved ones. There are a lot of people without power. Reporter the rain water flooding the parking lot of this shopping center. Residents posting it on social media. There goes our power. Reporter even our nbc station suffered a power outage live on the air. But that never stopped the reporting. We are practically in the dark but happy to at least get you the information you need. Reporter all Public Transportation in houston shut down today. Hundreds of schools are closed. The rain is still coming down. Authorities are telling people to stay home. Some people are not doing that and that this morning, is impeding the rescue. Back to you. Hard to fathom what theyre dealing with there. Scenes like those are playing out in other parts of texas as well. A neighborhood in austin had to be evacuated and in wimberley, crews are searching for missing flood victims. Nbcs Gabe Gutierrez is there. Gabe good morning. Reporter willie good morning. The death toll in texas and oklahoma is now up to eight. Today authorities here in hayes county is searching for 12 people who are still missing and there were new water rescues overnight just to our north. This morning austin texas, is drying out after flood waters swamped some of the state capitols busiest downtown streets. More than 4 inches of rain fell in one hour. Nearly every creek overflowing its banks prompting dozens of water rescues. To the east a small dam ruptured. Look at that tornado. Reporter and several tornadoes touched down like this one in lagrange. The wild weather making it hard for forecasters across the state to keep up. In my 25 years, ive never seen anything like this. Tornadoes touching down right and left across the area today and flash flood producing and river flooding going on all simultaneously. Reporter and the death toll is growing. Alyssa ramirez the homecoming queen was on her way back from prom when her car was swept away. She did the right thing. She called 911 and her father but it was too much. Reporter in hardhit wimberley texas i would describe it as a flood of biblical proportions. Were going to search with the boats. Reporter the National Guard has now joined the search for the missing. I knew something was wrong. Reporter julie shields was on the phone with her sister laura. We are in a house floating down the river. Call mom and dad, i love you, and pray. Reporter her husband jonathan managed to escaped with broken bones and a collapsed lung. But laura and their two children are still unaccounted for. She is with her babies and she will be with her babies always in heaven. Reporter Texas Governor greg abbott has just expanded the disaster declaration for texas counties. 37 of them are now declared disaster areas. Willie and savannah, back to you. Those stories are just gut wrenching. Gabe gutierrez in wimberley, texas, this morning. Thanks. We have word from al these storms will continue. Theyll get a bit of a break, but not much unfortunately. You look at some of the rainfall totals just for the last 24 hours, locally just west of houston, 12 inches of rain. Austin over 5 inches. Houston almost 10 inches of rain. Double what they get for the month. Wettest may in port smith, Wichita Falls. Into texas, austin Corpus Christi their wettest months ever. Right now 60 Million People are under risk for some advisory watch, or warning. More firing up to the north of houston as we watch that. And as we move into the day, well see more storms firing up tonight into tomorrow morning across dallas. Dries out a bit, but then more of the same again thursday and friday. Locally heavy rain today. Storms developing in the afternoon. Possibility of tornadoes from dallas all the way to woodward. And tomorrow a smaller area but we are going to be looking at the risk of strong storms. Damaging winds, hail and possible supercells. Rainfall amounts generally 2 to 3 inches from atlanta into lafayette, louisiana. 1 to 2 inches really just about done in dallas down into houston. But were going to see more heavy rain developing as we get into thursday and friday. And in fact the Severe Weather moves to the east today and into the northeast tomorrow. So were a lot of folks will be affected by this severe stuff. Thanks. Check in with you in a bit. Another big story were following, how would you feel if you were on a flight and looked out the window and saw military jets escorting your plane . Anonymous threats against commercial flights led to some of those nervous moments for passengers on memorial day. Pete williams is following the latest on this investigation. Pete good morning to you. Reporter good morning. These telephone threats came in rapid succession to local Police Departments apparently from the same caller a man. He warned that chemical weapons were on board more than a dozen flights. Most of them coming to u. S. Airports from overseas. Passengers on this air France Flight from paris to new yorks Kennedy Airport realized something was wrong when emergency vehicles surrounded their plane the moment it landed. I was scared. You know its pretty clear when the plane isnt allowed to come to the terminal something serious is going on. Reporter two fighter jets like these escorted the flight. Scrambled after a series of anonymous phone calls early monday claiming that airliners were carrying chemical weapons. It was thoroughly searched and nothing was found. They were very efficient. Reporter federal Officials Say the anonymous callers list included nine other fliens to the u. S. From london on dell da. From edding burr and madrid on united. And from paris on delta. They landed as scheduled at the airports. Authorities determined early on that the hoax calls were not credible but passed it to the airlines to be cautious. The caller also mentioned five International Flights outside the u. S. They also arrived with nothing hazardous found. Now the hunt is on for the man who made these hoax calls. Phoning in these threats is a serious crime. One man who tried it recently was sentenced to eight years in priss. No laughing matter. Thank you very much. Well learn more today about the plan to make public tens of thousands of emails from Hillary Clintons time as secretary of state. Andrea mitchell has more on that and her First Official challenger in the democratic president ial race. Good morning. Reporter good morning, willie. Vermont senator Bernie Sanders is joining the democratic race tonight, but Hillary Clinton could be paying more attention to what the state Department Tells a federal judge today. The deadline for producing a timetable for the release of thousands more emails from her tenure as secretary of state. On parade with her husband on memorial day in their adopted hometown in new york. Posing for photos, ordering ice cream. But today for Hillary Clinton the holiday is over. The state department is under a court order to produce a timetable later today for releasing more of the 55 thourkss5,000 pages of emails. A judge ordered the emails released on a rolling basis every 60 days. Something she supports. I want people to be able to see all of them and it is the fact that we have released all of them that have any government relationship whatsoever. Reporter one democratic ally considered a potential running mate by some should clinton win the nomination called it a side show. What you have here with these emails is a witch hunt. Reporter despite he email controversy, so far only one other democrat is ready to take her on. Tonight vermont senator Bernie Sanders will announce he is running in the democratic contest. After serving almost a quarter century as a socialist. Hillary clinton says she is the champion of everyday americans. Why isnt she the best standard there for the party . Well let the American People make that decision. I have been working for the last 25 30 years on behalf of working families. Reporter and in baltimore next weekend, former Maryland GovernorMartin Omalley is expected to join the race. But so far clinton is dominateing the field. A far cry from the crowded field of republicans competing to be their standard there. It is a tale of two parties. Andrea mitchell thank you. Meanwhile turning to natalie on breaking news this morning. Good morning. Breaking news this morning out of north dakota. Police say at least two people have been killed and several others wounded after a shooting at a walmart store. It happened in grand forks, north dakota and officers responded to reports of gunfire overnight. They arrived and discovered multiple victims inside the store. Well have more throughout the morning. Meanwhile this morning, iraq has announced the launch of an operation to drive isis out of the Anbar Province where extremists captured the capital there earlier this month. Troops will be backed by shiite and sunni forces. The fall of ramadi had been making steady progress over extremists over the past year with the help of u. S. Led air strikes. A new jersey man has died after being diagnosed with lassa fever. Its an Infectious Disease from west africa rarely seen in the United States. The man had returned from liberia earlier this month arriving at new york citys jfk airport. Health Officials Say he died monday night. The cdc is looking for anyone he had contact with recently. But Officials Say the risk to others is extremely low. Lassa fever is not spread through casual contact. The city of cleveland has reached a settlement with the u. S. Justice department with the use of Excessive Force and rights violations. Thats what a senior Law Enforcement official told the Associated Press on monday. It comes after a white Police Officer was acquitted of manslaughter for firing 15 rounds through the windshield of a car carrying an unarmed black man and woman in 2012. That incident prompted an 18month Justice Department investigation. And a new warning over the dangers of rip currents. Advisories are in effect all along the pacific and Atlantic Coasts this morning after rip tides led to the death of five swimmers. On floridas east coast alone, over 500 people had to be rescued this Holiday Weekend. Rip currents form when waves pile up water between the breaking waves and the beach. If you find ourself in a rip current, dont try to swim against it. Swim parallel to the beach until the flow of water pulling you out to sea disappears. Three periods werent enough to decide the thriller. Game five of the western conference finals. Blackhawks tied the score with 38 seconds to go sending it into overtime. The celebration, though short lied. Anaheim scored just 45 seconds into the extra period. So they win 54. The ducks take the series lead three games to two. Meanwhile game six of the Eastern Conference Finals tonight on nbc sports networks. Of course the rangers tonight do or die for them against the lightning. Tampa bay could send the rangers home. A lot of people in this room dont want that to happen. All right. Thank you so much al what do we got out there . More showers and thunderstorms to talk about. In fact later on today well be looking at that. You can also see sunshine cooler temperatures along the west coast. Were going to get to your local fore shopping for a used car is so intimidating. I mean, you feel like you have to be this expert negotiator to get a fair deal. I hate to haggle. When you go to a restaurant you dont haggle over the chicken parmesan. Why cant carbuying be like that . As long as people drive cars carmax will be the best way to buy them. Good morning, im meteorologist bill henley. Sunny skies today and a quick warmup, too. Potentially the hottest day of the year so far. Near 90 degrees this afternoon. Humidity will be increasing tomorrow, and that will give us a chance of some late day showers and thunderstorms. Its not just tomorrow. The threat will be here thursday and friday though it wont be as hot. Highs in the middle 80s. Up to 84 degrees both day. A hotter day on saturday with a break from the showers but theyre back sunday and monday. Have a great day. And thats your latest weather. Savannah . Thank you so much. Now to a shocking twist in the death of blues icon b. B. King. Two of his own daughters are now coming forward with disturbing allegations of foul play. Heres jacob rascon. Reporter less than two weeks after the king of blues died peacefully at his las vegas home, two of his daughters say in identical affidavits i believe my father was poisoned and i believe my father was murdered. The affidavits named b. B. Kings closest aides as the only people who had contact with the blues legend in the weeks leading up to his death. King is also executor of kings estate. The aide declined to comment. The attorney is calling the allegations ridiculous. The king family calls them reasonable. So he did not die in the presence of his children nor were they present for his hospice care. And thats why they have the concern. Reporter kings doctors initially said the 89yearold died of a stroke. Now the coroner has performed an autopsy and says at this point we dont have evidence that these allegations of foul play will be substantiated. However, we are taking them seriously. Meanwhile the Las Vegas PoliceDepartment Tells nbc news they are not investigating pending the results of forensic tests which will take six to eight weeks. For today, jacob rascon nbc news los angeles. Obviously more forensics to come on that. Coming up a terrifying scene in florida. A tornado lifting an inflatable bounce house more than 50 feet in the air with children inside. The frightening video and how those kids are doing this morning. Plus growing calls for the duggar familys show to be canceled in the wake of their older sons molestation allegations. And how do you feel about it . The uproar over this tshirt being sold on memorial day. Thats coming up but first this is today on nbc. Anncr sometimes our pets. Arent the only ones. That make bad choices. Woman honey, im home anncr now theres petarmor plus. So you can protect your pets without the shame of overpaying. Petarmor plus. Available at target. 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