Its opening round. Can he recover in time to play this afternoon . And along for the ride here we go. Lets do it. Jimmy fallon gives carson a new tour of his thrilling universal orlando attraction. We are taking a race through new york with the tonight show host and helping him celebrate the grand opening on this thursday, april 6, 2017. From abc news, this is today with matt lauer and savannah guthrie. Live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. And good morning, everybody. Welcome to today on a thursday morning. Is there anyone more perfect we could have sent to check out the jimmy fam lollon ride that like getting dizzy . It looks like im downstairs at 30 rockefeller. They have done a good job making this place look like it. We are in orlando at the jimmy fallon ride. It is incredible. Well talk to jimmy today. He had a lot of input into this ride, three years in the making. We have a big morning for you. It was fun. Carson, work on that voice there. Well talk to you in a few minutes. Too much fun. Severe weather is our top story. More tornadoes, more flooding rains battering the south. Dangerous storms are taking aim at millions more firing up the east coast. Al will have his forecast in just a moment, but lets start with Kerry Sanders out west in georgia this morning. Hi, kerry, good morning to you. Reporter good morning, savannah. 50,000 people this morning are waking up without electricity. Meantime, at the airport in atlanta, its a mess. More than 1600 flights were canceled due to the Severe Weather and the tornado outbreaks. That means theres a lot of people who slept on the floor there overnight. It will be a mess there this morning. And here in rural georgia, its all about the cleanup. Where i am right now is, was a chicken farm. As we can see from above, we have a live picture from our drone, the destruction here is total. The tornado dropped out of the sky at a time when, thankfully, nobody was here. But as you can see, the debris field goes just about in every direction for more than a mile. This morning in the southeast, a twisted path of destruction. Powerful storms reducing entire neighborhoods to rubble. At least nine tornadoes reported through wednesday night. We didnt get a chance to get scared. Reporter 61 Million People at risk overnight across 13 states. Much of the damage is around here in stewart county, georgia. Here, an 8yearold was sitting in the hallway at home with her mom and two brothers when they heard the sound of a tornado barreling through the neighborhood. When it started raining, we checked out the windows and everything was like this. Reporter what do you think of that . Its horrible. Reporter up the road this is where my brother lives. Reporter trudy is thankful her brother was not home when the storm tore through his trailer. She was taking shelter close by. The inside of the roof was shaking. Reporter they all made it out unharmed. A couple hundred miles away, the ominous clouds forcing the masters to cancel its annual par 3 Golf Tournament for the first time in 56 years. Nationwide, weve seen a lot of pictures like this, like were looking at right now because there have been more than 350 tornadoes this season. In the state that has seen the most . Right here in georgia, more than 85 twisters. Savannah . Matt . Kerry sanders, thank you. Al is standing over here. It just seems like a particularly active period right now. In fact, weve had more than 460 tornadoes this time of the year, which is more than double, the most we have seen since 2008. And we have more going on. We have severe thunderstorms making their way from florida all the way on up into the Midatlantic States where we now have a tornado watch from richmond, norfolk, on into raleigh, north carolina. Were going to be watching this very closely over the next several hours. Right now, we have an enhanced risk from salisbury, maryland, down to wilmington. 15 Million People at risk for isolated tornadoes. The highest threat is going to be early this afternoon as this system pushes in. Look for more strong storms. And moving into the northeast as well, with heavy rain, rain up to one inch per hour. Thats why we have flood watches up for 47 Million People in the northeast and new england. Heavy rain, saturated ground and melting snow all leading to that. Plus, wind advisories from chicago where they could have wind gusts from 60 miles an hour down to the southeast in roanoke. 69 Million People at risk for high wind. Guys, not only do we have the heavy rains and the risk of tornadoes, but with the winds, air travel and road travel is going to be a real big problem most of the day today. All right. Thank you. Well check back in in a moment. Its shaping up to be an eventful and busy day on multiple fronts for the Trump Administration. The white house is now suggesting they are open to purr seussing military suggestions in syria in the wake of the chemical attack. President trump saying that action crossed many, many lines. Meanwhile, it looks like House Republicans are set to leave for a twoweek break without a deal on health care. While their Senate Counterparts are poised to go nuclear, so to speak, today to approve Supreme Court mom knee nominee neil gorsuch. And the north korean threat is said to be a main focus of talks and trade. Were covering it all this morning. Well start with white house chief correspondent hallie jackson. Hallie, good morning. Reporter good morning. The president is right now in the midst of his most serious Foreign Policy test yet. And hes handling syria with a shift. Hes clearly horrified by what is happening there but not so clear what hes going to do next as he leaves the door open to possible military action. His teams talking tougher on russia back in washington. And a National Security shakeup is raising questions on the wild west wing. This morning new questions about what President Trump will do next after condemning the apparent chemical weapons attack in syria. That attack on children yesterday had a big impact on me. My attitude toward syria and assad has changed very much. Reporter after tweeting in 2013, stay out of syria, the president s now acknowledging Bashar Al Assads actions have him reconsidering, even as he blamed his predecessor for not doing enough after past chemical attacks. The Obama Administration had a great opportunity to solve this crisis a long time ago when he set the red line in the sand. Reporter now the president says the syrian leader crossed a line with him. When you kill innocent children, innocent babies, babies, little babies, with a chemical gas, that crosses many, many lines, beyond a red line, many, many lines. Reporter still, no specifics about how the u. S. Might respond. Im not saying im doing anything, one way or the other, but im certainly not going to be telling you. Reporter secretary of state Rex Tillerson calling out the kremlin for backing assad. We think its time that the russians think carefully about the continued support of the assad regime. Reporter in front of the u. N. Security council, an emotional moment from nikki haley showing Graphic Photos of the youngest victims. How many more children have to die before russia cares . Reporter all this in the wake of the white house shakeup. President trumps controversial chief strategist steve bannon ousted from the powerful National Security council. The New York Times reporting, he resisted, even threatening to quit if it happened. Bannon now tells nbc news the times story is, quote, total nonsense. Vice president pence insisting its not a demotion. This is just a natural revolution to ensure the National Security council is organized in a way that best serves the president. Reporter it comes as President Trump targets someone who played a key National Security role in the Obama Administration, susan rice, accusing her with no evidence of committing a crime by requesting the names of people connected to the trump team be unmasked. But experts say thats actually a routine part of a National Security advisers job. The president , yet again, making an unsubstantiated surveillance claim telling the New York Times its one of the big stories of our time. A spokesman for rice tells nbc, im not going to dignity the president s ludicrous charge with a comment. The president says he will explain his claim at the right time but didnt say when that time would be. He heads down here to maralago, palm beach, today. Sources inside the administration indicate the divide inside his west wing is seeming to sharpen between the new yorkbased advisers who want to mold policy and the campaign originals who want to make sure the president keeps his promises. Matt . Savannah . Hallie jackson in position for that critical meeting today, thank you. As we mentioned, President Trump is kicking off a highlyanticipated summit with chinas president at maralago today. Its the first facetoface and comes at a dead call time in the u. S. china relationship. Gabe gutierrez has more on that. Gabe, good morning to you. Reporter matt, good morning. Together the u. S. And china make up 40 of the global economy. So the stakes could not be higher, especially with a glooming threat of north korea. This morning staterun media in china are stressing cooperation, but there are many challenges ahead for President Trump, especially after his tough talk on china during his campaign. This morning President Trump set for arguably the biggest meeting of his presidency facetoface for the first time with president xi in maralago as the threat of north korea looms half a mile away. We have a problem. Somebody is not doing the right thing and that is going to be more responsibility. Reporter the missile test ramping up the urgency as the president leans on wchina againt an erratic kim jongun. If the chinese decide to help, that would be very good for china. If they dont, it wont be good for anyone. A senior white house official telling nbc news all options are on the table. Also on the agenda, trade with china as north koreas dominant trade partner, mr. Trump hoping to use it as leverage against the rogue nation. Even as the president himself has repeatedly slammed china for its trade practices. We continue continue to allow china to rake our country. They have no respect for us. They think were a bunch of dummies. Reporter but complicated the president s tough view on china, the trump businesses hes had there. He denies any conflict of interest because his sons run the business, his ties in other brand of clothing have been made in china along with ivankas line. Dozens of shipments of her clothing have arrived here, three in the last month according to customs records. Trumps company also doing business with Chinese Governmentowned banks, one renting the 20th floor of trump tower for 2 million a year. Another, a lender on a nearly billiondollar mortgage on a trump skyscraper in manhattan. And just five days after trumps election win, the Chinese Government approved a trump trademark that he had been battling to secure for ten years. Two months later, more than two dozen other trump trademarks were approved. President trump has often said, business is about leverage. The concern here is that countries like china will have leverage over him, over ivanka trump, over jared kushner, because theres so much money at stake in their deals. Reporter President Trump is expected to arrive here in palm beach this afternoon. A few hours ahead of the chinese president. The white house says not to expect any golf being played between the two leaders. Matt and savannah orveg, of cou that sport is heavily frowned upon in communist china. Gabe, thank you very much. Well talk to the National Director of the Terrorism Center and nicolle wallace. So much to discuss. Well start with syria. The News Conference yesterday was incredibly consequential in terms of what the president said, what he seemed to signal about his own change of heart, and suddenly it seems the administration is saying, well, perhaps military options and increased military action is on the table for us. What would that look like . What can we do . This is something you guys did in the Obama Administration, thought about, what are the options . Its incredibly hard and its even harder because its a stark reversal from what has been said. In many ways, that gave emboldening to russia and syria. And the russian presence makes deep u. S. Involvement hard. We have doubled the number of troops there, but having a no fly zone with russia is extremely difficult. We can get the choice of safehavens, it will be really tough without russian cooperation. You cant call donald trump cant call president putin and say, were about to do this because putin and assad are working together. So the element of surprise is gone, and the risk of actually attacking an area where russian and syrian troops are intertwined is huge. Matt, thats exactly right. What we have is not just assad, but we have a Syrian Russian Iranian alliance. And because of that, that makes our geopolitical consequences of any involvement very difficult. So this is a red line. And the president is now going to face the same challenge obama did. You draw it, you have to face the consequences and they are bad. Rex tillerson blasted russia. Nikki haley, blasted russia. And at the press conference, we saw on syria yesterday with President Trump, he didnt mention russia once. This adds to what critics say of his, hes got blurred lines in a worldwide view of russia. Listen, talking about military options, before you get to military options, you exhaust the sort of power of the bully pulpit. He hasnt started to use the bully pulpit to talk about russia having the blood of these children on his hands. Hes never said that. And he now has a u. N. Ambassador who made it perfectly clear thats her world view by holding up the pictures we just saw. He has a secretary of state who says very little, but even this quiet secretary of state has taken a tougher line on russia. So i think before you sit down and examine your military options, you exhaust the power of the american presidencys bully pulpit to condemn in the harshest terms what russia is doing. Now that we are good and depressed about the situation in syria, well turn to north korea, which most Foreign Policy experts say is worse. Michael, this is where the rubber meets the road on tough talk. President trump said north korea has to be influenced by china, will get china to get in line, but if not, what are the options . Well, the good news here is the president s been a little more consistent on being tough on china on a number of fronts. The challenge, of course, is we have had two administrations, bush and obama, both tried to be tough on china, to get china top leverage north korea with few results. What trump is facing is highly enriched Uranium Program with more and more Nuclear Weapons and longrange missiles. And that is tough. The options when you have an irrational leader with Nuclear Weapons are few and far e New York Times a couple weeks ago that talkedut disposal. Every onequen in terms of retaliation from the north exactly. Two of our japan and south korea, are icross hai. So our key is not present. And the hope for china iss gossip. Of e president s victory now shoved outy uncil, these competes factions in the west winlg substantive effect, in going to sway president good n bad news. The good news is i talked a lot about the generals around donal citizens s night. Generalalcmaster headingnsc. Steve bannon is no lr its a terrible sign in terms ot wing has become a f that he put out a Public Statement saying, i was notgine appointee in the oba administration having done Something Like that. There wertoday. Guys, thank you very muchwith. Powdown ofh. The confrontation plays out on t to block gorsuch by needed to republicans claim they will use light the socalled nuclear60 v for neil gorsuch andsful, a sim majority of 51 votes would be enough. A Northern California woman is expected to survive after falling off a bridge while trying to take a selfie. Officials say the woman and a group of friends were walking on the catwalk underneath the bridge when she attempted to take a picture and then fell 60 feet onto the trail below. The woman was airlifted to a nearby hospital. The extent of her injuries hasnt been released publicly. The catwalks under the bridge are closed to the public. Well get back to the story we told you about at the top of the show, drama at the masters as golfs premier event gets underway today. Dustin johnson, hes the worlds number oneranked golfer, injured his lower back Late Wednesday after falling down some stairs at rental home in augusta, georgia. Johnsons scheduled to tee off just after 2 00 today. His status now in question. Last night doctors advised him to remain immobile and begin a regiment of antiinflammatory medication and icing. Johnson is optimistic to be ready to go for todays first round. But thats not the way you want to start. Can you imagine . Lets turn to mr. Roker, you have a volatile map, kind of changing in front of your eyes. Ver