Utah, colorado, new mexico, arizona, the four corners kentucky. And were here at the Honey Island Swamp in slidell, louisiana. 12 more go putting al on track to make weathercasting history today, thursday, november 12th, 2015. Announcer from nbc news, this is today, with matt lauer and savannah guthrie, live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to today on a thursday morning. I hope al is feeling strong this morning. Hes got 38 states down and a big Weather Forecast to talk about. His energy has been great throughout the week. Its been fun to watch. Although someone with inside knowledge, al, told me you were starting to slur your words this hmm . That person clearly was right. Well check in with al in a check. Also, today, the weather is our top story. Damaging winds sweeping east after a rough wednesday for tens of millions of people. Nbcs ron mott is in chicago this morning, hawaii, ron. How are you . Reporter good morning. A rough night in the midwest, especially in chicago, which is living up to the nickname today. It is very breezy. You can see the flags behind me dancing. This wind is expected to gust today 50 to 55 Miles Per Hour, and it wont go away any time soon. They will blow all day today into tomorrow. In chicago overnight, stunning lightning lit up the windy city as the nearby suburbs had to dial with downed power lines and massive downpours. The storm moving east after nine suspected tornadoes touched down in iowa wednesday, destroying homes and overturning a semi that had to be lifted to clear the roads. Uprooting trees and lifting this parked car into the air. In iowa city, wind gusts combined with rain and lightning. Causing flooding. Over 700 flights cancelled across the u. S. On wednesday with 175 at chicagos ohare alone. Along with more than 4,000 delays. The weather system wreaking havoc in the skies and on planes still grounded. Wind in des moines pushing a stair car straight into a plane. In denver it was snow that caused a headache for air travelers and motorists with winter arriving a few weeks ahead of schedule. Now, meteorologists in this area call this fall storm a november witch, which is fuelled in part by the great lakes. The Silver Lining today is as running into stable air. That should calm the threat for tornadoes and severe weather, but youll have to deal with the rain and wind. It goes without saying, air travel is going to be affected today. Back to you. Ron mott on this. Thank you very much. Lets get more on what youre expecting today, al. Yeah, itll be a mess. We could see more downed trees, more power outages. Well show you whats happening. This low pressure system is still winding itself up. The good news is not a lot of rain with it. Well be looking at showers and thunderstorms through the great lakes from the midwest to the interior northeast. Weve got about 50 Million People at risk from this intense low pressure system. We have severe wind watches stretching from the dakotas to the carolinas. We look for this to push through from iowa to western new york state. The wind gusts could be over 60 Miles Per Hour as this pushes to the east. We are looking for, during the day, wind gusts in detroit, moines to minneapolis. Over 40 Miles Per Hour winds. More trees coming down and more widespread outages. The good news is itll die down tomorrow. Al, thank you very much. Little while. Meanwhile dangerous laser strikes are back in the news with two incidents in two major cities overnight. Take a look at this. Heres what happened right here in new york. A man aiming a laser right at the news helicopter for our nbc station wnbc. A stunt that ended in his arrest. Nbcs tom costello covers aviation. Tom, what happened . Yeah, good morning. You know, its a federal crime to point a laser at an aircraft. In new york, also in dallas, by the way, but in new york, it happened with our nbc affiliate on assignment over the city when it was targeted. Police moved in, and all of it was caught on camera. The incident took place wednesday night when a chopper pilot for wnbc was flying 1,500 feet above new york city. Dont look at it. Suddenly a green beam of light. Getting lasered. Just did it again. Reporter a laser nearly blinding the pilot and his reporter. You get hit in the face like that in the eyes, and you can go temporarily blind. He then spotted a group of men who appeared to be targeting not only the nbc chopper but also a Police Department chopper called in to investigate. You think this is a joke, huh . Nbc cameras catching the police arresting at least one man and detaining two others. It comes after a string of similar incidents at new york city airports earlier this year. Experts say the problem is growing at airports across the country. In 2010, more than 2,800 reports. Last year, nearly 3,900. While the suspects appear to think it was all a joke, those inside the aircraft say its no laughing matter. Were talking about a helicopter that weighs almost two tons. Imagine that coming down on your house because the pilots vision even more serious if this was a jetliner. Three aircraft were targeted in dallas overnight. Two commercial jets and a private business jet. You know, these lasers are very serious. They can cause temporary blindness, even permanent eye damage. The penalty for targeting an aircraft with a laser, up to 20 years in prison and 250,000 fine. I can tell you the faa and fbi are taking this very seriously. Guys, back to you. As they should. Tom costello, thank you very much. To politics now. Donald trump is at the center of controversy again. This time after trump vowed to use a Deportation Force to carry it out. Nbc National CorrespondentPeter Alexander is following this story. Peter, good morning. Hey, savannah. Good morning to you. Immigration is going to be a real flash point among republicans and in the general election next fall. Trump has taken the toughest position of anyone in the field. This morning, his latest comments are coming under fire as trump revealed how he proposes getting millions of undocumented immigrants out of how can you have a donald trump defending his plan to remove 11 million undocumented immigrants by inhumane force. Youll do it humanely. From his rivals, criticism. Its a silly argument. Its not an adult argument. It doesnt make sense. Its just not possible. Theres a better approach, a practical, conservative approach that solves this. Hillary clinton blasting trump. The idea of tracking down and deporting 11 million americans is an such, inhumane, and unamerican. No, trump. One think tank estimates removing all undocumented immigrants would cost 400 billion to 600 billion. Trump claims it can be done. Even invoke president s eisenhowers massive deportation of moving undocumented immigrants 60 years ago. Moved them beyond the border. They came back. Again, beyond the border. Came back. Didnt like it. Moved them way south. They never came back. But many consider that program, with the derogatory nickname of Operation Wetback to be a stain on american history. Trump didnt use that phrase. I dont like the term. Critics slammed him for making comparison. Theyd drop immigrants in the middle of the desert and theyd die of heatstroke. How would yours be different . Its called good management. Good management practices. So the bottom line, trump hasnt explained exactly how hed track down those living in the country illegally or how hed determine who are the good ones, as hes described them, that hed allow to later return to the u. S. Have a very big price take. Much. Major offensive launched in iraq today backed by u. S. Led air campaign to try to retake the isisheld town of sinjar. Isis overran that town last year. It was an onslaught that caused tens of thousands of people to flee. U. S. Defense officials are telling nbc american war planes have carried out 20 air strikes against targets there, and some 7,500 kurdish fighters are closing in on three different fronts, aiming to reclaim control and cut off a strategic supply line used by isis fighters. All right. To russia now where president Vladimir Putin is ordering an investigation into allegations of widespread doping among his countrys athletes, a scandal that has russia facing a possible ban from next years olympics. Nbcs keir simmons has more on putins first comments on this subject. Keir, good morning to you. Good morning. Whether president putins athletes can compete in next years olympics may be determined by russias response to the doping allegations. That response must be filed tonight. While a decision to disqualify russia medalists from the london 2012 olympics could see american athletes awarded medals instead. Russia athletics now has just a matter of hours to respond to allegations of ss of statesponsored doping, deceit, and corruption. President putin himself declaring, russia must do everything to rid itself of this problem. This weeks damming report says agents working for putins Security Service were present in a moscow lab where athletes samples were tested. The report suggests the labs phones were bugged. Putins sports minister fighting back, going after International Officials saying drug testing at the 2012 olympics was worse than russias. Police are investigating officials from the International Athletics body, the iaaf, over allegations of a complex conspiracy involving members of the athletic community, claims referred to them by the author of this weeks report. We certainly do not think that russia is the only country with a doping problem. Reporter the question now, will russia be banned from rios 2016 olympics . Tomorrow, the iaan and International Committee will weigh in. You will see medals being withdrawn. You will see athletes being sanctioned by the iaaf. Reporter if that happens, an american who competed in the london olympics 800 meters may be awarded a medal, three years after she finished fifth, behind two russian athletes, now accused of doping. But there are so many questions. The report says russian officials repeatedly failed to implement improvements they were told to make before the sochi winter olympics. The former president of the organization that must decide russias fate, iaaf, say is under investigation by french prosecutors suspected of taking a Million Dollars in bribes according to the a. P. Matt and savannah, it ooh tess reputation of the world itself thats on the line here. Thank you very much. A lot of people will be watching what happens over the next couple days. Keir, thank you very much. At home, investigators are trying to get to the bottom of what caused this deadly house explosion in a new jersey neighborhood. National correspondent craig melvin is here with the story. Good morning. Good morning. The home you just saw was leveled. Several surrounding houses were also badly damaged. The explosion itself triggered a frantic search for more than a dozen people who were inside at the time. Reporter the Surveillance Video captures the shocking moment at the top of the screen. A massive explosion destroying the twofamily home in elizabeth, new jersey, wednesday morning. Debris shooting into the air. A fireball surging into the street. Were getting that the second floor roof collapsed and theres people trapped on the second floor. Reporter one man was killed, 15 others hurt, including an 11yearold who is now in critical condition. Most of the people were in the rear of the building. Some were actually still sleeping at the time of the explosion. Gas episode likely triggered the dead employ explosion, but the local gas company says a preliminary investigation found no indication the blast was gas related. 30 people from the neighborhood are now living in hotels. Its bad. We probably lost everything, except each other. Reporter wayne shepherd lived next door with his wife and child, all of them shaken but okay. Went to sleep and woke up in a nightmare. Reporter earlier this year, a gas explosion obliterated another home in stafford township, new jersey, injuring more than a dozen. One month later two people were killed when a gas explosion rocked a manhattan neighborhood. Now, in elizabeth, investigators are trying to figure out exactly what went wrong here and how to stop it from happening again. Union county Officials Say the force of that explosion was so strong it blew out windows and actually knocked people out of their beds. Responders they actually smelled gas before the accident, guys. Scary. Craig melvin, thank you very much. We are learning more this morning about the nine people who died when their small plane crashed into an Apartment Building at akron, ohio. Investigators are looking close at new video that shows the flights final moments. Heres nbcs john yang. Reporter look closely at the highlighted portion of the screen. Thats the doomed jet just seconds before a fiery explosion. I can see it burning right now. Reporter as the ntsb begins its first full day at the crash site, this Surveillance Video is a crucial piece of evidence. It shows the plane in its final moments, flying extremely low behind the trees before banking to the left. Looked like something from my afghanistan days. Just a bomb. Reporter raider lives next door to the Apartment Building destroyed in the crash. Hed left home just a half hour before. Miraculously no one on the ground was injured. Recovered the bodies of all nine on board the tenseat jet. We want to make sure we understand all aspects of the weather and the conditions and the ground conditions. Reporter it was foggy and misty when the jet crashed into the busy neighborhood. Visit ikt neighborhood. Visibility, 1. 5 miles. The cloud ceiling, 40 visibility, just 1. 5 miles. 0 the cloud ceiling, 400 feet. Nbc news learned one of the copilots was andres chavez. Also among the dead, diane smoot, one of the employees of Pebb Enterprises looking at Properties Across the midwest. Its not real yet. Im just heartbroken. Reporter as both grieving families and investigators look for answers. For today, john yang, nbc news, akron, ohio. The ntsb has now recovered the flight data recorder. Its sending it to washington for evaluation. All right, matt. Thank you so much. Now, rokerthon 2. After a week of nonstop travel, al is nearing the finish line of his recordsetting quest to hit all 50 states in one week. Lets do a recap. It started in hawaii before al headed north to alaska and then made his way across the northwest. Then on monster monday, he knocked out a whopping 13 states with the help of a stop at the four corners. On tuesday he zig zaiged across the south covering ground in the midwest. Wednesday, al raced across the gulf coast, crossing eight states off the list, for a total of 38. Lets count the miles. Well over 16,000 so far. Al delivered 90 Weather Forecasts, snapped 38 selfies and, yes, greeted 24 goats along the way. This morning, al is in the Nations Capital. Al, im exhausted just reading that. It just doesnt sound right, im just going to say. Im going on record to say it just doesnt sound right. Well, we are in the Nations Capital, and we are here at the amtrak station. Union station. It is amtrak station, and we are so excited. Were getting on the northeast regional number 172 to boston, we want to check off the district of columbia. And, of course, we have our fabulous ipad pro weve been using all week. Love this thing. Theres air rokerthon. We should have a train, i suppose. In any event, washington, d. C. Today, 65 degrees. Partly sunny skies. Overnight low tonight, were looking at 45 degrees. Hey, mat. Give me the flag so i can put on washington, d. C. Yeah, thats whats going on. Well get to your local forecast seconds. I am so excited. I have to tell you, i am a train guy. We are getting on. We are going up. Were going to kick off 12 more states. Ill get on this train and kick off a lot of people. Whoo hoo here we go. Al, get the quesadilla. Get the quesadilla. Yes. Good advice. I will be in the quiet car. I was about to say it, dont get on the quiet car. See you in a little while. Thank you. Get the deathly stares on the quiet car. Safe trip. Speaking of trains, we have a frightening near miss. A brazilian man inches away from getting hit by anion cominge ing oncoming train. It happened in rio. The man aparptparently had no idea the train was coming toward him. He cleared the tracks with no time to spare and never looked up. The other angle shows i mean, it brushed his back. Apparently, he kept on trucking. One lucky guy. And hes speechless. Coming up, the easy way thieves can take control of your computer. Holding your private information and photos hostage until youexclusive. Unarmed man dies after being tased repeatedly by police in virginia, even after he was retrainre restrained. His sister speaks out. First, this is today on nbc. Have your next burger with a side of awesome. The oneofakind, creamy blend of sweet and tangy. Miracle whip and proud of it. At kraft we start with quality ingredients. All expertly blended to make our mayo. So you can take whatever youre making coming up, does getting a flu shot every year make it less effective . Ill get my shot live. Fries, burger and with the pain and swelling of my moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis. 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