Down. Welcome to my house a neck and neck finish for the spelling bee. The epic tie, two winners sharing the title and look whos back. Our kid correspondent. The first grader stealing everyones hearts on the ground for gma. Hey, gma, im behind the scenes at the Scripps National spelling bee. Welcome to my house happy friday. Two records this week, the youngest participant and youngest correspondent for gma ever. Akash vukoti. Flo rida in central park getting ready to kick off a Holiday Weekend. In our house this morning. 38 million americans expected to travel for memorial day. Youre looking live at some of the busiest airports in the land this morning. Those lines already forming, atlanta, chicago, l. A. , and, of course, many of those millions our team is out in full force for you right now. Of course, so many of those travelers could face that Severe Weather hitting so much of the country. A flash flood emergency in the south where more than a dozen College Students were trapped in a kentucky cave. Well take you inside the rescue. We begin though with abcs rob marciano in kansas where two tornados were reported. Good morning, rob. Good morning, george. Two through this area and one taking out this massive mature tree and slamming it into this home. This neighborhood is liltered with trees and debris. Yesterday another frightening day across the central u. S. And a Long Duration of that for many it went all day and through the night. [ sirens ] overnight, lightning igniting the skies over the plains. These dramatic bolts crackling across oklahoma. In paducah, kentucky, a police car caught this massive lightning strike. So powerful it knocked the dash cam variety from its mount. Rescue for 19 people stuck in this cave for over six hours. The group made up mostly of clemson geology students and their guides entered the cave at 10 00 a. M. For a tour. But then the flash floods came rushing in blocking the exits. The worst was the entrance because of all the water coming down. With no cell service in the cave the group followed the guides toward a known dry area called the attic. Two Police Officers called in to help but shortly after entering the cave they werent able to get out. I was scared. I mean, when your life is on the line youre kind of youre always going to be afraid. Reporter finally at 4 30 p. M. Rescuers made their way to the Group Leading them through high Water Holding a rope getting to the mouth of the cave where they were reunited with loved ones. Severe weather also wreaking havoc in texas. Thunderstorms and lightning. All that rain leading the flash floods across the up to 16 inches north of houston. In waco cars trying to plow through the high water getting into trouble. The engine of this car catching on fire and backing up traffic for hours. A tornado in brian, texas, also igniting a fire. At least two twisters cutting through whaumega, kansas and getting hammered by hail. Blinding rain led this car to flip over. In the last 24 hours over 350 Severe Weather reports across 15 states and that doesnt even include all that flash flooding. By far the most widespread event this year and, george, im sure ginger is about to tell you were not quite done yet. Ginger is right here right now. Were done yet. Hes right. Weve got severe storms in parts of texas and hefty rain come ago long with it and why we have the warnings and watches from austin to houston, wichita included. Thats for the next 24 so, right. So a lot of places will still sigh the heavy rains then the atmosphere stabilizes after those storms move through then the heat of the day will start to become unstable again so the atmosphere churns back up in waco to dallas, bryan, celina, wichita included with the large hail, strong winds and potential for tornado later this afternoon and evening. At the same time were watching a storm in the atlantic. Thats right. We are still not yet in official hurricane season. But we may just see a named storm in the next 24 hours, 0 shot of this coming at you with the Holiday Weekend impacted from charleston back through parts of the georgia coast and up into North Carolina too. I think its heavy rain, its wind and certainly rip currents so something to watch for if youre traveling to the southeast. Absolutely. George. Thank you. In the middle of this Severe Weather an estimated 38 million traveling this weekend facing not just storms but those long Airport Security lines. Abcs david kerley is at Regan National airport with more on all that. Reporter good morning, robin. In is the kickoff to the Summer Travel season and the bottom line if you are flying today expect some long lines when you come to security. We have basically going to see about 2 1 2 million more than that fly today. Now, the tsa says its tried to prepare as well as it can given the limit of number of officers it has so at the top 20 airports you will see more canine units and youll see more officers working the lines. The airlines say theyre pitching in. More of their employees are in the lines moving bins and doing nonsecurity jobs to help the tsa screen. And were seeing those technological advancements. Theres that test program down in atlanta. A new conveyer belt, you walk up, put yourself in a bin and push it on to another conveyer bell and move on. If the person hasnt emptied their pockets you get to continue on in front of them basically and one other thing, we talked about the limit on tos officers. The department of Homeland Security is asking congress to move some money so they can take a thousand parttime employees and make them full t makes it easier to retain those employees. Yeah, hopefully all of that is going to help. Also, david, how do you go about, whats the best way to find your specific travel forecast. There is a way to do it. Its called my tsa. Eighthen app they run and if you can go in and choose your airport, lets say because lines arent too bad in washington, i pick chicago and it comes up and tells me how long the wait is. Theyre saying 21 to 30 minutes on the app. Right now its selfrecording people saying how long theyve waited. Tsa will make it more specific where theyre going to actually put in the wait times. Let me go back to my email to give you what we found lately, l. A. X. , 10 to 15, chicago, 20 minute, atlanta, 15 to 30 minutes the wait right now. Expect those to get longer. All that is going to be extremely helpful. All right, david, have a great weekend. Lets take a look at the highways. About 29 million of us will hit and take a look at this Traffic Control center outside new york city. Abcs gio benitez is out on the new jersey turnpike right now. Good morning, gio. Reporter hey, george, good morning to you. I want to show you right now were hitting a bit of a traffic jam right here but if youre starting your drive today, then this morning is actually a pretty good idea to get on the road because if you wait until this afternoon, youre going to be hitting some major traffic with millions of others. This morning, get ready for what could be the busiest memorial day weekend traffic ever because gas prices are at their lowest in a decade. 38 million will travel this Holiday Weekend aaa says. Waze says the best days to drive, saturday and sunday. And the worst. Friday and monday. For friday its that 3 00 to 5 00 and monday, 1 00 to 4 00. Reporter the average price is 2. 26, 45 cents lower than this time last year. Turnpike, i want to show you this new tool from the app waze. You can tell it when you want to arrive wherever youre going and it will tell you when to leave. It is called plan drives and you can find it right inside waze. All those apps are happening and really helping. Now to president obama making history at hiroshima this morning becoming the first sitting american president to travel there since the u. S. Dropped an atomic bomb in 1945 near the end of world war ii. Abcs jim avila is in japan with the latest. Good morning, jim. Reporter robin, this morning president obama walked the solemn spot where the United States dropped the first atomic bomb in war. It was a controversial visit that american president s have been avoiding for some 70 years. As promised he did not apologize for Harry Trumans decision to end the war with a Nuclear Explosion that killed 160,000 people. Instead, with north korea obviously on his mind and with side laying a condolence wreath pleading for World Leaders to put an end to not just Nuclear Weapons but to war itself. We must change our mindset about war itself. To prevent conflict through diplomacy. Reporter a powerful moment in history, an american president calling for the end of the nuclear era that the United States began some 70 years ago. Robin. That was quite a moment, jim. With the president in japan. It certainly was. The race for the white house and donald trump sealed the deal formally securing all the delegates he needs for the gop nomination and taunting Hillary Clinton by talking about a debate with Bernie Sanders. Abcs tom llamas is on the trail in los angeles. Good morning, tom. Reporter george, good morning to you. Reaching that milestone has trump thinking about the future and talking about stat tuesday of himself as senator sanders says he wants trump oneonone. Donald trump turning his Campaign Swing into a vic number of delegates, clinching the gop nomination. We hit the 1,237, right. 1,237. You know, you had our president saying, he will not be the nominee of his party. Oh, really . Reporter trump so confident hes already mapping out his legacy in washington. Build a wall, its going to be a big wall. Its going to be a beautiful wall. Someday when im gonzo maybe theyll name it after trump. Id really much rather have a statue in washington, d. C. Reporter naming the price for his next matchup, 10 to 15 million for charity to debate senator Bernie Sanders. I think it would get very high ratings. It should be in a big arena somewhere. The problem with debating bernie, hes going to lose. Reporter sanders who requested the debate sounding more like don king than a vermont senator. And i think were going to have to rent out the largest stadium you have here in california. Reporter telling jimmy kimmel hes going to come out on top. I will democratic nominee for president of the United States and if i do, were going to beat him and beat him bad. You could tell him that. Ill tell him. Reporter one person not into the epic clash, democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton. Well, i understood they said that was a joke and im going to look forward to debating donald trump. Reporter trump looking forward to the general election. I want to focus on 15 or so states and i want my energy to be put in the states where it can go either way. Reporter but clinton telling voters the fight for the white house is just beginning. Send a message that when you think about the future, you dont see Donald Trumps face up there. Reporter today trump heads to fresno and san diego where police have added extra officers in case protests grow violent like weve seen throughout the week. George. Ing o. Tom, thanks very much. Lets talk about this more with matt dowd. Matt, thanks for joining us again this morning. Who knows if this debate is actually going to happen donald trump and Bernie Sanders but certainly does help them both to talk about it. I think its a really smart move on both their part, george. These are two people, especially donald trump who dont play by traditional rules and as you know, in the military or in business or even sports if you think go the forward pass, every time somebody innovated and didnt play by the traditional rules the opponent cried foul and they either adapt or they get run over. But what this does also right now, it highlights the fact that donald trump is wrapped up his nomination but Hillary Clinton is still in a fight for Bernie Sanders and its a real race in california. Reporter yeah, Donald Trumps coalesced the Republican Party and got that and moving on to independents. I think its a very smart move and highlights his victories and also undermines Hillary Clinton as shes not able to turn towards the general election. And i think shes faced she could easily lose the california primary, the last primary of the season as she heads into a convention, hes likely the nominee but she goes in very weakened. And will have to move very, very fast to corral all those Bernie Sanders supporters. Reporter which i think is going to be very difficult. Especially the Younger Voters that are not enthusiastic about her, george, so her only path to get those voters is make donald trump worse than herself as the alternative. Its a big, difficult fight shell have to deal with in the course of this after philadelphia. That is why shes talking about him all the time. Matt, thank you very much. To amy with todays other top stories starting with a very frightening sign in tokyo. An engine fire erupted on a korean air jet forcing more than 300 passengers to evacuate as flames broke out on the boeing 777 just as it was taxiing for takeoff from tokyo to south korea. Emergency slides deployed to get everyone off the plane. Several treated for bumps and bruises but no reports of major injuries and the cause of that fire right now, not yet known. Well, there is a possible Major Development in the search for the doomed egyptair jetliner. An egyptian official says search crews have picked up a beacon that may be from the plane. Equipment is rushing to the scene in the mediterranean. 66 people died when that plane crashed last week on its way from paris to cairo. There has beenen arrest in the deadly shooting in new york city. Video shows this rapper bursting through chasing someone else as bystanders huddle in fear. Ave is under arrest facing multiple the charges. Just before rapper t. I. Took the stage it happened. Finally we all know not to interfee with the Police Investigation but try telling that to canuck the crow who snatch the this knife from an active crime scene in vancouver. Well, canuck is so well known for his antics he has his own facebook page, a zooologist explains canuck didnt mean any harm by that. Its just that city burs like shiny thing. Who doesnt . Who doesnt like shiny things. A perfect transition, thank you very much. I know two other shiny thing, those spelling bee trophy champs, not one but two kids winning big beating hundreds of competitors and 6yearold akash who stole our hearts as the first first grader to ever compete was there as our special correspondent. It was a nailbiter. Zenetic. Through 39 grueling rounds. Chalazion. Reporter culminating here. At the end two stoic spellers stood above the rest. Feldenkrais. Schaft, gesellschaft. That is correct. And for the third year in a row they had two champions. Each taking home 40,000 in cash and prizes. News thanks to akash vukoti. Hey, gma, im behind the scenes at the Scripps National spelling bee. Reporter the first grade phenom who stole our hearts in the last round. Good luck to all my reporter he went backstage with his fellow spelling stars. Lets begin. This time im on a chair. If you would give advice to me like what would it be . Start studying more. Congratulations. Thank you. All right, take a look at that amazing shot again, akash, yes, you heard him has to stand on a chair, does not stop him. The intrend pedestrian reporter getting the job done, getting that information that we all need. Adorable. So much fun to follow him and see what happens. I think big things. Lets go to ginger. Hail in colorado. Oh, big time hail springs, pea to pingpong ball size hail covering the ground n unsettled there and above 11,000 feet that winter storm warning in place, the snow. Into the roads this Holiday Weekend as youre leaving today just a few scattered showers in the northeast, not as bad but pretty hefty wet stuff going from minneapolis down through kansas city into texas and along i70 in colorado could see slippery spots. Yesterday. Todays forecast is a repeat with hazy, hot and humid conditions. Highs will be near 90 degrees. Isolated thunderstorms are possible in the afternoon eve, but most will likely stay in the shenandoah valley. High pressure off the Atlantic Coast is pumping in the warmer air and higher humidity. It will also be the force that steers what may be developing in the tropics. The National Hurricane center is putting a there is no bettert way to kick off summer than a concert in the park with flo rida, right . Ill do a little running man challenge with him. Of course, you are. Of course, you are. Staying in practice. Okay, coming up here also a Huge College Football scandal unfolding. Baylor president ken starr, the man behind the Monica Lewinsky investigation is now accused of looking the other way about Sexual Assault claims at his school. Jeopardy champ buzzy getting a lot of attention after teasing alex trebek. Out in central park theyre ready to kick off their memorial day weekend right here. I get a feeling that i Never Never Never never had before no, no i get a good feeling yeah or small. First to go. Or best for last. Sweet. Or not so swe