Transcripts For WRC Today 20110501 : vimarsana.com

captions paid for by nbc-universal television good morning. welcome to today on a sunday morning. i m lester holt in tuscaloosa, alabama. and i m jenna wolfe in new york. and, lester, the scope of the destruction from those tornadoes is just unimaginable. you ve been there for days now. what can you tell us about the situation this morning? the more time you spend here, jenna, you realize the defining patterns of these tornadoes. i m standing on the edge of one and you see perhaps a parking garage or trees in the background about a quarter mile, a little more, that s the width. this particular tornado went across tuscaloosa. so there s so much damage like this and then you go a few blocks and everything is fine. they re starting to get power n onto many of the affected neighborhoods in tuscaloosa. the death toll went up one overnight, up to 342. here in alabama alone at least 250 people were killed. this morning officials are racing against time trying to find the hundreds who are still unaccounted for but they realize that window for finding survivors is closing very rapidly. nbc s john yang joins me now with the very latest. john, good morning. as you know you walk around this city, you walk around this state, there are so many different emotions, relief at having survived, grech at having lost a loved one. desperation about having a place to live right now this region this morning is struggling to pick up and move forward. reporter: in hardest hit alabama, volunteers scramble to deliver aid, distributing water, ice, and medical supplies to people left homeless after the record rash of devastating tornadoes. in tuscaloosa with nearly 40 dead at least 570 missing and more than 1,000 injured, a remarkable relief effort. people cleaned up what was left of their homes and crews repaired power lines. we still remain that shining city on the hill because the world has seen our faith in god and our faith in each other. reporter: those who lost all their belongings are amazed they didn t lose their lives. that s the place to be. reporter: what s for you and your wife? this is what s left of where two generations of the hicks family lived side-by-side. mike and his wife survived by taking cover in a closet. his son nolan and daughter-in-law tessa, newlyweds, by sitting in a bathtub. i looked one more time out the window. when i did, the trees just snapped. reporter: in neighborhoods like this across the region it s not just the residents digging out, it s neighbors helping neighbors, friends helping friends, families helping families. and even total strangers coming up, doing what they can to help. the certificate am for the missing are in a paper to search and rescue squads deploying in pleasant grove, alabama, hoping for the best. this is the last viable day. reporter: but fearing the worst. the psychologist specializing in disasters says the destruction will leave a mark even on those whose jobs are to help. i get very concerned about our first responders. they re well trained. they know what they re doing. but in a situation like this the impact of what s going on can be overwhelming. reporter: university of alabama where the tornadoes canceled the rest of the school year, parents picked up their children grateful that they re safe. we re just most thankful that he s okay. that s all we tear about. you can replace everything else. reporter: the obama administration is making recovery a top priority. fema is here in force and later today, lester, four cabinet secretaries will be on the ground here and in mississippi. john, you say over 500 missing in tuscaloosa alone. we re four days in now and i think we understand that people may have misconnected but at this point is there concern this death toll could rise? reporter: absolutely. the mayor does think it will rise. you have so many missing and searchers are going door-to-door or really rubble to rubble this weekend trying to make sure and see what they can find. and then we re seeing a lot of disaster relief trying to help people. i ve noticed a lot of civilians that don t seem to be in any organized umbrella just doing the right thing. what have you seen? reporter: it s amazing. you go into neighborhoods and people are trying to pick through belongings or houses are destroyed and people are pushing carts along the street with water, with ice, with sandwiches, with cooked hot dogs wrapped in tinfoil. the phrase you most often hear is, what can can i do to help? it s pretty remarkable. john yang, thank you very much. and this morning we are watching some other dangerous new storms making their way across the country. the weather channel s jim cantore is also here in tuscaloosa tracking the extreme weather for us. jim, good morning. reporter: yeah, good morning, lester. we re at a church building in a church that would be packed on a sunday morning. it was last sunday. obviously not the case this sunday. let s take a look at what we re talking about, already firing up yesterday with showers and thunderstorms from texas, up into arkansas, into kentucky as well. that area is not going to move all that much today but the real threat comes with heavy rain and flooding. the gauge right now is mississippi and memphis is at 44 feet. we expect it to be about four feet from a record crest here that will flood many areas along the memphis riverfront. 125 gauges, lester, at moderate to major flood stage right now and this will see 6 to 8 inches of rain. there will be severe weather as well. check it out. that same area getting the flooding. where we saw it on the radar, a chance for severe thunderstorms. hail, damaging wind, and of course the heavy rain threat. then we move into monday and areas here in alabama that have a little bit of roof that they need to patch will have to cover it up quickly with tarps. i haven t seen many blue tarps on many roofs yet. we re talking about what could be from three-quarters of an inch to a half inof rain but the severe weather threat we have is of the hail and wind variety and not of the tornado, at least this time as we move into may. to put this into perspective as we wrap up april, six times the normal average. 679 for the months. an average april usually yields with 115. back to you. jim cantore, thanks very much. we re going to have more from here in tuscaloosa a bit later. right now let s head back to jenna in new york. jenna? lester, thank you. let s turn to overseas now. we re following that developing story in libya where a nato air strike has reportedly killed moammar gadhafi s youngest son and three grandchildren. nbc s mike taibbi is in tripoli. mike, good morning. reporter: good morning. this happened at about 8:30 last night. we heard two huge explosions near the hotel and were taken to the compound of saif al arab gadhafi, the youngest of the seven sons of moammar gadhafi. he, according to a spokesman, was killed along with three of colonel gadhafi s grandchildren, all said to be 12 years old or younger. now it was said to us by a government spokesman this was a direct attack to try to assassinate the leader of the country. it is said they do not target families. there was an air strike at that location, he could not independently confirm any casualties or the identity of those casualties but now the story from the libyan government is that the youngest son of moammar gadhafi and three of the grandchildren have been killed. gadhafi himself, by the way, has almost been killed three times this week in air strikes that came quite close to where he was. earlier yesterday in a long rambling speech on state television, he reiterated his defiance. he said i m not going to leave my country. no one can force me to leave my country. now, though, the youngest of seven sons and three grandchildren reportedly killed. jenna? mike taibbi in tripoli, thanks. david gregory is moderator of meet the press. he s in washington. david, good morning. good morning. let s start there. what is the administration s reaction to this latest strike? well, talking to national security officials and intelligence officials over the weekend, there was still some uncertainty about whether this was, in fact, confirmed. so they re still wait to go see that. there was this view that this is the sort of step that would be necessary to get gadhafi to give up power, that he was not going to leave on his own. but the more trauma, the more pressure that can be created right next to him, in his family, mopping those closest to him, would perhaps be the best way to get the regime to actually crack. so they will watch and see what the next hours and days bring. but this is the sort of step they felt needed to be taken to sort of ratchet up that pressure in the most personal and dramatic kind of way. david, i want to ask you about the tornadoes at home. this was the worst natural disaster since hurricane katrina, the worst under obama s administration, his tenure. how is the president handling it thus far? well, you ve seen the president and the first lady go there, be there, show up, and i think that s really the role of the president at a time like this to focus some attention on how horrific the scene is, how bad the damage is, and how much the government will have to be a partner going forward. i mean, on the order of $5 billion worth of damage, that requires sustained commitment long after the media attention goes away and so the president, as you see in pictures like this, is doing what the president needs to do, to be seen there comforting, showing up and paying attention. i want to turn to a much lighter topic. last night was the white house correspondents dinner and it was hosted by steph myers from saturday night live and a jam packed, fun filled night of laughs all around. you were there. we thank you for getting up early this morning and being with us. i want to talk to a quick clip from seth myers. okay. just recently in an episode of celebrity apprentice at the steak house the men s cooking team did not impress the judges from omaha steaks. and there was a lot of blame to go around. but you, mr. trump, recognized that the real problem was a lack of leadership. and so ultimately you didn t blame little john or meatloaf, you fired gary. and those are the type of decisions that would keep me up at night. so funny, in fact, that seth myers and president obama looked very similar last night. it was amazing. there were a lot of jabs going back and forth. did they take it all in stride? i don t know. i couldn t see trump from where i was sitting but i understand he was not necessarily in on the joke. they skewered him pretty much, both of them. we thank you. wnbc s tom is at the news desk. good morning, everyone. we begin with possible relief coming to illinois. a federal appeals court is allowing the army corps of engineers to break a levee in missouri it to lower floodwaters. the state of missouri asked the court to block the plan because it will flood thousands of acres of fertile missouri farmland. later today if the space shuttle endeavour will be able to lift off monday. technicians spent saturday trying to fix a heating something problem which caused friday s launch to be scrubbed. congresswoman gabrielle giffords is still in florida having come for the launch of her husband, astronaut mark kelly, who is leading endeavour s final mission. headlines from the royal wedding seen round the world. reports from the reception say that best man, prince harry, gave a moving tribute to his brother, calling him the dude. he said the couple s long romance is an inspiration to him. kate s wedding bouquet is laid out on the tomb of the unknown warrior at westminster abbey for all to see, leaving the bouquet is a tradition that began with queen elizabeth s mother in 1923. it was placed there by a royal officer after the royal photographs were faken. and as for the post wedding plans, well, the couple is enjoying a quiet weekend at a s secret british location and will honeymoon at a later date. lindsay lohan reportedly wants to put a quick end to her latest legal troubles. tmz is reporting she is prepared to enter a no cop test plea in the necklace theft case against her. the mean girl star has been sentenced to 120 days in jail for violating probation. they say lohan wants to put the case behind her to focus on acting. finally, oh, baby, times two for mariah carey and nick cannon. she gave birth to twins. the baby girl and boy each weighed more than 5 pounds and as an added bonus it was the couple s third wedding anniversary. no word yet on baby names. congratulations to the brand-new parents. that s the news. now back to jenna and janice. thank you. that s sweet. that s lovely. they re here she just announced she was pregnant. right? it seemed like it. this is janice huff. hi, this is jenna wolfe. thank you so much. what are we looking forward to? not great news across parts of the ohio and mississippi river valley. as you heard earlier, more bad weather. a lot of flooding rainstorms occurring across those areas. the worst of the flooding in rivers and streams across western tennessee, memphis down to little rock, arkansas. flash flood warnings in effect. a lot of heavy rain and thunderstorms moving through the area this morning. looks like you could see upwards of maybe five to six inches of rain across that region in the next 24 hours and across most of the ohio river valley down into texas. severe weather, likely some damaging winds, and still more heavy rain there. that s what s going on around the nation. now here s your local forecast. i m news 4 meteorologist chuck bell. we have a mostly cloudy sky already in place. still little bitty breaks of sunshine from time to time. that s going to be a rarer and rarer occurrence as we go through the rest of the day. current temperatures in the upper 40s in some of the cooler spots to mid-50s around town. here s a look at doppler. plenty of showers across kentucky. we ll have an opportunity for rain around later on this afternoon. won t be a complete washout, though. highs today in the upper 60s to and that s your weather. janice, thanks. up next on today we are live in the vatican for the beatification mass for pope john paul ii. getting ready to plant? 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[ female announcer ] hallmark recordable storybooks. this morning an incredible scene at the vatican for the beatification mass that is bringing pope john paul ii one step closer to sainthood. more than a million were there to witness the event including nbc s anne thompson who joins us li live. anne, good morning. reporter: good morning, jenna. you know, it seemed as if all the world came to st. peter s this morning. we saw madagascar, a priest from leban lebanon, and pilgrims from denver, tennessee and st. paul, minnesota. all here to celebrate pope john paul ii. today the catholic church declared pope john paul blessed. a major milestone on the path to becoming a saint. six years after his mourners demanded sainthood now. beatfying i am in recosainthood. a prayer vigil last night where the romans once raced chariots. a man on the fast track to sainthood. among the speakers the french nun who says her prayers to the late pontiff cured her parkinson s disease. his first miracle. john paul s charismatic face is everywhere and on everything. trying to rekindle the catholic spirit. in europe after decades of declining mass attendance. europe is in a spiritual cultural funk right now. maybe this will bring people out of it. reporter: a funk exacerbated by an avalanche of claims of sexual abuse by priests, the same scandals that rocked the american church almost ten years ago. it is why american survivors say the church should slow the pope s path to sainthood. at a bare minimum we believe that all of this is just going too fast and we don t yet know all of the implications of his inaction. reporter: in rome there are few dissenters. in life and death washington cardinal donald wuehrle says he stands as a beacon of hope. we need heroes. we need people we can look up to, people who achieve the very thing we are attempt iing to do. reporter: now many of the faithful still here in the square will move in to pray before the casket of pope john paul ii. the vatican says it will keep it open until every pilgrim has paid his or her respects. we hear the pope is on the fast track to sainthood but how long could it relalistically tae before he achieves that? reporter: oh, it could take centuries and in some cases it has. usually when somebody becomes a saint, the catholic church counts it in decades or centuries. in pope john paul is the fastest moving candidate for sainthood in the modern church. and so what he needs is one more miracle and once that miracle comes forward and the church approves it, he will be made a saint. anne thompson, thank you very much. and we ll be right back. more to come, lester in tuscaloosa, alabama. the royal treatment. how you bring some regal splendor into your life. ] hey walgreens, i m kinda liking matt here. but i m kinda allergic to bruce. 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[ female announcer ] try 24-hour zyrtec for prescription strength relief from your allergy symptoms. indoors.and out. and right now when you buy a zyrtec 45 count, you can get a 14 count free. at walgreens. at walgreens. twizzlers. the twist you can t resist. - good night, honey. - and they could fix. - all better? - almost anything. - yes. - thank mom and save on select diamond fashion jewelry from kay, the number one jewelry store in america. - i love you guys. good morning on this 1st day of may, 2011. i m aaron gilchrist. police have arrested two parents in gloucester county, virginia, after discovering the remains of an infant buried under a shed. this is the same house where just the day before police found a young girl caged inside a crib badly malnourished. there was also a newborn in the home, but the baby was unharmed. police arrested the parents, 29-year-old brian gore and 25-year-old shannon gore. they have both been charged with felony child abuse, and the mother has also been charged with attempted murder. d.c. s only business authorized to the city has closed its doors. owner charles sykes said part of the reason he had to shut down is because he lost the lease on his office space. one d.c. councilman says it s simply a matter of supply and demand. there has not been a huge demand. it s not the kind of demand that we thought, and therefore, there isn t a market, which is why there s one dealer. sykes will have to go through a permitting process to be able to set up his registration business in a new location. mendelson says that process will be expedited to get that process started again. he also says another potential dealer has expressed interest in operating here in the district. let s turn to chuck belfour a quick look at the forecast. chuck? hey, aaron. plenty of cloud cover out this morning, but not too much in the way of raindrops. i do think we ll have scattered showers around by later on this afternoon. current temperatures to get sunday morning under way, 54 in washington, 54 in clinton, maryland. 54 quantico, virginia. 54 in winchester, virginia. a few lonely raindrops in far western maryland and the mountains of west virginia. a mostly cloudy day. a risk of a quick passing shower or two, especially later on this afternoon. today s highs upper 60s and low 70s. more clouds and sunshine but only one or two showers during the day. highs tomorrow in the low to mid-70s. steadier rain showers. a rumble of thunder for tuesday and for wednesday. back to you, aaron. thank you, chuck. a full hour of news and weather coming up at the top of the hour. for now, though, we ll send you back to new york and more of the today show. we re back on this sunday morning, may 1st, 2011. the start of a new month. it s may already. the start of a fwor just spring day here in new york. we thank this great crowd for joining us. out here on the plaza, i m jenna wolfe along with lester holt who is in tuscaloosa, alabama, this morning. and coming up, we re going to hear some more about the royal wedding, or at least the wedding part of the royal wedding. billions watched the ceremony, the event of the decade inspiring many others. in fact, we ll show you how you, too, can bring a little regal splendor into your life. not just the wedding but from the dress to the decor. we have all the details for you and all the bases covered to give you your wedding a fairy tale shine if that s the sort of thing you re going for. also coming up, the wedding is just the beginning of things happening in london. nbc s special correspondent ben fogle is biking through a city gearing up for the olympics actually coming up. he ll give us a fun tour of the town just ahead. first, we have our own little culinary royalty right here. one of my good friends, host of america s next great restaurant here on nbc. i ve been watching the show from the beginning. i really enjoy it. basically all these apirg restauranteurs have been turning their ideas into big things. you re down to three. we re down to three. tonight is the finale. tonight we re going to give three restaurants away to one of three concepts. there s a modern indian concept. there s soul dad which is soul food with a twist, a modern play on soul food. and then there s the brooklyn meatball company. obviously meatballs. and the prize is what? three restaurants. that s all you get. three restaurants and you re going to open tomorrow in new york city, in los angeles at hollywood and highland, and in minneapolis at the mall of america. so three restaurants in one day. it s the prize of a lifetime. did you enjoy doing this? watching everyone come up through the ranks? i loved it but it it was something i felt comfortable in. i m a chef first but obvious ly i m a restauranteur because i own a restaurant. it s great to be able to mentor people and push them in the right direction and hopefully see their dreams come true as well and these are people that are not restaurant people, just people who had a really good e idea and a concept and incredible passion behind it. all right. so who is going to win? you have to watch tonight at 8:00. bobby, thanks so much for being with us this morning. again, you can tune in to the finale for america s next great restaurant at 8:00, 7:00 central here on nbc. bobby, thank you very much. another check of the weather now from janice huff. jenna, we have i wasn t>. i wasn t expecting it to be quite that big of a welcome, but thank you. a big crowd from virginia. also see some more of your folks over there. they re on that side too. we ll go visit them too. let s go see them. and let s check weather while we re walking over here. we ve got some thunderstorms moving in over parts of the mid-mississippi river valley. could be flooding there. so be on the lookout for that today. otherwise, it s warm across the southwest. 80s today in southern california. around 80 in phoenix. slight risk of severe weather, flooding rains, hail, and damaging winds. watch out northeast texas into arkansas and western tennessee. in the east tomorrow, it s mild, but it s quiet. there will be thunderstorms across the great lakes and the ohio valley and back into texas again tomorrow unfortunately. it stays pretty quiet in the southwest. some mountain snow. there s the rest of the other group right here. thanks, you guys, for coming down. that s what s going on around the nation. now here s your local forecast. good sunday morning. i m news 4 meteorologist chuck bell. it s a cloudy start to our sunday. little bit of sunshine getting through. temperatures now warming into the low and mid-50s pretty much area-wide. we re looking for highs today in the upper 60s to near 70. not much rain on the radar just yet. may have more scattered showers moving in by later on this afternoon. just sort of keep a weather eye to the sky. any rain we get will be light in nature. same goes for tomorrow. steadier showers for tuesday and wednesday. have a good one. and now here s lester. janice, thanks. when the tornado outbreak began last wednesday, hospitals across the region knew they would be in for a very busy day and yet for some what they saw was beyond their worst fears. i had a chance to meet patients and the staff at a major trauma hospital here in tuscaloosa who shared with me stories of miracles and heartbreaking tragedy. from his tuscaloosa hospital room, reginald epps recalls what may be the worst and best day of his life. the lights went out and the wind and the windows blew. only the foundation remains of his alabama home, destroyed on wednesday by a predawn tornado. the first of many that day. as it hit, he and his wife, danielle, rushed to grab their sle sleeping children. she grabbed the baby boy. i grabbed my middle boy. james, get up, buddy. get up. when i get r.j. off the top bunk the walls and everything just go and my son with it. at that moment did you think you d lost him? yeah. but as reginald and his wife clutched their other children praying out loud, 8-year-old r.j. suddenly walked into view. i could see the shadow of him coming across and then finally kind of cleared up and i could see him. when you look up in the midst of all this and see r.j. walking back i stood up. that s my boy. reginald suffered a punctured lung. just in time to witness his second tornado of the day. the much larger one that struck in the afternoon and destroyed this neighborhood and nearly the hospital itself. i was here and then you could see the debris in that window. that debris was just swirling. it was coming right directly for the hospital and turned and went around the hospital within a few blocks. spared a direct hit, within minutes the hospital s e.r. was overwhelmed with victims. this was the worst. over 800 patients were treated here wednesday. some didn t make it. the memories haunt dr. ramsay. our first victims were babies, literally 18 months, 2-year-old babies, that were dead on arrival. and i had to go out and pronounce them in the ambulance bay and that i was not ready for. as the number of dead rises, there is no accounting for the emotional casualties of this disaster, nor are there ready answers to the questions that haunt survivors. my neighbor called me the other day. he said i have your 2x4 in my wall, and i m thinking, wow. now if i have 2x4s in his wall, why did my son get thrown further away? why didn t he just get sucked up off the concrete? there s only a slab there? my house is folded up neatly into a pile. it s gone. and, again, reginald s son, r.j., is fine. had a few bumps and bruises. joining us with a look at how hard these neighborhoods have been hits and what supplies and assistance they need, oscar barnes, of the american red cross. thanks for being with us. thank you are for the opportunity. you are doing a terrific job here. what is it you need most? what is the major concern right now, the relief operation? we re taking care of the immediate needs that they have and then we want to start looking at their long-term needs. these people come to us with a lot of emotion and we want to settle them down, to give them shelter, a good place to stay, a shoulder to cry on and some visions of hope. i want to talk about the shelter because i have seen people picking through the rubble and barely coming out with a boxful of things. they have nothing. what kind of shelters do you have and are there enough? well, so far we have been able to take care of anybody that wants a shelter. there s a lot of them staying with their friends and relatives and we see that happen a lot but we still have shelter capacity and we re able to take care of those type of needs. and this has been called the worst tornado disaster certainly since the great depression. you and i first met several years ago in mississippi. that s right. after katrina. you moved up here. i know this is different than a hurricane but do you find some frightening, uneasy parallels? well, in a hurricane we could hear about it days in advance, the warnings were there. and then when it it started, it was like a pounding and it went a few hours and a day. but when there s a tornado, it s just in a matter of minutes changed so many people s lives and so many ended with total destruction. you talked about giving people a shoulder to cry on. that last story i mentioned there s no accounting for the emotional toll here. no one keeps track of what that does to people. what kinds of things are you hearing? how are people emotionally that you re seeing? emotionally they re some of them when they first came in they were just shell-shocked and we ve got to take them and we have to get them settled in and we ve got to start talking to them and give them that mental health treatment to get them knowing that they have hope for the future. but at the same time they ve got to get back on their feet. that s right. how do you orient people, okay, we have to get you back on your feet. that s a constant message that fema and the state and the other agencies and our agencies will provide that long -term recovery for them. oscar barnes, it s good to see you. thank you for all the work. and i know your headquarters took a hit as well. you re all okay. we can repair that. it s good to see you. we ll be back. 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[ male announcer ] serve it up on tasty flatbread. and wake up to the fresh taste of the sunrise subway melt. build your better breakfast, only at subway. now kay jewelers brings you neil lane bridal. - this scrollwork is a vintage technique, very intricate. - each ring is an original neil lane design, for the star in your life. don t suffer waiting for your pills to kick in. add alaway. for fast eye itch relief that works in minutes and lasts up to 12 hours. only alaway comes from bausch & lomb. for fast eye itch relief, add alaway. this morning your royal wedding. even if you re not royalty, you can make your next big event a regal affair from the dress to the decor. we have all the major trends from william and kate s day and how you can make them a part of your special day. first off the dress, princess catherine went for a traditional elegant look. here is the fashion director, star of tlc s say yes. randy, good morning. thank you. we have the privilege of seeing kate in two dresses, not just one, and they were a classic style. beautiful. are these the styles we may see other brides start following in their path? i sure hope so. her dresses were classic, timeless, they were very much like the 1950s which i think was one of the best decades in fashion and really accessible for brides to be able to get these dresses. they weren t too over the top. both models will be sporting these gowns. the first is vanessa, wearing a jane wayne gown. just under $5,000. and this looks a lot like kate s dress, the lace, the sleeves. these are making a comeback, right? girls come in every single day and ask me, rapidy, do you have anything that s not strapless? every wedding i ve been to they have worn strapless gowns. when you have a dress with sleeves, you really can t raise your arm very much. so that s why a lot go with strapless dresses. you can throw on a shrug to get that look but take it off at the recepti reception. it s classic but you can be more comfortable. thank you very much. r next model is going to come out. this is $10,800. i guess this is a dress for someone who wants to adopt more of the dramatic flair. this is more dramatic. and the thing that girls have to keep in mind is that it s all about proportion and let me tell you, kate absolutely did everything perfect yesterday. from the size of the tiara to the size of the bouquet everything was perfect for her proportion, her body, and for the venue. she didn t overdo anything and that s one thing that i tell the girls all the time. if you re 5 feet, this is not probably the dress for you to wear. it s going to overpower you. but kate s a tall woman and it was a big venue so the dress was perfect. and really quick, classic making a comeback? i hope so. i hope so. you want to look at your wedding pictures and not know what decade they come from. they need to be timeless. absolutely. randy, we thank you for your insight as always. and now here s janice. jenna, thanks. now to the decor from the simple flowers there s plenty to draw inspiration from for your own party. designer and events planner mark is here to show us how. good morning, mark. we re still celebrating the royal wedding. we will start with flowers. thank you. i think based on a great example they did it and wanted to be sustainable in the flowers they chose. so i brought together a collection of beautiful flowers that represent what they actually did. we have a collection of plants here going with the topiary tree. beautiful orchids. all can be replanted as well as cut flowers, they made a huge point of having fresh flowers from england and mostly from the state itself. and they were simple and beautiful and just really elegant. i loved that. brought the trees into the abbey, too. now china, i personally have five sets of china. i know not everybody has that much. we don t have service for 300 to 600 people so we have party rentals. i like mixing and matching. it makes us young and fresh. i love that, too. a special moment that they were actually engaged in africa on safari so i have a safari themed plate going on here with the snake skin and we don t have monogrammed plates clearly but you can do it easy, just print on your own on your home computer. so cool. so great. now i am totally fascinated. you made your own. that was the fashion statement of the wedding. and napkin rings. your guests can unclip them from the napkin and they can adorn them themselves. may think. yes, you may. how lovely. how fascinating. and then a man s version, much more fabulous. and we have a cocktail. quickly. this is what i call the royal rose blossom, it s a champagne cocktail made with rose essence. cheers. awesome. thank you so much, mark. once again, here is generjenna. and perhaps you can save some for us. now for the details, there were so many special moments of personal touches william and kate made part of their big day but those could be sparking some may injure trends you might see at the next wedding you attend. more on that is the executive editor for theknot.com. we saw william and kate do the ceremony, the party and the reception. it went all night. is this something we could start seeing? exactly. for nonroyalty? absolutely. the all day affair is something we re going to start seeing more. the reality is a four-hour wedding reception goes by like that and brides and grooms just want the party to go on. we expect to see it go on longer. the 0 other thing we saw which a lot of people enjoyed, so many kids involved in the wedding party, a lot of flower girls and ring bearers, that could be something we re trending towards. i definitely think this is going to spark here. it s a great photo-op and who doesn t love looking at these cute little boys and girls dressed up? it s adorable. we ll see a lot of that here. now william and kate did not want gifts. instead they opted for their guests to donate to a charity. they don t need an extra toaster and they don t want to give it to me. exactly. i don t think anyone will give up on the gifts altogether but there are a lot of ways to incorporate charities. they can register at weddingchannel.com and what you do is your guests go to that site and automatically donations are made to whatever charity is their choice or they could do favors that are charities or re register for charities so i think there are a lot of options there. my favorite part of the whole ince harry hosted this late, late night party that went on straight through the wee hours and then at 6:00 a.m. a survivor s breakfast for anyone still going it to come down and have some breakfast. what a great idea. not go to bed at all. is that something we can incorporate? i love the idea of the after party and then sending guests off with something and, you know, all these food trucks are big right now. i can imagine here it will take the form of having a great food truck for pancakes or whatever for guests on the way out. that sounds like a great idea. rebecca, thank you for your insight. and just ahead, london calling. why the celebrations are just getting started for the city. thanks to the venture card from capital one, we get double miles on every purchase, so me and the boys earned a trip to dc twice as fast! oh hi! we get double miles every time we use our card. and since double miles add up fast. one more chariot please. .we can bring the whole gang! i cannot tell a lie. he did it. right. it s hard to beat double miles! read my lips no new axes! [ male announcer ] get the venture card from capital one, money magazine s best rewards card if you aim to rack up airline miles. what s in your wallet? so, you re a democrat right? - oh, we miss you, honey. - i ll be home soon. until then. tommy? - behind every open heart is a story. - it s beautiful. - tell yours with my open heart collection at kay jewelers. keep your heart open, and love will always find its way in. in england prince william and princess catherine are spending their first weekend as husband and wife in private. after the wedding of decade they left buckingham palace for an unknown location. and while we don t know what their exact plans are for the future, we do know the uk has more reasons to celebrate. nbc special correspondent ben fogle joins us from london with more. good morning, ben. reporter: good morning, jenna. well, the royal wedding may be over but some have described it as a dress rehearsal as the world s gaze remains for the next year or so. i ve lived in london all my life. this eye catching sight could be the ticket here in london. this is the london eye built in the year 2000 to celebrate the millennium of 423 feet high. this is the second tallest in the world. now the royal wedding may be behind us but this is only the beginning of london s time in the spotlight, hopefully in the sunshine. from up here you get a real perspective of the london scene. below us is the river thames. there will be boats and festivities. beyond is buckingham palace and, of course, that is where prince philip, the queen s husband, will celebrate his 90th birthday later this year. of course the big event is the olympics 2012 here in london and behind me the pay raids for the voll volleyball and there will be seating there for 20,000 people. with just over a year until the olympic games get under way, london is gearing up. the royal wedding is a good dress rehearsal. to the olympics next year,a way this is a dry run for that. reporter: a unique bicycle rental program was launched last year designed to inspire londoners for the games and giving advivisitors an alternat for getting around the city. it allows people to rent a bike in one location and drop it off in another. such a great way to explore london. we have parliament here. there are 20,000 brits on these every day. they ve been a huge success and it s anticipate that had they ll be rolled out across the uk and, who knows, maybe they ll be coming to the u.s. soon. and while london moves along its plans in anticipation of the 201 it games, the city remains proud of its neighborhood where old meets new. l london may be filled with old buildings but we re not stuck in the 17th century. we have an eclectic array of neighborhoods and this is my favorite. this was made famous by hugh grant s role and you can get just about everything here including hopefully an apple. can i have an apple, please? certainly. reporter: thank you very much. a perfect way to finish a day. a trip to london would not be complete without a visit to the pub. cheers. here is to london and the years ahead. well, you can probably see the river thames behind me. this, of course, will be one of the kilocations during the queen s diamond jubilee next year. let s hope the sun continues to shine on the city for the next 18 months. jenna? all right, ben. i have to tell you the last final seconds of your tour, the beer part, hands down my favorite part. ben fogle, thank you so much. we ll take a break. [train whistle blowing] we re here because we wanted to come as much as they did. (girl) it s really hogwarts! because i can fly with harry! because i love seeing him like this! (screaming) ahhhhh! (narrator) from unforgettable adventures to the wizarding world of harry potter, only at universal orlando resort. - did dad go to jared for the pandora bracelet like we told him? - i can t tell. - oh, honey! - he totally went to jared. female announcer: celebrate life s unforgettable moments with pandora, at jared. girls: awww. - they are so cute at that age. that s going to do it for this sunday morning. we ll have much more on the tornadoes tonight on nbc nightly news. i ll see you then. jenna? thank you, lester. our thanks to janice huff. did you have fun? it was great. come back again? yes. fap as it particular. tom llamas. did you have fun? absolutely. it was fantastic. i feel like eventually i can put it behind me. you know, kind of block it out a little bit. but i m never going to forget that day. a local college student learns just how powerful mother nature can be after he survives last week s deadly tornado in alabama. this morning he shares his story with news 4. good morning and welcome to news 4 today. i m kimberly suitsuiters. good morning. i m aaron gilchrist. less than four days after the tornado outbreak ravaged the south, the search is intensifying. because rescue crews fear time may be running out for people still missing. 342 people are confirmed dead so far. 250th