People, was distracted while at the controls. This according to a new ntsb report set to be released today. And what were they thinking . Two yellowstone tourists put a baby buy sison in the back of t suv to try and keep it warm. The tragic result. Warning to all visitors today, tuesday, may 17th, 2016. 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. Its a tuesday morning. That is a sad story out of yellowstone. Its an involved story. Confusing in some areas. The bottom line, dont put a baby bison in the hatchback of your car. Our top story, the weather. Severe storms hammer the region by a new round of powerful storm Kerry Sanders is in Oklahoma City. Good morning. Good morning, savannah. It was another sleepless night for residents in the area. Violent wind north of here, Oklahoma City, registered 69 miles an hour. In felt and durham, oklahoma, two suspected tornadoes touched down. The damage assessments from those tornadoes is yet to be fully calculated. Reporter this morning, residents in texas and oklahoma are waking up knee deep in water after a Severe Weather system walloped parts of the southern plain states. In oklahoma, thunderstorms spawned several tornadoes reported in the oklahoma panhandle. In parts of texas, forecasters say more than 11 inches of rain fell in a 24hour period in the Corpus Christi area. The creek cresting over 24 feet. More than four feet above the flood stage. Police blocked off major roads, but despite repeated stubborn drivers tried to make their way through. Only to get swallowed up by rivers of water in the streets. The flooding does not evnd. Reporter in houston, residents stranded in their homes posted videos on social media. No, im not on the bank of a river. Im on the curb of my street. Reporter fighting hail and violent winds gusting up to 70 Miles Per Hour, pounded residents in texas. Back in oklahoma, heavy winds and rain kept many hunkered down in their homes, as the region braces for yet another cluster of storms today. Its been especially violent hail season so far this year. Insurance Companies Estimate theyve paid out more than 1 billion in claims. Mostly damage to roofs and cars. Yes, forecasters are expecting more hail later today in this part of the country. Matt and savannah . Kerry sanders, thank you. We were talking, awful lot in the last year or so. Theyre going to deal with more this week. Were looking at more strong storms along the texasoklahoma border. Its going to continue today. We have 16 Million People at risk for strong storms today. Especially in the Late Afternoon into the evening hours. Large hail, two inches in diameter, damaging winds. Storm system after storm system moving across. The flood threat will increase over the next several days. Tomorrow, we have a risk of severe storms. Heavy rain for the hill country of texas. Look what theyve been dealing with. For example, houston in the last 12 months, almost 75 inches of rain. Thats 24 inches more than they should see. Since march 1st, dallas, 9 inches. 20 in houston. 15 in Corpus Christi. Anywhere from 5 to 10 inches above normal. By the next three days, theyre going to pick up another 3 to 5 inches. Flooding is going to be a problem, besides the Severe Weather threat. We wont be complaining about the chilly temperatures in the northeast anymore. Al, thank you very much. Two more states hold primaries today as the likely showdown between trump and clinton is taking place. That matchup is getting tighter. Our team has it covered. Lets start with nbcs kristen welker. Shes at Clinton Campaign headquarters in brooklyn for us. Good morning. Savannah, good morning to you. The race is the closest it has ever been according to our latest nbc news surveymonkey online poll out today. It shows donald trump cutting Hillary Clintons lead down to three points. Look at the numbers. 48 to 45 . All this as clinton is still fighting to clinch her own partys nomination. Oregon and kentucky weighing in today. Reporter Clinton Campaigning, lookingo clinton is looking past the primary in the bluegrass today. I am hoping and really looking forward to debating donald trump in the fall. Does donald trump really speak for you . Reporter bracing for what donald trump has promised will be an onslaught of attacks, a super pac is set to release 6. 5 million in ads hitting trump in battleground states. As clinton paints herself as the steady leader on the economy. Its heartbreaking that people running to be president today, most particularly the Presumptive Republican nominee, want to go back to those failed policies. Reporter touting her husbands policies from the 90s, clinton saying shell put him in charge of revitalizing the economy. The former president telling nbc news ill do whatever im asked. Reporter its a strategy thats already opened her up to attacks. I think hillary is in impossible box. You know, you cant imagine bill over there in the east wing, in the spouses quarters, licking stamps and addressing envelopes. What are you going to do with him . Reporter trump is previewing his strategy. Top aides telling nbc news he plans to confront clinton on her emails and her husbands infidelity. Hes opening up tonight on an interview on the fox broadcast network. I view myself as a messenger. This is a massive thing going on. These are millions and millions of people that have been disenfranchised from this country. Reporter while some republicans looking for a third party candidate, another brash billionaire, Dallas Mavericks owner, mark cuban, saying hes not interested. Theres not enough time and it wouldnt work. And a majority of gop voters, according to our surveymonkey online poll, trust trump over House Speaker paul the party. 58 to 39 . And were learning this morning that trump is hiring a pollster, something he resisted during the primary, and underscoring his shift to the general election. Matt and savannah . Thank you. Lets bring in chuck todd. Good to see you. Good morning, matt. Lets talk about Hillary Clintons idea. If shes elected president , shell bring in her husband, the former president , to revitalize the economy. Its that two for one deal that weve talked about in the past. When it comes to voters, is there an upside to this and a downside . I dont know what the upside is. I think for some, they have positive memories of the 90s. Think about what the campaign has been about the last six months. Bernie sanders and donald trump, in particular, have been running against the 90s on economic policy, those trade deals, nafta being the biggest one. Including wall street deregulation, a major portion of that which happened during the sword. In talking to people close to the Clinton Campaign, she didnt mean she was going to hand off half the presidency to him and say, you have the economy. Apparently, she was trying to say, he was going to be focusing on distressed communities. In kentucky, thats coal country. Places there have been a lot of distressed unemployment. Lets talk about this. The Clinton Campaign, as well. Donald trump plans to confront clinton on the debate stages on things such as her reaction to her husbands infidelity, the email scandal, benghazi. Is there any potential downside for him . Look, there is. I mean, but this is what worked for him during the primary. I dont see why he would go any other way on this front. And if you look when youre going after her, character is her weak spot. Thats her vulnerabilities. We know the way trump works. He looks for a exploit. I think he may succeed in, say, sidelining bill clinton a bit, but i think it raises the importance of barack obama as a surrogate for Hillary Clinton. I think over the summer when shes looking for a character witness, shes not going to turn to bill, itll be barack. Lets continue with hillary for a second. Though the numbers are clearly in her favor, shes still locked in a primary battle with bernie sanders. Yet, shes starting to look and vet possible Vice President ial running mates. A couple names came up. Sherrod brown, the senator from ohio. Tim kaine, senator from virginia. Are they the front runners . I think so. You lock one of those down, the republican path isnt there. And theyre do no harm candidates. Theyre disciplined and very good. From what i understand, hilalar clinton is looking for a governing partner. Supporters. Former massachusetts governor, and senator corey booker. Booker is sebody Hillary Clinton has become comfortable with. Likes him. Deval deval patrick, somebody she doesnt know well but close to obama world. What about Elizabeth Warren and Julian Castro . I think they get attention in the grassroots. Ill be shocked if theyre among the final two or three. Thank you very much. On monday, we talked about the report from the New York Times detailing Donald Trumps history with women. A former model who dated trump for several months in the 1990s and whose story was at the center of the article say her words were mischaracterized. She spoke about it to peter alexander. I was promised so many myself, just over and over again, that it was a positive article that i was giving them, and thats how it was going to be depicted. It was not a hit piece. It was just each persons rendition of their experiences with donald trump. And mine was as you say, they spun it into a negative. They absolutely did. I dont have a negative story to give about donald trump because i dont have a negative, you know, account of anything. Spokesperson for the New York Times responded to the accusations saying she was quoted fairly, accurately and at length. The ntsb is holding a hearing today on last years crash of an amtrak train outside of philadelphia. Killed eight people and injured more than 200 others. Weve learned investigators believe the engineer became distracted and didnt realize he was approaching a dangerous curve. Tom costello has been following this from the start situational awareness. You may recall, this was train 188. Itd just left a north philly train station when it went into a turn at double the posted speed limit and derailed. Originally, the engineer said he didnt remember what happened. Now, investigators say he was distracted by radio traffic from a regional train that had just reported being hit by some sort of an object. A rock or a bullet. Much as a driver might be distracted by a phone call, the engineer forgot where he was and blew right through the signs warning him to slow down into the curve. The train was traveling at more than 100 Miles Per Hour when it went off the tracks. Eight people died. More than 200 people were injured. Amtrak has since added automatic braking technology to the northeast corridor, but its not in place in much of the rest of the country. Back to you. Tom costello in washington, thank you. The senate is kexpecto request for money to fight the zika virus. Lawmakers are considering three plans. The one with the greatest chance to address is a bipartisan plan to cut the president s 1. 9 billion request to 1. 1 billion. Separately, the house is expected to vote this week on a 622 million plan. Zika can cause serious birth defects. It is expected to spread more widely during the summer mosquito season. Southwest Airlines Flight forced to return to boston earlier this morning due to turbulence. The flight was on its way to chicago when passengers say the plane started shaking. Two flight attendants were injured and taken to the hospital. Two passengers also suffered minor injuries. Eventually, the flight took off again and has landed safely in chicago. An upcoming meeting is getting a lot of attention. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg will sit down with conservative leaders amid claims the news from its trending topics list. Miguel almaguer is at facebook headquarters in menlo park. Good morning to you. Morning. Itll happen tomorrow. A handful of conservative leaders meeting with Mark Zuckerberg. An important step, say those involved, in getting to the bottom of some serious accusations. Reporter the meeting at facebook headquarters is private, but this morning, an emerging profile of those planning to attend. Conservatives like glen beck, dana parrino and Senior Adviser to the trump campaign, barry bennet, will all have face time with facebook cofounder Mark Zuckerberg. No one else in the world has the ability to reach as many people as they do. They have a responsibility to play down the middle. Reporter it comes after fallout that facebook suppressed conservative stories from its users on its popular trending topics list. Even the cant compete with facebook in terms of influence and reach. Reporter they say the list is identified by algorithms and only reviewed by facebook employees to make certain they are tied to a current event. But gizmodo says a former facebook employee came forward claiming news curators prevented conservative stories from appearing on the site. This was something that facebook wasnt forthcoming about and was actually quite misleading about for the course of a twoyear span. If they were juicing the algorithm in any way, people have a right to be very angry about that. Reporter launching an internal investigation, zuckerberg says the tech giant never aims to suppress political perspectives. He invited conservative leaders for the round table after some say he took a veiled spot at donald trump. Instead of building walls, we can help people build bridges. And instead ofiv we can help spribring people together. Reporter coming together this week, facebook and conservatives. An open dialogue that may also soon be trending. Zuckerberg says facebook has found no evidence that the claims are true and says he remains committed that the social media site will remain an open platform for all ideas. Matt and savannah, back to you. Miguel, thank you very much. Theres troubling news this morning on sunscreen. Consumer reports tested dozens of waterresistant sunscreens with spf numbers of 30 or higher. Heres what they found. Nearly half did not meet their spf claims. Nearly 3 4 of natural sunscreens also falling short. If you dont have one of the toprated products, Consumer Report says to use a chemical sunscreen with an spf of at least 40. That way, you should get the minimum protection needed. Other news this morning. I want to show you a frightening close call caught on surveillance camera. It happened in oklahoma. Theres an employee helping a customer when suddenly, a pickup truck crashes through the wall, narrowly missing them both. They were hit by debris but walked away uninjured. The customer believes her Guardian Angel was by her side. The driver wasnt intoxicated but will be ticketed for inattentive driving. Lets start with basketball. One of the western conference finals between the Golden State Warriors and the Oklahoma City thunder. Westbrook led the points for the thunder, who ended up with the win. Now the nhl. The penguins and the lightning. Crosby broke a 22 tie in overtime, that gave the we think w penguins a win. The series is game one of the Eastern Conference Finals is tonight. I love when you do the sports. I love the sports. Its fun. Now you do the weather. Thats my wheel house. Ious side, were looking at wet weather stretching from the Midatlantic States all the way down to the gulf. Of course, that enhanced risk of Severe Weather down through texas. West coast looks spectacular. Into the plains, we have g gorgeous weather and plenty of whats it like to be in good hands . Like finding new ways good morning. Its currently just about 7 20 a. M. , if i can just get it out. Its cloudy skies and raindrops moving into the region already. Have your rain gear ready to go. Mid50s across the area right now. Temperatures wont move much over the course of the day. Its likely to be raining by recess and dismissal time. Highs today only in the 50s. Tomorrow, a little improvement later in the thats your latest weather. Al, thanks. When good intentions go wrong. Why two tourists at yellowstone say they loaded a baby bison into the back of their car, and the urgent new warning to all park visitors. And the new ways that hackers could be targeting your home. Why your television, refrigerator, even your doorbell could be putting your safety at risk. First, this is today on nbc. Just ahead, the california couple that just broadcasted their sons birth live on facebook. Are we sharing too much . And simon cowell is back. Hell open up to natalie about finally joining americas got talent, and also about life as a brandnew dad. First, your local news and weather. Before earning enough cash back from bank of america to buy a new gym bag. Before earning 1 cash back everywhere, every time and 2 back at the Grocery Store. Even before he got 3 back on gas. Kenny used his bankamericard cash rewards credit card to join the wednesday night league. Because he loves to play hoops. Not jump through them. Thats the excitement of rewarding connections. Apply online or at a bank of america near you. [ dreams by beck ] hmmmmm. Hmmmmm. The turbocharged dream machine. The Volkswagen Golf gti. Part of the awardwinning golf family. 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