♪ they are islands in the middle of the mountains, flooding caused by a week of heavy rain has cut off three

colorado towns. floods have stranded people in james, lyons, and estes park. tamara banks is following all of the latest developments. she is in boulder county, colorado. tamara tell us more of what you are seeing. >> yeah, it's pretty incredible. i-25 is closed from e-470 to the iowa border, that is about 75 to 80 miles. this is epic proportions of flooding. you can see this road that is washed out from a river. it's pretty amazing to see. you can probably hear the rumbling of the water behind me. as we pan further to the left, you can see these pens. these are horse and rattle pens, in which the animals are

typically held. but most of the animals have been sent up to a ranch for the summertime. but the farmer lost about $150,000 worth of hay. this is just 1 of many roads that are washed out in boulder county and up and down the front range. again, i-25 is now closed between northern part of denver all the way up to the border of wyoming. it is pretty incredible. the national weather service is calling it flooding of epic proportions. roads are washed out, bridges and homes have been swept away, and it will take some time to rap our arms around this whole issue. the governor talked about how important it is to get this money and aid from fema. >> this is not going to get fixed in a week, right?

we have lost a great deal of infrastructure, and it's going to take, you know, many weeks to rebuild a lot of this. >> reporter: this is flooding of histor histor historic proportions, and the national guard has been trying to get up to one of the little commune -- communities you talked about earlier. >> how many miles is shut down from? >> reporter: from the northern metro area up to the wyoming border. >> that's a tremendous amount of roadway, when you talk about that and what the governor is talking about, this could be

significant infrastructure damage that could take a while to repair once they even come up for air. >> reporter: yeah, it's difficult for crews to get in and assess the damage. right now they are focused on keeping people safe. so to look at how much it will cost will take a several weeks if not months. >> tamara we'll be checking in again with you. thank you so much. people are looking for relief from the record rain. >> thanks, richelle. i have the warning in hand from the national weather service indicating that we'll see more heavy rainfall really across colorado, right around the denver area, into aurora. major concern for flash flooding, not just today but the next several days. plenty of moisture being drawn in out of the south, we have a

flash flood warning in effect until 7:30 tonight. more flash flooding expected through the night. we want to be using precaution because we could see rainfall amounts expected. use precaution out there. stay off of the roadways. richelle back to you. two towns devastated by last year's hurricane sandy will have to rebuild again. look at this. this fast-moving fire is mostly contained this morning. dozens of businesses destroyed. a late light rain storm brought some relief. this fire started at an ice cream shop on the boardwalk. chris christie spoke about this moments ago. >> we have endured and begun to come back from the devastation

of sandy. we will not let his fires destroy those efforts. the investigation be likely take days at which point the scene can be turned over to the property owners, then there will be more work to do and decisions to be made. >> reporter: richelle, governor christie says the fire took an emotional toll on everyone, but he says new jersey will rebuild. in some faces only the facades remain. firefighters have been here all morning. once in a while they have been spraying the buildings to make sure no hot spots remain. thursday's fire destroyed what mother nature had spared on this stretch of the new jersey shore. the new jersey governor appearing in shirt sleeves

looked shaken and was typically blunt. >> it makes me want to throw up. that's me. to see this going on, as i said at the top, it's just unthinkable. >> reporter: the fire started at an iconic frozen custard shop. hundreds of firefighters fought to control the flames, some suffered minor injuries, several businesses were destroyed. the fire comes days after the end of the tourist season, and almost 11 months after hurricane sandy slammed into the jersey shore. the season was slow for merchants, fewer tourists came with fewer dollars to spend. >> oh, there it goes. oh, no! >> reporter: now this. >> the businesses had rebuilt themselves during the summer, are now destroyed, and it's really sad.

>> reporter: the governor said the investigation into the cause of the fire has just begun, and that investigation, he said could take days, richelle. >> thank you so much. secretary of state john kerry met with russian foreign minister sergey lavrov again today. >> basically to discussion the issue of chemical weapons in syria, now that the assad government joined the chemical weapons convention. >> and we are committed to try to work together, beginning with this initiative on the chemical weapons? hopes that those efforts could pay off and bring peace and stability to a war-torn part of

the world. >> kerry and lavrov said they will meet in new york later this month and hope to set a peace conference for syria in geneva. phil how significant it is that they are talking about setting a date for a syrian peace conference? >> reporter: well, richelle if you put a few of these things together, you start to get some sort of image of what is going on behind closed doors here in geneva. we menni-- mentioned meeting in first part of the day, and then came out with this announcement that there would be talks towards some sort of permanent peace in syria, happening on the sidelines of the un general

assembly in about two week's time. we have also heard from sources within the russian foreign ministry saying that what is happening in that hotel behind me where the talks are going on that the delegations have separated into two camps, a diplomatic camp, and a camp of the chemical weapons experts. and the diplomats are working on a possible un resolution while the chemical weapons experts are talking about if there is a resolution how would it be done? so this does look like there is some maneuvering going on, and these talks are bearing some fruit, but we don't know yet exactly what, richelle. >> is not necessarily any major con -- concessions made yet?

>> reporter: not yet. and both sides have said while they hope to have a larger process in place sometime in the future, and maybe these talks would result in a bigger peace process, right now this crisis about the chemical weapons that were used on august 21st by elements within syria, of course the russians saying it could have been still been the opposition, and most of the powers in the west saying they are pretty sure it was the assad regime, and if they can't get past that, it calls into question everything else because it still might lead to a military strike by the u.s., and if that happens the russians say no political process can survive that. >> phil, thank you so much. al qaeda leader is calling for more attacks on the us. in an audio message he told

muslims in the u.s. to make the country bleed financially. that's a quote. and he said muslim fighters can defeat america with large and small attacks on its own soil. he is thought to be hiding somewhere along the afghan, pakistani border. 19 people are dead after a violent attack at the u.s. consulate in afghanistan. all of the u.s. personnel at the consulate are safe. and the taliban is claiming responsibility. >> reporter: the attack began with an explosion and gunfire. they attempted to enter the consulate. >> translator: an explosion took place at the gait and then a

number of insurgents entered the gate. >> reporter: the casualties were quickly rushed to the hospital. guards took the majority of the blast. >> translator: by brother was a guard and is now in the hospital. >> reporter: the consulate had been an intended target for sometime. american diplomatic missions have been targets here for years. the city has been largely considered secure. james cunningham issued a statement saying . . . no areas in afghanistan are completely secure from taliban

attacks. the group still control large areas of the country. the u.s. military will pull out most of troops by the end of next year, and it's unlikely they will leave behind a defeated taliban. inside the courthouse a death sentence from the judge, while outside . . . that racous crowd. and why a safe haven san francisco's thousands of homeless say is vital to them, may soon be a thing of the past.

♪ an indian court has handed

down a death sentence to the four men who gang raped and murdered a young new delhi woman. they were found guilty tuesday for attacking a woman on the bus and dumping her body on the side of the road. she died two weeks after the attack. california lawmakers have approved a bill that will allow undocumented immigrants to get driver's licenses. the new measure would require a special mark and notation on the licenses. the governor supports the bill and has promised to sign it. a new report finds that there are now close to 600,000 homeless people in the u.s. a number is down 4%, but homeless remains a big problem, especially along the san francisco bay. >> reporter: he calls himself

scrappy, scrapping for junk, and salvaging what he can sell for cash. he keeps more than he sells, and ore the last three years he has built an intricate shelter. this place was [ technical difficulties ] >> kat listen cody says the bulb is a good safe place for her.

>> i really just go for my dogs. i was stabbed 16, 17 years ago, so i know what it is like to be out on the streets and not be safe. >> reporter: america's homeless remain visible. >> do they sometimes smell a little bit? maybe they do, but they still they love, they live, they are human. >> reporter: this is the first time the city has evicted the campers. back in 1999, the city told everyone living here to pack up and leave, but one by one the homeless returned. back then they said the city did not provide enough alternatives. the evictions could begin as

early as october. the pioneer or surround sound ray dolby has died. he has an oscar, several emmies and a grammy for his revolutionization of the recording industry. he died in his home in san francisco. there will be a new top economic advisor at the white house come january. he will take over as head of the national economic council he replaces james sperling. not even back to school shopping can make consumers dig into their pockets more often.

it is still the fifth straight monthly increase, but such a meager increase show americans remain cautious with their money. j.pmorgan says it will dedicate 5,000 employees to the rebuilding effort this year. it faces at least seven probes by the justice department. for a short time thursday, united air lines was giving away tickets for free, or basically free. passengers reported buying tickets for five to ten bucks. the airline said it accidentally filed some fairs for zero money. united is not obligated to honor the tickets, but is considering what in the world to do with them. it's a town where aging trees are dying by the

thousands, the thoughtful way they are addressing the problem one planting at a time. ç]

♪ welcome back, this just in,

un chief banky moon stays that a report will confirm chemical weapons were used in syria. this as talks resume in geneva with john kerry and sergey lavrov. syria says it is willing to secure and destroy its chemical weapons stockpile if the u.s. gives up its threat of military action. and rescuers are trying to reach people in three colorado towns cut off by massive flooding. thousands have been forced to flee their homes. two seaside towns have to rebuilt again after a devastating fire you see right there. dozens of businesses were destroyed along the boardwalk. the fire started at an ice cream

shop, the cause not yet known. ♪ tropical storm ingrid has formed in the gulf of mexico. take a look at the radar. right across here, this system is going to remain relatively stationary the next 24 hours, but will slowly track north and west spilling an abundance of rain locally. that could trigger life-threatening mud slides into southeast portions of texas we'll see an abundance of rainfall. tropical storm warnings have been issued. meanwhile in colorado we are in a flood warning right in denver, the foothills, we could see an additional 15 inches of rain accumulate here in the next 24 hours, as we continue to see

showers and thunderstorms. so if anyone is traveling along i-25 i urge you to use precaution. montana is legendary for the rivers that run through it, and towering trees. but one group of trees is aging and ailing. paul has more. >> reporter: it's a tall order taking the vital statistics of a tree. >> 44. >> reporter: but that's exactly what teams have been doing all summer long in mazula, montana. cataloging every tree along the biways. >> we had some great people that had wonderful foresight when they were developing mazula. and they knew they wanted beautiful streets.

>> reporter: those urban planning pioneers made one major mistake, they planted almost entirely one species, norway maples, and they are all becoming senior citizens all at the same time. 95% are in bad shape. >> very poor. >> reporter: the old fashioned tape measure is still an important tool, but tree doctoring has gone high-tech. they use special software to map every tree along every street. >> it's not just counting them, it's getting all of the information on these trees. we'll know what species it is and its condition. we will be able to recommend a management plan, and.

>> reporter: and while you can't put a price on beauty, there is real value in an urban forest. >> lining your streets with healthy trees will clean the air from traffic. and people are more likely to walk or bike on tree-lined streets, so all of that leads to direct health benefits. >> reporter: when the census wraps up in mid-september, the total count is expected to come in somewhere between 30 to 50,000 urban trees. >> reporter: the best time to plant is tree is 20 years ago or today let's take you now to the aftermath, live pictures above the jersey shore. almost too much for people to comprehend. this devastating fire that broke out yesterday afternoon at an ice cream shop. this will be a difficult path

ahead for so many people still recovering after hurricane sandy. about 30 businesses were gutted because of this massive fire that spread so quickly, because the winds were blowing about 35 miles an hour, that carried the flames from building to building to building, you could see the billowing smoke for miles and miles yesterday. and this is what is left, the aftermath of this devastating fire along the boardwalk on the jersey shore. never before has a human-built spacecraft traveled so far. the unmanned satellite entered interstellar space on thursday. that will do it for this edition of al jazeera, i'm richelle carey. "inside story" is next. keep it here. thanks for your time.