. >> this is al jazeera. i'm richelle carey. these are the stories we're following. this morning there is word of a deal of chemical weapons in syria and plans for possible action. a massive action is underway in colorado after the worst flooding in decades, entire towns cut off, 200 people unaccounted for. what hurts me the most, all this has to be rebuilt, after everything has happened, it's a wondering if it's menlt to be. >> the daunting task of moving on and starting over, the jersey shore seaside boardwalk.

>> after weeks of threats and three days of talks, secretary of state john kerry and sergei lavrov have reached a deal on chemical weapons. if the syrian regime fails ocomply, the u.s. resolution can kick in. punitive action, u.s. officials acknowledge they're not seeking military authorization from the u.n. which russia says it would veto. weapons inspectors will be on the ground in syria in november. this agreement calls for syria's entire chemical weapons arsenal to be secured or destroyed by the middle of 2014. for more we are joined by phil litner in geneva. phil, in some ways it's very particular and some ways it's a bit vague too. tell us more about this

agreement. >> well, richelle, this is the agreement here and it was released a couple of hours ago. as you mentioned there are a lot of things that are left unsaid in this proposal. it really specifies how to gain control of the chemical weapons stockpile in syria. it doesn't place blame on the assad regime for the attacks on the 21st of august which sparked this crisis. it doesn't clearly say that if the assad regime doesn't comply with these stipulations that there will be military action. there are many things that are left vague because basically the russians and the americans couldn't come to a middle ground on some very contentious issues. nevertheless they have actually come about as close to being on the same page as could be expected. and it does appear as though they are speaking with a unified voice when it comes to the chemical weapons stockpile and

how the international community can actually get their hands on it and destroy that massive stockpile. so it is a huge step forward. but there are still some things that are being left unsaid, and that's probably on purpose. richelle. >> so did kerry and lavrov, address the fact that they want this all to happen in the middle of a war zone? was that one of the unsaid things? >> well, there are still a lot of things to be worked out. and those are going to be worked out in the coming days and weeks. we do know that lavrov and kerry will meet yet again on the sidelines of the u.n. general assembly in about two weeks' time but yes, absolutely, richelle that's been one of the major points that's discussed here when the delegations arrived a lot of chemical weapons experts who broke off

and talked about how logistically this was going to be done. it is widely accepted this is an incrediblely difficult thing to do. a cease fire or perhaps a larger context, attempts at brokering some sort of peace in syria. but its has to be -- it has to be noticed and it has to be on the minds of everybody here, that this is still a bloody civil war. and sending those teams in to secure the chemical weapons stockpile is going to be a very difficult task indeed, although officials here say, yes, difficult but not impossible. richelle. >> phil litner live in geneva. a little while later we'll go live to the u.n. diplomatic resolution of the situation in

syria. in iraq, in the city of artella, 13 miles east of mosil, no one has claimed responsibility for that attack. implicit in the deaths of 900 protesters during the 2011 uprising that deposed hip. momo bark had beenbarak had beed convicted. floodwaters continue to rush through colorado leaving thousands stranded in the rockies. the national guard is evacuating people by ground, by air. boulder county officials say 213 people are unaccounted for. jim what's it looking like where you are?

>> well richelle right now as you can see it's dry out here now. the rain has stopped but the forecast is for another possible 1 to three inches overnight. we're in longmont colorado. this river runs through the middle of this town and today in town is virtually cut off. most of this cilt activity going on in the foothills in towns like lyons and james town. the only way to get into those towns will be by helicopter. that's what the sheriffs department is using to get these people out. joe pelley sheriff said they can't use the roadways, he says the roadways at this point no longer exist. they have virtually been washed out. so it's going to be a long time for this cleanup. again 218 people still missing here this morning.

that number up from about 80 yesterday. so that number is shocking. as we come back here to longmont the river is rising here. this town virtually cut off and as we said with the forecast for more rain tonight, people here and officials are very concerned about what could happen here. again, over the next 24 hours. richelle. >> and when you think about that jim, as you think about these people that are isolated, these towns that are isolateyou start to think about -- isolated, you start to think of people cannot get to them. that is incredibly worse. >> today those numbers at the evacuation center continue to grow richelle. people have been coming in here, evacuated for the most part from the town of lyons. young people senior citizens they have huddled into that evacuation center overnight until the power went out at the evacuation center and the national guard had to go out

there yesterday morning and geed those people out in the big humvees, and the rescue efforts will go on here all day long. >> pretty dire situation. jim, thank you so much. joining me on the phone in colorado is liz donahee, bowrd's boulder's office of emergency management. the number of people unaccounted for, where do things stand and the bulk of the number, tell me a little bit more? >> at this point the bulk of our number, we have -- our rough number is a little over 200 people. we were reporting 218 people, but that morris keeps adapting because some of those -- but that list keeps adapting because we need to get a stronger number on that 218. we're going with a little over

200 people. a majority of people are people who don't have their cell phone or don't have the availability to get contact or families just haven't heard from them. so our crews are out there doing well-checks, trying to find out if these people are safe or maybe their cell phones are just dead. >> and then of course there's always the concern that so many of these people are actually in danger around that actually could be the -- and that actually could be the worst for some people. what is your most immediate concern right now? >> right now our main focus is getting people out of the mountain communities, the people that are trapped without food or water. at this point we're trying to get up there and get them out and evacuate those communities. >> absolutely. liz doneahee, colorado's office of emergency management. please keep us posted, thanks so much. when will this weather give them a break?

meteorologist jaleela med joins us. >> drier air going to be pushing in the west and help breaking up some of the moisture surging in from the south. new mexico to boulder, taking you to bowrbled, you can see -- boulder, moistly cloudy overcast skies. flash flood warnings in effect certainly across portions of boulder into denver. you're looking at the foothills right now. all the rain comes off the mountain, into the town. that's why we're looking at the devastating flooding right now. warnings that are issued into denver into if foothills. richelle back to you. >> thank you so much. investigators are sifting through the charred debris trying to find out what caused thursday's boardwalk fire in seaside park and see said seasie

heights. >> as firefighters hosed down smoldering ruins, not again. michelle jackson was lucky. her restaurant survived the fire. >> it's been a long road since sandy. we've been down a lot, our percentages were definitely down. we started seeing things pick up, looking promising. i started feeling better, not that feeling of doom, and now this happens. so all that feeling that we've had before kind of just came back. >> the new jersey shore was just getting back on its fief at hurricane sandy when a fire ripped through the iconic boardwalk that runs through seaside park and seaside heights. dozens of businesses burned. >> what hurts me the most, all this has to be rebrlt and people

that want -- rebuilt and people want to really come back and make something of this place. and right now they don't know what to think. after everything that's happened and now this. i'm wondering if it's really actually meant to be. >> firefighters put up a desperate effort to stop the flames from spedding. >> our strategy was -- spreading. >> our strategy was to do what we could, work on a containment plan. and this is what this was. our first containment plan failed because of the volume of fire. our second containment plan worked. >> that second containment plan was a fire break. behind me is where firefighters made a trench cut to stop the fire in its track. you can see the effectiveness of their strategy. these shops are completely burned but if we look over here these stores are perfectly intact. >> repairing the boardwalk could cost more than $1 million, that

doesn't include the businesses that burned. >> i'm lucky to be here but the rest of the boardwalk is gob now so that's -- gone now so that's not very lucky. >> after sandy, the monday tra is jersey strong. -- monday tr mantra is, jersey . >> six passengers had to be air lifted from the scene to the hospital. there were 51 passengers on this bus which was headed to detroit. this all happened near cincinnati. no immediate reports on the cause of the crash. coming up the break threw in geneva. the break through to dispose of syria's chemical weapons. what role the u.n. will play.

>> welcome back. a major development in the syria crisis as the u.s. and russia agree to a deal in the handling of syria's chemical weapons. secretary of state john kerry and sergei lavrov say syria must give them unfettered access to the chemical weapons. syria must hand over the full list of its stockpile within a week. >> in the interest of accountability, the united states and russia have agreed that the syrians must provide the organization with chemical weapons and supporting personnel within immediate and unfettered right to inspect any and all sites in syria. fifth: destruction. we have agreed to destroy all

chemical weapons, including the possibility of removing weapons for destruction outside of syria. james phase joins us. they seem to have carved out some role for the u.n. so what is the reaction from the u.n? >> well, here everybody is welcoming this. we have had a statement from the u.n. secretary general ban ban ki-moon, a statement from france. when the u.s. does a deal it's a done deal, it's a reality, other leaders have nothing other than welcome this sort of thing. in private i think the reaction is somewhat different. i think you'll find there are western diplomats particularly from the u.k. and france that would have liked a slightly differently deal, a security council resolution with the use of force built in.

meaning that if there was a breach by assad it would automatically trigger the use of force. it would be legal to start air strikes in syria. now that is not in the current deal. in the current deal, if there is a violation, if there's a breach then they have to come back to the security council to debate it. so can i give you a scenario? what if a few months down the line, a few days or weeks down the line there's a breach, the western governments say there's a breach, and they say no no, that is a technical matter. the u.s. and the u.k. and france will want to pursue military action and russia will again veto it. >> let's take this a step further james. is that not to say there's not a scenario where the u.s. might still take their own military action still? >> absolutely, absolutely. the u.s. has made it clear, obama has made it clear that they are prepared to take their

own unilateral action. but they are in a process, they've signed up to a process and that process suggests you go back to the security council. it's in there, in the framework document, you go to the security council and try to get military action authorized, the use of force authorized. that would take some time. there's no suggestion i think that they would immediately, fire off the cruise missiles. as has seemed the case just seven days ago. the threat of imminent action has passed for now. we are also hearing talk that perhaps this will add to the convening now of a peace conference getting both sides together to try to solve this conflict going on for two and a half years. there's a problem, the syrians saw what was going to go on, they thought they would get imminent air strikes, they are angry. i don't think you're going oget them to peace talks any time

soon. >> james, that is the very next angle of this very important story we're going to be covering. thanks so much. the commander of the rebel free syrian army say they feel abandoned. said that syrian option and fighters on the ground reject the russian solution of putting chemical weapons under u.n. custody. what is it about the plan that they don't like? what is the general theme? >> well, general saleem was rather furious. what he had to say basically was he thought at least the international community had used the blood of syrians as a bridge simply or merely to get to the stock piles of chemical weapons oafned by bashar al-assad -- owned by bashar al-assad to rid the world of the chemical

weapons forgetting the plight of the syrians and holding responsible for that plight. describing his feelings towards the russian leadership in very explicit terms. he says this about the russian president and foreign minister, quote, we do not trust putin and we do not trust lavrov. >> i would like to say we don't recognize the russian initiative. and we think that the russians and the syrian regime are playing games to waste time and to win time for the criminal regime in damascus. >> now, general edrise was specifically asked if that means they are now at loggerheads with their own allies the united states of america and what the general had to say was that was

not necessarily the case. they are in fact very appreciative of everything that the united states and france had done for them but that basically the u.s. cannot expect them to accept this deal and he also had a very important statement to make, that they have no intention or no plans to obstruct the work of any u.n. inspectors or investigators that will be sent to the country under this new agreement. but all the while, still, warning the international community against the bashar al-assad regime saying that they had information that in fact the regime was arming cud scud missiles with war heads, not anything we can taint but a very serious -- substantiate. but something very sears by the syrian opposition. >> something in writing saying that the assad regime was responsible for this chemical

weapons attack? that is not something that is specifically in this new agreement. >> no, it's not and this has been really the main concern of the syrian option. the issue of accountability. they feel that merely handing over the chemical weapons is simply not a punishment. they feel that the syrian regime is literally in this case according to them is getting away with murder. so who now will be held responsible for these horrible killings in damascus in august and not just the chemical weapons issue. this is also the point the syrian opposition keeps repeating time and time again. they feel the entire conversation has been reduced to the issue of chemical weapons all the while forgetting about conventional weapons which have claimed tens of thousands of lives over the past two and a half years. so all of this are basically very serious concerns raised by the opposition. and don't forget all along the

syrian opposition have been saying they wanted the international community to intervene in a very forceful manner not even those limited air strikes that the united states was talking about. what they wanted to see was actual regime changes. >> live in istanbul, turkey, we'll have to see what comes of this deal. thank you so much. how could a multimillion dollar rocket be considered a bargain? >> lift off! >> more on this craft hurtling into space, coming up. ç]

>> welcome back. i'm richelle carey here's a recatch of our top stories on al jazeera. a deal is now in place for syria about. this morning john kerry and russian minister sergei lavrov, announced the agreement. a military strike seems to be off the table for now. investigators are sifting through the charred debris trying to figure out what caused the massive fire at the jersey shore. dozens of buildings burned to

the ground at seaside park and seaside heights. thousands are stranded by floodwaters in colorado, 4 are dead, hundreds are unaccounted for. more rain is expected in the forecast today. as richelle said we could see an additional one to three inches of rain in boulder county right around denver as we track on into this afternoon and really into this evening. i think westerly winds will track in as we track into the next 24 to 48 hours. by monday we are looking drier but cannot say the same across mexico. as a matter of fact, we have two tropical systems one here to the east, tropical storm ingrid that's going to make its way further north and towards the west, tampico and ver a vera cr.

then we have tropical storm manuel, making its way further north, going to have an impact bringing gusty winds, in addition to that gustier winds into the mountains, three to six inches of rain into south and eastern portions of texas including brownsville and into corpus christi. into the northeast, chilly start to the morning. check out temperatures currently in new york we're he at 55 boston, staying in the 70s here, further inland 60s. back into toronto we'll be right around 65°. out west we do expect to see more rain push across new mexico right into boulder. mostly cloudy overcast skies but later on tonight we could see an additional 3 to 6 inches of rain, that's why the kpc has prompted. rushing down off the mountains right into the town and that's

the reason why we are dealing with the devastation we've been seeing the last several days. as a matter of fact this is rain that is unprecedented. we've seen over 14.6 inches of rain. the record is actually right around 4.8. usually this time of year colorado receives anywhere from 1 to 2 inches of rain in the month of september. unprecedented rainfall. nine inches fell last week. richelle backs to you. >> thank you jaleela. japan has brought down the cost of putting satellites into or bit. >> first scheduled ignition and liftoff. >> the rocket lifted off today after a two week delay. rocket cost about $37 million to develop that's relatively cheap by space travel standards. all right i'm richelle

carey. thank you so much for joining us on al jazeera, keep it here. >> a rally in san salvador, capital of central america's smallest and most densely populated state. on the streets the chants are about the onward march of social justice, in a country that's seen bitter civil war and the transformation of former left wing guerillas into a poti