>> this is al jazeera coming to you live from new york city. i'm del walters. >> we will not be silent about the tragedy. >> reporter: there are calls for action after the shooting at the washington navy yard. we're learning the realities of rebuilding in the wakes of those floods in colorado.

flags are flying at half-staff nationwide through friday night in honor of those killed in washington on monday. that's when a lone gunman walked into a building, firing, killing 12 people inside. the unbega gunman identified asn alexis. the reason for the attacks is unknown, and recovery for those injured is just beginning. [♪ "taps" ] >> the nation's capitol and the nation.

randall pinkston joins me now from the washington navy yard where a search for a motive continues, randall? >> reporter: del, there are so many questions to be answered. one of them how could a person with a history of mental illness, and us of firearms, how could that person be give becoma defense contractor. >> reporter: looking for answers and information about aaron alexis. the gunman who shot and killed 12 people and injured eight others at the washington navy yard on monday. >> we don't know what the motivation was, we asked if there was likely terrorism involved. we have no decision of that. we'll continue to investigate that. >> reporter: alexis used his valid pass as a defense

contractor to gain access to the navy facility. the police are ruled out any other possibly shooters in the attack. >> we feel comfortable that we have the single and sole person responsible. >> reporter: the shooting brought that thenavy sea system. investigators say at one point alexis was perched on an atrium picking off his victims down below. many were told to stay in place as tactical team started hunting for the shooter. >> we were hunkered down. we were on the floor because we heard the previous gunshot 37 we heard gunfire and we looked up,

and there were two bullet holes in the top of the wall of the conference room. >> reporter: alexis was armed with three weapons. an assault rifle that looked like this one, a semiautomatic, and a shotgun. the president took time from the economy to give honor to the victims and their family. >> these are women going to work protecting all of us. they're patriots. >> the white house has ordered that flags be flown at half-staff in honor of the victims. >> reporter: alexis was staying at a hotel a few blocks from here near this area. he was staying with five other workers who were employed by the same subcontractor. we know that authorities have interviewed four of those

workers. no word on the fifth worker. >> randall, thank you very much. we also know the names, seven of the 12 victims have been identified. the police will release more names throughout the day. the names we have been given including michael arnold, sylvia frasier. kathleen guarde. john roger johnson, and we're learning more about gunman aaron alexis. first he had been treated for mental illness. the exact reason for that treatment has yet to be disclosed. in 2011 he was discharged from the navy in response to him shooting through the neighbor's floor in his argument. and i in seattle for another incident. he was not formerly charged in

either. it seems that he was hurting badly for money. >> friends say he was just about broke. he had been working as a naval contractor, and he played to his friends that he was not getting paid in a timely fashion, and he was mad at the government. and he asked friends to help him out for gas money. he was working here at the happy bowl and living free of charge with the owners. they had become friends with him and they were taking care of him. >> we hear that you have one of alexis' former roommates with you now. can she tell us more about who he was? >> yes, i have christie here, and last saw him in july. >> yes. >> what was his demeanor like then? >> i know he was glad to get out and get out and do something different. he was tired to working with my

cat and her fleas. we were towards the end of that, but it was taking too long. he was excited with what the future was holding. he was finishing up with some online courses with the navy, and he was excited. just about everything and anything and ready to be going new places. >> reporter: more than 24 hours after this happened is this starting to make more sense or less sense to you that he's the one accused of killing all these people. >> it makes less sense, and it obviously looks like he premeditated this, had to have premeditated it, it is making a lot less sense. we just can't imagine him, someone so peaceful during the time we knew him. i don't know when he started practicing buddhism, but it sounded like he was trying to turn his life around. it sounds like life just kept giving him one frustration after another, nothing to this

magnitude. >> reporter: were you aware of any psychological problems, depression, anything he was going through. >> i never witnessed it, but it sounded like he was still suffering from ptsd, but i never witnessed it, i never had any red flags at all. >> reporter: thank you for talking with us. >> mike, thank you very much. rain has stopped for now in colorado. the helicopters have continued their rescuing of victims there. 800 are dead and many are waiting to make their way back home to assess the damage and others are still waiting to be evacuated. >> reporter: relentless and powerful the water flowed down paying no heed to fragile works

of mankind. the water moved, and hayden court was just in its way. jennifer moved into her her knew house only six weeks ago. down in her basement was foul river smell. irreplaceable items ruined in the muck. [ crying ] >> it's all gone. oh, yeah, it's just gone. >> reporter: she has no flood insurance, but even with all the damage she sees redemption. >> i'm safe. you know, my sister is safe, my dog is safe. people in this neighborhood are safe. that's what is really important. it's not this stuff. >> reporter: up and down hayden

court with huge chunk of asphalt and toppled tight locals witness the flood. emergency workers clear debris. roland robertson helped his parents scoop muck from their garage. nina was home with her 13-year-old son and one of his friends when the water started swirling up fast. she saw her car swept away. >> it was a time span of probably two to three minutes from when the water hit the bottom of the tires on the durango, went all the way up. we watched it within three minutes go all the way over the durango an take the durango down the road. >> they were trapped for eight hours before rescuers came for them in a boat. in the meantime her husband, jeff, swam across flooded fields battling the heavy current to get to his family.

>> you're just out of yourself. you just have to get to your family. that's it. >> reporter: emergency workers say they'll have the power back on in a day or two, but the repair work and the cleanup will take a lot longer than that. and none of the families who live here on hayden court will ever forget the day the waters rose. rob reynolds, al jazeera, longmont, colorado. >> those rains passed historic proportion, so we took an in-depth look at how it impacted. >> reporter: nine inches of rain fell on thursday. i think what we'll remember worse about last week is thursday. typically about this time of year in boulder, colorado, they don't receive any more than 1.7 inches of rain, less than two inches of rain for the entire month. for one day one inches of rain to fall it was of monumental proportion. we'll continue to look at a

couple of gathered showers as we look at colorado and into utah. the main story is the dry air pushing in out of the west. we have a ridge of high pressure in control, that will usher in an abundance of sunshine. it will be a beautiful day. the only problem that we have, the rivers continue to rise just a bit right around the larimer and sedgewick counties and we will see it in areas of new mexico as well as that ridge of high pressure continue to strengthen. >> get ready to get in line. apple announcing the day that it's new iphones will hit the shelves. and up right at last. we'll tell but the painstaking effort to salvage costa concordia, and how it paid off. >> just to be able to defend the

title for once will be awesome, and i've done so well here the past few times i've played, getting to the semis or finals. it's been really, really exciting. i'm happy that i've been able to consistently do well here. >> australian cricket captain michael clarke led his team to victory against england, scoring his first tonne. england were bowled out for 227 in pursuit of australia score of 315/7. >> and now take a look at this young man who has more than a few expectations to live up to. this is argen tendulkar son of sachi, in his father the highest run scorer.

>> to honor the victims in yesterday's shooting at the navy yard chuck hagel laying a wreath at the plaza next to the lone sailor statue which represents anyone who has. ever been a part of the united states navy. president obama ordered all flags to be flown at half-staff until september 20th. more details are coming out about the alleged gunman aaron alexis. alexis was arrested twice for gun-related offenses and discharged from the navy in 2011. a friend in texas telling agatha lex citizen was cash-strapped, and once called in the middle of the night for money to fix a broken car. he was a sub contractor for hewlett-packard for a navy

project which police believe is why he had access to the navy yard. the rains finally stopped in colorado, allower rescue efforts to be resumed. 1800 people have been rescued in areas where roads have been washed away. some residents are now making their way back to their flood-damaged homes. iin the philippines the police chief was taken hostage. he was kidnapped when he tried to negotiate with rebels from the mnlf. >> reunited with their loved ones after nine days of uncertainty. more than a hundred hostages have been rescued by the military. three soldiers from killed in the operation which came after the.

>> they used us as human shiel shields. >> reporter: with the release of the hostages many are hoping that this may mean that the crisis will soon be over. al jazeera has spoken by phone to the man heading the scene in zamboanga. >> we can't just throw away what we fought for, for 40 years. even if we're finished here the problem won't be solved because they won't give us recognition. only death will stop us. >> the mnlf fighters opposes

government peace talks with another separatest group, the islamic liberation front. >> they don't need to die. they can fight what they believe in other means, legal means, not like this. >> but the mnlf fighters say they have reached a point of no surrender. >> it's safe to say rarely has a gathering of officials at the federal reserve been watched so closely. policymakers are meeting for a two-day session. everyone is waiting to hear if they'll pull back on that stimulus program and ending the fed easy policy money will likely drive interest rates higher. be sure to stay with al jazeera tomorrow for the federal decision and what it means for

you. the feds pay close attention to inflation and they say that we're not seeing much of it. over the past year they say inflation has been 1.5%. microsoft is giving investors a raise, a nickel to $0.28. they announced a stock buy back program. they told you about it last week, so get in line. on friday the new iphones will be hitting the stores. the iphones 5-1, and the lower priced 5-c will be released, but some have not been inpressed and shares are down $0.05. this is the day when gas

prices stop topping, and we'll likely never see gas prices dip more than $3 ever again. the average price today, $3.51 a gallon. the costa concordia is now up right. italian authorities will begin searching for the two people who died when the vessel capsized last year. >> reporter: it took all of the day and most of the night, but after a tense 19 hours the costa concordia was back up right. though still lying low in the water. the cruise ship was wrestled off the rocks now resting on a specially built underwater platform exposing the full extent of the damage for the first time. it looks like a housing block hit by an earthquake. >> the damage that you see is actually the weight modeling

itself around the rock. that damage happened in february, march of last year. we expected it to be hard for tear it off. but it came off quite nicely. >> reporter: the residents gave the engineers a hero's welcome. they've lived in the shadow of this wreck for over 20 months. >> i was overjoyed. it's unbelievable the amount of work employed in such an extraordinary operation. >> i'm happy they pulled it up right. i'll be happier once they move it out of here. >> reporter: this phase is over, but the search for the two victims never found begins. divers will be able to explore parts of the ship that were previously impossible, and then the cabins will be searched and the passenger passenger's belont left will be returned to them.

insurance will not cover all of the cost. >> it would take some time because now we have brought it in the up right position. what we have to do is equalize and eventually we will float the vessel with the help of th help. >> so this floating city will sit for at least another eight months. a reminder of the human error of its captain and the incredible achievement of its engineers. >> at least 40 people are dead after two powerful storms converged on mexico forcing massive evacuations there. the twin storms have affected two-thirds of the country. they created some of the worst flooding in decades,al could

pull co-hardest hit 40,000 tourists remain stranded. >> very heavy rains still present across eastern portions of mexico and also across southern portions of texas. we have over cast clouds from san antonio down to brownsville. there is instability in the atmosphere and that's when we'll see the storms fire up because of ingrid because of the mountains across eastern portions of mexico. this system converged with manuel and those two systems had quite a bit of moisture associated with them. ingrid was a hurricane. now a remnant low. through the several days we'll have to deal with significant amounts of rainfall.

beneficial rain for them. now what we have to take in mind is the situation in mexico's very similar to what we have evidenced in colorado just a few days ago. it's called oro graphic lift. it's whenever the clouds come on in to the mountainous terrain and then we have the clouds lifting. the cooler air creates the instability and then those clouds burn across the terrain. that's when we see the heavy rain, the sheets of rain pushing across the region. luckily today we will not have to deal with that across colorado. we'll have an area of high pressure in control. that will usher in plenty of sunshine. you are probably looking at this map and wondering why do we have the warnings still. it's the south plat area i-70 and i-25, i want you to take it easy, del, back to you? >> thank you very much. do you feel the need for speed?

bikers hitting the road, but in a place you probably would never ever expect. that story next on al jazeera. my name is jonathan betz.

>> there are new details coming out about the alleged navy base gunman aaron alexis. he was arrested it was for gun-related offenses and discharged from the navy in 2011. alexis was cash strapped saying he once called in the middle of the night for money to effects a broken car. he was also a subcontractor for hewlett-packard for navy i.t. project which is the reason police believe he had access to the navy yard. there will be a news conference at 2:00 p.m. this afternoon. stay with us on the latest of the investigation. >> biker gangs are developing in the iraqi capital. >> reporter: like many youth the world over showing off comes naturally. this loosely affiliated group of young men called themselves the

baghdad knights. in this city full of checkpoin checkpoints, lock downs and car bombs, an empty stretch of road is a rare thing and they take full advantage to let off steam and perform some tricks. their leader called him jackie chan. by weekday he is a photographer. but on the weekend day it's about the bike and finding something for him and his friends to do. >> we set up the club because there is nothing else to do. the government doesn't provide with us places to go. this provides us a chance to get together and enjoy the bikes. >> reporter: some of the bikes can reach high speeds and all the tricks are self-taught. it's not just a risky business safety-wise but legally as well. >> reporter: activities like these are becoming more and more popular. but using the road like this is technically illegal. and authorities harass the baghdad knights quite a lot which means they have to often change location.

>> despite what the group calls harassment, they'll never give up the bikes. >> it's in my blood. no matter what the police do i will never quit. >> reporter: getting the bikes in iraq is expensive, but it gives the crow a sense of identity in a post-war far from a peaceful place. these men are old enough to remember the worst of the war. bikes give them a chance to think about something other than violence and security. it offers them a reason to look forward to the weekend. al jazeera, baghdad. >> can speed cameras be far behind? live from new york i'm del walters. as always for news updates from around the world all day go to www.aljazeera.com. we'll have that news conference from the fbi coming up at

2:00 this afternoon concerning the washington, d.c. shooting investigation. dating back to the days before genghis khan - mongolian wrestling has a 7 thousand year history. in an age of rapid modernization this ancient form of fighting remains a celebrated tradition. >>there isn't any weight class, no fighting ring or weight division and there are times when a small wrestler is paired up with a much bigger one