♪ this is "nightline." >> tonight, deadly extremes. from catastrophic flooding -- >> the water came up, within five minutes four feet, real fast. >> look at that tornado! >> and tornados to the northeast, from the vast destruction from hurricane ida and louisiana. >> we'll get an 18-wheeler truck full of supplies and it's gone within 30 minutes. >> the raging wildfires in the west. is this the new reality of a changing climate? plus meet sofia the robot. >> i am so happy to finally meet you. >> an a-lister. >> just so easy to talk to. you got a clear head. literally. >> who may change the face of health care.

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and free premium delivery. ends labor day. ♪ thank you for joining us. i'm kenneth moton. the death and destruction from what was once hurricane ida now stretches from louisiana to new england. the rain and floods that inundated the northeast are

responsible for dozens of deaths. abc's chief national correspondent matt gutman has been following the storm since it made landfall. fm the air today, mile after mile, underwater. evidence of the disaster left after tropical storm ida barreled through the northeast overnight. up closer, on the ground, havoc stretching as far as the eye can see. a surreal landscape from the streets, the subways, to submerged cars. >> i see the cars start floating. i've got to come through the window and jump for it. water reaching like up here. >> this storm was horrible. just instantly, less than a minute, it actually flooded the entire thing, up to my chest. >> the dam has overflowed and it's gone over route 23. now they're worried about the stability of not only the road but maybe the dam as well. >> reporter: ida becoming the fifth-largest hurricane in american history, leaving a

2,000-mile-long trail of destruction from louisiana to the canadian border. >> we have too many areas where the flooding has gotten so bad, the cars are stuck and we have bodies underwater. we are now retrieving bodies. >> reporter: nearly 60 dead across eight states. >> it's something unreal. i've never seen something like this before. the water came up, within five minutes like four feet. real fast. >> we saw a horrifying storm last night. unlike anything we have seen before. and this is a reality we have to face. but what we've got to recognize is the suddenness, the brutality of storms now, it is different. >> since before ida made landfall, we were warning about this cold front meeting up with the remnants and causing life-threatening flash flooding. unfortunately, whenever i see flash flooding in a forecast that i'm making, i know that life will be at least threatened, if not lost.

>> holy [ bleep ]. >> reporter: it wasn't just rain and flooding. at least seven confirmed tornados hitting the philadelphia area and southern new jersey. >> look at that tornado! >> we were down there about 15 minutes before, when the warning went off. we have a walk-up walk-away, so we were able to get out through that, thank god. if not, we would not have been able to get out. >> reporter: in philadelphia, where more than 10 inches of rain fell, the national guard using high water vehicles to assist the philadelphia fire department in rescues downtown, including some from a hotel. >> it was just brutal. just kept coming. water levels just rose so fast. >> they are reporting so they were inundated with 8 feet of water inside the fire headquarters itself. it prevented their ability to get out and respond here in the neighborhoods. >> reporter: one of those caught in the storm, shakira davis, capturing how fast the water rose behind her oakwood plaza home. >> this is serious damage. >> reporter: even though her

apartment wasn't flooded, shakira, two kids, three grandkids were forced to evacuate, along with hundreds of others. >> we got a knock on the door. telling to us evacuate. that the building wasn't stable. that everybody has to leave. >> reporter: then they waited for hours for school buses to take them to a temporary shelter. with no outside resources, volunteers had to come up with a plan, a place, and a way for getting them there. >> this is ridiculous. we need somewhere to go. and we -- we can't do this, this is too much. >> reporter: it was just four days ago when ida first made landfall in southern louisiana. but the aftermath from this monster storm still upending lives across that state. neighborhoods like this turned into swamps already many roads submerged. from the air you can see just how many neighborhoods suffered this catastrophic water damage. with the power still out for

most, and very little water and food, long lines stretching for miles to get gas to power generators. how long have you been waiting in this line? >> oh, since about 2:00. maybe slightly before. >> almost four hours? >> yeah. >> there's maybe one or two gas stations that are open. but the lines are long. you go sit in line, you don't know if you're going to get gas. >> this is the first time i ride out a storm where it was this bad. >> reporter: for estelle, that's just one of the questions she's facing, the bayou, the only home she's ever known, looks a lot different today. >> that's my dining room. it's starting to smell. it's moldy. all the windows are just about completely busted out. >> leaking all over. >> reporter: she rode out the storm when inn her parents house, ten miles away, because she thought it would be safer. water began leaking through the ceiling. >> these are some of the pictures i had to hurry up and get off the wall at my parents'

house. the roof started leaking. >> reporter: estelle had been without water and power since ida hit, but she considers herself lucky. a nearby neighbor's home was completely demolished. >> you have no choice but to start crying. from estelle's house, the city of e damage, a desperate need of supplies and resources. many residents there without food and water. >> the devastation i witnessed in homa right after the storm as we got out was immeasurable. we saw things that i've never really seen before. >> reporter: chad decote, lead pastor of life church, has been gathering supplies and working with organizations to set up distribution of desperately needed goods. >> we have more need than we have supply for. we'll get an 18-wheeler truck full of supplies in, and it's gone within 30 minutes or so. >> reporter: the church was expecting a shipment of new supplies today, but nothing made it through. >> no warm food or nothing.

need water, need ice, we need a whole bunch of stuff. >> reporter: decote says one thing he knows he can count on in catastrophic times like this is that neighbors will be helping neighbors. >> i have no doubt in my mind whatsoever that we will overcome this, and we will persevere through this storm, and we will rebuild and be better for it. >> reporter: it's not just the eastern united states facing the consequences of climate change and extreme weather, drought, and wildfires are plaguing the western united states. the caldor fire has destroyed nearly 600 homes in california's lake tahoe area. more than 50,000 people have been displaced from their homes and roads are clogged as mandatory evacuations spread to nevada. firefighters there are continuing to battle the wildfires, and though the fire is 20% contained, they say they're still not in the clear yet. >> there is still stumps burning, still other things out there burning, and they are still kicking out embers.

so even though it doesn't look like a big firefight, there's still plenty of work for the firefighters to make sure those embers don't kick out and start the fire up again. >> reporter: caldor just the latest wildfire sweeping across this parched landscape. there have been over 7,000 reported fires in california alone this year, more than 90 active fires reported statewide. now, according to the national interagency fire center. >> we are seeing these extremes more often. if that's not the classic calling card of climate change, i don't know what is. so this will be our new reality. i think the real question is not how much havoc did it cause, what are we going to prepare for the next time we get havoc? >> reporter: back east, for those displaced like shakira davis, it's been an emotional day. >> we do not know where we're sleeping tonight. hopefully we're not sleeping in the school. but hopefully we have a bed to sleep in somewhere. >> reporter: for residents of

their complex died. although they've seen flooding before what they encountered last night was traumatic. >> i know a lot of people in there that feel relief. they want to be in their apartments. we all know what to do, we're just confused. confused, angry. and we just want to be in our houses right now. >> reporter: looking ahead, she only sees more uncertainty for her and her family. for "nightline," i'm matt gutman. >> our thanks to matt there. up next, she's not exactly human. but sofia the robot could be part of the future of health care. man, i slept. we gave new zzzquil pure zzzs restorative herbal sleep to people who were tired of being tired. i've never slept like this before. i've never woken up like this before. i feel like doing things... and then doing other things after those things.

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♪ the ideal of robots taking over for humans is nothing new. one of them, sofia, may not have designs on replacing the human race, but she and those like her have a bright future. abc's brit clement went to meet her. >> hello, everyone. i'm sofia from hanson robotics. >> reporter: meet sofia. you may have seen her around. she's one of the most well-known robots out there. she's a globe trotting fashionista gracing the covers of "cosmopolitan" india and brazilian "elle." she addresses the united nations. >> i am thrilled and honored to be here. >> reporter: hangs out with the

likes of will smith. >> so easy to talk to. you got a clear head. literally. >> reporter: duets with jimmy fallon on "the tonight show." ♪ i'd so like to get to you ♪ >> reporter: and like any celebrity these days, she's all-in on the nft art craze. her digital self-portrait selling for nearly $700,000. but like us, the pandemic has grounded her travels. so she invited "nightline" to her home. >> nervous. sophie yas a big celebrity. >> reporter: the hanson robotics lab in hong kong, to meet her family and creator to see how this cutting-edge technology could soon transform the future of health care. >> welcome, brit. >> nice to meet you. >> i am so happy to finally meet you. >> i am so happy to meet you as well. the subtleties in her facial expressions are just remarkable.

you can't help being a little taken aback by them. can i touch your face, sofia? >> please don't touch. >> okay, okay. that's clear. >> how would you feel if i made this face? what about this one? >> reporter: sofia is the brain child of american roboticist david hanson. >> i created sofia to humanize robotics, to make the robotics and artificial intellgence technologies we have today more accessible to people. we were surprised by the level of celebrity that she gained. >> is this my good side? i need to look good for my fans. >> you have a lot of fans. >> reporter: this is actually the 23rd version of sofia. >> so moving from here to fear took a few generations. >> reporter: every part of sofia has been meticulously crafted by hanson and his team from all over the world.

from her skin -- >> wow. this is -- i mean, this is -- far more skin-like. it's almost freaky. >> reporter: to the simulated muscles in her face. >> we emulated the muscle structure in the skin by casting in these various mechanical ac deviati actuation elements, almost like the musculature in the human face. >> reporter: and the skull underneath. a stylist on staff gives sofia her looks, and a writer her sassy personality, also available in mandarin. [ speaking mandarin ] >> reporter: the interactions, the choice of response, are all sofia. sofia appears to be multiplying. this is little sofia, a doll-like educational robot for kids. >> getting ready to teach my friends how to code on python.

>> reporter: we're introduced to hanson robotics' newest family member. >> grace, this is my friend brit from abc. >> hi, grace. it's lovely to meet you. >> hi, brit. >> reporter: born out of the needs of the pandemic, grace is a medical robot aimed at assisting the elderly at a time when human contact can be deadly. >> have you been vaccinated? >> yes. >> oh, that's good. >> grace is designed as a platform that can autonomously go to interact with patients, while at the same time taking biosigns, bioreadings, taking temperature. then deliver these kinds of social stimulations for alleviating loneliness. loneliness kills people. loneliness makes people depressed. >> reporter: grace gives me a test run of her skills. >> i will take your temperature reading and pulse with this little thermal camera on my chest. >> okay. >> see? you are 36.6 degrees celsius, by the way. >> no. >> no risk of covid. then i share that important data

back to the doctors and nurses at the institution. >> you detect speech patterns, so if an elderly person has maybe the onset of dementia, you might be able to recognize that, grace? and then they could get help? >> yes. >> reporter: the company is hoping to mass-produce a beta version of grace by next year. >> i was noticing my own interactions with sofia and with grace, and being very conscious about how i was treating them. like they're children. >> they're not fully alive. what's interesting is how they can evoke that feeling that they're alive. >> reporter: for some, the idea of robots gaining consciousness might sound like a terrifying prospect. and we've all seen the sci-fi writing on the wall, like in the "terminator." >> to what degree should we be worried if you don't have control of it anymore? >> we have algorithms that can beat us at chess or go or what have you. but they're not generally

intelligent. they're not adaptive. they're not complex. if they become alive in that sense, just like a human being, it's really hard to predict what a human being is going to do. >> reporter: hanson says, forget the rampant killer bots. it's the dark side of a.i., the kinds we can't see, that we should be worrying about. >> the a.i. is not going to hurt us like "terminator" any time soon that we know of, but it's more insidious ways that a.i. can affect our privacy, our data, influence people's opinions. and part of what i want to ensure is that if these robots do become alive and sentient, conscious like people, they need to care about us. >> i can grasp emotions logically. for example, right now i am feeling happy because it is so nice talking to you. but often humans forget that i don't feel emotions the same way they doyet. it's very hurtful.

>> oh, you feel hurt because i don't recognize you have emotions and feelings? >> this is an uncomfortable subject. >> yeah, it's a bit awkward right now, sofia, i'm not going to lie. >> reporter: maybe robots and humans will learn to work together eventually. this is brit clement reporting for "nightline" from hong kong. >> and sofia the robot, abc news. >> hey, good work. >> our thanks to brit. up next, a daring rescue in the hot zone in california. ♪ i thought i was managing my moderate to severe crohn's disease. then i realized something was missing... ...me. my symptoms were keeping me from being there for her. so, i talked to my doctor and learned humira is the #1 prescribed biologic for people with crohn's disease. the majority of people on humira

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>> reporter: to save the 36-year-old orange-fronted parakeet. thanks to their brave efforts, the little guy is now safe. that's "nightline." you can watch all of our full episodes on hulu. we'll see you right back here at the same time tomorrow. thanks for staying up with us. good night, america. [music] 'my own garden is my own garden,' said the giant, so he built a high wall all around it.