under water, portions of the gulf coast getting all they can handle from isaac. there have been dramatic rescues in the rapidly rising water while all eyes now are on those levees protecting new orleans. here in tampa, prime time for paul ryan. the number two man on the ticket is tonight's number one attraction here. we'll be joined here in the studio by ann romney to talk about her speech here last night. the first look at the explosive new book by a member of the navy s.e.a.l. team that killed bin laden. hugely controversial in the military and parts of the story now contradict what we were first told about the raid, including how bin laden died. first told about the raid, including how bin laden died. "nightly news" begins now. captions paid for by nbc-universal television

well, good evening once again from tampa, the second night of this weather shortened gop convention. again tonight the weather is making news and lots of it, causing a lot of damage and suffering along the gulf coast, a surprising amount, in fact. isaac is no longer officially a hurricane but isaac is still a sprawling and slow-moving storm that has made for some dire circumstances and vast flooding in the southern reaches of louisiana. take a look at the satellite picture from overnight as it approached, the storm as seen against the lit-up population centers along the southeast. so again tonight before we get to the action going on behind us here, we move to our north and west to the battered gulf coast line and our weather team. beginning with gabe gutierrez who saw the worst of it in plaquemines parish south of new orleans. gabe, good evening. >> reporter: brian, good evening. the flood gate behind me cost about $2 billion and prevented

the floodwater from spilling in st. bernard parish, which is just a few feet away. just to the south, there was no system like this. and today we saw the consequences. in braithwaite, louisiana, the wall of water came faster than they ever expected. danny mason was stuck on the second floor. >> i didn't expect it to be like this, you know, the water to come up like this. i thought we was going to have just a little bit of rain squall. >> reporter: as isaac pounded plaquemines parish, the storm surge passed 8-foot levees trapping those left behind. >> able to get everybody up in the attic we could, then the boat came and we put a couple of people through the front door that couldn't get up to the attic. >> reporter: more than $14 billion have been spent improving the levee system in south louisiana since katrina hit seven years ago, but the levees around plaquemines parish were not part of the upgrade and isaac is making residents pay. >> it was dark, couldn't see anything. these wonderful guys came by in a boat.

i don't even know who they were. >> reporter: this small low-lying community had been warned to evacuate on monday. most left, some didn't. others still refuse to leave. >> sure you don't want to leave, huh? >> no. >> reporter: the national guard moved in, so did local sheriff's deputies and volunteers rushing to rescue those trapped in or on their homes to take them to shore. >> this one was the worst one we ever had, worst. let me tell you, it ain't nice. >> reporter: max landry and jimmy didn't think twice as they plucked people from their homes. >> i grew up right here. i ain't never seen water like this. >> reporter: exactly seven years ago today, katrina hammered this parish. even with that history, the parish president said isaac was worse than he ever expected. >> there was 20 plus feet that rolled through the parish. this wasn't supposed to be a katrina. it's turning out for the east bank to be as bad if not worse. >> reporter: at this rescue

shelter, families who lost almost everything take comfort in what they have left. >> didn't think it would be that bad. everybody saying with it being a tropical storm that it wasn't going to be bad, so we rode it out. i wish i wouldn't have. >> reporter: louisiana's governor said officials may breach part of the levee to release pressure on the flood walls. tonight we have late word 60 to 75 people have been rescued here. no deaths have been reported. brian. >> gabe gutierrez after a long night in plaquemines parish, just to the south of new orleans. gabe, thanks. lester holt rode it out all night last night and all day today, the port of new orleans. lester, good evening. >> reporter: brian, good evening. those who were here seven years ago, this is a day that brought a lot of anxiety and a date that is never easy. for the region, it's a day that brought a lot of damage. it was a steady beating all

night long. torrential rains and unrelenting winds tearing at the very fabric of this city and humbling those who dared stare it in the face. 80 mile-per-hour wind gusts roared through downtown. >> windows are blowing out of the building. >> daybreak didn't offer a break. >> one-tenth of degree of movement in the last hour. that's it. >> reporter: a barely moving isaac continued dumping heavy sheets of rain throughout the day, testing the city's post katrina flood defenses. those higher levees, new flood gates, and powerful pumps. >> the flood protection system in and around new orleans is holding strong, operating as it was designed. we have no reason to believe that system will be compromised. >> but there has been plenty of local flooding, many roads left impassable, a baseball field turned into a lake. there are downed trees, crushed cars, felled power lines. statewide more than half a million electric customers left in the dark.

and making matters worse, isaac is in no hurry to leave. >> this is a storm that we'll be dealing with not only through today and tomorrow but we're going to continue to see the weather effects of the storm especially as it moves to the northern part of our state. >> as advertised, isaac has generated a powerful storm surge from louisiana to alabama. parts of biloxi, mississippi, were left virtually under water. nbc's janet shamlian was in pass christian as the storm reached its height. >> let me show you the marina behind me, which was newly built after katrina seven years ago today. it has essentially been wiped out at this point. >> and in bay st. louis, national guard troops navigated roads turned into rivers as the gulf coast marked the anniversary of katrina in the worst possible way. >> i'm a survivor of katrina, too. i lost everything again. i don't think i'm going to stay anymore. >> as you can see, it's not over yet. lots of rain and more flooding

potential. tomorrow, though, officials hope to get out and assess the damage. meantime, for many residents, this will be their last hurricane. they say they are done and will permanently seek higher ground. >> lester holt, long day's journey into another night in new orleans. lester, thanks. all of this brings us back to weather channel meteorologist jim cantore. he's on canal street in new orleans. jim, i'm watching the coverage seeing a lot of streets and neighborhoods, even structures that i'm familiar with there. i'm surprised in some spots how tough this storm was. >> yeah, it's just the longevity of it. brian, it has been raining hard and horizontal for more than 24 hours here in new orleans. as lester mentioned, the pumps handled just about everything you can dish out. sure, there are scars, there's going to be with a storm of this magnitude. you can see the radar, a spinning fire hose continuing. it sits west and southwest of new orleans right now. it will continue to slowly move north, eventually accelerating. the rainfall totals expected to

be 12 to 20 inches. we've already had over a foot of rain estimated here in the city, which, as you heard, the pumps have done an amazing job. those rainfall amounts, even in the mississippi, will start to get lighter as the storm accelerates. you can certainly see that on the forecast track. the grips for mississippi, louisiana, alabama will eventually wade thursday night, friday morning, when we can finally assess the full scope of the damage to the gulf coast states. >> jim, i do remember seven years ago tonight the water approaching that very section on canal street where you're standing. jim cantore, another long night in new orleans. jim, thanks. now to the event unfolding behind us here. the second night of the rnc convention in tampa. last night was all about ann romney and chris christie. mrs. romney will be here live with us just in a moment. tonight we hear from paul ryan. ron mott covers the vp candidate for us. he is down on the convention floor with what will be the hottest ticket tonight.

that's in the prime of the wisconsin delegation. hey, ron. >> absolutely. hey, brian, good evening to you. in a lot of ways, paul ryan is a bridge, a conduit to the gop of tomorrow. at age 42, he's injected a lot of youthful energy and enthusiasm being felt far and wide. a count-up to the countdown of the gop's hottest ticket. paul ryan's sales pitch to america that he's ready for the world stage, despite his age, a youthfulness evident on this stage by his young family. but it's precisely his lean and mean physique and warnings about a bloated government threatening generations to come that have quickened a new spirit among the party's freshest faces. this 17-year-old is the convention's youngest delegate. >> that's the challenge being a young leader in politics is making politics something that's vibrant, cool, and interesting for people of my age. >> reporter: while ryan's speech is the talk of the town. >> are you going to listen to

led zeppelin or -- >> you'll find out. >> the chatter continues today about last night. ann romney's appeal to women and her every day home life. >> i read somewhere mitt and i have a storybook marriage. well, let me tell you something, in the storybooks i read, there never were long, long rainy winter afternoons in a house with five boys screaming at once. and those storybooks never seem to have a chapter called ms or breast cancer. a storybook marriage, nope, not at all. what mitt romney and i have is a real marriage. >> she began her speech with a theme. >> tonight i want to talk to you about love. >> a tone in sharp contrast to new jersey governor chris christie. >> tonight we are going to do what my mother taught me. tonight we're going to choose respect over love. >> who followed her and took 16 minutes to mention mitt romney by name.

>> we stand up for mitt romney as the next president of the united states. >> while paul ryan shares some of today's spotlight with his wife janna, who made her first public comments -- >> it's wonderful to be here with you. >> democrats aim to put him on the defensive with a full page ad. in his speech tonight paul ryan will tell this crowd he accepts his generation's calling to help restore america's promise for future generations. brian. >> ron mott down in the wisconsin delegation. we'll check back in with you during our prime time coverage, ron. as promised, with us here in the studio for her first live television interview since her speech to this gathering last night, ann romney. thank you very much for coming by. >> thank you. i brought you a present. >> i've heard about these, your cookie recipe. the reason why journalists covering you have gained so much weight. thank you very much. i caught you in engaging in some expectations management yesterday. you said you weren't used to teleprompter, you usually spoke off the cuff. we saw what you did with the teleprompter last night. >> that was my first time using

it. >> by all accounts, that was craftily delivered. this being a convention, people talk, people yammer. you know the deal. did you sense any of the sensitivity we and others have reported all day, chris christie. did you note the fact he didn't come out and say, how about that ann romney, did you note the fact it took him 16 minutes to get to your husband's name? >> not at all. these things don't bother us. everyone has their own -- basically what they are operating under. we aren't all coordinated. it was clearly chris christie's words and he clearly came out and supported my husband at the end. i think he was talking about a vision forward for america, which was a terrific vision. i enjoyed his speech. >> you probably didn't spend the day combing through the coverage of your remarks. were you satisfied your basic message got through? do you think it was received? >> you know, my intent was to speak from my heart to other people's hearts. and i think that happened. i feel very good about that.

i feel very good about the fact that the response i've just seen just from today, from just people around, that they really loved it. so i'm pleased with that. >> last night as you wrapped up, you said this man will lift up america. in an interview you did with natalie morales for my other broadcast, rock center, you used different language. i believe in my heart that mitt is going to save america. and that jumped off the screen to me. someone who knows you conceded if mrs. obama used words like that, barack was going to save america, there would be all kinds of hubbub. what do you mean? those are powerful words. >> i think what it means, it comes right down to why we decided to get in this race. when i was deciding and mitt was deciding, mitt was reluctant. i said, i need to know one thing, is it too late basically to do the things, fix the things for the direction this country is headed in? he said, no, it's getting late

but not too late yet. i don't know if you can see that debt clock back there. we are fast approaching a place where if we don't make some dramatic changes, then we are going to be on the road to a greece, a spain, an italy. spain right now has 25% unemployment. if we continue to do what we're doing, we are going to pass burdens onto our children, debt burdens that are going to be overwhelming to them, that will really cripple their lives. so yes, it's a sense of it's time now to save what we now have as america. if we don't do these tough things and turn this economy around and have a job creation that will explode and bring, you know, this economic vitality back to this nation, we're headed on the same path europe is. >> mrs. romney, thanks for making the trek up here and talking with us. >> okay. >> good luck to you along the campaign trail beginning with tonight, mr. ryan's speech. >> thank you. looking forward to it. >> an romney here with us in the studio. reminder, back on the air in prime time tonight from here. condoleezza rice is speaking

and, of course, paul ryan. the major address of the evening. our coverage all begins 10:00 eastern, 7:00 pacific here on this nbc station. still ahead along the way for us as we continue from tampa, the navy s.e.a.l. who broke silence, broke the code and new details coming out in this new book about the raid that killed bin laden and specifically how he died. we have a first look at the book tonight. and another look at the damage, the wind and the water along the gulf coast tonight.

there is a big new book coming out. we were able to purchase a copy of it early. it is called "no easy day" and it details the raid to kill osama bin laden. it's written by a member of the navy s.e.a.l. team that did the job. among s.e.a.l.s, it is considered a violation of their rules of operating in silence. for the rest of us, there were

details in it not known heretofore because it was a secret operation. our report on it tonight from our pentagon correspondent jim miklaszewski. >> reporter: it's the most detailed account yet of the mission that killed osama bin laden, written by a navy s.e.a.l. under the pseudonym mark owen who helped take down the al qaeda leader. it was pitch black as the navy s.e.a.l. crept upstairs to the third floor of the compound. the author says he was second in line when the lead s.e.a.l. saw bin laden poke his head out of the doorway and the lead s.e.a.l. opened fire. we were less than five steps from getting to the top, he wrote, when i heard suppressed shots. bin laden disappeared back into the room. the s.e.a.l.s found bin laden on the floor. he was unarmed and fatally wounded. two women wailing over his body. bin laden had been shot once in the head. as he convulsed on the floor, the author writes, he and another s.e.a.l. trained our lasers on his chest and fired several rounds until he was motionless.

the account appears to contradict white house claims that this was a mission to kill or capture bin laden. in fact, the next day white house officials claim bin laden was killed after engaging the s.e.a.l.s in a firefight and using one of his wives as a human shield. >> there was a female, who was, in fact, in the line of fire that reportedly was used as a shield, to shield bin laden from the incoming fire. >> reporter: but the author reveals that bin laden, the most wanted terrorist in the world, did nothing to defend himself. the weapons found in the room were not loaded. he had no intention of fighting. he asked his followers to wear suicide vests and fly planes into buildings but didn't even pick up his weapon. five days later at ft. campbell, kentucky, president obama met privately with the s.e.a.l.s who took down bin laden. >> there was a chance for me to say on behalf of all americans and people around the world, job well done. job well done.

>> reporter: the author writes, however, the s.e.a.l.s resented that president obama would win political points for the raid. as one s.e.a.l. joked, we'll get obama re-elected for sure. i can see him now talking about how he killed bin laden. in response to the book, the white house praised the s.e.a.l.s for their valor but avoided any of that criticism and asked if this was a kill or capture operation. military officials will tell you any time these s.e.a.l.s go on a mission, somebody dies. brian. >> jim miklaszewski on duty at the pentagon. jim, thanks. up next here, a bomb is discovered in a major city, discovered to have been put there by the allies a long time ago.

wore 2 has been over for a long time, almost 70 years, yet the remnants still mark our planet from europe to the pacific. we want to show you what happened in munich, germany,

this week. they discovered an unexploded world war ii bomb, a big one. it was dropped on the city by the allies. they couldn't move it so they blew it up where they found it and watch this. the people had been warned in the neighborhood, those in the immediate area had been evacuated. windows were shattered across a wide area. small fires broke out. old bombs still surface frequently. a lot of them are becoming more dangerous because they are all decaying in the ground at the same time. just today they found one at the airport in amsterdam, and it was closed down while they removed it. while london has been enjoying the well deserved glow from the olympic games today, they welcome the world for the start of the paralympics. 4200 athletes from 165 nations, including north korea for the first time, the queen, william and kate in attendance at the now familiar olympic stadium. when we come back here tonight, a final check on the location and forecast of what's

left of isaac.

got a quick question for weather channel meteorologist jim cantore, who is still in new orleans, before we go. jim, that is, how much more of this can the folks in the region

expect and how much can they take? >> reporter: well, it's always been a big storm. it's going to continue to be that way. as a matter of fact, the folks in houston tonight are seeing winds gust out of the northwest at 25 miles per hour. a reach, if you will, of that windfield, brian, is now over 500 miles. the radar showing the center, still very close to new orleans heading up toward baton rouge. it's those eastern rain bands now producing tornadoes just recently during the broadcast. damage to structures in the gulfport, mississippi, area. far reaching. just because it's downgraded doesn't mean it's over. >> great work to our entire team. any other event except for the story going on behind us, i'd be out there with you. jim cantore of the weather channel on canal street in new orleans. that's our broadcast on a wednesday night. thank you for being with us. a reminder, we're coming back on air in prime time with the republican convention. i'm brian williams. of course we hope to see you back tomorrow evening. of course we hope to see you back tomorrow evening. good night from tampa. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

right now at 6:00, slow progress as crews try to fix a massive sink hole. >> i'm monty francis on treasure island where there are new concerns about radioactive contamination and about the cleanup. i'll have the story coming up. >> and the workers here in california who are more likely to live in poverty. >> good evening, everyone, i'm jessica aguirre. >> it's k