weather emergency. torrential rains and flood waters being measured in feet has led to at least two deaths as rescues of residents in desperate need of help across texas and more this morning new details to the bombshell whistleblower report and how the white house is pushing back. a desperate arch for a 5-year-old girl who disappeared from a playground. new clues and her family anxious for answers. to canada where 47-year-old prime minister justin trudeau's re-election campaign has turned into an apology tour as more and more images of him in blackface emerge if you're waking u this frit "early today" starts right now dp friday menah breaking ne.

southeast texas continues to face a dangerous flooding emergency. at least two people have been killed after former tropical storm imelda dropped multiple feet of rain in less than 24 hours. authorities have reported hundreds of urgent water rescues. for a closer look at the conditions here's nbc's gabe gutierrez. >> frances, this area got a whopping 43 inches of rain from this storm the most out of any area in southeast texas. water rescues were under way here for hours much of southeast texas is underwater and urgent rescues are under way. these families stranded in chest-deep water, rushed to safety fromhe hstonn is historic. >> how does this compare to hurricane harvey >> the feel of it is just like harvey and the people we're rescuing, saying they have more water now in their houses than they did during

opical storm imelda first unleashed tornadoes near houston late wednesday befor downpours overnight. >> wve heavy rain over the last several hours. >> reporter: 500,000 lightning strikes. 40 inches of rain drenching? areas. people driving in the wrong direction. and the city's police chief posting hours of rescue efforts on social media. >> whole families. >> reporter: first responders got more than 1,000 calls for help now the coast guard is on the move with more rain expected in the small town of hampshire kristen obaldi and her sister melissa were hoisted to safety >> going outside and seeing people begging for help it was really these are my kids. >> reporter: pregnant mom erica zamora is now at an emergency shelter with her children. her last 24 hours have been overwhelming but so i starting over with what? because i don't have anything.

>> reporter: sadly, she says her home made it through harvey but not this to give you an idea of just how fast this rain fell at busch airport in houston it got its average monthly rainfall for september in less than an hour and a half frances? >> gabe gutierrez, thank you let's turn to nbc meteorologist bill karins. he joins us now. it's astounding how quickly it became dangerous >> we saw one area that picked up almost two feet of rain in 12 hours. it's almost unheard of numbers in areas between beaumont and houston. now, the worst of it was this area where the pink is we showed you pictures and gave you the story there is of hampshire. that was 43 inches over the 72-hour period just incredible. we're at the tail end of we still have our flash flood watch for the region just because just a tiny bit of those have been dropped. and at 7:00 a.m. this morning we'll be down with our flash flood watch. you can see on our radar it doesn't look half as impressive even as 12 hours ago there was light rain here and there but there's no areas of great

concern for a lot of heavy rain. if we get anything our computers are hinting at down along the coast we could get another one to three inches but this is going to go in the record books. this is going to be the fourth time we've done this now in the last four years where we've had rainfall events like this. crazy. >> that trend is just startling. >> hopefully they get that break. thank you. details are continuing to trickle out about an allegedly troubling phone call involving president trump. a former official told nbc news that the communication was at the center of a whistleblower complaint. and now the "washington post" is reporting that two people familiar with the matter say it involved ukraine nbc news has not confirmed this, and the white house did not immediately respond to a request for comment. nbc's craig boswell olwing this for us from washington, d.c. craig, good morning. so how is the president responding to these reports? >> phillip, good morning the president is dismissing the reports as presidential harassment, putting it in a tweet. several tweets, actually and i can quote. saying "virtually anytime i speak on the phone to a foreign

leader i understand there may be many people listening. is anybody dumb enough to believe that i would say something inappropriate on such a potentially heavily populated call?" those are tweets from the president. this bombshell report has sparked a fiery standoff between the administration and congress. the complaint was filed with the intelligence community's inspector general by someone inside the trump administration according to the "washington post" the complaint involves a promise from the president trump to a foreign leader during a phone call now, democrats are demanding the acting director of national intelligence turn over the complaint, but he's refusing to do so. take a listen to this. >> this doesn't involve some policy disagreement. this involves an allegation of serious wrongdoing, something that the inspector general felt needed to be presented to congress, was squarely within the jurisdiction of the director of national intelligence, and it is unprecedented for a director to withhold that information from congress.

>> here we are with another battle between the trump administration and house democrats. the acting director of national intelligence is scheduled to testify before the house intelligence committee next week if the committee chair doesn't get the information they're incourt. phillip, back to you >> all right, craig, thank you for the update attorneys for president trump are trying to stop prosecutors from getting their hands on his tax returns they are suing his long-time accounting firm mazars usa and new york city district attorney cyrus vance argue og no prosecutor can investigate a sitting president. earlier this month vance subpoenaed trump's taxes as part of their investigation into the hush money payments to cover up alleged affairs. they're looking for potentially falsified business records in violation of state law the urgent search for a little girl in new jersey missing since monday continues police fear dulce maria alavez may have been ab dublthed at a park in d daylight a reward for anyone with

information on maria has climbed to rehema ellis has the latest. >> reporter: new surveillance video shows the last time 5-year-old dulce maria alavez was seen getting ice cream and playing with her little brother. her grandmother emotional, saying the family has barely slept since dulce's disappearance. police issuing an amber alert for a man they say may have driven off with dulce in a red van with tinted windows. >> time is of the essence. as time passes it gets harder to find her >> reporter: dulce's mother told police the family came to this bridgeton, new jersey park she stayed in the car while the kids played here minutes later dulce was gone shd daylight dulce's mother pleading for her daughter's return. >> we can't find my daughter >> reporter: the search growing on the ground and from the air as volunteers offer food, water, and reward money >> when i see her, she's like my

daughter at that young age and it hurts me seeing her disappear. >> reporter: a family desperate for answers in a race against time rehema ellis, nbc news, bridgeton, new jersey. now to a terrifying emergency for passengers on a delta airlines flight. when pilots quickly descended 30,000 feet. nbc's tom costello has details >> reporter: delta airlines flight 2353 was traveling from atlanta to fort lauderdale wednesday when pilots received d quickly, descending 30,000 feet in just eight minutes. >> there's an emergency inbound. >> reporter: as oxygen masks dropped, one passenger hugged his son. 121-year-old hn a roller coaster and you go down a steep hill the stomach comes up into your throat >> reporter: the plane finally making an emergency landing in tampa. >> reporter: it's never really something that you ever expect to experience. >> reporter: in a statement delta apologized to its customers saying the flight was diverted out of an abundance of

caution. passengers shaken but safe tom costello, nbc news from campaigning to apologizing, canadian prime minister justin trudeau is under fire once again as the blackface scandal continues to overshadow his re-election campaign new images of him dressed in a costume and covered in darkface have surfaced. this is the third instance in 24 hours which include the new video released by canadian news. trudeau called the photos racist and acknowledged he came from a place of privilege he also tweeted that he let people down and he is deeply sorry. here's nbc's ron allen with the latest >> reporter: phillip, prime minister justin trudeau's re-election campaign has turned into something of an apology tour with blackface or dark makeup when he was younger. even trudeau himself has said that this behavior is racist as he asked canadians for their forgiveness and for their vote >> this is something that i

deeply, deeply regret. >> reporter: canadian prime minister justin trudeau apologizing again after new images emerged of him in blackface. >> darkening your face, regardless of the context or the circumstances, is always unacceptable because of the racist history of blackface. >> reporter: trudeau seen here performing in blackface as a high school student at a talent show in the late 1980s and trudeau's political party confirmed it's also him in this video. it's unclear where or when it was shot the new images come after "time" magazine published this photo of trudeau at a gala for an elite school where he taught almost two decades ago. the theme, arabian nights. the offensive images made public as canadians decide whether to re-elect trudeau and his liberal party next pouncing. >> i believe he's long lost the moral authority to govern. >> reporter: the son of a former prime minister, trudeau burst onto canada's political stage four years ago, promising to be a leader for a multicultural

canada now in some minority communities a sense of betrayal. >> i think canadians are going to have a lot of questions about his sincerity. a lot of questions about who is the real mr. trudeau >> reporter: trudeau dismissed questions about whether he should drop out of the race. >> the choices i made hurt people >> reporter: and he would not definitively say whether more blackface photos exist trudeau has asked voters not to look just at those pictures but also his record. he insists he has followed through on his commitment to expand opportunity and to fight discrimination he'll know very soon what all this they go to the polls or phillip? >> all right, ron, thank you we are wrapping up summer this weekend so let's check in, see who can milk their last day or have to make other plans >> unfortunately there will be some summer-like thunderstorms in the northern plains this is going to be a very warm end to summer in many cases. today we're watching the dakotas, a little slice of nebraska, damaging wind, large hail tell you what, though, the

temperatures elsewhere are just almost midsummer-like. 90 in st. louis today. 96 in san antonio. new orleans at 88. betiful in theth on and off rain in the flood zone from imelda yesterday thunderstorm chance in the northern plains. the complete weekend, last summer forecast coming up. >> i'm excited about that one. more ways than one thank you, bill. the jacksonville jaguars picked up their first win in a thursday night game against the titans minchu leading the way at quarterback. the first-round pick tossed two touchdowns that was more than enough for the weekend. number 7 notre dame traveling to

athens to take on georgia. and top five match-up in fcs, top-ranked north dakota state. against uc davis that is the marquee match-up of the week the ravens and the chiefs. we'll be right back. ahhgh. so imagine how we cheered when we found tide pods sport. finally something more powerful than the funk. bye. i love you too! he didn't say that. tide sport removes even week-old sweat odor. if it's got to be clean, it's got to be tide. you sure you don't want me to come with you? because i can. make good choices. you make good choices. i am. fiber is good for digestive health. good choices never tasted so good. raisin bran

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the market they made no mention of any public pressure over the rifles but said that their decision is purely market driven colt insists it is a "stout supporter of the second amendment" despite this decision buzzfeed news pulling back the curtain on a major myth by nasa they are reporting a large asteroid almost hit the earth and nasa scientists didn't detect it. they acquired e-mails from the agency revealing an asteroid called 2009ok came 40,000 miles above earth's surface. that's five times closer than the moon if it would have struck our planet it would have devastated an area 50 mcuild on building a more reliable way to detect asteroids that's kind of disturbing. >> yeah. it happens i'm sure more than we know and it will continue to happen >> maybe ignorance is bliss. glad we didn't know about it >> i guess unless there's a way to stop it before it comes. just ahead, a welcome to the good life. find out which rapper stole the

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the in-laws have moved in with us. and our adult children are here. so we save by using tide. which means we use less. three generations of clothes cleaned in one wash. anybody seen my pants? #1 stain and odor fighter, #1 trusted. it's got to be tide. it's time now to check in with willie geist to see what's coming up on "sunday today." good morning, willie >> good morning, guys. good to see you. this week on "sunday today" my guest is neil patrick harris neil and i got together to talk about his 30 years in show business, from those early doogie houser days to your mother," winning a tony on broadway, hosting every awards

show you can think of and now writing the latest installment in his best-selling series of books. our sunday sit-d neil patrick harris plus the latest news and politics as always this weekend on "sunday today." you can catch us in the morning or set the dvr and watch us anytime you look i'll send it back to you, frances and phillip and we'll see you sunday morning >> that sounds good, see you then a major crackdown on an opioid pill mill ring in texas results in the arrest of 58 people including six doctors and seven pharmacists. prosecutors say they illegally distributed more than 6 million opioid pills across texas. the schemes resulted in medicare losses of more than $66 million. antonio brown made his first public comments in the preece locker room since the sexual assault allegations against him surfaced >> i'm grateful to play football every time you walk in the doors here, you know, you do your best for the team i'm just here to focus on the

ball and look forward to getting out there in the home stadium and being with the team. nike has dropped brown's endorsement deal after two women accused him of sexual misconduct brown has denied any wrong doing and no criminal charges haveena year's wnba mvp. the washington 43 possible first place votes. delle donne was also named mvp in 2015 with the chicago sky, making her the first wnba player to win for two different teams and the cherry on top, she became the first player in league history to shoot better than 50% from the field. it's not clear what exactly happened to angels pitcher andrew heaney during a game with the yankees but he uncorked one of the worst in-game pitches in recent memory. just a bit outside on that one the angels starter was shelled all night long as the yankees won their 100th game and clinched the a.l. east title for the first time since 2012. coming just two days after national cheeseburger day is

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and good morning on this friday, taking a live look outside in the city right there. you can see the transamerica building, beautiful way to wake uhm on a friday. good to welcome you with us on "today in the bay," i'm marcus washington. >> and i'm laura garcia. nice start to the day, kari, weather wise. >> a live look outside in palo alto, we have another cool start with some in some spots

there. we'll be at 56 degrees at 6:00, leading into some low here is a lookt a few low 90s o. concord up to 90. we'll talk m