tragedy in tennessee torrential rains cause massive flash flooding taking at least 21 lives with many still accounted for this morning. henri slams the northeast. high tides -- high winds, surging tides and knocking out power to tens of thousands this hour and it's not done yet. to an nbc news investigation. the extreme scams to steal your identity and your money. criminals even wearing disguises. overnight bitcoin soars above $50,000 with the crypto

market topping $2 trillion for the first time in nearly three months. plus, how some historically black colleges and universities are managing to wipe out student debt to offer graduates a fresh start. "early today" starts right now good morning hope you had a good weekend. i'm phillip mena. >> i'm vinita myer today we may get approval of one of the first three vaccines. the fda could grant pfizer full fda approval a recent study conducted by the u.s. census bureau has found more than 25 million americans say they will probably or definitely not get vaccinated. >> reporter: exhaustion setting in as health care workers battle a fourth covid wave and a

relentless pandemic. >> we're trying to do our best but something has to give. >> reporter: florida topping 3 million cases, the third state to do so jesse jackson and his wife hospitalized after testing positive for covid-19. the reverend vaccinated back in january. meanwhile, icu beds filling fast five states within 10% of reaching capacity. mississippi experiencing the most hospitalizations since the start of the pandemic. state health officials ordering people to home isolate at the first knowledge of infection with covid-19. failure to do so could result in a $500 fine or even six months behind bars. mississippi is only second to alabama for lowest inoculation rates. their patience is wearing thin. >> it's especially hard right now. you look at it and say it's critical. >> reporter: vaccine hesitancy there runs deep even at the recommendation of former

president trump at a rally. >> i recommend take the vaccines i did it it's good. no, that's okay. >> reporter: still, vaccination rates nationwide are ticking up, a trend that could see another boost by the fda's first full approval of the vaccine. >> full approval by the fda would mean that some of the things that have been holding people back from getting vaccinated will hopefully be reduced or removed. >> reporter: a rare glimmer of hope in an unforgiving pandemic. nbc news. facing the biggest foreign policy crisis of his administration, president biden once again defended his decision to withdraw from afghanistan a recent cbsugov poll said 47% approved of how mr. biden was handling it. joining us from washington is jay gray

>> reporter: president biden spoke publicly about two possibilities on the ground. one, bringing more troops in to help with the evacuation the second, those troops could extend, stay a bit longer than his end of the month deadline for getting all of the u.s. forces out of the country. while he continues, as you said, to defend the overall process of withdrawal >> at the end of the day, if we didn't leave afghanistan now, when do we leave another 10 years another 5 years? another year i'm not about to send your son and your daughter to fight in afghanistan. i don't see where that is in our overall interests. >> reporter: with the pace of the evacuations, it has really stepped up dramatically over a 36 hour period this week and 11,000 people were flown out of the country. 18 commercial airliners have been added to the fleet that's helping move some of these

evacuees not flying into kabul but instead what are third party transfer countries and bringing the evacuees to the u.s. >> jay gray with the very latest on the withdrawals from afghanistan. the reaction to mr. biden's handling of that jay, thanks. thousands of an bfghans descended on the area to evacuate. >> reporter: the evacuation in kabul is extremely chaotic and it is not at all what it was intended to be this was supposed to be for american citizens, foreign contractors, afghans who worked with u.s. troops instead, the 2taliban moved in earlier than expected and the president of afghanistan suddenly ran from the country and now there is a state of panic.

people by the thousands, tens of thousands are rushing to this space. the americans on that base are not equipped to handle this. this has now become a kind of evacuation of refugees from the city. >> we're going to continue that in the days ahead and get out thousands more afghans who are at risk and/or who supported the u.s. military effort in afghanistan along with continuing to ensure that we are focused on getting american citizens out who want to leave the country. >> reporter: there are 6 million people that base is not equipped to handle the outflow of kabul. so now the u.s. is doing it. they're pushing ahead. they're trying to pick out the people they need while taking some of the others who are rushing the base and trying to prevent it from collapsing entirely richard engel, nbc news, doha.

now to the breaking news from tennessee where flash flooding has devastated a small community. fast-moving water caught the town of waverly by surprise. 21 people were killed and 20 others still unaccounted for the humphries county sheriff said one of his best friends is among the victims. >> i just went and got one of my best friends, recovered him. he drowned in this. >> there's houses moved off their foundation, cars and trees. i mean, this is almost a biblical proportions here, like a massive tornado come through here. >> the national guard working with local emergency teams to search back roads for the missing. meanwhile, flooding is a major concern in the northeast this morning tropical depression henri is expected to bring more heavy rain to new england today after already creating dangerous conditions over the weekend. here's nbc's kathy park. >> reporter: tropical storm

henri tore through new england downgraded from a category one hurricane but still packing a powerful punch with landfall with heavy rains and damaging winds. >> oh, my god. >> reporter: as it blew through rhode island it knocked out power to tens of thousands. >> i'm pleased to report the national grid has crews out working on restoration. >> reporter: president biden saying federal support is standing by. >> we have already prepositioned resources in the region to speed our ability to respond. >> reporter: massive waves crash the coast line closing narragansett beach residents venturing out when it appeared the worst was over. >> we lost the power at home so we came out to enjoy the waves here. >> reporter: in connecticut, more problems with power at least 24,000 customers losing electricity. kristen dahlgren is there. >> reporter: flash flooding could be a threat overnight

especially to the west of where we are here in connecticut four nursing homes had to be evacuated. 250 residents moved as the storm was approaching. with winds clocking over 50 miles per hour, massachusetts, trees didn't stand a chance. further inland roads turning treacherous. a damaging blow from henri as it winds down and moves out >> can't get out quick enough. kathy, thank you. let's find out where henri is now and what's ahead for us nbc's janessa webb is reporting from the tip of long island out in montauk >> reporter: i'm getting lucky this morning where the behavior of the storm system has been up and down and ifyou're across new york city, washington, d.c., philadelphia you are seeing the brunt of this system right now yes, it has been downgraded to a tropical depression. the impacts though, they are

still the same flash flood advisories and watches. they are still in place across new york city to the philadelphia area and even southern new england throughout the afternoon. look at some of these totals we're not done with the storm. at least two to three inches in some spots and then isolated areas up to 4 to 5 inches. the winds really not going to be an issue today going to be allowing power lines dipping back together but it's the rainfall, the storm surge we're actually done with look at current radar. the heavier bands are starting to make their way in throughout the area the latest track for the storm syst doesn't pusemuth.

new orleans, 97. the heat index near 100 degrees. so flooding still an issue for today, but for the rest of the week i'll have that forecast coming up. dry conditions, guys. >> that is great news for some, at least for most, janessa thank you. wisconsin server who received a hateful message service was good but we don't tip homosexuals. >> bitcoin bounces back. what's fueling the new crypto rally. >> tevteinhies salg an estimated

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♪ wake up, little susie, wake u ♪ we've both been sound asleep ♪ ♪ wake up little susie and weep ♪ ♪ the movie is over, it's 4:00 and we're in trouble deep ♪ the music world is mourning the death of rocker don everly one-half of the everly brothers duo. they were among the rock and roll hall of fame's inaugural hall of fame he died at home in nashville don everly was 84 years old. now to an nbc news investigation. fraud and extreme measures people are taking to steal your identity >> reporter: these are the faces of fraud, criminals doing

whatever it takes to steal covid cash the silicon masks, an attempt to trick facial recognition software. >> we've seen attacks from over 100 countries across the world >> blake hall is ceo of i.d. me. he estimates as much as $400 billion has been stolen from covid jobless programs alone half by foreign criminals, russian mobsters, chinese hackers, nigerian scammers who siphoned the money overseas. >> this is like letting people walk into fort knox and take the gold and nobody asks any questions. >> reporter: when states made it easier to apply for covid benefits online, crooks used personal information purchased in the dark corners. fraudsters went to extraordinary lengths. >> we've seen everything from halloween masks to 3d printed

masks to barbie dolls that folks would put up there. >> it's definitely an economic mask on the united states. >> when yvon matlock lost her job, she was told she was already getting relief money >> somebody had just gotten ahold of my social security number and was able to set up an account in my name. >> the fbi and secret service have opened up more than 3,000 investigations earlier this month a nigerian oil company engineer was charged with submitting more than 250 fraudulent claims in 17 u.s. states allegedly stealing almost $300,000 while sitting in nigeria. >> we'll probably never know exactly how much money was stolen at the end of the day we'll know how many we get back and how many people we put in jail. >> the biden administration is helping to spend 2 bi$2 billiont

most of the billions stolen are gone for good. >> plenty ahead here on "early today" including the bitcoin bounce back. what pushed the cryptocurrency past 50,000 again? and feeling ckluy? why we could soon see bigger powerball jack pots. g? boban bag! you get tobi bag. tobi bag? go for the handful! is olay better than your clean beauty? olay has 99% pure niacinamide. it's derm-tested. and now, it's cleanest formula with hydration that beats the $400 cream. tried. tested. never bested. shop at olay.com does your vitamin c last twenty-four hours? only nature's bounty does. immune twenty-four hour plus has longer lasting vitamin c. plus, herbal and other immune superstars. only from nature's bounty. how did kellogg's combine crunchy oat clusters

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show, we dive into smushing. now to bitcoin which is soaring at this hour topping the $50,000 mark and reaching a three-month high for the cryptocurrency here to talk about it is cnbc's geoff cutmore. >> what i say should come with a little bit of a public service warning that this is a very volatile asset class bitcoin back around 50,000, but remember, it was 64,000 back in april before we got the big selloff around chinese regulators expressing concerns about cryptocurrencies so hathat's a heck of a lot of volatility here. analysts saying maybe we had the growing rebound because paypal

says you can buy and hold bitcoin. bitcoin was talked about in connection with the infrastructure bill. that in part has given it some validation in washington if you're looking for a bigger gamble than bitcoin, take a look at the powerball tonight monday is the first time we've seen a monday draw powerball say this will lead to larger and more frequent big prizes ultimately here, but it is just worth bearing in mind. even though we're going to get three draws a week, it doesn't improve the odds necessarily so it's still a little bit of a gamble but if you like that, may be worth having fun tonight. >> can't win if you don't play it i like the way you put it. geoff cutmore, thanks for breaking down the math. coming up next, janessa will have your weather for the weekend. lowering the cost of higher owouation. sh y the surprise for

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in georgia some historically black colleges and universities are using federal funding and scholarship funding to erase student debt it's giving so many students a fresh start. cnbc's senior correspondent sharon ep perfect son has more. >> we were all surprised we were like, is this real is this really happening >> her fellow undergrads at clark atlanta university were stunned when they learned their unpaid student balances had been wiped out. >> when i found out i was speechless. >> reporter: the historically

black university was one of the first in the nation to cancel student debt with pandemic aid. >> $5 million assisted 2,000 students with account balances. >> the president of the university said the move will help boost enrollment and remove financial burdens that could prevent many students from graduating. >> we are re-inventing the college experience so that our students can graduate nearly debt free. >> cau and other schools have sparked a movement that's currently sweeping across the u.s. more than 20 historically black colleges and universities have cleared all or part of money owed for tuition and fees and experts say that number could grow >> i wouldn't be surprised if more institutions choose to utilize the funds to positively impact their students because we're still in the grips of this

pandemic. >> autumn, a junior and student government association president, said she and her friends were relieved at the unexpected financial assistance. >> a lot of students were contemplating how they were going to start fresh, come up with thousands of dollars. with that announcement that definitely allows some students to breathe. >> all of these students who have no prior account balances and their heads are lifted and they're smiling at the beginning of a new year makes me feel tremendously gratified on the inside. >> reporter: many hbcus including clark atlanta have seen an increase in alumnae and private donations. they're all trying to alleviate the debt load on students and allowing many to graduate with a clean slate. for cnbc, i'm sharon ep perfect son. >> great story. >> can't overstate how important that is. student debt is one of the most discouraging and debilitating

things about going to college. it takes a decade or more to pay off and then you're really in the hole. >> the trickle down more nationwide >> yeah. great idea. >> thank you for kicking off your monday with early day.

right now at 4:30, wildfires near the bay area continue to grow in size and the air quality continues to be bad for a lot of people. a smoke advisory now in effect and we're tracking the changing weather in your microclimate weather forecast. awaiting full fda approval. the milestone ahead for the pfizer vaccine and the changes it could mean for the fight against covid. this is "today in the bay." well, good morning, everyone. happy monday to you. i'm scott mcgrew. >> i'm kris sanchez. laura and marcus are