the important deadline you need to know if you're booking holiday travel. you can actually afford. plus a special performance from broadway legend lord andrew lloyd webber. join us for our midday newscast at 11:00. good morning. new help and home across florida. >> a firsthand look at the damage and encouraging signs of progress. it's october 4th. this is "today." >> door-to-door. >> search and rescue! >> rescue crews reaching more survivors in communities cut off by ian, now one of the deadliest hurricanes in florida's history. we're there live. and al is tracking the remnants of the storm still soaking millions from the mid-atlantic to new england and creating new flooding fears this morning.

breaking news. north korea fires a missile over japan for the first time in five years. millions of residents urged to take shelter. the alarming escalation and the response from the united states overnight. scathing report. growing outrage after an investigation uncovers systemic abuse and misconduct in the national women's soccer league. and the owners and officials who turned a blind eye. inside the disturbing culture that apparently starts in youth leagues and what all parents need to know. jet lag. the looming plane shortage set to create even more chaos for the airlines and the deadline to circle if you are on the hunt for flights this holiday season. those stories, plus pay up. kim kardashian hit with a hefty fine from the s.e.c. over promoting cryptocurrency on her instagram page. the latest in a line of

celebrities targeted for a lack of transparency when it comes to posting on social media. and gold rush. the san francisco 49ers knock off the defending super bowl champion rams. >> this one is juggle picked, there goes hufanga. >> the hit on the night this protester running on the field, but not for long. >> yes, yes, that's what we are talking about. wagner, a veteran, get him down. get out and let these guys take over. >> today tuesday, october 4th, 2022. >> announcer: from nbc news, this is "today" with savannah guthrie and hoda kotb from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. good morning. good to see you, it's a tuesday morning, 7:00 a.m. on the west coast.

so happy you're joining us. >> the power has now been restored to nearly 2 million customers, roughly 1,600 people have been rescued. >> here in the northeast, remnants of ian are still wreaking havoc, heavy rain posing a major flooding threat. that's the view on our plaza right now. it could complicate travel out west. >> we've got it all covered including al's forecast. let's start with sam brock in fort myers beach. >> reporter: hoda, good morning. there are nearly 3,500 structures here in fort myers beach. almost all of them are damaged or destroyed, complicating the ongoing search and rescue efforts as the scale of the damage continues to amaze. hoda, look over my shoulder. boats there that are collected like toys. there is a boat hangar that is ripped out. more evidence of why some people are asking this morning whether or not evacuation orders came early enough. in between the sparsely populated homes on fort meyers beach are rows and rows of ripped up lots. some wiped clean of any trace of

life. >> search and rescue! >> reporter: it's the first ground level look at this island that took some of the worst that ian had to offer. the destructive hurricane claiming more than 100 lives, half here in lee county. monday search and rescue crews let us follow their frantic search for survivors and victims. >> where does this rank for you? i mean, do you think -- is this comparable to a katrina? >> absolutely. >> reporter: more than 1,000 people taking part in a massive rescue effort. >> that requires very extensive tedious, very slow, methodical searching. >> reporter: as this morning questions persist about wwhether the call for evacuations here in lee county came soon enough. by last monday at 5:00 p.m. the national hurricane center warned areas in lee county were in danger of life-threatening storm surge. the county didn't start ordering evacuations until the next morning, hours after neighboring charlotte county. jess foss, who lived here 40 years, and survived the storm,

has a different take. do you feel like the government gave adequate notification for mandatory evacuation? >> yeah. it was all over the radio. i mean, i didn't leave because i'm dumb. >> reporter: florida's governor also dismissing the monday morning quarterbacking. >> we should be focusing on lifting people up and stop incessantly talking and trying to cast aspersions. >> reporter: amid the tears. >> my mom was supposed to retire here and spend the rest of her life and be happy, and now we have nothing. >> reporter: there is light, too, as crews from florida power and light have already restored electricity to nearly 2 million customers. the remaining 400,000 expected to get it back by friday. >> between storm hardening and investments in smart grid technology, we have significantly shortened the amount of restoration time. >> reporter: the help coming from above as well. lieutenant nate jones, a 29-year-old u.s. coast guard pilot, one of the first on scene after the storm came ashore.

his team rescuing ten people and six pets. jones following in the footsteps of his father, captain bruce jones, who helped rescue thousands of survivors during katrina. >> this is what we train for. this is why we joined. when catastrophe strikes, we are racing to the call and ready to go out there and do our jobs. >> it's hard to imagine all the needs, sam, of the people there, but what are they telling you they need the most? what's top of mind? >> reporter: talking to people in this community, also friends who live here, they tell me schools are a major issue. there are more than a dozen in fort myers alone damaged. many are being used as shelters for those who are displaced. cars, so many folks have seen their only mode of transportation flooded out. so that is a problem as well. and then just electricity. cape coral, for example, has a smaller electrical provider, many people with no power whatsoever. so they are waiting in gas lines

to get fuel to put into their generators skprgs they're running out of gas while they're waiting in line. there is a fuel tax in florida that just kicked in, $0.25 off per gallon. that will help. florida state disaster relief fund collecting tens of millions of dollars, distributing that to those in need. >> that money can't come soon enough. sam brock for us there in fort myers beach. thank you. >> and the remnants of ian being felt down the east coast. a strong coastal storm could linger for days. al has the forecast details. we are feeling it in the northeast, al. >> sure are. overnight water rescues, high-water rescues. we are talking about some places picking up 6 inches of rain in southern new jersey, there's ocean city, new jersey, and we've got more on tap unfortunately. why? well, we've got this system. you can see the circulation. remnants of ian bringing in a cold, damp rain. it feels like 43 degrees in new york city. same in philadelphia. feels like 42 in winchester. scranton feels like 47 degrees where we have 16 million people

at risk for flooding. 1 to 2 feet of inundation possible. flooded streets, damaged property. here's the problem, jet streams up to the north, there's nothing to kick this system out, so it's just going to drift for the next 48 hours. and plus, high pressure pushing in those winds right-on shore. that's going to cause coastal flooding, probably airport delays as well because we have wind gusts, some of them tropical force gusts, ocean city 41, virginia beach 43, islip, long island, 31. heavier to parts of eastern new england, 2 to 3 inches of that, and we are watching a couple of developments down out in the atlantic. 92l, 80% chance. what we're really watching, 91l developing down here in the win ward islands, as we put the spaghetti plots. we are not worried about this one here, but 91 l we have to keep an eye on over the next few days. guys. >> all right. thank you so much. now to that breaking news

overnight. north korea firing a missile over japan sparking warning messages for millions and a swift response from world leaders. nbc's janis mackey frayer has more on the story. hey, janise. >> reporter: good morning. it's a major escalation by north korea and intermediate-range ballistic missile that flew 2,800 miles right over japan triggering warning sirens for millions of people to take cover. this is rare. only twice before have missiles flown over japan usually, they fly higher so the distance is into the air this one went 22 minutes, crashed into the pacific ocean overnight the state department called it reckless and dangerous with, quote, deeply destabilizing implications for the region already the u.s. is talking about appropriate joint response and south korea has announced that in the last couple of hours they conducted, quote, precision bombing drills as a response to this test. >> so the timing is curious.

why did north korea decide to launch this high profile launch at this moment >> reporter: well, there is all the usual friction over u.s. joint military exercises with japan and with south korea and north korea's claim that their weapons program is actually defensive. the concern now, hoda, is the pace of these tests. there have been five in over a week also the show of increased capabilities it can signal that perhaps north korea sees opportunity to test longer range weapons because the u.s. has barely reacted to any of the short-range ballistic missile testing it's done over the past year. as well, there is a sense this could be the preamble to a nuclear test, something kim jong-un hasn't done since 2017 so this could be a provocative step towards that. janice macky flayer keeping an

eye on nthat, thank you, janis and now to the protest for women's rights that have swept across iran. ignited by the death of a woman in the custody of the nation's morality police. they are the biggest demonstrations there in years and this morning iran's supreme leader is responding and placing blame on the united states ali arouzi in tehran for us this morning. ali, good morning. >> reporter: good morning. despite the authorities coming down hard, there are still pockets of protests with women at the helm across iran. this morning concern over renewed clashes in iran' universities after two weeks of unrest and deadly protests sweeping across the country. on monday iran's top technology university was shuttered following an hours-long standoff between students and the police that turned the prestigious institution into the latest flash point. amnesty international denouncing police for violently attacking and arbitrarily arresting university students. unrest ignited by the death of a young woman in the custody of