golden state has california battles massive flooding. and president obama does a 180 by keeping thousands of military members in the ba. lamar odom remains in a coma this morning but there are new details surrounding the money he spent that love ranch. plus, another story match up. and this might just be the greatest football catch of the year. "early today" starts right now. man, that was a good catch. good morning, everybody. i'm betty nguyen. southern california is dealing with the aftermath of record flooding. highways. backing up traffic for miles and stranding hundreds of vehicles

mud slides covered cars hundreds of feet deep and some drivers reported having their vehicles thrown around by the rushing mud. >> all we saw was a mountain of boulders and dirt and stuff coming right for us and it pretty much lifted my car up and spun us around like it was nothing. my wife rolled her window down and it was like a freight train coming through your house. it was loud, really loud. >> officials say it could take up to a day to clear the road. some residents are still trapped in their homes after side roads were washed away they had to rescue four people and two dogs from atop one car. other residents were hit by golf ball sized hail. so far, no reports of any fatalities. the burden of the longest

war in american history will be passed to yet another president. president obama is doing an about face on a pledge he made just last year. richard ingle reports. >> reporter: it's a war that just won't end. after 14 years, a trillion dollars, and more than 2300 american lives lost, the president said the mission is still not over. >> i've decided to maintain our current posture of 9800 troops in afghanistan through most of next year, 2016. >> reporter: it meant going back on a promise made just last year. >> by the end of 2016, our military will draw down to a normal embassy presence in kabul just as we've done in iraq. >> reporter: but iraq didn't work out either. the president ended up sending

thousands of troops back into iraq and said thousands will remain in afghanistan. >> i know many of you have grown weary of this conflict. as you are well aware, i do not support the idea of endless war. >> reporter: the president had planned to draw down forces from about 9800 focussed on counterterrorism to about a thousand next year. and under the new plan, those 9800 will stay through next year and 5 thousand,500 will stay after that. >> there doesn't seem to be clear plan for the future p. >> reporter: but the president is determined. former nba star, lamar odom, continues to fight for his life in a las vegas losshospital. nbc jacob has more. >> reporter: two days after he

lamar odom is still unresponsive. the in laws, the car dashian family asking the world to pray. t.j. moore is a manager at love ranch brothel who said he just wanted to get out of the spot light. >> we've all been praying. he's been through a lot and he can get through this too. >> reporter: the brothel owner tells nbc news he paid $75,000 and was getting ready to extend his stay. they say he used cocaine and herbal sexual stimmialant throughout his visit. he was here fully clothinged. it took four men to carry him. this shows odom in the ambulance.

>> at this point, the case is ongoing. >> reporter: sources close to the former nba star tell us sister network, doctors found multiple drugs in his system; that he suffered from a stroke and is in a coma. khloe has legal authority to make medical decisions for him. unconscious and little uncertainty ahead. >> and now people magazine reporting that kim kardashian has postponed the baby shower while they pray for his recovery. third quarter fund raising reports were due at midnight. and the most read story in campaign money raised democrats drastically out pacing. and hillary clinton is in first

with nearly $30 million and while ben carson was the highest by far, bernie sanders is in second, largely from grass roots support. sanders shared the moment he realized things were going well. >> we came in, drove by and there were these long lines of people and i said to the guy who was with me, what kind of ball game going on here? turns out, they were out our rally we had 7 or 8,000 people. >> donald trump also a grass roots spender. yeah, the first filing of his campaign reveals although he claims to be spending his own money, he's spending cash from mostly online donations and he's creating major drama ahead of the next gop debate. >> reporter: teaming with fellow candidate, ben carson, he's

debate on cnbc if it lasts longer than two hours and doesinantclude opening and closing remarks. trump and carson describe their demands as reasonable. and they note they have not done opening and closing remarks in past debates and they said they would take the views in consideration as they finalize the debate structure. and vice president biden remains undecided. >> are you running for president? >> i'll answer in curekorean. >> reporter: sources close to the vice president say he's calling allies to ask about his chances. a stark contrast to biden's indecision, clinton picking up a

key indorsement. now, lawyers for dennis hastert said that he has agreed to change his plea to guilty. the 73-year-old former speaker was accused making payments in hush money to cover up past misconduct and charged with lying to the fbi about it. they have said it involved a male student when hastert was a high school teacher in new york vill, illinois during the 1960s and 70s rr. el nino is back and with a vengeance. in fact, it's one of the strongest ever. that weather phenomenon is set to impact much of the country with wild extremes. >> reporter: in a year of wild extremes across the country, government forecasters set the

winter, even more weather whiplash. siting a rise in ocean temperatures, they say the growing el nino phenomenon will change weather from coast to coast. record snowfall could be replaced by historic warmth. where there was extreme drought, there could be epic floods. in the southern half of the country, from california to texas to florida, wetter than average. but the pacific northwest and the ohio valley will be much dryer. just today in texas, heat and fire. while in the northeast, millions are bracing for freezing temperatures. >> last weekend we had temperatures of 65 to 70 degrees in a good part of the northeast. as we get into the weekend, we're going to see the threat of snow at higher elevations. >> reporter: the northern half of the country will be warmer, while the southern plains and southeast will be colder than normal.

all right, let's get the latest on this el nino with bill karins karins. >> and this is additional video. how about this? a hailstorm in california today. at one point there was 9,000 lightning strikes in california yesterday. not exactly the type of weather you associate with california which is why they had the mud slides there. and freeze warnings from bismark down to nebraska and that's for this morning and saturday and sunday morning, freeze watches all the over to virginia. it with ilboo ethe end it will be the end of the growing season. and northern michigan, chicago, your temperatures will be steady, if not falling throughout the day. and into saturday, the cold air

and snow mixed with rain showers. cooler in the south and finally, cooler for our friends oklahoma down to texas. this is the fall weather you've been waiting for and that will continue into sunday and a little chillier than you'd like in new england but you'll warm up next week a lot. now here is a closer look at the day ahead. this is signs of cold air with a high of 43 and sunshine in deluth. and today will be the warmest day you're going to have with temperatures in the 50s and 60s in the northeast. i think we can deal with a little chill in the east after a very warm fall. >> speak for yourself. i like the warm weather. an early release from prison for the blade runner. and this takes the cake for

welcome back everybody. we have evacuations in central texas to talk about as a wild fire burns homes. and this brings military helicopters to dialeal with the blaze and it's only 15% cup contained. 38 acres in navarro and denton counties are also burning. and the navarro fire is 90% contained. and oscar pistorius, known as the blade runner, will be released from prison tuesday. and this is for the shooting death of girlfriend. a parole board ordered him to sthurv re serve the remainder under house arrest. and after testing the drugs,

major drug burn this year. all right, so just ahead, the catch of the year plus a huge nfl upset and for many mets and cubs fans, it's 1969 all over again. get ready for a series that

this morning on "today" an in depth look at ivanka trump and will we see more of her on the campaign trail. we pick up the action in the first inning. >> to left center field. wall. and around firs, he's going to score easily. and all the way into third comes daniel murphy and the mets are on the board here in the first. >> the dodgers fight back, capitalizing on a rough start for pitcher degrom. and now to the 6th. game five. daniel murphy hit a homer off of greinke. and they'll meet the mets in new

the national league championship series. the saints taking on the unfeet undefeated atlanta falcons and a 25 yard touchdown carry. in the end, the home town saints held on for a 41-21 victory. but the play of the day, ucla versus stanford, third quarter. >> back up against it. here's mccaffrey giving way, and reverse back to hogan. how about this from stanford. did he catch that? pinned against the defender's back? that is utterly incredible. >> utterly incredible indeed. you got to see this again. look at this amazing catch. stanford's frances owusu catches

he can't even see the ball. stanford went on to win and you can bet you'll be seeing this catch in a whole lot of plays of the week and it might even be the number one play of the year. outstanding. just ahead, the latest in the randy quaid legal saga. and tom hanks and jimmy

in entertainment news, randy quaid is once again a free man. a vermont judge has released the actor and his wife saying there's no probable cause to hold them on fugitive charges. bail. they're wanted in california on felony vandalism charges. rockets. they're busy rehearsing for the christmas spectacular. in theaters, goose bumps, based on a children's horror book, stars jack black as r.l.stein and cold war thriller, "bridge of spies" stars tom hanks and last night hanks was on jimmy fallon. they enacted scenes written by

>> what is this? >> what does it look like? dummy? it's a bridge of spyies. go away. we're spying. >> can i be a spy? >> no. this bridge is too full of spies already. there's not room for any more.

"early today." leading the news from wync,

nbc charlotte, two charlotte men, they argue, shoot and kill each other p.. the verbal argument escalated after one of them allegedly broke into the parked car. they knew each other. and in huffington post, concealed carry in maine, no longer requires a permit. those under 21 on active military duty are an exception. in apex's hearing yesterday morning, two high school players were suspended and the assistant coach was also suspended. the referee again denied making any racial slurs at the players. spencer stone was released

a stabbing. he was awarded the french award for earlier this year. and his foot measuring over a foot long, size 26. rodriguez was diagnosed with an over active putewitary grand as a child but it's earned him a new world record. >> that's two of your feet. >> i think it's way more than that. and listen to this. for all you marshmallow lovers. the makers of lucky charms are releasing marshmallow only version of the cereal. 10 lucky winners will walk away with the limited edition box with a chance to win and you get a photo of yourselves holding an

they have until february 18th to enter. actor john stamos set to be arraigned in a courtroom after being arrested for erratic driving in june. no word on the drug he was allegedly involved with. hammy birthday to john mayor and angela lans bury turns 90. thanks for watching "early today."

wonderful weekend. today on agday -noaa releases it's winter forecast...plus the agricultural impact to america's levee system. in agribusiness....the profarm profit briefing digs into

markets. another cut to the soybean exports. what's it mean