good monday morning. right now on "first look," colorado emergency. over 1200 people have not been heard from. thousands more have been evacuated. 19,000 homes destroyed or damaged. breaking details just ahead. this morning, the united nations chemical weapons inspectors released their report on syria's alleged poison gas attack on august 21st. right now engineers are trying to rotate the "costa concordia" to right it and take it out of the sea. 65,000 of america's bridges are structurally deficient. a first at the miss america pageant. very good morning. i'm veronica de la cruz.

nice to see you. floodwaters continue to rise and rain continues. new this morning, first responders will continue helicopter rescue operations today. it's become the biggest of its kind since katrina. residents are being told to prepare to evacuate at a moment's notice and more rain is expected. we have the latest now. >> reporter: like a sucker punch to this battered state another round of heavy rain hammers colorado. more flooding forces longmont police to knock on doors warning neighbors to flee the place they evacuated just days ago. >> mandatory evacuation. >> reporter: so far the national guard rescued more than 2100 people. one helicopter took off hoping to rescue more only to return minutes later because of the weather. while they're helpless in the air fema search and rescue teams are using trucks that can plow

through five feet of floodwater asking them to leave. >> if they need food, water, medicine, they need to leaf because they're telling us it may be up to a year before some roads are rebuilt. >> reporter: this couple was killed wednesday. >> it was just an absolute harrowing day of just a living nightmare. >> reporter: more than a thousand are still unaccounted for but authorities hope most are stranded with no power and no way to communicate. however, in larimer county a missing 80-year-old woman is now presumed dead. >> we do anticipate that there will be additional fatalities. >> reporter: the tragedy already weighs heavily on the sheriff. >> how can we ever recover from this? i know exactly inch by inch, mile by mile, community by community. >> reporter: with so many roads and bridges washed away

inspection teams survey the damage. >> the thing that worries us is what we can't see, what's down lower and that's what we're trying to evaluate. >> reporter: 30 highway bridges are destroyed. at least 20 seriously damaging. rebuilding sometimes hard to imagine with the rain that caused this mess making an encore appearance that no one wanted. >> and that was nbc's joe fryer reporting there. to a shooting in new york city's times square. the chaotic scene all caught on camera. >> oh. oh! >> police fired those gun the shots you heard at a man acting erratically but the bullets ended up striking two women bystanders expected to be okay. police say the 35-year-old man was, quote, emotionally disturbed dodging cars on a busy street making movements sugge suggestisugges suggesting he had a weapon. he's in police custody facing multiple charges.

a daring effort is under way this morning to raise the wrecked "costa concordia." it killed at least 30 off the italian coast. nbc's claudio lavanger is there at the site. i understand an overnight storm delayed this process by a call of hours. >> reporter: that's right. there was an overnight storm and the delay was three hours but the engineers are telling us that at the end of the day they still plan to roll the "costa concordy" back to its upright position. the rotation started a couple of hours ago and it's very slow. one inch at a time, the engineers have put in a lot of care and attention to make sure that the ship does not break due to that enormous pulling power the ship has been subjected to f that happens, of course, there's this risk that a toxic coup of organic and chemical materials

still inside the ship will pool down into the water creating another environmental disaster. even though the rotation is not clear -- with the naked eye i can see right now minutes ago we started seeing this green line emerging from the bow, obviously that's a sign that is the aglae deposited on it, the first signs are there that the rotation is taking place. we'll have to wait for another seven to ten hours before it's all upright. >> claudio lavanga, thank you. the u.n. secretary-general said it would an atrocious violation if a report released finding whether chemical weapons were used and not who was responsible. john kerry has said there is evidence the syrian government used sarin gas against its own people. syrian officials said the

u.s./russian deal reached to hand over assad's chemical weapons is a victory but the u.s. warns the threat of force is real if damascus fails to follow through. >> what this is about is how do we make sure we don't have the worst weapons in the hands either of a murderous regime or in the alternative some elements of the opposition that are as opposed to the united states as they are to assad. >> vice president joe biden spoke in iowa sunday touting the diplomatic progress on sunday and praised the president for what he calls a clear and straightforward vision. >> we're going to the united nations with a resolution this week that will, in fact, call on the united nations and the world to put pressure on, put pressure on syria to have the confiscation and destruction of all those weapons. >> and now here is your first look at this morning's dish of scrambled politics.

speaking of the vice president, mr. biden waded deep into the 2016 waters and attended senator tom harkin's annual steak fry where he certainly sounded like a candidate. >> one of the things that i resent about the republican party is they continue to -- almost like they want to talk down america's prospects. ladies and gentlemen, we're on the verge of a fundamental change in this country. >> and while the 2016 race seem s to have already started president obama is staying mum. however, he refuses to say whether he'll stay completely neutral in a democratic primary. >> i just got re-elected last year. my focus is on the american people right now. i'll let you guys worry about the politics. in birmingham they marked the 50th anniversary of the deadly bombing of the 16th street baptist church. former secretary of state

condoleezza rise spoke of her childhood friend denise mcnair one of the four girls killed in the blast. martha coakley who lost to scott brown will reportedly run for governor. "the boston globe" says she'll kick it off with an 18-city tour. dan pfeiffer is back at work after scary moments much the president's top strategist was hospitalized twice last week for what's described as stroke-like symptoms. some say vladimir putin rules with an iron fist. well, california congressman dan rohrabacher found that out literally when he arm wristled the leader back in the earl early '90s all to subtle a drunken game of touch football and didn't go so well for the congressman. >> "he's a little guy but, boy, i'll tell you, he put me down in a millisecond. he is tough. bing, you know, as his muscles

are just unbelievable". >> his muscles are just unbelievable. that does it for scrambled politics. a night of tight-fitting swimsuits in atlantic city and this morning there is a new miss america, one that hasn't looked like any other miss americas in history. >> miss new york. >> nina davuluri was crowned during this year's 2014 miss america competition. she becomes the first indian-american woman to win the title and also becomes the second consecutive miss new york to take the top honor. for her talent she performs a bollywood infusion dance and even though they missed her cue they were impressed by her interview question on plastic surgery when she told women to be confident in who you are. >> bill karins joins us with today's forecast including an

update on colorado. >> 17,000 homes damaged and roads are washed out. one quote, the snow season is not that far away in colorado. we're in september. usually late okay, november, you know, these are rural communities and they're going to have to get this infrastructure up in a hurry before we get to the snow season. these people won't be able to get the supplies they need. right now the radar for the first time all weekend is quiet. it rained over the weekend. additional problemses, i mean just to give you one indication one observer measured 16 inches in the last week just outside of boulder. the expected amount, only another quarter inch or less so all of the damage, almost all, 99.5% of it has been done and from here on out cleaning it up and they'll try to put the bake infrastructure in place to get to these people this. upcoming week looks pretty good and hurricane ingrid, no threat to south texas, but a lot of heavy rain is expected in the mountains of mexico as ingrid, a very weak hurricane moves inlapd during the day and rain itself

out, mud slides, life-threatening rainfall situation there for central portions of the mountainous range in mexico. the worst is over in colorado. just historic, end ex, once in a thousand-year flood. something we'll never see again. >> thanks so much. a couple of stories leading the news and "the washington post" former nsa and cia director says terrorists love using g-mail speaking at a washington, d.c. church, michael hayden said i don't think you'll see that in a google commercial. it's free and ubiquitous. labeled a cheat but he has a story, 80-year-old weight lifter is the oldest person busted by the u.s. doping agency for steroids. great pic. we'll be right back.

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good morning, welcome back. a new nbc/wall street

journal asked americans, how much do they understand the law? only 10% say they understand obama care very well. another 20% say they understand it pretty well. 35% say they understand only some, 34% say they don't understand it very well at all. when asked about how they feel on obama care, only 31% say it's a good idea. 44% feel it is a bad idea. a charlotte police officer who shot and killed an unarmed man has been charged with voluntary manslaughter using excessive force. jonathan farrell who was running towards police after getting into a car accident. the associated press has a new report out saying over 65,000 bridges in the u.s. are classified as structurally deficient. including washington, d.c.'s douglas bridge and new york's brooklyn bridge. engineers claim the bridges are safe and not about to collapse. in green bay, about two dozen native american protesters

demanded the nfl do something about washington redskins race based mascot. dan snyder owns the fame redskins and has no plans to change the team's name. now for your "first look" at business. we turn to seema mody. good morning. >> larry summers pulls his name from consideration to succeed ben bernanke at fed chairman. the former treasury secretary faced pierce opposition from democrats hurting his chances to be confirmed. janet yellen is seen as a leading candidate to replace bernanke whose term ends in january. president obama speaks on the fifth anniversary of lehman brothers' collapse expected to tout the government's response to the crisis including recovering taxpayer money. ford is installing electric car recharging stations for employees at more than 50 plants and offices. ford estimates it will cost 50 cents to fully charge a vehicle saving workers $2 a day in gas.

veronica. >> thanks. if it is monday it is richard lui with all your nfl action and more coming up next. create moments of value. build character through quality. and earn the right to be called a classic. the lands' end no iron dress shirt. starting at 49 dollars. [ male announcer ] some things are designed to draw crowds. others are designed to leave them behind. ♪ the all-new 2014 lexus is. it's your move. we are the thinkers. the job jugglers. the up all-nighters. and the ones who turn ideas into action. we've made our passions our life's work. we strive for the moments where we can say, "i did it!" ♪ we are entrepreneurs who started it all... with a signature. legalzoom has helped start over 1 million businesses,

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and recovered, then later on, colin kaepernick with a forced fumble. then he's intercepted later. that seals the game. why not celebrate with the cheerleaders, right? that's what i would do. seahawks destroy the 49ers, unfortunately, 29-3. the manning bowl in the meadowlands. seconds before the half, eli right here gets intercepted. and that hurt eli certainly. do you like acrobatics? look at this. denver's defense here. eli -- the throw bounces off the defender's foot there. it's caught by denver, then denver's trindon holliday does the dance. makes it 81 yards. denver 41-23. big bro peyton gets his third win in as many tries against little bro eli. also sunday, the bears gets "w" over the vikings barely. 16 seconds left, chicago's jay cutler passes for a touchdown over to the titans at the texans in overtime. over to the titans and the texans. matt schaub with a clutch touchdown for the win there. then take to you philly.

11 seconds left, the chargers win it with this 46-yarder. green bay packers beat the washington redskins 38-20. dallas loses to kansas, 17-16. tonight, the pittsburgh steelers take on the cincinnati bengals. lots of tough to watch. in baseball, red sox beat the yanks, 9-2. they honored mariano rivera showering the 13-time all-star with gifts including a painting of himself. a seat from fenway too and a pitching mound rubber to boot. he retires after an incredible 19 years. michael kemeter climbed up a 900-foot tall tower in china. the distance between the metal strips he was climbing, about 600 feet. because he can do that. he jumps off there. you know what he does in his spare time? he likes to high-wire walk. >> in his spare time. >> in his spare time.

>> of course, of course. no big striez there. >> i'd stay away from it. time for our first look at politics. many david nakamura joins us from phone. i was reading earlier you wrote this article about the president's tough sell on getting americans to care about the use of chemical weapons in syria so the president didn't take military action which seemed to be what the public predominantly wanted here. is the president getting credit for finding a solution? >> well, he's getting some credit i think from people who don't want to see air strikes by the u.s. on the other hand he's obviously, you know, looked a little indecisive and a i think a lot of ways russia capitalized on that. president putin does not get along well with obama and threw him a lifeline and in some ways, you know, given him another chance and so we'll see what

happens but now the u.s. future is now tied in theory to russia which is an interesting proposition. >> on that note, speaking of russia, david, russia hasn't been involved in the middle east for quite some time now now. what about their involvement? a good thing or bad thing for america? >> well, i mean i think from the administration's point of view it's a bad thing. since the cold war days, russia really backs the assad regime and the president has been saying assad must go and now a situation where russia, as i said stepped in with this potential plan to rid the country of chemical weapons. people are kept cam. it's their last best chance before trying to go again to congress for military action so i think for the u.s. it's the best thing they have and, you know, we'll see what happens obviously, but an accelerated time frame to do this starting with this coming week when they must declare its entire stockpile. >> looking for that report

today. all right, david nakamura of "the washington post," thank you. coming up, bill warns, richard lui will be here for "first buzz" that is coming up next. ere's ocuvite to help replenish key eye nutrients. ocuvite has a unique formula not found in your multivitamin to help protect your eye health. ocuvite. help protect your eye health. vietnam in 1972. [ all ] fort benning, georgia in 1999. [ male announcer ] usaa auto insurance is often handed down from generation to generation. because it offers a superior level of protection and because usaa's commitment to serve military members, veterans, and their families is without equal. begin your legacy, get an auto insurance quote. usaa. we know what it means to serve.

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all right, it is time now for "first buzz." bill has poll numbers. >> a brand-new poll done almost 3,000 people. here's the question, you answer it first. if you could live forever in good health at any particular age, what age would that be? >> wow. i don't really know. >> 38. >> 38? okay. what about for you? >> 32. >> the actual -- this is surprising to me. 50 was the average of all the

people that were polled, 50 was the average. >> what's your number? >> it makes sense. >> i would probably go somewhere -- people say you're financially stable. got your family, everyone is under control like mid-40s or so. but 50 was surprising. >> richard, what you got? >> so my cal bears lost and there was evidently a very confused ref that was at the game. i want to -- let me just play this. it's bad. >> personal foul on white, number 71. after that with a personal -- unsporesesman like conduct on number 5. >> and in the end then he goes the wrong way, nope, i'm going to go the other way and you hear his fellow umps on the side saying a1, 51. >> poor guy, poor guy. >> a hot mess. >> lost 99-2. >> "snl" new anchor on "snl," cecily strong will be doing "weekend update." seth meyers will be taking on a

new late night show and want to ask you guys to weigh in quickly, favorite all-time weekend update anchor? >> chevy chase. >> you -- >> yeah, probably chevy. >> i'm veronica de la cruz. this is "first look." stay tuned. ♪ folks here in washington like to grade on style and so had we rolled out something that was very smooth and disciplined and linear they would have graded it well even if it was a disastrous policy. we know that because that's exactly how they graded the iraq war until -- >> so this doesn't change your view of president bush? >> no, what it says is that i'm less concerned about style points. i'm much more concerned about getting the policy right.

>> time will tell if we got the policy right in syria but secretary of state kerry made a deal with his russian counterpart and now we figure out how to deal with assad's chemical weapons in a week's time. in terms of time, the "costa concordia" has been aground for almost two years. today, it's on the move. we'll have a live report from italy. and we know there's been some huge turnover on "saturday night live." seth meyers sticking around for awhile but who will be replacing him on weekend update. just don't talk to her at a party. this is "way too early." ♪ good morning, everybody. brian shactman, monday, september the 16th. hope you had a good weekend. a little later in sports, pretty shocking lopsided win in the nfl last night. probably when you were sleeping and a great send-off of mariano rivera by his most hated rival