lot of things. and i think he's still pushing us. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. good morning, everyone, i'm dara brown at msnbc world headquarters in new york. 7:00 a.m. in the east, 4:00 a.m. in the west. nate downgraded. daylight soon in the southeast where the full effect of the latest storm has yet to be realized. the latest on flooding, power outages, and where it's headed next. >> clarify the calm before the storm comments? >> nothing, nothing to clarify. >> still waiting. the president with no clear answer on what he meant by those words, and now a new tweet on north korea that's also unclear. plus, in a new interview the president reacts to critics of his puerto rico visit when he was throwing paper towels into the crowd.

>> jason aldean. this week, we witnessed one of the worst tragedies in american history. like everyone, i'm struggling to understand what happened that night. >> heartfelt tribute. the man who was on stage when the las vegas carnage broke out, hear more of that and the latest on the investigation. and we begin with yet another major storm slamming the u.s. gulf coast overnight. parts of louisiana and mississippi are now dealing with flooding and power outages after tropical storm nate made landfall twice. the first time was at a category 1 hurricane now the mouth of the mississippi river in louisiana saturday night. the storm made a second landfall in biloxi, mississippi, before it was downgraded to a tropical storm. nate is now moving inland over mississippi and alabama, packing strong winds, and torrential rains. officials are also warning of potential storm surge. evacuation orders are in place for some low lying areas. this is the fourth major storm

to strike the u.s. in less than two months. we have reporters in the region. nbc's jay gray is in alabama, gadi schwartz is in mississippi, and bill karins is right here in new york. let's begin with jay in mobile. good morning to you, jay. tell us, what's it like there right now? >> good morning, dara. well the winds died down, thankfully. the rain just about gone. as you can see, much of mobile bay, which is blocks away from here, has filled in to the center of this city. nate made a second landfall overnight along the mississippi coast. >> with the high surf and wave action, and now it's pretty well covered the road with debris, logs, and things like that, so it's definitely a treacherous drive. >> reporter: the effects of the storm felt by millions from louisiana through the florida panhandle. 85 to 90-mile-per-hour winds and driving rain. pushing water and roadways, other places it's not supposed to be. the storm at one time the fastest ever in the gulf,

rushing through the area at quickly as it moved in. >> this is an unusual storm. to move this fast, and you know, again, with just a minimal amount of damage, we hope. >> reporter: that was not the case as nate ripped through central america earlier in the week as a tropical storm. the system blamed for at least two dozen deaths across the region. this-year's atlantic hurricane season is one of the ten most active on record. 14 name storms and 9 hurricanes, five of those major hurricanes, category 3 or higher. nate, the strong reminder that hurricane season continues through the end of november. yeah, it was a fast-moving storm, that's the good news. it's already cleared away. clearly, though, dara, it left its mark here. back to you. >> jay gray, thank you so much. let's go now about 45 minutes to the west of mobile, to pascagoula, mississippi. nbc's gadi schwartz is there.

what are the conditions like where you are? >> right now we are along the coast here in pascagoula. if you take a look right outside you see this is where the storm surge took -- looks like it's receded, left over here. but you see there is a little bit of debris. so, what we've seen so far is electrical crews out assessing some of the damage. there are pockets around here, so you can get debris in the roadway right here. there are pockets around here where there is electricity, and there are pockets where it looks like the electricity -- coast and there are more that have been staging, there were staging last night. so this area seems pretty well prepared to deal with whatever damage there was. but, the good news is that storm surge did not come as inland as expected. there was an update on facebook just a little while ago from the city of pascagoula saying that

they did not have any rescues, they did not have any reports of water inside of people's homes. and then you're seeing out there, you've got the lights, so in this area, we do have electric -- electric grid is still up and running. but there is a little bit of debris on the road. there's going to be a little bit of cleanup. but nowhere near the damage that was expected from this hurricane. >> certainly good news. gadi schwartz. let's get to the latest on tropical storm nate. bill karins is here and what is the area of concern right now? >> we're going to deal with some more power outages. we haven't had widespread power outages. but winds are strong enough for trees to fall down in central alabama. we're just about done with all of our storm surge problems. still some areas that have water but the water is not going up any higher. by the way that caused the most problems last night. we hit that storm surge around midnight to 2:00 a.m. the water went up four to six feet. currently we're at 70-mile-per-hour winds but even that is probably generous. the winds are really coming down. haven't seen any strong gusts

even close to 70 miles per hour in awhile. the radar shows the center of the storm now crossing into clearly central portions of alabama, the heavier rain bands come in off the coast around panama city and go up into montgomery. and then you have pretty heavy rain in montgomery. flash flood problems. we are under tornado watch. so, sometimes with tropical systems you can get spinup, you can get weak tornadoes. that's of a concern. if we get any of those you could quickly lose a roof, knock down more trees. and as far as the winds go, we haven't really seen anything too strong lately. the highest in biloxi was at 70. moth point, mississippi around 60. pensacola around 53. a lot of tropical storm type gusts. this is the current gust map. notice that far away from the center the winds are very light, atlanta, columbus, new orleans, no problems. meridian. right near the center where it's a little gustier, up to 30 miles per hour from montgomery to evergreen into pensacola. 30-mile-per-hour wind you get that all the time with a lot of storms in this area. don't expect a lot of power outages out of this.

it will gust a little bit here and there with some of the squalls coming in. sunday, north of birmingham, the storm is going to move quickly. the heavy raines with you now montgomery, two to three hours and then those will shift into northern portions of georgia. by the time we get through this afternoon the storm crosses into tennessee. by monday at 2:00 avlt m., it's up through west virginia and then for columbus day, that's where we're going to track this rain through areas of pennsylvania, upstate new york and northern new england. this actually shifted a little further to the north. we're not worried about any wind problems. but just that little batch of heavy rain will be moving more or less through northern and central new england instead of the mid-atlantic region. new york and d.c. you're not going to get the heavy rains. now to politics and new reaction from president trump on a wide range of issues, including what he meant by his calm before the storm comment. here's what he told reporters as he left the white house for a fund-raiser in north carolina yesterday afternoon. >> want to clarify your calm before the storm comment?

>> nothing -- nothing to clarify. >> what's the one -- [ inaudible ] >> you'll figure that out pretty soon. >> president trump tweeting about north korea yesterday saying only one thing will work. he also weighed in on the latest rumors surrounding his chief of staff and secretary of state. >> john kelly is one of the best people i've ever worked with. he's doing an incredible job. he will be here in my opinion for the entire seven remaining years. he likes -- he likes secretary tillerson. so do i. we have a very good relationship. we disagree on a couple of things. sometimes i'd like him to be a little bit tougher. but, other than that, we have a very good relationship. >> president trump also followed up on an early saturday morning tweet saying he had reached out to senator chuck schumer about repealing and replacing obamacare. here's what he said during an interview last night. >> you know, in theory, i want to focus on north korea. i want to focus on iran.

i want to focus on other things. i don't want to focus on fixing somebody's back, or their knee, or something. let the states do that. i could almost say we are just about there in terms of the vote. >> joining me now, staff writer at the hill and melanie, good to have you here this morning. >> thanks for having me. >> what are you hearing from republicans on the hill about president trump's latest attempt in bipartisanship on health care here? >> well, you know, from republican standpoint they have a very different viewpoint than democrats about how to move forward. they still do want to repeal and replace obamacare. they've said that they're going to turn back to this after taxes. and when you talk to most democrats, you know, it's basically a nonstarter, the idea of repealing and replacing obamacare. they really want to focus on stabilizing the markets, taking efforts to repair it, we did see some bipartisan talks between patty murray and lamar alexander on the senate health committee. whether those talks will continue and resume is remained to be seen.

but i think trump's tweet, you know, this weekend saying that he's tried to strike a deal with democrats, i would just remind everyone that, it's republicans who are in control of congress, and they bring legislation to the floor. so if they're not behind the bipartisan deal on this, it's not going to happen. and also the administration's offered so far have shown that they still want to repeal and undermine obamacare at every turn. they rolled back the obamacare birth control mandate just yesterday. on friday. and you know, they've cut back their outreach and their enrollment efforts. so all of those things are really, you know, to democrats' minds, sabotaging the law. i just don't see right now the path forward in terms of a partisan deal on health care. >> let's talk about the democrats, because possibly do you believe that there's a realistic chance that some would ever compromise? that the compromise would ever happen? or do you think that they just believe that this is president trump stirring the pot with the gop? >> well you know, i think

there's a little bit of both. let's keep in mind that there are going to be some vulnerable democrats up for re-election in the senate. in these red states. you know, striking a deal could be something that could work in their favor. but at the same time, you know, the tweets that we saw from the president were stirring the pot a little bit. you know, kind of shift the blame, also, onto the democrats saying i tried to do something here. and it was chuck schumer who kind of put the kibosh on that. so i do think it's a little bit of both here. it's really uncertain where this effort is going to go. but we do know that right now, at least on the hill, republicans are really focused on tax efforts. and they're going to hopefully search for a win there in their minds. that's where they're turning to next, at least. >> well, melanie, i want to turn to what president trump said to reporters last night about his chief of staff, and secretary of state. did he in any way, to you, telegraph their fate? >> well, i think it was really telling that he said, you know, we don't agree on the time, i want him to be tougher. i think, look, you know, no one

expects tillerson to stay around through the end of the year. i don't think he's going to be leaving immediately. you know, i think he's going to try to put his head down, get to work. but there's certainly questions for tillerson, someone who was so used to running his own company, and now he's a subordinate to a pretty unpredictable president who's undermined him on, you know, foreign policy issues, tweeting last week you know, he's wasting his time with north korea. now he's sort of embarrassing him by saying i wish he was tougher on some issues. the question is, how long can he stay? does he feel a duty that he has to stay much longer? can he get any policy accomplishments done when he has this sort of cloud hanging over him? >> i want to play for you what president trump said in an interview last night about the criticism that he's gotten for his visit to puerto rico. listen. >> we really did a good job. i mean one example, they had these beautiful soft towels, very good towels and i came in and there was a crowd of a lot of people, and they were screaming and they were loving everything, and we were -- i was

having fun, they were having fun. they said throw them to me. throw them to me, mr. president. so i'm doing some of the -- so the next day they said, oh, it was so disrespectful to the people. it was just a made-up thing. and also, when they had -- when i walked in, the cheering was incredible. >> melanie, your reaction to that? and if there is a strategy, what is it? >> well, i think within the room he's right. it played well, people were smiling, and taking their phones out. but there's so many other people still in puerto rico who are not in san juan, the president stayed really close to san juan, where you know, recovery efforts are going along the farthest. he wasn't in the remote parts of the island where people are without water and without pour and without paper towels. i think it does strike at least for the critics a little bit tone deaf. he would not only be doing this but continually patting himself on the back for the efforts when the truth is they're not out of the woods yet with puerto rico. we saw san juan's mayor just this morning tweeting that she's been falling on fema for additional help. there's some power issues at the

hospitals. they took down the stats about how many island residents have power and water right now. so i think the administration still needs to be careful, especially the president, about how they're dealing with this crisis. it's not over yet. it's still unfolding and it could get a lot worse for them. >> melanie, i want to get to this poll. there's a new poll that finds 23% would describe president trump as honest. 16% as level headed. and 26% as a strong leader. how closely is the white house looking at these polls? >> well, you know, the president does look at his image and how it's portrayed on tv very closely. we know that. he watches very closely. but in terms of the polling, you know, that's something that they've especially we saw this during the campaign, they distanced themselves from polling. the president is very quick to dismiss these things as sort of fake news. but, i imagine john kelly and his staff, they have to be looking at this and wondering whether his tweets and his behavior and his off-the-cuff comments are having an impact on how not just america's viewing him but the rest of the world, as well. and that's a particularly

important as the administration is about to wade in to some very thorny political issues and foreign policy issues with the iran nuclear deal, north korea, so i'm sure those are all things that at least in the west wing are being watched, even if the president might not be looking at them so closely. >> interesting days ahead. melanie, thank you so much for joining us. >> thanks for having me. well the meaning behind those cryptic numbers on the paper found in the las vegas shooter's hotel room. we have new word today. that's up next. i accept i take easier trails than i used to.

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an emotional tribute on saturday night live from country music star jason aldean. you may remember, he was onstage last sunday when the shooter opened fire on concert goers in las vegas. >> so many people are hurting, there are children, parents, brothers, sisters, friends, they're all part of our family. so i want to say to them, we hurt for you. and we hurt with you. but you can be sure that we're going to walk through these tough times together every step of the way. >> new details this morning in the las vegas mass shooting investigation. officials are now shedding light on the cryptic note with numbers found inside the shooter's hotel room. nbc's steve patterson has the latest on the investigation and he joins us from las vegas. steve? >> well, dara, here we are now nearly a week later and investigators say they're still no closer to determining a motive in this shooting.

frustration in las vegas. >> i get it. we all want answers. we have looked at everything. >> reporter: investigators looking into more than 1,000 leads. >> while some of it has helped create a better profile into the madness of the suspect, we do not still have a clear motive or reason why. >> reporter: officials tell nbc's miguel almaguer they believe the shooter acted alone. >> he was the only shooter, i'm very confident of that. i'm also confident that there were no other people in the room. >> reporter: police are building a portrait of stephen paddock, looking into a cryptic note left in his hotel room with a series of numbers, questioning fire arms dealers, and sorting through his prolific gaming history. vice president mike pence praising the spirit of las vegas. >> i stand before you today on behalf of my family, and every family in america, to say, we're with you. today, we are all vegas strong. >> reporter: meanwhile, along

this strip, a stirring memorial, one cross for each of the 58 victims, as this community makes every attempt to heal. volunteers at a garden planted 58 trees. >> i think it's part of a healing process. >> reporter: many like mary brooks, were there during the shooting. >> this was the first i've been able to get out of the house, since it happened, and i felt the need to be here. >> reporter: a community now groig together, looking beyond the horrors of a night they'll never forget. and we're now learning from multiple law enforcement sources, speaking to nbc news, they believe the numbers on that cryptic note are actually the height, range and distance of paddock's shot placement. the calculations from that night in effect making the gunfire even more lethal. dara? >> steve patterson reporting. where is tropical storm nate heading now? and is it expected to pick up steam again? details on how it might affect the northeast coast. what's the value of capital? what's critical thinking like?

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it is a sea of spanish flags. this is barcelona, the scene of another massive rally and march in support of keeping spain whole. the demonstration is taking place a week after the province of catalonia held a controversial referendum on secession, which the spanish government said was illegal and the country's top court has suspended. that vote for independence won by a landslide. we're keeping a close eye on tropical storm nate. here's new video from pascagoula which shows the wrath of nate as it stormed ashore as a category 1 hurricane overnight. more than 100,000 homes and businesses are without power at this hour. let's find out what's next for tropical storm nate and for that let's bring back nbc meteorologist bill karins. >> a quick death. nate is really winding down in a hurry. that's fantastic news. we won't get a lot of extended damage well into the day today. winds have only been gusting 24 in mobile, pensacola, 32, central portions of alabama the

20 to 30-mile-per-hour range. right near the center maybe a little bit closer. not much. so this is good. we're not going to see a lot of widespread power outages. when it made landfall last night, that was our fourth land falling hurricane in the u.s. this season. i mean last time we did that we have to go back to 2004. so, it has been a very, very active last six to seven weeks. so here's the latest from the radar view. you can see there was the center of it. there's the eye or what was the eye. and now that is just a big area of rain that's up here in central portions of alabama. these feeder bands are problematic. we could get a tornado out of this. we have a tornado watch in effect here. that continues until 10:00 a.m. this morning. that will likely be continued. flash flood watch as areas of the dark green, that goes for birmingham to dalton, just north of atlanta, to gainesville, to asheville. this red is flash flood warnings. we have had some heavy rain overnight and potentially there's some flash flooding happening right now. additional rain fall from this point on. when you get to the purple that's three, the red is four.

some spots are going to get heavier rain, especially the mountainous areas of western north carolina. we still could see some possibilities for additional flash flooding. >> bill karins, thanks so much. i'm dara brown. thanks for watching. at the top of the hour on politics nation, congressman john lewis weighs in on the gun control debate.

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good morning. coming up on msnbc's "your business," the owner of this body cam company joined forces with law enforcement to come up with a product that helps them do their jobs. how the woman who owns this jewelry company is helping the homeless get back on their feet. plus, neil blumenthal of warby parker with some insight on what you can do to hold onto your best employees. let's grow fast, and work smart. that's coming up next on "your business." "your business" is sponsored by american express open, helping you get business done. hi, everyone, i'm j.j.