good morning, breaking news. terror in boston. overnight, police interviewing two men in connection with the deadly attack at the boston marathon. the president vowing swift justice. >> make no mistake, we will get to the bottom of this. >> but more questions than answers as a nation comes together to mourn the victims "today," tuesday, april 16th, 2013. captions paid for by nbc-universal television

and good morning, welcome to a special edition of "today" on this tuesday morning as we cover a story still unfolding at this hour. i'm savannah guthrie. matt lauer is in boston this morning in what is obviously an emotional and terrible day to you. >> it's a sad and surreal tuesday morning, it's sunny just like it was yesterday for the running of the marathon but this city has now been changed. i'm at the corner of boylston and arlington street, i have been to the finish of this race on a number of occasions. it was packed with people standing side by side looking to see if they could spot some loved ones and friends crossing the finish line when the bombs went off. "the boston globe" have a headline that says "marathon terror." we can tell you overnight we know some developments took place. police went to revere,

massachusetts, that's about ten miles from here to the north, it's a suburb and they served a search warrant at an apartment there, they interviewed two men this morning, they're only saying that search warrant and those interviews were related to the investigation. they're saying nothing more than that. >> a lot of questions still this morning, matt, and we're also learning more about the victims now, at least three people have died, including an 8-year-old boy. he's being identified this morning as martin richard by our affiliate whdh in boston. more than 140 other people were wounded. witnesses are describing horrific injuries the kind you might expect to see in the war zone, given the nature of the devices here, matt. >> we've had some in-depth coverage. we begin with nbc's lester holt, we flew in yesterday afternoon. you've been on the ground trying to talk to people. >> it's fair to say this city, this country waking up to a new sense of vulnerability.

lots of reports of suspicious packages and the like. the last leg of the race runners refer to it as heartbreak hill and none of us knew how heartbreaking the day would turn out. terror on the streets of boston. day of inspiration turned into a living nightmare. >> there's multiple people down here, okay. i don't know what the cause is. stand by. >> reporter: as two explosions went off within seconds of each other near the finish line of the boston marathon. >> have the bomb squad called. >> i knew immediately it was a bomb, you could smell it, it was like a gun powder smell. >> reporter: for runners prepared to celebrate the end of a 26-mile race, it was an incredible turn of events with emergency workers rushing to the scene at copley square, working fast to save injured athletes and spectators. >> i was carrying somebody who lost both of their legs in the

explosion. it was a lot of them lost limbs, catastrophic. >> reporter: at the time of the bombings approximately half the runners in the marathon had finished with the other half quickly approaching the final mile. confusion, shock and fear struck those now separated from loved ones. >> there was just families all around us with kids, i mean, yelling and screaming and i mean, we just wanted to try and get away as quick as possible. >> a scene of chaos usually reserved for the battlefield. >> this is like a bomb explosion that we hear about on the news in baghdad or israel. >> reporter: over 100 injured were rushed to boston's major hospitals for treatment. more than 23,000 runners from 96 countries plus thousands of fans were gathered downtown for the annual race. third explosion was rumored to have occurred around 4:20 p.m. on monday at the nearby john f.

kennedy library, though further investigation indicates it may have been an unrelated maintenance fire. this morning, the national guard has secured the area where the blast occurred, and officials say the fbi is now leading the investigation. >> it will be an ongoing investigation. it is a criminal investigation that is a potential terrorist investigation. >> reporter: initial reports bombs including bebes and other objects aimed at inflicting the most harm possible. overnight police went to an apartment building in revere, massachusetts, and interviewed two men. security has been increased in new york and los angeles. from the white house, president obama pledged to hunt down those responsible. >> make no mistake, we will get to the bottom of this and we will find out who did this. we'll find out why they did this. any responsible individuals, any

responsible groups will feel the full weight of justice. >> reporter: monday was patriots day in massachusetts, and the boston marathon is usually a day of celebration. for many, it will now be remembered as a day of shock, sorrow, and terror. boston will be back in business today except for this huge crime scene that extends behind me for about a mile, three blocks on either side, an area closed off to business owners and even residents who live in this area and savannah, we should note public transit passers have been warned there will be random searches on the "t" here of bags and other objects. >> lester in boston thank you so much. nbc's justice correspondent pete williams following overnight developments in the investigation. pete, good morning. it seems there is no clearer picture as to who may be behind this. >> i think that's certainly true although there is high hope that they will be able to answer that shortly. they know for certain the attack

involved two bombs, but many other packages found on the street were deemed suspicious and destroyed and that took a lot of time last night. there were many packages to check because after the explosions officials say many people simply dropped what they were carrying and ran, leaving their packages behind. there were conflicting accounts whether investigators found two unexploded bombs. this morning a senior law enforcement official says there were no unexploded devices, just the two that went off. several officials say the bombs that went off included shrapnels to multiply the injuries, bebes and ball bearings. investigators are investigating video to see if they can see individuals placing the packages. there is a video from the back carrying two backpacks but it's too soon to know whether that had anything to do with the attack. authorities say there is no suspect in custody but they did

talk last night to a 20-year-old saudi man here on a currently active student visa. he had burns and questioned for hours and it's his home that was searched in the boston suburb of revere. they carried away some materials for examination but one official said it's too certain to know one or the other about him, that he might have been an innocent bystander. >> let's get to michael lighter, nbc news terrorism expert. good morning to you. the key question everyone is waking up with is what is your gut? does this bear the hallmarks of some domestic terrorism or do you suspect it may be an act of international terrorism? >> i know it's not very satisfying but from my experience at the national counterterrorism center, you don't follow your gut. what you actually do is very methodically collect these pieces of evidence, it's the forensic evidence, it's the

videotape, it's reporting from the cia and fbi and sources and putting that together. my gut is the person who did this has some connection to boston because they so effectively picked the iconic symbol of patriots day and the finish of the boston marathon. i also don't think we have enough information to point in domestic or international terrorism. you have to be careful speculating what it might be. >> on the one hand you have crude devices and on the other hand a coordinated attack. you can look at points on either side of this. >> although the devices weren't as large as we've seen overseas or what we saw in 1995 in oklahoma city i would hesitate to call them crude devices. these did go off relatively simultaneously, far enough apart they would have killed or hurt a separate group of people so i think this is a pretty sophisticated attack in the

midst of an enormous amount of security, so the bombs could have been a lot larger but clearly somebody thought about this, planned this and executed it with some meticulous work. >> michael leiter thank you very much. we'll send it back to matt in boston. >> thank you very much. as we mentioned many of the injured remain in hospitals this morning. nick and leanne ianna were watching the race when they were hit by shrapnel from the blast. they're at tufts medical center, good morning to both of you. >> good morning. >> leighanne, let me start a asking you, what are the extent of your injuries? >> i have an open tibula fracture and waiting to get a skin graft either today or tomorrow and then probably be put in a boot for the last part of the healing. >> and nick, how about you? were you injured as well?

>> i was fortunate i only had a pierced eardrum. >> leanne, describe for me how close you were to the finish line, how close you were from where these devices were detonated? >> i'm not sure exactly where it was detonated. it sounded awfully close. we were probably about ten feet from the finish line. yeah, it was quite loud and definitely could smell the smoke and everything when it happened. >> and nick, i understand when you looked down and saw the extent of leanne's injuries you went into shock. how long was it before either of you could get to the hospital and were you able to stick together? >> when the police came in, they wanted to get anybody who wasn't hurt out and so they could take care of everybody who was hurt. we were close enough to the bomb that went off by the finish line that there was a lot of bad

things going on and everybody was just trying to help everybody. >> there was probably about 15 minutes if not more by the time i was carried from marathon sports to the medical tent and then i got loaded onto an ambulance after that. >> i had to sneak to the back of the medical tent and try to find my wife. >> i'm glad you two are back together. leanne, i wish you luck with the surgery as you described it a little bit earlier. our thoughts are with you. >> thank you so much. >> thank you for joining us. steve silva is a senior sports reporter for "the boston globe." he was covering this marathon as he has done so many times in the past and he caught the explosions on tape. in that video you can see marathon official tom maher coming to the aid of a fallen runner. guys, nice to see you. you watched this through your lens. what was it like? >> it was surreal.

the immediate split second a loud, dull thud. i thought a cannon celebration for a runner coming across, but as we got closer and 12 seconds later we heard the second explosion. >> i spoke to someone last night at the first explosion there was confusion and the second explosion there was chaos. >> that's when it set in and you saw the scene as we got closer to the fence and it was just on the other side of the partition and could you see the blood and some horrible things there. >> there is that video that you took that shows a runner falling to the ground, being aided by a man who happens to be the man standing next to you, tom. you know, a lot of people when they heard the second explosion they ran away. you ran in the other direction or tried to help out. what did you see first? >> i was walking toward exeter street to see one of the officials and diagonal, maybe 20 yards from the front of that lens crafters store and horrific

blast moved me to my left, i thought i was going to fall down. i did not. as i turned i saw a wave, a huge wave of smoke and blast coming at me and i actually saw bodies flying, moving around, uncontrollably. >> you've been a volunteer at the finish line, a coordinator there for 17 years. did anything seem different about yesterday? did you notice anything suspicious, anybody that seemed out of place? >> no, nothing at all. >> steve? >> no, it was very, unlike last year when the heat was the big story, it was a perfect day for running. this is in the afternoon when all the charity runners are coming, the people running for dana farber, the river foundation, because they've lost a family member, people that don't run marathons and used to coming across the line with emotion. about 9,000 were stranded out on the course when this happened. >> the images are dramatic.

i appreciate you joining us this morning. much more coming up including security impacts in cities across the country. for now natalie has a check of all of the top stories. out of iran a powerful magnitude 7.8 earthquake has struck iran this morning near the border with pakistan. tremors are the rahling residents and building across the gulf region all the way to new delhi and india. a hard landing for a marine ch-53e super stallion helicopter near seoul. the chopper was participating in joint military exercises with south korea. all 21 people on board survived the incident, six of them remain in the hospital in stable condition. the senate is set to take up the gun control debate today as republicans and democrats face off over the issue of background checks for people purchasing weapons. vote could be delayed until

later this week as both sides seek more time to rally support. a bipartisan senate group files sweeping legislation to overhaul the nation's immigration system in what is said to be a landmark of president obama's second term agenda. the effort would create legal avenues for international workers to come to the u.s. and put the 11 million immigrants currently living here illegally on a 13-year path to citizenship. hope and solidarity lit up brooklyn last night as the artist of the illuminator projected these words on the brooklyn academy of music, "darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that." they sent a message of support from our city to the great city of boston. 7:16, you're up to date. let's get a check of the weather from al. >> thanks so much, natalie. we are looking at more snow. we cannot get rid of this snow it seems, insnow,

it seems. the denver rockies were going to be playing the mets today. their game was snowed out yesterday. probably again today. look at all the snow from duluth, minimum machine, all the way into utah. heaviest amounts are going to be about a foot or more from cheyenne to casper. all the way as far as rapid city, south dakota. we will get your local forecast in just a moment. first this message. good morning. most of the region cloud yimou. it is a cool morning. temperatures are in the 50s from

the mountains to the beaches. and we will hope to get out of the 50s in another few hours and late near the 60s and low and mid 70s especially in virginia and partly sunny. partly sunny again on wednesday. maybe a sprinkle predawn as well as thursday morning, predawn. highs both days into the 70s with a slight chance of an isolated shower or thundershower in the afternoon. greater chance of storms late on >> and that's your latest weather. >> al, thank you. of course the images from this tragedy in boston, matt, are hard to forget. >> yes, they really are and the city, you can see it's anything but normal. just a second ago some boston police pulled up, took control of the intersection, a bus pulled up behind them and members of the national guard got out and went down into the lower areas here, then it moved on and it seems like they're dispersing around the city. hotels are seeing incredibly high security, we came in last night, drove along storrow drive, every off-ramp was shut

down by state troopers. they wanted people to simply pass through and get out of town. one moment, joy on the faces of runners and spectators behind us and yesterday afternoon the next moment there was panic. >> go away, go away. go back. go back. >> my god. my god. oh, my god. >> we're coming on the air right now to report two explosions near the finish line of today's boston marathon. >> all units stay off the air and make your way over there. >> and we just saw chaos. >> this is like a bomb explosion in baghdad. >> make no mistake, we will get to the bottom of this. >> bostonians pride themselves

on their toughness and we'll keep on living our lives the way we do. >> we'll have more ahead from boston and new york. this is "today" on nbc.

coming up, we'll be talking to one of the heroes of the tragedy, a doctor who happened to be watching the race and jumped in to treat the wounded. and why have so many tragic attacks happened like this in the month of april? we'll have that after your local news. [ male announcer ] why is kellogg's crunchy nut so delicious?

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7:26 is your time now on this tuesday, april 16, 2013. good morning. i'm eun yang. in the news for today watch for tighter security this morning in and around d.c. the district is gearing up for today's emancipation parade after yesterday's bombing at the boston marathon. news4's megan mcgrath is along the parade route near freedom plaza this morning. >> reporter: good morning. parade scheduled to get under way at 11:00 a.m. you can see we are already seeing some of the security measures in place. we can have k-9s that just arrived on the scene. pennsylvania, a section of it, has been closed now since before dawn. you can see the police officers with their cruisers across the roadways turning people around. if you are coming to the parade just expect to see an increased police presence. >> megan mcgrath, thank you. we have a look at your

forecast and morning commute next.

good morning. approaching 7:30. a lot of cloudiness around. temperatures in the 50s most of the region now. here is your storm team 4 afternoon outlook. most of the region will be in the 70s. partly sunny sky again tomorrow and again on thursday. slight chance of an isolated shower each day with highs in the upper 70s. near 80 provide afternoon. thunderstorms lingering into part of saturday. how is traffic? >> checking on delays inbound 66. slow from gainesville. delays continue as you head towards 28 in centreville because of an accident. it was blocking the left lane. now you can see police are still on the scene. just off to your left shoulder lane. shooting over to clara barton parkway inbound at chain bridge road. crash just along the right shoulder lane. >> thank you. another news update

it is 7:30 now on a tuesday morning. it's the 16th day of april, 2013. it is also the morning after the deadly twin bombings at the finish line of the world famous boston marathon. good morning, everyone. i'm matt lauer in boston. this morning, savannah is back in studio 1a in new york city. >> we were both in boston recently, we know what a special time this is for the people there. you lived in boston for a short time. i imagine this is a city whose heart is breaking today. >> it is. this is such an important and iconic event to this city, 500,000 or so people come here for the boston marathon every year, it's held on patriots day, it's a celebration, a chance for the people of boston to show off their best side and this happens and yes, savannah, the people here are still in shock this morning and there are so many

heartbreaking stories and also some really touching moments as well. from what we have heard this morning from so many people, personnel from the race came streaming out of tents and volunteer areas to treat and help the victims, runners crossing the finish line then continued on jogging or walking to area hospitals saying can i donate blood to help the people who were injured in these blasts? coming up one doctor who was watching his wife compete in this race and ended up working on some of the injured, savannah. >> a bit later on, part one of our exclusive interview with president obama been . we talked about the push for new gun legislation, facing a critical test on capitol hill and this unfolding crisis in north korea, what he makes of this new young leader, kim jong-un and a lot more. we'll have that and a lot more. let's begin this half hour with more on the terror that unfolded at the boston marathon

just before 3:00 this afternoon. nbc's katie terr is at brigham and women's hospital. >> reporter: good morning, matt, there is still a lot of security here at brigham and women's. if you're not supposed to be in side, they are not letting you inside. many victims suffered massive trauma to their lower bodies. the boston police department confirmed three people have died. this was obtained by our affiliate whdh, an 8-year-old boy and they have confirmed his name is martin richard. the carnage of the blast on boylston spread quickly to hospitals. some missing limbs. >> just mayhem, patients left and right, no legs, no arms. >> reporter: the chaos in the streets and the rush of victims to local medical centers felt

like a war zone. >> we're going to get the victims out. >> reporter: people screaming, others fleeing and so many left wounded. >> i've been to afghanistan, it was like that kind of bomb. >> reporter: this shrapnel from the blast scene left many with lower body injuries, some lost legs on scene, others to necessary emergency room amputations. >> patients have minor eardrum blasts all the way through to really serious limb injuries and some serious head injuries as well. >> reporter: the explosions in boston worried many throughout the nation who had friends and loved ones at the marathon. among the uncertainty the s.w.a.t. guard stood at the entrance to the hospital. family and visitors asked to leave, only the injured allowed. >> we're locked down because it's unclear what is going on in the city and we want to make sure our security team and caregivers can stay focused on caring for the injured.

>> reporter: people looking to help in any way they could. >> a lot of people were hurt, we ran as fast as we could down here to give blood. >> reporter: just after the blast some runners rushed to the injured on scene, others crossed the finish line, kept on running straight to mass general to try to give blood, to do what they can, tremendous outpouring of support from the community as this tragedy unfolded. nbc news confirmed the saudi man who was being questioned is here at brigham and women's. he suffered bad burns, he's only being questioned, he is not a suspect as of now and matt we expect as the morning goes on to get updated information on all of the victims being treated. >> katy tur, thank you very much. dr. alan painter was waiting for his wife, teresa, to cross the finish line when the explosions occurred. he tended to the injured when teresa and the others were turned around. good morning, nice to see you.

doctor, you're an emergency room physician operating out of florida, this is your 15th marathon. you two were separated but you were waiting for teresa to cross the finish line and from what i understand, you were right in the middle of both of these blasts. they were at 671 boylston and 690. you were standing right in the middle. >> i was about 20 to 30 feet from the first blast. >> and how closely were you surrounded by other people and what was the impact like? >> well, i was surrounded by a lot of people as we're all trying to watch the runners cross the finish line. the people to my left took the blow and the blast, most of them dropped. the people behind me actually did, too, and i was standing there without a scratch. >> you mentioned it was like dominos that the impact hit the first people and they fell down and you were the one left standing. when you first started to see the injured around you, talk to me about some of the people you encountered. >> well when i first spun around i saw one lady bleeding from her leg wound, put some compression on that and realized what had been to my left had gone down

and just started helping with the other bystanders, pulling people actually apart because they were laying in a pile basically with mangled limbs and started working on each person as could you. >> and doctor, i know encountered one man who had both lower limbs amputated? >> yes, he lost both legs below the knee and started worki inin a young lady. >> were you able to comfort him at all? >> he was in shock, mumbling words but not coherently. >> teresa you were 0.2 miles from the finish line when the explosions took place. you were turned back but you knew your husband was standing at the finish line waiting for you. what was that like? >> it was hard. it was about an hour, hour and a half before i was able to get to my baggage in the bus and call him, because i was grabbing phones where they had held us and no calls, we couldn't get any calls out so i didn't know.

it was upsetting. >> must have been some moment when you got to see each other after that. >> yes. >> both of you wanted me to say the volunteers, the people around the scene of these explosions were incredible in the way they acted. >> the people on the street, i'll just say the sidewalk volunteers, instead of running away, they stopped and fell and worked with people. when the boston athletic association volunteers came, they came with supplies, and once you got in the medical tent it was all that an e.r. physician could ask for, cots, ivs, nurses and physicians. it was well prepared. >> doctor, thanks for what you did, thanks for joining us, teresa, thank you so much. we'll have much more ahead from boston in a couple of minutes. right now let's head to new york and get a check of the weather from al. >> matt, thanks so much. talking about the winter storm and also got a severe side to this storm as ook at the area o severe weather today. abilene, texas, cincinnati, birmingham, billion bam. we have the risk of strong storms, tornadoes, hail, wind. we are looking at a very

vigorous line of thunderstorms now moving through the midwest. and this line of thunderstorms going to also be a big problem for tomorrow. abilene into peoria, illinois. risk of tornadoes and heavy rain and would to power inches of rain could be flooding rains tomorrow. that's what's going on around the country. here's what's happening in your neck of the woods. >> good morning. cloudy and cool on this tuesday morning. i'm storm team 4 meteorologist tom kierein. temperatures now in the 50s. all around the region from west virginia to the atlantic beaches and we will stay in the 50s for another few hours under the cloud cover that's with us now. we will get breaks in the clouds later today and with the southerly breeze we should warm into the upper 60s, maybe low and mid 7 ons to a few locations. mild pattern continues another couple of days and could get thunderstorms late friday into early saturday morning. >> that's your latest weather. matt? >> all right, al, thank you so much. coming up next the question some are asking in the wakef the boston bombing. how do you keep people safe at

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morning. this is emancipation day here in washington that, means a parade down pennsylvania avenue. it will go on as planned. in london this weekend they have a marathon planned. next weekend a marathon is planned in oklahoma city, all of it with the threat of terrorism looming large. in washington, always viewed as a potential terrorist target, a show of force, heavily armed police and dog teams patrolling the subways, checking trash bins. in new york the nypd in grand central station and times square and across the country the lapd out in force at the dodgers game, union station and lax but security experts warn ensuring 100% security at a public event like the boston marathon simply isn't realistic. >> if somebody wants to go out and kill people, they can. the question remains, can they cause mass casualties and can they sustain an attack. >> reporter: oklahoma city,

1995, 168 dead including 19 children. timothy mcveigh was convicted and executed for planting the bomb. the atlanta olympics 1996, two dead, more than 100 wounded after a backpack holding pipe bombs exploded. domestic terrorist eric rudolph was arrested seven years later. london, 2005, 52 dead, 700 wounded, after coordinated suicide attacks on the underground and bus systems. times square 2010, a car bomb failed to explode, police later arrested a pakistani-american trying to board a flight to the middle east. dan bongino's job when he was at the secret service, protect president obama with 1.8 million people on the washington mall gathered for his first inauguration. >> you can't guarantee anything. all do you in the field of security is reduce the probability of an event like this to hopefully something so miniscule so if something happens your response afterwards is enough to keep the casualties to a minimum. >> if this turns out to be

domestic or international terrorism it will remind people of the difficulty of the task that we have been working against over the past ten years. >> reporter: security experts say that over the last 11 or 12 years as we've gotten farther and farther away from 9/11 americans have grown tired of being hassled by the tsa and the security at sporting events and this soft target a marathon underscores the fact that these threats remain very real. >> tom costello in washington for us this morning. bill bratton is the former police commissioner in new york and served in los angeles as well. good morning. >> good morning. >> i know this strikes close to home for you. when you talk about securing an event like the boston march than, open air, outside event with thousands of spectators and runners, what kind of sweep do you think would have taken place prior to this? >> well, there's a multifocus, there's the intelligence

analysis that is going on all the time to see if there's any chatter, any discussion on a number of these channels about the event. at the same time there's the physical security component of it, the bomb dogs, the physical barriers that are put up, all the various planning that goes into pulling off an event like this, the crowd control, emergency responders, response if necessary. certainly in yesterday's event the boston marathon event the response to that event was instantaneous, it was the result of a lot of the training and emergency preparedness that's gone into american cities over the last 10 to 12 years since 9/11 but as has been clearly indicated you cannot prevent everything. we've done a very good job over the last 12 years but yesterday showed that unfortunately you can't stop it all. >> and these are of course critical hours in the investigation. obviously the officials are going to be overwhelmed with tips. they also have the advantage of a lot of cell phone video of

this incident as it took place. give us an insight into two investigators are dealing with right now. >> well, first of all, now we have the fbi in charge of the overall investigation, that's a protocol that's been established in incidents which appear to be terrorist in nature and certainly the extraordinary capabilities of that agency and its intelligence and evidence gathering assisted now by the boston police and effectively every other federal agency, they will be going in many directions, one at the scene itself, analyze the devices that went off, try to make a determination as to what did they look like before they went off, that helps them potentially identify the people or person involved in its preparation and planting. there will also be basically working all those tips that you referenced, they will be going back over any tips or comments that might have been made about the marathon.

in our country as you know there is no shortage of people who have grievances, who hate and who unfortunately don't manifest themselves in acts such as this routinely, but right now there is no understanding of who might have been behind this. if law enforcement officials do have that focus or understanding, understandablier this not giving it out to the public until they know for certainty who was involved. >> always a note of caution in these early hours. bill bratton former police commissioner of boston and other municipalities in the u.s., thank you so much. we are back with more from new york and boston, right after this. see life in the best light. outdoors, or in. transitions® lenses automatically filter just the right amount of light. so you see everything the way it's meant to be seen. maybe even a little better. visit your eyecare professional today

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april 16. i'm aaron gilchrist. trouble spots on the roads now. here's danella sealock with your first 4 traffic. >> starting with the icc. as you head inbound, it is now just blocking the left shoulder lane. at one point only the right lane was getting by. again, that is cleared to the shoulder. also cleared to the shoulder, i-66 eastbound at 29 in centreville. police are still on the scene of an accident here in the left shoulder lane. at one point the left lane was blocked. as we talk about delays on 66, they are about lee miles. >> tom has your forecast right the grief was staggering. one hundred days after us senate starts to act are coming together background checks the second amendment hands of dangerous criminals. ninety percent of america background checks. urge them to join comprehensive background checks. demand action. now.

good morning. a lot of cloudiness around the metro area and sunshine breaking out south and east of washington. and temperatures are generally still in the mid and upper 50s much of the region. larity today sun breaks out should make might the low and mid 70s. may stay cloudy parts of the region and stay in the 60s. then milder weather moves in wednesday, thursday. could get thunderstorms late on provide afternoon and into friday night. maybe lingering showers lou midday saturday. cooler for the weekend. >> thank you. another update ♪ [ male announcer ] from our nation's networks... ♪ ...to our city streets... ♪ ...to skies around the world... ♪ ...northrop grumman's security solutions are invisibly at work, protecting people's lives... [ soldier ] move out! [ male announcer ] ...without their even knowing it. that's the value of performance. northrop grumman.

something just blew up. [ screaming ]. >> breaking news on a tuesday morning, we are learning more about the dual explosions that rocked the boston marathon, an iconic event now marred by tragedy. it's 8:00 op. a somber tuesday morning, i'm savannah guthrie in new york and matt is in boston this morning. >> savannah, good morning again to you. the scene here was obviously surreal. the runners were approaching the finish line after completing more than 26 miles of this race, there were people on the sidelines, family members and loved ones cheering them on, they were lining the streets. this morning the fbi is now leading an investigation. it's being called a very fluid and active investigation and we're going to have the latest on it in just a couple of

minutes. savannah? >> matt, also ahead we'll air part one of our exclusive interview with president obama. we sat down with him just hours before the attack in boston and asked him whether he thinks congress will pass this new gun legislation, it is hanging by a thread according to some accounts and how worried is he about the provocative rhetoric and actions we've seen from north korean leader kim jong-un. does he think he's stable? we'll hear from him in our exclusive interview coming up. new details on this deadly attack at the boston marathon, lester holt joins me once again here in boston. good morning. >> good morning again. this investigation is moving on so many different levels looking at surveillance videos along the routes, cameras that might have captured something. there were some important developments overnight we want to catch you up on. search warrants were apparently issued in revere, massachusetts. they searched an apartment, they

questioned two men, they're not being described as suspects. it's the first of many leads or possible leads that police will be following up as they try to piece all this together. we can also tell you among the three dead the youngest victim an 8-year-old child. 140 people at least injured, taken to hospitals here, one doctor described to me last night the injuries as mostly being lower extremity issues. there have been amputations, there have been muscle damage from shrapnel apparently put in the explosive devices that went off. we're told there were at least two explosive devices that went off here. the crime scene behind me stretches about a mile, three blocks wide, that area of boston will be closed off indefinitely. that means businesses and some homes that people cannot get to. the rest of boston will be up and running today although we're told public transit passengers have been warned there will be random searches, matt, as they continue to try and calm this city but secure a city very much

still on edge. >> you can understand why people here are on edge. lester, thank you very much. we appreciate it. pete williams, nbc's justice correspondent, is following the investigation. pete, you've got forensics, intelligence, eyewitness accounts and an awful lot of video so those investigators have a lot to look at. >> yes and the pieces of the bomb itself. in terms of the search first of all that is the apartment of a 20-year-old student from saudi arabia who is here on a currently active student visa. he was in the hospital with burns, some people thought he was acting suspiciously. he was questioned all night. there's still no final word on what exactly his status is. one official said he might be involved, on the other hand he might turn out to be an innocent bystander. secondly on the question of how many devices, they seem to be thinking there were just the two, that there were no unexploded devices, although there were many packages left on the street as people simply dropped what they were carrying

and ran away and all those things had to be checked. today they'll try to find every little piece of the devices, and there's a great deal of optimism about this. let me give you a quick example here, matt, of what you can find by looking at little pieces. in the olympic park bombing in 1996 in atlanta, this is what authorities were able to say the device was made of just from looking at the tiny little pieces they found. they knew it was in a backpack, had a metal base, smokeless powder and alarm clock, a small champl of what they will be able to find out once they get all of the little pieces of the bomb. >> pete, years ago you used to talk about the signature of a bombmaker with so much information on the internet these days, is that kind of a passing concept? >> it's a changing one certainly, although they will hope to be able to determine maybe perhaps by what sort of internet things the person was

inspired, how did they wire it together? what kind of wire did they use? all questions to be pursued. >> pete williams in washington, pete, as always, thank you very much. nbc's katy tur is at brigham and women's hospital in boston. they treated about 30 victims from the bombing. katy good morning to you. >> reporter: there are at least 126 patients at area hospitals that number is expected to grow as people wake up this morning and realize they may need medical attention. there is a major police presence but it has been stepped down slightly as the morning has gone on. you are now allowed to enter the hospital. there are two still in critical condition, nine others who have limb threatening moves, they might need amputations. at boston children's hospital they are treating ten patients and we are told the youngest patient being treated anywhere could be as young as 2 years old. the boston police department has confirmed three people are dead and our affiliate whdh has

confirmed one of them is an 8-year-old boy named martin richard, he is from dorchester and that community is just in a state of disbelief right now. we do expect updates on conditions of patients as the morning goes on but we do not expect to get any names at least for today. >> katy tur at brigham and women's hospital in boston. more from boston coming up, let's head back to new york. natalie has a check of the stories making headlines. we're following breaking news oversea this is morning as a major earthquake has hit iran, shaking buildings as far away as india. nbc's tehran bureau chief ali arouzi has the latest. >> reporter: that's right a huge 7.8 magnitude earthquake has shook the southeast of iran. iranian authorities say this is the largest earthquake that's hit iran in the last 40 years and a very earthquake-prone country. we're hearing reports of two

villages that have been affected in the southeast, sarsvan and hesh. the villages are very far from tehran and communications have gone down very badly. last week a power plant in bushir which killed 37 people and injured another roughly 900 so we have to see exactly what the death toll and injury toll from this earthquake in the southeast is going to be. >> we're following developments, ali arouzi in tehran, thank you. a senate showdown is looming over the proposal to expand background checks. the white house said president obama was calling lawmakers to urge their support, and sponsors of the measure are reportedly considering a change that would exempt gun buyers who live hundreds of miles from licensed firearms dealers.

a sweeping immigration bill being introduced today in the senate would give 11 million immigrants in the country illegally a path to u.s. citizenship eventually and pour as much as $6.5 billion into border security. for a look at how the internet community is reaching out in the wake of the boston bonding google launched a person finder and others turned to the red cross safe and well program, people can register to let friends and family know they are okay. comedian patton oswalt his facebook message to the culprits that the good outnumber you and we always will has gone mega viral, a picture and a quote of former children's tv host mr. rogers with his reminder that when you see scary things in the news, look for the helpers. you will always find people who are helping. and bostonians also were opening

their hearts and homes to anyone stranded by the tragedy. google has created two online documents where people can reach out if they need a place to stay or have one to offer. it's good to see some good in all of this. it's 8:09. let's get a check of the weather from al. >> natalie, thank you so much. as we take a look on our the satellite and radar you can see we have a pretty good line of showers and thunderstorms stretching from new england all the way into the midwest. snow back through the northern rockies and we are going to see anywhere from 6 to 9 inches of snow back through parts of wyoming. risk of strong storms from oklahoma all the way into ohio. look for wet weather move into the northeast later today. windy, breezy, and wore looking at high surf advisories for southern california today. that's what's going on around the country. here's what's happening in your neck of the woods. >> good morning. some sunshine south and east of the metro area now. it is all cloudy elsewhere. under those clouds, it is still rather chilly. just past 8:00, now it is in the mid and upper 50s much of the region. and we will have where the

sunshine is going to be more prevalent. highs reaching low to mid 70s south and east. perhaps southwest of washington later today. elsewhere under the clouds that may linger longer. highs inning the 60s. and partly sunny wednesday, thursday. highs 70s. could get storms >> that's your latest weather. savannah? >> al, thank you. coming up next the potential significance of the timing of the attack on the boston marathon, why have so many tragic mass killings happened in this country during this week of april. we'll get into that, right after this. we can all be at the corner of "just another prescription" and "sweet, something just for me." because walgreens balance rewards is more than a savings card. it's a rewards card that gives you 500 rewards points every time you fill a prescription. points you can redeem in store or online for, well, almost anything. rack up points with each prescription you fill, right here. at the corner of happy and healthy. [ female announcer ] some prescriptions not eligible to earn points.

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it's super delicious! i'm on expert on softball. and tea parties. i'll have more awkward conversations than i'm equipped for, because i'm raising two girls on my own. i'll worry about the economy more than a few times before they're grown. but it's for them, so i've found a way. who matters most to you says the most about you. at massmutual we're owned by our policyowners, and they matter most to us. ready to plan for your future? we'll help you get there. welcome back to this special edition of "today" as we cover the aftermath of monday's bombings at the boston marathon. natalie is back with more on why this event means so much to this city. >> that's right, savannah, from many participants completing the race is a lifelong dream. it is known for its challenging

hills and its enthusiastic crowds but this year it became the perfect target for terror. who could have predicted a race that began with the traditional starting gun would end with a pair of explosions. a city wide celebration transformed in an instant by an act of terrorism. >> everybody was excited, taking pictures and next thing you know it's just utter chaos. we were terrified and the only thing we could think of, is there another bomb? >> it's literally the best day of the year in the city and everybody is just absolutely stunned. >> the marathon is beloved in boston. it is held on patriots day, statewide holiday to mark the shot heard round the world at the battles of lexington and concord. each year, revolutionary war re-enactors take the field and so do the red sox. >> red sox win! a walkoff on patriots day! >> reporter: played an early

game so fans can catch some of the marathon. it is now the longest running annual marathon. this year the 117th annual. the event has overcome hurdles, finally allowing women to run with the men in 1972, and now letting disabled athletes compete. over the years, many marathon ruers have drawn inspiration from dick and rick hoyt, the father and son who have completed the race more than 30 times. the sta the uof the pair was unveiled in the days leading up to the race. and we have heard from the hoyts on their facebook page. they say everyone on their team is okay. they say, though, to please, let us pray for all the victims and their families. so vanna? >> thank you. mike lua is an author and columnist at "the new york daily news." good morning to you. >> good morning, savannah. >> this is hitting the heart of boston in so many ways, and the soul and spirit of the city.

>> anybody who has ever attended this race, anybody who has ever spent time in boston and i went to college there, my two sons have gone to school there, i have a son at boston college there this becomes personal for them. unless you've ever attended, it's impossible to describe, this is the best day of the year. maybe when a sports team wins a championship it feels better. this is a celebration you think on this day of everything that's good in the world. all you see are happy people. tired, happy people at the end of the race but all you hear from hopkington on are cheers and the site yesterday of people running away from the finish line at the boston marathon like we saw people running away from downtown manhattan is one of the most chilling and sad things i've ever seen. >> you've covered it many times. the street is loaded with spectators in so many ways the perfect target. >> it's an open target and even though the winners had come through long ago, somebody's waiting for somebody at the finish line.

some family member is waiting for a wife or a daughter, a son. my son's roommate's sister was running in the race. she got to the 23 mile mark and a lot of these kids carry cell phones in the race because they're back in the pack, not trying to win the race. her brother calls her from the finish line and says stop running and the kid said, did something happen in new york? people always assume it's something in new york and then they started getting herded back towards fenway park, and kenmore square so instead of running toward the finish line which is a great triumph for the runners they're moving in the other direction yesterday because of the bombings. >> it's heartbreaking. mike lupica it's always great to have your perspective. this is a city and event that means a lot to you. >> i'm on my way up this morning. >> let's turn to matt for more in boston. >> savannah, thank you very much. as the nation tries to sort through this tragedy, you can't help but remember that a lot of other violent incidents have happened in the month of april.

nbc's tom llama s is here right now. >> we know the last 20 years in this country several terrorist attacks and school shootings have taken place this time of the year, some connected, some random, all of them deadly. as tough as they are to watch, these images coming out of boston are all too familiar. especially during april, which has become a painful and unforgettably violent month in this country's history. six years ago today the virginia tech massacre, 33 people killed on the campus. >> he killed my best friend. >> reporter: during another shooting at columbine high school two teenagers killed 13 of their classmates and themselves april 20th, 1999. >> let's get out of here. move everybody back. >> reporter: in 1995, timothy mcveigh truck bombed the alfred

p.murow building. also on april 19th the end of the waco siege in 1993, after a 51-day standoff, authorities took control of cult leader david koresh's davidian compound, nearly 19 people died in the aftermath. timothy mcveigh acted in part because of what happened in waco. one more quick note about the timing. yesterday was tax day for everyone in this country but here in boston it was patriots day which commemorates the battles of lexington and concord, the start of the u.s. revolutionary war. big day not only for the country but boston. >> what was supposed to be a celebration turned out differently. let's go back to new york and savannah. >> matt on monday evening president obama spoke about this tragedy offering his thoughts and prayers to the city and vowing justice to those involved. i happened to sit down with him

shortly before these explosions and we talked about a number of things in the headlines. we began with the gun legislation before congress that many say is now hanging by a thread. >> i think we've got a good chance of seeing it pass if members of congress are listening to the american people so let's just take the example of background checks. 90% of americans think that we should make it tougher for criminals or people with serious mental illnesses to obtain a gun, and so the notion that congress would defy the overwhelming instinct of the american people after what we saw happen in newtown, i think, is unimaginable. >> you are asking democrats and conservative states to take a tough vote politically, something you, yourself, did not do. you didn't run on this in 2008 or 2012, not after tucson, not after aurora.

>> i think that all of us had to reflect on what we did or didn't do after newtown. if the question is, is this potentially difficult politically because the gun lobby is paying attention and has shown no willingness to budge, then the answer is yes. that's a given. now, if the question is what's the right thing to do and what are the american people believing overwhelmingly? if that's what's guiding members of congress during the next couple of weeks, then this will pass. >> let's move to north korea. is kim jong-un unstable? >> well, i'm not a psychiatrist, and i don't know the leader of north korea. what i do know is that the actions they've taken, the rhetoric they've engaged in has been provocative. it has been condemned across the board internationally, and it's

unnecessary, because what it's done is ironically isolated north korea further. if they want to rejoin the community of nations, that path is available to them. >> the cycle of provocation for them, as you well know. is there something qualitatively different about this time? >> well, this is the same kind of pattern that we saw his father engage in and his grandfather before that. since i came into office the one thing i was clear about was we're not going to reward this kind of provocative behavior. you don't get to bang your spoon on the table and somehow you get your way. >> is this the closest we've been to war with north korea on your watch? >> you'll recall that north korea shot down a korean, south korean fishing boat, that wasn't just words, that was action, so we've seen this kind of pattern

before. i think all of us would anticipate that north korea will probably make more provocative moves over the next several weeks, but our hope is that we can contain it, and that we can move into a different phase in which they try to work through diplomatically some of these issues so that they can get back on a path where they're feeding their people. >> does north korea in your estimation have the ability to put a nuclear weapon on a ballistic missile? >> based on our current aintelligence assessments we do not think they have that capacity but we have to make sure that we are dealing with every contingency out there and that's why i've repositioned missile defense systems to guard against any miscalculation on their part. >> on the budget, is this your last best final offer to republicans? >> what i tried to do is put forward a budget that i think is a realistic compromise. >> would you go farther on

entitlement cuts? >> it does not give republicans everything they want, frankly it doesn't reflect everything i would like to see. it puts forward some of the ideas the republicans had suggested around entitlement reform that i think are reasonable policy. >> they say it's not enough and it's not enough to make a deal, would you go farther? >> i think that before we go anywhere, right now we've got to see from republicans what exactly is it that they want to do. i mean, when they say they want to go farther, what do they want to do? what are they putting on the table. >> you've got democrats a little mad at you, too, saying you've cut social security and medicare and now this is going to come back and haunt them in their races. >> part of what we have to think about, whether we're democrats or republicans is how do we create a system where our social insurance programs, medicare, medicaid and social security are sustainable for the long-term and my budget does that.

it makes sure that people in need are cared for, but what it also says is let's make sure we're not spending it all down now so that the next generation that's paying into the system can't going to have those same benefits. >> a lot to talk to the president about, matt, and of course we sat down with him a few hours before all of this happened in boston, so much going on in that news between the gun legislation, immigration legislation being unveiled, and yet as we are so often reminded, news events, something like this, changes everything in an instant. >> yes, nothing can be predicted now, another big issue perhaps on his plate, and i look forward to more of your interview tomorrow, savannah, here on "today". meanwhile we're back with much more from boston and new york, right after these messages and your local news.

8:26 is your time on this tuesday, april 26, wirt. good morning. i'm eun yang. delays on the road this morning. let's go to danella sealock now with your first traffic. good morning. >> good morning. traveling southbound, d.c. 295, near pennsylvania avenue. disabled truck blocking the right lane. causing delays as you head southbound. delays are prior to 50 and then you are jammed. look at this. 12 miles per hour at east capitol street. northbound experiencing rubber necking delays. you are slow from the beltway. delays continue to just to pennsylvania avenue and then you are clear as you continue. now, the 14th street bridge, heavy on the brakes heading into the district. average travel speed is 25 minutes. >> we will get your forecast up ♪

[ female announcer ] from tracking the bus. ♪ to tracking field conditions. ♪ wireless is limitless. good morning. storm team 4 meteorologist tom kierein. mostly cloudy and cool around the region. and temperatures are in the mid and upper 50s. and another couple of hours, cloud cover may begin to break up and go partly sunny and during the afternoon. there is more sunshine. especially areas south and east of the metro area. should be in the low to mid 70s. elsewhere with the clouds linger longer, highs 60s. highs in the 70s wednesday and thursday. then some thunderstorms likely late friday into friday night. >> thanks, tom. you can get the latest news, traffic and weather any time on

it's 8:30 now on a tuesday morning, the 16th of april, 2013. it is as you might imagine a sad day in boston, massachusetts, really around the country as investigators search for some answers to monday's terrifying attack near the finish line of the boston marathon. i'm matt lauer in boston, ava in a, al, natalie are back in new york city and guys, looking here on boylston street, just about four blocks from the finish line and normally the afternoon after and the day after a marathon this is the scene of triumph and victory for the people who have

come from all across the country. as you can see though this morning it is barricaded off. cars are moving through the intersection. it is an active crime scene behind me and it will be until more answers are known and the questions surrounding this. coming up the latest on the injured from one of the emergency room doctors who has been treating patients at a local hospital, guys. >> and matt, as you well know this is in many ways an event that unfolded on social media as well, so many people looking for answers, for information, trying to find family members via social media in the moments following the attacks so we're going to have that story, too. first let's get a check of the weather. >> we have an active weather day. as we show you risk, wide area oklahoma all the way to central -- ohio. and down into alabama for strong storms. windy along the california coast. heavy snow back to the northern rockies. rain moves into the northeast later today. on into tonight. tomorrow we have more wet weather.

stretching up into the upper mississippi river valley. snow through the western plains. look for a risk of strong storms. very strong risk in central oklahoma tomorrow. we are expecting dangerous lightning and hail and tornadoes will as well. that's what's going on around the country. here's what's happening in your neck of the woods. >> good morning. sunshine northern shenandoah valley now. areas south and east of washington elsewhere. cloudy and we are still generally in the mid and upper 50s. later today, with the sunshine breaking out, we should make it into the low and mid 70s much of the region. whether clouds persist highs in the 60s, tomorrow, and on thursday, highs in the 70s, partly sunny. then near 80 friday afternoon. then a front comes in late friday afternoon and into friday night likely triggering showers and thunderstorms. lingering showers on saturday. right now upper 50s. >> and for your latest whether go to the weather channel on cable or weather.com online. >> al thank you so much. coming up, much more on the tragedy in boston just ahead including the role of social media in the moments following

the attack. but first, this is "today" on nbc.

we are back now in boston on this tuesday morning in the chaos that followed the bombing here, desperate families tried to find out if their loved ones were safe. nbc's kerry sanders is with us now that part of the story. kerry, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, matt. with more than 26,000 people running in the race from 98 different countries as news spread on the internet, you can imagine phone calls started coming in from around the world and that crushed the cell phone system. voice calls were next to impossible but the one thing that did work and worked well on these phones, social media. within moments of the blast -- >> i have to call my husband, thank you. >> reporter: as panic set in, those nearby reached for their cell phones, calling, tweeting pictures but within minutes the

cell phone system was overwhelmed. >> i was glad that i was able to text because it was very hard to keep up with everyone back at home asking if we were okay. >> reporter: what did work, texting, facebook and twitter. almost immediately pictures went online, one of the first on twitter appears to show a plume of smoke from the first explosion, and orange flames from the second detonation. as news spread in international nanoseconds, family members and loved ones took to twitter. even police used twitter asking for help. boston police looking for video of the finish line and the fbi posted if you have a crime tip, please point your browser here. among those racing monday, new kids on the block singer joey mcintyre who tweeted i'm okay but i'm sure there are many hurt and olympic swimmer summer

sanders tweeted in part, really ready to be home and hold my baby. unlike the aftermath of 9/11 when families put pictures on walls looking for loved ones, in boston, google activated a people finder site. as the day progressed, the conversation changed online, with people taking a closer look at that picture of the blast, wondering about the man seen on the roof. whomever is responsible, it will never make sense as to why. >> so furious with whoever did this. >> reporter: and that anger is now online as well. two of the victims that i spoke to right here at tufts medical center said that not only are they angry, they want the answer as to why, and they know there will never be a justification to answer the question why. savannah? >> kerry sanders in boston, thank you. this boston marathon attack is a global event, it's being felt around the world this morning, for that let's get to nbc's keir

simmons in london for us. good morning to you. >> good morning to you, savannah. the horror of what happened in boston is echoing around the world this morning. let me show you a couple of front pages this british newspaper "the daily mail" "bloodbath at the marathon" an italian newspaper showing that chilling picture from the moments after the explosions. german newspaper praising what it calls the well functioning american security system, and how the american security responded immediately afterwards and politicians around the world, too, the australian prime minister julia gillard saying australia condemns the attack. statement by china seen as significant, china strongly condemns and firmly opposes any violent attacks against civilians so messages of support for boston from around the world, savannah. >> meantime two big public events coming up in london including the london marathon

this weekend. >> that's right. the london marathon is on sunday, they're expecting 700,000 spectators and competitors and prince harry is expected to present medals to the runners at the end of the race near the finish line. sources at clearance house are saying he's still doing that, we've not been notified of changes to his plans but police saying they will step up security and stepping up security for the funeral of former prime minister margaret thatcher tomorrow, former secretaries of state james baker, henry schultz and henry kissinger and former vice president dick cheney are expected to attend. there will be high security there because whoever did this, the aim looks as if it was to spread fear. what politicians and police around the world are doing now is trying to ensure that that fear doesn't spread around the world. savannah? >> for so many people on edge for good reason this morning, kier simmons in london, thank

you. coming up next, matt talks to an emergency room doctor who treated a number of victims at the scene but first this is "today" on nbc.

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we are back here in boston on a tuesday morning and throughout the morning, since we've been here, we've noticed that some runners have been stopping by the location behind us here on boylston street, many of them in the jackets they wore while they were running yesterday and they're taking pictures by the barricades back there, it occurs to you that some of these people probably never got to finish the marathon. they were rerouted after the tragedy. others may have finished and then were ushered out of this area quickly to avoid the police presence and now they're taking what are sad photos of the 2013 marathon finish line. meanwhile doctors and nurses are working tirelessly and have been to treat the wounded at six area hospitals.

some of the best hospitals in the country, right here in boston. dr. ron walls, chairman of the department of emergency medicine at brigham and women's hospital, one of those great hospitals, dr. walsh, good morning to you. >> good morning, matt. >> i'm just curious, because there were so many people in town yesterday, 500,000 people here for the marathon, did you have extra personnel on standby because of the event? >> we always prepare differently for the marathon than for an ordinary day so we have additional medical staff in the emergency department and we also cooperate with boston ems and the other city hospitals to have a medical team near the finish line. >> i'm sure you were expecting a lot of running related injuries and instead at ten minutes of 3:00 these two explosions. try to take me back and describe the scene in the emergency room as these patients started coming in. >> you have to understand that the emergency department at that point is really anticipating what we would call a normal busy

day, so we were geared up. we were ready for these types of running-related issues, and it almost literally is like throwing a light switch, you go from this preparation and ready to do what you think is going to be just a typically busier than normal day, a marathon day and a switch is flicked and all of a sudden it's a whole different thing and fortunately we have drilled for this many times, both within the hospital, within brigham and women's hospital here and cooperatively across the city of boston, and so when we respond to these things, it's a pretty quick response. >> yeah, there were 28 people i understand brought to brigham and women's. we know there was shrapnel in these explosive devices. talk to me about the injuries you were seeing. >> we had 31 patients in total, nine of those patients had to go to the operating room and the injuries that we saw predominantly were really severe, what we call muss skoe skeletal injuries so injuries to

the muscle issue, broken bones, exposed to air, large amounts of tissue loss in those areas, that was the predominant thing. the shrapnel we saw wasn't what we consider weaponized shrapnel, it wasn't something you. you the in a device to make it more lethal. it's the kind of stuff that blows around when an explosion goes off, just the stuff that was there. >> we have reports that there were people who lost limbs. i know i talked earlier to a doctor from florida who actually tried to care for one gentleman who lost parts of both legs. were you seeing amputations at your hospital? >> we had some really severe limb injuries. i don't know if they ended in amputation. it's hard to know at this point but we had some very severe lower extreme injuries, as severe as i've ever seen. >> and you mentioned you had 31 patients. can you tell me how many of those are still in your hospital this morning? >> yes, of the 31, nine went to

the operating room emergently and 14 are still in the hospital in total. >> dr. ron walls, who is the chairman of emergency medicine at brigham and women's, as i mentioned one of the great hospitals in the boston area, dr. walls, thanks for your time this morning. i appreciate it. i know you guys are busy over there. >> thank you, matt. >> we're going to have much more coming up including thoughts from nbc's tom brokaw, but first this is "today" on nbc.

back at 8:48 and in times of national tragedies like monday's bombing in boston we turn to our colleague and friend, nbc's tom brokaw who has unfortunately covered so many of these events. tom, good to see but >> good to see you, savannah. go ahead, i'm sorry. >> i was just going to ask you your initial impressions. >> well my initial impression is this demonstrates once again just how vulnerable we are despite the fact that in this free nation we have so much more restrictive security in everything you do in the workplace and public places and so on, but you can only guard against so much, but it's important this morning to know that we need to know a great deal more about who was responsible for this, was this part of a wider network of some kind? was it just some freelance lunatic? what was the political

philosophy or ideology behind it, if there was any of some kind at all, or was it more like newtown, the shooting, was it just some deranged person who wanted to get attention? until we find that out i don't think that we can come to any sweeping conclusions about the long-term impact on this country. what i do know this morning is that across the country, security will be ratcheted up at public events and workplaces and government offices because that's always the response that we need to have and unfortunately, it's going to be a fixed part of our lives i think forevermore. >> there's no question at time like these people are looking and remembering some of the terrible moments in our history, of course people think of 9/11, and that feeling of vulnerability but as you mentioned, tom, it's much too soon to know what the nature of this attack is. >> that's exactly the case. take oklahoma city, for example, which happened in 1995. we knew that that was a well

defined terrorist attack, carried out by timothy mcveigh and his accomplices who were determined to bring down the federal government if they possibly could. you have to remember that 168 people were killed in oklahoma city. i was just there last week. i saw the memorial again, it's a very somber but beautiful place and everyone i talked to in oklahoma city said the residual effect of that bombing was it made the city more compassionate. it united people in a way that they could not have anticipated at the time and ironically, oklahoma city was scheduled to have a memorial marathon next week on the 19th, another patriots date, by the way, but now they're reevaluating all that and on our website expressing their solidarity with boston. so we're united, unfortunately, by these acts of violence, whether it's mass shootings or these random, terrifying bombs. >> and you mentioned the significance of this date. one does not have to look far to

see examples that happened of significance this week. it was patriots day in boston with the opening of the american revolution and unfortunately, we've seen acts of violence during this week as well. >> we have and we don't know whether that was just a coincidence or not, the virginia tech shooting took place in mid-april, way dough was in mid-april, was that just an accident of the calendar or was that part of the deliberate pattern. as i say there's a great deal more that we need to learn today about who was responsible for this and what the motivations might possibly have been, was it just a freelance lunatic or was it part of a wider network. from the time of 9/11 on and i've been talking with our national security experts on a regular basis, they've always been worried about what they called sleeper cells, either well-organized out there waiting for an opportunity or freelancers who getotivated by something that they see on television. you remember that we were very lucky not so long ago with that car bomb in times square in

which that man didn't know what he was doing, thank god. he's now going to spend the rest of his life in prison but that could have been a terrible act of violence. >> it always bears reminding at this time, as a long time practitioner of our craft that early reports are often in error. i think we've become used to getting more information even this soon after an attack we often do know something of the nature of the attacker, in this case there really are more questions than answers. >> i think everybody has to take a deep breath, savannah, this morning, report what we know and do the best we can with the information that we're able to get reliably and then all care for each other a little more and be patient when you're in the security lines, not just at the airports, but trying to get into an office place or public event of some kind. this is going to tax our patience, it's going to be another test of the resilience of the american people. i have no doubt we're going to meet it and just one other comment if i can. when i was looking at the scenes in boston today i didn't see anybody in the street rushing to

help others, whether they were first responders or bystanders turning to someone and saying i can't help you because you're from a red state or blue state or tea party member or republican or democrat. these are the times when america is more than the sum of its parts, it's a lesson not to be lost especially in washington. >> tom brokaw always good to get your perspective. >> thank you, savannah. >> as we bring matt back in, give us a sense of how people are feeling in boston. i said to mike lupica a few minutes ago this truly struck at the heart of the city in every possible way. >> it's funny, mike barnacle for his duties for "morning joe" and mike is a long time observer of everything boston. he and i made eye contact and shook our heads because this is not the patriots day we remember. i lived in boston on two occasions, was at the finish line of the marathon on several occasions and it's a joyous

time, it's a wonderful place, smiles everywhere. not yesterday at ten of 3:00, savannah. >> matt, i know we will continue to check in with you and get the latest on the investigation and unfolding story there, but first, let's take another look at some of the powerful images from monday's tragic events in boston. >> at the boston marathon, already under way. >> something just blew up -- [ screaming ]. run, go! >> breaking news tonight, an apparent coordinated attack in boston. >> a place of celebration instantly transforms into a scene of chaos. >> we have multiple people down here, okay. i don't know what the cause is. stand by.

>> at first i thought it was a cannon blast but it almost blew my hat off. >> it was loud, it was really, really loud and then people just, chaos everywhere. >> it was carnage. it was just carnage. i saw a man who lost part of his leg. >> i knew immediately it was a bomb. i mean, you could smell it. >> i'm in shock. >> just like a bomb explosion that we hear about in the news in baghdad or israel or some other tragic point. >> boston is a tough and resilient town, so are its people. the american people will be with them every single step of the way. >> get out of the zone. get out of the zone. >> the number of casualties is expected to change throughout the evening. >> the numbness in the city, not out of fear, but i think just out of trauma.

>> it's absolutely senseless for boston for this to happen on a day like today, honestly the best day of the year in this city. there are really no words to describe it. it's pretty devastating right now. good morning. 8:56 now on this tuesday, april 16. i'm aaron gilchrist. new crash on 295 in the district causing delays. let's go right to danella sealock. >> tracking them right now. this crash is a multi-vehicle accident just before the exit to pennsylvania avenue. your travel speed approaching east capitol street, you are just 17 miles per hour as you raffle southbound. delays actually start prior through 50 on 295. heading over to the interchange, checking your raffle speed slow as you approach braddock, about 21 minutes from the interchange

to the dulles toll road. >> danella, thank you. tom will have a look at your bring your dog to work day. not our best idea. [ dog barks ] ooh. it was a nice thought. [ male announcer ] some business decisions are better than others. the best decision is switching to verizon. choose verizon internet and phone, both with 99.9% network reliability. all for just $89.99 a month with a two year price guarantee. plus get an additional line included. it's all backed by our worry free guarantee, with no activation fees, and more. call 1.866.solutions to sign up today. verizon.

good morning. nearly 9:00. temperatures are around 60 degrees. much of the region later today with sun breaking out. 07 or so. more sun in parts of virginia and southern maryland may hit the mid 70s. and then tomorrow partly sunny, upper 70s as well as on thursday. friday increasing clouds. high 70s to near 80. could get storms friday, late into the evening. rain lingering into part assistant day. >> you can get the latest

something just blew up! >> run, go! >> welcome to "today" on what is a somber tuesday morning, april 16th, 2013. that was the scene in boston just before 3:00 in the afternoon on monday when the boston marathon was shattered by two blasts, leaving at least three dead and more than 100 wounded. inside studio 1a i'm willie geist along with al roker and natalie morales. patriots day is every year boston's greatest day of celebration. this morning the city is tending to its injured and at least three families mourning the death of a loved one, including 8-year-old martin richard, killed near the finish line just after congratulating his father. matt and lester are up in boston this morning with the very latest. guys, good morning. >> hey, guys. good morning to you as well. it is a bit of a surreal morning

here in boston. patriots day as you just mentioned, willie, is always a day of celebration around here. the day after you usually see runners, some limping around nursing sore knees and ankles after completing 26.2 miles. today, though, you see a lot of runners coming here to boyleston street about four or five blocks away from what was supposed to be a joyous finish line. instead they're here with their cameras and they're taking pictures of what is now a crime scene behind us. we know overnight a few developments police did carry out a search warrant in rivere, massachuset massachusetts, about ten miles from here. questioning some people. they won't label them as suspects. >> they won't. they questioned a couple of men. took materials out of this apartment. not calling them smts. we have to know there are going to be so many leads they're going to be following up on right now. they're going to be checking surveillance cameras. it's a busy downtown area. 2013, there's a camera every year. we know now there were two explosive devices. you may recall in the hours and

even up through last night there were reports of unexploded bombs. that's because there were so many suspicious devices or things they didn't know about that they just disrupted. >> that's right. if you've been to a marathon, whether it's here in boston or elsewhere, you know that almost everybody here, whether they're a runner or a family member supporting a runner is carrying a backpack or a bag with a change of clothes, a heavier jacket. >> two backpacks. >> exactly right. when you think that you've got hundreds of thousands of people along the running route and at the finish line, tens of thousands of people and so many carrying a backpack or another kind of a bag, it's easy to understand why security would be almost impossible in terms of screening out someone who might have an explosive device. >> going to be very difficult as to what and who looks suspicious. i also want to tell you about the injured right now. numbers are varying. we're hearing about 126 people still ohospitalized. a number of them are critical. i spoke to a doctor last night who said a lot of the damage was lower expremty. these bombs apparently had bbs.

>> a lot of the injuries we've been talking about over the last 12 to 18 hours, lower extremities. these bombs may have been placed on the sidewalk or in trash cans. some indication maybe in a mailbox. we're going to have much more ahead from here. we've been talking to some doctors and emergency rooms throughout the morning. one of the great sources of pride for the city of boston is their hospital system here. they have six area hospitals that have been treating the wounded or the injured. and they are some of the best hospitals in the country and the world. as we mentioned, the injuries really range from bumps, bruises, cuts to amputations of limbs from what we're hearing. >> the youngest of the three dead, and 8-year-old we know. i want to add one other item. i talked to a race official who said before the race -- this is something we've become used to post-9/11. police dogs went through. they sniffed. they looked for bombs and explosive things. mainly in the computer areas where the officials were.

so it was on everyone's mind as everything is these days. >> it's hard to tell whether these devices were planted long in advance of the race or dropped there during the actual race itself. keep in mind, everybody in that finish line area, willie, they're all looking at the street. they're trying to crane their neck to catch a glimpse of a family member or a loved one going by. probably not paying an awful lot of attention to what might have been going on on that sidewalk alongside them or behind them. back to you guys. >> all right, matt and lester, thanks so much. matt and savannah will be back with more at 9:30 with the latest on the investigation in a live press conference from boston. the guys referenced the lower extremity injuries. we saw so many of those. there's a piece up "the boston globe," one 33, one 31. both of whom lost a leg. >> the mother got the phone call from the one son. >> from the ambulance. said, ma, i'm hurt real bad. same injury. two brothers, same injury. there to watch your buddy run.

>> our hearts go out to their family and all the families suffering right now. such tragedy. let's check out some of the other stories making news this morning. >> a big story we're following out of iran this morning. a major earthquake has struck iran near the border with pakistan. iranian tv says dozens of people have been killed there. the quake had a preliminary magnitude of 7.8. it was felt across the middle east and as far away as new delhi, india, where panicked people ran into the streets. this comes less than a week after a quake in iran killed at least 37 people. a hard landing for a marine ch-53e super stallion helicopter near seoul, south korea. all 21 people on board survived the incident. six of them remain in the hospital in stable condition. the senate is set to take up the gun control debate today as republicans and democrats face off over the issue of background checks for people purchasing

weapons. a vote could be delayed until later this week as both sides seek more time to rally support. a bipartisan senate group filed sweeping legislation to overhaul the nation's immigration system today in what is said to be a landmark of president obama's second term agenda. the bipartisan effort would create legal avenues for international workers to come to the u.s. and put the 11 million immigrants currently living here illegally on a 13-year path to citizenship. you're up to date now on some of the other headlines of the day. six minutes after the hour. >> thanks. al, a check of the weather. >> a busy weather day as well. we've got a snowstorm to talk ab to wyoming where we are talking about anywhere from 6 to 9 inches of snow over the next 24 hours. ahead of this system where we have all this snow, we have warm air meeting cold air and where that happens we have the risk of strong storms from abilene, texas, on up into much of missouri and into central ohio. down into alabama with a chance

of tornadoes and tomorrow even stronger risk porch of central oklahoma. here's what's going on around the country. here's what's happening in your neck of the woods. >> perfect sis tent cloud cover over the metro area. temperatures under the clouds are near 60 degrees much of the region and later today. cloud cover should break up a little bit anyway around the metro area over the next couple of hours. and partly sunny during the afternoon and where there's more sunshine should make to it the low and mid 07s where the clouds linger and may -- reach the mid and upper 60s. then this mild pattern continues another couple of days. maybe thunderstorms friday evening. lingering rain into midday saturday. cooler the rest of that's your latest weather. willie? >> msnbc contributor mike barnicle is a native of the boston area and long time journalist there who knows the city just about as well as anybody you would ever meet. mike, good morning. >> good morning, willie. >> if my math is right you wrote your first column for "the

boston globe" in 1973, 40 years ago. you've been taking the pulse of that city for decades. bha what's the pulse like this morning? >> well, it's a somber pulse today, willie. but there is a pulse. it's vibrating throughout the city. and hopefully throughout the country. and it's the pulse of people who were knocked to their knees yesterday by these explosions that occurred on boyleston street, five blocks up from where i'm standing right now. but as we said earlier today, people got up this morning. the sun rose. they went to work. the city is alive. most of it. people are resilient here. the spirit is getting stronger here. yesterday was an example of people helping people, complete strangers helping other strangers. so onward. that's -- that's the word of the day here, willie, onward. >> there seems to be a theme i'm hearing this morning. i heard it from my own wife last night who lived in boston for a long time, that this feels like a personal attack.

maybe people who don't live in boston can't understand what that means exactly. how special patriots day is. it's a day they go watch their baseball team in boston. it's a day they go watch their neighbors run in the marathon. they celebrate that city. can you explain for people across the country what patriots day means to boston? >> patriots day for years has meant the start of spring in a sense. it's unusual in that you have -- the only major league baseball game played in the morning starts in boston at 11:00 a.m. on patriots day, which is a statewide holiday. the marathon begins 26 miles from boston in hopkinton, massachusetts. all along the marathon route, along boston college, up heartbreak hill, down commonwealth avenue into the city itself and then to boyleston street and the finish line you have hundreds of thousands of people offering help and assistance. cups of waters. an orange slice to runners, complete strangers from around the world and around the country. of course, the joyous moments occur at the finish line.

not for those world-class runners, but for people who run for a cause. your neighbors. people you know. people who are running on behalf of someone who has passed away. running on behalf of the jimmy fund, the cancer fund, research fund here in boston. running for aids awareness. any number of causes. and when this event occurred yesterday, it is because of the communal spirit that inspires so much of patriots day and the marathon, this was as if someone came into your living room and attacked you in your home. that's the feeling. that's the sense of the crowd. it's obviously a day off from school for hundreds of thousands of children all along the parade route. this was an attack on family. a family of strangers brought together by the community that -- that inspires this one event and has for years. >> and so far one of the great sources of that pain that you're talking about, mike, has been the death of 8-year-old martin richard. the account of the story goes in "the boston globe" this morning

that he was at the finish line with his mother, his sisters. he went out to congratulate his father and give him a hug as his father came to the finish line. they separated. his father went and finished the race. martin stepped back on to the curb and died instantly. can you talk about what his death means in all of this? >> yeah, well, you know, the death of any child shatters us all. there is one correction to that story. that's since been added to that story. martin's dad who is a runner was not running in the marathon yesterday. he was with his family at the finish line. as with so many of the kids who line up along the finish line, they have the police gates, the rails that you see behind me over here. and martin and a couple of other youngsters were gathered up on the rail right at the site of one of the explosions. martin lost his life, 8 years of age, obviously. we've reported that over and over. but the -- the sadness that comes with the death of an

8-year-old, you can magnify it by also thinking about the sadness that comes with all of the other 8-year-olds, 9-year-olds, 10-year-olds, children who now have a freeze frame in their minds, who were there yesterday, of the sights and sounds of the explosions that took place around them. of the blood letting that went on. but they also have and will have a memory of strangers rushing to help strangers. i spoke to a couple of eyewitnesses yesterday. one of them young lawyer andrew kettlewall was his name. he was there at the finish line as were so many others waiting for his friend, his girlfriend to complete the marathon. he was standing right there in front of the lord & taylor department store on boyleston street. about 75 yards to his right, the first explosion took place. and then instantly within 15 to 20 seconds, the second explosion took place across the street from where he was, 25 yards up.

this is a two-block area. with -- with hundreds of thousands of people. many of them youngsters, younger than obviously 26 or 27 as andrew kettlewall's age is. they will have a freeze frame in their mind of people rushing to apply tourniquets to the wounded. complete strangers. not medical personnel to begin with. complete strangers helping strangers. they will have a freeze frame in their mind of one young man jumping on two children and their mom to protect them from, perhaps, a third explosion that n never occurred. this is the memory they will have. of people helping people, people coming together in a time of incredible trouble and violence. that's the spirit of this city. that's the spirit of this country. we will go on. >> you're right, mike. there was some evil yesterday, but there was a lot more good up in boston. thanks so much, mike barnicle, for your perspective this morning. >> you're welcome. coming up next, eyewitnesses share their firsthand accounts

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my sister... and that was my mother. dannon oikos greek nonfat yogurt. too delicious to be so nutritious. ♪ dannon back now with some firsthand accounts of the terror attack in boston. stan ricks ran monday's marathon and completed the race. he joins us from boston along with his family who was there to cheer him on. his wife connie, their daughter julia nixon and her husband mike nixon. good morning to all of you. i'm so glad to see you're all okay. >> good morning. >> great to be here. >> stan, i know you had just finished the race minutes before the explosions. you were actually in the medical tent. can you describe for me what you heard and what was your reaction? >> i was there in the medical tent. all of a sudden this loud reverberating, guttural boom. it just shook you right to your

core. we stood up and looked around, said what's going on. the nurse people were looking at us. we said, what was that? we went over to the edge and looked out. then another one went off just immediately thereafter. we thought it was a bomb. we have to get out of here. i took off, headed out. figured i needed to make room for some real victims. took off down the street. and the police were all running towards the incident. and we were running away. i thought best thing to do is just get out of here. i climbed up over a fence and went down a side street and was really worried about my family. because i knew they had been right where the bomb had been. >> mike, where exactly were you, mike, from where the explosions were set off? >> yeah. we were actually at the corner of dartmouth and boyleston. about 100 feet past the finish line. we were just waiting for stan to finish up, hopefully reconnect with him. i was actually facing the finish line, watching the runners come through. that's when i felt the first

boom. basically a big cloud of smoke. about ten seconds later the second boom. that's whenever we took off. >> connie, i imagine for you there was some real moments of fear and not knowing because nobody at that time knew where the other one was. how long were you out of touch with each other until you finally were able to get ahold of stan? >> probably about ten minutes. we had no cell service. finally we started texting and realized that was our best way to get ahold of him. >> julia, i know you have two young children. fortunately, they were not there at the finish line and were safely home with some friends. but i know you probably saw a lot of children there who were cheering their fathers or their grandfathers along. can you tell me what you saw in that moment of chaos? >> yeah. we were with our friends with their 9-month-old baby. as soon as we saw the bomb, we

just told them to run with their baby. i was so worried. there were kids everywhere crying. i was so grateful my kids weren't there. >> stan, i know you said you had to steel yourself in order not to go to piece. sadly i know you have seen a lot and you've had to endure a lot. i imagine you're going to be very emotional and it's coming days.ng to be hard on but i know you want to say a lot of gratitude goes to those first responders and to those medics and everyone w to the scene. >> it was really, truly the most amazing part about it. as we were all trying to get away, the police and others are yelling for us to get away, the police are running, charging down the street to help. and there's sirens everywhere and a lot of the volunteers went to help. it was truly amazing to see. these guys were -- were really heroes. i was totally impressed. >> well, we are so grateful, once again, you're all doing

okay. we wish all the best for you and your family. stan and connie, rick, julia and mike nixon, thank you all. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> we'll be right back after this. what makes your family smile? backflips and cartwheels. love, warmth. here, try this. mmmm, ok! ching! i like the fact that there's lots of different tastes going on. mmmm! breakfast i'm very impressed.

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9:26 is your time on this tuesday, april 1, wirt. a tough commute out will this morning. how is your first 4 traffic? >> good morning. checking the accident now. this one is on the beltway, inner loop of the beltway approaching little river turnpike. it does block two of your left lanes and you are jammed from the interchange. slow commute passing the accident. look at this. 395 northbound at the pentagon. looks like the cars just are at a standstill. your delays actually start at beltway and con to the 14th street bridge. drive time is 25 minutes. average travel speed about 26 miles per hour. no accidents reported 395 north or south. >> thank you. we will check your forecast when we come back. we come back. stay with us. outdoors, or in.

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good morning. temperatures now near 60 degrees. still a persistent cloud cover around much of the region. clouds should break up during the afternoon. out of the mountains especially should be warming into the 0s as well as south of the metro area. still a mild pattern next couple of days. and friday could get storms afternoon and evening. maybe lingering rain showers through midday saturday. drying out after that cool weekend to follow. sunny sunday. >> all right, tom. thank you. you can get the latest news, weather and

some of the difficult and now indelible images from the boston marathon bombings yesterday. trained first responders rushing toward the scene, but also so many brave civilians doing the same, acting on instinct. here in new york, i'm willie geist along with al roker and natalie morales. coming up, a firsthand account from someone who was just 150 feet from those explosions. >> also, a woman who was running the race describes the confusion in the moments right after those bombs went off. >> and one of the three dead, sadly an 8-year-old boy. it makes our children feel so much more vulnerable. we've all been talking about this. how do we talk to our kids about this tragedy? >> it's a difficult question yesterday. everywhere you looked, your kids were running through the house. you want information. how do you handle that? >> my kids sadly saw a lot that

they probably shouldn't have seen before i was like, okay, stop. when your job is to cover and to watch, the tv is on. they were just coming home from school. >> we're going to get into all that in just a few minutes. first al has a look at the weather. >> as we take a look first of all for today we've got a risk of strong sto oklahoma all the way into ohio. we have heavy snow back throughout much of wyoming and heavy surf advisories and windy conditions in central and southern california. rain moves into the northeast later today. for tomorrow, look for sunny and cool conditions in new england. sunny and warm through the gulf coast. risk of strong storms from texas all way into illinois. and lot more snow back through the central plains. afternoon showers moving into the pacific northwest. sunny and mild from the southwest into southern california. that's what's going on around the country. here's what's happening in your neck of the woods. >> temperatures now near 60 degrees much of the region. still quite a bit of low cloudiness around the metro area. think the clouds should be breaking up by midday and during the afternoon. and when that happens we should climb to around 70 locally. hit low to mid 07s where there is more sun elsewhere.

tomorrow and thursday, another pattern here with mild weather for both of those days. as well as into friday. could get thunderstorms friday, late afternoon into the evening. and perhaps lingering showers lou midday saturday. and cooler weather alicia lane is an anchor at knbc, nbc station in los angeles. she was near the finish line cheering on a friend when those explosions went off. good morning. >> good morning to you. >> you hear these explosions. what happens next? what did you do? >> we were inside of a restaurant at the lennox hotel which is right there at the corner of boyleston and exeter. 100, 150 feet from the spectator and finish line. we were having lunch, waiting for my best friend who had run the marathon to have lunch with us. she had already passed through. the massive explosion takes place. we can feel it beneath us.

the table is shaking. everything on the table is shaking. ten seconds later another explosion goes off. at that point, panic just struck the entire restaurant inside of that hotel. we all moved back toward the back of the restaurant in order to stay away from blasts, any glass that might shatter. everyone was terrified, myself included, not knowing if that was the only bomb, if that was the only bombs, if there were more to come. boston police then came inside a little bit later, few minutes later p told us to turn off all of our cell phone devices to make sure we wouldn't detonate any additional devices that might be out there. shortly thereafter, we were ushered out of the hotel and we were evacuated and have since not been able to return. i've just recently been told we can get back in to get our belongings. the entire area is considered a crime scene. no one who was in any of those hotels will be able to stay at those hotels. i want to show you the covers of the newspapers here this morning in boston. "the boston herald." terror at the finish line. graphic photos, heart brenchiwr

photos. "the boston globe," i'm not going to unfold, quite gruesome of a woman who was injured there. a really harrowing ordeal. we finally did find my best friend. luckily she was safe. this morning it was really about processing what had taken place. natalie, i know natalie is a runner. she's a marathoner. she knows what it's like to win one of these. it's a huge achievement. especially for the boston marathon which is one of the most competitive marathons. and this morning we awakened in our hotel room. this was beside her on the night stand. she was doubled over in tears. really inconsolable. she couldn't realize, wrap her head around what had happened. how fortunate she felt and how fortunate we all felt for surviving this. and our hearts going out to those who were injured and the people who were killed. it was just such a terrifying experience. i think i probably haven't had time to process it yet.

she is this morning. and it's certainly a difficult day. >> all right. alycia lane from our sister station in los angeles, knbc. thank you so much. glad you're okay. still ahead, one of the marathon runners describes the chaos and confusion as the bombs go off right after these messages. do hot or cold foods ever cause you tooth discomfort? now there's a sensodyne toothpaste that can actually repair sensitive teeth and help relieve pain. new sensodyne repair and protect. with twice daily brushing, its clinically proven ingredients builds a repairing layer over the sensitive areas to help repair and strengthen your teeth. protect your teeth from sensitivity. try new sensodyne repair and protect toothpaste. from the #1 dentist-recommended brand for sensitive teeth. this has been medifacts for sensodyne repair and protect. before i do any projects on on my own.st this has been medifacts for at angie's list, you'll find reviews written by people just like you. i love my contractor, and i am so thankful to angie's list

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good morning, i'm savannah guthrie in new york, as we continue to cover an unfolding situation in boston, matt lauer is in boston where officials are about to hold a news conference on the latest developments on monday's deadly bombings at the boston marathon. matt? >> savannah, the investigation is active as you might imagine. it's been described as fluid. police interviewing two men overnight, after executing a search warrant at an apartment in a suburb of boston called revere, that's about ten miles from here. they're only telling us that that investigation and that search warrant was related to the investigation. i want to mention i'm joined by lester holt here in boston, we're on boylston street, about five blocks from the finish line of the marathon. the news conference will be held this morning at the westin hotel, not far from where we

are. it will be a crowded room with members of the media from boston, across the country, and around the world, of course, people here covering this event and runners from their countries. it will be crowded in terms of officials as well. lester we're hearing as many as nine local officials and federal officials will be addressing the press. >> fbi is taking the lead in this investigation, what we've been told they are starting from square one. there was nothing intelligence wise on the radar and we should note that the mayor is in a wheelchair. >> thomas menino broke a leg at an event saturday. we're expecting to hear from richard deloriere, the governor there and the u.s. attorney carmen ortiz. >> everyone, thank you for coming. less than 24 hours after yesterday's act of terror, we

wanted to organize a briefing for you with the information that we have. the mayor is here. the members of our congressional delegations, all of the law enforcement leadership, several people who want to present to you this morning and take your questions. couple points i want to mention at the outset. i told you yesterday that the fbi has taken charge of the investigation, special agent in charge rick deloriere will speak. it is important to clarify two and only two explosive devices were found yesterday. other parcels, all other parcels in the area of the blast have been examined but they are, there were unexploded bombs or devices found. over 150 people were injured yesterday in the blasts, some gravely.

our thoughts go out to all of those injured and killed and to their families and friends. i personally want to thank the extraordinary first responders for their, just extraordinary work yesterday. every single one of them, those who were on site and those who got to the site promptly thereafter performed beautifully as have the area hospitals. i've been calling around to the heads of the hospitals personally to thank them as well. it's our hope that tomorrow, we will organ interfaith prayer service to help our community heal. we don't have details o s on th yet but we will when we have them. there is a support center that was opened yesterday in what we call the castle, opposite the park plaza hotel on arlington and stuart street i think it is. the mayor has provided staff to help people cope with this extraordinary event, and it will be open from 9:00 i think until

5:00 or beyond this evening. finally, everyone should expect continued heightened police presence and everyone should continue personally to be vigilant. the investigation continues, and until it is done, all of those in law enforcement represented by the leaders here will be present in force in the area around the blast and throughout the city, and with that let me turn it over to mayor menino. >> thank you, governor. yesterday terror was brought to the city of boston. tragedy was brought to one of our neighborhoods also. this is a close-knit place, the city of boston. here we know our neighbors, we grieve for them. we grieve for the little boy who we knew from dorchester. also today i want to say we know our heroes also. they're the men and women who wear helmets, who wear the badges, the runners who helped

us yesterday during this time of need and as we go together on this issue with all the law enforcement officials, we're going to make sure the city pulls together. we got it under control. let's continue to work together, let's keep offering a helping hand to individuals who may need it in this very difficult time in our city's history. i just say to all of you i've been mayor for over 20 years now i've never seen law enforcement pulling together, working together to solve our crime in our city as they have but also how people pulled together, the business community, the neighbors, everyone. this is a tragedy but boston is a strong city. we're a city that will get through this and like the governor said, we set up a resource center over at the castle, near the park plaza hotel, where staff will be there available to give information to individuals who have been involved in the marathon, it's open from 9:00 to 5:00 and the phone number is, 635-5040 i

believe and our hotline -- no the number, wrong number, 617-534-5050, and also the 24-hour hotline that you need information also, that number is 617-635-4500. over the last several hours we received calls from all over the world asking us for information about our tragedy and how they could help us, so this is a bad day for boston, but i think if we pull together we'll get through it. we're strong so a lot of people are willing to work together to make this a better place for all our people. as we gather with our officials let's say boston will overcome. >> thank you, mr. mayor. senator? >> thank you. thank you, governor and thank you, mr. mayor. the president of the united states has pledged his full support in all efforts both to keep the city safe and to find the person who did this and bring them to justice.

we did not have to reach out to the president. the president reached out to us. he called the governor. he called the mayor. he called the members of the delegation, because the president is actively involved here in responding. on behalf of our congressional delegation, senator cowan and congressman lynch and all of the members of our delegation, we extend our thanks to the first responders, to the firefighters, to the police officers, to the ems, to everyone on the scene, including the volunteers who came and helped those in trouble and helped save lives. we also want to thank those from all around the country and all around the world whose prayers and thoughts and offers of help have poured in. we are deeply grateful, as the mayor says, boston will survive. >> thank you, governor. good morning, my name is rick

deloriere, special agent in charge of the fbi's boston division. i'd like to start by thanking the first responders from boston ems and boston fire department and the volunteer physicians, nurses and medical staff from the community who volunteered at the marathon. their services and heroic actions saved lives yesterday afternoon. we continue to work shoulder to shoulder with our jttf partnerless at the boston police department, the massachusetts state police, as well as all our other jttf agencies. our mission is clear, to bring to justice those responsible for the marathon bombing. the american public wants answers, the city and the commonwealth of massachusetts wants answers. this group of dedicated men and women standing before you today pledge to do everything possible to get those answers. this remains a very active investigation, our ongoing investigation in various locations throughout the area goes on. however, there are no known additional threats. we continue to interview various witnesses and process the crime scene, which could take some

time. the citizens of massachusetts and the city of boston should expect to see the fbi and its jttf partners conducting activity in the greater eastern massachusetts and boston area. assistance from the public remains critical in establishing a time line of events which leads to swift conclusion through due diligence and strong investigative activity. we commend the public, we commend the citizens of boston and the citizens of the commonwealth of massachusetts for the information that has been provided to law enforcement so far and we strongly encourage that assistance to continue. it is paramount to explain the fbi and our jttf to a greater extent. the volume of tips we've received and reiterating the sources we've supplied. we've received voluminous tips since the last 18 hours since the incident. we staffed our 1-800-call-fbi.

we have response team sources from old field offices to boston, they are on site working as we speak, processing evidence at the crime scene. to the extent that the crime scene still plays in copley perimeter and continues to be a crime scene it may be that for several days. the fbi jttf is logically following up on a variety of leads. you will see us and our law enforcement partners interviewing, maybe a neighbor, co-worker or even yourself in coming days. we encourage you to please cooperate with law enforcement authorities. the resources of the fbi and the jttf allow for swift action which will hopefully yield quick results but that does not diminish our diligence and persistence in combing through the high volume of evidence and leads that we are processing right now. we are just beginning upon that path. thank you very much. >> i'm gene marquez, acting special agent in charge atf boston field division.

at that time atf has done a partial national response team activation, we're bringing our explosive specialists to the scene and we'll be working jointly with the fbi and its partners on the jttf. we have certified explosive specialists. we have explosives enforcement officers, we have special agent bomb techs and we have k-9s trained to detect any explosive devices or residue. at this time we have approximately 30 forensic specialists en route or on the scene and to dispel any rumors, there were rumors floating around there were seven devices, up to seven devices at one point. that is not true. i think that happened as a result of some suspect packages that were disrupted, but we only have two devices that we're aware of and both of those devices were the ones that involved and did the damage and were involved in the explosive incidents. at this time we are looking for

the public's cooperation, we're looking if there's any video, any photographic evidence, if you can, please, contact the fbi hotline or the city's hotline, we'd like to review any kind of media that you have out there that might give us additional investigative leads and we are pursuing those investigative leads at this time. the scene is going to take several days to process and we just ask for your patience as we're working in that area and for your cooperation. >> good morning. i'm united states attorney carmen ortiz. first i want to extend my condolences to the families of the loved ones who were lost in yesterday's attack on the city of boston, as well as those that were hurt and still fighting for their lives. our thoughts and our prayers go out to them. what happened yesterday was a terrible tragedy, yet it was

amazing to see as you have heard from my colleagues here how people just helped one another, ran toured the blast just to assist another person in greater need. people who were just there for those that were hurt, and in a dire situation. it was amazing to see how the city of boston, and people from around the world, that were part of yesterday's boston marathon, helped one another, consoled each other. there are so many moving parts to an investigation such as this, and i can't begin to thank everyone who has been involved, law enforcement, medical professionals, emergency responders, and really just regular citizens who became heroes yesterday. i want to repeat as i did state it yesterday, this is an active and ongoing investigation but rest assured that we are bringing all of the necessary resources to assist in this matter, and that we will conduct

all that we can with all of our law enforcement partners. i've been in touch with the attorney general several times, eric holder, and he has pledged all the resource from the department and others on behalf of the federal government to help boston recover from yesterday. i ask for your patience and your understanding as we continue to pursue leads, to gather evidence and to get to the bottom of who did this and why. thank you. >> good morning, my name is ed dave i have hadson, police commissioner for the city of boston. we are in the process of securing and processing the most complex crime scene we've dealt with in the history of our department. we are doing that under the direction of the fbi and in partnership with the atf. we secured the perimeter with members of the national guard and the general is here. i'd like to thank the people who

are working closely with us. we received offers of assistance from chicago, los angeles, units have responded here from new york city and baltimore, and we are working closely with all of our partners on this complex investigation. i want to stress that the area around the crime scene which was yesterday was 15 blocks has been reduced to about 12 blocks at this point in time, and we will continue to collapse that crime scene as the facts and circumstances make that available. we want to open up as many streets and get people into their buildings as quickly as we can. we're working diligently on that but, please, be patient with us in the time that we need to process the crime scene. we expect that scene will go for another two days anyway and people should make appropriate plans. again, i want to stress that any information that you have, any videos or photographs that happened, not just at that scene but anywhere in the immediate vicinity could be helpful to

this investigation. our focus is on processing that evidence right now and we're looking forward to working with our partners to bring the individuals who are responsible for this heinous crime to justice, thank you. >> thank you, commissioner. colonel? >> good morning, my name is timothy albin, superintendent of the massachusetts state police. as i said earlier in one of our briefings, there's really two or three parts to this investigation. there's the investigative part, which clearly the fbi has taken the lead on but there's also a logistical and presence component of this, so i'm speaking to the public, you are going to see an enhanced presence from the boston police, from the state police, from the national guard and from our law enforcement partners through the metropolitan boston area over the next days and probably

longer. that's not for any particular reason other than to provide some comfort and, to the public, who are using transportation centers or going about their business. so we are engaged with the mbta police and the t. you will see more troopers. you'll see national guardsmen there, you'll see mbta police like you do every day but that presence will be significantly enhanced. we're doing that for the comfort of the public. we're looking for cooperation from the public. it's not to inconvenience anyone and we don't think that it will be. you might also see an enhanced presence at logan airport as well. that's not for any particular reason, again, other than to solicit cooperation from the public and seek out tips or information. the last thing i want to say is there have to be hundreds if not thousands of photographs or videos or observations that were made down at that finish line yesterday and they're sitting out there amongst everyone that's watching this event this

morning. and i would encourage you to bring forward anything, you might not think it's significant but it might have some value to this investigation. the mayor has given you tip lines, there are plenty of those, the fbi has them as well, if you call in, a sure you that someone will follow up on your photographs or videos that you want to submit for consideration. thank you very much. >> good morning, my name is daniel conley, i'm the district attorney in boston. what occurred yesterday in boston was an act of cowardice. while there will be an opportunity to officially define this act make no mistake an act of cowardice and this severity cannot be justified and explained. it can only be answered. to that end, some of the finest investigators at the local, state and federal levels have

been working through the night to not only conduct interviews and process the scene, but to ensure that those interviews are legally sound and that the evidence is recovered with the greatest care. at the same time, police and other law enforcement agencies have been actively working to ensure the safety of our city. at this point, the loss that we have suffered is enormous, but thanks to the efforts of emts, police officers, firefighters, volunteers, ordinary citizens and of course doctors, nurses and the medical staff at boston's world class hospitals, we can say with absolute certainty that more lives were saved. for this, we can all give thanks. in the days and the weeks to come, we will do our very best to keep the public and the media apprised and advised of the progress of this investigation and our work. it is important, however, for the sake of the victims, and of this city that our investigators

be given the room to do their jobs so that the truth can be found and so that justice can be served. moments like this and our response to them define who we are. in the past 24 hours, this city of boston has shown its strength, its compassion and its determination to see justice done. >> thank you, dan. we're happy to take questions. we are going to try to take as many questions as you have, so maybe we'll just go from side to side, if that's -- [ inaudible question from reporter ] >> more than the evidence is the cooperation among the law enforcement agencies as the mayor and others have said at the federal, state and local level, and indeed from the region. we have an unprecedented level of law enforcement support and

engagement here and -- >> we are going to break away from this press conference for a moment to allow more stations to join us, while others will be leaving us. you're watching special "today" show coverage of the boston marathon bombing, you're watching officials at the westin hotel here in boston update the press on where the investigation stands right now. we have been listening in and you've been hearing from the governor of massachusetts, deval patrick, from the mayor of boston, thomas menino, the fbi special agent in charge of the boston field office richard deslaurier. some of the things they're saying of key importance right now they know of no additional threats to this area or any other threats at this present time. of course keep in mind they did not know about the threat that occurred yesterday at ten of 3:00. they say there were two explosive devices. there had been reports as many

as five other devices had been found unexploded. they say that is simply not true. we know that at least 150 people have been injured as a result of this bombing. lester holt is joining me as well here in boston, what else caught your attention, lester? >> matt, several officials have made a very specific plea to the public. they are asking for any media, any still pictures, any video that people may have shot right at the scene or very close by that might shed some light on who planted this device. several officials of these devices have made this plea. also one of the things that struck me was the fbi noting that we have interviewed people and that we will be interviewing other people. it may be your neighbor. it may be your friends. it may be you, basically telling us not to read too much into that but they are going to be talking to a lot of folks here. >> the boston police commissioner, edward davis, said that this is the most complex crime scene that they have ever

been asked to process. it was 15 blocks in size. it's been now cut down to 12 blocks. it starts just behind where lester and i are sitting this morning on boylston street, going up to about five blocks to where the finish line was yesterday. the mayor of boston, thomas menino, said "we grieve for our friends and for our neighbors." he made special note of the 8-year-old boy who was killed in these bomb blasts, from dorchester. he also said we know who our heroes are, and all of the people who have spoken this morning have praised the response of first responders, from emergency personnel, and from the volunteers who were working at the marathon, who dropped what they were doing and rushed to aid those who had been injured in these blasts. >> as they've been trying to reduce the crime scene they've had to identify piles of leftover belongings and that's why there was confusion as to maybe other devices. they did disrupt as they put, looked at some things that could have been devices were not.

we know there were two explosive devices and again, no further threats. now, matt, the runners know the last part of the race here as heartbreak hill, and i don't think anyone imagined what a heartbreaking day yesterday would turn out to be. >> of course it was the last several hundred yards where the tragedy took place, lester. you mentioned officials are calling for anyone in the public who has photographic or video evidence to contact them and turn it in. of course, there were a lot of cameras in that area, as people tried to get shots of their loved ones crossing the finish line, and they may have inadvertently captured not only either one or both of these explosions but something else that may prove helpful to law enforcement in the coming hours, days and weeks. >> if you see something, say something, and that's what they're counting on, but the investigation obviously is just beginning here, and so much now. >> much more ahead on "nbc

nightly news". yet. ultimately bring out the very best, in others. the ones they seek to harm. >> they haven't, there's still discussion obviously whether this was international terrorism or domestic terrorism. >> do you have a feeling on that, hoda? >> i think this is one of those things you have to wait to play out. often there's a claim of responsibility quickly which we haven't seen yet. which could be nothing. they say in the bombs they had bbs and ball bearings and they asked a terrorism expert, does that tell you anything? and he just said no, they just wanted to do the most damage. my hope is because there were so many cameras trained on the finish line and everybody now has a cell phone and everybody shooting pictures and video, somewhere, whether the person put the bombs down long before or last-minute or whatever, that somewhere -- >> you think this is going to be solved? >> i think with all of those cameras, how can it not be? not only the ones from the news divisions but every person who

was walking around all the ones that are probably on the street corners. any of the big brother ones we talk about. >> somewhere in there that's one person being held. no charges of course yet. being questioned. i guess there was some shrapnel. >> he's a saudi national who was there on a student visa. they're talking to him. again they said he was running from the scene. and you know -- >> suspiciously someone said. that could just be running from the scene because you're terrified for your life, too. >> this is one of those things that we always quickly want to know who. there was just a news conference on a few seconds ago and i kept saying who, who, who? it takes so long. >> these things take a long time. >> it's ridiculous. >> i'm hopeful with all the media attention. and you know what's funny? it happened at 3:00, since the time it happened to probably right this moment, i bet i've seen or heard the images probably 50, 60 times. because you just -- it's just on

somewhere and i was even -- >> it's hard to get away from it. >> even in the gym, i had it on this morning when i was getting ready to come in and i, i found myself looking down. i didn't, because on the 15th or 20th time, you wonder -- i already saw it and i feel things like you do when you see something. you feel it inside and i couldn't even -- what surprised me. it wasn't just the images that were so troublesome to see. it's the sounds. like the sounds, i took my headphones out. i couldn't listen again to people in that kind of hell screaming and running. >> remember the beginning -- i think it's "zero dark thirty" where all you hear are the voices that resulted from that pandemonium. our hearts and prayers go out to all the victims and the people traumatized, the little boy, eight years old, anybody, forget just being a parent. we hear so much about how the terrorists were going to change their tactics because we've made it so difficult for some of the

hard targets. when i think about a soft target. ha is the softer than the flesh of a child and this little boy eight years old. we haven't seen a picture yet. he was with his mom and two sisters. his mom and one of his sisters were injured terribly. >> they're still in the hospital. the father, it's unclear whether he was actually running in the marathon and they were watching him or he was there helping out at the marathon. regardless, you know you go on that kind of a beautiful day. >> you take your family because you're going to have a great -- you're going to make a memory and nobody expect as memory like this. there are two brothers we heard about who 31, 33, roofers who recently both lost their jobs. both brothers were on the finish line to help cheer a friend on. which you know, that's what friends do. and both of them lost a leg beneath the knee. >> and you talked about the heroism and a lot of people are describing -- you can see, even if you look at the video, people like you said running into help. and there were even who when

they finished the boston marathon, they've won 26.2 miles, they ran to mass general to give blood. they just kept running. i think there's a whole sense of community. although boston is a big city, it feels small townish. >> it feels small townish in a good way, it's one of the great, great cities in our country. the great story about the two soldiers, we don't know if they were here on leave or retired. i don't think we know that yet. but they were heroic, as you would expect them to do. they had some training in, they were both from the u.s. army. jeff curtis and matt luciani, were only 50 yards away when the first explosion went off. they went to help and ran to the hospital to donate blood. and the volunteers who were there that had to be turned away from the triage areas, because the wounds were so horrific and they weren't prepared or trained in any way. but you probably saw the pictures in the paper of the 78-year-old man.

>> there's a 78 -year-old man, when he was running, he was the one person -- you saw the impact and you could tell it was a concussion sort of from the explosion. you weren't sure if he got hit, it blew him away. well, his name is bill effrig, from washington state. the funny thing is, he only had a scrape on his knee, it must have just been the impact of the blow. it was his third boston marathon and he actually crossed the finish line. >> we're hearing all kinds of stories as well from people that were disappointed in themselves because they weren't running, a faster race. so as a result -- everything is in perspective, isn't it. that maybe someone who was running the best race of their life happened to be there just at the moment of impact. while others who were disappointed and you know, were spared any kind of harm because -- it shows how capricious everything is. and how tender life is. and how -- nothing -- nothing is

guaranteed in this life. >> you think you'll change. because behavior is one of those things, you see this, and you feel helpless. you can't do something because, you can see something and say something and all the things that they say on those commercials. but do you think it would change like how you conduct your daily life? >> well we live in a, in new york city, live and work in new york where it's obviously one of the preeminent targets. so we're, i think a little bit more aware than people maybe living in middle america. although i think that's the plan of the terrorists is to take this war on terror to all of america. and i don't think any of us should be -- found sleeping when it happens. i mean we have to, we are -- be aware. >> you can't be -- we want do everything right. we're going to find out a little bit later. we have two experts, one lady is, is going to tell us how to deal with our children on the subject. how do you talk to your kids. what images do you allow them to see. the other is a lady who was on with us last week. who, she's a retired c.i.a.,

hoda? i'm not sure if she's presently with them. pardon? >> secret service. >> excuse me. and she is going to tell us how we can -- can be a part of the solution on this. >> that will be interesting. >> we'll take you out with just a few images of what happened yesterday. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> this is like bomb explosion in baghdad.

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thank goodness for angie's list. from roofers to plumbers to dentists and more, angie's list -- reviews you can trust. oh, angie? i have her on speed dial. we continue our coverage of the terror in boston where at least three people were killed and police say more than 175 injured in those two explosions near the finish line. nbc's katie tour is at brigham and women's hospital where personnel are treating the injured. >> reporter: the number was expected to go up this morning as people woke up and realized they may need medical attention. there's a major police presence here although they are now letting people inside of the hospital to visit loved ones. there are two critical here, nine have been sent to the operating room and two of those

have limb-threatening injuries, they might need amputations. boston's children's hospital is treating ten patients, the youngest patient is just three years old. as you said, three people dead and our sister station, our affiliate up here, whgh has confirmed that one of those is an 8-year-old, his name is martin richard, from dorchester. the community in a state of disbelief. he, his mother, his sister, we believe another sibling were out of the marathon watching their father race. it is believed right now that the mother, the sister and the other sibling were all also injured. last we heard the mother was still in surgery. we're about to get updates on all the conditions of all the patients at all of the hospitals in just a few minutes. not expecting any names or any details. but just a general update in terms of what's going on. right now, though, this city is wondering what could have possibly happened. we had reports of runners after the blast happening, running to aid the victims, not just that,

but also running, crossing the finish line and running directly to mass general to try to give blood. it's amazing how much heart there is out here. amazing how much people have come to the aid, it is truly a spectacular sight amidst all this tragedy. >> sometimes that's the only thing that keeps hope going. >> katie, thanks. in a time of terror like this how do you protect your family and make your kids feel safer? jennifer hartstein is a child and adolescent psychologist. >> and edie is a former special agent of the secret service and a criminal investigator. ladies, sorry to welcome you here on a day like today but it's important we put aside feelings for a while. and really face this head-on. and what should we say, jennifer, initially, basically to our children? you can't escape the images? >> you can't escape the images. our impulse might be to a hide it from them. they can walk into a pizza place and the tv is on and they're going to see it the as parents, your job is to try to reassure

them the best you can that they are safe. these are unexpected moments, they happen often. you want to try to encourage as much safety, support them and be there to answer any questions they might have. >> tell them as little as they need to know. >> you need less for younger kids, more for older kids. the older kids will come back to you. >> it's a weird thing that happens, we feel helpless. we want to do something. we feel like we want to somehow contribute. but we see the commercials, you see something, say something and all that sort of stuff. is there really in a practical way, anything that any of us can do? the average person? >> yes, absolutely. you can. >> what? >> when you go into an environment like this, first, you want to say am i indoors, outdoor, this is an outdoor event. where am i standing? are there trash cans near me? is there a mailbox near me? that can be a someplace where somebody can conceal a device. don't stand there. is there glass around me? get away from that, if stand

near a structure that's concrete, steel, brick. even if it's from a distance, the blast wave can shatter all that glass. >> do you need to be thinking about that? >> it's such a weird thing to think about. >> on a day when you're celebrating, you're not thinking about this. >> you should think about this all the time. wherever you go. whether it's a movie theater, the school, the mall. >> is it our new reality? and is it going to get worse? >> i think this is reality and i think that you should do this, it takes a few minutes, any place you go, what do i do if this happens. >> what do you think it does to your psyche? there are some people, i get it, you live your life afraid. like oh my god, something bad's around the corner. living your life that way -- >> most of the time it isn't. >> it doesn't seem like a healthy way to live. >> i don't feel like i'm living my life afraid. i'm giving myself every opportunity to survive. i'm not going to wait for somebody to come save me. what if they can't. one police officer to 500, 1,000 people? >> so check an exit? >> two exits, opposite sides.

one way in, one way out. and think of the herd mentality. don't follow everybody else. people, we are creatures of habit and most people will go out the same way they came in. go the opposite way. >> there's no guarantee there might be another bomb the very direction you're heading. >> jennifer, what do you do if your child is really scared? >> had nightmares last night or something. >> on facebook, you can't prevent them from seeing. >> you can't protect them from awful these images, unfortunately, they're everywhere and social media, was a wonderful tool in getting people aid and help and support and it's in our children's' faces all the time. i think it's really important for parents to be available to question, to be supportive. to really open opportunities for communication and discussion and monitor what they're doing. it's okay to have nightmares last night, tonight. and if this is happening two weeks from now and they won't go to school or won't leave your side it might be time to seek professional help. they might need someone to walk

them through. >> and put on your law enforcement cap for just a second. you hear they want lots of video and tips. dos it feel like they're on the path towards someone? or is it just a wide net now and they're looking around? >> they're collecting information, photos, videos, surveillance, you want to put it together. is it one people, two people, ten people, a group? you want to get all that information, so it does help. they're doing the right thing and they're not giving that information out to the public. >> they don't want them to know what they know. >> right, exactly. >> ladies, we appreciate it. we'll be back with much more right after this. out their body. i wouldn't change. [ female announcer ] this test paper was designed to react like your skin. if other body washes can strip this paper, imagine how harsh they can be to your skin. oh my gosh. [ female announcer ] dove is different. its breakthrough formula changes everything with the blend of gentle cleansers and nourishing nutrium moisture. so what do you think now? definitely switching to dove. [ female announcer ] dove. this is care.

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welcome back to "today" on this tuesday. and brooke shields has been in the spotlight nearly her entire life. i can't remember any time we weren't aware of our brooke. her career started when she was just 11 months old. >> brooke is a best-selling author, but probably best known for her modeling and acting career. right now she's a recurring cast member on the critically acclaimed drama, "army wives." she clashes with a base commander. look at her. >> what was that, colonel? >> if you're referring to our training mission, sir, it was a fully approved flight path. >> which your predecessor never utilized on concern for base operation. >> we don't just make lefthand turns in a war zone. i'm sure my superiors would back me on that. >> yes, i'm sure they would. but the next time you feel the need to perform an unwarranted

exercise over my base. i strongly suggest you have the courtesy of letting my office know in advance. >> certainly, sir. >> you know she's going to do what she wants. >> i think there's going to be a little steam going on between those two. >> with respect he just lost his wife. >> you're already comfortable with? didn't you work with him on "suddenly susan"? >> was on the original pilot. we were the original couple on "suddenly susan." brian mcnamara. i think we had good chemistry. and they were like oh, we can't have them. he came back for a little while. but then he came back as a recurring character for a little while. when they call immediate about this, first i thought it was going to be one of the wives which obviously that they're wonderful. but when they said, you get to be with brian and go sort of right up against him, and be in

a flight suit, i was like -- >> you were into that. >> not really up against him -- >> it's what they call an arc. >> yes. >> ant i haven't even had one. >> were you partly responsible for the wine on this show. >> i realize i heard this story, thank you, but -- >> you made the last five years just fly by. >> one of the things you can't do is drink and be an army wife or -- a pilot. >> but i'm an airlift wing commander. and -- >> i don't know anything about that at all. >> i've been in one of the transport planes before when i flew with uso tours to entertain the troops. >> but you were a passenger. but i had to go through physiology and through training and simulation. i got to fly in afghanistan. it wasn't really afghanistan but -- >> it looked like it on the screen.

>> it's disconcerting. >> where are you filming this, in south carolina? >> where we're going, hoda. >> the town is amazing, the people are incredible. yeah, i mean it's really, the food is amazing. >> let's clear up a rumor for us. i'm paging through the papers and lo and behold your name keeps popping up. as a possible host for "the view." >> you know we had to ask, we are nbc news. >> listen, there's time. no, i have hosted many times and i've hosted recently and they just keep asking me back to host. there's been no formal offers, there's been no offers. it's really been -- i swear, i swear. you know i'll call you. >> oh. >> i'll call you. they haven't asked. >> do talk about the fact that in one of the interviews i just was reading this morning that your favorite thing in all the world, even though you love broadway and are always welcome back on broadway, is you love

the sitcom arena, don't you? >> it was the first place that i just sort of unleashed in this way. >> a comedienne. >> i felt like it's a real hybrid between cinema and stage. there's an audience, you're forced to think on your feet. >> they change jokes. it's fun and it's happy. >> it's a nice way to spend your day. >> what's your big announcement? do you have a big announcement? >> i'm making my directorial debut. >> does calvin klein know this? >> i'm not coming out with a jeans commercial. i've been asked to direct "chicago" at the hollywood bowl. you can appreciate how terrifying it is to sort of go in that, into that world and i've always just been the one on stage. but i'm -- >> how thrilling to be in control. >> i'm a passionate fan of the show. and i'm going to the pilot -- of "army wives" and the pilot of

"chicago." >> people can buy tickets now? >> yes, go online. >> we start rehearsal july 15th and it's the last weekend of july and three performances. >> a lot of work for three performances. >> but it's going to be, i'm going to be shot out of the cannon. >> and she's also a wife and mother in her spare time. >> "army wives" is this sunday at 9:00, 8:00 p.m. central on lifetime. >> and give our love to chris and kids. and why it takes a stranger to know how beautiful you really are. tell them how beautiful they really are? >> you are so beautiful. check my blood sugar, eat better. start insulin. today i learned there's something i don't have to do anymore. my doctor said with levemir® flexpen... i don't have to use a syringe and a vial. levemir® flexpen comes prefilled with long-acting insulin taken once daily for type 2 diabetes to help control high blood sugar. dial the exact dose. inject by pushing a button. no drawing from a vial.

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now you be the judge. enjoy a champion cheese, anytime. if someone asked you to describe your looks, what would you say, hoda? it turns out you are your toughest critic. >> their ongoing movement for self-esteem the folks at dove have come up with a fascinating experiment which is how women struggle with recognizing their own beauty. take a look. >> i didn't know what he was doing, but then i could tell after several questions that he was drawing me. >> dell me about your chin. >> kind of pore truprotrude as little bit. >>ist a fat, rounder face. a big forehead. >> it's a sketch that you helped me create and that's a sketch that somebody described of you. do you think you're more beautiful than you say? >> yes. >> wow. >> kayla and florence are real women who are moms, paid by dove to appear in their social

experiment. they're with us today. >> and dr. janet taylor is always with us, a mom and psychiatrist here in new york city, welcome, ladies. >> what a fascinating experiment. so did you -- did you expect when you described yourself to this forensic artist, was that your picture up there. was that how you see yourself? >> well, i was just, the facts, ma'am. >> just being totally honest. >> totally neutral. i thought i was giving him very straightforward description. i had no idea that it would turn out like that. >> and when a stranger described you to the same man and he drew based on that person's description and you saw the other you, what did you, what did you think? >> i was shocked. how could they be more accurate? i had no idea that what i was describing was a person that looked so sad and -- and heavy and -- this other person, is complete stranger described me as beautiful and light and happy. >> well if it makes you feel any better, you're far more beautiful than either one of

them. >> let's talk about florence for a second. >> florence -- you used to be a member of the mansion family, right? >> i know. >> look at the picture on the left. you do not see yourself that way. >> if i had to do it over again, that's not how i would describe myself. but as kayla was saying, i was trying to give him the details so he could get it right. clearly i learned i have a microscope up next to my face and it's not necessary. >> we have mirrors all around, it's not as if we can't actually see our reflection. >> it's light-hearted but serious, we struggle with our lifespan, with how we see ourselves on the outside and also on the inside. it highlights that beauty is not just on the outside, it is inner beauty. but sometimes you need to flip the script and highlight, question how you see yourself before you can see the real you. because it's only one you. that's the light-hearted,

beautiful you. >> and your daughters are watching. >> what i would do differently now with cass. >> your daughters pay attention to the media. they pay attention to what we say about ourselves and they're always listening. >> how do you stop the momentum -- we all go, i feel fat. and someone says, you look great in your outfit. >> can you believe what people say. a lot of people like you, you want to be kind to somebody when you -- >> you know what i'm saying? you'll say, oh, no, you don't look fat. when i know you're thinking -- maybe a little. >> no, i don't. but anyway, should you believe what people tell you? >> minus what hoda said. >> it was people who noticed the butdty of kayla and florence, so absolutely as women we need to say thank you and accept compliments. >> are you going to change the way you feel about yourself now as a result of the dove experiment? >> i'm not going to list ton that critic inside any more. >> don't listen to the sounds in

the kitchen, any more. >> listen to the people who are making the compliments instead of the critic in my head. >> listen to hoda. thank you, ladies. coming up, a sweet story of a mom and daughter baking cookies for a great cause. there is a place where the sky is always blue. and the kids always eat their vegetables. because the salad there is always served with the original hidden valley ranch. it's the way ranch is supposed to taste. new l'oreal shocking extensions mascara. for shocking lashes look no further! the innovative lash-hugging brush smoothes on liquid lash extensions beyond the tip. building high impact volume and length. shocking l'oreal's new shocking extensions.

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you have a mother and daughter story to tell us, sara? >> i do. >> it might involve cookies. i met laura and susan who bake cookies for cancer. after spending some time with them i understood why it was a labor of love. every day, this mother/daughter duo are elbow deep in mixing bowls, running the gourmet ginger cookie company, susan snaps. laura and susan do everything by hand, from the cranking and baking to the packaging and selling. it's a small company with a big mission. at 22 years old, susan was diagnosed with a type of cancer

called hodgkins lymphoma right before her college graduation. this was a diagnosis her mother knew all too well. laura's older sister, also named susan passed away at the young age of 28 from that very disease. if that wasn't enough, laura's husband had also been diagnosed with cancer. >> when you look at how many different hats you've worn with cancer, a sister, a wife, a mom, was there a point where you thought, seriously? like couldn't we share the wealth? like this is too much. >> it can be very lonely. and i am very, i like to you know, be able to take charge and feel like we've got it under control. >> you like to fix everything. >> it wasn't fixable. it wasn't fixable this time. so -- the way that i could handle it was to try to make their days and our days and our family's days as normal as i possibly could.

>> in a desperate pursuit for normal, laura began to bake. >> i could tell by the sound of her feet coming down the hallways, what kind of a day she would have. we would wait to see her face around the corner, what kind of a day we would have ahead of us. the days that were the worst were the days that were too much for her and for him. >> and that's where the cookies come in? >> yeah. >> ginger is known to soothe an upset stomach. so laura created a recipe for gingersnaps to ease their side effects during chemotherapy. and susan began sharing big batches of her mom's cookies with other patients. >> my mom had a small dessert company, she did catering and things like that, she put the gingersnaps on her menu. to see what would happen. as luck would have it, we sold more gingersnaps that christmas than anything else on the menu. one year later, susansnaps was

born out of a garage. >> you have a daughter you know, compromised health. bald and no insurance, where is she going to go? across the driveway to work. >> now they operate a store in their home town of atlanta, but they never forget how the story began, visiting hospitals and delivering cookies to patients going through cancer treatment. >> there are nurses and doctors, when i see their faces, it brings you right back. it feels like it was just yesterday. >> but even better, and bigger than the cookies, is the message of hope that susan symbolizes. eight years later, the statler family, successful and healthy, lived by the old adage, that when life gives you lemons, make cookies. >> the cancer was never why me, but with the company, it's why not? >> i love that. and the big family and they all help out and work in there.

and what a great gift, if you haven't gotten your mother something. >> by the way -- they are delicious. >> we've polished off quite a few. >> i love them because they're not too sweet and hoda loves them because they're just sweet enough. >> thanks so much for terrific story. simple one-pot meals you can whip up on a busy weekend. >> this is "today" on nbc.

in today's kitchen we're cooking up some seasonal one-pot dishes that are easy to make on a busy night. >> chef george mendez is the owner of aldayea restaurant here in new york and is so sweet to bring in all this stuff on short notice. >> peas and bacon. in this pot here we're going to start with olive oil, some minced onion, garlic. and slab bacon.

>> what is the difference? >> in the store you buy bacon that's already sliced. this is a slab. >> you get a lot of fat with that. >> lardon. >> like my thigh. >> this gets sweated first, the bacon fat comes out. we take it out of the pan and here's your onions that are cooked with the garlic. we're going to add the garlic now and you're going to start stirring, all right? >> we need a spoon. >> and can you add the tomato. >> i'm going to add the tomato while you do that cooking. >> it's important to sweat that nice and slow. >> what's that mean, sweat? >> cook it over low heat, not that much color. >> and a pinch of chili flakes. >> and what's in there, bay leaf? >> that's a bay leaf. it's important that you tear it. >> to all the aroma comes out. really important. >> and this is what it looks like? >> that's fast forward. >> to this point, correct. >> now we're going to simmer

that baby? >> we'll simmer that for about a minuten and this is what you end up with here. >> hoda, you can add the sweet peas. >> something is pead in our dish. >> why do if to do everything? >> because i do this all day long, you don't. >> say, that's done. >> all right. >> so now -- >> now we go ahead and make four little -- >> you want the peas cooked or not cooked? >> briefly cooked, yes. >> now you make little nests like so. >> oh! >> and you break an egg into each one. >> remind those eggies where they came from. >> break some eggs in there. >> kind of cruel, actually. >> no shell in there. >> you're dealing with a trained professional here. >> here we go. >> so there we go. >> from there, we put it into an

oven at 350 degrees for eight minutes. >> and okay -- >> this is what comes out. >> we need to break the yolk? >> you finish it with fresh chopped parsley. >> you want to break the yolk? >> why? >> that's the creamy texture. >> and mix it all up. >> i see you, sara. >> and mix it all up? >> mix it all up and spoon -- >> that looks great. >> okay. take it easy. let's eat now. >> mmm! that's great. >> what's the soup? >> that is a spring pea soup with mint. it's got bacon and more peas in there as well. >> dairy or nondairy? >> 100% dairy free, only olive oil. >> similar to the restaurant. >> thank you, george. coming up tool, from