on this thursday night, the state of emergency as the neighborhoods are flattened by an outbreak of tornados. even storm shelters no match for the flash floods. al roker is here to tell us the worst is here to come. the fbi warning hours before the terrorist attack in texas. the urgent bulletin sent to local police about one of the shooters. what did they know? pollen tsunami suddenly hitting hard. why doctors say allergy season is coming all at once and what to do to survive it. and tom brokaw opens up about the battle with cancer how the diagnosis changed his life and his family and how

he's doing now. "nightly news" begins right now. good evening. we've been keeping a close eye on tornado warnings and severe thunderstorm watches in kansas, texas and oklahoma on the heels of the wild tornado outbreak that unleashed some 50 twisters across four states yesterday including this big one in kansas. one of the big and most damaging was the half mile wide high one we watched near oklahoma city as we came on the air last night. it killed one person, injured dozens and left more than a thousand homes and businesses damaged or destroyed. in a moment, al roker tells us about a larger outbreak as we head to the weekend. first janet reports on the already hard hit bridge creek, oklahoma. >> now you're getting funnel contact to the ground. >> a massive tornado half a mile

wide tearing through oklahoma. >> trees coming down. back out of here. >> our nbc station kfor in the middle of it, in tornado-prone norman. part of a widespread outbreak with millions in the danger. >> we have a tornado on the ground here south of lincoln, kansas. the eerie sound of sirens in oklahoma, nebraska, kansas, texas. >> we have lots of debris on the ground here. >> at least 50 tornados across the four states. >> the destruction is a lot more serious and worse than i imagined. >> in oklahoma city the entire airport was evacuated to an underground shelter. warnings blared across university of oklahoma campus. outside rain, hail, and dangerous flash flooding left cars underwater. a wall was ripped off a hotel and roads bucked. one woman died when her storm shelter flooded. katie and josh thought it would happen to them. their underground shelter was filling fast.

with their door covered in debris, they were trapped. >> that's the most scary thing when you don't know what to tell your kids. >> a neighbor heard their screams and rescued them. >> such a relief somebody was out there looking out for us. this is the oklahoma governor today. >> we save lives because we took action early, and we have a good system in oklahoma. >> tonight with more storms in the forecast, it's a race against time for already hard hit. families like this one that lost so much focuses on being grateful for what they have. >> our kids are safe. we're safe. we can rebuild. >> tonight, no roof over their head literally. that's what many families are dealing with right now as another round of storms are upon us. it's worth noting this is fairly new construction. this entire neighborhood was flattened in this same spot by a tornado in the past. lester? >> janet, thanks very much. we set off the top, outlook for

more tornados as we head to mother's day weekend. al roker is here to break it down. >> we are looking at more strong storms. there's isn't a tornado outbreak now, but we expect it. to give a sense of how strong storms are. look at this video in the last hour, this is i-25 near colorado springs. they got about four inches of hail. that's how intense these storms are. rivers of hail. it's come to a standstill on i-25. we look at radar. there's a good line of thunderstorms. we have thunderstorm watches in effect until midnight central time, oklahoma city to dallas, texas. watching lines of thunderstorms. with some of these storms near norman, oklahoma one gymnasium collapsed the roof because of all the heavy rain. we are going to be watching tonight for another chance of an outbreak. almost 18 million people, few tornados possible from oklahoma city down to dallas. we move to tomorrow, the system continues.

in fact, a strong risk wichita wichita, oklahoma city. 18 million people affected. we move to saturday, this is the day we're concerned about wichita falls and oklahoma. some of these tornados could be the long track tornados and strong tornados to cause major damage. >> al, thanks very much. there's stunning new revelations about the terrorist attack at the anti-islamic event in texas. the fbi director revealing the feds sent a bulletin to local police about one of the men that would open fire hours later. our justice correspondent pete williams has details. >> three hours before the shooting attack in garland, texas, the fbi says it sent police an electronic picture with his info.

as soon as they developed information that he was interested in going there, they had no reason to believe he wanted to attack it or that he left phoenix. there's no indication the police officer that a shot him ever saw the bulletin. garland police declined to say what they did in response to the investigation. the latest plot shows how radically terror recruitment has changed from the time those interested in jihad had to seek out websites that police had to monitor to now pushing out messages on social media urging anyone who will listen to stage attacks where they are. james comey said today i know there are other elton simpsons out there. hundreds maybe thousands are following jihadist social media. the fbi is investigating hundreds of potential home grown extremists with cases open in every state. it's a subject that

has congress worried too. >> isis is a large organization and can afford to have 2,000 that tweet 150 times every day. it can afford to have a ratio of two or three recruiters to every one potential recruit. >> the fbi's comey says discussions that start on twitter go to d forums the government cannot reed. >> the fbi is so concerned, an increase in isis efforts to get something going in the u.s., tomorrow comey and the homeland security secretary jay johnson will take this to the nation's police in a secure video conference. >> pete williams in washington. thank you. tonight, millions of uk are staying up late to hear the results of a cliff hanger election with exit polls showing david cameron's conservative party ahead of the opposition labor party. though apparently without a big enough lead to declare the outright victory. cameron will have to form a coalition in order to stay in power. one day after the nfl's report on deflategate

found tom brady was probably at least generally aware footballs were deflated in the football game. brady's agent came to his defense as the sports world waits to find out what penalties, if any, brady might face. we get the latest tonight from ron mott. >> on sports talk radio, tom brady topic one. callers sound off. brady has thrived under pressure throughout his career, but this isn't a pass rush. today the reining super bowl mvp agent blasted the 142 page wells report as a terrible disappointment. >> this is one of the greatest quarterbacks of the history game, and he's a cheater. >> goodell said policy states failure to cooperate in an investigation shall be considered conduct detrimental

to the league and subject discipline. brady refused to release text messages and e-mails. >> we don't have a smoking gun because tom brady refused to turn over text messages and e-mails. that creates a separate problem for brady. >> on social media, a different fire squad. one writing cheat and lie and you get a super bowl ring. true loser. another wrote cheater, cheater, pumpkin eater. one reporter called it a joke. haters going to hate, hate, hate. #lovefortombrady. >> tonight tom brady arrived at salem state university north of boston for a previously scheduled speaking engagement. cameras are allowed inside but must shut down ten minutes after it starts. no word if he'll address this

before cameras stop rolling. >> we're joined by bob costa calling the yankees game. a lot of questions today about whether it was cheating comes down to what would you tell a child playing pop warner game. cheating or wink wink part of the game? >> it's not unique to patriots and football. this sort of thing has been going on a long time. it is a rule. let's say someone is off sides in a play in football. you don't say does it affect the play that happened on the other side of the field? you assess the penalty. the patriots knowingly broke a rule. how important is that rule? is it egregious as other forms of cheating? did it have the impact on performance that steroid use or other forms cheating would have? i don't think so. would tom brady still be just as great without it? yes, i do. they knowingly broke an established rule. last night lester, i told you i thought they'd lose

draft choices and they'd be fine. i didn't think he'd be suspended. i rethought that. in light of the year the league has had and attacks on roger goodell for being too soft. i think if they go soft on glamour boy of the league brady and super bowl champions, they'll have to pay. what will happen i think he'll be suspended the first game which happens to be the thursday night game, the only game the whole country watches that particular night when super bowl champions have the honor of hosting the first game. i think he'll at least get a one game suspension. >> interesting take bob. thanks. have a good broadcast. >> thanks. tonight americans are feeling the effects of onslot of allergies at once. it's blamed on the brutal winter that was. anne thompson has the report. >> spring has sprung, and so has the pollen. you can see it and

hear it. as allergy sufferers unite in misery. >> my eyes get itchy and fell -- and feel a little swollen. >> today on this hospital rooftop in chicago, dr. joseph reported the highest tree pollen count of the year. >> it's going heavier in coming next few weeks. >> there's a pollen tsunami hitting the country. >> the northeast getting hit worst. traverse, city, michigan with the highest in the country. the long snowy winter accelerated pollen in grasses and trees. >> i always think of this as being the problem. >> yeah, these are not really the problem here. these have got showy flowers that we tend to notice. they're making themselves attractive to insects to distribute pollen for them. the ones we need to worry about more are usually wind pollinated. they don't have conspicuous

flowers. >> sick mother sicamore and oak trees. >> pollen filled clusters send people to doctors in search of relief. >> people need to rely on over-the-c remedies such as nasal spray, eye drops, rinsing hair at night to get rid of poll ten. >> making sure you don't bring the outdoors in. anne thompson, nbc news, new york. there's a lot more ahead to tell you about. tom brokaw opens up about his battle with cancer. the back pain turned out to be the battle of his life. why he's speaking out now and the message to others about the fight. know what we have in common? we talked to our doctors about treatment with xarelto®. me, when i had a blood clot in my leg that could have traveled to my lungs. that's why i took xarelto®, too. xarelto® is proven to treat and help reduce the risk of dvt and pe blood clots.

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we're back now with a story about one of our own tom brokaw. of the stories he's covered over the years the most personal is his own about his battle with cancer. he's doing much better. the cancer is in remission. he's written a book about it. "the lucky life interrupted" talking about what he went through, what he learned, and how essential his family has been. he talked about it with our national correspondent kate snow. >> how you feeling? >> pretty good. i'm in remission. i have back issues i'm not happy with. i had four fractures in my spine. they were repaired.

it caused me four inches of height. >> how tall are you now? >> i'm now 5'9". i played basketball 6 feet. bang, i went down to 5'9". >> tom has a nickname, tom the dunking horse. hardworking, tenacious and lucky in life, charmed even. then about two years ago a nagging back pain turned out to be much more. >> he looked at me and said you've got a malignancy. i said how long? he said probably five years, but we can probably beat it. >> did you think you might die? >> i never thought i might die. that's an anchorman that can live forever i suppose. >> he thought he could live out at his ranch.

got up the next morning and did a dumb thing. i went fishing. >> he ended up being flown down >> he ended up being flown down bumpy roads. she became the coordinator of his care. >> the book is not poor tom has cancer. i wrote to families that go through this and what i learned. one is get someone who's a friend of yours who's a physician to interrupt what they're saying. >> he also learned cancer affects the whole family. his wife of 50 years, meredith, three daughters and five grand kids. >> this experience, they said to me, brought them closer together. what they realized is that i'm not going to be around forever. i do think all of us objectively understand that we are approaching the end of our lives. subjectively, it's really hard to come to grips with. >> tom's daughter sarah worries her son archer, tom's only grandson, wouldn't get enough time with his grandfather. >> he had six months with him.

i want to envision you playing baseball with him and fly fishing and not know physician -- fishing and not knowing if that would ever happen. >> we've got a pact we're going to do. i already had him out showing him about fly rods and everything. he's learning to crank a reel. we're going to get there. >> you going to be around? >> i'm going to be around. my last line of the book and life, what next? bring it on. that's how i feel. >> kate snow, nbc news, new york. >> tom will have much more in the special hour of "dateline" at 10:00/9:00 central. we'll be back with steven helping out hundreds of teachers and students. with claritin, you get powerful, non-drowsy relief 24 hours a day, day after day. which is important because with fewer symptoms to distract you you can focus on the extraordinary things you do

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it was reported they had ingredients in them. first reported in march on "60 minutes." since then the company sent thousands of air testing kits to customers. in those analyzed, 97% had levels that fell within guidelines set by the world health organization. a medical crisis for sam smith. he told fans on instagram he's about to undergo surgery. smith says doctors tell him he should be on stage six to eight weeks. he's not allowed to speak for three weeks after the operation. he grew up in south carolina and now stephen is giving back to his home state in a big way. the late night host announced he'll finance all school projects in south carolina listed on donors choose.org. it's a site teachers ask for help. 1,000 projects submitted by teachers in 375 schools. the cost totaling

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not be as wide as it wasn't was, it is pursued by men more than women. two women have started a campaign peddling to schools across the country. halle jackson caught up with them in california. >> past the vineyards of napa a valley you'll see two friends peddling from san francisco, some 60 miles so far. only 3,000 miles left to go. >> it's like we're married honestly. it's like we've made this vow to ride our bicycles across the country together through sickness and health through good and bad. >> elizabeth case and michelle robinson set at ucla and made friends fast. they're gearing this cross country trek for the girls. they're carrying this gear everything they need to teach pop-up

classes at middle schools on their way from california to new york. first stop sacramento where they bring out their bikes. not those, these. many cycles printed in 3d powered by the sun, built by the students. >> good job. >> who learn to turn solar energy and plastic pieces into a joyride. >> i like how i can discover new things and learn this amazing stuff. >> teaching by example. >> be curious and realize your good enough. >> that's the message you're giving to student, these girls? >> yep. you're good enough. you can do it. >> if they can build a bicycle, they can be a scientist. that's a beautiful thing. >> spontaneous seminars to start students on their own road to discovery. a cross country classroom launching a journey of a lifetime. halle jackson, nbc news, sacramento. that will do it for us on this

thursday night. i'm lester holt. from all of us here at nbc news thank you for watching, and good night.

lights camera access. >> it's like why? why are they allowing him to do that? >> sofia, anything nick can do or say? >> i can give these children a wonderful life. >> the