chris pallone has the latest on those conditions. >> reporter: in san marcos, texas, floodwaters roseso quickly, it sounded the school with teachers and students still inside. police evacuated everyone to another drier school use an armored military vehicle. scenes like this playing out across texas, especially in the busy i-35 corridor between austin and san antonio. >> after last weekend's rain saturated the soil, it didn't take a lot to fire things up. that's what we saw this morning. >> reporter: part of austin saw 6 inches of rain in an hour. one neighborhood recorded more than 14 inches total, more rain than it got in the entire month of may. it caught many drivers off guard. a passer by helped this woman escape from danger. >> i quickly rolled down the window and pulled myself up. >> reporter: on the day before halloween, the flash floods sent pumpkins floating in the street. a suspected tornado dropped large trailer on a hotel roof and a lightning strike took out weather radar in brownsville. the town of wimberley hit hard by flooding in may, hit hard again. >> this is the sec

chris pallone, nbc news. >>> two students badly burned during a high school chemistry class fire areir condition in the hospital this morning. three other students from woodson high school in fairfax county have been treated and released after the accident with a classroom experiment. the chemistry teacher was hurt doing a demonstration on the different colors of fire. that teacher was treated at the school. hundreds of students were safely evacuated from the building. but parents and students want to know how this could have been avoided. so we asked dr. david evans from the national teachers association if there are guidelines the teachers and schools should have been following. >> there are osha, epa, chemical safetyç guidelines. ultimately it's the responsibility of the school to decide what their procedures are going to be. >> the fire caused an estimated $7,500 in damages. fairfax county superintendent dr. karen garza says the district is providing support for students, staff and families as needed. >>> one neighborhood dealing with two homicides just miles apart. one happened

chris pallone reports. >> it's a tradition that draws up to 80,000 people to oklahoma state university. the sea of orange homecoming parade, but this year's celebration turned deadly when a driver shot through a crowd of para parade goers. >> i've been here 29 years. i can't recall an ins like this. >> a a 25-year-old woman crashed through before crashing swoo sboo a group of spectators. another said people flew 30 feet into the air before a car came to a stop. >> the driver was arrested at this point for driving under the influence. her name is adacia avery chambers. a 25-year-old stillwater resident. >> university officials say they don't believe she is a student at oklahoma state. >> the families and these victims will never be able to understand this. nor will we. but the cowboy family pulls together. unfortunately, we've had to do this before and we're going to do it again. >> oklahoma governor mary fallon ordered flags to be flown half-staff. players and fans prayed for the victims before the game against kansas. >> heartbroken at this trkúrmf and our thoughts and prayers are wi

chris pallone reports. >> reporter: it was supposed to be a festive, fun morning for thousands. the annual sea of orange homecoming parade. >> this is what you do on homecoming morning. you come to the homecoming parade. that's what all the families do. >> reporter: in a split second, the fun turned fatal. >> this car just went in through the crowd, just burst into the crowd. >> reporter: police say a car near the parade route smashed into a parked police motorcycle and shot forward into spectators. >> immediately we saw people going in there. >> reporter: people ran for safety, screaming. police and firefighters, many taking part in the parade, rushed to help dozens of victims. police arrested the driver. she's been charged with drunk driving. >> she's a 25-year-old stillwater resident. she is currently in jail here at the police department. >> reporter: police say it may be a few days before they can figure out exactly what caused the car to surge out of control. oklahoma governor mary fallon has ordered flags to be flown at half staff and praised the people who tried to help.

chris pallone, nbc news, new york. >>> and for more on the campaign trail, join chuck todd for "meet the press" this morning. you'll hear from republican presidential candidate ted cruz in an exclusive interview. and catch "meet the press" here on news 4 following our 10:00 a.m. newscast. >>> right now we want to get to a consumer alert. more cars being recalled because of the faulty air bags that in some cases have been deadly. in the u.s., the takata air bags prompted the recall of 19.2 million vehicles. now another 400 from 2015 are being recalled by general motors. gm says dealers are contacting owners to take care of the problems. the air bags can explode and fire shrapnel into drivers. they have been linked to eight deaths worldwide. >>> in hawaii, two men have been seriously injured in separate shark attacks, both of them on the island of oahu. authorities say a shark attacked a 44-year-old man. kayakers had to paddle out to bring him to safety. and a shark bit a 32-year-old man in his foot. >>> and right now, police in florida searching for a gunman who opened fire during zom

chris. let's hear from a democrat in the house of representatives. congressman frank pallone, a democrat representing a jersey shore district of mostly monmouth county. last time you were in the news was earlier this week, seems like a year ago, your request that sports betting sites like fan duel be looked into, perhaps referred to the ftc. well, here we are looking at a house of representatives without a clear front-runner for speaker of the house, controlled by the other party. what do you make of just what went down in the gop caucus today? >> it's good to see you, brian. i think it's just very unfortunate and indicative of the fact that with this chaos that the republican majority in the house just can't run the government. as chris said, we have very important business to do here, whether it's investing in the economy, in jobs and infrastructure and instead, we just, the republicans are embroiled in this race where we can't even seem to pick a leader. i would argue with you that because the right wing, the tea party element, whatever you want to call them, just keeps in