jennifer bjorklund, nbc news, arlington, washington. >>> now to the oscar pistorius murder trial and what was supposed to be the first day of defense's case and possibly testimony from pistorius himself. but there is now a hang-up. and a delay in the trial. nbc's mike taibbi is live for us outside the courthouse in pretoria, south africa. mike, what happened? >> reporter: craig, this has to do with the differences, some would say, the peculiarities in the south african justice system. this is a judge trial, not a jury strtrial. the judge is assisted by two assesso assessors. the judge announced that one of the assessors was ill and a delay was agreed to until at least april 7th. pistorius is the only person who knows the true story of what happened on that valentine's day morning last year. and he's only talked about it, it was a tragic accident, thought he was shooting an intruder and not his girlfriend. the other side saying no it was a deliberate shooting after a protracted, heated argument. the prosecution has to prove it and pistorius will begin his defense no earlier than april

jennifer bjorklund, nbc news, oso, washington. >>> they now have one less member. the g-8 is now the g-7. the u.s. and western allies cutting russia out in response to the dispute over ukraine. president obama is in the neitherlands for a prescheduled nuclear summit but redoubling his efforts now to pressure russia. peter alexander traveling with the president. he joins us from the netherlands. good morning. >> reporter: good morning from here in the netherlands. before that declaration was announced, we heard from the foreign minister of russia who dismissed the statement saying the g-8 was basically an informal club, that no membership cards were required. this was an emergency meeting called by president obama, bringing together the g-7 leaders, basically europe, canada and japan, where they came out and through a statement made an announcement that russia would basically be kicked out of the g-8 until it changes course, given its annexation of crimea. vladimir putin who is supposed to be hosting the next summit of the g-8, to take place in sochi, host of the 20

jennifer bjorklund has the latest. >> reporter: from an enormous search area, staggering numbers, 90 people now are missing and unaccounted for. authorities say that is a firm number now. and 35 others likely were in the area and can't be ruled out among victims. the word that more bodies were recovered, they're not counted until they arrive at the medical examiner eef examiner's office. >> we need to take a step back and look at the magnitude of what happened, the debris field is huge. it is complex. it is dangerous. and i don't think we have a lot of answers. all i can definitively say is we have a number that is 90 and wee going to pursue it as much as we can. >> reporter: cell phone video from dane brunner still searching for his missing sister. >> you find cars that are basically compacted to the size of a washing machine, it's pretty much alleviates all hope. >> reporter: a firefighter from oso lost his wife and grandchild, his stepdaughter says while his mother's body has been recovered, her 4-month-old baby girl is still missing. >> i lost my mother. i lost my baby. and my mo

. >> nbc's jennifer bjorklund live from arlington, washington. jennifer, what are you hearing in terms of optimism, are rescuers, are they optimistic they are going to find survivors? >> reporter: they are optimistic, but they are not naive, craig, i think is the best way to put it. they know what the chances are, so slim. but, you know, there is still that glimmer, and the governor is still holding on that, as well, as they search through the pile. that being said, they are giving the search dogs who have been there the entire time, nine days, they are giving them two days off and bringing in other dogs to help in the search and they have really, really kind of intensified their search into an area that is not covered in water, because as you said, the weather has given us a little bit of a break today, but there are two enormous ponds the storms left behind, so they have to concentrate their search in the areas that are accessible, craig. >> jennifer, i understand the conditions at the site are treacherous, to say the least, in a lot of places.

. >> nbc's jennifer bjorklund is in arlington, washington. jennifer, i know there are so many more families out there like the one we just heard about, what can you tell us about the rescue effort today? >> reporter: the rescue effort today is as netedious as it was yesterday. and you nailed it when you talked about the cadaver dogs, the bare hands, and sometimes those are the best tools to search. they have heavy equipment and backhoes they can use to move large amounts of earth. but they have to be very careful, and they are likening it to the recovery effort that happened in the world trade center, when you're talking about possible human remains and even, at this point, so many days later, the possibility, however remote, that there might be a survivor. you have to be very, very careful. so it's very difficult work. and the rain yesterday made it very hard, because the mud that had started to dry out became tacky and then slippery, as the top layer was re-wet. so they had a horrible time yesterday. they made some very grim discoveries, and

nbc's jennifer bjorklund has the story. >> reporter: rescue crews scour the los angeles river saturday of people caught off guard caught in the potentially deadly current. the third wave of this massive system of storms the length of the entire golden state moving in overnight bringing with it a tornado warning for foothil neighborhoods already under mandatory evacuation orders because of the threat of mudslides. >> didn't know the city had that much sand in it. >> reporter: homeowners who stayed despite the warning are working to clear the mud to make room for more that's sure to come. >> i didn't get to sleep until after 2:45, and none of this was here. >> the problem we have, or the situation we deal with is that while we have these lulls in the sense of people maybe thinking it's over, it's passed, that's not true. we do expect more rain today. >> reporter: the mud is flowing off the hillsides that burned in a 1900-acre fair in january. the once stabilizing vegetation now just adds to the weight of debris and ash that looms over more than 1,000 homes. it's not a matter of if. it's

we go to arlington, washington, where i'm joined by nbc's jennifer bjorklund. this is just a horrible accounting and this could turn into one the worst domestic natural disasters in american history. >> reporter: yeah, it is mind boggling the scope of this disaster as crews sift through the rubble, they are doing a very delicate search. the volume of this landslide is enough -- if you put it into terms that are very visual, you could say it's seven empire state buildings. if you had to weigh it, it would be 50 empire state buildings as far as how heavy the land is that fell down on this tiny little town. now, what we can tell you is that they do have the heavy equipment standing by but don't want to use it in case there are survivors. so they are searching cubic foot by cubic foot trying to get through it all. in the meantime, in the community, the boy scouts are collecting food. every business has a collection jar out. people are doing everything they can to support those crews in the mountains because as you know, this is a very small town and many of the fir

. >> nbc's jennifer bjorklund is in arlington, washington. jennifer, what's the latest from officials there? >> reporter: joy, we have heard from officials this morning who have calls for a state mortuary team. of course, they're hoping that they won't need it. but with that number of missing people, even if there are duplicate names, they do expect as the search has intensified today, that they will be able to identify more victims in the rubble. when we say the search has intensified, what we're saying is they have now 50 very highly trained state national guard troops coming in to help with the search. they have also enlisted some volunteers from the community who are knowledgeable about the terrain. not everybody, but a few people who are in the loop that will help with the search. so 96% trained professionals, several dozen residents who are helping look for their neighbors. and they are hoping to do some work on the rubble pile and into the mud today. some of the high-tech things they're doing, they're looking with electronic probes and

for that i turn to jennifer bjorklund, where this slide happened. thank you for joining us. >> reporter: ronan, today the search is intensifying even as the rain is falling, volunteers are coming in and homeowners from the area who have been wanting to climb through the mud and look for survivors of this disaster. they've been kept away but now instead of trying to keep them out of the zone, they are organizing them with some trained specialists. 96 individuals from all over the country, urban search and rescue are coordinating the search effort today. federal help is also on the way. president obama says he has been keeping a very close watch over this. he's been in contact with local authorities and will do whatever it takes with this rescue and recovery project. again, 176 reported missing. they hope that number will go down as they begin to look at the list and pair people off of it that have been accounted for. again, hope is dim that they'll find any survivors alive. back to you. >> a bleak report there. thank you jennifer bjorklund. county of

and nbc's jennifer bjorklund has a look at some of the damage. >> reporter: the mud is pouring. but this is nothing considering there is a lot more where that came from, and it is looming over this neighborhood on hillsides blackened by fire. >> i hate what is happening. >> reporter: as much rain in a few days as california got all year last year. that's what this weekend storm system is promising. the runoff in the los angeles basin has the normally dry l.a. river roaring back to life. l.a. city fire swift water rescue team picked up two men and their dogs left stranded. >> had his owner there with him. it looks like this is going to be a successful rescue. >> reporter: and how successful will homeowners efforts be here after firefighters struck more than 1900 acres of vegetation from the foothills. rainfall at the rate of an inch an hour, leaving tons of mud and debris to slide down the hill into backyards, threatening entire neighborhoods. for those who didn't heed mandatory evacuation orders issued to one thousand homeowners, they'll be stuck here. >> we're at a point now to

nbc's jennifer bjorklund with more on the search. >> reporter: crews are exhausted. the task before them, enormous. >> it looked like a war zone. >> reporter: but they are making progress, with more remains discovered every day. the search dogs are tired, too. they've been ordered to take a two-daybreak. others took a day of rest to reflect. the most difficult week any of them can remember has shaken the faith of some, strengthened it for others. >> you feel like there is a life beyond the one that we live and that maybe our life is just the blink of an eye. it helps you put things in perspective. >> i lost my mother. i lost my baby. >> reporter: last week, natasha lost her mother and her 4-month-old baby. now she's praying for her neighbor amanda and her baby son duke, who survived. >> you know, you wonder why did they get the opportunity to be here? why isn't my mom and my baby here? but it doesn't help to think that way. >> reporter: recovery crews are looking for remains and mementos to keep memories alive. >> a lot of people, they lost their homes. they lost fri

. >> jennifer bjorklund joins me from arlington, washington, not far from oso. going to be discovered? >> reporter: it's very unlikely. you heard the executive director for the county, what you heard right there is the strongest official acknowledgment of how many lives might be lost in that mud slide. there are 90 people on the missing persons list. and that was an answer to a direct question from a reporter, do you fear that those 90 people are now dead? and that was the answer. so they have the hold onto hope because that's what's driving them here in this small community. these are all their friends, all people they know. they have to hold onto that hope. but at the same time, these are realistic people. they're loggers. they're workers. they're salt of the earth people. they see what it's like out there. they know how heavy that mud is. they're holding out hope but it is dimming as we move into week two. after that moment of silence at 10:37, we're now in the second week of this disaster. >> have search conditions improved at all? >> reporter: they've actua

. >> jennifer bjorklund is in washington this morning.his does remaining extraordinarily challenging for everyone there. these numbers keep moving. >> you heard his description about the emotional toll, the physical toll is an entirely different story, the slippery mud, heavy mud and the need to go through respectfully to clear through and be able to search for victims. the categorization is a complicated thing. earlier and for the last few days the death toll has been 16. we do expect that number to officially go up at the press briefing in a couple hours, but the missing list has been the one that's the most confounding. it was 176, now it's 90. they have whittled that down to 90 known people, not duplicates, 90 people who are missing or unaccounted for, and then 25 or 35 more that are most likely to have been in the area that maybe they don't know the last name, maybe somebody's girlfriend who's always over. they don't know her last name. examples like that. they have that flexible list of 35, but then there's the 90 they know have bee

. >> nbc's jennifer bjorklund is in arlington, washington. you've been there talking to people personally. we hear these interviews, and it just gives us pause, but we know there can be no pause in the search for those still missing. what is the latest, and how do they plan to get to some of the areas that seem impossible to reach? >> it is a very difficult search, not just emotionally as you heard, but physically. what we have heard is they cut a trench across the mudslide zone so they have access through the middle and working their way out. there are specific areas that some people in -- you know, some of the family members, some of the relatives are looking in for their specific loved ones. as they find them, they're continuing the search for other people. they want to give everybody the closure that they have. we've heard stories like that coming out of mudslide zone. that number, 90 missing, is a pretty much number now. those are people who all have been verified as to, yes, they were probably there, and they haven't been contacted or m

for the latest from arlington, washington, i'm joined by jennifer bjorklund. >> reporter: national guard is flying in to help and they are welcoming neighbors and volunteers and people that have been frustrated the last few days to help go through the rubble but they had to make sure the ground was stable enough. it's not that stable as far as the muck goes because the mud that is seeped into the mud slide area is like a wet concrete and it's very difficult to navigate. they are welcoming volunteers to help come in and search for neighbors. some 200 people lived in that slide zone. and the list, the working list, that soft number is still 176 people unaccounted for, andrea. >> jennifer, that press conference has started. let's cut right to the officials. >> formerly in our system and we're going to utilize those people, but right now we're really good shape for the number of people that we have here, both with the teams that i indicated and those people, we don't need any more people coming up here. the last thing we want to have happen is people showing up in cars and sneaking up on the

nbc reporter jennifer bjorklund joins us now from arlington, washington, with the latest information. jennifer, we just showed the picture of that 4-month-old baby. her mother survived, her grandmother did not. and as i mentioned, we're perhaps bracing ourselves for more devastating news from authorities in a few. >> reporter: yes, we are. in fact, tamron, i think many of the families already know the news. they were out there in the mudslide zone doing the recoveries themselves. some of the numbers that we have are directly from the families, because the rescue workers and the recovery workers haven't been releasing any new numbers. they have a state mortuary crew here working with the medical examiner, but until the medical examiner gets all the records complete and does all the paperwork and recovers the bodies, actually into the medical examiner's office, they can't add those to the official toll, so we are expecting since they've been working around the clock at the press conference that is happening about an hour, that they will release the new number, the number of dead that th

jennifer bjorklund in washington. can we expect an update on the death toll later today? >> reporter: yes, craig. we can. in fact, officials are updating the media every day at 6:00 pacific 9:00 eastern at the end of the search day. they do have more bodies that have been pulled out of the rubble but they don't add those to the death toll until they can make identify cassications and blunt, they said they don't have complete sets of remans and used dna to identify some bodies from the pile. so yes, we expect an update on the death toll but the good news is safe and accounted for list, the well and safe list as they call it is growing. >> okay. >> and that list of missing is now down to 30. craig? >> talking yesterday, the rain was an issue as it has been. what are search crews dealing with today in terms of the elements? >> reporter: the elements are being a little bit kinder. the rain has stopped. we expect to dry out in a few days but it left behind a big mess. the mud is recharged if you will and it is still like quick sand and very sticky and at least, at least the ra

. >> for the latest from arlington, i'm joined by jennifer bjorklund.we know anything more about the process of searching through this enormous hillside of mud to try to find the victims? >> yeah, it's such a difficult search and what we did hear so much about in the news conference was just how amazing it is to see it in person, how it doesn't translate well in photographs or on television. now, the search dogs are search a help but that the scent they might catch takes maybe the path of least resistance. it might be 40 feet away down and over. they can't get an exact location of where they might location victims of this disaster. that's the tough part is working with this enormous mud pile that's not only very wide but also very deep, andrea. >> jennifer, thank you so much. stay with us. we'll be right back. [ coughs, sneezes ] i have a big meeting when we land, but i am so stuffed up, i can't rest. [ male announcer ] nyquil cold and flu liquid gels don't unstuff your nose. they don't? alka seltzer plus night fights your worst cold symptoms, plus has

nbc's jennifer bjorklund in a wet and rainy washington. how this is impacting the search. >> reporter: good morning, chris. it is impacting the search in, as you put it, the most miserable way. they are not going to give up. they are not taking any time off. it's rainy up here most of the time during this portion of the year, so people up here are hearty. they are used to being out in it, but under the conditions in which they are working in the mud, it is mud that is enormous. the volume of mud that came down is the equivalent of 11 empire state buildings. if you had to weigh the mud, it would be enough to fill 50 empire state buildings. if they could get rid of it with heavy equipment, just move it out of the way, they'd have the bull dozers, tractors, land movers, up there. but it is a forensic dig. these are people who are digging with their hands in cubic feet, not cubic yards, not tons. they are doing it painstakingly slowly, and it is a huge task. the rain only makes it worse, because over the last few days, it's been light rain, ju

nbc's jennifer bjorklund has the very latest on the investigation.is in arlington, washington. >> reporter: toure, everybody saw that video of that little boy being rescued and it made people feel hopeful, even though that video was shot on saturday and nobody has been pulled alive out of that rubble since. and they're characterizing the search as what happened at ground zero after 9/11 at the world trade center. it is now considered sacred ground. they have to be very careful. it's a forensic exploration of the mud. and it's so much of it that they have to dig through, knowing that there could be pockets with possible survivors underneath. but also knowing, realistically, that likely there are many, many victims buried underneath the mud. the mud wall that came down, we heard a geologist earlier today describe it as, if it were concrete, it would be the volume, enough to pour three hoover dams, coming down the mountain, towards the city, the town of people, at 30 miles an hour. so everything in its path was pretty much obliterated and that's what th