>> lee anne gregg and joe fryer starting us off. thanks to both of you. let's bring in weather channel meteorologist mike seidel in boulder. this flood is expanding. more communities in danger tonight, right? >> yes. more heavy rain on the radar. we have heavy rain on the foothills west of here and the front range in metro denver. the storms prompted additional flash flood warnings. they are dumping one to two inches of rainfall of water. with the ground saturated from rain this week that is running off. the concern in the higher terrain, more mud slides, rock slides, debris floes. this threat will continue through tomorrow. by the first of the week, drier air descends on colorado and new mexico. we think it will be rain free most of next week. in boulder creek we have made real progress today. the water dropped two feet. but the big change is since the peak of the flash flood on thursday night, the flow through here dropped a whopping 90%. lester? >> i know folks will take any good news you can give them. mike seidel, thank you. >>> now to the crisis in

nbc's lee anne gregg joins us from hard-hit boulder. leea leeanne, good morning to you. what's the latest you're hearing? >> reporter: that's right much the office of emergency management puts that number of unaccounted for at 650 people. that's half as much as yesterday morning. they expect that number to decrease dramatically again today as more and more are able to access phones, computers and contact their friends and family members. 17 different counties across the state are flooded. that means thousands of people have homes that are damaged or have been destroyed. more than 30 bridges have been wiped out along with more than 100 miles of roads. those numbers are rough and those numbers are also expected to increase. eight people are confirmed dead and that number too, unfortunately, may rise as officials say when the waters recede they will do extensive ground searches. that's when they are concerned that more people will be found dead. so today the emphasis will be in the air, those searches in the remote areas where people have been stranded with no power, no roa

. >> reporter: this is lee anne gregg in colorado. a joyful are reunion today. parents and children re united in louisville. 85 5th graders trapped by flooding while on a school field trip near jamestown were finally air lifted to safety. >> parts of it were scary and the trails were basically rivers. >> every time you watch the news it's hard not to burst into tears. >> reporter: while 15 miles away at an evacuation center in longmont, more reunions. thomas and debra casey and their dog airlifted from home after a helicopter crew saw their signal for help. >> we painted s.o.s. on the driveway. not an hour later. >> reporter: in boulder, laura and marty were awakened by crashing mud against their home. they heard a car horn outside. they looked and saw a vehicle swept away with four teenagers inside. sadly, two were among those killed. katie holm ko hours later, laura, expecting her first baby went into labor. >> started feeling contractions and thought, oh, no, i'm not going into labor. this is not the right time. >> reporter: with no way out emergency crews ar

. >> lee ann gregg in boulder. staggering images two parts of the country, east coast fire, further out west flooding. another significant story you're following in geneva today. >> the images back home are heartbreaking. thanks for all those reports. coming up here, haven't we been here before? i'll talk to senator richard lugar. stay with us on both continents of this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. i am today by luck. i put in the hours and built a strong reputation in the industry. i set goals and worked hard to meet them. i've made my success happen. so when it comes to my investments, i'm supposed to just hand it over to a broker and back away? that's not gonna happen. avo: when you work with a schwab financial consultant, you'll get the guidance you need with the control you want. talk to us today. we've been bringing people together. today, we'd like people to come together on something that concerns all of us. obesity. and as the nation's leading beverage company, we can play an important role.