marissa parra is in tampa for us, and, marissa, the storm surge there is the big fear. >> reporter: it is, tom, and that's why this normally bustling riverwalk is completely empty. it's also why you see essentially this wall of flood protection panels creating a fortress around storefronts like this one. after slamming cuba and mexico, tonight powerful hurricane helene barreling now towards florida. >> a mandatory evacuation has been ordered. >> reporter: millions of florida residents now on the move. officials are pleading with locals to evacuate the entire gulf coast from the panhandle to sarasota as helene's winds could reach 130 miles per hour. >> this is a really big storm. you're going to see impacts up to 250 miles outside the center of the storm. >> reporter: florida's no stranger to hurricanes, but rapid intensification increasing with climate change in recent years has some floridians on edge. >> some people say the whole state of florida can be like a flood zone now if we get enough rain. >> reporter: the sunshine state is bracing for storm surge that in some parts could rea

marissa parra is in tampa for us tonight. marissa, a state of emergency is in effect there and in most of florida, in fact. >> lester, that's right. that is why we're seeing preparations days ahead of landfall. right next to me, on the right is an aqua fence, and this is what is expected to protect tampa general hospital on the other side of the fence from the tampa bay just feet away from us. now where we are in tampa, this someone of the counties, one of the at least 61 counties that has declared a state of emergency that is most of the state of florida. and as bill just pointed out, the massive size of the storm. remember, it's not just those in the direct path. the biggest threat is often going to be the flooding and the storm surge. this is why we are already seeing long lines at the sandbag distribution centers, at the gas station school closures across the state. the message here, lester, tonight is clear. prepare now while you can. >> marissa parra, thank you. >>> here in new york, president biden took the world stage

marissa parra, nbc news. >>> a terrifying scene caught on camera just outside of portland, oregon, a small airplane crashing into a town house a at least three people are dead, the pilot, passenger and one person in the building. investigators have said that the pilot did not make a mayday call before the plane went down. a witness told nbc news he saw the plane veer sharply to the left. the ntsb is moving the plane to a secure facility to investigate the wreckage. >>> two people are dead after a car plowed into an outdoor restaurant in a minneapolis suburb. it happened in st. louis park around 8:00 last night. police say surveillance video shows the male driver tried to park at the restaurant but then drove into the outside patio area. the driver is under arrest, three others were injured in the incident. >>> this labor day weekend has been packed flights and long lines at airports. the tsa expected at least 70 million passengers to fly through this wednesday but the weekend got off to a rough start thanks to severe weather. there were more than 450 flight cancellations in the u.s.

marissa parra, nbc news, tampa. >>> all right. we want to turn to a developing story out of california. a suspect is in custody after an explosion at a courthouse injured six. david noriega is in santa maria. david, witnesses saying deputies pinned down the suspect? >> reporter: that's right, tom. right behind me is the courthouse where witnesses described a shocking explosion shortly after court opened for business this morning followed by a chaotic scene as multiple officers piled on to the suspect. the santa barbara county sheriff's office said the explosion, which happened in the lobby of the building, was caused by an improvised explosive device. they describe the suspect as an adult male who acted alone but haven't released any information about his identity or motive. authorities say they deployed a bomb squad to comb this entire surrounding area and to search a vehicle that they say was connected to the suspect. the fbi is involved in this case, tom, and one thing we're keeping an eye on is whether they will take over the

with more on the damage in south florida, marissa parra, live in tampa. killed quite a few people already. >> reporter: it is catastrophic, and we have been here for days. we were warned that this could happen, that it was imminent, and unfortunately those worst fears came true, and so i want to point a couple of things out. i want to tell you what i have seen so far, where we are right now, and why we're here. we were about a mile town the road, and that is where the shoreline is. the reason we're here is this is the only place we can get cell service. even out here, a mile down the road, katy, there was still 6 inches of flooding. that business over there, the white building, this business was flooded. there's workers on the top trying to repair it. i'll tribe for you what we saw a mile down the road. i don't know if those images have come in yet. those streets are flooded. st. petersburg fire and rescue is actively still tending to homes. we are talking about it is almost 3:00 in the afternoon. they first started seeing the flooding late last night. th

marissa parra, thank you very much. director of the black law enforcement alliance, mark claxton, and director of safety and emergency services for a large school district in south carolina. also with us, ucla school of law professor and author of "gunfight the battle over the right to bear arms" in america. adam winkler. is it a good thing to charge the parents here, the dad in this case? >> i think it's really a necessary step to encourage parents to secure their firearms. we have over 400 million guns in america, and that's not going to change anytime soon. so what we need to be sure of is that those guns are stored safely, carried responsibly, and used responsibly. 80% of child school shooters obtain their weapons from families or friends. it's incumbent that we create incentives to keep those families and friends from providing access to those weapons to young children. >> there has been legislation to encourage, mandate lock boxes for guns. legislation that's been shot down by republicans. we had on a little bit e

joining us now from palm beach, florida, is marissa parra.s kickoff event is practically happening in trump's backyard. what's the message from the harris/walz campaign? >> reporter: good to be with you. i hope you can hear me. it's just getting started behind me. i will point out there were a few counter protesters outside the harris/walz campaign kickoff bus tour that we're at right now, and some of those trump supporters were shouting, you're in trump country, so this not lost on the harris/walz campaigners here. this is something that was done by design, and to make a statement here. there's a couple of things, one, we have abortion rights on the november ballot, this is a key critical issue, but, two, as i talk with senator klobuchar who is headlines this event and might be taking the stage any moment now, i spoke with her and asked that exact same question, ana. the big question is why florida, and here's what we heard. >> states like florida, and starting the bus tour here just couldn't be more perfect because the guy who messed it all

nbc's marissa parra is in pinellas county.sman is tracking the storm's path. >> here is the deal, we've got most of the state of florida under tropical watches and warnings and alerts. you can see where the hurricane warning has been extended into georgia from the florida coast, mainly looking at the big bend stretching down to tampa. we've got the expected impacts far reaching across parts of the southeast, even into the tennessee valley through the next couple of days. we are nearing hurricane strength, we've got 70-mile-per-hour winds, northwest movement at 9 miles per hour. the system doesn't show any signs of slowing down. instead, it will enter the warm waters of the gulf of mexico, continue to intensify. we'll see wind shear, warm waters and plenty of moisture to tap into. it's going to be no surprise when it reaches major hurricane status as it approaches the florida coastline. the timing, about 6:00 to 10:00 p.m. tomorrow. places like tampa not in the cone. that doesn't mean the impacts won't be reaching across most o

nbc's marissa parra is following this for us. investigators believe the shooting was not random.t are they saying? >> correct. they believe that this was targeted. no word on a motive yet. and they also believe there were multiple people involved in this, chris. i want to take you to the people that were either injured or killed as a result of this. we talked about how at least 17 people were injured. four people lost their lives. you're looking at some of the ones we're learning about. 21-year-old anethra holman, 27-year-old taj booker, 27-year-old carlos mccain, and 26-year-old roger lynn patterson. we talked about how at least 17 others were injured. we know 12 victims have been released from the hospital. five still remain. and we've talked about this investigation. they're combing through video. they have surveillance video. cell phone videos of the chaos they're currently working through, and they have upped the reward money, upwards of $100,000. that's between the fbi and crime stoppers. the largest reward they have offered. all of this in a plea. this is what we heard thi

so let's bring in nbc news correspondent marissa parra in winder, georgia, and legal analyst danny cevallos with us in studio. we just got the audio of law enforcement interviewing the suspect and his father last year in connection with reported online threats to carry out a school shooting. what more have we learned? >> reporter: well, in roughly eight minutes of audio, what we can hear is the fbi asking the father colin gray if he was aware of any threats that were being made by his son online. i want to take you to a small part of what we heard. >> i don't know anything about him saying [ bleep ] like that. i'll be mad as hell if he did and all the guns will go away and they won't be accessible to him. you know, i'm trying to be -- i'm trying to teach him about firearms and safety, and how to do it all. >> reporter: and remember this was last may. and law enforcement sources familiar tell nbc news that it was later, after this interview was done, that colin gray then gifted his son an ar-style rifle and this is undoubtedly a very large part and why we saw the charges we did, significant

i want to get to nbc news correspondent marissa parra in st. petersburg, florida. many different places but where you are, that whole coastal area along the florida -- the florida gulf coast really saw a lot of flooding overnight. tell us more. >> reporter: especially where we are. this is a peninsula, pinellas county and it's hard to find a corner untouched by helene. we are a mile from the shoreline. even a mile from the shoreline, they saw flooding 6 inches here. this business over here loss its roof. they were telling us their business is flooded. the only reason we are here is because this is the only place we can get a cell signal. that's just the nature of a natural disaster. we have video of what we saw a mile down the road. still doing rescues. as you can see in this video, you might be able to see one of those homes, we saw several, that has been impacted by a fire, that is a frequent problem with homes that have been flooded, electrical fires. we know st. petersburg fire and rescue still doing water rescues as we speak. and it is chilling to think about

joining us now nbc's marissa parra from pinellas county, florida and nbc meteorologist bill karins. how are people there preparing for this? >> reporter: well, you can see some of the preparations happening behind me, and i'm going to go ahead and give you a little bit of a walk and talk, a show and tell if you will. these are sandbag preparations w we always see this when there is a hurricane or tropical storm approaching. it was within the hour, jose, that our phones were lighting up and going off, warning us of mandatory evacuations happening in this county. so we're in the tampa bay region, pinellas county. this is one of the areas that is under mandatory evacuation for mobile home residents and i'll tell you, talking to people on the ground here there are several people who are sandbagging for the very first time, because they are worried about this storm and several people who are saying, you know, they have flooding from previous storms, whether dahlia or debbie. they're preparing now. we saw one gentleman who was wearing scrubs because he was in the middle of a work shift an

nbc's marissa parra is joining us from the statehouse in atlanta, and also with us, joyce vance, former and msnbc legal analyst. what can you tell us about where things stand as of this hour with that hearing, and how is d.a. willis explaining her decision to not attend the hearing this morning, even after a subpoena? >> reporter: hey, ana, good to be with you. so this just started a few minutes ago. it did start a little bit late. right now they're just running through the legislative process. but, remember, as you just said, this is a republican-formed investigative senate committee. they were looking to hear from willis herself this morning, and we actually heard from the chairman, he said, we have subpoenaed willis, and he cited reports that she was not going to appear. he said, we welcome her if she does decide to appear. of course, he's referencing what we saw the atlanta journal constitution, what willis' lead attorney said, that she will not be appearing today. but they're not couching it the same way. they're not saying she's defying her subpoena. they're actually questioning t

marissa parra spoke to florida residents who shared their concerns. >> some people say the whole state of florida can be like a flood zone now if we get enough rain. >> i'm very worried. >> water, you can't run away from it. it comes on you before you even know it. >> fema is preparing for a multi-state event with tropical storm warnings stretching into parts of alabama and western north carolina. let's bring in nbc meteorologist angie lassman, who is tracking helene's path. >> good morning, frances. we've got a really busy 48 hours ahead of us with this system as it continues to churn in the gulf of mexico at 85 miles per hour. it is bringing outer bands to parts of the gulf coastal region. we're likely going to see their become a category 4 before making landfall tonight around the 8:00 to 11:00 time frame around the big bend area. that is where we'll see plenty of impacts in terms of storm surge, wind, and rain. it works to the north at a speedy pace. parts of georgia under tropical storm warnings. they extend well out from the system into parts of the southeast. there's the wind sp

marissa parra has the late details. >> reporter: shocking video shows 49ers rookie pearsall after clutching chest and walked to a stretcher after he was shot in broad daylight. san francisco police say the 23-year-old was the victim of an attempted armed robbery saturday just hours after signing autographs at a publicity event. in a facebook post pearsall's mom wrote, he was shot in the chest and it exited out his back. it missed his vital organs. my son was spared today by the grace of god. the chaos start around half past 3:00 in bustling union square. the 49ers rookie was walking alone when a 17-year-old pulled a gun and tried to rob him. the two struggled and both pearsall and the suspect were shot. >> we need to confirm exactly how. >> pearsall was seen on ktvu video walking slowly to the ambulance with the help of first responders holding on to him. the 17-year-old suspect is now in custody. meanwhile, pearsall has since been released from the hospital. >> we're 49ers! [ cheers and applause ] >> the rookie was on the brink of his nfl debut as the 49ers first-round pick in the spring.

but, first, nbc's marissa parra joins us now from charlotte, north carolina. , good morning. >> reporter: hoda, good morning. this storm never reached tropical cyclone status. this storm never even got a name. but whatever you want to call it, it has battered the coast of the carolina, leaving residents stunned by once-in-a-thousand-year rainfall. this morning a soggy start to the week for folks in the carolinas, where residents are drying out from the fast-developing rainstorm that wreaked havoc along the coast. >> the weather kept getting worse and worse and the rain just kept coming. i have never seen it come up this fast this quickly. >> reporter: potential tropical cyclone nate never formed enough for a name but did plenty of damage, nonetheless. life-threatening flash flooding left the coastal town of carolina beach completely submerged after more than 15 inches of rain fell in 12 hours. forecasters calling it a one-in-a-thousand year event. >> they turned brunswick county into multiple islands. >> reporter: roadways looked like rivers. stranding some dri

marissa parra is following this story. rter: we did hear from hill himself, he said in part, he's unsure what he did to warrant the incident of being put in handcuffs. unsure what would have happened if he's not the football star he's right now. that video recorded because he's recognizable to sports fans. a little bit of what we heard when he addressed reporters on this incident. >> i don't want to bring race into it, but sometimes, it gets kind of iffy when you do. what if i wasn't tyreek hill? >> he also added that he's grateful for the support that he's received since this, especially from his teammates. in terms of what we're hearing from the nfl, the spokesperson told our affiliate, the lead has been in contact with the dolphins, ellison, but they've declined to comment any further. >> marissa, what have we heard from the police department about this incident in. >> i'll start first with what we're hearing from the south florida pbaa voice for law enforcement, they maintain hill was not, quote, immediately cooperative

nbc news correspondent marissa parra is in charlotte, north carolina. marissa, i understand it hasn't been as severe in terms of damage where you are, but other parts of the state just got drenched. walk us through which areas really saw the worst of it, and how much do they have to clean up? >> reporter: hey, guys. i want to show you a small example of how much of a difference 24 hours can make. this little sugar creek next to me, it is flowing pretty softly and gently next to me, but what you're going to see is video of yesterday. this is just an example of how intense the last 24 hours were. i want to take you to video of what we saw along the coast of carolina, specifically carolina beach. they declared a state of emergency. they saw over 15 inches of rain in 12 hours. we saw cars stranded, people on top of their cars, in need of rescuing. we also saw highway 17, hundreds of cars stalled out there. we saw roadways washed away. so a lot of people impacted by this storm that never turned into a hurricane and never turned into a tropical cyclone, but th

nbc news correspondent marissa parra joins me now from winder, georgia, talk about the other elements body camera video the body language and what we're hearing and seeing from both the officers and the two grays, the father and son. >> reporter: vick y as you mentioned this is interesting and notable for several reasons, you're right, we had the audio of this, we kind of knew the information, the first time we're seeing both the accused shooter and his father standing outside his home by the way the officers didn't go inside at any point in the video, first time being able to see the accused shooter interacting with the fbi and you'll see his mannerisms, the father warned the detectives to be careful just because he's an uncomfortable awkward teenager. take a listen and take a look for yourself. >> your dad kind of explain everything to you. >> yes, sir, he said something about shooting up the school. >> talking about a school shooting. >> i just told him, i don't know what, maybe i misheard somebody else. i would never -- >> you never said -- >> no, i swear. >> this is serious stuff

. >> nbc news correspondent marissa parra, the images from this spacewalk were stunning.s the goal? zblsh it was incredible. in fact, i'm going to ask if we can pull those up, there you go, this is stunning and it's also historic and also very risky, happy to report that it all went okay. a couple of major mission milestones that were achieved, we saw a couple days ago that humans reached the highest altitude that we've seen in space since the apollo missions to the moon. three-times higher than the international space station. there's that space walk, this was historic, it was the first all-commercial, all-civilian spacewalk, non-government astronauts. it was also pretty incredible because when they opened that hatch, kate, every single astronaut, all four of them were exposed to the vacuum of space, there's one astronaut at a time. every single one of them was exposed to the vacuum of space, their spacesuit was acting as their own individual spaceships, kate, these spacesuits are state of the art, it will tell everybody about future missions to come, higher exposure to

marissa parra, in miami, great to see you. the nfl season kicks off here on thursday night with that great matchup between the chiefs and the ravens on nbc and peacock beginning at 7:00 p.m. eastern time. >>> >>> straight ahead, the highs and lows of the week including the story behind this perfect ceremonial first pitch as dodgers superstar shohei ohtani plays catcher to his own dog on their big bobble head night. >>> and brace yourselves, weepy back-to-school parents, as one dad put together all of his daughter's first days from kindergarten to senior year in high school. >>> up next our "sunday focus" on a summer that was anything but lazy with history shaping moments in the presidential campaign and american pride and inspiration in paris all coming up on "sunday today." (marci) so, how long have you lived here? (opponent) over forty years. (marci) and how are the restaurants around here? are they good, bad, meh? what's the average household income? is there a mall? i don't know. a hair salon? where do you get your hair do

and nbc's marissa parra is reporting from boynton also with florida.o with us, former republican congressman of florida, david jolly, msnbc political analyst. good to have both of you here. let's talk about why florida, trump's home turf, and what exactly this bus tour >> hey, chris, good >> hey, chris, good to be w a couple of you. a couple of things i'll just address this clearly this event just ended, they're packing up behind me. we actually just wrapped up an interview with one of the speakers we heard from today, reproductive rights ana cook, storyteller, she shared her testimony today and we hope to share some of our interview across our platforms later, but she was one of the many speakers talking about why it was so important to vote yes on amendment 4. so, i will get to that in a the moment. the major messages and goals here, but keep in mind, harris/walz, this campaign bus tour, those giant letters on the side of that bus saying reproductive freedom, that's a huge part of the campaign here, there is no coincidence they chose palm beach count

>> marissa parra, thank you for that.imony might be? >> chris, police officers are very powerful, effective witnesses in trials against other police officers. we saw this in the case of the -- involving the four officers accused in the death of george floyd. jurors are frequently sympathetic to the difficulties of policework, and sometimes, they might want to give officers a break. they might think, even if the cop made a mistake, she was just trying to do her job. but what we heard today from this expert who's been on the force almost 20 years is that when these officers first approached mr. nichols, in his car, allegedly for a traffic stop, they had their guns drawn. that's not part of protocol. and the officers have said in other statements that mr. nichols wasn't cooperating, and he refused to turn over when they ordered him to turn over. so, the lieutenant today testified the reason for that is that he was handcuffed and at the same time that the officers were ordering mr. nichols to turn over, they were kicking him

. >> marissa parra, thank you.ll keep monitoring the presser. >>> up next, a new nbc news poll showing a tight race for the white house, what the data means for vp harris and former president trump. >>> plus president biden heading to the united nations as israel launches new attacks against lebanon. the stakes for one of his final speeches on the world stage. on speeches on the world stage. we all know costs are too high. but while corporations are gouging families, trump is focused on giving them tax cuts. but kamala harris is focused on you. building up the middle class will be a defining goal of my presidency. she'll make groceries more affordable by cracking down on price gouging. and she'll cut housing costs by taking on corporate speculators. middle class families built america. we need a leader who has their back. i'm kamala harris and i approve this message. is it possible to be more capable we need a leader who has their back. and more practical, be able to perform here and here? make a statement of barel

let's get right to marissa parra, with rescuers in tampa. what's happening there? >> reporter: hey there, i want to set the scene for you. we were out with hillsboro county sheriff's office, i have corporal hartford with me, and we were going through the neighborhoods, and this was maybe as recent as a few minutes ago, we're seeing flooded waters still several feet high on some of these streets, and it's been almost 12 hours. you can imagine how much higher it was, and hopefully our control room can pull up video of what we saw as recently as a few minutes ago, and the reason we are no longer on those streets is corporal hartford, you have been working since midnight. you have not had a break, so i think they're going to swap teams, but i'll just sort of describe for you what we saw, what i have seen the last 24 hours before i ask you a couple of questions, because i know you have done several rescues, many overnight, so as you can see, ana, lots and lots of clean up to be done, and clearly now we are seeing daylight, we are getting a better scope of the damage. an

nbc's marissa parra is reporting from on the ground in winder, georgia, msnbc legal analyst, kristy greenberg is back with me. it was the first time family members of the victims came face to face with the alleged shooter. tell us what happened there and what we have learned about the shooting? >> reporter: hey, chris, well, i want to talk you to some new reporting we have before i get into what we saw and what we heard in court. so we now have eight minutes of audio that came from an interview that the fbi did last may with both the father and the son. of course colin gray and 14-year-old colt gray. i'm going to quote the father directly, he said in this interview, quote, i don't know him saying any expletive like that when he was asked about his son making any type of threats. he continues, i'm going to be mad as hell if he did, and all the guns will go away. he later continued in this interview, i'm trying to teach him about firearms and safety, and, chris, i'll point out, throughout this eight minutes, he also said that his son was getting picked on at school, and remember, this interview

nbc's marissa parra has more. >> yeah, the storm system never formed into a tropical cyclone.tever you want to call it it has battered the coast of the carolinas and leaving residents stunned in a once in a thousand year rainfall. residents are drying out from the fast-developing rain strome that wreaked havoc along the coast. >> the weather kept getting worse and worse and the rain kept coming. i have never seen it come up this fast, this quickly. >> reporter: potential tropical cyclone 8 never formed enough for a name but did plenty of damage, nonetheless. it left the beach submerged. forecasters calling it a one in a thousand year event. >> it turned the county into multiple islands. >> reporter: roadways looked like rivers stranding some drivers. >> it didn't look that high. the water did not look that high. you can see the car completely almost underwater. >> reporter: in brunswick county, some waving down a new ride after flooding out their own. >> i knew it would rain hard but did not know it would be this bad. >> reporter: highway 17 shut down for hours. >> my wife is

joining us now, marissa parra in tampa. it looks dry where you are. where's the problem?o point out a couple of things. over my shoulder, you might be able to see first responders with a water rescue boat because only a mile down the road there are some streets that are stille there are water rescues still happening as we speak, if you can believe it. and so this is not the only problem. we have heard of fires, electrical fires, because a lot of times when you have floods at home, i heard from st. petersburg fire and rescue, plenty of homes have been catching fire. this is shore acres, a hard hit part of st. petersburg, this isn't the only place that we have seen. we also traveled with hillsboro county sheriff's office. they took us inside of an amphibious vehicle. what that means is they can travel on the roads and in the water. and we traveled with their water rescue teams, and they were going door to door, all through the night. they did not sleep, and they did, just this team alone, over 20 rescue, including with a 97-year-old woman who needed medical attention. i wan

. >> marissa parra live for us in tampa. thank you so much. please stay safe yourself.will ask. are you safe? >> we are safe and you will know it if it changes. if you go a half hour due west from marissa, that's where we are. everything bill reported and marissa is absolutely true. we are finally getting the real hard winds be where you see the trees being bent, you see the lashing of the rain. the story really is for our beach communities the coastal flooding. the evacuations, they should have started yesterday. time is almost out. we are getting the eastern side of this. it is bad. it is real. people have time to evacuate and some are, but for the towns that are going to bear the brunt of this tonight, there is still this window to prevent the loss of life and provide for personal safety. that simply must be done. uninhabitable is the word that has been used. we're going to see that. the area of cedar key, big bend in the state of florida, is less populus than many of the metro areas that you might see, but i would also point out the economic disparate around the big

marissa parra, thanks so much. >>> let's turn to meteorologist angie lassman for a look where the storm is now. >> willie, we're seeing improvements in places where marissa is. the state of florida, things will get better and, of course, quieter, time to assess the damage of what they dealt with yesterday, in the overnight hours and into early this morning. places like the southeast of georgia stretching to the carolinas, things are just starting to ramp up. here's the latest details as of the top of the 5:00 a.m. 70 miles per hour, so it is, of course, a tropical storm, but it is moving at an incredible pace. 30 miles per hour. that's why it kept its act together as a hurricane and ultimately still a tropical storm, even though it is well inland across the state of georgia. couple things happening right now. we have the kind of prime environment for some of those tornadoes. this morning while it's still dark out, really concerned about those tornadoes ramping up. we've seen the tornado watch stay in effect all morning long. it'll stay with us through at least 8:00 this morning. we alre