al roker, can you hear me, it's alex. >> hey, alex, hi, alex. how are you doing? >> i'm doing better than you are, because you're out in this mess. -- [ inaudible ] [ inaudible ] >> i stepped inside, yeah, you can see this -- this was the actually the -- guardhouse, the beach patrol house that they use for all the lifeguards. and it just all of a sudden got ripped off. i mean this was there was a berm that was built, that sand berm, about 20 feet tall. all around that building and it just suddenly moved off. and, boom, gone. it's now pressed up against the boardwalk. they don't know if they can save it or not. this is an historic boardwalk, it was built in 1914. and that building is pretty old, it has stood the test of time. but right now, it's probably a total loss. we are at high tide now, and you can see this other berm area, this is just about gone. the water is rushing right now, it's making its way -- from the ocean, and coming across, you can see there's, this area here has been cordoned off with a wood barricades, but look at how the water is just now rush

al roker you're the best. thank you for joining us from long beach, new york. join me right now with more on irene's location and strength is the weather channel bryan norcross. brian, you're looking at the video and watching our broadcast and you see the winds with that tremendous storm surge there with al was in long island. that's going to create some havoc with flooding in that area for sure. >> we're going to have some flooding from storm surge. in the end that won't be the legacy of this hurricane. it is as al said it's the inland, heavy rain and flooding that's going to go from all the way up to the canadian border across northern new england and on down through new jersey and eastern pennsylvania, serious, serious near record flooding. two or three of all time floods in many of those areas. the center of circulation just about to come ashore and it may actually come ashore in new york city, and the rockaways or maybe coney island. this is like threading a needle from a mile away. it looks like it will happen. we're just about at the peak there where al

it's really unprecedented. >> al roker there in long beach, many thanks as always. again. al was talking about the loss of life, and we have the terrible task 9 reporting three people are dead in virginia killed by falling trees. we have norfolk, virginia, which saw a storm surge of more than 7 1/2 feet, so clearly dealing with the afterplath of flooding. and the staggering images of the damage down by irene continue to pour in. we have some trees toppling over just like matchsticks, live wires down across alexandria, virginia, and that's where our colleague luke russert is standing by. i know right there along the water things look calm, but you got into the city. talk about what it's like there. >> reporter: well, it's basically like a normal sunday here in old town alexanderia. old folks are out walking their dogs, grabbing some coffee. there's a line at the starbucks behind me. but you saw more in the residential neighborhoods, a lot of trees are downed, power lines are down, we just got some figures from the folks at the power company. they said any dc area pec

it looks like we may have lost al roker. you can see what al is dealing with he's dealing with tremendous winds and high tide is supposed to be right around now. he was telling us any time between now and 7:30, another ten minutes from now. that's the most crucial time when it comes to the flooding. as you take a look at these figures on top of the concession stands there on coney island's boardwalk, they are shaking. because of the ferocity of the winds. and they have these metal steel bars that are holding them down. you can bet that they've withstood a lot ever things in their time. but this is the one time the hurricane irene, which looks to potentially compromise the safety and security of these and the buffeting of the flags, they're being shredded, torn to bits, as a result of this cat 1 hurricane. it's extraordinary what's going on right now in new york city and adjacent to long island with al roker. let's look at where i reason is headed with the weather channel's bryan norcross. >> you can see the center of the hur

al roker has been stationed there all evening long.g. >> reporter: brian, this is a barrier island. long beach is situated on a barrier island like the outer banks of the carolinas. this is really going to take the brunt of that -- of hurricane irene as it comes on shore. and make no mistake, it is going to be a big problem because right about the time irene comes on shore, it will be the time of high tide. so you take a high tide of about six feet, you add four to eight feet on top of that, in this low-lying barrier city and you're going to have big problems. we're getting the rain, the rain bands already. ahead of the storm. it's 300 miles to the southwest. it is still churning this way. we haven't even begun to see the worst of it. we've been getting lightning and thunder. the rain is picking up. the winds are blowing right now at 25 to 30 miles per hour. and we expect things to get worse. people have been evacuated, ordered to evacuate off this island, out of this city and we're going to stay here and ride this out and bring you th

new england nobody can breathe a sigh of relief until this thing gets up into the atlantic. >> al roker in north carolina tonight. al, thank you. >>> now to the aftermath of the earthquake that rattled the east coast yesterday, tens or millions, perhaps 100 million people felt it. today damage assessment and the big concern is what they found at the washington monument. tom costello joins me from there. tom? >> reporter: hi, lester, good evening. they found a crack at the very top of the washington monument, it's about four feet, they say, by about an inch wide and it's near the top, really, near the top of the washington monument. so right now this 555 foot building is off limits to the public. the day after the earthquake shook the east coast, more surveillance camera video of the moment it all started, 1:51 p.m. and everyone, it seems has a story to tell. >> it was like this big shake and then a pause for like three seconds and then it shook more. >> reporter: in washington the chief concern remains the cracks near the top of the 137-year-old washington monument, it remains closed as

in just a few minut we'll also talk to nbc's al roker, who is in new york on long island. give us the very latest on the storm. before we do that, though, i want to talk to my roundtable analso give you a programming note. we were supposed to have republican presidential candidate jon huntsman on this morning, scheduled to appear as part of our "meet the candidates" series, butue to his travel conditions and coverage of the hurricane, it will happen at a later date. we look forward to him being on the program. but for now, our roundtable is here. joining me, the bbc's washington correspondent katty kay, national correspondent for today," jamie gangel, columnist for "the new york times," david brooks, and author as well as georgetown university professor miael eric dyson. good to have all of you. glad we were able to get in. really, the d.c., the story was a lot of wind and rain, but nothing compared to what we're seeing along the eastern seaboard. interesting, david brooks, the political aspect of the storm -- and there is always one, because the politics don't stop -- was

al roker is in north carolina with the latest. >>> and, details on the fire that destroyed billionaire branson's home. i'm lynn berry. thanks for watching early today. just your first stuff of the day, today on your nbc station. have a good one.

roker is responsible for that. i'm matt lauer along with ann curry, tamron hall and al roker. for you coming up. >> of course, a time to take a lot out of you but also takes a lot out of you is not getting enough sleep. have you ever had that feeling you've got ven eight hours of sleep and you're still exhausted? we're going to look at the medical reasons behind that and, get this, women apparently complain four times more than men about being exhausted. i wonder why. >> exhausted by men. >> i wonder why. >> and, you know, comfort food. we all sometimes turn to it for different reasons. what is really driving you to indulge, why do you crave certain kinds of food? and we're going to try to help you get it more under control. i always like to say if loving mac and cheese is wrong, i don't want to be right. >>> let's go inside. natalie is at the news desk. >> there is a bright spot today after a week of dismal economic news. hiring picked up last month with workers hiring $117,000 jobs in july. it brought the jobs rate from 9.1% to 9.1%. to keep it in context, let's check in wit

al roker on the coast of north carolina starting us off. al, thanks. >>> this storm has already taken a good deal of time en route north churning up the bahamas. next's lily luciano was there this morning just as the storm was bearing down. >> reporter: we're now at the height of hurricane irene here in nassau, this is the most severe wind we have gotten so far, we're getting heavy rain and sleet as well that's starting to hit us as we speak right now. objects are falling and flying through the air, we have gotten some street signs that have been coming off their posts as the winds changed directions. a couple of trees have fallen right in front of us. but the storm is getting worse. lily luciano with some of what this storm has been offering in the bahamas today. as we said, all the forecasts and computer models show the next stop for hurricane irene, the north carolina coast. nbc's mark potter in nags head tonight. mark, good evening. >> reporter: good evening to you, brian. as you can see, there are very few people out here on the beache

al roker will tell you when the summer scorcher will end. >>> and singer sean kingston talks to natalie morales about his terrifying jet ski accident and his struggle to survive. >>> now, keep it on this channel for continuing local news, weather, sports, and much more. i'm veronica de la cruz. thank you for watching "early today," just your first stop of the day today on your nbc station. the day today on your nbc station. have a terrific thursday. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

as the east coast braces for hurricane irene, al roker is live in north carolina with the latest. >>> and the grammy award winning band train performs live on the plaza for the summer concert series. now keep it on this channel for continuing local news, weather, sports and more. i'm lynn berry. thanks for watching "early today," just your first stop of the day today on your nbc station. the day today on your nbc station. have a good one. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

and al roker conquers the great outdoors on his alaskan adventure. now keep it on this channel for continuing local news, weather, sports, and more. i'm lynn berry. thanks for watching "early today," just your first stop of the day today on your nbc station. the day today on your nbc station. have a good one. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

that's where al roker being approached by fans but al we're going to ask you to talk with us also your fans, of course. i know the weather has been pounding there just relentless with the winds. how is it like right now? >> reporter: well, let's take a look. we'll get a wind reading here. hold on a second. this is 42 -- right about 40 to 42 miles per hour. zipping along. 42 miles per hour. seems to be a fairly strong sustained winds. the good news is that the rain has let up. in fact it's going a bigger problem for places inland than it is here along the coast. but you can see as you look out boy those, those waves look pretty angry. you know, we're probably talking about 20-foot waves working their way towards shore. but they are breaking out there, and if you remember just about 30 minutes ago, it was a lot -- there's a lot more water right underneath this boardwalk and very close in and then really piling in and streaming in to that parking lot right across from us. now, we see those waves and they are breaking and they are still just as big probably 20, 25 feet but this guy wearing

i'm ann curry along with al roker and matt lauer.going to talk about a father's controversial blog. >> the blog is called thepsychoexwife.com. he never names her by name. but now a judge has ordered that website taken down. is it fair or is it a violation of that man's free speech? we're going to be talking about that in just a couple of minutes. >> raises a lot of questions. >>> also this morning, the very talented usher, as profile bid jenna bush hager. >>> and steals and deals cc1: including a vacation for the whole family. >> sounds good. >> that's a deal. that's good. >> we have a lot to get to. we also have natalie morales at the news desk. good morning to you. >> good morning again, matt, ann, and al. good morning. worries over the u.s. credit rating downgrade, weak economic recovery and european debt cc1: crisis sent overseas markets tumbling again today after the dow plunged more than 600 points on monday, dropping it below 11,000 for the first time since last november. brian sullivan is at cnbc's world headquarters. seeing

roker. >> thanks somuch, nat. as we show you what's happening with emily.th southeast of santo domingo, dominican republic. moving west. cutting a swath across the caribbean. this weekend, by sunday into monday it is somewhere along the southeastern atlantic coast. again, the code of uncertainty says it could make landfall any time over the weekend. we have a risk of severe storms stretching from the mid atlantic coast to the central mississippi river valley. showers and thunderstorms already firing up with that system, cold front making its way. we are looking from anywhere to a half inch of rain to an inch as you get down to washingto >>> pretty comfortably cool weather around the bay area, thanks to the low clouds around san francisco, even misty skies out there around the golden gate bridge. if you want to find the warmest temperatures around the bay area, head over to livermore, 92 today. 81 degrees in fairmont. 60s for san francisco. low 70s in oakland. speaking of low 70s, even our inland valleys will be in the 70s for high temperatures as a stronger

been business is concerned internationally he's not and we could give you had or the i did to meet roker he thought we discounted which i could extensively in my book and in these people there are many scenes which are worse in forty year one of them is that in ninety six percent of the cases in international communication there is at least one no native english speaker who is involved and it's up to you native english speakers to adjust to the river of this person or not be as good as your least because they can eat would be ok example i mean i could agree with you maybe if you're talking about your childhood or buying a ticket at a train station or ordering in a restaurant or something like that. you bring a business i mean most businesses you have contracts and you have very specific laws and clauses and things like that this this language can't work for that if i go to robert on that i mean it's for chit chat it's just to get you know get through something is this something you wouldn't sign a contract with using this kind of language it's too imprecise i mean it has nothing to do wi

al roker has details on this. al? >> thanks so much, ann. we have 14 states stretching from texas all of the way to virginia under heat warnings or heat advisories. and when you look at these temperatures for today. the forecast highs. it will be 104 in little rock. 104 in austin. 103 in memphis. flirting with 100 in raleigh. add the heat and the humidity, and it feels like it will -- it will feel like 120 degrees in memphis, 114 in jacksonville. 116 in charleston. we don't see much relief. here's the pattern we've been stuck in. big area of high pressure, upper level ridge, the jet stream way to the north. it's pumping up a lot of moisture out of the gulf. we don't see a change in this pattern until sunday. the jet stream will move south just a little bit. the ridge kind of retrogrades so that warm, moist air mass strays from the southeast to the northeast. but again, the areas that are worst affect would stay in this heat. matt? >> thank you very much. we'll get the rest of your forecast in just a moment. >>> but right now, the president i

i'm lester holt along with natalie morales, al roker, savannah guthrie.y are missing out. they have earned the reputation of one of the country's top music acts, high energy and live shows. i'm told we're in for a huge treat. not just up there on the stage -- i was going to say, you know, it's not just the music, picking pride. zac brown is quite accomplished. >> he owns a restaurant and brought around his cook trailer. doing some cooking with zac. >> right now looking forward to the forecast. >> that's right. starting off pretty good. as we look, start the day or toll, we should say, looking into the weekend. showers into the ohio river valley. mid mississippi river valley. western half of the country, sunny and hot. and then on sunday, sunday, strong storms along the mid atlantic states. rain in new england. sunny skies and midwest. showers around nebraska and looking at the moisture through the southwest. sne bra nebraska getting a big >>> good friday morning to you. take a look at what is happening over sunol right now. cloud deck breaking apart. the

i have to say, without exception, i think, peter, you and al roker, the dra dramatic pictures. you were right there along the coast there was no break. it was just remarkable trying to have you stand up in those winds. do you any teal have to be checking the pipes and the drainage systems, because they may have been overloaded, if not broken in some places? >> i think clearly that problem will exist in a lot of parts of this area. coney island was part of zone a, a mandatory evacuation area. so there was real potential for flooding here. i spoke to nypd a lot, and they tell us back toward that direction, there has been heavy flooding, as it was described to us. when we get a chance, we'll drive out there and try to get a better sampling of what happened. there's been reports of lots of downed trees. clearly, though, the people in coney island are proud of the place they call home. they came out early after the storm had passed, and a lot of them came up and said we lost some trees, we've got plenty of water, but we still have coney island the way we love it. peter alexander, ma

. >> nbc's al roker is live in north carolina. preparations are under way already there? >> reporter: well, they have mandatory evacuations for both tourists and for residents in ocracoke island. they have mandatory evacuations here along duck, kill devil hills for tourists. they will most likely be putting in mandatory evacuations if not today, certainly tomorrow, for residents as well as the system approaches. it's a powerful storm. already causing big problems down in the bahamas. right now. it's about 650 miles south-southeast of cape hatteras as we continue to track this thing. we expect it to make landfall here somewhere along the outer banks sometime late on saturday, early on sunday. then continue up the east coast. and that's the problem. as it does, its forward motion will probably slow. it may lose some intensity. right now it's a category 3 storm as it makes its way past the bahamas and before it gets to the carolinas, it may intensify to a 4, then become a 3, and then as it makes its way up past new jersey, a 2. but m

savannah guthrnd al roker.days you probably have financial whiplash. >> that's for sure. in fact, the fact is a lot of folks are worried about their retirement accounts, their children's 529 college accounts, money 911 team is going to have some advice. and we'll be answering your questions from skype,e-mail, and the phone. >> it has really been a roller coaster. >> absolutely. not a good kind of roller coaster. >> no. >> also ahead, loving your body from the inside out. we're going to talk to one woman who had always been so proud of being plus size but she learned the hard way there's more of this than just how you look, i also your health so she went on a quest to lose some weight. she tells us her very personal story coming up. >> apparently you don't always have to spend a chunk of change if you want to get your hair color done. a celebrity stylish who comes on our broadcast so often is going to tell us how to choose the perfect color for your hair and your face and skin tone and to keep up with the latest

roker. >> it will be spectacular in the northeast.e're really getting a break, finally, but we also have a big area of dakotas back into arkansas and parts of mississippi. we could see small shot at tornadoes but more likely damaging winds, hail and heavy rain. already firing up from northern texas, across into parts of mississippi. we're looking at anywhere from half an inch to two inches of rain in some areas. s, especially through southern >> good morning to you. waking up with a little fog up in the north bay, watch out for deep pockets in santa rosa. we're in the 50s headed to another gorgeous day, unseasonably cool again. 85 degrees in los gatos. gorgeous day in the city, 72 san francisco, and we warm up for the next couple of days, falling back below seasonal averages. fall-like weather as we head through monday, tuesday, wednesday next week. that's your latest weather. ann? >>> al, thank you. >>> still ahead, for the first time since the ground-breaking transplant chimp attack victim charla nash reveals her new face to the wor

i think all of you would look good with a stetsen, roker boots, wranglers, next segment in honor of.nds great. >>> the phrase on wall street this morning is "yep, here we go again," another day of market volatility. alison kosik on the floor of new york stock exchange actually talking to a trader he. alison? >> yes, it is volatile today, but i'll tell you what it feels like a new day. we're seeing green across the board, ythe dow up, the nasdaq and s&p also in the green. i'm here with allen valdez. he's about dme xpusecurities. what's driving the trade today? >> you're 100% right. very volatile and heavy volume. the volume is close to a billion shares. only an hour into the trading day. but we had early news out of citibank where they kind of pulled back on their gdp expectations going forward this year. but basically that's been it it. out of washington, very light news, out of europe kind of light news today. more options. a lot of option trading. >> this is still a headline-driven market, a fragile market. it can really turn on a dime. >> right. we had a 200-move already, a little

coming on a day that al roker is not here. all right? adding to that whole conspiracy. we are joined by stephanie abrams of the weather channel here with the forecast. steph, nice to have you. >> nice to see you guys as well. let's talk about that heat. heat advisory stretching through the center of the country, including dallas where we have had 30 straight days of 100 plus degree heat. the record by the way is 42. that streak continues today at 106 degrees. otherwise there is a threat for stronger storms through the northeast and portions of the upper midwest. now here's a look at what's >> the map you saw may make you appreciate the temperatures you'll see around the bay area today. inland spots only low 80s here for the first day of august. we're talking 83 livermore, closer to mid-80s around los gatos and around morgan hill and gilroy, upper 70s san jose, 60 san jose and oakland. we'll warm up the middle of the week. temperatures running mild for this time of year. we'll cool down slightly thursday into friday. low clouds to follow us into next weekend. >> matt, ov