we have on the scene and moving assets to the scene our local affiliate, wnbc.et's listen in. >> whatever happened, the force of this explosion, one of the folks who heard this and saw this, andrew brandt joins us on the phone now. he lives on 110th and fifth, but he has an pormt veapartment ver up. andrew, are you there? >> yes, i'm here. >> andrew, what can you tell me about what you saw and heard? >> i heard an explosion, and immediately looked off my terrace and saw a cloud of smoke rising with debris in the air, looked like paper and other products. and then the cloud just got larger and larger and within a minute, sirens started to sound and police and also firefighters arriving at the scene. >> andrew, even from your apartment, fairly high up, this must have sounded like just a tremendous explosion. >> it did. it actually shook my building from six blocks south and a little bit to the left, but, yeah, i could feel the -- did feel like thunder, a big clap of thunder. >> what can you see now? >> right now i see a haze over the area. before when the winds ch

wnbc, our affiliate here, going to send a chopper.ene and continue to watch this throughout the hour here on msnbc. in the meantime, let's take you to what's going on elsewhere. good morning, i'm chris jansing, and the white house is juggling a lot of huge stories this morning, from the ukraine, to health care, and they are worried how all of it's going to play out in the next midterm election. that's crucial to democrats if they are going to hang on to power in the senate. this hour, three cabinet members are going to be testifying on capitol hill, three separate hearings. this afternoon the president is also going to meet with the ukrainian prime minister to talk about the situation in crimea. all of it happening after that closely watched florida congressional race that democrats lost last night. just as our brand new nbc news/"wall street journal" poll showed the president's approval at 41%. those things, republican opposition on foreign policy to domestic agenda, but they aren't stopping president obama from pushing ahead. this w

luckily, we have one of the greatest weather guys around, our friend, wnbc's raphael miranda.hael, let's start with the weather around the plane search site. it's some of the most dangerous weather in the world. >> that's right, the roaring 40s, we've heard. we've heard this expression, around 40 degrees south latitude, typically, we see a very stormy pattern there. it's a band of westerly winds, very windy over there, and stormy from time to time. right now we've been seeing windows of clearer weather, where they can continue to search, but those are becoming less and less frequent as we head into winter. we're seeing swells of 14 feet, conditions impossible donate the search. >> and those are huge. >> those are huge. it makes it dangerous to continue the search. and you can see in the satellite, a little break in the action, but there comes the next storm. this will be the pattern over the next few weeks, winter, the worst wintry weather happens there around may. we have another month, but we'll see the storminess continue to pick up in intensity. it's going to be harder and

chuck scarborough today celebrates 40 years on the air at wnbc-tv.ooking back, chuck appears to have started while still in high school in 1974. the veteran journalist is also an air force veteran, a pilot, author and the recipient of 33 emmy awards. congratulations to our colleague, but most of all our friend chuck, without whom it would not be new york. >>> when we come back, a giant water taxi on the move tonight, 30 million seats are going fast. \s break/e >>> our final story here tonight is about a rescue mission underway in california, in the midst of the history making drought that has left rivers so low that tens of millions of salmon are having trouble getting to where they need to be this time of year. that's where something called the water taxi comes in. we get the story tonight from nbc's harry smith. >> reporter: in northern california this spring, there's snow in the high country. it's only a quarter of what it ought to be. these seasons of drought have left reservoirs and streams way below normal. where there's not enough water, means

we'll talk about it with brian thompson, a reporter for wnbc in new york. he was listening and taking notes at the press conference yesterday. rolly is a republican member of the committee looking into the lane closures. bob is from the asbury bark press. liz worked on then new jersey governor john correspon corzine committee. my main take away is that, as i said at the end there, it may be that christie, everything christie is saying about what he knew is true. but, this report was done to me in such a heavy handed way, beating you over the head with the conclusions it wanted you to reach. it ended up arousing more skepticism. that's the reason there was so much skepticism in the air. >> i was at the mastro news conference. where is the samson talk in here? one thing the governor probably doesn't appreciate or doesn't want to acknowledge and i don't know which one, he may be the only person with knowledge of the port authority of new york and new jersey who believes that david samson had no operational role. anybody who works for the port authority who mig

wnbc reporting that there had been complaints of no heat in the building. that con ed utility was called to the scene. what can you tell us about that? >> reporter: well, there were reports, con ed confirmed that they were on their way to the scene of this explosion to investigate reports of a gas leak when the explosion happened just after 9:00 this morning eastern time. there are also concerns expressed by neighbors that there are a number of building code violations that had not been addressed by the landlord at this building over the past months or weeks. and some of that involved heating problems apparently. so there's that that's going to be investigated as well. the mayor is expected to speak at the top of the hour. at this point, there's still a lot going on out here there. are still dozens of emergency vehicles at the scene up there that you can see up the hill. there's still a lot of smoke rising from the building where the explosion happened because the building is obliterated now. you have to understand, this is a very, very densely populated ne

. >> captain, in addition to that, what we're learning right now, wnbc, our affiliate here, is confirming that one person has died in this explosion, so confirmation now of at least one fatality here. the pancake explosion, as you are describing, how difficult, and that is a pretty obvious question that it is a difficult situation, but you've got, again, firefighters who are trying to get in this building that is not secure to get people out who need help. we've seen, obviously, this at an epic level after 9/11, but we've seen other building collapses, as well, from time to time in this city, so how do you assess and what are they doing? >> well, i'm sure there's some individuals in there, engineers that are on call to assess the stability of the surrounding buildings, the adjacent buildings and exposure to see their stability. any time you have an explosion of that significant force and it seems like it certainly was, i would go under the impression the buildings have been somewhat compromised, so they are going to go in there and assess as they move forward on that, but there is a good

brian thompson, a report er for wnbc, showed a number of photographs showing chris christie walking aroundh all of these people and then we have a reporter in "the new york times" yesterday that they spent a long time in this air-conditioned place sequestered from everyone else. we don't know what conversations took place. it is entirely possible chris christie had nothing to do with it. >> some general fairness and objectivity when you're looking at allegations because any of us, any of us, if we were subject to allegations, constant media attention with no corroboration on many of these things, you just want fairness. >> when you put out a report like this, we have to squeeze a break in here. we have to squeeze a break in here. we will get you in after this. andrea in after this. and i do want to get back to this news out of hoboken because it's not just about chris christie. i think this news out of hoboken may suggest something about another major figure, david samson. i know you've been reporting on that. >> well, there's a connection to chris christie. your rheumatologist about a bio

michael patrick herald, and brian thompson new jersey report er for wnbc, getting to be a regular onl. i'll start with you in that the segment we just had outlining the new jersey working families alliance filing a complaint against david samson. you read the news and the last few months these possible conflicts of interest that have come out, what is your reaction to the complaint that's being filed and to the revelations you've seen about david samson? >> no, i'm not going to tell you how i feel about it but, again, as you know with respect to my philosophy of john wisniewski and such i felt the port authority was a nest that needed to be cleaned out. i'm not sure i agree with your analysis or the previous witness' analysis of the port authority/new jersey transit deal because, yes, his client made out well, but his client is new jersey transit, which means the commuters, at least in theory, will make out well. >> the bus commuters. >> or train commuters. >> his law firm made out well. >> and another thing, i understand, i may be wrong about this, but i believe jim mcgrechy appoint

jenna, dylan, dave and allegra are on the blue team, and we're also joined by our good friend, wnbc'st's not going to work because i was checking up first. there you go. >> i'm here for balance and fair. so, lester is going to get you on your marks and we're going to take our positions and -- >> get ready! >> okay. >> so -- >> out of the way, out of way. >> come on in. >> on your mark. >> yes! >> get set. >> yes! [ whistle ] >> all right! two turns, two turns, in, in, in. >> here we go. >> all right! >> go, go, go! >> all right, come on! >> here, here. >> come on, come on, dylan. >> you guys are good! >> yes, yes! take that! take that! look at our team. that's right. oh, get over, lester. come on, mom! ♪ >> come on, lester! ♪ >> i think team orange was doing great until lester hit the wall. >> i hit the wall. it's the shoes. >> it happens. it happens. we've all got excuses, lester. i'm kidding. >> that was actually difficult. >> that was a lot of fun! >> yeah. >> a lot of fun. >> your wheel barrows were impressive. [ everyone talking at once ] >> you've done great. >> i'm very proud o

but our local affiliate wnbc has confirmed that all metro north trains out of grand central have beengain, near park avenue and 116. if we get more details on that, that's the chopper en route. if we get more details we'll bring them to you. >> let's hope everyone is okay. >>> what's on "mad money" tonight? >> we've been doing a series of cramer's playbook. i urge that people go on twitter, we're doing personal finance and we got a doubleheader going and i think personal finance at this point where a lot of people new to the market are buying. the key to the market, ballard, fuel cell. listen, because we'll tell you the other way to do it. the get rich carefully way. signing books at costco on saturday in east hanover. >> yeah. >> nice. >> 12:00 to 2:00. you got to do it carefully. >> great to have you back. >> thank you, guys. love being back. pay pay paypal. >>> when we come back more on the markets and more with twitter co-founder biz stone. nd. so our business can be on at&t's network for $175 a month? yup. all 5 of you for $175. our clients need a lot of attention. there's unlimi

tracy strahan from wnbc, our sister station here in new york, is at the scene. good morning to you. >> reporter: matt, good morning, where officials will be returning in about an hour from now with what's left of these homes. homes reduced to rubble here. they'll be trying to pinpoint what exactly led to the massive blast that led to several terrifying moments. >> this loud explosion shook me up, paintings on the wall fell. there was a crack in one of my walls. >> officials say the explosion happened tuesday after workers who were trying to make electrical repairs hit a gas line at a condominium complex in new jersey. >> the person that was operating down there felt they had struck something. the explosions just happened. we're not sure how it happened. >> they shook the house and just a terrible, terrible explosion. >> the explosion killed one woman, injuring seven others, the blast so severe it damaged as many as 55 homes in the complex causing an aftermath that looked like a tornado had struck. >> looked in the sky and you can see all the insulation and debri