0 and kaufman are intent on disrupting the status quo and creating new ways of attacking tough problems. and that's why we put them on "the next list." i'm dr. sanjay gupta. thanks for watching. hope to see you back here next week. hello, everyone, i'm fredericka whitfield. the next hour of the "cnn newsroom" begins right now. here are our top stories. after the fire. new jersey governor chris christie visits the jersey shore. he surveys the damage from the boardwalk inferno. businesses say they will pick up the pieces and rebuild. and roads washed away. towns cut off. rescue crews scramble to reach people stranded by flooding in colorado. and officials warn the danger is not over. >> we're asking people to avoid driving in boulder, avoid being out in areas where waters are rising. and an ambitious plan. the u.s. and russia reach a deal on syria's chemical weapons. president obama calls it an important step, but he says the u.s. is prepared to act if syria doesn't keep its promises. this afternoon, new jersey governor chris christie is at seaside heights. he is meeting with business owners who lost their shops in that massive fire along the iconic boardwalk. let's listen in to what christie had to say just a short time ago. >> keep it up. >> don't forget us. >> we have not had our cabinet members specifically the dca working since the fire started thursday night to look at ways that we can help. so we'll have some announcements later. we've already come up with some plans and ideas to be able to help them i think in a really significant way at the state level and try to get some help from the federal level as well. but we'll have more later on. i want to meet from them first with us. i'm very proud of what the cabinet's done already. they've worked really hard, been talking to our federal partners, and i think we'll have ways to help move this along relatively quickly. get demolition going and for those who want to rebuild, no get them some assistance to help them rebuild. >> governor, you're hearing a lot of words to the people on the boardwalk, and they're saying things to you we couldn't always hear. what were they saying? >> most people were just saying thank you for being here. i said i wouldn't be any place else. obviously i intended to be someplace else, but that's what this job is all about. when crises happen, you have to be here to lend encouragement and deliver hope. so most of the people were just saying thank you for being here. and what i was saying to them was, a few of them told me i look tired. and i just said to them, we don't have time to be tired now. we've got to get back to work. some people were telling me how sad they thought it was. i said the time for sadness is over now. we had two days to feel sad about this. it's legitimately a sad thing, but we've got work to do now. and a couple days to mourn, and now we've got to move on and get to work. >> i heard you tell a couple of them were stronger than the storm. stronger than this as well. do you think you convinced them that we're on the job? the state is on the job? help is on the way? >> well, i hope i kwipgsed them. that's part of my reason for being here, but ultimately they'll be convinced by what we do. that's always been the test of my administration. we talk about certain things, but then you've got to deliver, and i think we've done a good job of delivering. i think that's why you see so many people being as grateful as they are. so now this is the next challenge for us to confront. the bad thing in the last few years as i mentioned the other night is all the different natural disaster crises we've had in the last four years. the only good thing about it is that it's really trained me and the administration to be ready and know how to respond to these things. it's not our first time at this rodeo, unfortunately. >> and these business owners, is this the first time you've talked to them? >> i spoke to a couple of them at the scene thursday night who were watching their places burn down. i had some conversation with them. but this will be the first time i'm meeting with them as a group. and the cabinet is already positioned. we have insurance to deal with the insurance issues. we have eda with the old business grants and loans. we have dca to deal with permitting and zoning and demolition. i think we have labor here as well to help with any kind of employment questions. we've got everybody here i think that we need. they all have support staff with them. we'll have a meeting, take questions from them and then get to work. monday we will get to work on trying to make sure that we make money available to them and other resources to help them. >> i know it's really early, but this is another significant wound to a place that hasn't really recovered from the last wound. how do you envision the boardwalk in the future? >> you know, listen. fortunately if you look at this -- and this is not in any way to minimize the loss to people -- but this could have been significantly worse. we could have lost all this. i mean, i was here. i was watching what happened. and we were, you know, probably 30, 40 minutes away cutting the trench didn't work. of losing the whole boardwalk. and so, you know, my view is, we've got some pieces of the boardwalk to repair. some businesses on the boardwalk to rebuild. but, you know, in the context of what we've been through already, much smaller. much more containable. and i think much more attainable for us in a relatively shorter period of time. >> governor chris christie there talking to reporters and business owners. later on we're going to be actually be talking to a business owner on that boardwalk who had a chance to talk to governor christie earlier today to find out what his hopes are for rebuilding after that inferno. turning now to colorado and to unprecedented rescue attempts to reach hundreds of people stranded in record high floodwaters. the hardest-hit area is around boulder. they got a year's worth of rain in just a matter of days. the storms are blamed for at least four deaths and 172 people still unaccounted for ten miles away in longmont, the challenge has been getting through floodwaters. just watch as people try to get through. it looks like they are being pounded by the waves there right up to the windshield. >> why don't you slow down. >> let's go ten miles to the northeast of that town to a place called lyons. more than 800 people including children have been rescued, many by air by the national guard. while flood levels have dropped today, the threat is far from over. >> the intense operation in the air and on the ground will continue today at a level i've never seen to get people inserted and into those areas that are otherwise impassable or unreachable. >> 7,000 people have been ordered out of longmont, colorado, alone. and cnn's george howell is there. george, what more can you tell us about the evacuations? any kind of rescue attempts? >> reporter: well, fredericka, you know, we know that those evacuation efforts continue. we've had sunlight for really the last day and a good part of today, but things are changing. i don't know if you can kind of see the sky. it's a bit gray. we're starting to feel raindrops. things are changing. more rain is expected in the forecast. so that could be problematic when it comes to getting into those communities. i want to give you sort of a show-and-tell of what we're looking at here in this particular location. just right down here, you can see where water eroded, just washed away, you know, the mud where these foundations were buried. it's gone. and that's the power of this, you know, the water. so much water came down in such a short amount of time, that's the problem, dealing with all of that right now. look right over there. that used to be a bike path. and it says "low clearance of about eight feet." that's got to be, like, six feet right there. a lot of water still coming through many different communities. i want to show you over here, too. look over here because when you see how this land has been cut off by what used to be a stream, now merging into the river. that's a problem. you know, you can't get into many of these different places like jamestown. it's hard to get into lyons. so you know, you see officials using helicopters to get in. they're dropping, you know, food, water. they're trying to get people out as best they can. but if you get a sense of how strong this water is flowing through many of these different rivers, it's coming down fast. this is the river. one local told me that it's ten times as high as it should be, fredericka. so, look. it's a problem out here. it continues to be a problem, you know, until these waters recede. and with more rain in the forecast, it's not looking so good right now. >> oh, boy. all right, george howell, thanks so much for that update. so to find out how you can help the victims of this week's floods, visit our "impact your world" page at cnn.com/impact. the u.s. and russia agree on a plan to rid syria of its chemical weapons. and president obama says it's a significant step. in a statement a short time ago the president said, quoted, i welcome the progress made between the united states and russia through our talks in geneva which represent an important concrete step toward the goal of moving syria's chemical weapons under international control. while we have made important progress, much more work remains to be done. if diplomacy fails, the united states remains prepared to act, end quote. that from the president. matthew chance joining us live now from geneva. so matthew, this plan calls for quick action by syria, at least within a week. give us kind of a walk-through of this timetable. >> reporter: yeah, an extremely ambitious timetable that's been imposed on syria as a result of this meeting here in geneva between the russians and the americans. they've got a week to present the international community with a list of their chemical weapons sites, their production facilities, their stockpiles. that in itself is a job, a huge job. i mean, it's got some of the biggest chemical stockpiles in the world. it has to present a comprehensive list to the u.n. inspectors. then by november, those u.n. inspectors need to be on the ground verifying that list. that's something that normally takes a long time. you can imagine in a situation like syria, it's going to be enormously problematic given there's a raging civil war taking place there. but also by the same month, by november, according to this agreement, production facilities, equipment used to mix and fill chemical weapons, they have to be destroyed with a view of eliminating, moving out of syria, or destroying chemical weapons entirely by the middle of next year, by the middle of 2014. so again, a very ambitious timetable that will rid, if it's put into practice, syria of its chemical weapons by the middle of next year. >> and so matthew, what is the next step? >> reporter: well, the next step, i think, is to see this be implemented. i mean, that's clearly what has to happen. now, in the first instance, john kerry, u.s. secretary of state, is doing the rounds visiting his allies. he's going to israel tomorrow. on monday he'll be visiting paris and meeting with the french foreign minister. the british foreign minister will be meeting him as well. as well as a representative of saudi arabia where he'll be briefing them on the outcome of this agreement and outcome of these meetings in geneva. they're then going to go to the security council basically putting this into legal force. then the onus will very much be on the syrians to comply with what they've said they're going to do. if they don't comply, it could be serious consequences. now, for the moment the united states has taken direct military action off the table, though it says it retains the right to unilaterally strike against syria if diplomacy fails in the words of president obama. but if there is noncompliance, the agreement at the moment is that they'll go back to the security council, look at military action potentially, look at sanctions potentially. that would have to be discussed depending on the nature of the noncompliance. but at the moment, the onus is very much on syria to start acting. >> matthew chance, thank youvag. the leader of al qaeda urges his followers to keep attacking americans in order to damage the u.s. economy. ayman al zawahiri stressed the importance of small-scale attacks like the boston marathon bombing. he says they force the u.s. to spend more money on security and the military. zawahiri released the audio message to mark the anniversary of the september 11th terrorist attacks. a greyhound bus flipped over in ohio overnight. it happened about 4:00 a.m. about 30 miles north of cincinnati. about 52 people were on board, and at least 34 of them were rushed to the hospital with injuries. the bus was on its way to detroit from cincinnati. the conviction against baseball star barry bonds will stand. a federal appeals court has upheld a ruling that he gave evasive testimony to a grand jury investigating performance enhancing drugs. bonds will spend 30 days under house arrest and two years on probation. and next, married just eight days and charged with murder. the story of a newlywed who police say killed her husband on their honeymoon. and later, john mccain wants his shot at vladimir putin on paper. 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