good evening, well last night, it was los angeles, tonight's washington, last night it was the republicans, tonight it's the republicans, the speech to the joint session of congress, we'll get to all of it in just a moment. but first tonight, we have yet another natural disaster and a very big crisis. a cruel outcome of the relent less rains and flooding we have been suffering through in this half of the country. this happening now from maryland north to new england, and this is the work of tropical storm lee which just stormed through new orleans a few days back. tonight the worst of it is in wilk wilkes-barre, pennsylvania. combined evacuations over 120,000 people. it's where we begin tonight with nbc's anne thompson, she's in pennsylvania. >> reporter: the susquehanna river is expected to crest in the wee hours of the morning, but already officials are turning off the power and natural gas service to some homes in the wilkes-barre area. tonight pennsylvania is on its highest state of alert. this is the sound of trouble, creek ss near wilkes-barre runng over. the already swollen susquehanna river, carrying millions of gallons of extra water, pushing debris down the wyoming valley and swamping crucial infrastructure. >> we face a clear, public health energy. sewage treatment plants are under water and no longer working. >> reporter: where the river is expected to crest just below the 4 1/2 foot levee. he was just 5 in 1972 when hurricane agnes topped shorter lea levees and flooded moats of the area. what do you say if you stay behind? >> you're on your own. if you're in the area and there's a problem, you may not get the assistance. >> reporter: the flood waters got to this home before she could get out. >> it's going to be a mess. i don't know how we're going to get it done after it goes down. >> reporter: today's rain brought now misery to waterlogged new york. 10,000 people forced from their homes ahead of the overflowing river. in new jersey, inundated by irene a week and a half ago, today punished by lee. in this yabneighborhood, 22 hom are condemned. >> there's nothing they can do. >> reporter: here in pennsylvania, the loss is even greater. four people died in the flooding, two in lancaster county. where tonight the roads and the susquehanna are indistinguishab indistinguishable. tonight pennsylvania's governor is warning to stay out of the floodwater, they could be toxic. >> anne thompson, thanks. we now want to go to the weather channel meteorologist jim cantore. i just got a note from your severe weather specialist at the weather channel dr. greg forbes who says 2.4 trillion gallons of water has fallen in this storm in the susquehanna water shed. he said if you spread that out over the state of texas, it would give all of texas a half-inch of rain. >> reporter: and sadly, texas could still need another foot to even start to get out of that drought. that's how dire that situation is. we're up about 30 feet in 36 hours. let's talk about the chronology of this flood. 36 thundershowers of relentless tropical downpowers right over the entire susquehanna water shed. look at these rainfall totals. these totals rivalling what we had in mississippi. we didn't have that kind of water upstream, we certainly had it with this storm all the way down in the nation's capital which have had three consecutive days. lee's remnants will continue to -- somewhere around 40.8 feet. during agnes, it was 40.9 feet. >> this came out of nowhere. very dangerous situation, that part of the country. jim cantore, thanks to you. now we change topics to the event we are here to witness tonight, the president before a joint session of congress on jobs and the economy. the speech comes at a time when the unemployment rate is stuck at 9.1% in this country. roughly 14 million americans out of work, his approval rating by the way has dropped to the lowest of his presidency, 44%, and so, the president certainly has his work cut out for him tonight. we have our political coverage team in place tonight and we want to begin with kristen welker at the white house for a preview of all this. kristen, good evening. >> good evening to you, brian. there is certainly an air of anticipation here at the white house, certainly a decisive moment for this president, at riding on this speech, as you say, he has gotten quite a beating lately from republicans and even members of his own party who say he just hasn't done enough to fix this economy. we have seen the high unemployment rate so this white house knows that this speech has to be big, has to be important, they say it will be significant. it will include bold ideas, they also say there will be some ideas that they think should be able to gain bipartisan support, brian? >> kristen welker inside the west wing briefing room as it is perfectly awful outside in washington, d.c. tonight. now we want to go to capitol hill, and kelly o'donnell is in the house chamber where the president is going to give the speech tonight and where the rules governing cameras and microphones we're going to be able to hear kelley, but we'll have to take it on blind faith because we can't see her. >> reporter: members are getting settled in their seats, the public gallery is nearly full and we know that speaker boehner said that he encouraged members to attend tonight out of respect. but a handful of members will be no-shows tonight. two republican senators won't be here, jim demint and david vitter. three house republicans are skipping including joe walsh who says he does not want to be a, quote, prop for the president. the two presidential candidates who are in congress, ron paul, he says he's not coming, but michele bachmann will be here and she plans to hold a news conference later. there will not be an official gop response. boehner says many people would rather watch football than hear from another politician. brian. >> that's one way of putting it. kelly o'donnell who we swear is inside the house chamber tonight. david gregory, moderator of "meet the press" and andrea mitchell. of course the economy is broken, but adding to that, our politics are broken right now, to it's against that backdrop that the president walks in the chamber. >> at some point, i spoke to money managers this week who are dealing with americans who are watching their savings and wondering about what's happening with the economy let alone jobs, and said this is a fund -- with regard to what's plaguing the economies around the world, notably in europe, that's where the president's trying to fill the void here, saying government can do some things, another big stimulus package. i spoke to another top republican aid. i don't see that getting through until that supercommittee does its work on cutting more out of the deficit. >> the options are fairly limited, putting people back to work, it's private sector, public sector, you could call it a public works program, using other words. >> that's what the president was betting on at least in part. but he doesn't have the political capital to do that. he had a plan in place, that was the stimulus plan that didn't work out so well. but this president is facing a double dip recession now, his approval rating taking a beating as a result. these are high stakes tonight. >> and andrea mitchell, it strikes me that almost 24 hours ago we were getting ready to go on air from simi valley, the political debate. i'm curious to hear what the take away was. >> as you know better than anyone, last night, it was a slugfest on the stage last night. mitt romney went off -- mitt romney went after rick perry and they went after each other in what increasingly is looking like a two-man race for the nomination. >> last night was pretty awesome it was our first debate and -- >> reporter: rick perry today, feeling his oats after his first night ow. >> michael dukakis created jobs two times faster than you did. >> and governor bush and his predecessor created more jobs than you did. >> it is a ponzi scheme to tell our kids that are 25 or 30 years today you paying into a program that's going to be there. >> our nominee has to be someone who isn't committed to abolishing social security but is committed to saving social security. >> reporter: perry didn't walk away from man-made global warming. >> just because you have a group of scientists who stood up and said here is the facts, galileo got outvoted for a spell. >> all i am saying is that in order for the republican party to win, we can't run from science. >> reporter: the partisan crowd loved his record on execution. >> your state has executed 234 death row inmates, more than any other governor in modern times. have you struggled to sleep at night, with the idea that any one of those might have been innocent? >> no, sir, i have never struggled with that at all. >> reporter: and then there was ron paul's attack on almost all government programs, especially the tsa. >> sometimes they're accused of all kinds of sexual activity on the way that they maul people at the airport. if the airlines can do that -- >> and on the are this afternoon, mitt romney told saen hannity that we would be obliterated as the party so. the season is officially under way, brian. >> my favorite saying, a week is a year in politics. here you have mitt romney, articles about where he has the lead, along comes rick perry, is this now as they say in the gop at least for this week a two-man race? >> it is a two-man race, perhaps for tonight, for this week, but we see this thing evolve, we don't know. rick perry is a very controversial candidate. >> all right, we all have a lot to watch tonight. david gregory, andrea mitchell, thanks. we'll take a break as we continue from our washington, d.c. bureau tonight, on the fire lines in hot, dry texas where the rages wildfires are taking their toll on the children. and later on tape, on the worst day in modern american memory. we hear air traffic controllers as they realize what's happening and the extent of the 911 attacks. 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[ male announcer ] be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. talk to your doctor, and take care of what you have to take care of. the national weather service said today texas had the hottest summer of any state ever on record. the average temperature was 86.8 degrees, it was hotter and drier than during the dust bowl. we're dealing with the consequences of this extreme weather, the massive wildfires. >> reporter: calmer winds and cooler temperatures are giving strike teams a fighting chance along the front lines. >> in this stage of the fire, it's critical that we do not allow those hot spots to get larger in size, and cause the fire to kind of wake up again. >> reporter: but make no mistake, the wildfires in texas are still far from sleeping. in bastrop, only 30% contained, burning across more than 35,000 acres and today the number of homes destroyed has more than doubled from 576 to almost 1,400 now. but those numbers, the maps and charts don't mean so much for a special group of survivors. >> i'm scared. >> reporter: this morning, on the doors of the command center, a series of handwritten notes appeared. the crayons and markers painting a picture of the wildfire through the eyes of the children. >> the fire came by the house and the house is not getting burned. >> reporter: their words are simple but so telling. one of the notes reads, we haven't seen our house in three days, we don't know if you saved it, but thank you for trying. and 4-year-old jessica smith understands that fear. >> i'm sad. >> reporter: 12-year-old devon davenport tried to stay strong. the hardest loss for devon is his dog. >> i couldn't get him out. >> reporter: tears are unfortunately the only significant water texas has seen or will see for a while. and that's not nearly enough to stop the fires, but the pain and the damage here continues to grow. >> on wall street, the dpou was down 119 points, nasdaq lost just under 20 points, s&p 500 was down almost 13. up next as we continue here tonight. just released today, some stark reminders of the attacks on the united states. audiotapes of air traffic controllers realizing what was happening on that awful day ten years ago. here's why beano is different than these gas relievers. these you take after food gives you gas, you take beano before, so you don't get gas. and if you don't get gas, maybe you don't need these. take beano before and there'll be no gas. maybe you don't need these. it feels like help is never far away. it feels like you're protected against life's little mishaps. it feels like you'll make it home. that's what it feels like to be a member. is best absorbed in small continuous amounts. only one calcium supplement does that in one daily dose. new citracal slow release... continuously releases calcium plus d for the efficient absorption my body needs. citracal. as we count down now to the tenth anniversary of 9/11, tonight we're getting our first listen to new and chilling reminders of what it was like that day in real time, specifically for the air traffic controllers tracking those aircraft. the audiotapes you're about to hear are part of a newly published collection originally prepared for the 9/11 commission but not released until now. tonight our justice correspondent pete williams tells us about some of these voices of 9/11. >> reporter: on a bright morning in boston, american airlines flight 11 takes off for los angeles and acknowledges it's directions, the last it's heard from. >> turn 20 degrees right. >> american 20 left will not respond to me now. >> reporter: then the airline itself contacts controllers. >> i'm monitoring a call that the flight attendant is advising our reps that the pilot and everyone's been stabbed. >> if you try to make any moves, you endanger yourself and the plane. just stay quiet. >> kennedy tower reports. kennedy tower reports that there was a fire at the world trade center and that's the area where we lost the airplane. >> reporter: controllers and other pilots soon realized more planes had been hijacked. >> i can't get a hold of 175 at all right now. >> would you look out your window right now, is he heading for the building also? >> he's descending really quick. >> it just hit the building. >> the whole building just came apart. >> holy smokes. >> reporter: to the south near washington, a third plane goes missing. >> american, 77 american, radio check, how do you read? >> reporter: a nearby pilot reports seeing it crash. >> that aircraft crashed into the pentagon. >> reporter: then the pilot of the fourth plane hijacked makes a desperate radio call and soon disappears from radar. >> united 93. >> we hear some funny noises. do you have him? >> no. >> there's a report of black smoke in the last position i gave you. >> 15 miles south of johnstown. >> reporter: near the recording's end, a military radio call reflects the sobering reality. >> and, brian, as we prepare for the 9/11 anniversary this weekend, there's new information tonight that has the administration concerned over the last several days, they have been monitoring what they call the chatter, the intake of intelligence in the last 24 hours, they have picked up what they consider to be a specific piece of information, but it's unconfirmed, it's internally contradict try, and there are meetings tonight trying to decide how serious to take this, whether to take it public, there's even a discussion underway about whether to invoke the homeland security new elevated terror threat level. they'll probably tell local police about it to be wary of it. but so far no decision to make it public. >> this is what we used to call the new normal and now it's just the normal. all right, we'll look for more reporting on it. pete williams, as always, thanks. and we're back with more right after this. 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