with the chief meteorologist with the air force reserve 53rd weather reconnaissance mission. we tracked irene over the bahamas. what did you see and feel? winds over 100 miles an hour, just like the current forecast. of course a lot of rain and rough seas over the ocean. we saw the hurricane remain in a steady state yesterday. it s not unusual at all that these storms go through guy rations. they may weaken or strengthen. the important thing is folks prepare and be ready for the storm when it comes their way. we were flying at 10,000 feet yesterday. we stayed at that altitude the entire mission, went through the center four times, and collected a whole bunch of information about the current state of the hurricane as of yesterday afternoon. we have crews that are continuing to fly right now. the latest has just left the storm. the next one is just getting ready to depart very shortly. you know, now that the window is
with the air force reserve 53rd weather reconnaissance mission. we tracked irene over the bahamas. what did you see and feel? winds over 100 miles an hour, just like the current forecast. of course a lot of rain and rough seas over the ocean. we saw the hurricane remain in a steady state yesterday. it s not unusual at all that these storms go through guy rations. they may weaken or strengthen. the important thing is folks prepare and be ready for the storm when it comes their way. we were flying at 10,000 feet yesterday. we stayed at that altitude the entire mission, went through the center four times, and collected a whole bunch of information about the current state of the hurricane as of yesterday afternoon. we have crews that are continuing to fly right now. the latest has just left the storm. the next one is just getting ready to depart very shortly. you know, now that the window is closing very rapidly.
remember the roof of the southwest airlines plane split at about 36,000 feet yesterday. roughly 18.5 minutes after it had left the phoenix sky harbor international airport. it was en route to sacramento. now, once the decompression happened and the oxygen masks deployed the pilots then made a rapid descent from 36,000 feet to 11,000 feet in about four and a half minutes time. investigators say they have already discovered what they are calling preexisting fatigue or cracking around this particular area of the fuselage. but it would not have been visible to the naked eye. this as southwest maintenance plans are questioned, the ntsb says most major carriers follow similar models. listen. all of the major airlines are using a progressive maintenance inspection where things are looked at at various phases and stages so i say that
homes. imagine the people are staying there when they ve got this 120-year-old dam failure. this is sandbar levee along the wisconsin river, megyn, look at these pictures. megyn: wow. reporter: some areas have got even over ten inches of rain, the wisconsin river was at 20 point 20 feet at portage, that s down from the record at 20.42 feet yesterday. rivers should fall below flood stage on wednesday night. again we are talking about incredible amounts of rain. this is from the national weather service showing you the amount of rain. you can see the red on your screen, that s anywhere from 8 to 10 inches of heavy rain. this is actually tropical moisture. this was the remnants of hurricane karl from last week. this is a tropical section. megyn: look at that. reporter: the pictures tell the story. i can show you millions of maps. megyn: it s to the top of those vehicles. reporter: some of the rainfall totals, the estimates there, when you are talking about a failing levee this could
thousands of passengers left to feel helpless. mother nature not cooperating. in fact, there is a threat that a second volcano could erupt making the situation there far worse. nbc s chief science correspondent in iceland, bob, tell us about this second blast. another volcano? well, the second volcano is a hypothetical concern, monica. this first volcano has been erupting since last thursday, the one causing all the problems with the flight. historically in the geological record there have been times when the second volcano, which is bigger, has erupted after the first one. there s no reason to think that s going to happen any time soon. as of today the volcano that s causing the problems, the ash plume has gone down to about 8 to 10,000 feet. it was at 30,000 feet yesterday. there s still a strong wind pushing the ashes all the way to northern europe as you were just talking about. we were just next to the volcano where it was coming down