and good evening. we begin here tonight with that severe weather, those fires and floods, the funnel clouds touching down in the heartland, causing so much misery this sunday night. in texas, winds of up to 40 miles an hour, fueling massive wildfires. nearly two dozen homes already destroyed. in the upper plains, the surging rivers now well above flood stage. and in western iowa, the governor has declared a state of emergency after tornadoes touched down. a hug there, their home gone. the one next door, still standing. barbara pinto leads us off, beginning with the dramatic pictures in iowa. reporter: terror rained from the skies in iowa. get back! reporter: at least 11 twisters were spotted. one took direct aim at mapleton, iowa. we kind of hid out up in the house, but we had blankets and stuff over our head, over our body and stuff so we didn t get glass. reporter: the tornado, a quarter of a mile wide, ripped through this small town, flattening more than 100 home
could be among them. the french have twice closed the eiffel tower for what have been false alarms. but the u.s. alert today match what the french have been saying for two weeks. as i speak to you this very moment, there is a specific threat against french interests, a french national police chief said on september 22nd. today, an alert gave americans very few concrete steps that can be taken. use common sense. if they see unattended packages or they hear loud noises, they should quickly move away from them. reporter: and in a phone conference with reporters, state department officials took pains not to discourage travel to europe with their alert. we are not saying don t visit major tourist attractions or historic sites. reporter: yet, u.s. authorities believe the plot is aimed at tourists in europe and may be models after the attacks in mumbai two years ago. a commando-style raid, using small arms and explosives to kidnap and kill western tourists. at the heart of