Nightly news begins right now. Announcer from nbc news World Headquarters in new york, this is nbc nightly news with lester holt. Good evening. The images coming out of tianjin china are of breathtaking devastation. Virtually destroyed by two enormous industrial explosions seen and felt for miles around. Right now the death toll already well into the dozens still rising. Many people are still missing, and the search and recovery is being carried out amid serious concerns over whats in the air. Nbcs ian williams is there. Reporter its a scene of utter devastation. Fires still burning, smoke still rising, more than 24 hours after this. New video shows the first blast light up the sky over tianjin followed by a far more powerful explosion captured on cell phone from a nearby Apartment Building until a photographer retreats in terror. Among the american eyewitnesss, english teacher drew. All of a sudden there is a loud, like a shock wave sound. The first thing people thought it was was an
Into the bus companys safety record. Reporter a surveillance camera captured the school bus slamming into the liquor store on springfield avenue after colliding with an suv. The bus was coming down stanford avenue but the driver told witnesses and police the brakes failed before she could stop at the busy intersection. She was saying, oh, my god, my brakes went off on me. And that was it. And i thought, thats okay. Its going to be fine, you know,. Reporter this bodega owner was among all the people you can see here rushing to help the children, the smallest only 3. I tried to come back here. I grabbed a few bottles of water and tried to give it to the little kids because they were scared. Even the ones that they were okay, they were scared. And they were crying. So i tried to help out. Reporter officials here say the 11 children, the bus driver, chaperone and suv driver were all alert and conscious with scrapes, bruises and broken bones. We take injuries to be evaluated. You dont think
An el nino warms the ocean, and this one could be Strong Enough to bring onceinageneration storms to the west and change the Weather Coast to coast. Heres John Blackstone. Reporter this was the winter of 199798. San francisco had its wettest winter in 120 years. Los angeles got nearly a years worth of rain in just one month. Snowfall in the mountains was double the average. 17 people died. El nino was to blame back then, and an Even Stronger el nino is developing right now. Climatologist bill patzert over the next three months, this should turn into what i call a godzilla event. Reporter el nino is characterized by a mass of unusually warm ocean water stretching across the pacific to south america. Last month, the mass of warm water on the right appeared broader than it did in 1997. If it continues to build, this will have a tremendous impact, not only over north america but over the entire planet. Reporter in the united states, a strong el nino could bring more precipitation across mo
Potentially deadly disease. Melissa russo is here with the latest. Reporter city officials stopped short of calling the legionnaires outbreak over, but they are calling it contained at this point. Take a look at the latest numbers. A total of 121 people have now been diagnosed in this legionnaires outbreak. Thats two new cases identified since yesterday. The death toll remains at 12, where its been since monday. And to the citys knowledge, there have been no cases of anyone getting sick, as in developing symptoms since august 3rd. No new contaminated buildings or cooling towers the today. The mayor was in the legionnaires impact zone this afternoon at lincoln hospital, thanking Health Care Staff for their work during this outbreak. And downtown at city hall, the city council was voting on a bill regulating cooling towers. The bill passed unanimously by a vote of 420. The centers for Disease Control called the citys response at this afternoons News Conference to the outbreak swift, dili
It was so big and so hot, the heat. And it was so close to us. It was like diehard. Seriously. The bruce willis movie. And then just flames. It was like something out of a movie. Reporter but it turned very real once they saw the truck driver running, flames shooting up his pant leg. The australian family rushed to help. As they could hear small explosions coming from the scene. He was holding my hands and he was obviously in shock. And he was just saying, i had nowhere to go. Reporter the 61yearold driver escaped with nonlifethreatening burns, in part thanks to these Good Samaritan tourists, who stopped and helped. And now have a big story to tell back home to their kids. Theyve been messaging us, saying, what are you doing, mom and dad . Youre supposed to be safe. Come home reporter certainly a story there. Well, that driver is alive, but sadly he is in bad shape. He told me that he has a number of surgeries ahead of him. Hes not sure how many and he also says he doubts he will ever