nbc s tom yamas has more now on fears about what melee ahead. from new york city subway riders dodging rapids to families losing treasures in flooded homes, many feel the extreme reach of extreme weather. in maplewood, new jersey floodwaters killed one man and rocked an entire community. homeowners like amy kramer said the power of the storm took her by surprise and took out her basement. started getting texts from friends and people were freaking out, they re like what s going on, what do we do? reporter: they surveyed the damage. the water came up to here? yes. reporter: at any point did you get scared? we got scared. we wondered about the foundation, this house was built in 1927. reporter: she had no flood insurance like many in this community. just a few days ago what was a hurricane along the gulf coast.
where the caldor fire had displaced thousands of people. calmer winds and moderate humidity are helping firefighters thursday in their efforts to slow that wire. the caldor fire now considered the 15th largest in state history spanning about 210,000 acres. the fire was 25% contained as of yesterday afternoon. meanwhile, the dixie fire, the second largest wildfire in state history covers an astounding 859,000 acres considered 55% contained thursday. in all were more than 15,000 firefighters are battling 16 major wildfires in california doing that exhausting work around the clock. general motors is halting nearly all production next week as the company faces a semiconductor chip shortage. tom costello has the details. tom? reporter: general motors temporarily shutting down most
louisiana warns that number likely will rise. tom yamas reports from new orleans. reporter: desperation in louisiana. it came, took everything. you don t have anything left? it took everything. reporter: entire communities cut off, power down, and for many, no cell signal to call for help. officials in an urgent race to find terrified families still trapped. it was the weirdest thing, ever. i got my baby out, though. i wasn t going to stop until i got my baby out. reporter: in laplace people rescued in high water vehicles and boats. including dawn brown, who is pregnant. how high was the water? to my stomach. so your stomach, carrying your baby was under water? um-hum. her message to officials tonight. i m a mother of 7 we have nothing, i need help. reporter: tiffany miller
and that s exactly what we saw. reporter: some communities like grand isle along the gulf coast completely cut off. and with power out and communications down, it s still impossible to assess the full impact of this monster storm. stunning images there. thanks to tom yamas for that report. let s bring in bill karins. when you look at the pictures and consider power being out for weeks or perhaps months in some places you start to get a grasp p, as we tried to yesterday morning when the sun first came up of how deadly, how serious the storm really was. yeah. fifth strongest storm to ever hit our country and the pictures you re seeing is what you expect with a storm of that magnitude. we have breaking news on two fronts one with ida another with the caldor fire which i ll get to in a second. here s what we re watching currently. we have problems with water still. a lot of river flooding. we have reports out of mississippi, highway 26 warned
we re going to move forward and save lives. and if you want to be stupid, please do that somewhere else. yeah. people can have a choice. so we re going to return to this. but for now, let s go to tokyo. we turn now to what was an already emotional week for team usa gymnastics. delivering another dramatic twist with a gold medal in the all around event that was expected to be dominated by simone biles. with biles still focussing on her mental health, it was the 18-year-old from minnesota, suni lee who stepped up to become the fifth american woman in a row to claim gold. nbc news senior correspondent tom yamas takes us through suni s big day in tokyo. reporter: the olympics has a story the world can cheer. suni lee reinvigorating team usa