carolinas. ginger zee is standing by, she s tracking it all for us. mola lenghi also in sacramento county tonight. reporter: tonight, california s governor declaring a state of emergency, and the warnings couldn t be more dire. this may be one of the most challenging and impactful series of storms to touch down in california in the last five years. reporter: the storm promising to be even stronger than the one that inundated neighborhoods, flooded businesses, and washed out roads over the weekends. high winds now more likely to bring down trees. or ginger zee is south of san francisco. the winds will gust 50 to 70 miles per hour, these waves could climb as high as 30 feet, but you ll taalso have training rain. reporter: people racing to prepare. we have our generators ready. we have flashlights. we re ready to go. candles, just in case. reporter: the last storm compromised multiple levees in in sacramento county, flooding
rachel, thank you. the other major story at this hour, two major storms, the most urgent, this state of emergency at this hour in california, as a monster storm slams the coast. what the national weather service is calling a life-threatening bomb cyclone. the second atmospheric river to hit the west in a week. they re expecting ten inches of rain, 70-mile-per-hour winds in a region already saturated by the last storm just days ago. so, the question tonight, where will all of this rain go? authorities warning this storm needs to be taken seriously. and just take a look at the satellite image at this hour, sweeping up moisture from the pacific and dropping it right there on the coast. waves lashing the san francisco bay area. again, much of northern california already saturated. driving in san francisco already tough today. that storm compromising levees near sacramento. crews trying to shore them up before the rain from this newest storm now arrives. and by the way, that first storm t
authorities say he was sucked into the engine of a plane. we also have news on covid here in the u.s. and the new omicron sub variant they re now seeing, now the dominant strain. they say it is more contagious and what authorities want you to know tonight. and the story here of two brothers, who birthday cakes, and the remarkable gift as they start this new year. america strong. good evening and it s great to have you with us here on a wednesday night. and we are tracking several developing stories. this life threatening storm hitting, a bomb cyclone they call it, slamming the west. ten inches of rain where they re already saturated and 70-mile-per-hour winds. ginger zee is live in a moment. but we begin tonight with the drama on capitol hill, the stalemate. again, the first time in a century the party in power in the house, this time, the republicans, has been unable to select a speaker. now six rounds of votes and kevin mccarthy failing to get
million people are affected. we could see two to four inches, obviously more where we are seeing the thunderstorms and the training rain. life threatening flash flooding is a concern over the next several hours. we are also concerned about the threat of tornadoes, gusty winds, dangerous winds, and large hail as well. this is from the storm prediction center today, tonight, into the morning hours into the early part of sunday. it is not just the next couple of hours. we are going to be talking about this for a while. the orange is the possibility for the sprangest storms. nashville and huntsville. really strong weather. here we have a tornado watch in effect. we are looking at some tornado warnings over parts of kentucky. i will be looking at this for you over the next several hours. back to you in we know you will keep an eye on it. we are getting our first look at some of the colorado neighborhoods leflds by the so-called marshal fire which
ron, thank you very much. rachel maddow s special reports, mcveigh tapes, confessions of an american terrorist at 9:00 p.m. eastern time on msnbc. iraq s election commission now says votes cast in baghdad during the recent parliamentary election will be recounted after the prime minister complained. prime minister nuri al maliki s coalition alleged fraud. the recount could be a significant boost for al maliki. luge fedation said, no single reason caused the death of the racer during the training rain at the 2010 vancouver olympics. a final report issued said the tragedy was an unforeseeable accident caused by a complex series of interrelated events. he was killed hours before the opening ceremony in vancouver. and now back to the eruption or erupting volcano in iceland. while ash from the volcano continues to wreak havoc in the