it. carter. >> reporter: scott, these are just a few of the hundreds of vehicles that drivers had to abandon as a wall of mud came down the hill and overwhelmed this highway. it happened so fast, that many of these cars were buried up to their windows in a matter of minutes. the floods came with little warning. >> oh, my god! run for yr life! >> reporter: torrential rain, four inches an hour, triggered massive mudslides, trapping rush hour drivers on busy interstate 5. nearly 200 cars and trucks were overwhelmed in less than 10 minutes. >> i have never seen anything like this. >> reporter: how long is that going to take to clear the mud and all those automobiles out there? only escape for some was through the floodwater. others climbed on top of their cars. >> all the cars are floating beside us. >> reporter: further east, trucker will nissen captured this video as 20 feet of mud and rocks lifted several sem is, across the highway. search and rescue teams are now looking for cars that may have been buried completely. deputy john dietrich. >> we're trying to probe down and see if we hit anything metallic. we're not sure, but we don't want to leave somebody potentially trapped down there. >> reporter: golf ball-sized hail spell in some areas. melissa nuesca, her son james and the rest of the family had to run for cover as mud filled their car. >> it was terrifying part was when the hill gave out, and the road was just gone. >> we thought we were going to get buried alive in the mud. we just thought it was done. the mud was coming down so fast, and the car filled up so fast. >> reporter: it could take days, workers tell me, to remove all the mud, debrie, and cars from the roadway here, but, scott, they are moving fast because more rain is in the forecast tonight. >> pelley: carter evans reporting for us tonight, carter, thank you. and we're likely to see a lot more of that because the weather service says we are experiencing one of the strongest el ninos on record. an el nino happens when the pacific ocean warms, changing weather all across the nation. it will bring more downpours to the west, which ben tracy says has many californians looking uphill. >> when it comes down, it's not going to stop. >> reporter: ed heinlein is getting ready to battle this-- the 850-foot mountain behind his home in azusa, california. he has built steel-reinforcement walls to hold back mudslides, and installed cameras so he can see it coming. >> when it comes down, it's like a frailty train, and it hits the house right there. if yououo not stop the building mud flow, it will implode the house or knock it to the street out there. >> reporter: this is what his backyard looked like last year after a light rainstorm. yesterday's debris flows were a preview of what's expected to be a wild winter, thanks to el nino. is likely to fuel large storms. mudslides could be massive because wildfires and drought have killed the venlitation that holds hillsides in place. john thornton of the u.s. forest service showed us the charred soil won't absorb water. rain will simply flow downhill. how long is that water just sat there? >> well, now it's probably about 15 minutes. >> reporter: giant debris basins have been cleaned out to collect mud, but nearly 1,000 homes in nearby glenn dorra are still threatened. city engineer jerry burke. what is the level of concern now? >> the slopes are very steep, soy we are really concerned if we got that torrential downpour that didn't stop, we could see large debrie floiz. >> reporter: that's why ed heinlein has spent nearly $1,000 to protect his house. why not just call it a day and move? >> well who would buy this piece of property? who's going to move in here? we'dalize everything. >> reporter: but heenes high california. >> pelley: but even in el nino may not end california's four-year drought. the drought is severe in 92% of the state. but the nigh should make the northern half of the u.s. warmer, and the southern half cooler and wetter. there was a downpour of chatter today after one of vice president biden's closest advisers stirred up supporters with a note about the presidential race. here's julianna goldman. >> you can direct those questions to my very able vice president. >> reporter: deflecting a question about joe biden's political future today, not even president obama could escape the "will he or won't he" intrigue. >> i think the vice president, like every other candidate, makes their own decisions about these issues. >> reporter: anxious supporters are wondering whether biden's window is closing. last night, longtime biden confident, former senator ted kauffman, sent an e-mail to a network of former staffers telling them to hold tight. he wroit, if he runs a bind campaign will be optimistic and won't be scripted. he believes we must win this election. everything he and the president have worked for and care about is at stake. have you made your decision yet? >> reporter: the vice president has played it coy, but the e-mail is meant to push back against suggestions that hillary clinton's strong debate performance could discourage him from running. >> this is about bringing our country together again. >> reporter: a new poll in new hampshire shows clinton with a postdebate bump. for the first time since july, she has a slight lead over senator bernie sanders. biden lags far behind, and nearly half of democrats say he shouldn't run, but the vice president has spent the last few days reaching out to top democrats in early voting states, aware of ballot deadlines coming up next month. people familiar with his whether there's a viable path to the nomination knowing it would be a tough fight. a decision could come in the next few days, but the vice president has blown past self-imposed deadlines before. scott, in that e-mail, kauffman told biden loyalists, if he runs they will need each and every one of you yesterday. >> pelley: julianna goldman in the washington newsroom. julianna, thank you. one factor that biden is weighing is whether front-runner hillary clinton has been seriously damaged by the controversy over her use of a private e-mail system while she was secretary of state. today, her longtime aid thuma abedin, testified behind clockwised doors to the house matter. secretary clinton will testify in open session on thursday. those e-mails were one of the subjects of major garrett's interview with republican florida. >> she was less than truthful about it repeatedly. and it goes to the issue of both competence and credibility. it is irresponsible for an elected official in her capacity to be discussing highly sensitive things on a format that she had to have known was not fully secured. >> reporter: and the risk of is that is? >> the risk of that is is we're giving opponents of this government or adversaries some insight into our thinking, into our decision making, and it provides most certainly an advantage in the national security realm. >> reporter: we also asked about the future of the republican party with the speakership of john boehner in shambles and suck scission uncertain. are we witnessing a sort of important historical meltdown of the-- >> i don't think so. >> reporter: of the modern republican party. >> i don't think it's a meltdown at all. if they had gone into some secret room and anointed someone everybody would have said the game is rigged. there's no real competition. there are no real choices. what you have is debate among the members of the house reflective of the broader debate in the republican party. >> reporter: when is what? the page and elevate new leaders with new ideas relevant with the times in which we live. i will say we can have a debate in our party about the appropriate tactics. i personally do not believe it is a wise tactic to declare defeat before you even try to win. i think that's what this election in many ways will decide, what kind of party the republican party is going to be in the 21st century and ultimately help decide what kind of country we're going to be over the next 50-100 years. >> reporter: rubio says congressional republican leaders have folded on aborkz obamacare, the iran nuclear deal and the debt limit. rubio, once a tea party darling, tries to regain some of the that outsider credibility. >> pelley: major garrett with the interview tonight. major, thank you. speaking of donald trump, he has repeatedly attacked his rival jeb bush, and now trump is going after bush's brother, the former president. >> when you talk about george bush, i mean, say what you want, the world trade center came down during his time. if you look at -- >> reporter: hold on. you can't blame george bush for that. >> he was president, okay. dont blame him or don't blame him, but he was president. the world trade center came down during his reign. >> pelley: well, jeb bush responded with this tweet. today, we got a stunning report on the toll taken by more than four years of civil war in syria. a syrian human rights organization says it has documented the deaths of more than 250,000 people. and that works out to six deaths every hour for four yiers and counting. tonight, we have a story that we bet you're going to remember for a long time. it's from our dr. jon lapook. it involves a child with a rare, heartbreaking illness, and her mother, who will not stand idle as her daughter is threatened with death. one woman's passion is leading many. >> reporter: 11-year-old hannah sames has a can-do attitude and remarkable determination. >> push down with those heels. >> reporter: at four years old, she was diagnosed with an extremely rare genetic defect called gan. the disease causes nerves to die and muscles to stop working. hannah can no longer walk on her own. children with gan don't survive past their teens or 20s. laurie is hannah's mother. >> this is a fatal disorder, so we picked ourselves literally off the ground and decided to fight. we knew we needed to raise a lot of money fast. >> reporter: was there anything out there? >> there was nothing. >> reporter: out of nothing, saims has conjured up hope, hannah's hope, a grat-roots charity dedicated to finding a cure for gan. what has it taken from her already? >> she really can't dress independently. her fine motor skills are now impaired. she has trouble balancing food on her fork. it's really taken her independence. >> reporter: how do you deal with it? >> reporter: 10-year-old chrissy and her younger center were both born with gan. five-year-old amanda has hardly any symptoms while chrissy has trouble walking and problems breathing. their father. >> it is an immense sense of powerlessness and there was nothing i could do for my little girls toy save their lives. >> pelley: hannah's hope has raised mlsz for gene therapy research at the university of north carolina. seven years after saims began trial is under way at the national institutes of health. chrissy grube is patient number one. >> she was excited but very nervous. she understood that it might not work. >> do you feel that there? >> she understood it might mike her worse, but she also understood it was a chance to walk again. >> great! >> they're really pioneers, and they're courageous pioneers for that matter. >> reporter: dr. carsten bonnemann is direct the trial. >> the principle of gene therapy is to replace the gene with an artificial copy of the gene. >> reporter: doctors injebed chrissy with a gene packaged inside a harmless virus to penetrate cells and restore nerve function. >> i'm very excited. what we're doing here is opening the door for delivery of other gene therapies that would also have to go to nerve cells or the spinal cord. >> reporter: hannah could be patient number four. >> hannah has been asking why this has been taking so long, and we've told her that we need to really make certain that it's safe. >> you're my best friend. >> you're my best friend, too. i love you. >> i love you. >> pelley: the researchers will be watching over want next year or two to see if the therapy restores nerve and muscle function, but just stopping or even slowing the progression of the disease would be considered a success. >> pelley: parent activism has led to a number of breakthroughs. cystic fibrosis is another one. great story, jon. thanks so much for that. still ahead tonight, neither gender nor age prevented her from conquering one of the army's toughest challenges. and love and marriage in an elevator when the cbs evening news continues.urance company, go long. how you plan is up to you. take healthcare. make sure you're covered for more than what just medicare pays... consider an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company... the only medicare supplement plans that carry the aarp name, trust year after year. always have a plan. plan well. enjoy life. go long. alright team, we've got an f150, needs a systems check and tires. doc, i need you on point for this one. already got the latest updates direct from ford engineering. 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easy. building them all in four and a half months? now that was a leap. i was calling in every favor i could, to track down enough lumber to get the job done. and i knew i could rely on american express to help me buy those building materials. there are always going to be unknowns. you just have to be ready for them. another step on the journey... will you be ready when growth presents itself? realize your buying power at open.com tonight on kcci 8 news at six, the department where three fire fighters have lost their homes to fire. sports stuff >> pelley: finally tonight, it appears ice may slow the aging process. steve hartman found evidence at the rink "on the road." >> reporter: in northern find a guy in niz 90s looking back on his glory days as a hocker player, but it is uncomop to find a guy still living them. >> you have to challenge yourself a little bit, and i think that's-- that's what keeps youing about. >> reporter: like his handlebar mustache, mark sertich's hockey days appear to be never ending. he started playing as a little kid and is still putting on pads and gloves at the unbelievable age of 94. >> just putting all the equipment on is a miracle in itself for a lot of us and he does it three or four days a week. >> reporter: he is like noct i have ever seen. just stepping over the boards is like nothing i have ever seen. mark plays in pickup games and every time he comes to the rink, he is an oldest by a generation. in fact, some of these guys could be his great-grandchildren, and yet he keeps right up with them, almost as if he's oblivious to his age. you ever heard of shuffle board? >> i've heard of it but i never played it. >> reporter: it would be safer, that's for sure. a few months ago he took a hard hit. >> bad collision, and i fractured two ribs and punctured my lung. >> reporter: can you imagine, at 94. doctors told him he would have to sit out at least six weeks. he was back in three. >> i just love the game, i guess. >> reporter: and he's good at it, too. watch this. that's him with the puck. scoring. how many goals did you score today? >> well, i should have had more but i only had six today. >> reporter: only six today. >> yeah. >> reporter: that's more than anybody else. >> well, i think so, yeah. >> reporter: for the record, it was. >> couldn't miss that one. >> reporter: and to add intult sult to injury, not only does mark beat the pants off these whipper snappers, he takes their money, too. way back when he was 80 the other guys in the group offered to pay his skating fees for life, thinking how much longer could it be? >> it's killing us. it's killing our budget. >> reporter: that was 14 years ago. >> is that true? >> that's true. >> i figured that's a pretty good deal. >> reporter: is it because you love hockey or you're just cheap? >> you would ask that, wouldn't you. no i so enjoy what i'm doing. and he has no plans to stop. in fact, he suggested we come back and watch him play again at 100. >> you have to think that way, don't you? >> reporter: it's on my calendar, steve hartman, on the road, in duluth, minnesota. >> pelley: the best feature writer on television. that's the cbs evening news for tonight. for all of us at cbs news all around the world, i'm scott pelley, and i'll see you sun announcer: you're watching kcci 8 news. >> you think for some reason, you're invincible. stacey: from firefighter to fire victim, lehigh's fire chief loses his home in a fire. and he's not alone. the other members of his department that are also fire victims. kevin: pete polson says he asked for a drug tests the day he was arrested for attempted murder. what a police recording of that day actually shows. stacey: and a historic day for the des moines fire department. how the promotions of two men to chief is a first in the department's 132-year history. good evening, everyone. two lehigh firefighters lose everything in separate house fires. kevin: kcci's vanessa peng has an update from just outside lehigh in the small town of burnside. where these fires happened less than a month apart from each other. vanessa: guys, that's right. a fire ripped through this house early friday morning. we're on the northside of burnside here. this house is lehigh fire chief kirk kelley's house. he lost everything in the fire, just like what happened to lehigh firefighter cody frazier early last week. chief kelley: it's like, when is