Ben stiller has died. This morning her rise of stardom as tributes pour in. And breaking barriers, the sound and gender. We are taking to the skies with the iconic first ever female pilot as we honor those who currently serve our country and those who gave their lives today memorial day, monday, may 25th, 2015. And welcome to today on this monday morning. It is memorial day 2015. Im willie geist. Im tamron hall along with chanel jones. Guess who we have with us . Men and women on the plaza. Yes, we do. Keeping fantastic company this morning. Get out to say hello to them a little bit later. Well pay tribute throughout the morning. Lets get to the top story. The damaging and deadly flooding in the south. The images coming out of texas and oklahoma are just unreal. Entire neighborhoods submerged. Crews using boats and helicopters to make rescues. Gabe gutierrez is in hardhit texas. Good morning. Residents are bracing for more rain. So far there have been at least three confirmed deaths in texas and oklahoma. Authorities are searching for at least eight people who are missing, including several children. This morning in texas, a crush crushing memorial day. Hundreds of people waking up homeless, local officials calling the flooding historic and catastrophic. We do have full streets that have maybe one or two houses left on them and the rest are just collapsed. Here one man survived but his wife and two children along with five other people are missing. They were staying at a ohio house along the river saturday night when a wall of water lifted the home off its foundation. The river reaches flood stage at 12 feet. It took one hour to crest at more than 43. This water rose quickly unlike anything residents say they have seen. Look where the ended up. All the way up in the tree. Emergency workers race to rescue trapped homeowners and drivers. Oh, my god stop i had needs to get out. An elderly man was saved moments before raging river swallowed his suv. In oklahoma a heartbreaking loss captain jason farley, a veteran firefighter drown while trying to rescue people trapped by the flood waters. Late sunday tornado warnings were issued for parts of kansas, missouri, iowa, and illinois. Back in texas, the Damage Assessment is just beginning. The small resort wiped out. When you walk down here, you can tell it is going to take months to fix a lot of this stuff. Here is another look at some of the incredible damage. Residents here say this looks more like a tornado than a flood. Several homes were washed away. Trees came down on this one. An overnight curfew just expired and the governor is expected to tour some of the damage later today. Willie . The pictures are just astounding. Gabe gutierrez, let the people know were thinking about them today. Dillon, it looks like not a relief for the folks there. No tomorrow and wednesday theyll see relief but in the meantime, we have still more rain in the forecast. Keep in mind this area picks up about 2 to 4 inches of rain for the entire month of may on average. We have already seen nearly 20 inches in some parts of southeastern oklahoma. Oklahoma city, to be exact. 18. 7 inches so far this may. Alone dallas nearly a foot of rainfall. Houston about 7 inches of rain and the problem is the rivers. The ground is totally saturated, and any additional rainfall continues to seep into the rivers and some rivers are rising at rates of, like, 20 feet in one hour. That is why were seeing the massive flash flooding. We have the cold front moving in. We still got the moisture streaming in from the gulf of mexico. So 25 Million People are under this flash flooch including oklahoma, texas, and moving into parts of arkansas and into western louisiana. Any downpours has the potential of producing more flash flooding. We also have the risk of some of our strongest storms in the same hard hit areas across texas. We have to keep in mind that large hail, damaging wind gusts, and isolated tornados are also possible, but in addition to that, up to 5 to 6 inches more of rain. Again, its that moisture streaming in. Well see it push a little further to the east. By tuesday evening just spotty showers in texas we, but were looking at heavier rain to move to the midwest. Here are the bulls eye houston near parts of southern mississippi we could end up with another 4 to 6 possibly 8 inches of rain in ground that is already saturated. It is a seriousuation. Thank you very much. To a scary scene near the u. S. Capitol. Take a look a bomb squad called in to destroy a Pressure Cooker found in a suspicious vehicle. Nbcs justice correspondent Pete Williams has more. Good morning. Reporter Us Capitol Police are not saying what attracted their attention to the car parked at the foot of the u. S. Capitol on the west side toward the national mall. When they took a look they detected an odor of gasoline anne inside saw a Pressure Cooker. They have been used to make bombs in the past. They closed off the street for a couple of blocks in both directions and called in the bomb squad. The team searched the car and removed the suspicious items and blew them up. Capitol police say nothing hazardous was found. The driver was from suburban washington, d. C. , has been arrested. But the charges driving on an expired license. The car was discovered a few hours before sundays annual memorial day concert on the west front of the capitol building. Ever since the Boston Marathon bombing Pressure Cookers have attracted Police Attention in issue of the online al qaeda magazine including instructions on how to use them to build bombs. All right, Pete Williams. Thank you very much. On this memorial day we pay tribute to the men and women who have died serving in the United States military including more than 5300 in afghanistan and iraq combined. Right now nearly 10,000 troops are still stationed in afghanistan, about 3,000 more in iraq. After some iraqi forces deserted their post and isis militants seized control of ramadi last week, a debate is raging over whether the u. S. Needs to change its strategy in the fight against isis. Ashton carter was blunt when talking about the problem. They withdrew from the site, and that says, to me, and i think to most of us, that we have an issue with the will of the iraqis to fight isil and defend themselves. Retired army colonel jack jacobs is in the small club of americans who have been awarded for the medal of honor gurg during the vietnam war. Hes at the vietnam war memorial. Jack, it is good to see you. Particularly today. Good morning. Lets pick up where we heard the sound bite from secretary carter saying the iraqi army appears not to have the will to fight. It seems that is at the heart of u. S. Strategy. Where do we go from here . Th3 c3 de los iraquies para pelear es no control over areas. Now youve got were supporting shia militias to go into sunni strongholds in order to oust isis. I cant see how the country holds together and i cant see what we can do short of sending several hundreds of thousands of americans back to iraq to try to hold that country together. The president obama said the fall of ramadi was a technical setback. That isis is on the defensive i dont agree with that. It is difficult to envision what our strategy is. We have lots of tactics. I mean, we bomb the bad guys. We have people on the ground to train the iraqis, which doesnt seem to have worked very well. But it is impossible to determine exactly what our longterm strategy is. Without a strategy, i dont think there is much anybody can establish. I think we need to figure out with a we want the end to look like. If you dont know where youre going, any road will take you there at the moment. It doesnt seem as if we know exactly where were going and people like former secretary gates that what we need to do is send more troops, more advisors, more aircraft in to bomb isis. That doesnt make any sense because as anybody who has fought in combat knows air power, air support, artillery support, is only good to the extent it supports the troops on the ground who have to seize and hold terrain. Short of the iraqis being able to seize and hold terrain that we help them win back. I cant see any way forward at all. Colonel jacobs, before i let you go. A lot of people waking up getting ready to go to parades and watch picnics. As i watch you stand there in front of the vietnam memorial, i imagine this day means Something Different to you well, behind me there are the names of 58,300 some odd of my brothers. People who gave their lives so that we can enjoy today. We have to remember that today is not just a time to get together with family and friends and have a good time and overeat yet again, which is what we all do, but stop and reflect about how we got here. How we can enjoy a day like today. It is because of people whose names are on that wall behind me, willie. Amen. Colonel jack jacobs, a truly great american. Good to see you, sir. A fantastic perspective from colonel jack. There are people you meet in your life and once you meet colonel jack jacobs, you know there is Something Special about him. Were here with a disturbing story out of louisiana. Good morning. A Police Officer for the new Orleans Housing authority was shot and killed while sitting in his patrol car. Police say the officer was working overtime to guard a Public Housing construction site. His body was found early sunday morning. The officers name hasnt been released. Police are searching for possible suspects in the case. Tragedy in new mexico this weekend. The father and a 12yearold boy were killed when a strong gust of wind toppled the cherry picker they were in. Three other children were seriously hurt. Police say the booms that are supposed to secure the machine were not in place at the time of the accident. It was at its maximum height. A six story fall. Neighbors say the man often took kids up in the cherry picker which he used for the tree trimming business. Former israeli Prime Minister was sentenced to eight months in prison for unlawfully taking money from an american supporter. He was convicted in march in a retrial. Today sentencing comes in addition to a sixyear prison sentence he got last year in a separate bribery conviction. It is a dramatic down fall who lead israel in helped to bring about peace with the palestinians. The light thing just one winway from the stanley cup finals. They beat the new york rangers 20 in game five of the eastern conference finals. Tampa bay leads the series 32. Game six is tomorrow night. The children in cuba got a rare look at ice skating on sunday thanks to an american artist named duke rylie. He created a rink with a surface resembling ice but doesnt melt. Some of the kids strapped on skates for the first time. It will stay in the capital for another three days in if festival that features artists in other countries. Ice that doesnt melt. That blows my mind. It gives you the same kind of traction. Im glad we ended on that so we could smile. Im a rangers fan. That was icy we felt it. Thank you. We have a lot of rain to talk about across most of the country, actually, the heaviest, of course, is still down through texas. We have at lot of rain and heavier downpours from the great lakes to the gulf coast. The eastern sea board is enjoying a nice memorial day. Lots of sunshine and temperatures heating up heist topping out in the mid to upper 80s. Your local forecast is coming up in 30 seconds. This morning were feeling cool, 52 degrees and misty skies from San Francisco over to oakland where its 52 and into san jose mostly cloudy 57 degrees to start and finishing the day. Closer to 70 later on, upper 50s to lower 60s in San Francisco. Napa 70. Oakland, 65 for the as game this afternoon. Should see the temperatures in the mid 60s with patchy clouds and that ocean air conditioning sea breeze, winds 5 to 15 miles an hour. And thats your latest forecast. Dylan, thank you very much. The race for the white house is getting very crowded on the republican side. Nearly 20 hopefuls so far with others yet to announce and that could present the gop with a serious problem once the debates get underway. Heres nbcs capitol hill correspondent kelly odonnell. I really appreciate the opportunity. Reporter so much ambition. Talk to him. Say thank you. Reporter so little elbow room. Theres only 55 people that are thinking about running for president , best i can tell. Reporter a republican race that looks super sized. Is this the ready for Hillary Group . Reporter well, you could say that about this jumbo lineup of competitors. So many faces. Almost 20. They do not easily fit on one screen or more importantly, on one debate stage. The fear is if youre a candidate and youre not on the stage, then youre not going to have the kind of momentum you need to move forward. So expect a lot of the campaigns now to kick into gear. Reporter count on twitter to offer these space saving solutions. Imagine the Hollywood Squares debate notal. Or even a 2016 republican primary bracket. But any lineup is a logistics challenge for the Republican National committee. Were trying to figure out how many can we fit on a debate stage. Reporter but the rnc is not the decider in chief. Instead, each network host for nine debates will determine the qualifications. Each candidate is going to have to determine what their strategy is as we head into the first debate this august. Im quite confident ill be on the debate stage. Reporter but will the only woman make the cut . Let me come and be on the stage all bycut . Let me come and be on the stage all by myself. Reporter or Mike Huckabee . He believes he deserves a chance. But when republicans gather in cleveland this august for the first debate only the top ten will get a microphone. Based on an average of their poll numbers. To be a winner you have to think like a winner. Reporter donald trump might have the name recognition needed to crack the top ten. But with no front runner and the biggest field in gop history, making the debate team is the summers real prize. For today, kelly odonnell, nbc news washington. Theres mustsee tv and then theres that. Thats going to be a great series of debates just from the personalities alone. Then you get to the policies. The two parties are polar opposites. 20 on one side and 2 so far on the other. Meantime tributes are pouring in this morning for actress and comedian the great ann meara. Stars of movies tv the stage for nearly 60 years. She died over the weekend at the age of 85. Carson has more on her life and career. Good morning. Good morning, guys. Older fans know her best from stiller and meara. Young ber generations knowing her as ben stillers mom. Either way she carved a path in hollywood. Ann meara was known for countless supporting roles in film and tv. 14 hours i was in labor with you. Very nice. Reporter but she first came to fame in the 1960s as half of the comedy team stiller and meara. Along with her husband of 61 years, jerry stiller. Yeah. Im compulsive about shine. Reporter while the couple made a name for themselves on shows like the ed sullivan show. He doesnt even look like you. No wait wait. Reporter meara was a star in her own right appearing in dozens of films and tv shows including all my children, law order svu. Go home. You look tired. Reporter she never missed a chance to poke fun at her husband even here on today. Why do you you let them ask the question . Why . Reporter she spoke proudly at an event for son ben stiller. I felt hed by a bigtime something. But he could have been a thief. I dont know. Im very proud he became a big time actor, director writer. Reporter they did not reveal the cause of death but released a statement saying in part, annes memory lives on in the hearts of daughter amy, son ben, her grandchildren, her extended family and the friends and the millions she entertained. And she was trending on facebook and twitter. Steve martin tweeting stiller and meara have been a wonderful presence in my life. I salute her. Ben stiller saying thank you so much about all of the kind words about anne. Anne meara, comedy icon whose work will be remembered by many. Thanks a lot. We were talking about how much fun it was to have them in studio with us. Youd see them around town and they truly were a team. Historic career but that marriage and that bond together, so beautiful. Thinking about you all this morning. Coming up new questions about that mansion murder in washington, d. C. This morning the search for possible accomplices and why investigators were lied to about a 40,000 ransom. Plus were going for a ride with the very first woman to fly with the famed blue angels. But first this is today on nbc. Coming up, whats the best prank youve ever pulled . What George Clooney did to brad pitt that could land him behind bars he me and you, and you and me. No matter how they tossed the dice. It had to be. The only one for me is you. And you for me. 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Its about having more fun. Great gettogethers start with low prices you can trust every day. Youre watching today in the bay. A good monday morning. Im sam brock. 7 26. A live look at the san mateo bridge where the opening went off without a hitch. Eastbound lanes opened after 3 30 this morning an then the westbound lanes followed before 5 00. Caltrans closed the bridge for a second round of paving and repairs over the weekend. It marks the second time in a month that the bridge has shut down for a weekend c