October 16th, 2015. Announcer from nbc news, this is today with matt lauer and Savannah Guthrie live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. And good morning, everyone. Welcome to today on a friday morning. Were in the middle of a beautiful stretch of fall river here in the east. Not so much out west. They have not been so lucky. These rains that seemed to come out of nowhere and really made a mess. Thats right. Its our top story this morning. The wild weather that came in suddenly and virtually without warning. Flash flooding triggering mudslides trapping drivers and then destroying homes. Nbc National CorrespondentMiguel Almaguer is in hard hit lake hughes, california. Miguel, good morning to you. Reporter hey, matt, good morning. The rain is gone, but mud certainly isnt. Were about an hour outside of los angeles, and take a look at this neighborhood. It was hit by a day luge. The mud here is stacked four, five, six feet high in some places. Just down the road from here, 20 kids were trapped at a nearby school. A Good Samaritan had to go in it was a wild day of extreme weather. It hit with fury, pounding rain, then hopefully it stops. I know. Reporter the mudslide. One of californias busiest freeways covered in mud and brought to a standstill overnight, cars, semi trucks snaking down interstate 5 trapped in a gridlock nightmare. All the mud just came from in. Reporter mountains crumbled into pieces, pouring into streets, swallowing dozens of cars, destroying homes. Witnesses could feel the power and hear the rumble. Train. Reporter in some spots the mud several feet deep. The crippling flash flooding triggering at least four rescues. Children pulled to safety. No one hurt, but nearly everyone, especially drivers, caught by surprise. Took about maybe 20 seconds, 30 seconds for all this to happen. It was very, very scary. Reporter nearly 6 inches of rain an hour hammered some neighborhoods. Too much water too quickly for parched hills hardened by four years of drought. This powerful storm system, the most dangerous weather seen by some First Responders here in decades. For now this vicious punch has passed, but this morning there is plenty of damage left behind. Later today, we could get even more wet weather, but that heavy day luge is gone. Police are still in this area doing doortodoor checks. Matt and safe v. A. , they say we could get more wild weather, winter. Miguel almaguer, thanks very turn to al. Whats next for these guys . Got more. Talked about this yesterday that we could be seeing flash flooding and north natalie thats what happened, heavy rain and the other mitigating factor is that this happened in right burn area. This happened back in 2013. There was no vegetation along the hillsides to hold it in, and all that rain came in. Today through saturday more pacific moisture coming in. Flash flooding is likely, and now its going to increase for arizona and nevada as well. As you can see, we have flash flood watches and warnings out now. This includes lancaster, california, las vegas, burbank maybe involved, rainfall rates, one to two inches per hour. Heavy storms, gusty winds and small hail in Southern Arizona so well be watching this. We look for even more problems to remain. Next half hour ill tell you about whats expected with el nino, guys, and this could be the shape of things to come this winter there. All right, al. Thank you very much. Lets turn to politics now and a new nbc news online poll conducted by survey monkey has just been released and focused candidate debate and the crowded gop field. Weve got several reports on this, but lets begin with nbcs National CorrespondentPeter Alexander and the results of this poll. Peter, good morning to you. Reporter nice to see both of you in person this morning, nice to see you as well. America has weighed in. Its good news for Hillary Clinton and also just this morning with the Vice President closing in on a decision of his own, were getting new signals from inside, from one of bidens closest advisers, that he not out of the race just yet. Thank you, bernie. Reporter these days both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are smiling, but this morning its clear clinton got the biggest bounce from this weeks debate. An nbc news online poll conducted by survey monkey finds a majority of democrats say clinton won the night. While 45 of democrats and those who lean left say she will get their vote, 31 for sanders, its the Vice President who is losing ground dropping five points from just a month ago. Hes yet to make u his mind ignoring questions from Nbcs Kristen Welker thursday. Have you made your decision yet . I cant hear you. The have you made your decision yet . Reporter sources close to the vp tell nbc news hes calling allies in early voting states to gauge his chances and this morning nbc news has confirmed one of bidens closest advisers is alerting supporters by email not to count the vp out. If he decides to run, it reads, well need each and every one of you yesterday. Meanwhile, among republicans, ben carson claims closing the gap with donald trump, slicing trumps lead from 15 points 5 in the last month. Also this morning, after a lot of back and forth you may have heard about between trump, carson and cnbc, our sister channel, over the format over the next gop debate scheduled to take place october 26th, later this month, just this morning trump tweeted out that both sides have agreed that the debate will be two hours. That one of trumps demands. He said it was fantastic news of people who will b b watching. We have reached out to our friehds at cnbc. We have not heard back from them just yet. Also overnight, and this is critical, were learning how much each of these candidates has raised in the latest fundraising quarter, the last three months. The campaigns out with their official numbers to the fec, federal Election Commission and heres what it looks like. On the democratic side Hillary Clinton took the lead with 29. Million but vermont senator Bernie Sanders brought in a close second. Hes just shy with 26 million. Then lets flip sides and go to the republicans now. Heres how the republicans numbers stack up. Ben carson, 20, nearly 11 million raised, jeb bush at 13 million air, lot less than in the early months and still significant. Ted cruz, pulling in the lower tier outraising some competitors, and he came close to jeb with 12 million. Carly fiorina at nearly 7 and marco rubio close to 6 million, so the question youre likely asking is whats up with donald trump . How is he doing . Well, hes selffinancing, but he did report that hes raised close to 4 million, spent nearly 2 million of his own money during the entire campaign. Matt a a savannah. Peter, thanks very much. A lot of numbers and what does it mean for the current state of the race . Lets turn to John Heilemann managing editor of bloomberg politics. Good morning. Hi. We talk about money and politics because its a measure of the breadth of support, the depth of support. Would you expect someone like ben carson and Bernie Sanders if i had told you six months ago they were going to have a haul like they just did in thee Third Quarter . If you would have told me that six months ago i would have said you need to be committed to a mtal institution and today seeing where they are you need to come with meet next time im in vegas because you would be a prophet. Its a real powerful sign of the extent to which in this year in a durable wait outsiders are now playing the hot hands and the insiders are struggling. Lets continue on that because if you look at these numbers trump and carsonnay ahead of the rest of the pack. Yeah. Nobody expected that. Everybody was talking about the summer fling, the flirtation, and when youook at the longer list here, john, and you look at some of the people that we all thought were going to be the strong contenders, jeb bush and Chris Christie and rand paul, and they are running on vapors. They are running on vaporses and not raising a lot of money. Some are doing a little bettete thth others, but its still right now the thing that the Republican Party has always done which is to coronate not coronate but to declare we have an establishment favorite and that person is going to be the nominee, not happening in this cycle and people who have thought donald trump will collapse or ben carson will collapse, that this is a summer fling, as you put it, its late october now. They are going through the stages of acceptance that this is the race thatt we have. This is the race. Lets talk about the democrats. Our survey monkey poll shows Hillary Clinton with a commanding lead, really opening it up between sanders and biden, not declared, but did not fare as well. Ted kaufman, one of his closest advisers, is sending out this letter to biden alumni, as peter reported, basically hinting, you know, we still may get intnt this thinin but has his moment passed . Can he still get in . Well, look, ive engaged in attempts to report o and read the mind of joe biden as much as anybody in the last few months. Im done with that. The Vice President is now if hes making a calculation on the political landscape, its more forbidding now than it was a month ago. Youve got Hillary Clinton performing well at this debate, the benghazii committee nowow delegitimized. Shes keyed uppo have a great day next week where it cld have been a moment of peril, but i dont think thats how biden is thinking about this. Hes not making political rational calculations. This is the last big political decision of his life and hes doing the ultimate gut check now and will decide on the basis of that. You mentioned the benghazi committee. E. Stand by f one secretary because meanwhile Hillary Clintons top aide huma abedin could face a tough line of questioning today when she goes before that House Committee. Nbcs Kristen Welker has more from washington. Kristen, good morning to you. Good morning to you. Usually it is secretary clinton her closest and longest serving aide huma abedin will be in the hot seat. She will testify behihi closed dodos before the congressional commmmtee investigating the 2001 attack against the u. S. Consulate in benghazi. Abadin was clintons deputy chief of staff at the state department and was considered her body woman during the 2008 campaign. Led two are so close that clinton has referred to abedinin as her daughterr and t ts comes six dayay before the former secretary of state will give her own testimony. The campaign has gotten a bit of a lifeline as you guys talked about in rect days after the House Majority leader suggest the the committee was aimed at dragging down clintons poll numbers and after a former investigator with the committee suggest it had had turned into a political witchhunt. Chairman trey gowdy denies politics are involved, buthe Clinton Campaign has used the allegations to try to discredit the committee. Clinton is hoping once she testifies next week she can turn the page on e questions about emails. Matt, savannah. Chris attorney welker, kristen, thank you very much. Let me pick up where kristen left off. Party of this commitys investigation we all learned about the email problems for Hillary Clinton. Bernie sanders sayay america is sick and tireded of hearing about is. Ah. Is he right or is there more there . Well, look, its unclear. In the end the fbi is investigating the server. There still could be legal and political jeopardy for Hillary Clinton. No doubt that in the Democratic Party people dont care very much about this. In the broader country Hillary Clintons numbers on the questions of whether shes considered honest and trustworthy have been in a state prettyerious decline for the l lt six months and its hard not to think that the email thing has something to do wi that, so its not a nonissue. Certainly i think in the decratic primary not a big issue and Bernie Sanders when he says that, got a rousing cheer in that debate hall and probably around the country among hard core democrats. All right. John heilemann, good to get your perspective, thank you. Just a reminder, holdingng a town hall meeting witit donald trump and new h hpshire voters, monday, october 26. Can you see it right here on today. Switching topics, a major change is coming to the Airline Industry this weekend. Thats when American Airlines and u. S. Airways will officially merge their reservation systems and the first few weeks might be confusing for some travelers. Lets get to nbcs Gabe Gutierrez at atlantas hartsfieldark Jackson Airport with more on what to expect. Gabe, good morning. Reporter savannah, good morning. This airport will see its very last u. S. Airways flight. Its been wild decade for air travel. Of the 11 top airlines back in 2004, only six are still around. The new American Airlines will be 30 bigger, the Largest Airline in the worlrl this morning u. S. Airways is preparing for its final flights amid some confusion. Okay. Were supposed fly american. When we get here and check in were directed to u. S. Airways over here. Reporter tomorrow it will finally merge its reservation system with americans, but not everyone is on board yet. We were just like are we american or u. S. Air . Were s sposed to be checking in on. Reporter two years ago Airlines Announced plans to join. American says since then its been working towards tomorrows transition, running 5 million mock reservions, testing more than 9,000 computers and kiosks and spending more than a million hours training employees all to make it a smooth takeoff. American actually has a system thats prettyasy to slide in the u. S. Airways stem. They have been actuall doing a pretty good job of this for the last few years. Reporter Airline Mergers can be turbulent. In 2010 united and continental got together and the reservation system failed delaying flights and stranding passengers. Hi. Im oscar murngsz and im the new ceo of united. Reporter just last night uniteds new ceo acknowledged its been a rocky marriage. We still havent lived up to our promise o o our potential. Thats going to change. Reporter this weekend american advises get your boarding pass online, have a printed copy of your ticket and get to the airport earlier than usual. What i hope for as a traveler is that the airlines will choose the best of each of them and phenomenal. Reporter it will be at least another few months before the painted with the American Airlines logo but the last u. S. Airways flight also the red eye from San Francisco to philly. Gabe gutierrez at the airport for us, thank you. Another surge of violence in the middle east overnight and natalili has more on that. Gogo morning. Good morning, guys. Big developments in the middle east surrounding that recent wave of violence between palestinians and israelis. Overnight dozens of palestinians threw fire bombs at a jewish holty site known as josephs tomb. It comes amid calls by hamas for another day of rage in the region. At least 39 people have been killed over the past two weeks. Also today isrsrl is clolong off jerurulems most sensitive holy site the alaqsa mosque to young muslim men in an effort to calm the violence. Federal prosecutors have charged a man in malaysia with hacking a computer and providing information about u. S. Service members to isis. Police say the 20yearold kosovo citizen hacked into a server basedn the United States, stole personal information of more than 1,300 americans and then gave it to a senior Islamic State leader in syria. Prosecutors allege the goal was to provide isis supporters in the u. S. And elsewhere with the information so they could carry out terrorist attacks. The u. S. Is now seeking to extradite the suspect. Back here at home,exas forestry officials areringing a hovey bombebe to fht a raging wildfire. Its now consumed six square miles and has burned nearly three dozen homes about 50 miles east of austin. About 400 homes have been evacuated so far. Well, lots of new yorkers celebrating through the night after the mets series clinching win over the l. A. Dodgers. The game was tied 22 in the sixth inning when Daniel Murphy that, drove that solo home run into the seats into right field. That turned out to be the gamewinner. Theets advance now to the National League championship series for the First Time Since 2006, and they, of course, taking on the chicago cubs. Last time the cubs made it this far in the postseason, 2003. Two teams, of course,ery long drauauts. Me one tomorrow night. Its going to be a hot one right here in new york. Lots to cheer about. Well, an 11yearold girl was honored thursday night for her stick figure sketch that led to the arrest of a serial burglar. Rebecca depietro got a standing ovation at a ceremony stratford, connecticut, thursday night, but a few months ago there was a string burglaries on her street, including one at her house. So when policeesked rebecca if she had seen anyone suspicious, she drew this sketch, and