Famous resort theme park dollywood. Theres no damage to the park so far but more than a dozen of its Smokey Mountain cabins have been damaged. Let me bring in brad kisserman. Thank you so much for your time. We look at these flames. I talked to my colleague al roker tracking the forecast and its a pretty rough situation for the folks affected. What are you told by your team . Worst possible conditions is what im hearing from my team on the ground and let me just say, thank goodness for the firefighters, law enforcement, National Guard and First Responders because this is a horrific situation. We had over 1200 people in shelters last night. 850 when i checked in a few minutes ago. We have over 70 red cross volunteers on the ground and were flowing people in from surrounding states. We expect a sheltering mission for at least the next two weeks. Right now when you look at how fast it seemed to take over this area, the conditions have been dry and just seems as if it was a perfect storm for people to be caught off guard. It really was. The combination of drought, high winds, blowing burning embers around the area and the complete lack of rain and burnable material just made this the the worst combination and you see literally thousands of people evacuating, homeowners, residents, vacationers, a lot of damage to the not just to the vacation and resort area but to Owner Occupied homes and thats what were concerned about Going Forward is those people who will return in a few days and have nothing left but a parcel of ash and molten metal and theyll need shelter and food and comfort. I know the red cross is accepting donations for the people as well as the First Responders. What do you believe is most urgent to get to these people right now . We move volunteers in and if folks want to volunteer at all to support this, they can call 1800redcross or redcross. Org. This is an extraordinarily bad year for disaster. Spent over 87 million on major disasters alone. So folks want to donate, they can do that. 1800redcross. Going to redcross. Com and dont foer forget to donate blood. I know your team is working hard. Bill karins for an update on the conditions. The folks in condition face and also, really, how we got here, bill. Willie geist was interviewing dolly parton last week and this has gotten so fast so quickly. Hows this . Dolly parton, 36 hours ago, did a psa, a Public Service announcement with smokey the bear telling people to be careful of forest fires and then literally, 24 hours later after that video was released, this happens. As far as the gatlinburg area, the rain stopped. Half an inch of rain and knocks things down. The smoke is prevalent in the area and active flames but its not burning like you see in the video. We showed you the winds gusting to 50 to 60 Miles Per Hour so thats good. The next bout of rain will come in. Now that its daylight, some of the newspaper reporters are showing images and pictures to find out which portions of the gatlinburg were destroyed and which remains. I want to show you images here of the before. This is the westgate Smokey Mountain resort. Those are the rooftops. This is all gone. Ive heard all of this area has burned down. This is near the, also, the water park in here too so let me show you the black bear falls. This is a rental community and this is where some of the dramatic video was taken. These are all log homes sitting in here and the winding roads on the hill top. These are all gone. All of these reported to have burned and saw the vehicles driving down these roads with the fires, with the structures on fire on the sides and a lot of these residents, the firefighters knocked on the door, people didnt even realize the fire was that close. They were told to leave immediately. So all of these people literally, they have nothing. All they have is whatever they put in the car with them as they ran out. There was also a report from the tennessee Emergency Management that uber gatlinburg, the spa and ski resort, this remains. At first, it was reported this was destroyed so people are happy to know this remains. That is good. Weve gotten reports that the ripl ripleys aquarium, all the employees had to leave in the middle of the night, leave the animals and everything else. Thats been untouched and remains fine. A little side note, something called hill billy golf. One of the best on the side of a mountain. Thats been completely destroyed along with the river house motor lot. One of these vacation places for anyone in the region. Everybodys been there at one point and everyone trying to find out whats standing and whats destroyed. The personnel said its not just about vacationers, there are people who live here and their homes have been destroyed or damaged as well. About 14,000 permanent residents that work in the restaurants, the hotels, all the amusements and a lot of them are searching for jobs too. Thank you very much. Another developing story out of columbia where we learn more about a plane crash that killed 75 people including several members of a top Brazilian Soccer Team. This happened late last night. We are still working to details on what caused this crash. Zen s seven survivors including one pulled from the wreckage. One died at the hospital later. Six remaining survivors are still treated right now. And the chartered plane to medellin, columbia, when it crashed into the mountainous region near the medellin airport. Tom costello joins us with the latest details on the investigation into what happened there, tom. Reporter it now appears all but three members of this Brazilian Soccer Team were killed on their way to a match in a championship series for what many call their fairytale team. The rest of the team with journalists, managers and others all died in this horrific crash on a dense jungle in hillside outside of medellin. It happened before 10 00 last night. This charter flight from bolivia in a torrential rainstorm making rescue extremely difficult on the mud covered hillside. The daylight images show the impact zone with pieces thrown along the landscape. 81 people on board originally. Seven people found alive, including the teams 31yearold goalkeeper, but he later died from his injuries. It was his dramatic goal line save in the last minute of the semifinal that ensured the clubs passage on to the upcoming final matches which was the biggest in the teams history. Another player, 31yearold defender helio was found alive and so was defender alan rashell and reserve keeper jackson foelman. Some undergoing multiple surgeries. 146. Most commonly, we see these as city hoppers in europe and reportedly radioed the tower and the surviving Flight Attendant thought hed thought they ran out of fuel. The team was supposed to take a direct flight from brazil to medellin but that flight was cancelled so they took the charter flight through bolivia and this really was a dream team season, tamron. Two years ago, nobody thought this team would go anywhere but headed to the first leg of a final series in this important south American Club competition. That play now suspended and the president of the brazilian say they were going off to make our dreams come true. What a tragedy. It is. Thank you for the update. Chbl we turn now to politics and the trump transition. The president elects choice for transportation secretary will be announced this afternoon but questions remain over he plans to select for secretary of state. Trump will meet for a second time with mitt romney this evening. Romney, of course, has been one of the president elects harshest critics during the Campaign Calling him among many things a phony and a fraud. Now following her criticism of romney on meet the press and other sunday morning shows, Kellyanne Conway fighting overnight post oing thing this, rebuke against reports he was upset with her for reportedly going rogue on those sunday morning programs. But its this tweet by the president elect this morning saying, quote, nobody should be allowed to burn the american flag, if they do, there must be consequences. Perhaps loss of citizenship or year in jail. That has sparked a whole new controversy for you to wake up to this morning. Not quite clear what prompted this tweet. Nbcs Hallie Jackson and ann thompson covering the trump transition. Lets start off with you and where i just ended. Whats behind this tweet . What is this about here . Sfwl thats a question mark. I have to break it. We go to tennessee for the latest on the wildfires out of control affecting thousands of americans. Lets listen in. As daylight has come to gatlinburg county, were now beginning to assess the loss of structures and general conditions throughout the area. I can tell you that weve all been overwhelmed at the scene of destruction in the county and primarily in the city of gatlinburg. However, i can equally tell you that we remain overwhelmed by the response of the community, region, and state, which we think is indicative in how we will move Forward Together as we help those in need and we help to rebuild this county and these cities in this county. At this point, i can report to you that we have over 150 structures in the county. Im not talking about in the cities of any of the cities but just in the county, over 150 structures that have been damaged or destroyed and thats beyond the gatlinburg area. We have about 70 homes in the wares valley area that are destroyed or damaged and Pitman Center community as well. We continue to have resources and support offered from the state and neighboring counties in the region. I just received a call from our congressman, phil roe, working with fema to make sure that we have those Additional Resources in that additional federal support and again, i want to reiterate how appreciative all of us are in the county of what. We have never seen an event like this, certainly, and it is going to take time to recover, but we know the character of the people of severe county and the character of the state helping us and we have every confidence were going to be recovering and move forward. So at this time, what imoing to do is introduce the mayor of gatlinburg, mike warner and then well give an opportunity for you all to ask any questions that you might have for us. Mayor warner . Thank you, mayor waters and thank you all for being here. As a long time resident, homeowner and Business Owner in gatlinburg, i joined with our community in the appreciation to the city, county, state, and park officials for the incredible response to this fire storm. The community suffered through significant damage throughout the years but nothing like this. Our 10 square miles of our city, about half of it has been impacted. We have over confirmed 100 structures that have been damaged. A ive got the fire chief here. Ill have the fire chief speak with you but gatlinburg is a strong, very resilient community. Weve got people that are reaching out to people here from all over the country, and we just want to let people know that we will rebuild and we will remain the premier resort community that we are and our guests love gatlinburg and it will be okay. I told my kids this morning, ive got seven kids and i told all of them, you know, whatever happens, material things, they can be replaced but as long as were safe, everybodys okay, thats all that really matters, but gatlinburg will rebuild and everything is going to be fine. At this time, im going to introduce our fire chief, greg miller. Good morning. What a difficult 24 hours that our community has faced. And we did so with amazing support from our county, from our region and from our state. Our First Responders are appreciative of everything. Its difficult to go out into a community and try to protect and serve others when your own property and everything that youve worked for is burning down. But thats what these men and women have done for the last 24 hours and i want to express my gratitude to them and to our support that we get. Both in the city and the county and beyond. We had over 2,000 people checked in to our red cross shelter across the way here at rocky top sports world and pigeon forge. These are going to remain open as long as necessary and provide medical support, meals, and cots that are available. At this time, i can report that during this fire storm event, we transported approximately 12 patients from the gatlinburg area and most of those were exhibiting nonlifethreatening injuries. As the mayor said, we begin with daybreak this morning, the process of looking at destruction and number thus far is greater than 100 but actively fighting fire. Were not just doing Damage Assessment but weve still got work to do. In saying that, we ask that you help us be able to do our job. Part of that is keeping these roadways clear for emergency vehicles. As you can imagine, the visibility is very poor because of the smoke and the particulate in the air. Therefore, there are areas too smokey we cant see in. But we wont stop until we visit each and every plroperty and attach an assessment to that. We are grateful that the downtown area has largely remained in tact. And with that, also, i want to encourage people to do one simple thing thats going to help us and oftentimes, its overlooked. But the same devices you use, your wifi connection, your cell phones, some of those tablets and handheld devices youre using is what were also using in our command post. And thats how we have to communicate with one another. And our systems get bogged down and we can potentially miss vital communications. So if its something that can wait, if you want to download that later, we encourage you to do that and just think of us so we can do our jobs. And help mitigate this situation. Thank you. Now well open it up for questions. If you have any questions, well take them at this time. What happened overnight because it seems like it wasnt this bad in the late hours of last night but what kicked things up and made a change as many. Ill refer that to the chief. Absolutely. We did a press release yesterday afternoon and as we had already discussed, what got us to this situation was a fire to chimney tops in the National Park and the humidity dropped low and the wind speed and wind direction picked up and started traversing towards the twin creeks area and the park area of gatlinburg. And we dedicated a significant amount of resources for that. Around the time of 6 00 p. M. , the wind speeds doubled. There were times last night that we had wind gusts in excess of 87 miles an hour. That is hurricane force. That is nowhere to be when trying to fight a fire. Those winds of that nature, it is common to pick up embers of fire and take them greater than a mile away. At the same time, we were facing that challenge, those high winds were knocking down trees. Those trees were hitting power lines and they were falling on this very dry extreme droughtlike condition and everything was catching on fire. Thats how it got to that point so rapidly. Any other questions . The people in gatlinburg, check on home, business that are affected. Weve been listening to an update from gatlinburg and the region around it in tennessee. Heavily impacted by wildfires. Right now, we know about 2,000 people according to the fire chief there have sought shelter at the red cross. Some areas are so consumed by smoke, they simply are not able to assess the damage. Around 100 homes destroyed or damaged so this is a tremendous fire as the fire chief described it, a very difficult 24 hours and even more problems to come as the weather is not cooperating. Well continue to follow the latest developments out of tennessee as the number of people, thousands now impacted by these wildfires. The source of how it started still unclear, but the dry conditions ahead this a very dangerous situation that now has resulted in tremendous damage and as you see there, great concern for the people in the region. Coming up, well go back to politics and get you updated on the latest from the trump transition. We now have some new announcements from his team and developing now, officials are investigating whether the attack at the Ohio State University was motivated by terrorism. Coming up, the very latest on what we know about the investigation and the suspect. I was wondering if an electric toothbrush really cleans. Better than a manual, and my hygienist says it does. But. Theyre not all the same. Turns out, theyre really. Different. Who knew . I had no idea. So, she said look for. One thats shaped like a dental tool with a round. Brush head. 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We just got word that transportation secretary could be named today and we know this morning the announcement of hhs candidate georgia representative tom price, someone who has been a staunch critic of the Affordable Care act, even proposing ideas to repeal it. He may now lead the trump team in this arena. Reporter youexactly right. When the Trump Administration a talks about todays announcement, particularly the announcement that congressman price is their candidate to head the department of health and Human Services and their candidate to run medicare and medicaid is seema verma, those are the two people who will lead the efforts to repeal and replace obamacare. Congressman price hails from georgia. Hes an Orthopedic Surgeon by trade and