Standing up for cancer. Standing up together for our neighbors is the only way to triumph over this disease. Hollywoods biggest stars open up to help raise hundreds of millions of dollars to fight cancer. Well share their story today, saturday september 6, 2014. Announcer from nbc news, this is today with lester holt and erica hill. Live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. Welcome to today on this saturday morning. I am erica hill. Im alongside jenna wolfe and dylan dreier. Lester is enjoying the weekend off. He is. We are happy you are here to join us. You are part of this week long celebration of latino culture. I am glad to be with you. Im glad you pronounced your name. She can say it, just not as smoothly. It would take three minutes. Story of my life. More on that at 7 30. Right. We want to begin with the top story. The violent storms that rolled through michigan last night, several people are recovering after getting caught up in them. Sean from our station in detroit, wvid has much more. Sean, good morning. Reporter good morning from the Metro Detroit area. 350,000 people in the area are waking up without power this morning. 1,000 power lines are down. They begin to assess the damage as the sun begins to come up. Last night, we were talking very strong storms that packed a very dangerous punch. In fact, look at this cell phone video capturing a Church Festival tent collapsing on people in Harrison Township, michigan. Five people injured in the dearborn area when a large tent was blown down. High School Football games were canceled as the storms came roaring through. The issue now, not just getting the power back on to thousands of people, but the Energy Company telling me they must get to all the downed power lines. Some of them may be hot. A man was killed last night when he came in contact with a downed power line. Right now, again, 350,000 people waking up without power. Before things get better, the Power Company believes the number will rise as the morning goes on. Jose, back to you. Thank you so much. The storms are not done yet. Dylan is tracking where they are headed next. They are moving east. 150 reports of wind damage yesterday. Now, the storms are fizzling out a little bit. The cold front is draped here. As it moves east, it runs into sunshine. It makes it atmosphere more unstable and more storms going to fire up today. Further to the east than yesterday. 5 00, we are going to see the storms slide through the new york city area, including washington, d. C. , up to new england. It clears out by sunday. Before that happens, right up through new england, stretching back to pennsylvania and northern new jersey, this is the area we are going to see some hail. Mostly wind damage is the biggest concern. The storms produce wind gusts up to 60 miles per hour. It is going to get busy for the afternoon. Jose . Thanks very much. Now more on the investigation into what went wrong on a private plane. They are looking for the remains of the plane that flew for hours over the u. S. The pilot was incapacitated. Tom costello is with us. Good morning, tom. A prominent couple from new york flying to florida. It turned into a 1700 mile ghost flight. They lost cabin pressure. It was just before 8 30 a. M. When rochester Real Estate Developer and his wife took off from rochester for naples, florida. Their plane, a brandnew 2014 secada 900. At 10 04 a. M. , he needed to descend to 18,000 feet. Controllers told him to turn and ascend to 25,000. He never declared an emergency, but stopped responding to controllers, flying in a Straight Line south. F15 Fighter Pilots intercepted and saw the windows and the pilot slumped over. You get lightheaded, then become nauseated. Vomiting, headaches and body aches. You cant stay awake and fall asleep. Reporter the plane kept flying on auto pilot before running out of fuel and crashing off the jamaican coast. The proper procedure would have been to get the oxygen mask, declare an emergency and begin an emergency decent. It happened in 1999. Golfer Payne Stewart and five others died when their learjet lost cabin pressure. In 2005, people died in a greek airliner that lost pressure and crashed into a mountain. We dont know what happened in this case. They could have lost cabin pressure with an engine problem or a leak. They are resuming search operation this is morning. It is highly unlikely anyone survived the crash. Thank you so much. Greg is a former investigator with the ntsb and joins us this morning. Good morning. Good morning. We are looking at this, trying to find the wreckage. What would investigators be focused on this morning . Right now, in lieu of not having the wreckage to examine, they have to look at the air Traffic Control tapes. That is their best right now. That is what we know is factual. What they are listening for is any kind of background sounds when the pilot was communicating to see if there were oral warnings that would give away what the pilot was experiencing as far as the problem he told air Traffic Controllers about. What we have learned over the past day or so, as a former investigator, what are your thoughts on what could have happened here . Theres a number of different things. This is a brandnew airplane. You are always going to look at if there was a possibility of mechanical malfunction. Its a complex airplane when you look at the pressure system. Its dependent on other systems in the airplane for proper operation. The pilot said he had an erroneous indication. Whether or not he perceived it as a threat, he didnt because he didnt have an expedited request for decent. They were trying to get him down and there was crossing traffic. They had to give him a heading change. He didnt perceive it initially as a threat. It could have been a benign event that escalated to a catastrophic event and led to his incapacitation. As we look at where the investigation will go from here, the plane took off from rochester, new york, went over to cuba and crashed near jamaica. How does that impact the investigation when three countries are involved here . The complexity is with the jamaicans. If they take the lead in the investigation, they will extend an invitation to the United States one because it was a u. S. Aircraft. The pilot was from the u. S. And all the records for that aircraft, maintenance records, pilot records will reside here. Of course, the air Traffic Control information. They will be looking for assistance and Technical Expertise from the ntsb or faa in assisting them to really do a complete thorough and methodical investigation. Nice to see you, thanks. Funeral plans are under way for joan rivers. It will be a private service held in new york city. Ron mott has the latest. Ron, good morning. Reporter good morning to you. News of joan rivers death spread quickly through her Upper East Side neighborhood. You can see the memorial set up on the front stoop of this apartment building. People have been coming by to pay their respects for the comedy legend. They have conducts and concluded the autopsy. It was inconclusive meaning more examination will be necessary to determine a cause and manner of death. There were a lot of questions about her death because of the procedure she undertook is so common. An endoscopy. They attack a wire and put it through the nose and throat. Its over in three to five minutes. With sedation, complications could be involved. One death for every 10,000 procedur procedures. Its very rare. They are investigating the circumstances. Joan rivers has this done late last week, stopped breathing and was rushed to Mount Sinai Medical Center where she died here. For 50 years, she entertained america, became a comedy icon for her branch. Humor that won her a lot of fans, passional fans. She joked about when she died, she wanted a big blowout hollywood type funeral. We are expecting some of that. It is a private ceremony. Its going to be a starstudded event and sad. Her death, so untimely here. A lot of energy at 81 years old, kept a busy schedule. A lot of people are saying red carpets will never be the same. Thank you so much. President obama is back in washington after wrapping up a visit in wales for the nato summit. He had strong words about how the u. S. Will take care of this terrorist group. Degrade and ultimately defeat isis the way we have gone after al qaeda. The same way we have gone after al qaeda affiliates in somalia where we released today the fact we killed the leader of alshabaab. Chuck todd is set to interview president obama later today. Good morning. Good to see you. Good morning, jose, good to see you. The president s interview this afternoon is never more timely. The big question is what hes able to accomplish in his visit to europe with nato regarding isis. It is. You saw the preview, he put together a coalition of western countries willing to take this on. I think that is the basic first question. Are you preparing to get america back on a war footing again . When you think about the size of the coalition he previewed with the person allies that he described this, adding in his hope that he gets sunni allies in particular. Other allies in places like jordan, saudi arabia to come as well into this. This is an operation that is going to last a long time. This is an operation that might be of the size and scope going back to think about the very first gulf war in 199091. This is almost complete opposite of what he thought he would be doing. He wanted to get the country off a war footing and here we are getting back on one. Never mind the fact hes going to have to go to congress to get authorization. Again, this is going to take a long time. Everybody is saying that, even the president. With congress coming back from break shortly, the issue is, how important and how big the United States needs to go as far as getting involved. Theres one thing, chuck, we know the president says will not happen. Take a listen. We will not u. S. Ground troops to try to control the areas that are part of the conflict inside syria. I dont think thats necessary for us to accomplish our goal. Chuck . I think, what i have heard behind the scenes is they may need Ground Troops, they just dont want them to be u. S. Ground troops. They would like them to be other countries from the middle east, that they send in the Ground Troops and the u. S. Provides air suppo support. That is the big insistence here. Chuck todd, so looking forward to your first day as moderator of meet the press. That interview are president obama tomorrow morning. Thanks. Looking forward to that. Well talk to chuck tomorrow ahead of his First Official sunday on meet the press. Right now, we want to check in with jenna for stories she is following. Good morning. A flight carrying 100 u. S. Citizens, all military contractors forced to land in iran reached their destination in dubai after an issue with the flight plan. It took off from afghanistan. It was an arraign yan air space when the crew was told to return to afghanistan because they didnt have the proper paperwork. Without enough fuel, they had to land in southern iran. The state department described it as a chronic issue. Warning residents to be on alert as lava creeps toward a Small Division in hawaii. It could reach the area within a week. At least 11 people were hurt after a commuter bus slammed into a home. The bus was clipped by a stolen car before careening into the house, narrowly missing a baby inside. One person has been arrested. As kids are getting back to school, a warning for parents. A mist ris respiratory illness is sends hundreds of teenagers to the hospital. Reporter it starts out like an ordinary cold. In kids who suffer with asthma, it can get serious quickly. He was unresponsive. He was laying on the couch, turning white with blue lips. Reporter will was air lifted to the hospital tuesday night and put on a breathing tube. He was pulling so hard, pulling for air. Reporter hes one of the kids in the denver area to come down with what is believed to be virus 68, a cousin to the common cold. We have five kids here, which is much higher than normal number for a late august, early september. 20 more kids in Rocky Mountain for children are tested for the virus. Childrens hospital of colorado has seen 900 cases in children in the past month. Around the country, cities lig st. Louis, kansas city and columbus, ohio are reporting a spike in respiratory illnesses since august that are suspected of being caused by the virus. You are looking better than yesterday. Im happy to see that. Reporter wills advise to parents . If you have an asthmatic child and they feel sick and you are feeling that feeling like should we go to the hospital, you might want to go. Important to note, there is no vaccine for the virus. The best way to avoid the illness is practicing good hygiene. In london, red poppies mark the 100th anniversary of world war i. The artist says each poppy represents a fallen soldier. They were the first thing to come up. They are for sale. All proceeds going to charity. Here is why jose never comes with me on a starbucks run. If yours is like mine good news jose. Starbucks announced they plan to launch smaller express style stores, faster ordering, reduced menus, but you can use your phone to speed up service or less complicated drinks. Whatever. Im just saying. Equally as complicated as mine. My half calf decalf all calf combined. Dylan is back with a check of the weather. Good morning, again. We are focusing on norbert. It strengthened to a category 3 hurricane. Winds of 120 miles per hour. The biggest concern in areas like long beach and san diego and into parts of malibu, waves as high as ten feet and dangerous rip currents through monday. We have this cold front draped across the eastern half of the country. In the northeast to new england, the strongest storms with isolat the heat and humidity return again for the day today. Its going to feel a lot like summer. The temperatures in the low 90s, about 91 degrees today. Thunderstorms in the forecast later on in the afternoon and especially this evening where we could get severe thunderstorms along with that, too. Better weather expected for tomorrow for the eagles game. Clouds and sun and cool off and less humid and then next week in the upper 70s and low 80s with a mix of sun and clouds and a chance of showers. Thats your latest forecast. Erica . Thanks. Lots of kids waking up or actually, they may still be sleeping in because its the weekend and everyone in the country is now back to school. If your kids are like most children, getting a complete answer to the how was your day question, likely isnt easy. There are some questions you can ask them that may get them to open up. Here is kate snow. Its fresh and new right now, the joy of school, the smiles and the tears. It can make it hard for parents to say goodbye, which is why they ask their kids so many questions. Is it hard sometimes when mom and day say how was your day at school . They always say it every day. Reporter they say it every day . Yeah. After school. Exactly. They always say it. Reporter so the kids always answer the same way. Its good and i really like this and that. Just say it was good. Reporter sometimes are you tired and you dont want to talk about your day . Exactly. Yeah. Reporter there it is, one of those universal truths about kids. When you ask them, how was your day at school, like fine. Like fine. Reporter before she was a mom, she was a teacher. She posted questions on her blog called 25 ways to ask your kids, so how was school today without asking how was school today. My kids went back to school this week, too. After zachs first day, i called him to try out the open ended question. Tell me something that made you laugh today . My teacher me and the other students we were teaching the teacher while she was teaching us. Reporter thats all any parent wants, to know a little more about their kids world. I know as they get older, it is going to be harder for me to keep those lines of communication open. I feel like while i have them now where they want to talk to me, i need to take that and run with it. Our window is so small. Love you. Reporter back to school days pass so quickly. For today, kate snow, nbc news, new york. Do they ever pass quickly. My oldest went on wednesday. We started second grade. Monday, we did maroon five. Theres my oldest going into second grade. Theres weston. Were they excited to go back . Yeah, we are still in the excited stage. Theres my daughters. How incredibly posed was that. They love school and love to read. You have a pet camel . We need to know more about that. We have to go to a break. Stay tuned. More on the pet camel. The latest on the ebola patient fighting for his life here in the u. S. As we get a look at the hospital facility who treated two patients that are fully still to come on today from the battlefield to store good morning. I am rosemary connors. Its a few minutes before 7 30. Before you head out the door lets get a check of the forecast from meteorologist, tedd florendo. You are tracking storms. Not the case this morning or afternoon, and for now things look good. Late day and evening thunderstorms. Temperatures should be around 91 degrees but will feel like the mid90s today, and winds about 5 to 10 from the southwest. Things improve for tomorrow. Less humid and low 80s for sunday, and then the chance of showers by tuesday. Today Funeral Services will be held for one of the three bucks county teens killed in the crash in the poconos last weekend. He was one of three teens killed last weekend in an suv crash in wayne county. Two funerals were held earlier in the week. Overnight firefighters were called out to battle a row home fire in west philadelphia. Nbc 10 was there on the 4100 block of ogden street around 1 00 this morning. Crews tell us flames broke out on the second floor of the home. Everybody inside was able to get out okay. The red cross is assisting residents from the home providing them with food, shelter and clothing. We will get a little help from a donation drive. Donated clothes will go to preselected families that were affected by the closures of the showboat and other casinos. 21yearold langford, a College Senior and son of former Atlantic City mayor organized the donation drive. Thats it for now. I am r