this morning, chaz bono is taking on his critics, live. why he says america needs to see him dance. good morning, everyone. welcome back from labor day. welcome to our new downstairs studio. we didn't go far. we came down. >> do you like that, josh? you're sitting with the back over there. >> if you don't move, they'll accept you as one of their own. >> anyway, josh. you've got the audience. >> hi, everybody. >> hey. >> that's wonderful. we finally made i i to broadway. >> absolutely. and josh will give us a tour in a little bit. we have a lot of news to get to first, including the monster fires burning in texas and california. in texas, almost 500 homes destroyed now. firefighters trying to put out massive blazes. that land is so parched in texas. now, the blazes in california, too. miles of dry land on fire. we're live on the front lines. >> we certainly are. we also have an amazing story, george. a 12-year-old's remarkable comeback after being pulled underwater after a dangerous riptide for almost 20 minutes. remember this? his church group was on the beach praying for him. one young girl risked her own life to save him? now, he and his parents will share their story. a "gma" exclusive. >> it is a miracle. >> it is. first, let's get to the severe weather we've been watching. flood watches and warnings from maine to mississippi. the south, hit hard again overnight. abc's steve osunsami is in canton, georgia, with the latest on all this. good morning, steve. >> reporter: good morning, robin. the tornadoes came like boxcars on a railroad. one after another. this neighborhood was hit twice. the high winds tore a humongous hole in the side of this business. they make church pews here. this place was left in shambles. these violent storms struck hundreds of families here, whose homes were flattened, cut in half by giant trees. walls shredded like paper. >> it was like a long thunder. then, it was over. >> reporter: this father grabbed his kids. then, told them to hold on tight. >> i was in the room with my kids. we start to see the wind. >> reporter: richard darby says it felt like a huge crane crushing his house. >> one piece. we can fix all this up later. as long as we have our life, is all that matters. >> reporter: the storm is deadly. a man drowned while trying to cross a creek. and in alabama, authorities have called off the search for a missing swimmer. a 29-year-old was swept into the fast-moving creek by high winds. today, they plan to crag the river, searching for his body. this is a combination of tropical storm lee, and a cold front from the north. and it's still throwing punches. spawning tornadoes in georgia, florida and north carolina. and raining down 15 inches in some places. in chattanooga, drivers had to be pulled from their cars. in jackson, mississippi, homes were flooded. and firefighters had to carry women and children to safety. >> we've been busy all porn morning, making sure that the residents were safe. >> reporter: much of this area remains under a flash flood watch this morning. robin and george? >> okay, steve. thanks very much. boy, there is no relief in sight. sam is with us now. whole east coast in for a soaking. >> there's 20 states in flood watctcs or warnings out of this system. it's all the tropical moisture. if i look a little unusual now, it's because i'm working with my left hand. i just want to say, i never -- this is the first time. anything can happen right now. as we watch all this moisture kind of move up in this, we'll notice the heaviest rain from pennsylvania., allhe way to that's four to five inches of additional rain. the real problem comes when you get into western new york state into pennsylvania here. that's the area that was flooding last week. they're so saturated, that they rain will pop right up. we think the passaic and other rivers will be up by midweek. this is a two-day system here. this could be 8 to 12 inches of rain in the areas in red. quick look at katia. atlantaic that is a category 4. we were cocoerned. right now, the hurricane center has it at 400 miles friday and saturday of the east coast. but we'll watch that carefully. >> looks like it's pushing out east. >> going to make a turn here. we'll ek plain why it makes a turn. and texas is where they could really use some of that rain. wildfires burning up parts of the lone star state. abc's ryan owens is on the front lines in texas. and firefighters really have their work cut out for them, don't they? >> reporter: good morning, robin. they really do. and this will be a pivotal day for these firefighters. it's much cooler this morning. there are no winds. all of that is good news. perhaps, crews can start to gain some control because right now, they have none. even by texas standards, this wildfire is enormous. a wall of smoke and flames, 16 miles long, miles wide. one official calls the blaze a monster. it's forced 5,000 people to evacuate and devoured nearly 500 homes. >> our house is completely gone. >> reporter: one of those belonged to dan lugo and his family. this veteran returned from war a month ago. this morning, this is what he has to come home to. >> i did a year in afghanistan. just got home. and here we are. >> reporter: his family spent most of labor day at this shelter, one of five now home to hundreds and their pets. everybody says it's the not knowing that's the worst part. can you talk about that a little bit? >> well -- >> it's nerve-racking because you don't know if you have a home to go home to or not. >> reporter: texas governor, rick perry, cut short a presidential campaign appearance in south carolina to fly home. >> i have seen a number of big fires in my life. this one is as -- this is as mean-looking as i've ever seen. >> reporter: and it's not just this blaze, about 30 miles east of austin. roughly 35 other fires are actively burning across this drought-stricken state. and the only way to fight some of them is from the air. so many texans pray tropical storm lee would bring rain here. instead, only gusty winds that made this state's most active fire season ever that much worse. >> petrifying. it's just like a bad movie, really. >> reporter: just how bad has the fire season here been? listen to this, since december, texas has lost 3.5 million acres to fires. that is roughly the size of the state of connecticut. robin? >> they're having a tough time this summer. all right, ryan. thanks so much. we're going to turn to politics now, robin. a brand-new abc news/"washington post" poll, that has some of the most dismal numbers yet for president obama. 53% disapprove of the job he's doing as president. that's the worst rate of his presidency. 62% think the president's doing a bad job on the economy, of course. are you worse off now than you were four years ago? one in three americans now they say are worse off financially since president obama took office in 2009. that adds up to 77% of americans saying the country is headed on the wrong track. no president has ever been re-elected with that high of a wrong track number. let's bring in our team. jake tapper at the white house, and jon karl in columbia, south carolina. the news is not good for the gop. 67 68% of americans disapprove of the job the republicans in congress are doing. one question the candidates face, how do they separate themselves from that mess in washington? >> reporter: that's a great question. as this race kicks into high gear, george, in light of those numbers for the president, republicans are more confident than ever that obama can be beaten. at a conservative forum in south carolina, the republican candidates took turns hammering president obama. >> i don't think i've ever seen an administration that's gone further afield of the constitution. >> this current administration is stealing from generations yet unborn. >> what would you change about our foreign policy? >> a lot. first, i'd have one. >> reporter: new front-runner, rick perry, skips the forum, racing back to texas to deal with the wildfires. but not before getting in a few shots on his rivals, especially mitt romney. >> there's one in particular that's created jobs all over the world. but while he was the governor of massachusetts, he didn't create very many jobs. >> reporter: perry's record on jobs in texas and his hard-line tea party rhetoric, have helped zoom him to the top of the polls. but perry is a former democrat, who is facing new scrutiny of his record, going all the way back to 1988, when he co-chaired al gore's presidential campaign. >> i just don't understand how someone can call themselves a reagan conservative when he wasn't for reagan or for the conservative movement at the time that reagan was there. >> reporter: with the actual candidates in south carolina, sarah palin wrapped up a four-day swing through iowa and new hampshire. it seemed designed to keep people guessing. >> we need people with a proven record of reform and who are willing to take on the tough challenges. to run into danger, if you will, not run away from it. >> i appreciate your encouragement. i do. >> reporter: no decision, yet, from palin. but in a message to supporters, she said, we'll see you again soon. late yesterday, there was a shakeup at the struggling campaign of michele bachmann. her campaign manager, long-time gop optdive, ed rollins, is out. he's going to stay as an adviser to the campaign. but he told "the washington post" yesterday, quote, the perry/romney race is the story. >> big news today from mitt romney. he's going to release his jobs plan. a 59-point plan? >> reporter: yeah. they're saying this is going to be an incredibly detailed plan. 160 pages or so. it's going to center on things like corporate tax breaks, cutting regulations and getting tougher with china on trade. but this is the centerpiece of the romney campaign. probably the most important day yet for him. >> okay, thanks. let's bring in jake tapper right now. the president has his jobs speech on thursday, jake. we got a preview of his political stump speech yesterday, kicking off the political campaign season on labor day. >> that's right. he spoke to the detroit labor council. he gave an impassioned defense of labor unions. and he talked about the jobs plan he'll present to the country on thursday. saying he'll present plans for job creation that both parties can get behind and support. and then, he challenged republicans, saying the time for games is over. >> we're going to see if we got some straight shooters in congress. we're going to see if congressional republicans will put country before party. show us what you got. >> reporter: and the idea here, george, is the president is trying to present himself as a nonpartisan leader, above the fray, challenging an obstructionist republican congress. that's his pitch. >> will that be enough? the brutal poll numbers in our poll this morning, difficult if not impossible, for an incumbent to win with these numbers. what do they have to do to turn this around? >> reporter: two parts. it will be obama versus the republican congress. and i don't think you'll see a lot of cooperation from the republican congress, for whatever president obama proposes on thursday. that's going to, in their hopes, elevate him, show him above the fray. and second, if you go deeper into the poll numbers, you'll see the american people do not hold president obama primarily responsible for the economic crisis. and the administration hopes there is room to talk about the republican nominee as somebody who will propose plans that caused this crisis to begin with. >> okay, jake tapper. thanks very much. on the heels of all that, we turn to the economy, george. world markets took a beating on monday. u.s. markets were closed for labor day, as you know. but a lot of people watching closely today, to see how markets react. abc's bianna golodryga has been tracking this. what do you see so far? >> reporter: it's a new month with the same problems. investors are coming back from the summer break, facing the same issues they face going into their summer. let's talk about the jobs report friday. zero jobs were added to the economy. that increases concerns that the global economy could go into a second recession. japan's down 2.2% overnight. europe is down a little bit. but of course, they took a beating yesterday. there's concerns about another recession in europe. the debt woes haven't been addressed there. there's rumors of a bank failure could be imimnent. and markets are tightening, that has economists worried we could see a 2008 financial crisis happen again. but what happens in europe, can affect us here in the u.s. >> we know that all-too well. what are investors looking for here? >> reporter: they're looking for policymakers to step up, in europe and in the u.s. they wanted something more, i believe, than ben bernanke, than just keeping interest rates at zero. they want something big from the president. and something feasible that can pass. >> we'll see what happens this week. let's turn to josh elliott, for the other top stories. >> away we go. we're going to begin with new questions about the whereabouts of moammar gadhafi. namely, has he fled libya altogether? a caravan of soldiers was seen crossing into the neighboring country of niger. it's unclear if they were defecting troops or if gadhafi was with him. thousands of rebels are gathering outside his few, remaining strongholds, preparing an all-out attack. the white house says the capture of a man dubbed al qaeda's foreign minister, shows the relationship between the cia and pakistan is healthy once again. younis aliloma mauritani was in charge of plots of economic targets in the united states. and a bizarre hostage standoff? sydney, australia, this morning. a man holding his teenage daughter at a lawyer's office, taunted police before holding up a wig, worn by australian judges and lawyers. you can see there and spitting on it. he claimed to have a bomb. now, police continue negotiating with him. his daughter, at this point, appears to be okay. meanwhile, back in this country, the man who runs the postal service heads to capitol hill today, hat in hand. he's asking congress to approve changes in how your mail is delivered. the post office is in such deep debt, it can't make its pension fund payment this month. so, to save money, it wants to stop saturday mail delivery, close more offices and scale back retiree health payments. finally, we can all breathe a bit easier this morning. wait until you see what's been caught. it's this guy. a 21-foot crocodile, who has been terrorizing a village in the philippines. it may be the biggest crock ever caught in the wild. i don't know who is going to argue at this point. it took 100 people to drag him out of the creek. it's because he weighs a ton, literally. they needed a train to haul him on that truck. the bad news is, they think there's an even bigger one out there. >> come on. >> do they really? >> they do. and i'll tell you what, if they catch that in my backyard, i'm working from home, inside. >> where is he going? >> is an ecotourism park. he's going to be the centerpiece of it. they'd rather take the threat and make some money off of it. that's a two-story building with teeth. >> wow. >> it's not good. it's not good. >> were there lots of missing villagers? i don't know. are they like, we can't find bob. i don't know. hi, everybody. we're standing here in front of the numbers. this will be some very good news. from oklahoma city, into dallas, notice the number drop here. but not triple-digits. it's not 100. it's 82 in oklahoma city. it's 85 in dallas. san antonio coming in with 91 degrees. st. louis about 73. much cooler, much more pleasant air dropping into that area. palm springs, 102. l.a. at 91 degrees. a lot of warmth in the southwest. that's going to hold for a couple of days. we also draw your attention to the e stern seaboard, where thth thunderstorms are rolling. in the carolinas to pennsylvania today. that's heavy rain in areas that are flooded and just don't need it. isper live doppler radar looking at scattered showers everythingut expect we move through the morning and afternoon. the tremendous amount of from themoving in south which is part of the lee nts of tropical storm as 3-6y drop as much area over thethe couple of days. flash flood watches extended will tomorrow night and we see daytime highs today around 70 degrees. >> all of america's weather in the next half hour. you guys are great on television. in the old set, i had to watch you on a monitor. but you're even better in person. >> bring it here. come here, buddy. >> there you go. >> aw. >> i was going to say, he's easy to talk to. check this out, novak djokovic, number one player at the u.s. open. he was checking out the superfan in the stands in the fourth round. there he is. cameron hughes. >> a superfan. >> that was not enough for djokovic. after the match, djokovic did a little happy dance of his own. ♪ i love new york. and novak djokovic -- at's not enough for him, huh? >> he won. he has every reason to dance. >> novak djokovic loves that spotlight. >> he loves it all. >> that's one of us. coming up on "gma," what happened on "the real housewives"? a tragedy. after terrifying calls, she a tragedy. after terrifying calls, she speaks out this morning. a living, breathing intelligence that's helping people rethink how they live. ♪ in here, videdegames are not confined to scrcrns. ♪ excuse me, hi. my grandfather lived in this village. 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[ male announcer ] in here, friends leave you messages written in the air. that's it right there. ♪ [ male announcer ] it's the at&t network... a network of possibilities... and what's possible in here is almost impossible to say. ♪ ♪ exclusive to the military. and commitment is not limited to one's military oath. the same set of values that drive our nation's military are the ones we used to build usaa bank. from free checking to credit cards to loans, our commitment to the military, veterans, and their families is without equal. ♪ visit us online to learn what makes our bank so different. usaa. we know what it means to serve. fresher less processed foods introducing freshpet vital recipes so fresh the only preservative we use is the fridge freshpet fresh food for fido vo: a breakfast worth waking up for. enjoy the sausage, egg and cheese croissan'wich today. only at burger king. ♪ [peoeoe caughing] >> live and in hd, this is an abc 7 news update. at 7:26morning to you this tuesday, september 6. i am cynne simpson with your news update. we have the remnants of tropical lee causing problems and washington, d.c. area. was the scene and southwest washington overnight with the blocked because of flooding to battlemp open ago. newschannel 8 will have a lot of depth report on the impact in minutes the weather moment on an moment with the nationals. stephen strasburg is meant to return tonight. this comes one year after he surgery.nt elbow big return might be postponed if the weather does not cooperate. check on the morning commute. rush hour will happen and it cooperating as far as the weather. we are saturated with vehicles this morning. 270 from father hurley boulevard the beltway and the outer to the mormonelt and southbound 95 out of laurel and 66 is loaded up out of centreville and fair lakes. a few breaks in the rain as we look at the live doppler radar. light rain is falling south of gaithersburg south of is for theurg heavier rain is. we could pick up as much as