and good morning. welcome to "today" an a friday morning. i'm matt lauer. i just want to announced i'm wearing acontainer of johnson's baby powder under this suit. >> we're in the gardens and outside because we're crazy this morning. the heat index is already 95 degrees this morning. it's supposed to be about 10 2 degrees in new york city, matt. >> we've been talking about this heat wave for a long time now. today the east coast is getting the worse of it. you're going to have a heat index of about 111 here in new york city. 118 down in washington, d.c. 107 up in boston. power grids struggling to keep up with all the demand. al is going to have the very latest on this situation coming up in just a couple of minutes. >> also coming up this morning we'll be talking about lindsay lohan. she's in court, was in court on thursday. she's saying she can't afford court-ordered psychiatric help. but shortly after that hearing the blog is notice she showed up wearing thousand dollar shoes. plus, potential new legal troub troubles for her. are men really as lazy as women tend to portray them when it comes to doing chores around the house? we're going to have the results of a new survey. this is going to put smiles on the faces of a lot of men this morning so we're going to take a lot of time with this study. and speaking of the temperature, although it's hot here on the plaza, we've got really cool customer. grammy winner cee lo green is out on the plaza this morning in our 8:30 half hour. star and sxwrunjudge of "the vo" the deadly heat wave has the nation on high alert. we have nbc anne thompson at a power station in brooklyn. >> good morning. there are concerns about this heat wave this morning. the first is can power companies across the eastern seaboard hand what is expected to be record demand as millions of americans seek relief in air can being today? and secondly, the very real health threats that are associated with this heat wave. it has already claimed more than two dozen lives. you can see it on people's faces. almost half the country's population sweltering in this heat wave. >> you can't move without sweating. >> it's really hot. it's ridiculous. >> reporter: some stores get in air conditioning units, they go out the toor. tommy anthony bought one for his elderly aunt. >> my aunt is 92 years oeld, an she had a little bit of a heart problem and her air conditioner broke today. so she needs one no matter what the cost, no matter what. >> reporter: his aunt is one of 8 million new yorkers as temperatures hit 100 degrees and feel like 115. power company says it is ready. >> we could handle five days in a row of 100 degrees. >> reporter: pjm, the nation's largest independent grid operator managing electricity across 13 states in the mid atlantic and midwest, said it's seeing record demand. as temperatures go up, air quality goes down, adding to the health risks for young and old. >> we are concerned about dehydration. it's key for people to stay hydrated, water is really enough for most. >> reporter: yet some are feeling a different kind of heat. >> i now pronounce you husband and wife. >> reporter: these love birds blissfully oblivious to the heat index of 112 in the nation's capital. >> i didn't think about the humidity. i married my best friend and the man of my dreams. i'm elated. >> reporter: now, a couple of things to keep in mind. first of all, be a good neighbor and check on your elderly neighbors. make sure they have someplace cool to go. here in new york city they've opened some 500 cooling centers. secondly, we can't stress this enough. stay hydrated. drink plenty of water today. and remember your pets because they need water, too. matt and ann, back to you. mr. roker is across the street here. any relief in sight this weekend? >> you know it's hot when matt lauer breaks out seersucker. that's all i have to say. when you look at the watches, warnings and advisories from texas to nebraska, into new england and air quality alert here in the northeast, red flag alert for bad air quality. look at these temperatures right now. the this is for afternoon high. 103 in philly. could set a record. 102 in new york city. a record as well possible, 98 in virginia beach. charlotte, 100. as you widen out the heat continues to spread in the west. 104 in topeka. 103 in dallas. you can see it's going to feel like 107 in indianapolis. it will feel like 111 in new york city. the good news is, the pattern is changing. it's going to take a little while. right now here's that big upper level ridge, but we're getting a little cooler air coming in. this, though, back in canada, this is where the real relief comes. as we move into the early part of next week, by tuesday, the heat breaks in the north east. seasonal in the mid atlantic states. unfortunately for our friends in the south and the southwest and gulf koes coast the heat goes on. >> thank you very much. we'll get the rest of the fra forecast coming up. but let's turn to the idea of how dangerous the temperatures are. we're have dr. nancy snyderman with more tips. just remind us. >> the heat wave like this, elderly and the very young people with breathing conditions. but right now, frankly, everyone is at risk. it's a reminder that as many people die of heat-related illnesses than all the natural disasters. number one thing, ann, is called heat stroke. that's where you're literally, your core body temperature goes high, up to 103 degrees. you stop sweating. your skin turns hot, red and dry. h is a medical emergency. you take the cooler and dump the ice on them. >> it's he's exhaustion? >> not quite as emergent but just as important. you have to break the temperature. and that is you start putting profu -- start sweating profusely. your skin turns pale and sweating and muscle cramps and exhausti exhaustion. another reason to get out of the heat. >> before we get to that point you should probably taint take preventive action. >> anne thompson mentioned getting hydrated, but don't wait until you're thirsty. hydrate before you go outside. drink lots of water. replacing the salt. this is one of the sports drinks, they have electrolytes in them. if you don't have air conditioning, especially true for the elderly, sometimes afraid to venture out, get to a cooling center. call someone. if you love to exercise, pace yourself. exercise in the morning. and please remember, if you are at risk or someone near you, avoid it. this is not something to be casual about. >> nancy snyderman, thank you. >> you bet. let's get a check of the rest of the morning stories. >> good morning, everyone. with just two weeks to go before the august 2nd debt deadline, president obama and house speaker john boehner are pushing for a package for bigger deficit reduction. nbc capitol hill correspondent kelly o'donnell has more now. good morning. >> good morning. the senate moved up to today a vote on a popular house plan, popular with republicans to try to get that out of the way, expected to be dead. and speaker boehner can come out publicly for a deal we're told he's working on with the president. the democrats say they weren't in on it, they met with the president for two hours last night. democrats and the house and senate, officials say there is nothing certain yet but they're working for a package that would provide for bigger cuts. maybe $3 trillion. more important developments today and over the weekend. >> kelly o'donnell on capitol hill for us. thank you. james murdoch could be called to clarify his testimony before british lawmakers. a former legal adviser and editor is contradicting the news corp. executive son saying he was well aware of hacking at "news of the world." this is the u.s. justice department prepares to investigate whether or not news corp. hacked the voice mails of 9/11 victims. the pentagon plans to announce today that the military is ready to repeal the don't ask, don't tell policy. the president still has to give the final green light on the repeal and wait for 60 days before the ban on openly gay service members can be lifted. nfl owners voted overwhelmingly in favor of a tentative agreement to end the four-month lockout. but there's no vote yet from players because they have yet to see the full proposal from the owners. could donald trump be thinking about running for president again? he said a new campaign could be in the works. >> if the economy continues to do badly and if the republicans pick somebody that i think is the wrong person and isn't going to win, i would very seriously consider running as an independent. >> trump previously launched a brief run for the white house but dropped out before officially declaring his candidacy. a fiery crash in upstate new york when a tractor trailer slammed into a tour bus on the new york through way causing both vehicles to burst into flames. several medical helicopters and about 20 ambulances responded to the crash and more than 20 people were injured. 32 people had been killed and more than 320 had been injured in tour bus accidents so far this year. and with the scorcher here at home, it might be hard to imagine that parts of chile right now are under eight feet of snow. several cities have lost electricity and can only be reached by helicopter, leaving thousands stranded. how quickly that will be here for us. back over to matt, ann, and al. just around the corner. >> looks fabulous. >> great. mr. roker, tell us more. >> when you think about this, syracuse got 179 inches of snow this past winter and yesterday 101 degrees. it's all relative. let's see what's happening for todae what's happening today. showers and thunderstorms firing up in iowa on into illinois and parts of wisconsin. a risk of storms there. stretching from the dakotas all the way into ohio. beautiful weather in the pacific northwest today with temperatures in the 70s. record highs in the northeast. heat continues in texas, as those cities down there a lot of the cities in texas have had over 20, 25 days of 100 plus degree readings. that's what's going on around the country. here's what's happening in your neck of the woods. >> take it easy, heed warnings today. a poor air quality alert, code red. that means stay inside, the air unhealthy for everyone, for any prolonged period of time. certainly don't want to exert yourself outside. we've got an excessive heat warning. heat index may have dropped to 90 but it's back up to 93 with air temperature of 85. high humidity with temperatures rising today, heat index values 75 to 85 that's your latest weather. matt? >> al, thank you very much. humanitarian disaster, the african snagsing nations are plagued but an unrelenting drought and famine. and an international aid agency says millions are at risk of dying. we are in ney observe write, kenya. this story you're about to see contains some disturbing images. good morning. >> good morning, matt. i just spent close to a week at a desperate place, a giant refugee camp on the kenya/somalia border built for 90,000 refugees. the population today is 400,000. it's a population that grows almost every single minute. they have walked for days, even weeks in search of food and water. at more than 1,000 new refugees arrive here every day. many are children who are still in grave danger. >> the mothers and the children, i'm not sure many of them will be alive in the next week or two. >> reporter: just outside the camp a makeshift village has been formed, in terrible conditions by desperate people. many are stuck, unable to make the final few miles. the people who live here haven't been placed here, they've chosen to come. they've created their own community because the pressure in the mein kampf is so great. she is waiting for space there to free up. she tells me that to get here she walked for an entire month from somalia with her five children. but along the way she took in another child. she found him alone. his mother had died from hunger as they travelled. this is where she escaped from, somalia, where the situation is even worse. >> i've met here today people from all over southern somalia, and there is no food where they are. i just heard from one woman who has lost three of her children. >> reporter: tens of thousands have died there already. and the exodus continues. one problem is that the militant group controls much of southern somalia. so only now as much of foreign aid is getting through. one problem for aid workers is that the most desperate place in the world is also the most dangerous. matt? >> thank you very much for bringing us the story. we appreciate it. 15 minutes after the hour. here's ann. >> thanks. the space shuttle "atlantis" is now set to be a museum piece. it was towed in on thursday. shortly after the last shuttle mission, everything came to a close. nbc's tom costello is in cocoa beach, florida, a town hit hard at the end of the shuttle program. good morning. >> good morning to you. all the shuttles are going to be tourist attractions, but for the communities up and down the space coast, cocoa beach, titusville, came canaveral, they're all just trying to hold off. the air code along florida space coast says it all, three, two, one, a nod to nasa and the life blood of this place. at its peak, 17,000 people worked on the shuttle program at cape canaveral. thousands more lived off the spin-off jobs. but with the loss of 9,000 of those nasa jobs, the space cost is looking more like a ghost coast, abandoned shopping malls, boarded up store fronts, homes cut in half. making it hard to move on for another job. for 11 years james has worked as an engineer at the shuttle's communications and tracking systems. his last day at work will be tomorrow. >> everybody is looking for the same job. there is not as many jobs as there are people. so you just have to hone your skills and stay on the education and, you know, compete. >> reporter: he wants to stay in the area he loves, but times are tough. while the state unemployment rate in florida is now 10.6%, it's higher along the space coast. 10.9% in the core spat county prevard. 11.3% in county. in titusville, more than 10% of the people who live here are losing their jobs. at the diner, paul has seen his regular customers leave one at a time. >> you know them by name. the next thing you know they're gone because of getting laid off. you know, i know of five more people that are getting laid off on the 22nd. >> reporter: but the mayor has faith in the people here. >> they're the kind of people who helped put a man on the moon, helped fly a shuttle program for 30 years, helped build an international space station. these are not people that shy away from a challenge. >> they never have. now, up and down the space coast they're hoping, hope that the commercial rockets that will replace the shuttle, that they will bring jobs and eventually nasa's deep space program will bring jobs. but those programs are years away. ann? >> thanks. it is now 7:18. once again, here's matt. >> if you were enthrawled by royal's wedding. you will love what's happening in buckingham palace. michelle, good morning to you. >> hi, matt. so you remember that royal wedding thing that happened here? well, it's back. kind of. princess catherine's wedding gown is about to go on display expected to draw half million visitors between tomorrow and october. oh, yes, you remember it well. but you haven't seen it like this. catherine's dress still looks like a dream come true even if she's not there to bring it to life. what you can do is stick your face right up and see the delicate lace, every stitch made by hand. >> that's so much work. wonderful craftsmanship. i think it will be quite a revelation. >> reporter: you see the cascading nine-foot shane, how fine the silk veil is, topped with the tiara loaned by the queen, all 888 diamonds. and another revelation, what did kate wear under her gown? hand-made shoes, of course. high heels. you can see the couple's cake, yes, the actual cake, with only the top three small tiers replaced, and a replica of the bouqu bouquet. >> some people thought it was too modest but i thought it was right for her and the drsz. >> the dress is tiny up close. it's not that huge of a creation. the size of the room, the ballroom where their wedding rezer reception was held. >> what a tiny waist. is this the real dress? elated. i thought it was going to be a bit of a cake dress. >> reporter: and its understated elegance has sold over 100,000 advance tickets, more than ever before here. it's all the little things, including the royal family's incredible faberge collection that you can't see on the big screen. >> you see it but you can't touch it, feel it, smell it, unless you're really here. >> reporter: just don't try to taste it. as delicious as it all appears. >> what kate has done is she's the biggest sensation to hit the royal family in the last 22 years. >> reporter: okay. so check this out. it costs $28.53 for admission to get in there. so if they sell out this show, that's $18.3 million that will go toward renovating the palaces, including this one which reportedly pretty much needs it. the royal family can say, thank you, young catherine, for that huge wedding we threw you. matt? >> thank you very much, doing the math. michelle, thank you very much. coming up, lindsay lohan scolded once again by a judge. is she in legal jeopardy? but first, on a friday morning, this is nbc. coming up, are men getting a bad rap when it comes to doing their share of tours around the house? also coming up, a live concert from cee lo green. that's first after your local concert from cee lo green. that's first after your local news. o power our lives. ed while energy developement comes with some risk, north america's natural gas producers are committed to safely and responsibly providing decades of cleaner burning energy for our country, drilling thousands of feet below fresh water sources within self contained well systems and using state of the art monitoring technologies, rigorous practices help ensure our operations are safe and clean for our communities and the environment we are america's natural gas. special k protein shakes -- ♪ a truly great-tasting breakfast shake. with 10 grams of protein and 5 grams of fiber, it's the creamy, delicious way to satisfy... your hunger to help you lose weight. ♪ so you can kick the tin can habit. try special k protein shakes today. that's me with the blow dryer and the flat iron until i see smoke. so pantene said, "breakage and split ends? 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