The teenager shares her harrowing 48hour journey to rescue. I got a surge of will power and thought there is to way i can die without hugging somebody again. Her story in her own words today, july 17 2015. Announcer from nbc news this is today with matt lauer and Savannah Guthrie relive from studio 1a in Rockefeller Plaza. Good morning and welcome to today on a friday morning. Matt is back on monday. We are prepared to get our country on. Absolutely. Alan jackson, one of the biggest stars in you will all of Country Music. He sold more than 60 million albums over the course of his career. Looks like about that many fans on the plaza. Like 10 million top ten hits. Hes amazing. More in a moment. First to the deadly shooting rampage at two military facilities in chattanooga, tennessee. Authorities are poring through the gunmans background. We have this covers starting with Gabe Gutierrez at the scene. Good morning to you. Reporter savannah good morning. The search for a motive intensifies. Investigators have been here through the night partly because of the things of that nature of the targets, both military sites and the timing coming at the end of ramadan. U. S. Oh fishesfficials suspect it could have been an isis inspired terrorist attack. We have not heard if they have discovered evidence to confirm that. Uh light this candle for a wounded marine. Reporter chattanooga is shaken after four marines were massacred. Our nation mourns the senseless loss of four of our nations heroes. All units responding to 4051 amnicola. Reporter police say a gunman identified as Muhammad Youssef abdulazeez never left his convert areible as he feared at least 25 rounds into this military Recruitment Center. Sounded like a jack ham er. Bam, bam, bam. Really fast. I saw him take one shot and consistent shots after that. Reporter he drove seven miles to a Naval Reserve center and opened fire again. This is a mass casualty incident. Reporter four marines with were killed. So was the gunman. Three people were wounded including responding Chattanooga Police officer dennis petigo who was shot the in the ankle. We have though idea the motivation behind the shooting. Reporter Sergeant First Class robert dodge is a survivor. He served four tours in iraq but only 35 days at this Recruitment Center. We got on the ground. Poved to a secure location, barricaded ourselves if and waited for the all clear. Reporter Curtis Henderson fought in the korean war. This hit him hard. How devastating is it to hear about Something Like this . Im sorry. These four men gave their lives just as much as if they were on the battlefield. Reporter this community is just shaken. Overnight we just learned the name of one of the marines who was killed. His name is Thomas Sullivan 40 years old, a native of springfield, massachusetts. He reportedly survived two tours of duty in iraq. This weekend, an autopsy is scheduled for the gunman as investigators try to find out what his motive may have been. Back to you. Gabe thank you. We are learning more about the gunman. 24yearold Muhammad Youssef abdulazeez a naturalized u. S. Citizen born in kuwait. Nbc National Correspondent kate snow has that part of the story. Good morning. Reporter good morning. We are in an up scale neighborhood in the hills outside of chattanooga, tennessee, where Authorities Say 24yearold Muhammad Youssef abdulazeez lived with his parents. Its a home and a family under the microscope. You can see an fbi van behind me as authorities try to figure out what would motivate someone to go on a killing spree. Well educated an engineer with a background in martial arts thats the portrait of Muhammad Youssef abdulazeez the 24yearold accused of the deadly shootings in what authorities believe paefb a lone wolf attack. We dont have anything that ties him to an International Terrorist organization n abdulazeez wasnt someone on the radar prior to this. His father was briefly on a terror watch list. Authorities are poring over emails and other data according to Site Intelligence Group abdulazeez had a blog posting life is short and bitterer and muslims should not let the opportunity to submit to allah pass you by. The blog is not con if i wered by nbc news. Authorities began searching the family home where the suspect lived with his parents and siblings. One woman was handcuffed but its common practice for officers. Nbc news spoke to a neighbor. I believe the family were devout muslims. The sisters wore burqas. He was always sweet and kindment. Reporter a rel tif relative of abdulazeez said her thoughts are with the family of the victims. Werer sorry. We grieve for them. With the rest of the nation. Reporter abdulazeez was a naturalized u. S. Citizen from kuwait. A High School Yearbook quote caught attention, quote, uh my name causes National Security alerts what does you are yours do . Signeded hijabman. He trained in mixed martial arts according to this fight. Not a violent kid. Reporter husband trainerer uh knew him during a sixmonth period. Average kid. Average 18yearold out having a good time with his friends. Learning something new. Enjoying the moment. Reporter recently he was charged with speeding in ohio in 2013 and a dui arrest from april. The fbi is aware of the blog post we mentioned. They say they are trying to confirm whether it was written by abdulazeez. Back to you. Kate snow thank you so much. Now to sean henry, president of crowd strike services. We saw a brief profile of the gunman here. Its too early to know what his motive is. When you look at what we do know it seems to bear hallmarks of one of the isisinspired attacks. I think thats right, savannah. You have to look at the tole tall ti of the circumstances. The investigation is young and it will take time. Wen you look at the target being a are recruiting station. Uh you look at the weapons used sop of the writings that have not yet been confirmed but may be tributed to him with religious over tones demonstrating convictions to islam, you look at that. It appears perhaps thats an avenue thats going to be pursued. It wont be confirmed until the investigation is well with under way. We were hearing about the blog post. We dont know if it is authentic or belonging to this gunman. The electronic trail is important in the investigation. The fbi is looking for two things. First of all, they are looking forward. Today want to make sure there are no other people tied to this specific attack. Are there pending attacks in play here . They want to make sure they are protecting society and citizens there in chattanooga and around the country. Looking backwards, they are look at the motivation. They will be going through the information to see why abdulazeez acted the way he did, took these actions. Again, who else is he connected to . Thats all happening simultaneously. They have resources fully deployed thousand. This is 24 by 7 and will go on indefinitely. Hopefully we get answers soon. Tank you as always. Another major story this morning. Severe weather spawning powerful tornados in the midwest. Al is tracking those for us. Good morning. We have amazing video to show you now. You watch what happens. You can see the main storm. Now you start to see with a we call multiple vortices coming from underneath the storm and a carousel of tornadoes as transformers start blowing. Look at the twisting. Apazing rid owe to see. Thats in mon mouth, illinois. About 200 miles west of chicago. Look at the damage caused in nearby cameron, illinois. Structures completely wiped out. Buildings damaged. Hard to believe when you see the damage. There were no reported injuries yet. We have more of this possible for today. We have a ring of fire, a huge dome of high pressure. The jet stream is to the north. This falling southern ridge, tornadoes and severe thunderstorms ride up and over the ridge. Thats where you get thunderstorms firing up. They probably will again today. The secondary thing is hot, humid weather. Temperatures 10 to 15 degrees above average. For today, the dakotas under the gun. Central illinois into ohio. Hail wind isolated tornadoes. The feelslike temperatures well above 100 from chicago down to new orleans. That continues again tomorrow. It will continue right into the weekend where temperatures combine with high humidity will make it feel awfully oppressive dangerously hot. Today we have to worry about more strong storms where they saw them yesterday incredible video. To politics and the donald trump effect on the 2016 race to the white house. Hes having a bigger impact than people expected leading to a growing war of words between the real estate mogul and his political rivals. Kristen welker is following it for us. Good morning. Reporter good morning to you. It seems every day there is another headline with Donald Trumps fame on it. Hes rising in polls despite controversial comments about mentionxicans and immigration. Trump doesnt have to worry about money and the other candidates are being forced to take him seriously. It was classic donald trump on display in New Hampshire thursday. Bold brash and taking on his challengers. Hillary raised 46 million. Thats a lot of money. The good the news is i got well how much do i have . 10 billion. The last thing we need is another bush. Reporter jeb bush the target of many of trumps verbal grenades has consistently fired back. Sources say hes taking trump seriously prepping for suspected attacks in next months debate i have a big disagreement with mr. Trump about his tone and what hes saying. Its not accurate. Reporter former Texas Governor rick perry who is lagging in the pollsed had harsh words on thursday writing in a statement, what mr. Trump is offering is not conservism its trumpism a mix of demagoguery and nonsense. Polls show trump is surging with one putting him ahead of the republican pack even besting jeb bush by three points. Analysts say hes on top now but the lead may not last. Lesser known candidates are are paying the price. For the men and women below donald trump in the polls its very tough. Sthrks the person who seems to be enjoying it all, Democratic Front runner Hillary Clinton is trouncing trump in a general election matchup. I have just one word for mr. Trump. Basta. Enough. Reporter last night yet another poll this one from fox news showing trump leaveding the republican field. How they will respond to trumps attacks for next months first debate. Back to you. That is highly anticipated. Kristen, thank you very much. President obama meantime now the only sitting u. S. President to ever visit a federal prison. His tour of the el reno institution in oklahoma is part of a bipartisan push to reform the nations prison system. While there president obama met with six inmates locked up for drug offenses and gave candid comments about the need for second chances. When they describe their youth and their childhood these are young people who made mistakes that arent that different from the mistakes i made and the mistakes that a lot of you guys make. We have to be able to distinguish between dangerous individuals who need to be incapacitated and incarcerated versus young people who are in an environment in which they are adapting but if given different opportunities, a different vision of life could be thriving the way we are. Thats what strikes me. There butter butfor the grace of god. Thats something to think about. Hes talking about his own admitted drug use as a young man. This is one of the rare issues where there is a bipartisan movement on sentencing reform. Extraordinary to see him walking the halls of a prison. You led off with laserers yesterday at newark and it was not isolated. Indeed. The f. A. A. Have expanded the investigation as the airline strikes expanding the laser strikes with pilot it is in at least ten states reporting being hit wednesday night alone. At least 35 commercial flights were targeted on both coasts including delta, american jetblue and united. This year there have been more than 2500 laser strikes now reported. Now to dramatic chopper crash in ireland on thursday. The chopperer slammed into a pub during landing. The two people aboard walked away with minor injuries fortunately. No one in the pub was hurt. Amazing. It was a close call aboard the International Space station on thursday. Nasas scott kelly and his colleagues had to flee the space station after a piece of an old russian satellite flew tear wayment they took cover inside the soyuz capsule for an hour while the fragment passed them. Kelly tweeted, happy there was to impact. Great koord thags with ground teams, excellent training. Kelly is four months into a year on the International Space station. Authorities say two people er were hurt in a house explosion in st. Louis overnight. The victims were trapped but eventually freed by firefighters. The explosion levelled the home and damaged homes on both sides of it. No word on with a caused the blast. Sentencing in the colorado movie theaterer massacre could begin as early as next week. On thursday a jury found james holmes guilty of killing 12 people this in the 2012 shooting that injured 70 others. Outside the courtroom survivors and victim families ex pressed relief. I looked at hum because i wanted to know his response. There was just nothing. Thats how i feel toward help. Nothing. The 27yearold holmes could face the death penalty. Police in los angeles are looking for a bunging ingleingbungling burglar who took a selfie recording himself inside the house after entering through an unlocked door. What a dope. He took off with the phone but the ownerer was able to access the video remotely pt police hope somebody can put a name to the face of the not very smart burglar. I dont think they will have trouble with that. Im guessing they figurer it out quickly. I bet he know what is the cloud is now. Thank you so much. Al . Lets look at the rest of the country, show you whats going on. We have severe storms in the plains. Wet weather through florida into southern alabama and georgia. We are expecting showers through the southwest. Monsoonal moisture there. The heat is on this the pacific northwest. Portland, oregon getting up to 88 today. It will get hotter this weekend. Your hi im andy allen, and ive partnered with visa checkout and williamssonoma to save you time to throw the perfect east coast clambake. With visa checkout, you can get what you need online in fewer clicks so that you can spend less time planning and more time sipping rose with friends. Plus, with help from williamssonoma, ill make sure you get everything just right from decor to food to that refreshing bottle of rose. Watch the time to savor summer series and save even more time on williamssonoma. Com with visa checkout. The easier way to pay online. Good morning im meteorologist bill henley. Another comfortable day. Lots of snain and warm this afternoon. But the humidity stays low, low to mid80s this afternoon with a little bit of a southerly breeze which will bring us humidity tomorrow and heat, too. 90, a chance of a shower and thunderstorm saturday then hotter on sunday and monday into the middle 90s. More showers and thunderstorms monday. Those storms clear out tuesday but it stays hot for tuesday, wednesday and thursday. Have a great day. Thats your latest weather. Al thank you. Coming up inside her ordeal. The 16yearold who hikeded to safety after surviving a plane crash. Heres the remarkable story that kept her going when she was just about ready to give up. And on rossen report, what to do if someone is bitten by a venomous snake. Is what you have seen in the movies really the best advice . Iran keeps their nuclear facilities. Military sites can go uninspected. Restrictions end after 10 years. Then iran could build a Nuclear Weapon in two months. Iran has violated 20 International Agreements and is the leading state sponsor of terrorism. Coming up on trending meet the adorable kid who knows what you should do when youre scared of taking the plunge. Plus a live concert from country great alan jackson, one of the alltime legends here on is that a new washing machine . Yeah, its a samsung with activewash. 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Thats why aveenos oat formula is designed for your babys sensitive skin. Aveeno®. Naturally beautiful babies. I just love cherry preserves. Is that your favorite . I also like strawberry boysenberry, red raspberry. With so many delicious varieties, its tough to choose just one favorite. Apple. Pineapple. Grape. Red currant. With a name like smuckers, it has to be good. Hey nice game today. Thanks. Juicy fruit . Sure ill try a piec. Juicy fruit. So sweet you cant help but chew. Nbc 10 news starts now. Good morning im is vai sikahema, just before 7 30. Another gorgeous day ordered up by bill henley. Lets get right to bill with his first alert forecast. Were seeing clouds move out, more and more sunshine. The temperatures will be climbing from the 60s into the 80s. The humidity is going to be staying low during the day today. Right now, 68 degrees in philadelphia. Its 60 in allentown