In washington. A harrowing tale, the canadian man who was kidnapped with his family in pakistan speaking out this morning. It will be of incredible importance to my family that we are able to build a secure sanctuary for our three surviving children to call a home. The horror he says his family endured. All that and plus disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein planning to contest his firing as the group behind the oscars consider kicking him out. An elderly couple is rescued after being stuck for six days in the mountains. And how a Lottery Winner almost missed his chance at claiming 24 million, today, saturday, october 14, 2017. From nbc news, this is today with sheinelle jones, craig melvin and dylan dreyer, live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. Good morning. Welcome to today and thanks for joining us on this saturday morning. Im sheinelle jones. Im craig melvin and dylan dreyer is here as well. Been a while since the gang is here. They say our name now, im very excited. You cant leave, youre stuck. Im glad to be stuck. How about this guy, this Lottery Winner . 24 million. Can you imagine how wed be talking about this story if he missed it by a day. He found a ticket two days before it was set to expire in a shirt pocket. I didnt know they expire. Oh, they expire. Well get to him in a moment. To the top story this morning and that is the devastating scene out west as hundreds of thousands of acres burn out of control and the death toll from the California Wildfires rises once again to 35. And today, near hurricaneforce wind gusts in the area could make the situation even worse. We have Team Coverage this morning including dylans forecast, but lets begin with the latest on the fires. Morgan radford is in santa rosa, california. Good morning. Reporter good morning. There are currently 9,000 firefighters in this state of california, battling flames that have already left at least 235 people still unaccounted for. But you can see some the worst damages here in santa rosa, california, entire neighborhoods have been levelled and the fire that caused it still only 44 contained. Raging and relentless. Overnight, california firefighters battling monstrous flames that have already swallowed more than 5,700 structures across the state and left families shattered including that of 14yearold kai shepard who died while trying to escape with his parents and sister who lost both of her legs. We are strong and we will hold each other and we will pool our collective hope and strength and we will rebuild the shepards. Reporter many who did survive lost everything. This is our home. And it hurts to see it just burned, everywhere is scorched. Everywhere. Reporter Terry Reynolds says her kids carried her and her wheelchair through 30 feet of flames. I dont know what to do. Reporter shes staying in a shelter. We need a place to live temporarily. Reporter 30 miles away two hid in their neighbors pool for six hours as the fire burned around them. This was ore only option. The longer we were there i said were riding it out. Reporter authorities said there are still 17 large fires and more than 200,000 acres burned. The Sheriffs Department releasing these dramatic relation cue images from their body images. Where you at . Reporter out of the flames, signs of hope. Celebrity chef guy fieri served thousands of hot meets to evacuees and first responders. Its comfort food, i think comfort food makes people feel good. Reporter good on one of the worst days of their lives. Bay area officials have already issued a Health Advisory beginning today and lasting through monday because the air quality here is so bad. In fact, theyre asking people in areas like this to wear masks that will help them prevent from breathing in some of the dust and particles from the fire. Sheinelle . Morgan, thank you. Dylan dreyer is here now. Heres the other part of this story. The wind. And thats the problem. I mean, we could use some rain but thats not even in the picture. Now we just want less wind to deal with out there. Because of this area of High Pressure its continuing to pump in this northeasterly dry wind and that means we wont see any moisture being drawn in, so humidity levels will stay very low. These winds are also very gusty, especially in the higher elevations. And when you have those gusty winds it spreads the embers that trigger more fires and hem them spread. Just to the southwest of sacramento, into the orange areas thats where we have an elevated risk because of those stronger winds. Now Northern California the risk is mainly through this afternoon. Southern california it lasts through at least sunday afternoon. Then we could see that get extended as these conditions are not expected to change. So relative humidity is about 10 to 20 . But its the wind gusts up near 50 Miles Per Hour that helps to spread these fires. So as we look at the forecast going through the day today and into sunday, we are going to see those wind gusts up around 30 to 50 Miles Per Hour in the higher elevations. Elsewhere, 15 to 30. Absolutely no rain in the forecast but we need some higher humidity, thatll be caused when the winds shift. Then we need the winds to ease so the fires dont spread as rapidly as they are. President trump is trying to make a 180 degree turn from the obama era asking congress to toughen up the Iran Nuclear Deal or hell scrap it all together. This comes hours after the controversial move that says can spell the end of obamacare. Kelly odonnell reports. Reporter President Trump is stopping short of abandoning the nuclear deal and instead leaning on congress to tighten the screws against the iranian regime. This comes just as european allies were urging President Trump not to rock this boat. Not a surprise. But still a striking development. Iran is not living up to the spirit of the deal. Reporter President Trump chipped away at another obama era policy. The 2015 deal intended to blunt Irans Nuclear program. Were very unhappy with iran. Reporter the president decertified the agreement asking congress to consider new sanctions and enforcement on iran that would not scuttle the current agreement now. But would send a message. Well deny the regime all paths to a nuclear weapon. Reporter especially to irans military power. The revolutionary guard. The Trump Administration slapped new sanctions on the group, but stopped short of labelling it a terror organization. Critics say the move could provoke retaliation. And reaction was swift in tehran. Friday a different kind of defense. The president and first lady toured the secret Service TrainingService Center and watched them on the evasive driving course. That excursion came after the president slammed the brakes on a central part of obamacare, ending government payments to Insurance Companies that subsidized lower income Americans Buying Health Insurance policies. Angering democrats while he is trying to court them. If the Democratic Leaders could come over to the white house, well negotiate some deal thats good for everybody. Reporter and the timing of the president s decision regarding iran comes just as he faced an october 15th deadline to Tell Congress if hed certify the agreement. Decertifying puts the pressure on them and the Trump Administration readily acknowledges this could fail because he would need 60 senators to go along with new sanctions. Many democrats want the United States to remain in the iranian deal as it exists now so this is high stakes. It may not work. And the president told us when we were on the south lawn that he knows he might eventually just rip up the deal altogether. Sheinelle . Thank you. Jeremy bash is an Nbc News National Security analyst and its always good to have you. Good morning, craig. Former secretary of state john kerry he helped architect that 2005 iranian deal, he put out a statement yesterday and he said in part, quote, a reckless abandonment of facts in favor of ego and ideology from a president who would rather play a high stakes game of chicken with the congress and with iran than admit that the Nuclear Agreement is working. The leaders of france, germany, the united kingdom, they issued a statement saying theyre committed to the pact. And for it part, so did iran saying theyre also committed. Whats the truth here, jeremy . Was iran abiding by the spirit of the agreement . Well, iran is supporting terrorism. They are testing Ballistic Missiles so theyre doing some Dangerous Things but they are in compliance with their obligations to shut down their Nuclear Program and thats the key here. In effect the president said, im going to get out of the deal even though iran is complying. And because iran is a dangerous country, we want them not to have a nuclear weapon. And this deal so far was working. So then lets look forward here. President trump kicking this over to congress, what are the options Going Forward and what do you make of the timing of this . So much going on domestically and internationally. Well, what the president did here, he basically pulled the fire alarm and said, everybody get out of the building when in fact there was no fire. Iran was complying with the nuclear deal. And so now it goes over to congress. And congress has a choice. They can do nothing and basically america will stay in the deal. Or they can reimpose sanctions on iran, but the danger there is that iran could restart the Nuclear Program. Then as you referenced we have not one, but two big nuclear crises. One in north korea and one now in the middle east. Treasury Department Also imposing some sanctions on the revolutionary guard as well. Is that a move that could backfire, jeremy . Well, again, the Iranian Revolutionary guard corps which is basically irans way of supporting terrorism is a bad organization. They have attacked American Forces and they have done things around the region that are troubling and dangerous. We should clamp down on them, but again the deal here, craig, is we have to keep iran in the nuclear deal so that they dont break out and develop a weapon that can threaten all of us. Jeremy bash, thank you sir. We are hearing from the canadian man who was held hostage along with his american wife and their children by a taliban linked group in afghanistan. Boyle spoke about the captors while they were held in captivity for five years. Nbcs Lucy Cavanaugh has more. Reporter for Caitlan Coleman and her husband, it was a nightmare that lasted five years. Raising three children in captivity, hostages for their entire lives until their release this week. Obviously, it will be of incredible importance to my family that we are able to build a secure sanctuary for our three surviving children. Reporter but this morning, new revelations from husband joshua boyle about the couples torment at the hands of their captors including the murder of what would have been their fourth child, a baby girl. The stupidity and evil of authorizing the murder of my infant daughter, martyr boyle and the stupidity and evil of the subsequent rape of my wife. Reporter caitlan was seven months pregnant when they were kidnapped while backpacking through afghanistan, taken by the Haqqani Network a faction of the taliban which also held bowe bergdahl. They were freed after they had been moved from afghanistan into pakistan. This operation was carried out on the basis of intelligence which was provided by the u. S. Reporter back in canada, joshuas parents overjoyed. Havent stopped smiling since weve heard. Reality will check in im sure. Reporter but as the families rejoice there are growing tensions too. In an interview with abc news, Caitlan Colemans father slammed him for taking his family to afghanistan in the first place. Taking your wife to a very dangerous place, to me and the kind of person i am, its unconscionable. Reporter the families reunited but clearly in need of time to heal. Well, there appears to be some political inciting over what to do in puerto rico and how to pay for the federal response to the destruction from hurricane maria. It has been more than three weeks now since the storm devastated the island and tens of thousands of residents are still struggling in a mighty way. Nbcs Gabe Gutierrez remains in puerto rico this morning. Good morning. Reporter craig, good morning. The u. S. House overwhelmingly passed an aid package for puerto rico and other disasters. It was 36. 5 billion, but those who voted against it have concerns that what starts as Hurricane Relief could expand into longer term assistance for the financially strapped island. This morning, the three star general running the military relief effort in puerto rico says hurricane marias the worst disaster hes seen. On the military side, weve got everything we need. Weve got, you know, we went from 4,000 troops up to 14,000. We have on the ground now. Reporter fema says it has 1,100 workers in puerto rico compared to 3,000 for Hurricane Irma in florida and almost 4,000 for Hurricane Harvey in texas. We have the right amount of people here. Were bringing more people in. Reporter the president tweeting on friday he will always be with the people of puerto rico after warning thursday that fema and federal responders couldnt stay there forever. We are all in this with each other for the long haul. Reporter also friday, a bipartisan congressional delegation including House Speaker paul ryan visited puerto rico touting a 36. 5 billion aid package for this and other disasters. Do you believe it is the federal governments responsibility to help rebuild the infrastructure here long term . When youre building in short term youre building in the long term. It makes no sense to put temporary patches on problems that have long term effects. Reporter the question is at what cost . Puerto ricos damages could reach 95 billion. Devastating for a u. S. Territory that was already more than 70 billion in debt. Now fears of a mass exodus crippling it tax base even more. At san juans airport families are separating, loved ones flee marias aftermath. Lourdes nieves is saying goodbye to her daughter who is traveling to new york to live with relatives. I want here to be the same as before so she can live here and study here. Reporter the official death toll here in puerto rico remains at 49, but experts say it could be much higher. In a few days it will be a month since this storm slammed into puerto rico and more than 80 of the island is still without power. About 40 still does not have drinkable water. Craig . Gabe, good question there to the speaker of the house. Some new details are emerging into the investigation inin the deadly shooting in las vegas. Stephen paddock targeted officers responding to the scene in an attempt to cause as much carnage as possible and they fired back at criticism over whether the police could have done more after a shift in the time line of events and the police are still looking for motive of the attack which left 58 victims dead. Well, the investigation into whether the Trump Campaign colluded with the russians seems to be picking up steam. Reince priebus was interviewed friday by Robert Muellers team of investigators and priebus is one of a number of current and former white house aides expected to be interviewed by the former fbi Directors Team in the coming weeks. Police have arrested a man caught on camera sucker punching another fan at thursdays Football Game between the panthers and the eagles. Its disturbing to watch. Witnesses say the 26yearold repeatedly punched the 62yearold victim after he complained about the suspect standing for most of the game. The suspect has been charged with simple assault. And a texas couple who survived six days stranded on a desolate dirt road while vacationing in southern utah is speaking out about their horrific ordeal. Nothing came driving by. No one. This is unbelievable. Its a miracle because i thought he was dead. That couple who survived by Drinking Water from puddles was headed to a lake when their gps led them in the wrong direction. After their car broke down the woman went in to search for help. She was found by a rancher five days later laying on a road severely dehydrated. Search and rescue teams discovered her husband hours later after he made an sos sign out of rocks and flowers. Wow. Authorities say it is likely that they would not have survived another day. Wow. Thatll be a movie one day. Well, dylan has a quick check of the rest of the forecast. Yeah, we have a chance of stronger storms right through the middle of the country. Doesnt look like much right now, but the storms will fire up, especially later on this afternoon and into this evening. Out ahead of a cold front. We have the chance from kansas city of stronger storms, damaging winds and large hail and cant rule out an isolated tornado. Then good morning. Im first alert meteorologist krystal klei. Today another kind of dreary day. Mostly cloudy conditions