Nightly news with lester holt. Good evening. I m kate snow in for lester tonight. It is rare to see hurricane warnings on the west coast of florida in july. But that s exactly what we have tonight. Tropical storm elsa dumping heavy rain on the florida keys today and then strengthening over the open water with maximum winds now just below hurricane strength and the threat of lifethreatening storm surge the tampa area bracing with forecasters expecting the storm to become a hurricane just before making landfall tomorrow morning, likely somewhere north of tampa we ll have the full forecast ahead, but we begin with catie beck in tampa tonight. Reporter: tropical storm elsa growing stronger over warm gulf waters with winds nearing 70 miles an hour, the threat of tornadoes and up to eight inches of rain are expected along florida s west coast everybody is always concerned. You never know what it s going to do. We re going to take on some water. That s all there is to it. Reporter: many busin
This was necessary, officials say, because the remaining structure was being held up by little more than the rubble itself. When search crews returned to the pile at around 1:00 a. M. , they uncovered three more bodies and one more later today. In a moment, the very latest from the scene. First, though, tropical storm elsa. Surfside is already feeling the outer edge of it. But the worst could be coming instead to the gulf coast of florida. Meteorologist derek van dam has more. It s going to be getting worse, derek. Reporter: john, you ve covered enough of these storms to understand that there are outer bands that can change the weather at a moment s notice. The miamidade county region today had a tornado warning to the south we felt of surfside, really validating the decision to take down the remaining structure of the champlain towers. It s incredible, even though the center of this storm is well displaced from the surfside region, they could potentially still feel the impacts like th
Haiti s ambassador to the united states will be here to explain. Just about 45 minutes we re expecting to hear from president biden about the u. S. Troop withdrawal. It s been accelerating as the country effectively ends 20 years of war there. It was a promise made by candidate biden. As troops are leaving, the taliban is gaining ground quickly. The country is at a real risk for war president biden was asked about the prospects of kabul falling. Here s what he said yesterday more than 2200 americans have died in afghanistan since 2001. In the united states, more than $2 trillion have been spent just in that country. While ending the war remains popular, the potential of afghanistan returning to a haven the terrorism is. It s made for a powerful symbol of the vacuum. Miles of unguarded roads, hundreds of discarded vehicles. Here at home while it goes much of the public opinion in this country. Remember, there was a time afghanistan was the socalled good war. Here is a warning from then
Meteorologist bill karins to give us an update on elsa. If we have to cut off i ll spare you guys and go over to the press conference but talk us through, vaughn, any updates we know so far early this morning. Reporter: good morning, yasmin, we re awaiting the press conference slated to start at any minute including mayor cava as very wait for updated numbers and how the search and rescue operation went overnight. The weather stopped the operation twice last night particularly because of lightning that was here just off of the surfside shore. You can also see in video from last night when the first outer banks of tropical storm elsa struck here in surfside, you saw high gusts of winds and downpour of rain. You can see those workers trying to work through it. We ve been told by the officials here that rain would not be a damper on this particular effort, but that if the winds were too exceed 30 miles per hour, they would have to stop their operation. Again, we know that at least the ope
Good evening to you this holiday weekend. Welcome to a special edition of out front. I m jim sciutto in for erin burnett. We just learned that another body has been pulled from the wreckage of the catastrophic condo collapse in florida. Three bodies were found earlier today. That now leaves 28 people confirmed dead, yet 117 still unaccounted for and missing. The latest victims were found after the remaining units of the champlain south towers condo building were demolished late last night. We re told portions of the building were only being held up by the rubble pile. The mayor of miamidade telling cnn that the demolition helped rescue teams get to new areas of the rubble today. That building, as you can see, now completely leveled. That was it before on the left and after on the right there, after last night s implosion. It comes as crews are now bracing for what could be severe weather from at least the outer bands of tropical storm elsa now expected to hit on the western side of flo