a tragic irony unfolding in mississippi where just days ago record rains inundated the jackson area yet tonight that city finds itself in desperate need of usable water after failure of the main treatment plant. governor tate reeves declaring a state of emergency, saying the city cannot produce enough water to meet other critical needs and imploring residents to not drink this water tonight officials are struggling to distribute bottled water to the estimated 180,000 people affected as we reported last night, the jackson area has suffered water infrastructure issues for years most recently, boil-water notices have been in effect. the crisis now worsened by the recent floodwaters, and it is raining there again tonight. nbc is in jackson. reporter: tonight, a race to distribute water in jackson, mississippi. cars lined up for miles outside distribution centers full of locals hoping for water who left empty-handed after the supply quickly ran out. the water that they are giv
Preparations for the major rollout. reporter: a new pfizer covid vaccine is rolling off the assembly line in kalamazoo. the first thing you notice is that the tops of the viles are not purple you notice the color change reporter: a new color because there is a new target, the omicron ba.4 and ba.5 variants but it still needs fda authorization, which could come as early as this week. we have doses ready virtually immediately. so, within 24 hours trucks will leave the facility reporter: so that could be people this weekend getting shots potentially. we are ready to go whenever the approval comes down reporter: pfizer s chief global supply officer gave nbc new an exclusive tour of the massive production facility first thing we want to do is make sure that every element of that vile is to perfection reporter: back in june, the fda asked both pfizer and moderna to develop shots targeting ba.5, which makes up most of the cases in the u.s
Protection against serious disease. reporter: pfizer s original vaccine was initially shown to be 95% effective at preventing infection, but over time, the potency wore off boosters were necessary. demand has dropped just over 108 million people have the first booster. only 23 million have gotten the second. even so, pfizer says it has 30 million doses of this new booster ready to go out the door stephanie, let me ask you this late last week moderna announced it s suing pfizer for patent infringement for its covid vaccine. how is the company responding reporter: lester, pfizer says it s surprised by this lawsuit. adding that the technology it based its vaccine on was developed by biontech, that s pfizer s partner company in germany. all right, stephanie, thank you president biden traveled to battleground pennsylvania today, saying in a fiery speech he s determined to ban assault weapons in the u.s he also defended the
Long lines for bottled water. how long before service is restored? also tonight, tracking strong storms moving east after deadly severe weather in the midwest and the extreme heat. more than 50 million on alert in the west our nbc news exclusive inside the facility where pfizer is producing the next generation covid booster. how soon could shots go into arms president biden s fiery speech, saying he s determined to ban assault weapons and calling attacks against the fbi after the mar-a-lago raid sickening u.n. inspectors arriving in kyiv before their journey to a russian-controlled nuclear plant at the center of growing international fears. remembering mikhail gorbachev, the last leader of the soviet union, credited with lifting the iron curtain. and serena williams advancing at the u.s. open, cheered on by a record-breaking and star-studded crowd when she takes the court next good evening