NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas - Sunday, August 4, 2024

Episode Date: August 5, 2024

Tropical Storm Debby set to slam Florida; Harris meeting with Walz, Shapiro, and Kelly as she closes in on VP pick; Team USA celebrates victories in track, swimming and cycling today; and more on tonight’s broadcast.

Tonight we are live from Paris as new records are set at the Olympics while in the U.S. the southeast is bracing for a hurricane now just hours away. The storm strengthening in the Gulf of Mexico right now set to slam into Florida as a hurricane tomorrow. The rain and wind have already begun, homeowners boarding up and warnings of catastrophic flooding in Georgia and South Carolina. We're tracking where it will make landfall. Plus, our up-close look at the new technology being sent into the eyes of hurricanes, how it's changing storm prediction. Final tests. Vice President Harris meeting with at least three of her top contenders for running mate in person today. Her deadline to decide less than two days away. Here in Paris, the heart-pounding photo finish. Noah Lyles wins gold, redemption, and the title of fastest man in the world.

His emotional hug with mom in the pool. Bobby Fink smashes the world record. Suni Lee brings home another medal in gymnastics. And Novak Djokovic collapses in tears after winning his first gold. Katie Ledecky one-on-one, the greatest female Olympian ever. Look at all that hardware, what she told me about competing in the next Olympics. This is NBC Nightly News. Reporting tonight from the Olympics in Paris, here is Lester Holt.

Good evening from the Olympic Games. All the headlines from here on a big Sunday coming up. But first, we want to update you on the growing threat from Tropical Storm Debbie tonight. The storm currently menacing Florida's Gulf Coast and expected to rapidly intensify into a hurricane before making landfall Monday in the state's Big Bend region. The storm right now clocking wind speeds of around 65 miles per hour. There are mandatory evacuations underway already ahead of potentially life-threatening storm surge. The Fort Myers area among the places already seeing winds, rain and early flooding. Debbie is on a track that could bring heavy rainfall to parts of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina in the coming days.

We'll show you the latest track and the forecast in just a moment. But let's get right down to Marissa Parra in the storm zone. Tropical storm Debbie drenching Florida, dumping heavy rain through the Gulf Coast. It happened that fast when it comes through some of these businesses and the residences and it's not a great feeling. Moving at a crawl, Debbie has the power to pack a punch with rainfall, storm surge and flooding, threatening cities and towns through its path. In Florida's Horseshoe Beach, residents know all too well what high waters can do. This is how high things got.

Sunset Grill owner Christine Laney says the damage from Hurricane Adalia this time last year was catastrophic. People now on Debbie's track, preparing for the worst, hoping for the best. We've removed all of the equipment from within the kitchen. You may get hit with an awful lot of water, a lot of rain. Almost all of Florida under a state of emergency. 3,000 National Guard members ready to assist emergency responders. NBC's Guadalcanagas is in Tampa,

which could see up to a foot of rain. Tampa Bay getting hammered by the rain with the waves crashing onto the causeway. Authorities here are worried about the surge and possible flooding from the rain. States of emergency in effect for Georgia and South Carolina. Now is the time to prepare.

Don't go outside. We're expecting a lot of water with this event. Back in Florida, residents bracing for what could be a long week ahead after what is already been a long year of recovery. It's heartbreaking, but there's not much you can do about things like this.

Marissa joins us now from Horseshoe Beach, Florida, where the storm will make landfall. And Marissa, it looks like you're already getting it. Yeah, Lester, I just spoke to the mayor of Horseshoe Beach. He says he is very concerned. You can see sandbags prepped beside me, behind me. We know that there are at least seven counties under mandatory evacuation through the state of Florida. 95% of this town has been evacuated, with more evacuations happening as we speak, Lester. Marissa Parra, thank you.

This storm is growing more dangerous by the minute. NBC meteorologist Angie Lassman is tracking its path tonight. Angie, good evening. Good evening, Lester. This system expected to continue strengthening while it spends time over those warm Gulf waters already bringing heavy rain to the state of Florida. Winds right now at 65 miles per hour and continuing to move north at 12 miles per hour. Into the evening hours, tornado watch in effect for most of the state of Florida, stretching into parts of Georgia as that circulation sits offshore. Expected to make landfall late morning, early afternoon hours tomorrow, and then meander across parts of the southeast. This slow movement

as it stalls out in that region going to be problematic for heavy rainfall. Potentially looking at historic amounts 10 to 20 inches with localized spots up to 30 inches. We'll watch that flash flooding and urban river flooding across this region as we get well into the end of our upcoming work week. Lester. Angie Lastman, thank you. It is crunch time for Vice President Kamala Harris, who now has less than two days before she's expected to announce her running mate. And today, NBC News has learned she met with at least three contenders face to face. Ali Rafa reports from Washington, D.C. Tonight, Vice President Kamala Harris is closing in on the most important decision of her presidential run so far. Who will succeed her as VP if elected? Harris holding separate in-person

meetings at her Washington home today with three of her top contenders, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, Minnesota Governor Tim Waltz, and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, according to a source familiar with the meetings. But Shapiro mummed when asked by NBC News Saturday outside his home about his weekend plans. Are you headed to D.C.? Where did you go today? I'm taking my dog for a walk. Waltz also avoiding speculation earlier this week.

That's not a decision that I'll make. The vice president herself will make that. An announcement expected very soon with Harris and her running mate kicking off a seven state battleground tour with a rally in Philadelphia on Tuesday. We have a fight in front of us and we are the underdogs in this race. Polls, including one released today, show Harris and former President Trump locked in a tight race. And in nearly all of the critical battleground states, the vice president virtually eliminating Trump's lead from when President Biden was still in the race. Meanwhile, Trump ramped up his attacks against Harris at an Atlanta rally last night. With our leadership, every disaster Kamala Harris and Joe Biden have created can be fixed,

and it will be fixed very quickly. Ali Rafa is outside the U.S. Naval Observatory where the vice president lives. And, Ali, the media has been staked out there looking for clues. That's right. A motorcade from Pennsylvania was spotted driving by earlier today. And former Attorney General Eric Holder, who oversaw this vetting process, was seen leaving a short time ago. Lester. Ali Rafa, thank you. Let's turn now to our Olympic coverage here in Paris. What a day for Team USA, sweeping up more medals, including gold for Noah Lyles. It was a race that lasted less than 10 seconds that he won by mere milliseconds. And that ended a 20-year drought for America in the men's 100 meter.

Tom Yamas was there for the electrifying finish. There's an Olympic gold medal waiting for somebody. Look at this finish. It couldn't have been any closer. This is close. But tonight, Noah Lyles has claimed the title of the fastest man alive. A race so tight, announcers first called the win for Jamaica's Kashane Thompson. Kashane Thompson is a gold medalist. But a review determined it was Lyles who came out on top, incredibly, by just five thousandths of a second. He's the first American to win the 100 meter at the Olympics in two decades. Do you feel like the fastest man in the world? I was always the fastest man in the world. Now I just got the medals to prove it.

Team USA's Fred Curley won bronze. I'll come now who will dip the fastest. Yes, they all dip me this time. In tennis, Novak Djokovic also chasing gold. Today, in his fifth Olympics, he finally got it. Beating Carlos Alcaraz in a grueling match, Djokovic overcome with emotion after achieving a career golden slam. Novak Djokovic gets gold for Serbia. In the pool, after nine days and 28 medals for Team USA,

it's a wrap on swimming, but not before the Americans broke two more world records and won two more golds. Back-to-back golds in the 1500 for pink. Really high-flying release move right off the top. On a fierce day of competition on the uneven bars, Suni Lee pulled out bronze. How'd you feel about your routine? Oh my gosh, I was so happy with it.

I mean, in the routine I was obviously like, oh my gosh, what are we doing? Just get off the bar already. But I'm so happy with how it went. Algeria's Kalia Namor won gold, the first gymnastics medal for an African country. It was also gold today for golfer Scotty Scheffler, starting the final round back four shots, but rallying to the top of the podium. Before today, Kristen Faulkner wasn't on anyone's radar for gold. We introduced you to Faulkner last night. She only started cycling seven years ago after trying it out in Central Park. Powering through the streets of Paris, she only started cycling seven years ago after trying it out in Central Park.

Powering through the streets of Paris, she pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the game so far, winning gold in the road race. It feels very surreal. It's starting to sink in. It's really a dream come true. And Tom, back with us now. Noah Lyles has some more work to do. Oh, that's right, Lester. He's going to try to do something no American has done since Carl Lewis in 1984, win a double, the 100 meter and the 200 meter. It's something Usain Bolt did often, but it's something U.S. sprinters want to do. It's the big prize that could happen Thursday. All right, Tom, thanks very much. Tune in for primetime coverage of the Olympics here on NBC starting at 7 p.m. Eastern. Now to my one-on-one with Olympic swimmer Katie Ledecky, who just made history here in Paris

and tells me she may not be done yet either. What is your body telling you after four medal-winning performances? Well, I've put my body through a lot this week, this whole year, just all the training, so you get to this moment. And the 800 still belongs to the one and only Katie Ledecky. We tried to put it all out there, and I feel like I did a good job of that. She sure did. Katie Ledecky won four medals here in Paris, bringing her grand total to 14.

She's also made history. With her win in the 800-meter freestyle, she became the first woman to win four medals in the same individual event. And she's now officially the most decorated female American Olympian of all time in any sport. But she remains as humble as ever. You made history on several accounts. Did you surprise yourself with any of them? I'm not one to really think of the historical markers. So most decorated female. A lot of the times the media had to tell me what I was accomplishing and I don't think a lot of it has sunk in. First woman in history to win four Olympic golds in the same event. To four Pete in the 800 was a big one and I think over the weeks, over the months,

over the years, it'll eventually sink in. But you didn't sit down and say these are my goals. No, my goals are never historical markers or anything like that. I'm very focused on times and how to swim my race, my technique, my pacing, all those things. How are you feeling? I'm all right. It's become a bit of an Olympic tradition for me to sit down with Ledecky with new medals hanging around her neck. First in London when she was just 15, then Rio, Tokyo, and now Paris. And as for the next one, and this is the part of the interview where I say, are you going to be in Los Angeles in four years? I'd love to be. I'll definitely be there in some capacity. I, at this point, would love to be swimming there. If I'm still loving the sport, I'm going to continue on

as long as I can. My chat with Katie Ledecky. We'll have more from the Olympics in a moment, but next, the high-tech ocean drones going right into the heart of hurricanes as they're changing forecasting. Back to our lead story tonight, a storm strengthening in the Gulf of Mexico set to hit Florida tomorrow as a hurricane, and researchers are using new technology to track that storm and others like it. Priya Shrader reports. This is the beginning of a long journey into the eye of the storm. So we're getting ready to deploy. This cutting-edge tool called a sail drone is 23 feet long, packed with cameras and sensors,

and it's changing how scientists track hurricanes. I think with the changing climate and the intensification of these hurricanes and storms, it's critical that we better understand them. The drones can withstand powerful winds, even 50-foot waves, giving scientists a view of hurricanes they've never seen before. This is video from a sail drone in 2021 in the middle of Hurricane Sam as winds whipped over 100 miles per hour. But first, it has to be released into the ocean. So we just left St. Petersburg, Florida, and this towboat is towing the sail drone into the Gulf of Mexico. Its ultimate destination will be determined by mission control managers

back in San Francisco. It will send data back in real time, like wind speed, wave height and ocean temperature, to help scientists better understand how hurricanes strengthen. So it's all building up to improving forecasts, improving predictions to help give people more preparation and more lead time warnings. So we just passed the Skyway Bridge and we're about three more miles until we're in the Gulf of Mexico, closer to the point where we're going to be deploying the sail drone. This drone and 11 others like it deploy from hurricane zones like here in Florida, the Virgin Islands and North Carolina. Sail drone mission managers are back in San Francisco controlling them and working with their partners at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric

Administration to redirect them to chase the storms. We made it to the Gulf of Mexico, the final deployment site for the sail drone. It's going to go out to sea for about three months and come back to St. Petersburg, Florida in November. We are ready to deploy. This sail drone now starting its mission. Are you hoping that information that's collected from things like these sail drones can actually potentially save lives? Yeah, that's the ultimate goal. We

want to save lives, protect property. The drone now on its own, ready to sail into the future of storm prediction. Priya Sridhar, NBC News on the Gulf of Mexico. And we are back in a moment with Team USA star Gabby Thomas, why she's also a champion off the track. Team USA's Gabby Thomas won the first round of the women's 200-meter sprint here in Paris today, but off the track, she told our Kate Snow about her life's other mission. Here comes Gabby Thomas. Gabby Thomas doesn't really know how to slow down. Thomas is going to get another national title.

She's one of the fastest women in the world, already a champion. She trains every day with other Olympians and hopefuls in Austin, but that's just part of her day. You train three to six hours a day, and you still find time to go to a clinic at night. Exactly, yeah. At night, Gabby works at the volunteer health care clinic for people who lack insurance. There's a lot about you that I think is a little different than the average Olympian.

You went to Harvard. Yeah. Neurobiology. Exactly. That's where she took a class about the disparities in the American health care system and the impact on people of color. After Harvard, a master's in public health from the University of Texas, she attributes her drive to her single mom. When she and her twin brother were young, their mom waitressed and took classes to become a professor.

She showed me in real time growing up what it's like to go after your dreams and to achieve them and become successful. I watched her just achieve all of that by herself and while raising us. Gabby says her running was just a side hustle when she was younger. Most Olympians have been running their whole lives, especially in high school. They were breaking state records. That wasn't you. No, I was pretty good in high school, but I wasn't looking ahead at running in college. But once she got to Harvard she caught fire breaking the NCAA indoor collegiate record in the 200 meter. So I was pushing myself in the classroom in my extracurriculars and on the track and it forced me to just get better at everything I was doing. She won two medals in Tokyo after a hamstring

injury set her back she built in time for recovery and rest. The way I became successful in track and field was basically running track part-time. And I think for me, that's really important for my mental health, just having other things in my life that help fulfill my goals and make me feel fulfilled. Four years from now, she'd love to be at the LA Olympics,

but one day she dreams of running a hospital or a nonprofit to expand access to healthcare. In five day, she dreams of running a hospital or a non-profit to expand access to health care. In five years, I hope that I'm doing the same thing I'm doing now, which is letting my passions drive me. And trying to help people. Exactly. Kate Snow, NBC News, Austin. That's NBC Nightly News for this Sunday. NBC's primetime coverage of the Olympics starts at 7 Eastern. I'll see you back here tomorrow night from Paris. I'm Lester Holt. Please take care of yourself and each other. Good night.