NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas - Sunday, August 30, 2026

Episode Date: August 30, 2026

More than a dozen people feared missing in Grand Canyon flash floods; U.S. strikes Iran for first time in weeks; Desperate search for Nepal flood survivors enters critical new phase; and more on tonight’s broadcast. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This is NBC Nightly News with Halley Jackson. Good evening. I'm Ryan Noble's in for Halley tonight, and we begin with the urgent search for people missing in the Grand Canyon after dangerous flash flooding there. The National Park Service says that several are unaccounted for after powerful floodwaters like this washed through the Grand Canyon. If you look at that thing floating in the water, it used to be a cabin. Choppers forced to rescue and evacuate dozens of heights. trapped after the floods hit. Our Dana Griffin is tracking it all and starts us off tonight. Tonight, more than a dozen people feared missing at the Grand Canyon after a river of mud and debris surged through. That's a pop house there?

What used to be a cabin swept away. Oh, my God, bro. This is actually insane footage. The National Park Service asking the public for any information on those who may have been hiking in the canyon. The floodwaters, sending people running for safety. Most of them had to be airlifted Saturday. Have you ever been through a situation like this?

No, I haven't. It was a unique experience, that's for sure. David Gregory and his friends were among more than 60 evacuees, recording their journey from the campground over this bridge and the helicopter flight to safety. It was kind of crazy. Hearing later that the bridge that we crossed was wiped out, kind of makes you think that maybe we should have been in more. of a panic. But if we were on that bridge, when all that debris had come through,

clearly there would have been casualties. Seven million across Arizona, Utah and Colorado under flood alerts through Monday. Oh my gosh. In Utah, a ferocious hailstorm pummeling this home, ripping down a tree. In north central Texas, firefighters building containment lines around the wind-driven Rossfire, roughly the size of 64 football fields. Along California's central coast, an extraordinary up-close view, a tanker dumping a sweeping line of retardant onto flames down below. Big Sur, blanketed in smoke as wildfires grow across the region.

And Dana Griffin joins us live in Los Angeles. It's been a wild week of weather. And I know that Southern California heat has been the big concern. What's in store for the rest of the week? Well, Brian, after a week of punishing heat, temperatures are finally easing in the southwest. But that hot air is now shifting east as temperatures this week rise five to 15 degrees above average across the eastern half of the country. Ryan? All right, Dana Griffin, thank you.

We are following breaking news out of the Middle East tonight. As the U.S. says it has launched strikes on Iranian targets there for the first time in weeks. Amish al-S. Indoor is at the White House following the latest developments. Yamish? A U.S. official tells NBC news that today U.S. forces struck two Iranian launchers that were preparing to but sea mines into the Strait of Harmouth. This is the first known U.S. military action inside Iran since late July. In response, Iran has launched a few missiles toward Jordan, but all of those strikes have

been intercepted by American forces, according to a source familiar with those operations. Meanwhile, the U.S. official says, Setcom finished clearing sea mines from the straits international shipping routes last week and that American forces will be monitoring the area closely. Remember, this past Friday marked exactly six months since the war began. Mishal Sindor, live at the White House. Thank you. Overseas, the all-out search for survivors is growing more desperate in Nepal tonight. Janice Mackie Freyer is on the ground. Days later, rescue teams in Nepal are still searching for signs of life from the air and on the ground, using thermal imaging and drones at a hydropower plant where more than a hundred workers are believed to be trapped in a tunnel. The China-Napal border post was all but obliterated by the wall of water and debris,

Chinese rescuers describing it as ruins. Ji On Gioti was only a mile from there when she finished a phone call with her family, that devastating warning. Her husband, Sanjeev Rai, traveled from their home in Massachusetts to Nepal in a desperate effort to find her. Understanding what exactly happened over there, Even if I can't take her back alive, but I want to take her back. It's not going to be a closure for me. The scale of destruction here is staggering.

Along the Toshuli River, we saw how the surge of water overwhelmed everything in its path. It is a sea of mud here, and it looks like this for miles. People who lost homes, now salvaging what they can, delivered to them in a bulldozer. More than 2,500 people are still alive. unaccounted for, including about 100 Americans in the region. Families scour lists of names hoping for clues. And Kathmandu walls around the main hospital are now a growing gallery of faces and a quiet appeal for information, good or bad.

Kalpana Shrestha says she's holding on to hope of finding her sisters and their kids, 10 people in all. She says nobody cares about them more than Nas, their family. Janice Mackey-Ferierer, NBC News, Bidur, Nepal. Now to a historic launch and NASA's next-generation telescope on the way to space, set to reveal new clues about the universe. Ryan Chandler joins us now, and Ryan, this telescope is set to spend more than three months

journeying to its final destination. Well, yes, Ryan, it's a million-mile journey, and it began this morning with the successful launch of SpaceX's Falcon Heavy Rocket and a promised to unlock new answers about the universe. NASA launching its most powerful telescope ever capable of photographing a million galaxies at once in images large enough to cover 45 city blocks. NASA administrator Jared Isaac Min says it could change

our fundamental understanding of the universe, analyzing dark matter and earth-like planets to expand the search for life. It has a long journey through the cosmos before we expect to see its first images beam back to Earth early next year. Ryan. All right. Ryan,

Chandler, thank you for that. We're back in a moment. A close call, two jets nearly clipping this stadium roof during a pregame celebration. Taylor Swift's big donation, how she's stepping in to help a hero. That's next. Welcome back. We've got some wild video out of South Africa tonight. You can see two jets flying dangerously low over a stadium in Cape Town before a big rugby match. Watch it again. You can see just how close they are to clipping the roof. They even fly through fireworks. It was all part of a planned pregame flyover. Also tonight's superstar Taylor Swift is helping a Connecticut family in a big way, donating $50,000 to Ashley Taunton as she recovers from a serious accident. Ashley was hit by a car while helping three teens whose vehicle flew off a highway in

Rhode Island, and Swift's gift is putting a big den in her medical bills. I want to be able to hug her. I'm just a regular person. How does this happen? Now, that big donation from Swift also helped Taunton's family to donate to other families in need as well. And that's it for this edition of NBC Nightly News for this Sunday. Tom is back tomorrow. I'm Ryan Nobles from all of us here at NBC News. Thanks for watching and have a great night.