Top Story with Tom Llamas - Thursday, October 10, 2024

Episode Date: October 11, 2024

Tonight's Top Story has the latest breaking news, political headlines, news from overseas and the best NBC News reporting from across the country and around the world.

Tonight we're live from Fort Pierce, Florida. Parts of the state in ruin in the wake of Hurricane Milton, the powerful Cat 3 hurricane barreling into Sarasota County, the pictures you won't believe, violent winds, dangerous storm surge, and deadly tornadoes, daylight revealing widespread destruction. While some homes were submerged, others were reduced to rubble. A crane toppled into a building, and the roof of Tropicana Field ripped to shreds. communities reeling from a second hurricane in just as many weeks. We speak with residents about what it was like as Milton charged across the state and the

daunting prospect of picking up the pieces. Also tonight, millions in the dark hurricane force winds toppling power lines and knocking out electricity, cruise from across the country joining in the urgent effort to get the lights back on, and rescuers jumping into action, saving hundreds trapped by rising floodwaters, the dramatic video of a team clinging onto floating debris, and the heroes coming to his aid. Also tonight, music mogul Sean Diddy Combs back in court, finding out when he'll face a jury in his sex trafficking case. Prosecutors searching through nearly 100 of his devices,

what will they find? And the new questions tonight, if more charges could be coming. Deadly mine malfunction, a dozen people trapped during a tour of an underground mine in Colorado, at least one person killed, the breaking details just coming in. And the devastating tolls, families returning from their hurt. homes for the, to their homes for the first time, seeing everything they worked for destroyed. One elderly woman finding the home she lived in for half a century completely wrecked. The grim reality she and so many others face as they work to recover.

Plus, we hear from a family and a terrifying moment that they came face to face with a tornado. A special edition of Top Story starts right now. And welcome to a special edition of Top Story. We are live in Fort Pierce, Florida tonight. One of the scenes of that tornado outbreak that happened here in Florida. So many of those deadly tornadoes coming from Hurricane Milton. Florida's east coast caught off guard while all lives were on the west coast as Milton neared landfall. Massive twisters wreaked havoc. Just behind me, a tornado hit this home here in Fort Pierce. You can see it completely destroyed it. The homeowners somehow survived. They were inside. They noticed something strange. They took shelter inside the master bedroom closet, and they somehow lived to tell the story. That homeowner just telling me moments ago, he wants to make sure the country doesn't forget about Fort Pierce,

that this area right now is hurting, and it needs a lot of help from all the states in this country. Right now, the entire state is reeling from back-to-back storms, Hurricane Milton carving a path of destruction as it moved from coast to coast, at least 12 people killed, and dozens of others injured. The storm making landfall shortly after 8th,000. 30 as a Category 3 hurricane in Siesta Key, that's just south of Sarasota. The hurricane battering the region with violent winds and quickly inundating the area.

There was a powerful storm surge. We were caught in the crosshairs of the hurricane and had to run for cover. The situation here in Sarasota is starting to turn dire. At first, we had to go. We got to go. We got to go. We gotta go. Morning revealing Milton's devastation, the barrier islands taking the brunt of it,

homes knocked off their foundation and streets filled with feet of sand. Tampa, which was bracing for the worst storm in a century, was spared of a direct hit, but neighborhoods were washed out and roads were left impassable. Area airports were hit hard, and in Sarasota, we saw some of it up close. The roofs were blown off hangers and planes were flipped. Officials are working to assess the damage and see. when they can get service back up and running. In St. Petersburg, 100-mile-an-hour winds

sent a construction crane flying into an office building that crane demolishing parts of the building collapsing onto the sidewalk. Hundreds of rescues unfolding all across the state, a teen found floating on a fence, a young boy clinging onto the back of a first responder and countless others saved from rising floodwaters. And there is dramatic new video

of the moment a destructive tornado tore through St. Lucie County. Power lines, debris, and trees launched into the air. Dozens of monster twisters caught people off guard as they whipped through several communities. In a moment, we'll hear from one man who spotted a tornado moments before it hit his home and it hit his vehicle. Video showing the destruction, cars flipped upside down, homes ripped apart, and residents left with a mangled mess. Florida shattering records for the number of tornado warnings issued in a single day. Tonight, nearly three million customers are without power. Officials warning it could be days, if not weeks, before the lights are back on.

We're covering it all tonight from coast to coast, but we start with the ongoing search for survivors amid that tornado outbreak. This is the terrifying moment, a massive tornado ripped through Fort Pierce. Look at the debris spinning into the air. Oh, violent tornado. And this video capturing a twister in Palm Beach Gardens. Look at how quickly and violently it envelopes this house, sending debris. free-flying and blowing out the windows. Both tornadoes part of a deadly outbreak spawned by Hurricane Milton.

We are very, very saddened to see a tornado inflict such serious damage, including loss of life. According to initial reports, at least 38 tornadoes touched down. The twisters flipping semi-trucks, tearing down trees, and reducing homes to piles of rubble. This wind came through here. If Michael had not grabbed that door and closed it, we wouldn't be here. We wouldn't be here. In St. Lucie County on Florida's east coast, a tornado tore through a retirement community, killing at least six people, including Debbie Kennedy.

Her daughter telling us she was an incredible mother and caregiver. This is a 100% rescue mission. Today, Sheriff Keith Pearson telling us they are still searching for survivors. And unfortunately, our death toll has gone up. We're up to six right now. but I'm hoping we were able to rescue some more people. You ever seen anything like this? Never, never.

This is the last thing that I could expect. I don't think our community has ever seen anything like this. We've been through hurricanes before. This was nothing like that. It's a complete devastation. I mean, cars, trailers, where there were homes, they weren't. They were lifted up, they were moved, they were crumbled. Those that survived look like this.

Boris Melboff can't believe he's alive. The truck started to roll over and it stopped and then once again. He's covered in stitches all over his arms. up his face. Fingers, fingers, two more cuts here. He says he never saw the tornado until his truck started flipping. Leaves started to fly something hit the truck. Pretty powerful to roll over your truck, right? Yeah. You'll never forget that, huh? No. HCA Florida Lawnwood Hospital took in 15 patients with tornado related injuries, some with broken bones, others that needed brain surgery. Most of these blunt traumas to the head and chest abdomen and some of them had other

fractures because they got like hit directly by some flying objects and debris what did the patients tell you were they taken completely by surprise they are they were and it was like they themselves they didn't know what happened most of them they just felt like a lot of wind hit the place and all of a sudden they something catastrophic happened for them this was an incredibly traumatic situation. It is. It is.

Florida's Governor Ron DeSantis has provided search and rescue teams to this community. The sheriff tells me it's unclear how many people they lost because in that retirement community, a lot of people, it's their second home and they may have been away, their snowbirds or they may have evacuated, so they're still unclear if they're searching for survivors. For more on the rescue and recovery efforts here in St. Lucie County, the communications director for the area, Eric Gill, joins Top Story Live Now. Now, Eric, talk to me about what happened here. I mean, I know it took your community by surprise.

We were waiting for this hurricane, and then suddenly you have this tornado outbreak. Yeah, absolutely. We, in a span of about two hours, we had 900 calls into our emergency operation center about the tornado activity. 900 calls. 900 calls in a two-hour span. We had reportedly at least 12 tornadoes touchdown. There were two that were confirmed by the National Weather Service. They'll have crews out tomorrow to confirm the others.

And some of those tornadoes were massive. You've seen the videos, they look like they're half a mile wide. Did you guys realize at the time what was happening? Yeah, I mean, we were getting the alerts that were pushed out by the National Weather Service and the calls coming in and the videos that we were seeing. You really didn't know how bad it was until you had time, you know, to the storms, to the thunderstorms and the tornadoes passed through, and you had time to go out and really assessor. When you see the damage like this, what do you think?

It's devastating, you know, and we've seen areas where, you know, one side of the street, the house is fine and other areas it looks like. like this. Yeah. You know, the sheriff told me they're still searching for survivors. They're working around the clock. Talk to me about that effort. Well, like you said, you know, some of these people may have been out of town, their second home. They may have left the area going to stay with friends. There's still some spotty cell phone service. So maybe they just haven't checked in with loved ones yet. But we know at least six people were killed yesterday in these storms. In some of these videos, we see the twister pass through, especially when it

comes to the vehicles that were flipped over. And regular people just stopped. Good Samaritans, they pulled their fellow residents out of these vehicles to save them. They took them to the hospital in some regards. Is this community now coming together to try to help? I think it always has. I've lived here 25 years. And 20 years ago, Francis and Jean were two hurricanes that devastated this area. And we saw those communities come together and help neighbors out. And we're seeing that again. Eric Gill, we thank you for being here. We'll be thinking about your community. We'll be reporting on this throughout the broadcast and the weeks ahead. All right. Thank you. Yeah. And of course, in addition to those deadly tornadoes, the sheer force of the Category 3 hurricane. Hurricane Milton did massive damage across Florida, millions losing power and floods devastating neighborhoods. NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt has this report from CST Key where the hurricane made landfall.

Tonight, this is Hurricane Milton's path of destruction. In hard hit, Minnesota Key, homes ripped apart and pushed off their foundations, debris everywhere. The damage along Florida's already battered Gulf Coast extensive, that were not nearly as catastrophic as originally feared. The storm was significant, but thankfully this was not the worst case scenario. At least 12 people are dead. Millions of homes and businesses are without power on Florida's East Coast. Oh! The string of deadly tornadoes flattened buildings. Walked outside and annihilated. The neighborhood annihilated. In St. Petersburg, Milton's ferocious winds caused this crane to collapse, crashing into an office building. At Tropicana Field, the home of the Tampa Bay Rays, the massive fabric roof ripped off, now in tatters on the field.

It had been used as a base camp for responders pre-storm. About 14 people were inside at the time. All are safe. The storm tossed boats on their sides, and trees. crashed through homes we heard a screeching noise and they came outside and seemed a branch in that right yard category three milton made landfall last night near sarasota dumping 18 inches of rain in some places are packing 100 mile an hour winds ripping roofs from homes and there it goes sending debris flying to the air causing transformers to explode

Whoa, whoa. And fires to break out. Storm surge pushed water through neighborhoods. In Tampa, police rescued 15 people from a single-story home, including several children. It's okay, Mama. It's okay. Hundreds more rescues today, including this 14-year-old found floating on debris. A Coast Guard helicopter crew rescuing this man whose boat was disabled in the water clinging to a cooler.

NBC's Chase Kane is in Daytona Beach. The Volusia County Sheriff has a marine unit for exactly this kind of thing, using airboats to evacuate people to safety. Because the rain fell so quickly and more than 15 inches, it cut off entire communities trapping people in their homes. Today I met up with the fire chief of Sarasota County. We traveled to Siesta Key, the barrier island, where Milton made landfall. I was with him as he returned on the ground for the first time since the storm. As we drove onto the island, we found down trees and flooded streets. Have you seen a lot of flooding like what we're looking at here?

Yes, and as you go further and further north on the Bayer Islands, because it's a little lower down there, the water depth is a little worse. The chief breathed a sigh of relief, Siesta Key was largely spared. We just drove through these flooded neighborhoods and trees down. Were you anticipating it would be worse than that? We were. By the grace of God, the predictions and what we had planned for did not come to fruition. But obviously, if you are a resident or business owner out here, I don't want to minimize it.

This is very impactful to the community, but it could have been much, much, much worse. Lucky is not to be confused with untouched. This is Siesta Key, where the eye of the storm first came ashore. Many of the homes in this community are totally surrounded by water hours after the storm's landfall. Tonight, Milton has left the Gulf Coast behind, but many are just beginning the difficult work of cleaning up after a major storm for the second time in less than two weeks. And Tom, officials say they were working in rescue mode today, but they will do a further look to really understand just how bad this storm really was. Let's turn it back to you now. All right, Lester, we thank you for that.

And on those rescues over in Tampa, forced responders rushing to save hundreds of people, submerged in high flood waters, some neighborhoods now underwater in areas, miles from Florida's coast. Stephanie Gosk is there at the water rescues that are underway. In central Florida, a race to pull people out of the water, not from a dangerous storm surge, but from Milton's torrential rains. This woman escaping the rising waters in the dark, her four young children in tow. Once we hopped on the oven, I called my mom and told my mom, I think me and my children are about to drown to death. Many of the neighborhoods underwater are miles from the coast and not typically flood prone.

How long did you live down there? I lived there 14 years. Did you ever see it flood? No, ma'am. Nothing like that. The county fire rescue in Tampa says it conducted 500 rescues. 135 people were pulled from a single assisted living facility. Please be careful. If you feel better, go on the dry ground, we can take you there.

Amphibious vehicles and marine units. units helped reach inundated homes. Rescue workers got here around 3.30 in the morning. Soon afterwards, they found this woman in the green sweatshirt alone in her house. She has a hard time seeing the front door to her house was broken, and they couldn't convince her to come out. She was scared. They finally, this afternoon at 1 o'clock, got her out and got her to safety.

Milton's heaviest rain dropped over its northern edge in some places falling more than two inches in an hour with historic totals. Leaving residents in this apartment building in Pinellas trapped. Hundreds had to be rescued. A lot of credit to our teams that were out there today. Even with all that warning, the strength of Hurricane Milton still took many here by surprise. All right, Stephanie Goss joins us now live from Hillsborough County. Stephanie, do authorities have any idea how long it could take for these floodwaters to receive?

You know, they were telling me, Tom, that here in this area, it could take a few days. And I can tell you that right now, they're actually still rescuing people. We've been watching boats go in and out and getting people out of inundated homes. They're still getting calls from people who perhaps have been in the house all day thinking the waters were going to recede and they didn't. And the prospect of spending a night in a flooded house was too much. We just talked to a crew that was going in to get a family with two kids, Tom. Yeah, no, it is heartbreaking seeing those children that had to be rescued. Stephanie, I know you've covered a few storms, and a lot of these rescues remind me of Hurricane Harvey and all the rescues that had to happen there.

How widespread of a problem do you think this right is right now in Hillsborough County? Well, we know that there are at least two locations in Hillsborough County. And Hillsborough County, by the way, is huge. It's the size of Rhode Island. But we know that there are neighborhoods like this one. And Tom, this is a low-income neighborhood. They're not in an evacuation area. They thought they were going to be safe here. And these are people that are going to be out of their houses with really no place to go in a city that doesn't have a lot of space for them.

It is going to be a real problem in the coming days and weeks for Tampa. Yeah, the shelters are full. It is not cheap to evacuate. And now people have lost yet another week of work as well on top of all of this. All right, Stephanie Gosk, we appreciate all your reporting and your team's reporting as well. We thank you for that. Right off the coast of Florida residents living on Barrier Island. reeling for Milton's impact. Homes and neighborhoods completely rocked as efforts to rebuild.

Start back once again. Sam Brock has more tonight. In southwest Florida tonight, full-scale devastation. My daughter, man, she just started screaming through the house, you know, and I jumped up. And when I ran out, the same time I ran out, the door come fly in to meet me, man. And heartache along the beach, a multi-year rebuild Stunted again by a hurricane. It's heart-wrenching to have to keep going through this, but in all honesty, like all of our friends are here on this block. I think we all give each other the strength to continue. On the streets of Fort Myers Beach, evacuated for days, Mayor Dan Allers showing us what it looks like this morning.

Storm surge saturating the same neighborhoods devastated two years ago by Hurricane Ian. We're an island of doers. You know, these things punch you in the gut, but you just pick up. We've had some residents that this is the fourth time they'll be rebuilding their house. This is an example of one of the homes rebuilt after Hurricane Ian. And while it might not look that bad, you have to consider it was sitting on a 12-foot pylon and came all the way down off its foundation. Barrier islands up and down Florida's coast, often the most vulnerable to violent winds

and surging waters. Many still inaccessible. But authorities have shared pictures of buckled. roads on Captiva Island and homes burning on Matlishe and archipelago of paradise all evacuated. They left, they listened and now will hopefully within a day or day and a half, two days at the most, be able to get them back into their homes where they could start rebuilding again. Sam Brock joins us tonight from Sanabelle's Causeway. Sam at the beginning there, you mentioned that curfew tonight for residents on Sanibel Island. Do we know why?

Yeah, so it starts at 9 o'clock p.m. goes to 6. If you look behind me, Tom, you'll see the checkpoints. Why is that going on? Sanibel Island right now has no water, no power. Authorities here say there's a critical piece of infrastructure. They have to fly onto the island to sort of recatalize all of that. They're worried and warning residents that if you were to try to use your water, you could get sewage backed up in their homes. So that's only explains why they're trying to be cautious as far as why a curfew would be in place. Presumably, they just don't want people roaming around these streets where there's all these homes with no power, no anything. And we've obviously. heard tales of looting and people doing untoward things in moments of crisis like this. That's the best that I can possibly imagine why they're cutting it off. But there's also a curfew in place for Sanabelle when they had already evacuated the entire island. So we'll leave that to the folks that are making these decisions. But the reality right now, folks have been lining up all day trying to get in to see what their properties look like.

It was true here. Tom, it was also true on Fort Myers Beach. You know, Sam, I know those areas very well. I grew up going to those beaches. Sanibel and Captiva. They're some of the best areas of Florida, some of the most beautiful areas of Florida, but they thrive off tourism. Can you give us more context about what these back-to-back to back-to-back hurricanes mean for a community like where you are tonight? Gosh, that's such a good point because I remember touring Sanibel Island. And I'm glad there's so many people out there like

you who say they went with their grandparents or their families for years, not just in Florida, but really across the country. Sanneville Island is just this special little gem. There's hotels that have stood there for a hundred plus years that just got decimated completely. I remember talking to the mayor at the time and saying this is going to cost us millions of dollars, not to mention what it means for the residents that take such refuge in living there. The economic impacts are going to be felt for a very long time. They have started to rebuild, but I can't get on the island to see how far along they've come in those efforts. But there's no doubt it was a dent economically for sure. Sam Brock, part of our team last night that worked through the night covering

Hurricane Milton's landfall in that area and all over the Gulf Coast of Florida. Sam, we thank you for your reporting. Hurricane Milton's so massive in scale and so devastating to the communities there. To put this hurricane in perspective, NBC News meteorologist, Bill Karens, joins me now. He's been covering the storm from the get-go. Bill, walk us through the historic nature of Milton and also tell me tonight, what surprised you about this hurricane? Yeah, so every hurricane is unique. And we have these predictions.

We know what we think is going to happen. And sometimes they're perfect. and sometimes, you know, things happen that are a lot worse than we think. I mean, no one thought that Western North Carolina was going to look the way it does now after Haleen. So with this storm, that it's now exiting gone, all the weather effects are done. One of the things that surprised us was the storm surge. It appears it was the lower end of the projections. We heard a lot of stuff about catastrophic, historic.

Well, one reason why, this was last night about this time, was we were having landfall. Notice the southern port of the eye? There's no thunderstorms. There's no rain. That's what mixes the strong winds down to the ground. Those strong winds over the ocean surface pushed the surge in. Without those thunderstorms, we didn't have the surge at the upper levels. We still had some bad surge.

We still had five to six feet from Naples to Fort Myers. We're still waiting for the official reports of how high the surge were for the barrier ions outside of Venice, south of Sarasota, and down by Inglewood. They were likely in the five to ten foot range. Helene was roughly right around six to seven feet in these areas. So a tiny bit of additional destruction, but it wasn't catastrophic. like wiping homes off the map. So that's good for people to come home. Hopefully they can try to repair that. Another thing that was an overachiever, probably worse than we were expecting, was the rainfall. St. Petersburg had 18 inches of rain with the storm. And last night during this hour, or a little

after this, 8 to 9 p.m., five inches of rain. So that qualified as a one-and-one-year flood event. I mean, that was an historic amount of rain. And then the tornadoes. This produced some of the largest, the strongest tornadoes you'll ever see with a landfalling hurricane, and that's why we had those fatalities. I mean, this, everywhere in the eastern portion yesterday, I mean, people still can't believe how strong those tornadoes were, some of the strongest they've ever experienced in southeast and eastern half of the state. And then the winds, this was as expected. You get a major hurricane-making landfall, going across the busy I-4 quarter. You know, Venice Beach, 107, 104, 102 in Sarasota, and that's why we still have roughly about 3 million people without power.

So, Tom, in some ways, the rainfall, we had a lot of inland people that needed rescuing, water in homes and apartments. That was worse. The storm surge wasn't quite as bad, but, you know, we've had three hurricanes now. We had Debbie, Halene, and Milton. And, of course, the last two were in 13-day separation. We don't want to add any more lines to this map, Tom. It would be nice if Florida can be done for this tropical season. Well, that leads me my next question, Bill, right?

And I do have to ask you, are we out of the woods just yet when it comes to? to hurricanes in the U.S.? Yeah, the calendar says the hurricane season goes to the end in November, but in reality, the destructive storms are usually in the month of October. It's very rare to get one in November. That leaves us about three more weeks.

I can tell you there's nothing on the horizon in the next seven days, so we all get to catch our breath. By the time we get to the end of next week, maybe the week after that, there could be something trying to spin up in the Caribbean, which is the favorite time of year and the favorite place.

But nothing that's imminent, Tom. We all can get a little step back here and try to catch our breath. All right. I hope you're right. Bill, we thank you for everything you did last night as well, walking us and guidance through the night. Many residents choosing to ride out the storm inside their home. One of those residents is Trenton Nepp, his Sarasota County home rocked by the one-two punch of Helene and now Milton. He joins us live tonight. So Trenton, talk to us about what you experienced last night. I know this is an incredibly difficult time. So thank you for talking to us tonight. Yeah, last night we had lots of wind. It was a major wind event, but my biggest issue was the storm surge.

My home flooded during Haleem. We've been there over 20 years, and now it flooded again yesterday. We've got sewage in the house. It's a complete disaster. Were you surprised by what Hurricane Milton brought, or did you think this is what it was going to be like? It just seems like we're having more and more storms. It's out of control. My wife and I purchased our home when we're in our 20s.

We've been there ever since. We've never had anything near this. It's just two really bad ones right back to back. I'm a commercial fisherman, and we've just been getting beat up nonstop from regulation and everything. It's just like one more sucker punch to the face. But we're just trying to overcome and know that it's God's will. whatever happens.

So, yeah, so we see what happened to your house during Helene. What happened during Milton? Because it looked like your first floor was sort of taken out by that storm surge or by the flooding. Right. Yeah, we got flooded with Helene, and then we got a pod. We put all of our belongings that didn't get flooded into the pod. And we couldn't get enough stuff out in time. And so the stuff that we saved from Helene, a little bit of stuff that we did salvage,

now it got flooded from Milton. So it's the healing, it was clean water. Milton, it's a lot of dirty water. We have a lot of sludge. It smells like sewage. I'm pretty sure it is sewage. And under the FEMA 50% law, it doesn't look like we're going to be allowed to repair the home. That we'll have to have a bulldozed.

And I don't think we have enough insurance money to do that. Well, I was going to ask you about that. I know insurance is such a problem for homeowners in the state of Florida. It's gotten so high because of these hurricanes. and other factors as well. So you're going to have to bulldoze your home. Where do you go from there? Do you have enough money to rebuild? It's going to be, we thought we were overinsured, but I've been talking to some builders, and it looks like we're going to be possibly up to 250,000 short, which is more money than we paid for the house when we bought it. And, you know, we're too old

to take on another mortgage. But with my job, I have to have that home to fish out of the dock under government regulations. We're not allowed to unload our fish after 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. So if you don't have a private dock to go to, you're pretty much screwed and you can't do day trips, which is what I do with my commercial grouper and snapper fishing. And I can't imagine, you know, you've been losing all this work because you've been working on your house, but you also can't go out and fish when there's a hurricane in the ocean. Yeah, right. I also do stone crabbing. Our traps are supposed to went in on the, in the

water on October 5th. Then they were set for 10 days until you pull them. And we've just been trying to recover for one storm to another. And it's like now I need to get my traps in the water, but I'm concerned is this next storm going to hit us again? Are there going to be crabs? Like after Ian hit Fort Myers had no crabs for a solid year, it just beats them up. And like, I don't know if there's even going to be any crabs there to catch. The fishing should still be there. It's just fishing the hard way to make a living. Trenton, I'm sorry this is happening to you. We're going to be thinking about you and your family.

I hope you find a home, are able to rebuild one, and eventually the only thing you're worrying about is tight lines in the water. We thank you for talking to us tonight. If anybody could check me out on TikTok Instagram, it's under advanced crab and seafood. I'd appreciate all the follows and the likes. We live stream from offshore, so we'll be running live stream all day long, 12 hours of a day,

and what we do, loving our job. You got it. All right. We're going to have much more of our coverage of the aftermath of Hurricane Milton, but we have other news to get to right after this break, including what's happening with Diddy and a malfunctioning tour that happened inside of a gold mine. Right now, at least a dozen tourists trapped 1,000 feet underground

and what we're learning about the terrifying situation. And the trial of the University of Idaho murderers facing another delay when jury selection for the suspect Brian Koberger is now set to begin, plus the urgent recall over infant swing sets after multiple deaths. The warning for parents tonight. Stay with us. We're back now live from Port St. Lucie after Hurricane Milton carved a deadly and destructive path across Florida. We're going to have much more on the storm later in the broadcast,

but we are following other headlines tonight, starting with Top Stories News Feed, and the deadly malfunction during a gold mine tour outside of Colorado Springs. The 40s say a group was touring the mine when the elevator malfunctioned. At least one person killed and emergency crews are still working to free 12 people trapped 1,000 feet underground.

11 others have already been rescued. The mine closed in the 1960s but continues to offer tours. A judge has delayed the University of Idaho murder trial. Jury selection for the trial of Brian Coburger is now set to begin in late July, more than two and a half years since the murders took place. If convicted, jurors will deliberate if he gets the death penalty.

Coburger's lawyer successfully argued to move the trial out of Leyta County where four students were fatally stabbed in 2022. It will now be held in Boise. Fisher Price recalling more than 2 million infant swings after the product was linked to the suffocation deaths of five babies. The toy company saying caregivers should never let infants sleep in the snug a swing or add other bedding materials to it. That's because the headrest and body support. insert on the seat pad can increase the risk of supplication.

Consumers should cut off those inserts before continuing to use the product. And Ethel Kennedy, the widow of Robert F. Kennedy and sister-in-law of President John F. Kennedy has died at the age of 96. Her family says she suffered a stroke last week and was receiving treatment when she died. Kennedy dedicated her life to public service founding the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights to six months after her husband was assassinated. Now to the growing questions surrounding Kamala Harris' interview with 60, minutes. Earlier this week, former President Trump accusing CBS news of editing the interview to

help Harris after the network aired two different versions of an answer to the same question. Shaq Brewster tonight has the latest and the response from CBS just coming in. Kamala Harris has been a candidate. Tonight, 60 minutes facing questions over edits made to an interview with Vice President Kamala Harris. In an early release clip posted on social media, Bill Whitaker presses Harris on the war in the Middle East and the Biden administration. influence over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But it seems that Prime Minister Netanyahu is not listening. Well, Bill, the work that we have done has resulted in a number of movements in that region by Israel

that were very much prompted by or a result of many things, including our advocacy for what needs to happen in the region. But this is how it appeared on the Monday night's special broadcast of 60 minutes. But it seems that Prime Minister Netanyahu is not listening. We're not going to stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States to be clear about where we stand on the need for this war to end. Late today, a source with CBS News says it's all one answer to the same question edited for time. The network has not yet released a full transcript of the interview.

Former President Trump firing off a flurry of true social posts blasting CBS. news and calling for the network's broadcast license to be revoked. The real answer of Kamala was very crazy or dumb. Nobody knows what, but it was bad. So they actually replaced it. The Harris campaign dismissing the controversy, telling NBC News, quote, we do not control CBS's production decisions. The incident coming during a media blitz, the vice president this week,

appearing on the view. Howard, I got to win. Howard Stern. Would you like to have a beer with me? And the late show with Stephen Colbert. Okay, cheers. There you go. After criticism from Republicans that she avoids sit-down interviews.

Look, Bill, my background is in law enforcement. Her appearance on 60 Minutes, part of an election special that has become tradition for the broadcast, usually featuring both presidential candidates. Then a week ago, Trump backed out. CBS News says Trump initially agreed to an interview before backing out, something the Trump campaign denies. And tonight, the chairwoman of the Federal Communications Commission pushing back directly on former President Trump's call to revoke broadcast licenses for CBS, writing in a statement to NBC that the FCC does not and will not revoke licenses for broadcast stations simply because a political candidate disagrees with or dislikes content or coverage, later calling it a threat to free speech. Tom? Shaq Brewster for us tonight, Shaq, we appreciate that. back, our coverage of Hurricane Milton continues. Many Floridians surviving back-to-back storms,

but now the homes are heavily damaged and even destroyed. On top of that, they're left wondering if they'll be covered by insurance. Stay with us. We're back now with live coverage of Hurricane Milton's aftermath here in Fort Pierce, Florida. The community is devastated by tornadoes that tore across the region. Our next guest's home was hit by one of those tornadoes. Rye Schulteis is a Palm Beach Gardens resident. His neighbor captured this unbelievable video of that tornado heading for his home. Roy, thank you for joining Top Story tonight.

I want to stay on this video if we can. I'm going to ask my director, Brett Holy, to stay on the video as we introduce you. Roy, talk to me about what you saw happen here because this is pretty wild, and we're going to stay on the video. You can walk us through what we're seeing here and what you experienced. Hey, Tom, it's good to see you. I actually didn't witness that part. out in the front of my house, basically seeing a different section where the clouds were just

passing by an incredibly fast nature, something I've never seen before. My windows started vibrating, so I knew that there was likely a tornado nearby, but I certainly didn't realize that there was something right behind my home and approaching it. You know, this is someone that's from Miami. Worry about tornadoes is not really something that we're programmed to do or expect, so this was definitely a big surprise for me. What happened to your home? Were you lucky or did something happen?

No, I mean, lucky in terms of health, for sure. And certainly the interior of my house is in pretty good shape. The windows did what they're designed to do, which is basically take impact. There was an incredible amount of tile and brick that was just berating my house. It was just constant from all angles. All of my neighbors, tiles and bricks were basically hitting my home. There was a point in time, actually, that when I was looking outside the window, when I started to hear the noise, I just, I thought it was hail, because typically hails associated with tornadoes. So I started to actually walk to my front door, and that's when things just really got, you know, quite bizarre.

I mean, there were really heavy objects that were slamming into my door, and I quickly realized that my family and I had to take cover in the room that had to lease them out of windows, which was my son's room. And we just hunkered down there. I kind of got on top of them, and that's when it kind of came over me that we were in some serious danger. But luckily, you know, once I started kind of really realized how much danger we were in, it subsided. But then there was the shock of watching outside and seeing the devastation. The exterior of my home is destroyed.

Yeah, Roy, talk to me about the power of these tornadoes. I mean, where we are here in Fort Pierce, I see it right behind. It literally destroyed the home behind me. And I'm looking at some of your videos and some of your photos, and it's incredible what it did to those cars and to those homes. Yeah, I mean, so I experienced Hurricane Andrew back in 92 when I was a kid, and while that was certainly an intimidating event, I never felt what I felt while this was going on. So obviously, the duration was shorter, but walking outside and kind of getting that first view of what had occurred when it was that morning after Andrew. this surpasses that definitely in terms of the shock. I mean, cars were lifted in the air, relocated, you know, hundreds of feet. I mean, we're talking big, large vehicles, trucks.

One of my neighbors had a dumpster on top of the roof, one of the big, you know, waste management dumpsters. So just the sheer power that this thing came through with is really, I didn't think it was possible, really. As a Floridian and someone that was born and raised in Miami, I didn't, I didn't realize that we could actually be hit with this kind of tornado. Talk to me about the warnings you got, because obviously these tornadoes took a lot of people by surprise on the East Coast. They sort of popped up. It was an historic outbreak, unlike anything Florida has ever seen before.

Did you at least get alerts on your phone? Were you able to bring your family inside in time? Yes, so I got alerts on my phone, but, you know, unfortunately, I was on the phone while that was happening. So while I was seeing what was going on in the sky in front of me, I was on the phone describing what I was seeing to a friend of mine. And, you know, the alerts were going on. But, you know, we get so many of those. And, again, being on the East Coast as opposed to the West Coast, I knew there was a hurricane coming.

But just as someone who's really accustomed to hurricanes, I wasn't worried about it, so to speak. So when the alerts were going on, I still just kind of felt like, you know, it wasn't for me until obviously. Obviously, the windows started vibrating. So it's definitely a lesson learned. You know, oftentimes we can, you know, not pay attention to something as serious as that. But, you know, going forward, I'll take it a lot more seriously. Roy, finally, I was just going to ask you that, what you learned from this experience? Be prepared, again, since I wasn't expecting a tornado, now I know it's possible.

I would have parked my car in the garage had I been thinking about, you know, a tornado coming through here because of the fact that the conditions from the hurricane, you know, for us here in Palm Beach County, we're going to be relatively light in comparison to what I'm accustomed to. I definitely took it easy and I was a little too lax in terms of my preparation. So going forward now, I'll take it a lot more seriously that, you know, expect the unexpected. I've literally seen a tornado approach my home and put me and my family in a state of concern that our whole house was about to just, you know, basically we would have lost a window in the room we were in. The house would have just blown up.

It would have lifted our roof and we would have been in serious trouble. So I'll probably consider evacuating going forward now and I've got family and friends in Miami. I could have easily just taken a drive down to Miami where I knew it would have been a little easier than spending it here in Palm Beach. Yeah, but it's like, how are you going to plan for a tornado outbreak, right?

It is so random and again, so scary. We thank you, Roy, for talking to us tonight here on Top Story, and we thank you for sharing that video. We're going to have much more on the aftermath of Hurricane Milton, but when we come back, music modal, P. Diddy, facing a judge once again, the trial date just said for his sex trafficking case, and the new details just revealed.

The dozens of electronics prosecutors are sorting through right now, Plus, could he face additional charges? We're going to explain. We're back now with a big headline. We've been following out of New York and battled hip-hop mogul Sean Diddy Combs appearing in federal court where he learned his trial date

for his sex trafficking case. NBC entertainment reporter Chloe Malas was in that courtroom today and a warning some of the video related to this case is disturbing. Tonight embattled music star Sean Diddy Combs back in court making his first appearance since being indicted on sex trafficking charges in a sweeping indictment last month.

Once one of the most powerful men in music, Combs now wearing a tan prison uniform as he walked into a packed courtroom, waving to his family who were seated in the gallery. It was also the first time Combs had been seen since being locked up at Brooklyn's notorious Metropolitan Detention Center. Combs' mother seated behind him in court today, along with six of his children. During the hearing, the judge granting a speedy trial at the request of Diddy's lawyers setting the trial date for May 5th. Generally, when a defendant exercises his speedy trial rights, he's betting that the government or the prosecutors won't be ready, and they'll be scrambling as much as the defense is. But in federal court, often prosecutors are investigating a defendant for months or even years. So they may be ready to go to trial by the time they indict. Even with immense preparation, though, that puts prosecutors on a tight timeline to crack open and analyze almost 100 terabytes of data on 96 devices that they say they recovered during searches of Combs' homes in Miami and Los Angeles and from his person on the day he was arrested.

Combs' defense also seeking a gag order for prosecutors, claiming that the government leaked information about the investigation to the media, including this 2016 surveillance video, originally obtained by CNN, showing Combs' brutally beating his then-girlfriend singer Cassie in a Los Angeles hotel. Combs's defense saying that the massive coverage of that leaked video has tainted any potential jury pool, but prosecutors denying that notion and urging the judge to impose a gag order on Combs's legal team as well. They specifically allege that DHS, Department of Homeland Security, is the agency they believe may have leaked these documents. Now, the prosecution denies it, but the prosecution also says, we're not DHS. So as far as we know, this didn't come from DHS or us. Outside the courthouse attorney Gloria Alred, who represents one of Combs' civil accusers,

Don Richard, saying Combs' gargantuan celebrity status is still intimidating to alleged victims. Even if he is in custody, they're concerned that he has many supporters, that there could be retaliation they fear if they come forward. Despite the growing media attention and mounting civil lawsuits against Combs, his defense implying that the case is racially motivated in a recent promo for a new TMZ documentary. They start making this case as a takedown of a successful black man. The defense echoing that sentiment again at the courthouse. Dr. King called it the law of unattended consequences.

So sometimes the more you push a person down, the stronger they get. Now all eyes on the prosecution, who said in court that they may be bringing, yet another indictment against Combs. I was actually in the courtroom today, just a few feet away from Combs and his family, and he seemed upbeat and anxious at the same time. He was turning around and waving to six out of seven of his children that were there and his mother. The next court date is going to be in December, and there is a lot of discovery that has to be gone through a government saying that they're going through

those 90-plus devices, and they're downloading all of that data, and then they have to turn it over to Combs' team. But one of the things that I thought was really interesting is that both sides are pointing the finger at each other when it comes to talking to the media. And it's looking like the judge is actually going to impose a gag order on both sides. Tom? Chloe, my loss for us tonight. Chloe, we thank you for that. When we come back, more stories of devastation from here in Florida.

One woman that you're about to see losing the home she's lived in for 50 years and she has no insurance to help her move forward, how she's coping with the loss. so many others are going through right now. Stay with us. Finally tonight, families across Florida returning to their damaged homes to survey for the first time what's left. Dana Griffin spoke to one woman who's lived in her home in Punta Gorda for more than half a century, going to find it flooded and her belongings destroyed. Residents in the small beach city of Punta, Florida, waking up to scenes of utter destruction. streets completely flooded debris scattered across lawns even boats smashed into the side of homes this one sitting on the road while touring the wreckage we meet the

drew family heartbroken I don't know what else to say I mean we can't do anything about it Deborah drew along with her 81 year old mother-in-law patty and daughter Megan returning to Patty's home for the first time since Milton's disastrous hit a home Patty has lived in for 51 years. This is the first time you're coming back to your home. What was your initial reaction? It's devastating. I never expected it to be this bad.

It's horrible. I don't know what I'm going to do. I just hope we can get it back just to it livable. The Drews say they just finished cleaning up the damage from Haleen and have never experienced back-to-back storms like this before. Seven days getting rid of the, watered the first from Helene and now she's full of muck and this is the second time time second and um she's lost everything already and now whatever she got fixed up and and repaired and

put back together is gone again elaine bringing about a foot and a half of water into the house two weeks ago oh we can see the water line yeah but water lines from milton reaching waist high his entire home and disarray. No insurance, no flood insurance, nothing. She's on a fixed income, and now she's devastated, and she can't live in this. Just one of many families here in Florida now figuring out how to recover and rebuild. In Ponte Gorda, Dana Griffin, NBC News. And we leave you with that tonight.

As I said at the top of this broadcast, please do not forget the people here across Florida and those still reeling from Hurricane Helene. We thank you for watching this special edition. of Top Story. I'm Tom Yamas. Stay right there. More news on the way.