we'll see you at 6:00. welcome to "world news." tonight flash floods roaring into the streets from florida to new england. drivers suddenly floating away. rescue workers in overdrive. this baby carried to safety. sinkholes swallows streets and more severe storms on the move tonight. full court press on the nba owner accused of racism as his girlfriend makes a bizarre appearance in a visor and a host of famous people talk about buying the team to get him out. >> no matter how long it takes or how much money it costs we need to get him out of there. moment of truth. take the test and see if you can spot the person faking how they feel. can a new machine spot a liar better than we can? the big showdown tonight.

good evening to you on this wednesday night. 80 million americans are at the grip of a storm that will not quit and tonight post cards are streaming in from a kind of water world. one family stranded on the front lawn. the family car swallowed by a sudden river. streets collapsing under the weight. parking lots swamped. and a little girl tucked into a kayak in her living room. rescuers are working nonstop and abc's gio benitez is tracking it all. >> reporter: relentless rain is pounding the east coast at a just outside washington d.c., water rescues. this man drove onto this bridge, and was trapped. a water rescue team getting him to safety in this inflatable raft. in baltimore, a road collapsing, trapping 10 cars. it's the same system that brought devastating tornados to

14 states, and claimed at least 37 lives. in pensacola, florida, nearly two feet of rain in the last 24 hours turned streets to muddy cliffs. in one neighborhood. geysers of mud. trucks washed away. roads lined with abandoned cars. more than 300 calls for emergency help. critical workers stuck, too. >> i need to be at work because i work for the power company. >> you work for the power company? >> yeah. >> reporter: firefighters taking this 5 month old baby and reuniting the child with the mother. your team has been rescuing people. tell me about those. >> we have been getting people out of cars. people driving through the puddles. they get trapped and we try and get to them. we had our guys swimming to them. >> reporter: this house lopsided. a water fall forming between the street and yard.

to give you an idea of what two feet looks like, i'm on a curb right now, look at this water. if i were to step off the curb, i would be knee deep in this water. take a look at the car completely submerged the people not quite sure what to do. in alabama an elderly woman in mobile carried by firefighters. after her car was stuck in a flooded street. another woman killed after driving her car through high water. these violent storms packed with lightning. at one point more than 1,000 strikes per minute. and there was so much rain in pensacola that this road collapsed. you see that truck. there was a woman inside. and amazingly she got out okay. diane. >> thank you very much. >> as you said, torrential rain. that could be lethal and lightning fast. what should you do if you're caught in one in your car? abc's meteorologist ginger zee shows us. >> reporter: epic amounts of h20 filled the florida panhandle.

almost two feet in 24 hours in pensacola. that's over 9 billion gallons that could fill over 14,000 swimming pools. more that five inches fell in one hour. flash flooding is just that, too much flowing too fast especially in this case. the ground, the soil, the drainage system couldn't handle it. the car exploding right now. >> reporter: after seeing scenes like this play out, it's worth a reminder. flooding kills. >> oh, my god. those poor people are more than any other weather hazard. half of all flooded related drownings are from people driving into flooding. when the flash floodings are happening all it takes is six inches of water and you can lose control of your car. more than a foot, you can start to slope. at 24 inches your car can be swept away. so what should you do if you see water? turn around, don't drowned.

if you find yourself in an emergency situation, the water coming up and over the car and your windows won't go down, you're going to need one of these, an emergency hammer. you can break right through the window and get yourself out. now as far as the forecast goes tonight, we unfortunately may have to see people getting rescued from water already have today. look at the numbers. another two to three inches in some places. that's what's going to show up in the red anywhere from d.c. up to boston. diane. >> keep the option of getting out. and now from the unforgiving rain in the east we head out west where a wild fire a raging in southern california. fueled by ferocious winds. tearing across 800 acres and counts more than 1,600 families evacuated. and on the move. abc's david wright is on the fire line. >> reporter: 90 degree heat and winds nearly 90 mile an hour for today turning these suburbs east

of l.a. into a convection oven. >> i saw big red flames so it looks pretty big right now. >> reporter: the conditions so treacherous more that 1,600 homes evacuating. >> reporter: schools closed, too. some parents got worrying text messages from their kids. >> we are evacuating school because of the fire. >> it's kind of scarey because it's close to home. >> reporter: the winds are so fierce they have grounded helicopters that would normally be used to battle a blaze like this. >> it's too windy to have aircraft in the air. we're well above that. when we have a break in the weather we can bring those resources in. >> reporter: instead firefighters have been struggling over steep terrain to get to the fire. these winds are at hurricane strength and there's no sign they're going to let up. red flag warnings across much of this region tomorrow. diane.

>> david wright reporting in with the smoke behind him. from the wild fire we turn to the fire storm there over nba owner donald sterling slapped with a lifetime ban. and in danger of losing his team over racist remarks. and unlikely gallery of famous people may be lining up to make a bid for the l.a. clippers. abc's ryan smith has all the fast breaking details tonight. >> reporter: the l.a. clippers are suddenly the hottest property in sports. oprah winfrey saying today she's "in discussions" with music mogul david geffen and software billionaire larry ellison to make a joint bid for the clippers. just yesterday she told tmz she wasn't interested. >> no, i won't be buying the clippers but i hear magic johnson might be. >> reporter: johnson denies he wants the team but today championship boxer floyd mayweather said he does. >> me and my team do want to buy the clippers. we can afford the clippers.

>> reporter: but before any of that happens, 75% of nba team owners must vote to force disgraced clippers boss donald sterling to sell. today abc news called all 29 team owners to ask how they would vote. they all told us the nba asked them to stay silent. only one, vivek ran-a-dive of the sacramento kings said he would vote to oust sterling. >> these teams belong to fans and players. we owners are simply custodians and so i fully expect that commissioner silver will gt the support that he seeks. >> reporter: today lebron james, basketball's biggest star, turned up the pressure on the owners. >> no matter how long it takes, no matter how much money it costs, we need to get him out of there, whoever is associated with him. he doesn't belong in our league. >> how do you think the owners will vote? will the vote kick out donald sterling out of the league? >> no question about it. he's gone, it's a done deal. >> reporter: sterling himself has been in seclusion while the women in his life bask in the attention. his wife, shelly, cheering on the clippers last night and

v. stiviano the woman also heard on that tape last night had some bizarre comments of her own. >> one day i will become president of the united states of america and i will change legislation and laws. >> reporter: earlier she roller-skated away from reporters. still wearing that visor. what happens next? the nba told us that there is no time frame for a vote to remove sterling from ownership but officials will meet tomorrow to discuss next steps and move the process forward. diane? >> thanks so much. now in washington a brutal battle over the minimum wage in this country. republicans in the senate filibuster beating back a bill that would raise the minimum wage to $10.10. it is stalled at $7.25. we move next to the moment that turned up the volume in the national debate over the death penalty. an execution in oklahoma raising new questions about cruel and

unusual punishment. last night a convicted killer suffered a apparent seizure and heart attack. today the white house criticized the execution saying it was not humane. the death sentence for a second inmate was postponed to re-examine their methods. now in washington today the white house was feeling the heat because of a new twist in the fiery debate over benghazi. the attack on the u.s. consulate that killed four americans. a new e-mail seems to call into question what the white house said about its role. jonathan karl was there asking the questions. >> reporter: 18 months after the terrorist attack in benghazi, libya that killed four americans newly released e-mails suggest it was the white house blamed the attacks in in order to deflect the president's policies. the secret white house e-mail

list top goals for ambassador susan rice as she prepared for a round of five interviews just says after the attacks, saying she should "underscore these protests are rooted in an internet video and not a broader failure of policy. and that's what she said. >> in reaction to this very offensive video -- that was disseminated. >> reporter: all along, the white house insisted that information came from the intelligence community but the email is written by a top political aide. and the former cia director recently told congress the intelligence community didn't agree with what rice said. >> when she talked about the video, my reaction was, that's not something that the analysts have attributed this attack to. >> reporter: the white house insists the e-mail doesn't change the story but was only released in response to a lawsuit demanding all benghazi related e-mails. >> why was this e-mail not turned over to the congress? this is directly relevant. why did you hold it back? >> john, again -- >> why did it take a court case? >> i can say it again and again and i know you can keep asking

again and again, this document was not about benghazi. >> reporter: the white house said it didn't release the e-mail because it was about broader arrest in the arab world. officials also point out they eventually corrected the record acknowledging there were no protests in benghazi before that attack. by diane, this latest revelation has republicans demanding another investigation. >> jonathan karl, thank you. overseas the situation in ukraine continues situation in ukraine continues to intensify. the acting president saying they are helpless in the face of pro russian forces that have seized another city tonight and abc's global affairs correspondent martha raddatz will be reporting in for us on the reality on the ground tomorrow night. up next, a kind of showdown. look at these two faces. could you tell which person is faking how they feel and which one is not?

can a new computer do it much better spotting all our lies? while a body in motion tends to stay in motion. staying active can actually ease arthritis symptoms. but if you have arthritis, staying active can be difficult. prescription celebrex can help relieve arthritis pain so your body can stay in motion. because just one 200mg celebrex a day can provide 24 hour relief for many with arthritis pain and inflammation. plus, in clinical studies, celebrex is proven to improve daily physical function so moving is easier. celebrex can be taken with or without food. and it's not a narcotic. you and your doctor should balance the benefits with the risks. all prescription nsaids, like celebrex, ibuprofen, naproxen and meloxicam have the same cardiovascular warning. they all may increase the chance of heart attack or stroke, which can lead to death. this chance increases if you have heart disease or risk factors such as high blood pressure or when nsaids are taken for long periods. nsaids, like celebrex,

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>> reporter: here is the simple test researchers gave to people and a computer. is this man in pain or faking it? what about this woman? real or fake? the answer in a moment. >> reporter: so who won? the computer or the humans? >> the computer was a lot better. >> reporter: humans were right only half the time. and unbelievably, the computers success rate was 85%. we recreated the experiment. my arm is in a bucket of ice water. here i'm in real pain. on the right, i'm faking it what are the signs of genuine agony. it's all about how we move the muscles. >>there's this corrugator muscle right between the brows, there's another muscle here, which it raises the lips or you wrinkle the nose. and also this, tightening around the eyes. >> reporter: with real pain, muscle movement is much more random, variable, and fleeting. >> and it turned out that fakers were opening and closing their mouths too consistently.

>> reporter: and a computer is much better at detecting and deciphering the patterns of pain than we are. >> we're evaluating whether a system like this can be used in a clinical setting. >> reporter: doctors may no longer need to ask, "on a scale of one to ten, how sore is it?" and one day maybe we will know. real pain, or a tantrum? >> with kids can we do better at estimating their pain intensity levels so that their pain can be better managed? >> reporter: other researchers, have computers looking at faces and recognizing as many as 21 different expressions, like, "angrily surprised." all this technology might one day also replace the polygraph as a lie detector. it could also perhaps be used at airport security. remember that guy we showed you? he was faking. and the woman, she was genuinely in pain. i got it wrong, but i'm only human. and apparently computers are now better at reading expressions than we are. nick watt, abc news.

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and finally tonight, imagine searching for the next baseball superstar in a country most people never even played the game. a new movie tells the real life story of trying to find one potential all-star. 8,000 mile from the nearest american ballpark. abc's bob woodruff. >> insane, maybe. this idea actually worked. now it's a movie in our parent company disney called "million dollar arm." berstein played by madman's john ham. >> we can deliver major league baseball its first indian ball player. >> reporter: the concept was almost like an american idol.

to find the next baseball star in india, a country where cricket is the king. 37,000 hopefuls. among them some very bizarre techniques. >> being impressed with his unique pitching action. >> the first time he threw a baseball he stood there frozen and he lets it go. we're like oh, my gosh. >> is that right? 82? >> reporter: that arm dubbed the flamingo won this man the contest. i got a chance to play catch with him and the runner up. >> did you see one of these on television or pictures? >> no. >> never saw this before? >> no. >> reporter: even so, both of them drafted by the pittsburgh pirates and this year the actors

portraying then on the big screen. he will get another tryout to play for the majors this year. he's giving up throwing like a flamingo. abc news, new york. >> you can see the complete story tonight on "nightline." thank you so much for watching. we're always here at abcnews.com. "nightline" will be along later. i'll see you again right here tomorrow night. good night. the heat is on and fire danger is rising. >> we're live at the airport for a computer glitch that stopped air traffic. hundreds of flights on hold. there is still a back up. >> tonight we're live for a

removal of the bay. the results of a mid air collision >> and the patrol comes up with reasons why traffic has been so bad lately. >> what a day to spend at the beach. a blast of warm air sending temperatures soaring. good evening. >> this was the second and probably warmest day of what is skekted to be a three-day sample of summer in the bay area. elevating temperatures throughout the region. let turn to spencer christian. spencer one more day of hot weather? >> today's weather had sweltering aspect to it. let's take a look at live doppler 7 hd. you can see sunny skies

beginning to move on shore. here is a look at highs we did have one record. actually it's a tie. there are santa cruz, 93. it's going to be a warm day tomorrow. major changes are coming our way. >> when the weather gets warm and dry winds start blowing it elevates fire danger in the bay area. we know that we're in for a long fire season this year because of the drought. abc7 news reporter nick smith is live from the oakland hills. nick? >> i have to show you this view because that is what this is all about. those who live here