questions. >> world news coming up now. >> we appreciate your tonight, several developing stories as we come on the air. the severe weather alerts up in several states right now. major storms, damaging winds, the tornado sirens. and images of twisters. bracing for a potentially dangerous night ahead. we're also watching a category 4 storm, packing 155-mile-per-hour winds. also breaking tonight, the mystery meeting at the white house. the republican congressman leading the investigation into russia's meddling. now, new questions tonight about his secret meeting on the white house grounds. the school plot revealed tonight. the plan to shoot it up and bomb the school. the honor student and her alleged arsenal right here. the two plane crashes. one into a home, the other breaking apart in mid-flight. authorities say the family was coming home from spring break. and the consumer warning tonight.

if the phone rings, the one question they warn you not to answer. good evening and it's great to be back with you here on a monday night. more on that secret and controversial meeting at the white house, our team is standing by. but we do begin tonight with another major headline playing out right now. severe storms hitting at this hour. 15 million americans warned that this could be a dangerous night on the roads. reports of tornadoes already, this large twister in mississippi. giant hail smashing into this windshield in texas. authorities in several states now warning of storms bringing damaging winds. abc's adrienne bankert is in the storm zone tonight. >> reporter: tonight, sounding the alarm in tennessee. >> we have tornado sirens going off in adamsville. >> reporter: a dangerous system moving east after pummeling the heartland over the last 24 hours. funnel clouds forming in oklahoma. >> oh, it's roping out now. >> reporter: this twister dropping and tearing through the plains.

drivers racing for shelter under gas station canopies, as hail battered the dallas area. >> you could hear it coming from the distance, just like a stampede. >> reporter: some stones the size of baseballs. in little elm, more than 70% of the school buses are out of commission. it's all part of a multi-day storm outbreak that brought more than 200 reports of severe weather. >> here's a frame from a mobile home that was blown off. >> reporter: an ef-2 tornado in arkansas. and straight-line winds up to 100 miles per hour, destroying this louisiana church. and we have got ominous clouds behind us here. the rain starting to come down again. we've seen thunder and lightning. here in louisville, we're under a severe weather watch all night long. we could see wind gusts of up to 70 miles an hour, large hail and possibly tornadoes. david? >> all right, under a watch there in louisville. adrienne, thank you. let's get right to chief meteorologist ginger zee, who is tracking this right into the night. >> reporter: and that severe thunderstorm watch that adrienne is in goes all the way south into parts of alabama.

you can see it there on the map, david. also into even mississippi. this is all through tonight, most of them go as late as 11:00 p.m. but the storms don't stop then. watch that line, damaging wind the main threat, as this comes together in eastern tennessee, northern alabama, through the after midnight hours. then we look at a new storm. this is really primetime for severe weather. a lot of moisture, a lot of dry air behind that low. and it is classic. there's a dry line that sets up tomorrow. we could see damaging winds, big hail and a few tornadoes in the region you see highlighted there. that slides east as we go through wednesday. it is going to be day after day of severe storms. it will certainly feel like we're almost in april. >> could be a difficult week ahead. i'll see you in the morning on "gma," ginger. as you know, we're also watching that massive cyclone. it is spinning towards australia tonight. the winds the equivalent of a category 3 hurricane here, reaching 115 miles an hour. 20-foot waves are expected. strong winds already reaching shore. thousands of people have been evacuated ahead of the storm. it's expected to make landfall tonight. back here at home, and we turn next to the bombshell

headline from washington at this hour. the republican congressman who is now leading a congressional investigation into russian meddling, it turns out, had a secret meeting on white house grounds. it was last week we learned congressman devin nunes went to the white house with classified information before informing members of his own committee. now, we learned before that announcement, he had been at the white house the night before. well, tonight, new calls for him to step down from his post, and here is abc's cecilia vega. >> reporter: the top republican leading what is supposed to be an independent investigation into russia's election meddling, tonight, facing serious questions about impartiality. house intelligence committee chairman devin nunes now says his trove of classified information allegedly showing intelligence officials may have inadvertently picked up the communications of the president and his transition team was actually given to him by someone on the white house grounds. >> i'm not going to tell you where i was at on the grounds because of course those are all

classified facilities. >> reporter: the california congressman, a member of the president's transition team, now admits he met his source at a secret location on the white house grounds last week. the very next day, nunes briefed reporters on capitol hill about his findings, and then rushed back to the white house to brief the president. >> what i've read bothers me and i think it should bother the president himself and his team. >> reporter: the president said the findings vindicated his claim that president obama wiretapped him. >> do you feel vindicated by chairman nunes? >> i somewhat do, i must tell you, i somewhat do. >> reporter: but nunes admits he has no evidence that trump tower was wiretapped. and he still hasn't provided his own committee with any proof of his new claims. now, top democrats calling on the chairman to step aside. >> chairman nunes is falling down on the job. and seems to be more interested

in protecting the president than in seeking the truth. >> reporter: as for the trump administration, they will not say who nunes met with on the white house grounds. >> i'm not going to get into who he met with or why he met with them. i think that's something that he has made very clear and i'll let him answer it. >> reporter: it comes amid those swirling questions about the trump administration's ties to russia. today, word that jared kushner, the president's own son-in-law, and his top white house adviser, has voluntarily agreed to be interviewed by the senate intelligence committee. making him the first white house staffer to face questions from congressional investigators. during the transition, kushner met with russia's ambassador, and he also met with the head of a russian bank controlled by putin's government and under u.s. sanctions. but that man has ties to russian intelligence. today, the white house said kushner has nothing to hide. >> based on the media frenzy that existed around this, he

volunteers to make sure that -- he said, hey, we've made some contacts, i'd be glad to explain them, let me know if you'd like to talk. >> new spotlight tonight on jared kushner. in the meantime, cecilia vega with us live at the white house, and cecilia, i want to go back to congressman nunes. the drum beat from democrats growing louder that he must now recuse himself from this investigation. so far, no indication that's going to happen? >> reporter: yeah, david, there is not. and today, the top republican in congress, speaker paul ryan, said that nunes is, quote, conducting a thorough, fare and credible investigation. david? >> cecilia vega with us live tonight. cecilia, thank you. meantime tonight, president trump and his next move after the failure to repeal and replace obamacare. a key promise of his campaign. the president blaming democrats, conservative republicans and tonight, the first signal here of what he plans next. here's our chief white house correspondent, jonathan karl. >> reporter: in a bid to turn the page, president trump today signed a few bills that actually did pass congress. minor measures on cutting regulations. when the president was asked about the big one that didn't pass --

>> do you still want to repeal obamacare, mr. president? >> reporter: no reply, no comment. faced with a divided republican party and congress, the white house has suggested it may be time to reach out to democrats. is the president serious about working with democrats, going forward, after what happened with health care? >> absolutely. >> but wouldn't this require a serious course correction from the white house? i mean, the president's branded chuck schumer a clown, you know, worked entirely with republicans on this bill. wouldn't this require a serious change of course from the president? >> to some degree, sure. and i think the president talked about that. i think he -- we learned a lot through this process. >> reporter: the health care debacle is especially devastating, given what the president said during the campaign. >> repealing and replacing obamacare is one of the single most important reasons we must win on november 8th. >> reporter: he promised to repeal it immediately, but was soon surprised by how difficult it would be.

>> it's an unbelievably complex subject. nobody knew that health care could be so complicated. >> reporter: after it went down, the president, who's branded himself the ultimate dealmaker, seemed a little shell-shocked. >> it certainly was an interesting period of time. we all learned a lot. we learned a lot about loyalty. we learned a lot about the vote-getting process. >> reporter: from his budget director, a frank admission. >> i think the one thing we learned this week is that washington was a lot more broken than president trump thought that it was. >> all right, jon karl with us live from the white house tonight, as well. and jon, the president says he wants to move on now to tax reform, tax cuts, but after the failure to repeal obamacare, doesn't tax reform become even more difficult? >> reporter: more difficult, and a heck of a lot more complicated, david. it's not even clear what the white house strategy will be going forward or even whether or not the president will be offering his own tax reform proposal or wait for congress to act first. and as to whether or not the president will again try to get support from those hard-line

conservatives that defied him on health care, today, the white house when asked about that said simply, it depends. >> all right, jon karl with the questions in the briefing room today. jon, thank you. we turn next here to the fight against isis. more u.s. troops on the way to iraq tonight. about 300 additional soldiers to advise and assist iraqi troops in the fierce battle for mosul. and this evening, the pentagon now investigating whether air strikes played a role in the deaths of some 200 civilians there in recent days. secretary of defense james mattis was asked about that today. >> there is no military force in the world that has proven more sensitive to civilian casualties. we are keenly aware that every battlefield where an enemy hides behind women and children is also a humanitarian field. >> secretary mattis adding the u.s. military does everything humanly possible to protect innocent people, he says, unlike their isis adversaries. next tonight here, a chilling plot uncovered. authorities tipped off about a very detailed plan to attack a

high school. to shoot students and to bomb the school. authorities say an 18-year-old honor student was already gathering materials she needed, and that she was determined not to survive. here's abc's senior justice correspondent pierre thomas. >> reporter: these are the weapons that school and police officials had feared would be used in a massacre planned for april 5th. a shotgun, bomb-making materials, including pipes for a pipe bomb. a columbine-style attack, allegedly plotted by an 18-year-old student at catoctin high school, 90 minutes from washington. >> there is no doubt in our minds that we averted a disaster up there. >> reporter: according to the sheriff, that student, nichole cevario, had kept a chilling diary with a timeline of the imminent attack and details about the school's emergency procedures. but her alleged plot was foiled by her own father, who alerted school officials and police and on thursday when he discovered the diary.

do you feel like, at the end of the day, the parents put the community in front of everything else? >> you know, obviously, it had to be a tremendously difficult decision, but they did the right thing. >> reporter: police say the girl's diary specifically mentions columbine. it's part of a disturbing trend. an abc news investigation found, that in the last 17 years, there have been at least 79 thwarted school massacre plots. more than half of the would-be attackers mentioned columbine. police have given no information about a possible motive. but they say there's no evidence of anyone else being involved in this alleged plot. as for the young student, she's been committed for an emergency mental health evaluation. david? >> pierre thomas in maryland tonight. pierre, thank you. and an anonymous threat triggering a lockdown at another school, this one near kansas city, missouri. authorities sweeping the school classroom by classroom, leading students out with their hands on their heads, then bussing them to another high school. no weapons were found in the school, but tonight, five students have been detained for questioning. there are new clues tonight about that tennessee teenager and the high school teacher who authorities believe abducted her.

investigators now revealing their secret way of communicating. abc's eva pilgrim is in tennessee. >> reporter: tonight, the family of that missing tennessee teenager is hoping this newly-released home video will help lead to her safe return. >> do you want to start from the back or do you want to start from the front? >> you'll recognize her voice if you hear it. >> reporter: this, as authorities reveal how 15-year-old elizabeth thomas and her former teacher, tad cummins, were communicating days before he allegedly kidnapped her. investigators say the two left each other draft e-mails on a school computer. >> the other person would log in, read the message, and then delete it. >> reporter: but sarah thomas says her sister was avoiding cummins when he showed up to her workplace two days before she vanished. >> she would go and tell people to tell him that she wasn't there, and she would go and hide until he left. >> reporter: after two weeks, and more than a thousand tips, still no sign of the pair. >> we just live for that day when we're going to get a phone call from somebody, or even possibly her, she gets ahold of

a phone, calls and says, i'm all right, i need somebody to come and get me. >> reporter: david, authorities have passed along their information to law enforcement in mexico and central america, but say they have no idea where the two could be tonight. david? >> eva, thank you. there is still much more ahead on "world news tonight" this monday. the urgent consumer warning tonight, "your money." the new phone scam. if the phone rings, the one question they warn you not to answer. also, the deadly shooting rampage today. one person killed, five wounded. police revealing the possible motive late today. those two plane crashes. the pilot hitting a home. and then the family killed, returning from spring break. and we want your opinion on this story tonight. should two young girls have been prevented from boarding their flight because they were wearing leggings? the airline facing a huge backlash tonight, and their explanation, as the news continues.

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a voice on the other end asking, "can you hear me?" once you answer "yes," that's all they need. investigators say they are recording your answer for a reason. abc's chief business correspondent rebecca jarvis out to protect "your money." >> reporter: tonight, the new government warning of a growing phone scam. >> can you hear me okay? >> reporter: theresa thomas says she got the call at home in minneapolis. >> she was giggling and she said, "oh, i didn't expect you to pick up. can you hear me?" >> reporter: seems innocent enough, but here's how it works. you pick up. the voice on the line asks, "can you hear me?" when you answer "yes," the scammer is recording and can use that "yes" to authorize future charges. theresa was lucky. >> if it sounds fishy, hang up and don't provide any information, of course, about you. >> reporter: tonight, experts urging caution. don't answer calls from unknown numbers. take advantage of any free robocall blocking service from your phone carrier. and report suspicious numbers to the fcc. david, one more possible red

flag in this scam. the caller asks if you want to be added to the do not call registry. the government will never phone you to ask this question. just hang up. david? >> all right, great advice, rebecca. thank you. when we come back here on a monday night, two deadly plane crashes. one into a home, the other with a family onboard, returning from spring break. the fiery car rescue. the deputy running to the scene, pulling a victim from this burning accident. and then, the airline igniting a firestorm tonight, banning two young girls from a flight because they were wearing leggings. tonight, united says it has a perfectly logical explanation, and we want your opinion, right after the break. your eyes work as has you do. but do they need help making more of their own tears? if you have chronic dry eye caused by reduced tear production due to inflammation, restasis multidose™ can help... with continued use twice a day, every day, one drop at a time.

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tulsa, oklahoma. the deputy rushing to the scene here. his body cam showing the car off the road there in flames. the deputy sliding down an embankment, pulling the driver from the wreckage and right back up to the road. the victim suffering a broken leg and a possible broken jaw, but he is expected to recover. well-earned praise for that deputy tonight. there are two deadly plane crashes under investigation. a family of four returning from spring vacation in florida. the crenshaw family from jackson, tennessee, was killed when their small plane broke apart in midair over hayden, alabama. the faa is recovering debris, looking for a cause. and authorities tonight identifying the victim of a fiery plane crash hitting a home in marietta, georgia. 78-year-old robert westlake reporting mechanical problems moments before his plane went down. the major airline tonight facing backlash, but standing by its rules. two teenage girls were barring from boarding a united flight, because they were wearing leggings. the airline defending itself now, saying the girls were traveling under an employee travel pass that includes a

dress code for people representing united airlines. united releasing a statement, saying, "like most companies, we have a dress code that we ask employees and pass riders to follow. to our regular customers, your leggings are welcome." tweet us. let us know what you think. when we come back here on a monday night, america strong. the mother and a gift for her little girl that was years in the making. what we saw this morning, we won't soon forget. after the break. diabetic...everywhere we ...nerve pain shoots and burns its way into your day... ...i hear you. when that pain makes simple errands simply unbearable... ...i hear you. i hear you because my dad struggled with this pain. make sure your doctor hears you too. so folks, don't wait. step on up. and talk to your doctor. because you have places to go... ...and people who can't wait for you to get there. if you have diabetes and burning, shooting pain in your feet or hands... step on up and talk to your doctor today. why pause a spontaneous moment?

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by simply reading the words. little wren is just 5 years old, right there in her glasses, playing with her soon to be cousins outside courtroom number six. >> this is a special day for little wren. wren, do want to come on up here to make this official? >> i love you. >> i love you. >> reporter: millie holloman of north carolina has been waiting almost three years to officially become wren's mother. >> push down really hard. >> reporter: stamping the adoption papers to make it official. and we first heard from that mom this morning on "gma." >> i knew from the first time i met wren, i wanted to adopt her. but i wasn't able to quite yet, so, i had to wait awhile for that to finally happen. >> reporter: mille asked those who played roles in this journey to help document it for little wren, with signs each of them would hold. >> i wanted to do something for wren that she could look back on in a few years, so she could know how much we loved her. >> reporter: wren's proud grandparents -- "today, we welcomed our sixth grandchild." the presiding judge.

his smile as wide as little wren's. and their adoption attorney. "signed, sealed, delivered. she's yours." the cousins are ready. and today, we learned, so is wren. hey, wren, you love mommy? >> yeah. >> how much? show them how much you love mommy. show them how much. >> reporter: we love this story. we love this story. >> a lot! >> reporter: this much. and there was millie, with perhaps the most powerful sign of all. "today, i became a mom." we are so happy for millie and wren. and happy to be back tonight. thank you for watching. i'm david muir. i hope to see you first thing in the morning on "gma" and right here tomorrow night. good night. right here tomorrow night. good night.

forward. tonight it's all about looking forward to whether or not to move to vegas. >> a unanimous decision by nfl owners today has cleared the way for owners to move to las vegas. but they're n