mason: good evening, for those of you just joining us, this is a special expanded edition, i m anthony mason. scott pelley had been reporting from the new jersey shore but the hurricane has knocked out our link to him. hurricane sandy is about to make landfall near atlantic city, but the impact of this storm is being felt all along the east coast. the governors of 14 states from north carolina to maine have declared states of emergency. let s get the latest now from cbs news hurricane consultant david bernard. david? good evening, anthony. a lot of trouble up and down the east coast tonight. sandy is basically not a drop cam system anymore, but the effects are all going to be the same. let s start with where the storm is right now and, again, we are looking at very strong waves occurring all across ptions of the jersey and also long island sound. notice just offshore we re seeing some of these wave heights still indicated near 45 feet, maybe higher. and even though the storm is here, anthony, it s still pushing a lot of water in from the east and southeast. in fact, i was looking at some of the tide gauges in just the last few moments and places like the battery and even further east along the long island south and south along the jersey shore, those tides are reaching their highest levels of the day as we are nearing high tide in the next couple of hours. mason: david, we ve talked about the storm surge. how does it work? when we talk about storm surge, we re talking about a lot of components that go into it. i was just mentioning high tide. so on a normal day you have your tide ranges, you have your low tide and you have your high tides. when a storm is going on, we have to also factor in the surge. the surge is not like a tsunami, it s a gradual buildup of water that comes along with the center of the storm and it pushes into the coastline. so we have the sea level, the tide, and the surge. and what happens is if it comes in at high tide like tonight, you have to add the high tide to the amount of the surge and when you do that, that equals the total storm tides. so when we talk about water levels in long island sound and along the jersey shore could be anywhere from six to as much as 12 feet, that s what we re talking about, the storm tide, and that s how much water potentially you could expect at ground level. so if you know you re at sea level and obviously the storm tide would equal exactly what amount of water you could have your n your house. mason: david, how long is the worst of this supposed to last? that s the problem. right now the storm is moving at a pretty good clip. it looks like that low pressure center is going to slow down. so we re going to talk about on shore winds continuing probably for the next 24 to likely 48 hours. here s the satellite picture in the center of the storm right here. but look how the wind going counterclockwise around it are continuing to feed a lot of water, not only in the long island sound but also into the jersey shore and the track is going to be something like that. so we re going to continue with these on shore winds at least for the next day and probably for the next couple of days right here in south florida and the miami area. we still have large ocean swells that are causing coastal flooding here up and down the coastline and sandy went by several days ago. mason: david bernard, thanks, david. flooding along the new jersey shore has cut some communities off from the mainland. you know conditions are bed when rescue crews can t even get around. elaine quijano has our report. reporter: pounding surf and rising water along the jersey shore had officials worried early in point pleasant, beach. it s completely underwater. i m not going to chance taking this vehicle into it. reporter: by noon, the water was already so high even experienced rescuers had to turn around. you can see how deep it is. reporter: kyle grace with the city s emergency management team had a blunt warning for anyone who ignored the order to leave. they have to realize if it gets really bad here we can not come in and get them. so if you can get out now; get out now. reporter: authorities here know how deadly storms can be. last year, tropical storm irene swept two people out to sea. people need to learn from that and listen to us and get away from the ocean, get away from where the tidal flooding is going to happen. reporter: one person who was on the beach after the evacuation order was mike koen. what are you doing here? i came over here to check one of the complexes that i manage. i m setting my pumps up and leaving right now. mason: you expect high winds, heavy rain and flooding from a hurricane, but here s what makes sandy so unusual. it s bringing snow to the appalachians. anna werner is in elkins, west virginia. reporter: the national weather service issued blizzard warnings for more than 14 counties across the appalachian mountains as hurricane sandy hit a blanket of cold air. west virginia s governor earl ray tomblin declared a state of emergency as the snow began to fall. we re getting ready for the winter snow. reporter: the snow shoe mountain resort was one of the first to see the snow. four inches now could grow to a possibly two feet by tomorrow. some roads are treacherous already. our friend s car doesn t have the greatest tires and they ve done spunking around on the road one time so i decided to come get them. reporter: you ll do better. yeah. reporter: you got a four-wheel drive. reporter: i think so. reporter: travis ray is with the state s department of transportation. it s going to be very difficult. there s going to be guys out there in midnight and zero visibility conditions that are going to have to work and we have a very dependable work force but they re not ideal conditions for people to be out in but we re going to be out there to serve the public. reporter: the most critical problem here may be if the power goes out. companies are already warning the outages could be widespread as trees buckle under the early snow and fall on power lines. now, anthony, for as much snow as is coming down here now, state officials say the next 24 hours are going to be the worst. national guard is on standby and power crews and extra highway crews are on alert to cope with whatever damage happens here over the next couple of days. mason: anna, what can you tell us about any power outages inland there? reporter: well, we do know that a few thousand customers are without power in the region but, in fact, just ten minutes nag the town of elkins right here behind me, the lights in the entire town flickered twice then the whole town went dark. some of them have come back on, but many of the businesses here appear to be without power as we speak. mason: anna werner, thanks, anna. as we mentioned, we lost our satellite connection to scott pelley but we have him on the phone now from allenhurst, new jersey. scott, you lost power where you are. what can you tell us about the conditions where you are now? pelley: anthony, well, to tell you the truth, i m watching a (inaudible) a refrigerator floating by in the sea right now. it s a remarkable sight here in allenhurst. the ocean is crashing over a sea wall. i m about 15 feet above the beach at the sea wall and the waves are crashing over the top of the sea wall pretty routinely now. there s quite a bit of debris in the water and like i said, i just watched a couple of refrigerators float by. we re seeing a lot of wood, lumber in the water. obviously structures have been destroyed by the waves and seeing the debris going by right now. the winds at this moment are about 69 miles an hour according to the weather service, gusting up a little bit higher than that. but mostly the story here, anthony, as david bernard was saying earlier, it s the water. we are looking at mountainous waves, impossible to judge how tall they are. but they are crashing on to the shore here and now vaulting over this 15-foot sea wall which has been here protecting allenhurst for quite some time. the city itself, this city, is largely dry except for the rain. we re not seeing massive flooding here at all. but certainly the waves are threatening the lower lying areas of new jersey all up and down the coast here. so a very significant storm, not a great deal of rain. winds about 69 to 75 miles an hour which would make it a category one hurricane and the sea rising and rising as the storm comes on shore. anthony? mason: scott, as we mentioned, one of the casualties of the hurricane was one of our live signals from scott in allenhurst, new jersey. today washington, d.c. could have been called washington, c.d. as in closed down. wyatt andrews is there. wyatt? reporter: anthony, washington, d.c. is 120 miles from the atlantic coastline from where scott is reporting and yet hurricane-force winds are still expected here. the threat of wind and flooding shut down most of the nation s capital today and will again tomorrow. fear of hurricane sandy emptied the streets of washington. more than 200,000 nonemergency federal workers were told to stay home. schools were closed. the entire subway system was closed. the executive branch was mostly closed. congress was already on recess. only the supreme court was fully on the job, hearing two cases one on wiretapping, the other on copyright limitations, but the court and the rest of the government will be closed on tuesday. the number-one concern tonight is the danger from the wind. the weather service issued an unusual high-wind warning for washington and baltimore and is forecasting hurricane-force gusts of 75 miles per hour tonight. almost six million people live in the washington region and the threat of downed trees and lost electric power is extreme. hundreds of utility repair trucks and crew from outside the area have been brought in and prepositioned, but can only begin the repair work after the storm subsides. the power company serving the washington region say that 100,000 homes are already without power and that s before these heavy hurricane-force winds bebe again slamming this region later tonight. anthony? mason: wyatt, when does it look like the capital will be open for business again? reporter: just before we came out here, the federal government announced yet again federal employees here and there are 300,000 of them, roughly 100,000 are emergency workers-ers they re being asko stay home again tomorrow so wednesday at the earlers. mason: thanks, wyatt. in new york city, a construction crane snapped today in the high winds and was left dangling 75 stories above the street. it s a precarious situation and john miller has been looking into it. john? reporter: anthony, i m just back there from the scene and what you have there was hard to believe when you saw it. you have a crane that is at the top of a 90 story building in the process of being built. this is on west 57th street just down the street from our broadcast center here and this is the street that is home to carnegie hall, the iconic russian tea roomhe steinway piano factory and all of it s been evacuated because the boom on that crane snapped off and is hanging over the street. now, authorities say if the rest of it breaks loose it could fall at such a velocity and hit with such an impact it could pierce the pavement, it could hit gas lines, water mains, steam lines and cause real disaster. so it s not a disaster yet, it s kind o a disaster waiting to happen. they re hoping that it won t, that they can tie steel cables to that boom, reattach it to the building, wait until after the storm passes and then dismantle it and take it down in a million pieces. but right now a main thoroughfare is shut down, a precarious situation still unfolding as the storm approaches. mason: and i assume they don t want to send anyone up there to try to secure it. no, that was part of the discussion. that boom is still attached to the cables that run to the crane housing and they re hoping that all of that will hold it. in the meantime, they re just counting on the evacuation to keep everybody safe. mason: but the worst of the wind are still to come. that s right. mason: john miller, thanks. to the east of new york city, long island is getting hit with a storm surge. streets are flooded and more than 525,000 homes and businesses have lost power. michelle miller is in sag harbor. reporter: by noon, sandy s storm surge had already wiped out the laser-thin beach in sag harbor. police chief tom fabiano was stunned. how far did the beach go out? probably about 100 feet. reporter: there s nothing left. no, there s nothing left here. there s a playground behind us and in all the years i ve been here i ve never seen it come up to the road or anything like that. reporter: flooding is the chief s main concern but he says winds are proving just as dangerous. strong wes stripped boats off their moorings and well-rooted trees were toppled. there is a voluntary evacuation order in low-lying areas here. have you ever seen it this bad? no, i haven t. i ve been here 35 years doing this job. and this is not even the worst of it. reporter: at this bar across the street from te harbor the power was already out but people were trying to squeeze in a last-minute meal. it s pretty impressive to watch what s going on outside from here. you have to be concerned and careful. you have to stay awa from the hysteria, too. reporter: anthony, the corner bar and every other business here is shut down tonight and three quarters of this town are without power. a few peoplere milling on the streets, millingbout, but most of the people are heeding the warning from the police chief to buckle up and ride out this storm. mason: michelle millner sag harbor, thank you, michelle. further west, jim aelrod is in downtown maattan at t tip of m a what s tt there? reporter: anthousny, j with the last hour the rain has startedo intensify, the wind has picked up. you can hear a sound as the wind whips through the skyscrapers of lower manhattan that sound like a jet engine and it seems as though new york is really about to feel the full force of hurricane sandy. the big concern is the water right over my shoulder. all eyes are on the sea wall. if that water comes up over the sea wall and works its way into the electricity generating equipment that s in lower manhattan and into the subway stations in lower manhattan there could be very serious implications. anthony? mason: jim axelrod, thanks, jim. that was dramatic rescue at sea aboard a ship you may recognize from the movies. and two presidential campaigns are derailed by a hurricane. that s ju,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
mason: the hurricane forced the presidential candidates to suspend their campaigning for a couple days. john dickerson is our political director. john, with just a week until election day, how is this going to affect their campaigns? reporter: well, no candidate wants to look like he s taking political advantage of this cry seusz so with a week before the election this should be a time of frantic political activity but now the campaigns have to pear way back and calibrate every political move. usually at this time the campaigns are trying to hone their message down to a single simple closing argument to punch through the voters. but that s been interrupted and complicated now. both men have canceled a series of campaign events. the president has an official role and his strategists are trying to both highlight that role while at the same time not looking like they re doing so. mitt romney as no official role but by turning his campaign into a relief effort shows he cares and it keeps him in the news at this key time. losing the candidate on the stump is a blow to both campaigns in the battleground states where a candidate visit is an important part of the organization. it gets the candidates message into local media where undecided voters can hear it and candidate events lure voters who can be taken after the rally to vote early or convinced to volunteer for the final get out the vote effort. but while the candidates have suspended their public events for a little bit, the race does still continue. both campaigns were kicking each other under the table today in ohio over the auto bailout, releasing competing television ads and accusations. mason: john, how is this likely to affect the ground organization for both candidates in the key battleground states you were talking about? well, they ll continue fighting it out on the ground while the candidates are not there, but there is this element of without the candidates coming to pay a visit, the campaigns have to rely on surrogates to come and surrogates don t turn out the crowds as much. in some states, the crucial battleground state of virginia and then also perhaps a little bit in north carolina the ground game kind of has to halt in terms of just the fact that the weather is too bad and also because volunteers are busy cleaning up their basements and their front yards and they re not able to get on the phone and call voters to convince them to vote for their candidate. mason: john dickerson, thanks, john. the deadly meningitis outbreak caused by tainted steroid injections has spread to 19 states. rhode island was added to the list today. the number of cases jumped to 347. 25 people have died. another drug-mixing company in massachusetts called infusion resource was ordered to shut down after investigators made a surprise inspection. lights, camera, coast guard. a ship straight out of hollywood
in the 1962 film mutemy on the bounty was at the center of a real-life drama today. the ship was battered by hurricane sandy and sank. the crew had to be rescued. david martin has the story. reporter: coast guard rescue swimmer dan todd was lowered into 18-foot seas 90 miles off the coast of north carolina. he swam to one of two life rafts holding 14 survivors. there s two people remaining in there. reporter: the three masted ship h.m.s. bounty was sailing from connecticut to ship h.m.s. bounty was sailing from connecticut to florida when it foundered. the coast guard homed in on their emergency beacons. what followed was the rescued of 14 souls from vessels pitching so violently that at times they capsized. one after another the crew members, wearing cold-water survival suits and life jackets were pulled aboard in the wildly swinging cage. this one is swinging really bad. reporter: the swimmer remained in the water waiting for the empty cage to be lowered for another rescue. at one point he moved from one raft to the other by dangling beneath the helicopter. trying to stop the wind. i hope i m not swinging dan too much. i stopped him. i think i threw my shoulder out. reporter: as the last survivor was hoisted aboard, the pilot was already making plans to refuel as soon as they landed to head back out and search for two crew members still missing. let s go to cherry point and drop these people off, hot gas and come back. reporter: some survivors suffered injuries but none were life threatening. the body of one of the two missing crew members has now been found. the captain of the h.m.s. bounty is still missing. mason: david, how long can he be likely to survive in those waters, do you think? reporter: the cold water survival gear they were wearing is supposed to enable you to survive for about 15 hours. the ship sank in materially morning hours so those 15 hours are about up. mason: david martin, are about up. mason: david martin, ,,,,,,,,,,,, this is hayden. he s five years old. are about up. mason: david martin, ,,,,that s elizabeth. and that s skyler. and his mom, nancy. they re just a few of the californians who took it on themselves to send you a message about what they need to restore years of cuts to their schools. prop thirty-eight. thirty-eight raises billions in new revenue - bypasses sacramento and sends every k through 12 dollar straight to our local schools. every school. for them. for all of us. vote yes on thirty-eight. mason: updating our top story, sandy is making landfall at the jersey shore near new york city. it s no longer a hurricane but it s still a dangerous storm. 14 states have declared statesor more than a million homes and sisses. flooding is a major concern. new york harbor could see a storm surge of up to 11 feet, enough to flood lower manhattan. gale warnings are up along the great lakes as sandy moves inland and as much as three feet of snow is predicted for the mountains of west virginia. financial markets in new york will be closed again tomorrow as will federal government offices in washington. and airlines have canceled more than 13,000 flights through tomorrow. and that s our special expanded edition of the cbs evening news. stay with this cbs station and cbsnews.com for the latest on the storm. for scott pelley, i m anthony mason. thanks for watching. good night. captioning sponsored by cbs captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
. you re watching cbs-50 eyewitness news in high definition. yeah! a homecoming fit for champions, mobile 5 is live as the bay area welcomes back the world series champs. this is not a time to be stupid. it is a time to save yourself appeared your family. hurricane sandy is speeding watched the east coast and the entire northeast is preparing for damage. we are going to get to complete coverage of the giants homecoming but first it is shaking up to be one of the most destructive storms in modern history. hurricane sandy is slamming the coast. 60million people are in the path. from atlantic city new jersey, paul diano is tracking sandy. she is on land right now. that is the update. we ve had a land falling hurricane in new jersey for the first time in more than two rations. let s get the satellite loop. the storm is unprecedented. there is rain from maine to south carolina. that is how big the storm is. close to the center of the storm, these are the
this is world news and tonight your voice, your vote, tens of millions of americans going to the polls. lining up for hours to choose their president at schools, homes, laundromats, even car dealerships. and even americans in the storm zone doing what it takes to make their voices heard voting by flashlight in the shelters. after this long and tough road, the president appears at the end of his final campaign. we ve made real progress these past four years. the challenger, governor romney fighting for the last vote. that s when you know you ll win. getting ready for this historic night. our abc news political team here and reporting across the nation as tonight it is the vote, the big picture, election day in america. good evening from the crossroads of the world, pulse of the nation, abc news election headquarters in times square on this historic day for democracy after one of the toughest elections ever, americans are choosing a president. and our great abc news team of analysts and experts have taken their posts eager to tell you would won, how and why throughout this evening. and it is your voice, your vote. it will be lighting up our maps here at election headquarters. and we also thank you all day long. you have sent us pictures proving how much you care about this vote and we saw you lining up before dawn in virginia, braving lines, rain in florida, children in tow and even guys with surfboards and bare feet as in chicago a woman who went to the polls while in labor then went on to the hospital. talk about the candidates in these last moments, the two men who have been racing to the finish line spent the day proving determination and stamina and abc s white house correspondent jake tapper starts us off in chicago where the president is with his family waiting for results. jake. reporter: good evening on this exciting night, diane. president obama and his campaign are gurding hem thfls for a long night and the president said this might spill into the morning but he fully expects by tomorrow he will be re-elected. it is out of his hands and in yours. my name is barack obama, you know, the president. reporter: at a chicago campaign field office president obama called volunteers in wisconsin to thank them for their hard work. hi, is this annie? hi, this is barack obama, how are you? [ laughter ] i m doing you know i don t think she knows it s me. reporter: his message has been one of staying the course. forward. painted himself as a warrior for the middle class. are you fired up? all: fired up. are you fired up? reporter: but today another message, an olive branch. i also want to say to governor romney, congratulations on a spirited campaign. reporter: later today joined by scottie pippen and his old friends the president played basketball, an election day superstition. he did not do so the day of the 2008 new hampshire primary and has not repeated that mistake. also not taking anything for granted vice president biden who made a quick stop in must win buckeye battleground ohio. the son of scranton, gave clevelanders part of his folksy charm. running for county council. reporter: it s been an emotional home stretch late last night with his wife in the state that launched his national career, iowa. as you know this is a pretty emotional time for us because this is the final event of my husband s final campaign. reporter: sleep deprived in the battle of his life standing in the freezing cold, the president saw old familiar faces in the crowd of 20,000 before him. to all of you who ve lived and breathed the hard work of change, i want to thank you. reporter: tears streamed down his face. that s the spirit that carried us through the trials and tribulations the last four years. reporter: and now president obama is in a suite at the fairmont hotel. he is waiting for his family, his girls have arrived. they flew here after school with the president s mother-in-law. they ll be watching the returns at the hotel. the president is expected to return to washington, d.c., diane, tomorrow afternoon. diane? okay, jake, thank you so much. and again, we have been following you on social media and so many of you wrote us to tell us about epic lines you encountered at the polls coast to coast. you can see some of them right there in washington, d.c., but people did wait hours and hours to vote and the voting remained in full swing and does now, but it hasn t stopped governor romney from squeezing in a few more campaign stops and abc s david muir was there with him. david? reporter: diane, good evening. can you believe the day is finally here and as you mentioned a frenetic pace for governor romney right up the end he just landed here in boston after stops in ohio and pennsylvania today. they do believe pennsylvania is now in play for the republicans but i got to tell you it all started this morning when he walked into his own polling place in his neighborhood in belmont, massachusetts and was hummed when he saw his name right there for president of the united states. mitt romney and his wife ann back home this morning walking in to cast their vote. a quiet moment side by side after nearly six years of campaigning, two runs for the white house and tonight he is one step away. outside a kiss and then a question about ohio. yeah, i feel great about ohio. thank you. reporter: but not taking that state for granted a last-minute dash today back to ohio. his body man taking this image on the plane proudly wearing this pin and the plane and running mate s plane paul ryan and vice president joe biden s plane in a state both sides want to win. it s been a race to the finish traveling 15,000 miles in 4 days. overnight on my iphone capturing this moment, the romney plane pulling into this columbus, ohio, hangar and soon after we were all back on the plane. we re headed to new hampshire. headed to new hampshire where his candidacy began for a rally lasting past midnight. this is where our campaign began. you got it started a year and a half ago. reporter: we were standing right there as he worked his last rope line as a candidate but now to us for that giant bear hug. if anyone is revealing the rigors, it is ann overcome last night by the support. i m so moved. so emotional to have this kind of reception from ohio, a state that is going to make the next president of the united states. [ cheers ] reporter: in the final hours romney is sticking to his playbook. it s all coming together today. reporter: all about the economy, pushing his vision of lower taxes and working on his ipad on tonight s speech and one more stop, pennsylvania, once considered a long shot now they believe within reach and unexpected moment in pittsburgh, a parking garage filled with supporters. the governor with his hand to his heart and a wave telling abc news afterwards. that s how know you re going to win. reporter: i can tell you, diane, right here in the hall they re beginning to gather at the romney victory party. they re hoping a few hours from now later here in evening and i can tell you the governor, his wife ann and five sons are holding at the westin hotel and the speech he was working on on his ipad, it s 1100 words long and asked if he had two versions. he said, diane, he has one and it s a victory speech. all right, david. but tell me again, he s going to be watching with his family right there? reporter: yes, the five sons are all here. the big number i ve got to get for you, how many grandchildren. as you know that number is much larger. we will track that down as the evening goes on. they re waiting in the hotel right next door. good luck with all those grandchildren. now i want to bring in the co-anchor, george stephanopoulos, right here, so, george, we have the first window on to what people are saying as they come out of the polls. i saw a surprise in the first window. when we asked people where they think the country is going on the right track or in the wrong direction, a year ago 77% thought we were on the wrong track even as late as august it was 69%. today, down to 52%. pretty dramatic increase in optimism over the last several weeks and asked them about the candidates and the economy. president obama has a small advantage, you see it right down in front of us, 52-44% on empathy being in touch but overall trust to handle the economy it flips a little and governor romney has a slight advantage over president obama, 50%-47%. different views on the candidates and the economy. so i m calculating, your first campaign, 1988. that s right. a little over 25 years ago. so what s the most important thing you ll be watching? i m looking at three things, the first one is a number, 74%. that was the share of the electorate four years ago in 2008. down every year. if that goes up, that is good news for governor romney. if it continues to go down that will be good news for president obama. the second thing i ll be looking at is a state, early state, virginia, the polls closed there at 7:00. governor romney has to win that state to be in the hunt for 270 electoral votes. if he doesn t, president obama does, he will be on his way to victory and finally going to be looking at an issue. that is the issue of the auto bailout. big dramatic action. president obama took early on. many jobs across the industrial midwest, president obama s fire wall, ohio and wisconsin and michigan were dependent on the auto industry. if you see a favorable ritting for that that s good news for the president. we will be right here bringing everybody the big news tonight. because it is a once in a generation election. a changing america election and rarely have the stakes been higher and not just because the white house is up for grabs so is control of the senate and abc s jonathan karl, our veteran capitol hill correspondent is here and we ask in the three places he ll be watching tonight, the states also voting by the way on some pretty far-ranging things. we ll get to that in a moment. jon. that s the other big battle is the battle for control of the u.s. senate so very early in the night i m going to be looking at two senate seats especially. the first one up in massachusetts, this is scott brown against elizabeth warren. the most expensive race in the country. the most high profile. it has been a bitter race. if republican scott brown loses in massachusetts, the republicans have a much harder time to win control of the senate. the other one also early in the night is going to be in the state of indiana, this is richard mourdock running against donny. they controlled it for 36 years. should have been a slam dunk but he made controversial comments on rape and abortion now it s at risk for republicans. if they lose both of those it will be virtually impossible to win control of the senate. my third one is actually a house seat. all 435 members up. that s in minnesota, michele bachmann running for re-election, of course, a year ago she was a front runner to run for president now fighting for her political life for her own district in minnesota. the states putting up referendum some wide-ranging things. what s number one you ll be looking at. we could have legalized marijuana in three states at the end of the night. that s what i ll be looking at. real possibility. it s a possibility. [ laughter ] all right. i m going to see you later. we ll talk later. put you down for a talk. you re going to be with us, of course, all this evening. jon, george, the abc news political team standing by, analysts and experts ready to roll as your voice, your vote rolls in starting at 7:00 p.m. eastern. coming up next here, election day in the storm zone, the amazing ways americans are making their voices heard against all odds. i ve been a superintendent for 30 some years at many different park service units across the united states. the only time i ve ever had a break is when i was on maternity leave. i have retired from doing this one thing that i loved. now, i m going to be able to have the time to explore something different. it s like another chapter.
and on this big day in america we ask all of you to give us three words, and here s a photo of three words. take a look. we loved it. we the people coming up after people are showing you voting here right now. we the people turning out even in the shelters showing a unity that is strengthening family as cross the storm zone even in the darkness and the cold. images that poured in to us all day long from our voting our voting colleagues, our voting americans in the shelters and the tents with their flashlights, family suffering after sandy a. as you know vo n unbroken to vote. linsey davis tells us what they re facing tonight. reporter: without power, but not power-less. in some of the areas most devastated by hurricane sandy, we saw images like this of the victims, eager to show with everything they lost, they still have a voice. in rockaway park, queens, when the generators ran out of gas, voters had to cast ballots in the dark. some new jersey voters climbed into winnebagos to cast their ballots. overwhelmed by applications, state officials there extended the deadline for casting votes by e-mail until friday. hard-hit staten island residents are still trying to catch their breath. did you get a chance to vote today? vote. no. look at this. who s got time to vote? reporter: now with the added burden of another storm on the way, expected to hit tomorrow night, this devastated coastline is in the bull s-eye of a nor easter bringing rain, high winds, coastal flooding, even snow to an already battered region. we could have some snow on the ground and certainly snow on the trees. that makes the trees that already have their bases flooded more likely to fall over. this is the new york city police department. reporter: new york city is prepping again urging residents in the lowest lying areas to move out of the storm s path ago as parks, playgrounds and beaches are expected to close for 24 hours beginning at noon tomorrow. new jersey officials are watching the path of the storm closely. just when i thought i was going to start to get some more sleep we re going to get the nor easter and i think it s going to be all hands on deck again. how much more can we take? reporter: at the peak of the power outages, more than 8.5 million people were without power. today, close to a million are still in the dark. and now the fear is that those who just got their power back may lose it again. why does it always happen we get creamed with a storm and then two days later there s another storm? reporter: elinda restaina, a mother of seven, is trying to work fast to salvage what she can before the next round of rain and wind. you can take our home but you can t take our heart. reporter: linsey davis, abc news, staten island. thank you, linsey. all of us at abc want to make sure help is on the way for those families and thanks to your extraordinary generosity, all of you and the abc family coming together for a day of giving, listen to this. we have raised more than $17 million to help families suffering in the storm zone and, by the way, it is not too late to help. the phone lines are still open, call 1-800-help-now or go to our website, abcnews.com and thanks to all of you for your incredible generosity. coming up, something to make everyone smile on this election day. we asked which song plays into your head as you go to the polls? an election day playlist. you gave it to us today. born in the usa born in the usa born in the usa i was in the ambulance and i was told to call my next of kin. at 33 years old, i was having a heart attack. now i m on a bayer aspirin regimen. 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(cries) a machine can t give you what a person can. that s why ally has knowledgeable people there for you, night and day. ally bank. your money needs an ally. we loved hearing from you all day on twitter, on facebook and e-mails. so many of you telling us that as you cast your vote, you never forgot that it s a kind of celebration of democracy with its very own soundtrack so we asked you tell us which song was playing in your head as you went in the voting booth. i feel good o say can you see by the dawn s early light devil with the blue dress on i saw all this red. let s get it on marion gay. quite a difference four years made every minute every hour born in the usa i was born in the usa like springsteen said baby i was born to run we ve only just begun god bless america land that i love stand beside her and guide her through the night by the light from above and coming up, as the abc news political team is assembling josh elliott will take you behind the scenes at abc s election headquarters. ete. me. thinking my only option was the vial and syringe dad used. and me. discovering once-daily levemir® flexpen. flexpen® is prefilled. doesn t need refrigeration for up to 42 days. no drawing from a vial. dial the exact dose. inject by pushing a button. flexpen® is insulin delivery. my way. levemir® (insulin detemir [rdna origin] injection) is a long-acting insulin used to control high blood sugar in adults and children with diabetes and is not recommended to treat diabetic ketoacidosis. do not use levemir® if you are allergic to any of its ingredients. the most common side effect is low blood sugar, which may cause symptoms such as sweating, shakiness, confusion, and headache. severe low blood sugar can be serious and life threatening. ask your healthcare provider about alcohol use, operating machinery, or driving. other possible side effects include injection site reactions. tell your healthcare provider about all medicines you take and all of your medical conditions. get medical help right away if you experience serious allergic reactions, such as body rash, trouble with breathing, fast heartbeat, or sweating. with flexpen®. say good night to vial and syringe. ask your doctor about levemir® flexpen. covered by 90% of insurance plans, including medicare. find your co-pay at myflexpen.com. looking for a better place to put your cash? here s one you may not have thought of fidelity. now you don t have to go to a bank to get the things you want from a bank, like no-fee atms, all over the world. free checkwriting and mobile deposits. now depositing a check is as easy as taking a picture. free online bill payments. a highly acclaimed credit card with 2% cash back into your fidelity account. open a fidelity cash management account today and discover another reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. i got your campbell s chunky soup. mom? who s mom? i m the giants mascot. the giants don t have a mascot! ohhh! eat up! new jammin jerk chicken soup has tasty pieces of chicken with rice and beans. hmmm. for giant hunger! thanks mom! see ya! whoaa.oops! mom? i m ok. grandma? hi sweetie! she operates the head. [ male announcer ] campbell s chunky soup. it fills you up right. we are counting down, just minutes away from the first polls closing. we are all gathering here, so we asked abc s josh elliott to give a kind of backstage tour of abc s election headquarters. that s right, diane. we are in the nerve center of our election headquarters at abc news and what a nerve center it is. we do want to show you where we will be parsing all the information tonight as it become as valuable as we elect a new president. here to my left the insiders, matthew dowd, nicolle wallace, donna brazile, george will and barbara walters will tell us what it means when a state turns one way, what it might mean four years from now. to the right of our set we also have our insiders desk. remember, there are many key house and senate races still to be decided and they will be parsed and synthesized, as well. the banks of seats, we have our analysis desk and ballot watch team. the analysis desk is really the first point of entry for the raw information, the exit poll numbers that will become the real numbers that you will see and then you see the ballot watch team led by pierre thomas looking for any irregularities at voting and polling stations around the country and that flows to our twin pillars of rome as george and diane will then bring it to you and as you can see here technology will play a part, the information will spring from the floor. this huge l.e.d. screen, in fact, george with a touch screen in front of him has the ability to tell us when a state turns and maybe why it did. county by county parsing it for you as best as we can. obviously technology will be a star and to that end social media which has had an impact on this election unlike any other will have a place with us, as well. this is our social media corner, you see. a touch screen and katie couric will be with us tonight monitoring what you are talking about on facebook and on twitter as we have all come to see history tonight, as our president will be re-elected or the republicans will have taken back the white house and we do hope you joins at abc news till the very last, diane. we thank you. and our election 2012 coverage will begin right now. george stephanopoulos, the powerhouse political team standing by. we will be here with the latest minute-by-minute results as they come in and see you after a short break. good afternoon, i m cheryl jennings with this abc 7 news election update. all eyes on prop 30, education funding measure, supporters greeted the governor as he arrived to vote in the oakland hills. it would boost sales tax a quarter percent, increasing taxes on individuals that earn more than $250,000 a year. the governor says if it fails, california schools will be in big trouble. prop 30 opposers say it will drive business out of california. election officials divided into two locations pushing some vote dwrorz a precinct down the street. san francisco s big ush yu is proposition f which wants the cities to transition away from hetch hetchy as a primary water source. in richmond supporters say measure n will help fight childhood obesity. you still have four hours to vote in the bay area when polls close tonight at 8:00. abc 7 news will be live with the first returns and you can get realtime results at abc 7 news.com also, live updates at facebook.com/abc 7 news and through twitter. our next update is in less than 30 minutes.
on our broadcast here tonight from our nbc news election headquarters on democracy plaza, decision day. that means election night soon we get to learn the verdict of a nation. either another term or another president after a long and bitter campaign and a grueling fight to the finish. tonight, what we ll be looking for as the first returns start to come in. and after the storm in the cold, without power after losing so much, they came to cast their ballots. tonight the extraordinary election effort to make sure everyone gets to vote while so much human suffering continues. nightly news this election night, decision 2012 begins now. good evening from our spectacular location here tonight at rockefeller plaza, in the center of new york city, transformed for thevening into democracy plaza. our nbc news election night headquarters. across this country today from the first light of day in montana, americans voted. they voted in temporary tents and by flashlight in the rockaways here in new york, where after all an entire region remains crippled and this will remain another cold, dark night for upwards of a million people. the first polls have already closed. more are closing in the next 30 minutes. people are still lining up to vote tonight in the state that may be the greatest prize of all, ohio. the candidates are spent after an exhaust iing campaign. now it all comes down to tonight. and just after midnight in keeping with a grand american tradition, the people of dixville notch, new hampshire cast the first votes in the nation and voted to a 5/5 tie. the first tie vote in that small town s history. we can only guess what that means for how late we ll be at this tonight. our team is in place all over the country and here in wbr id wbr1380 new york. we want to begin with our white house correspondent kristen welker covering the president in chicago. kristen, good evening. reporter: brian, good evening to you. the obama campaign is energized tonight, but also a bit wistful. after four years in office, the candidate once known for hope and change is counting on voters to stay the course. my name is barack obama, you know, the president? reporter: president obama campaigning tirelessly in the final hours before the polls closed, stopping by a chicago campaign office, to stress the importance of turnout. we have to round up the votes. reporter: since saturday, he s kept up a break neck campaign pace, logging more than 7,000 miles aboard air force /b one. making a dozen stops over eight states and granting 20 interviews to local stations. i hope we have a big turnout in iowa. reporter: after a long fight it came down to a sentimental journey to the packed center of des moines, iowa. i ve come wbr-id wbr1980 back to iowa one more time to ask for your vote. this is where our movement for change began. reporter: and it didn t surprise even veteran aids when the president reached a certain portion of his emotional speech with his voice strained. that shows you what one voice can do. reporter: and teers flowing down his cheech. it was the last event of his last presidential campaign. as you know, this is a pretty emotional time for us, because this is the final event of my husband s final campaign. reporter: today our nbc affiliate in des moines asked the president about his tears. a photographer got a little tear going down your left cheek. was that the cold out there or emotion? you know, probably a mix of both. i have to say that being back in des moines, thinking about all the folks in iowa who had worked so hard on my campaign back in 08 and then to see them still working hard back in 2012, it made me feel deeply moved and honored to have been able to be on this journey. reporter: this final stretch has taken on the feel of a family reunion, with aids from 2008 rejoining, some growing good luck beards, others wearing good luck charms. the president s tradition, a game of basketball with some of his closest friends and advisers. in fact we have a shot of him with one of the folks who played today, former illinois state treasurer. president obama will have dinner with his family tonight at his chicago home before watching election returns with the rest of his team. sports is a superstitious business. kristen welker starting us off. thanks. now to the other side, peter alexander traveling with the romney campaign. and tonight that means headquarters, back home in boston. peter, good evening. reporter: brian, good evening to you. within the last hour, mitt romney just landed back here in boston after wrapping up his final campaign swing. tonight he s going to watch those returns alongside his wife ann and all five of their sons. during that last flight he spoke to reporters and said he was very proud of the campaign, adding, and i quote, we put it all on the field. at the end of an exhausting quest for the white house. mitt romney cast his ballot alongside his wife ann in their home state of massachusetts. his mind was on the midwest. i feel great about ohio. reporter: governor romney went straight from the polls to his campaign plane with paul ryan. i m awed by the spirit and enthusiasm, support, energy, it s just amazing. thank you. reporter: while mr. romney thanks volunteers, later fueling up on fast food. it was a near traffic jam on the tarmac in cleveland. air force two carrying the vice president to a late campaign swing of his own touched down behind the governor s jet. he appeared almost overwhelmed by the reception in a state until now he largely ignored. that s when you know you re going to win. reporter: mr. ronlny said he didn t want to look back with anything other than satisfaction about his campaign. last night the romneys were greeted by a rock star s welcome in new hampshire. a three minute ovation in the state where the former massachusetts governor kicked off this campaign more than 500 days ago. i have a clear and unequivocal message. with the right leadership, america s going to come roaring back. reporter: late today after a bitter campaign, mr. romney struck a conciliatory tone. the president has run a strong campaign. i believe he s a good man and wish him well, but it s time for new direction. it s time for a better tomorrow. reporter: from that conversation with reporters tonight, it is clear that governor romney deeply believes he is going to win tonight. so confident apparently, he says he s only written one speech, a victory speech. peter alexander, romney headquarters in boston, where it s going to be a long night. let s fly across the plaza, a location we re going to be checking in with a lot, chuck todd, the keeper of the numbers. so chuck, give us a viewer s guide in effect, a lot of folks tuning in now will be with us the rest of the way out. what to look for tonight? good news for you presidential political junkies, before 9:00, look at how many states in the battlegrounds where the polls will be closed? six of the sort of ten states we ve been eyeing in either direction. the first big one comes up in a few minutes, the state of virginia. there s certain things to watch in the state of virginia. we expect it to be a tight race. if it s a good night for romney, is it something we re able to call by 9:00 or 10:00? is it a good night for the president, does he get it in his column early. i ve done all these scenarios. there s not many romney scenarios that don t include the state of virginia. two others i want to circle here. pennsylvania and north carolina. these are states that democrats believe something that s going to be in the president s column, north carolina something that s going to be in romney s column. what if they re too close to call at 9:00. if pennsylvania s too close to call, good news for romney. if north carolina is, good news for the president. we ll be checking in along the way. thanks a lot. we re joined now by three former nbc news chief white house correspondents, andrea mitchell, david gregory, savannah guthrie, who will be with us the rest of the way, of course. same question to chuck. what are the moments you ll be looking for tonight? the keys to the game here, as it were, two teams, and is obama s defense better than romney s offense? obama s got to protect the midwest tonight, he can do that, the states he won in 2008, ohio, iowa, wisconsin, he gets a second term. is romney s offense better. can he expand the battleground map? if he does that, he has his shot. what does the vote and the voter look like? how white is it? how nonwhite is it? what s the gender gap like, and what about men, white men in particular, for one side or the other. we re going to be paying a lot of attention on that. we got to barnstorm around on air force one for about 24 hours last week. what struck me, it s not 08 and you and i were talking about this before we went on the air, in so many ways. when you think about 2008, that was the night this country elected the first african-american president. four years later, if you look at the data, this is a country more racially divided politically than it has been ever before. the president is winning margins with nonwhites, upwards of 66%, losing whites by 21%. and that fact alone may be determinative of what the electorate looks like tonight. i think about how divided this country is, along racial lines, gender lines and political lines. we know this is going to be an extremely close race no matter what happens. what will that tell us for how we ll govern the next four years. to andrea mitchell, you re covering the senate and house races tonight. there s a lot of closely watched contests? speaking of partisanship, we re going to be watching to see whether the democrats can retain control of the senate. they have more to defend. the republicans have some self-inflicted wounds that they themselves would acknowledge with todd akin and richard murdoch, the candidates who spoke so controversially about rape. we re going to be watching women, 18 of these candidates in both parties in the senate are women. we re watching the house, of course. republicans expected to retain control of the house. what s going to happen to the tea party and the partisanship in the house. andrea mitchell wrapping up our purely political subtext tonight. by this time tomorrow night, this plaza will likely be full of swirling snow from a huge storm that s going to add insult to injury to this region. already for millions of voters here in the northeast, this election day includes such a painful subtext as the suffering from hurricane sandy continues for so many people. ron allen s been covering that, he s across the river from new york city in hard hit hoboken, new jersey. ron, good evening. reporter: good evening to you, brian. this city hall has been the center for relief operations here. today they added voting to the long list of things they re trying to accomplish. for voters in new york and new jersey, still battling the aftermath of the storm, there was frustration and confusion, and a huge problem caused by e-mail voting. election day got off to a chaotic start in communities outside new york city that still don t have power. when voters arrived at polling places that were not ready. it s a disgrace. i ve been here three times, they finally got machines in, now the machines are jammed up. reporter: in manhattan, where the storms effects still linger, the lines were long. in queens, tents were set up outside unusable polling places. shuttle buses carried other voters to alternative sites. throughout the metro area, some who turned out early even used flashlights. any means possible to have their vote counted. that s the only frightening part. there s a lot of people that just don t have positions to come and vote. reporter: registered voters could cast ballots at any polling place. in new jersey, anyone displaced by the storm could vote by e-mail or fax. an unprecedented move that overwhelmed election offices. frustrated voters who could not get ballots vented on social media. voting in new jersey is a disaster, said one tweet. late today the governor made it clear, e-mail voting is limited. you have been displaced from your home because of the storm. get your butt up and go vote at your polling place. reporter: buildings normally used for voting served many rolls. in hoboken, voters lined up at one side of the high school, while on the other side, storm victims lined up for emergency supplies. and many still plan to vote. i m still going to vote. that s not going to change anything. reporter: late today because of that huge backlog, the deadline to vote by e-mail was extended to friday night at 8:00 p.m. even before that move critics were warning of voter fraud. and legal experts say all this will land the state of new jersey in court. brian? ron allen across the way in hoboken tonight, ron? our justice correspondent pete williams has been watching for all reports of irregularities at the polls today. he reports that so far things have gone fairly well for the most part. he ll be part of our election night coverage tonight. however, one incident quickly went viral starting this morning. it happened to a voter in pennsylvania today as he filmed himself pushing the electronic screen, the obama button, the machine checked off romney s name instead. he eventually figured out how to touch a screen in such a way that allowed him to choose the candidate of his choice. he reported the problem to poll workers. when our broadcast continues, this other big story we re following, the continuing suffering from sandy, and how that has led to a vital new mission for the u.s. marines. 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[ male announcer ] it s the power of aspirin plus more in a triple action formula to relieve your tough migraines. new bayer migraine formula. we re back, this was the scene in the far rockaway section of queens in new york city today. hundreds lined up to get food and water from the national guard and nypd. among the items being handed out. blankets from the new york marathon that was cancelled. in one area particularly hard hit, staten island. the problems are piling up. when you have a problem, send in the marines, well, they did, as stephanie gosk found out there today. reporter: marines on patrol. this season thele monday province, it s the storm ravaged streets of long island. 50 marines in a community that need the muscle. especially the merchants. it s a huge job. they said, no problem, we can do it. reporter: a kindergarten teacher can t talk about her home without crying. russian immigrants, they worked for years to save enough money to buy their house. demolition is the only way to save what s left. of course, it s a big help. we can t do it by ourself. reporter: this is the kind of work that is needed all along this block. people are coming by to help out, but they re charging $3,000 to do what these marines are doing in here for free. reporter: in just an hour, the job was done. when i walked through these streets, it s like nothing i ever saw before. these homes were ripped off the foundation, fires, floods, winds. everything damaged this place so bad. reporter: they said at camp lejeune they were getting ready to deploy again to the middle east when they got the call to come to staten eye land. everyone s thankful to be here. reporter: the marines returned to their chopper to fly back to their ship. they will be on the ground here again tomorrow. this debris field behind me is now a 24 hour a day operation. the pile already big is going to get a lot bigger, brian. stephanie, i m sitting here thinking you ve been shot at while covering marines around the world. at least you re in the more hospitable climate of new york. there s this other storm on the way. by this time tomorrow night we could be seeing bands of snow through new york. the problem is the coastline, there are already mandatory evacuations underway in some jersey shore beach communities. the low lying one where the dunes the protection is gone, washed away. jim cantore is with us for an update on the severity of the storm. good evening. it s already coming to fruition, you can see it just off the coast here. these high clouds screaming north to where it s going to be another cold night tonight in new england. and these storm ravaged area. this model is going to give us an idea of what the storm is going to do. possibly tomorrow morning, no precipitation on the coast yet. it won t be long after that, look what happens during the evening brian. we change the rain over to snow, even in new york city, the hard hit jersey shore, across long island as well. the wind, surge and now the snow to add insult to injury. nine days after sandy. unbelievable. we ll talk to you next right back here tomorrow night, jim cantore, thanks. we ll take a break. in a moment, what voters are telling us mattered most to them as they left the polls today. 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[ male announcer ] polident. cleaner, fresher, brighter every day. first big poll closings just minutes away, that includes the state of virginia. our special election night coverage begins just after this break. we ll be with you all night long. this is it in a few minutes. so get comfortable. but for now, that s it for us for nightly news. our special coverage just moments away.
did they know and when did they know it? questions swirl around the cia and the fbi as we learn more tonight about what happened in the days leading up to the bombshell resignation of cia director david petraeus. money trail. new concerns about whether millions in donations are actually reachin families left shattered by sandy. tonight, our nbc news investigation. moment of crisis at one of the most trusted institutions in the world. explosive allegations against a popular tv star, now a shake-up all the way at the top. reunited, separated during the storm, we re there for the emotional moments when families find the pets they thought were lost forever. and paying tribute to those who served and those who continue to serve. tonight, honoring our nation s heroes on this veterans day. good evening. the fallout from the surprise resignation of cia director david petraeus after admitting to an extramarital affair has taken two tracks tonight. first with the bombshell landing just days after the presidential election, there is a growing course of questions from lawmakers about exactly when petraeus s affair was discovered and who in washington was told about it. then there s the fbi investigation that inadvertently exposed the whole thing. a probe into some harassing e-mails allegedly sent by petraeus s biography, paula broadwell. tonight nbc has learned who the fbi believes was on the receiving end of those e-mails. nbc news white house correspondent kristen welker has been working the story. she joins us now with the latest developments. kristen? reporter: lester, good evening. according to multiple government officials, the woman who made the initial complaint to the fbi is a close family friend of general petraeus, and there is no indication of anything more. now, the details are still murky, and lawmakers are demanding more answers. reporter: according to a senior federal official and close friend of david petraeus, 37-year-old jill kelly complained to fbi agents about being harassed by paula broadwell, david petraeus s biography. a senior u.s. military official says jill kelly is involved in wounded warrior fund-raising in tampa, is married, she and her husband are close family friends. officials say petraeus s downfall started when kelly complained to the fbi that she was receiving intimidated e-mails from broadwell. law enforcement and multiple u.s. officials tell nbc news that those e-mails led to the discovery of others between general petraeus and broadwell and were indicative of an extramarital affair. a senior law enforcement official told nbc news that fbi agents interviewed general petraeus in late october and concluded there was no criminal violation. today, members of congress are asking why the fbi did not inform them or the president sooner. we received no advanced notice. it was like a lightning bolt. i mean, this is something that could have had an effect on national security. i think we should have been told. there is a way to do it. reporter: this comes as we are learning more about the days leading up to petraeus s resignation. house majority leader eric cantor said in late october he was tipped off by the situation. in a statement, cantor said, i was contacted by an fbi employee concerned that sensitive, classified information may have been compromised and made certain director mueller was aware of these serious allegations and the potential risk to our national security. however, the president first learned about the incident on thursday, the day petraeus offered his resignation. a senior law enforcement official says the agent s call to a congressional staffer had no effect on the petraeus/broadwell investigation or the timing of the disclosure. still lawmakers say there are a lot of questions that need to be answered. it seems as we ve gone on for several months, and yet now it appears that they re saying that the fbi didn t realize until election day that general petraeus was involved, it just doesn t add up. reporter: several of petraeus s former aides say broadwell had too much access to the general. she hasn t been shy about sharing details about her relationship with petraeus, and their shared interest in running. ended up being a test for both of us since we both ran pretty quickly. but that was the foundation of our relationship. reporter: now, we have reached out to general petraeus. paula broadwell and jill kelly, so far no response. general petraeus was scheduled to testify on capitol hill this thursday about the attack in benghazi on the u.s. consulate. now, the acting cia director, michael morrell, is expected to testify in his place. that has upset some lawmakers who say petraeus is key to getting answers. lester? kristen welker tonight, thank you. now to the other big story that has consumed washington in the days since the election. the so-called fiscal cliff looming at the end of the year. if democrats and republicans can t come together and agree on a deal to avert it, taxes are going to go up for most americans. we get the latest tonight from nbc s mike viqueira. reporter: today top democrats drew a hard line. it s either higher taxes on the wealthy or the nation goes over the fiscal cliff. if the republicans will not agree with that, we will reach a point at the end of this year where all the tax cuts expire, and we ll start over next year. reporter: this as one influential conservative called on republicans to give ground. let s have a serious debate. don t scream and yell where one person says, you know what? really? the republican party s going to fall on its sword? a bunch of millionaires half of whom voted democratic and half of whom live in hollywood. reporter: but house speaker john boehner rejects any hike in tax rates. instead he would close loopholes in the tax code. raising tax rates will slow down our ability to create the jobs that everyone says they want. reporter: failure to agree by the end of the year would trigger a combination of deep spending cuts and expiring tax cuts. that could mean an estimated $2,000 more in taxes next year for the typical household. the jobless rate soaring to 9.1% by the end of the year. and possibly another recession. boehner and the president were close to a deal last year. the so-called grand bargain. $4 trillion in debt reduction including politically sensitive changes to social security and medicare. many think that blueprint still works. and the real problem is uncontrolled entitlement spending and a government that has grown massively. not just under this administration, under republican administration. reporter: experts warn of serious damage to the economy if the standoff drags on. if three or four weeks from now they re making no progress at all, you re going to see the anxiety and the nervousness growing both in the markets and in corporate boardrooms. it s going to be a rough two months for the u.s. economy. reporter: and lester, as the clock ticks with the two sides still at odds, they ll try to take the first steps towards common ground on friday here at the white house when the president hosts the entire congressional leadership. mick viqueira, thank you. tomorrow marks two weeks since sandy roared ashore here in the northeast, wiping out homes, leaving families with nowhere to go as they try to even think about how to pick up the pieces. a housing crisis that has the feds scrambling to help them. nbc s michelle frandsen is in staten island with more on that. good evening. reporter: good evening. this distribution center is the hub for this darkened neighborhood on staten island where people can come and get a hot meal and also much needed supplies. tonight, more than 120,000 homes and businesses in new york, new jersey and connecticut are still without power two weeks after sandy hit, and thousands of others displaced and in search and in need of housing. patrice sotomayor has spent the day clearing out her staten island home. the water came up to here. reporter: since sandy hit, she has stayed with friends. but with her flooded home now gutted, patrice worries about finding a new home. i m taking it a day at a time. i can t even think long term. reporter: today homeland security secretary janet napolitano returned to staten island for the second time since sandy struck. we know we have more to do. this is going to be here for the long term. and we are here for the long term as well. reporter: one of the biggest needs and questions, where to house the thousands of displaced residents. more than 4,800 displaced residents in new york, new jersey and connecticut are still in shelters tonight. fema is helping pay for temporary housing and says more than 369,000 have applied for individual assistance. and fema has approved more than $455 million of assistance so far. meanwhile, organizations like new york-based architecture for humanity which has helped rebuild communities in haiti and new orleans say the long-term needs for sandy victims are just as great. what we ve noticed is that there are pockets that are very similar to some of the hardest-hit areas after katrina. reporter: the company plans to help rebuild seaside heights, still closed off to residents. back in staten island, patrice says she doesn t know what s next, but she does know what she needs. i need some place to stay permanently. that i can afford to pay once fema help ends. reporter: and this is a community-based center run by volunteers. also fema has set up 55 centers throughout the hardest-hit areas of staten island. michelle frandsen, thank you. meanwhile, the red cross says it s received $117 million in donations to help victims of sandy. and tells us that so far its response has been near flawless. but that s not what we heard in some hard-hit areas of new york city where storm victims claim the country s preeminent disaster relief organization has been missing in action. here s nbc s senior investigative correspondent lisa myers. reporter: two weeks after sandy hit, residents of breezy point, new york, still wonder if more help will ever arrive. we haven t seen red cross at all. red cross hasn t offered any assistance up until yesterday. reporter: carrie lynn allen says she s donated to the red cross before and is very disappointed. they take people s hardworking money to assist people. and then when push comes to shove, they don t assist. reporter: her neighbors also wonder what happened. the red cross, you know, they re normally a wonderful organization, and it s just that they re not here. reporter: ann marie willis coordinates volunteers in the community and rates the red cross performance here poor. they need help with everything from housing to just hold them, say you re going to be okay. you ll get through this. we need everything. and i know the red cross has it. reporter: even in areas with a greater red cross presence like brooklyn, there is criticism. they were all saying too late. way too late. we needed help back then, and now people are sick and people are in trouble. reporter: red cross ceo gail mcgovern defends what she calls a massive relief effort. 5,700 volunteers, hundreds of emergency vehicles serving 4.8 million meals and snacks, shelters, clothing, health services. so what grade would you give the red cross so far? i think that we are near flawless so far in this operation. i m just so proud of everything that we are doing on the ground. it is incredible. one truck offers sandwiches with a blowhorn? it s disgusting. reporter: the red cross also has drawn fire in the past. it was accused of a chaotic and uneven response to katrina. and of being too slow to spend money in haiti. as for sandy, mcgovern says this storm poses unique challenges. the first cold weather hurricane. victims stacked in high-rises. a storm area the size of europe. the red cross promises that 91 cents of every dollar donated will be used to help victims of this storm. mcgovern says she hears the cries for help and is moving as quickly as possible to get as many resources as possible to the hardest-hit areas. lester? please sa meyers, lisa myers. ors are trying to figure out what caused an explosion. the explosion sparked a huge fire, flames shooting into the night sky that damaged or destroyed about three dozen homes. and take a look at the scene in denver. a southwest airlines 737 slid off a snowy taxiway last night during a snowstorm. the jet came to a stop in the grass. none of the 130 passengers or crew members was hurt. still ahead as nbc nightly news continues, the new fallout tonight as one of the most trusted broadcast institutions in the world is now described as being in a near meltdown. millions of tv viewers in shock. and later, we are there for the emotional reunions. families and the pets some worried they d never see again. okay, now here s our holiday gift list. aww, not the mall. well, i ll do the shopping. if you do the shipping. shipping s a hassle. i ll go to the mall. hey. hi. you know, holiday shipping s easy with priority mail flat rate boxes from the postal service. if it fits, it ships anywhere in the country for a low flat rate. yea, i know. oh, you re good. good luck! priority mail flat rate boxes. online pricing starts at $5.15. only from the postal service. we re back with more tonight on a deepening scandal involving one of the world s largest and most respected broadcasters, the bbc. one month after a legendary host was accused of having a long history of child sex abuse, the top official resigned this weekend. we get the latest from nbc s keir simmons in london. reporter: it is a british institution described today as in near meltdown. the terrible crisis which is entirely self-inflicted. reporter: the bbc, watched and trusted by millions, now overwhelmed by scandal, leading to the resignation this weekend of its director general after just 54 days on the job. a broken broadcaster, its leaders admitted today. if you re saying, does the bbc need a thorough structural radical overhaul, then absolutely it does. tonight, historical allegations reporter: for a week the bbc wrongly implicated a senior politician in child sex abuse claims. other networks made the same mistake. but for the bbc, it followed the decision to kill an investigation by the program newsnight of an alleged child abuser in its own ranks. for decades, one of the bbc s star hosts. it really is one of the most serious crises the bbc has ever faced. reporter: there are continuing questions as well about the man who entered a few months ago was the bbc s director general and editor in chief, mark thompson. tomorrow is he scheduled to become the ceo of the new york times. in a statement, thompson said, during my time, i never heard any allegations about jimmy. but nbc has spoken to one journalist who says he informed thompson s personal assistant about the claims. i absolutely said that. i always felt it extraordinary that no senior people within the bbc, including mark thompson as director general, ever addressed this issue. reporter: the bbc disputes his claim, but admits in the report it did call thompson s office. they ve seen public trust stop and his successors step down. now some predict more of thompson s former colleagues may have to resign before this is all over. keir simmons, nbc news, london. there is more ahead on this sunday evening. when we come back, one of the most famous dresses in movie history definitely not in kansas anymore. [ male announcer ] it s time for medicare open enrollment. are you ready? time to compare plans and see what s new. you don t have to make changes, but it s good to look. maybe you can find better coverage, save money, or both. and check out the preventive benefits you get after the health care law. medicare open enrollment. now s the time. visit medicare.gov or call 1-800-medicare. in the middle of all the loss and suffering from hurricane sandy, tonight we take a look at another part of the story that s gotten less attention. the plight of all the animals that became separated from their owners when the big storm hit. nbc s jill rappaport has that story. reporter: survivors of hurricane sandy are holding on to whatever they can find. everything is gone. everything. reporter: all you have left is what s on your back? on my back. reporter: and by your side. despite losing their homes and belongings, these people feel lucky. she s my heart. reporter: she s your heart and soul. yes. reporter: as sandy approa approached, officials in the northeast told residents to evacuate. don t leave your pet at home because you don t know when you can get back. reporter: but some didn t heed the warnings. most people did not think they were going to be gone for this long. they thought they would be back within three days. so they re heartbroken. reporter: animal rescue teams spent days scouring the hardest-hit areas, rescuing thousands of animals. my cat. reporter: in new jersey about 200 pets are in a temporary shelter run by the humane society of the united states. many animals here are accounted for. but since not all evacuation shelters allow pets, it may be some time before their owners can reclaim them. we re going to reunite you in a second. reporter: some are waiting patiently. daddy missed you so much. my baby boy. reporter: others a little less patiently. then there are the four-legged survivors without owners. like max who survived after a tree fell on him. tragically, that tree killed his owner and her friend. we didn t think he was going to make it for the first 48 hours. and then his strength and his will to live just really, really shone through, and now he s going to bring some comfort and joy to the parents who have really lost everything. reporter: the aspca is helping this group of displaced new yorkers and their pets move to an animal-friendly shelter. not having your pet here would be like not having a family member here. we love these guys and each other. reporter: happy reunions after a harrowing ordeal. as people count their blessings in the midst of devastation and loss. jill rappaport, nbc news, new york. the producers of skyfall, the latest james bond movie, might want to rename it windfall. that s because the film generated almost $88 million in its first weekend at theaters here in the u.s. that s a north american record for a james bond film. sales worldwide have already surpassed $500 million. and speaking of windfalls, how about this, the blue gingham dress judy garland wore as dorothy in the wizard of oz sold at auction this weekend in beverly hills for $480,000. and get this. the seller originally paid only $2,000 for it at auction back in 1981. up next tonight, honoring those who served and those who continue to sacrifice so much for their country. i can t afford to ignore our retirement savings, not in this economy. we also have zero free time, and my dad moving in. so we went to fidelity. we looked at our family s goals and some ways to help us get there. they helped me fix my economy, the one in my house. now they re managing my investments for me. and with fidelity, getting back on track was easier than i thought. call or come in today to take control of your personal economy. get one-on-one help from america s retirement leader. with less chronic osteoarthritis pain. imagine living your life with less chronic low back pain. imagine you, with less pain. cymbalta can help. cymbalta is fda-approved to manage chronic musculoskeletal pain. one non-narcotic pill a day, every day, can help reduce this pain. tell your doctor right away if your mood worsens, you have unusual changes in mood or behavior or thoughts of suicide. antidepressants can increase these in children, teens, and young adults. cymbalta is not approved for children under 18. people taking maois or thioridazine or with uncontrolled glaucoma should not take cymbalta. taking it with nsaid pain relievers, aspirin, or blood thinners may increase bleeding risk. severe liver problems, some fatal, were reported. signs include abdominal pain and yellowing skin or eyes. tell your doctor about all your medicines, including those for migraine and while on cymbalta, call right away if you have high fever, confusion and stiff muscles or serious allergic skin reactions like blisters, peeling rash, hives, or mouth sores to address possible life-threatening conditions. talk about your alcohol use, liver disease and before you reduce or stop cymbaa.lt dizziness or fainting may occur upon standing. ask your doctor about cymbalta. imagine you with less pain. cymbalta can help. go to cymbalta.com to learn about a free trial offer. until he got his number. right! the machine showed me my pressure points on my feet, and it gave me my custom number. my arches needed more support. in two minutes, the dr. scholl s foot mapping center showed me my free foot map and my number. i m a 440. that matched up to the dr. scholl s custom fit orthotic inserts with the support i needed. now, i play all day long! my feet. my number. my inserts. go to drscholls.com to find your closest walmart with a foot mapping center. i m a believer! it was on this date, the 11th day of the 11th month 94 years ago, an armistice was signed drawing world war i to a close. sadly, it would not prove to be the war to end all wars. and so with members of the u.s. military serving here at home and overseas, many in conflict, today on this veterans day, we celebrated and honored those who have worn this nation s uniforms and preserved our freedom. aim, fire! each year, on the 11th day of the 11th month, we pause as a nation and as a people to pay tribute to you, the heroes over the generations who have served this country of ours with distinction. [ playing taps ] we have to remember who fought for our country and who gave us our independence and our freedom. it s our veterans. we lose sight of what has been paid as far as the price for our patriotism, then we re lost. i believe in what they do for our country. and support our freedom and defend our country so that we can live free. in this country, we take care of our own. especially our veterans who have served us so bravely and sacrificed so selflessly in our nation. welcome home, daddy. thank you, buddy. we carry on, knowing that our best days always lie ahead. americans expressing gratitude for our veterans on this november 11th. one final note here, earlier in this broadcast we showed a picture of several people including a woman named jill kelley. while showing the photo, we inadvertently zoomed into the portion of the picture which showed kelley s sister on the left. to clear up any confusion, jill kelley is the woman second from the right. and we apologize. that s nbc nightly news for this sunday. brian williams will be here tomorrow. i m lester hou eer holt reporti new york. for all of us here at nbc news, good night.
kills dozens, including children. can they avert an all out ground war? the vice president gets a close-up look at the ravaged jersey shore while hundreds of homeowners are told for the first time, their homes can t stay. and for shoppers this year , the battle starts earlier than ever. and they call it turkey town. our visit to the place where turkey isn t just a meal, it s a way of life, 365 days a year. good evening. there are millions of people in israel and the gaza strip who are spending this night living in fear of rockets and missiles raining down on their homes and neighborhoods as outside parties hurriedly work behind the scenes to stop the exchange fire. huge explosions rocked gaza with one strike killing at least 11 people. israel says the targets were palestinian militants, but several of the dead included women and children. but with palestinians continuing to fire rockets into israel and tel aviv in their crosshairs, israel says it is preparing to expand its attacks. we re on the ground on both sides of this conflict starting with richard engel in gaza. reporter: good evening, lester, israel appears to have exceptionally good intelligence about hamas and today was able to target individual militants in their homes, but they re also killing anyone who happens to be around them. this was a three-story house of hamas militants. israel says it s using precision strikes against gaza. there were eight people in this house when they were attacked and they have already pulled out three bodies. there was total panic as rescue cr crews gasans feel that israel what no regard for life. israel warned gazans to stay away from all hamas locations. this man lived next to a hamas police station. now he doesn t have a home. we can expect anything from israelis. mourners for another hamas militant targeted today, witnesses showed up with the shell that killed the young militants. they say it was fired from an israeli ship. and warships fired more rounds. but that volley didn t stop the funeral. more about expressing defiance here than sadness. they re taking this man s 9-year-old niece to be buriey b. israel wants to eliminate hamas s leadership, but that s coming increasingly as a cost to civilians. reporter: this is martin fletcher in tel aviv. more than a hundred strikes from gaza today. half of israel s 3.5 million people are now within range of hamas long range rockets. tel aviv, israel s largest city was attacked for the fourth straight day. saved by the anti- missile defense system which shot down p rockets. less than three miles from the city center, debris fell right on this car. israel says it s intense air attacks on gaza are meant to gel hamas in gaza and not civilians. they re using their homes and their mosques to hide their arms. reporter: but the rockets keep coming, leading israel s prime minister to this warning today. the military, benjamin netanyahu, is prepared for significant operations. to maintain secrecy, cell phones have been taken from the soldiers, they re on full alert waiting only for the order to go. and hamas warned, we will be waiting at the entrance for you, we will shred you to pieces. so the question now is what comes first, a ground invasion of gaza with maybe many dead on both sides or a truce. to stop the war in escalating, muslim leaders as well as americans and europeans are worki working feverishly for a truce. mohammad morsi said today there s a possibility of a cease fire soon. negotiations are in high gear with israel i ming high. hamas wants israel to stop killing its leaders to end the blockade to gaza, but people are both sides of the border are living in fear. president obama made his first public comments about the crisis today while overseas on a historic three-nation tour of southeast asia, including the first-ever visit by an american president to myian mar. chuck todd is traveling with the president. reporter: the president touched down at bangkok on sunday on a three-day whirlwind trip to east asia. he used a joint press congress fence with the prime minister of thailand to strongly support israel s right to defend lisits. there s no country on earth that would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside it s borders. we fully support israel s right to defend itself. reporter: the president issues a plea to allies of the palestinians playing on their hope that including a palestinian state next to israel. if we see a further escalation of the strikes on gaza, then the likelihood of getting back on any kind of a peace track that leads to any kind of solution is going to be pushed off way into the future. reporter: tomorrow the president makes an historic visit to myanmar, a country that just a few years ago was isolated from the world community. president obama defended the trip as some human rights advocates say it s coming too soon. this is not an endorsement of the bermese government, this is an acknowledgement that there is a process underway inside that country. reporter: on his last trip with the outgoing secretary of state hillary clinton, president obama expects to meet with leaders again. the two reflected on it during their visit to the monastery. after myanmar, it s off to cambodia. meanwhile back here at home, much of the focus here in washington remains on controversy on what happened in gaza. reporter: on meet the press, firm denials on benghazi from a top democrat. was there a cover-up? do you believe that the president or anybody serving the president deliberately misled the true nature of this attack for political reasons? no. reporter: former cia director david petraeus left no doubt in his testimony on friday. he said all along that the attack was a terror attack. it was terror. that s the point. reporter: republicans continued their attack on u.n. ambassador susan rice and her account in the days following the attack that expressed her role in an anti-muslim video. the stories he told re-enforced a political narrative helpful to the president. she was the most politically compliant person they could find. i don t know what she told, but i know the stories she told were miss leading. it was one of the most unfair attacks i have ever seen in washington in 34 years, susan rice was using the unclassifies talking points that were provided by the intelligence community. somewhere along the line those talk points changed. what i do know that every member of the intelligence community says the references to al qaeda were removed by somebody and they don t know who. reporter: but the administration denied claims of white house interference and says they made only a minor change. there s only one thing that was changed and i checked into this, i believe it to be absolute fact and it was the word consulate was changed to mission. reporter: and today lawmakers say they want both the current secretary of state hillary clinton and the woman who may be nominated to succeed her susan rise to come before congress and explain how they knew how the attack at benghazi was handled. officials begin to amass a full accounting of what was lost during hurricane sandy. another high powered a mission from washington. mi reporter: fema estimates nearly $3 billion in aid has already been approved and sent into the pockets of storm victims whose homes were destroyed or damaged like many of those here in breezy point, a massive need for assistance in sandy s wake that is still unfolding. a first look for vice president joe biden today touring sandy ravaged seaside heights in new jersey, a visit hitting close to home. as a kid, i spent all my time at the jersey shore. reporter: the vice president assured the region, this just isn t a local responsibility but a national one. he greeted local first responders. the vice president flew over the beach side communities hit by the force of sandy s surge and wind. preliminary findings from fema now underscore the massive loss homeowners have suffered. in new jersey alone, fema estimates more than 73,000 homes and businesses sustained damage and the number is expected to rise. in region we re about to walk into now, the water was this high. fema is assessing the damage on the ground, home by home. we pretty much got a handle on the scope at this time, but as this evolves, we re going to continue to look and address anything else that comes up. in a city that hit ocean side neighbors, feel what would you do if somebody came to you and said oh, i think we re going to have to demolish your house, would you fight it? yes. now fema is trying to find people to tell them their homes are not livable. and today new york city mayor michael bloomberg extended the odd/even license gas rationing through the thanksgiving holiday. new york city building flp fors have already examined 2,000 homes and 900 are tagged with that tag that says seemingly unsafe. rescuers have found the body of a man floating in the water on friday. one of the four men who suffered burns in the fire is improving and is now in fair condition. another is in serious condition and two remain crital. still ahead, as nbc nightly news continues, forget black friday, this year they want you to stop until you drop even before the turkey is digested. and then later, a surprise visitor drops into the sights of hundreds of troops in afghanistan. year again. medicare open enrollment. time to compare plans and costs. you don t have to make changes. but it never hurts to see if you can find better coverage, save money, or both. and check out the preventive benefits you get after the health care law. open enrollment ends december 7th. so now s the time. visit medicare.gov or call 1-800-medicare. i honestly loved smoking, and i honestly didn t think i would ever quit. 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[ male announcer ] ask your doctor if chantix is right for you. and his new boss told him two things cook what you love, and save your money. joe doesn t know it yet, but he ll work his way up from busser to waiter to chef before opening a restaurant specializing in fish and game from the great northwest. he ll start investing early, he ll find some good people to help guide him, and he ll set money aside from his first day of work to his last, which isn t rocket science. it s just common sense. from td ameritrade. back now with the sign of the season. tonight we re just five days away from black friday, the day after thanksgiving and the busiest shopping day of the year. the wind-up has been intense with retailers battling to bring in shoppers any way they can. we have more tonight from cnbc s courtney reagan. reporter: it s the super bowl of retail. with 147 million shoppers expected, some already waiting on line, best buy and other stores are rehearsing for black friday. we got to make sure we are ready to go. reporter: because this year holiday sales are expected to rise just over 4%. well below last year s 5.6% gain. revenue coming in short of forecast. reporter: with the world s largest retailer, walmart, reporting weaker than expected sales are offering bigger promotions and ever earlier hours to get customers into the door. walmart and toys r us will open at 8:00 p.m. thanksgiving day. we have focus groups who say what would be the ideal time frame for you, the compelling times were 8:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. to get some good deals. reporter: but not everyone is excited about the extra shopping time. thanksgiving day should be kept for thanksgiving day. reporter: while some debate weather to shop in stores, online sales are expected to surpass $90 billion this holiday season, up 12% from last year. retailers are offering door busting deals to people who download their mobile app or join their mailing list. sears the leading the pack and starting it s online sales today. some of the strategies are having customers buy items online and comes to pick them up in the store hoping they will buy more items in the store. back at best buy, the countdown is on. for the black friday shopping marathon, courtney reagan, cnbc. up next, why some were not impressed by a recent visitor to the oval office. th coverage nee, unitedhealthcare can help you find the right plan. are you looking for something nice and easy? a medicare advantage plan can give you doctor, hospital and prescription drug coverage all in one plan. for nothing more than what you already pay for part b. you ll also have the flexibility to change doctors from a network of providers dedicated to helping you stay healthy. call now to learn more. unitedhealthcare has the information you need so you ll be better prepared when making medicare decisions. maybe you d just like help paying for your prescriptions. consider a part d prescription drug plan. it may help reduce the cost of your prescription drugs. remember, open enrollment ends friday, december 7th. call unitedhealthcare to learn about medicare plans that may be right for you. call now. throughout our lives. one a day women s 50+ is a complete multivitamin designed for women s health concerns as we age. it has more of 7 antioxidants to support cell health. one a day 50+. you think a personal visit from the usa s fierce five would be enough to thrill even the president of the united states, but let s just say he was not impressed. that s the picture that s got a lot of folks laughing, president obama striking the now famous not impressed pose with olympic gold medalist michaela maroney. she was showing her displeasure at winning silver not gold on her signature event, the vault. nobody was making that not impressed face during a surprise visit to afghanistan. take a look, 007 himself daniel craig who dropped in on camp bastion to the delight of hundreds of british troops. this weekend his new movie became the most successful bond movie in history. we re about to start the busiest travel week of the year, many are hoping for clear skies and few delays at the airports. julie martin joins us with what we can expect. as thanksgiving approaches, here s what we can expect for the millions traveling. we ll see a couple of systems, one in the southeast and one in the northeast. if you re travelinging along the 5, be prepared for rain and wind and snow in those mountain passes. that trend s going to continue on in through tuesday and into the northwest as well. we ll see some light showers on tuesday in michigan. nothing big that will show you down, and wednesday, one of the biggest travel days of the year traditionally looks pretty good across the u.s., we re just going to have that system in the west to contend with once again. and by thanksgiving day, plenty to be thankful for, we re looking at clear skies for the macy s thanksgiving day parade. and in the midwest, chicago 62 degrees. julie martin, thank you. when we come back, a visit to turkey town, u.s.st. of medicare and social security. anncr: but you deserve straight talk about the options on the. table and what they mean for you and your family. ancr: aarp is cutting through all the political spin. because for our 37 million members, only one word counts. get the facts at earnedasay.org. let s keep medicare. and social security strong for generations to come. i took my son fishing every year. we had a great spot, not easy to find, but worth it. but with copd making it hard to breathe, i thought those days might be over. so my doctor prescribed symbicort. it helps significantly improve my lung function starting within five minutes. symbicort doesn t replace a rescue inhaler for sudden symptoms. with symbicort, today i m breathing better. and that means.fish on! symbicort is for copd including chronic bronchitis and emphysema. it should not be taken more than twice a day. symbicort may increase your risk of lung infections, osteoporosis, and some eye problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. with copd, i thought i d miss our family tradition. now symbicort significantly improves my lung function, starting within 5 minutes. and that makes a difference in my breathing. today, we re ready for whatever swims our way. ask your doctor about symbicort. i got my first prescription free. call or click to learn more. [ male announcer ] if you can t afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. finally tonight, as millions of americans give thanks on thank gives, one small community in arkansas will be giving its thanks for the holiday itself. that s because many who earn their livelihood depend on turkeys. reporter: it s long be a staple of the thanksgiving feast. so much so, it s fondly call turkey day. many say the holiday just isn t complete what kind of a thanksgiving dinner is this? where a es the turkey, chuck. reporter: it s a question they re not asking in a small community in arkansas. on a map, the town is called z oza ozark, but by it s most famous export, it s called turkey town, usa. turkey is year round. reporter: and turkey pays the bills. from the butter ball plant which employs 400, to the area s 76 farmers, who supply a third of the nation s turkeys. people all over the country are going to eat these turkeys so i got to take good part of them. reporter: in this barn alone, there are more than 11,000 turkeys and mike has three others just like it. these guys are about six weeks old. that s halfway through the growing process. this is thanksgiving dinner for every family in america. reporter: there s no down time at the plant. only fresh turkeys come off the line now. 26 or 27, everybody s pretty tired and dragging. reporter: wilma has worked in the turkey industry almost four years. i work there had about eight years. reporter: in fact it s hard to find anyone here who doesn t have a connection to it. my mom works at butter ball. reporter: in a tough economy, a product most americans buy at least once a year keeps the paychecks coming. and a free bird given to the workers doesn t go to waste. what do you eat for thanksgiving dinner? turkey, of course. reporter: from a small town that runs on turkey. that s nbc nightly news for this sunday. brian williams will be here tomorrow. up next, football night in america, followed by sunday night football, the ravens versus the steelers. i m lester holt reporting from new york, for all of us here at nbc news, good night. 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