on the broadcast tonight, history maker. this storm will now take its place among the costliest in american history and tonight the water is still rising in some places. stunning news about newborn babies in this country. we'll have details tonight. autopilot. what's really going on in the cockpit? have some airline pilots forgotten how to fly when it countthe most? and the four-day school week. is this really a good idea? what if you're a want who has to figure out what to do with the kids on day five? figure out what to do with the kids on day five? "nightly news" begins now.

captions paid for by nbc-universal television good evening. and we have a live picture to show you tonight of the floodwaters cascading through patterson, new jersey, and for all the people who were wondering what the fuss was about surrounding hurricane irene, a category one storm when it made its final landfall. there's this, the estimates now are that irene will end up being among the top ten most costly and destructive natural disasters in u.s. history. there are now 45 dead from this storm. the early damage estimate over $12 billion the other numbers here are staggering. there are over 300,000 people still without power just in the state of connecticut. remember the storm was sunday, 2 million people in all are going into another dark night. some roads are still blocked throughout new england and food is now a problem in some towns

and rescues are still going on. we begin our coverage with nbc's anne thompson in patterson, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian, and there's actually good news to report from new jersey. all the rivers here have crested and nay are receding, even the raging passaic behind me, but it's not nearly fast enough for the cleanup to begin. the passaic river out of its banks and out of control. the crest tuesday night set a new record, over 24 feet swamping nearby wallington. >> we can't get to our home. >> reporter: the gorsky family, among the 1,000 residents forced to evacuate, their town now engulfed in water and despair. >> i don't know where to begin, we have lost everything. >> reporter: it's only from 1,000 feet above that you can see the true scope of this disaster. the passaic drains northern new jersey and new jersey reported

its wettest august in history, even before the rains of irene, then you add another 11 to 12 inches of rain that irene brought and it was just too much. the damage in new york alone will approach $1 billion. homeland security secretary janlt janet napolitano promised aid. >> we will be helping you and bringing this community back. >> reporter: it is moving day at this shelter in paramus, new jersey. they are trading a cot here for one in patterson. but nobody is going home, they. april leven has two daughters. >> i want to cry, but i can't cry, i got to keep strong for my kids. >> reporter: clinging to the few things they have left, including hope. anne thompson, nbc news, paterson, new jersey. >> no man left behind. >> reporter: this ron mott in vermont where contractor coat marshall dropped his business duties today to lend a hand to neighbors.

with the rapids still running through linda's property, marshall started pumping water out of her basement. >> it's a great sound to hear pumping out. >> reporter: in woodstock, road repairs are underway. patched up enough in places to free people trapped by damage left by torrential rains here that ripped open large chunks of pavement and tore historic bridges from the landscape. >> i think we have two roads in the whole district that are passable, both lanes without any damage. >> i used to live in florida and i have been through three hurricanes. i have never seen anything like this in my life. >> reporter: relief supplies once again were delivered by helicopter. food, water, other emergency aid for people still trapped tonight. officials say access was reopened to all but one community. recovery and reconstruction efforts will take time across this flood ravaged state, residents say they're heartened by how quickly everyone came together to help. >> thanks. it's been an amazing community effort. >> reporter: while the financial

loss is unknown, this family already knows its loss, the deaths of hundreds of birds and no flood insurance will be tough to overcome. >> this is my income and we have lost the farm. it's very hard. >> reporter: it is hard to believe that a small babbling brook no more than a few inches tonight could cause this much damage, but on sunday, it roared to a size large enough to take down part of a base lodge here, at killington mountain resort. the power is the big issue tonight, some 12,000 in the dark here in vermont, more than 807,000 up and down the east coast, brian. >> unbelievable situation on the east tonight. thank you ron mott, anne thompson before that. thanks for starting out our coverage. and we must pass this along to you tonight, way out in the

open ocean, tropical storm katia is expected to develop into a hurricane in just the coming hours. but forecasters stress that it's way too early for us to stress over it, still a long way away. the international space station passed over katia today and managed to get a picture on their way by. and while so much of the northeast is still mopping up, texas which is of course experiencing a historic drought is battling wildfires, dozens of homes have been destroyed in north texas and oklahoma as hot winds are spreading these fires across dry brush. in less than two weeks, america and the world will mark ten years since the 9/11 attacks. it was shortly after those attacks and largely at the insistence of the victim's family that a commission recommended ways to make the nation safer, but tonight, members of that commission say a lot of things are still not right. we get a report tonight from our justice correspondent pete williams. >> members of the original 9/11 commission say the u.s. is still unprepared for a major catastrophe.

with no common system for emergency communications and no consistent rules for who should be in command. >> we are not yet in the place in this country where the first responders can talk with one another. >> reporter: ten years after 9/11 we are not yet at the place where we know who's in charge at the site of a disaster. >> reporter: their report card out today says that was clear from the chaos after hurricane katrina. it says the response to last year's massive oil spill in the gulf was better, but local efforts were at odds with the overall cleanup. among other shortcomings it cites, a lack of national id standards, a deficiency exploited by 18 of the 19 hijacker who is got state issued id cards to board planes.

>> if you can forge identifications, then a terrorist can get in and out of the country, get in and out of buildings, in and out of air ports, in and out of planes without being detected. >> reporter: while the u.s. still tracks arrivals from overseas there's no way to track someone staying here illegally. but homeland security secretary janet napolitano says the government is now much more prepared for disasters, working more closely with the states, routinely putting supplies in place well before disaster hits and setting a clear chain of command. >> we have used the department of homeland security as the overall incident coordinator. >> reporter: and the flood commissioners do cite progress, they say better intelligence with information and improveded watch lists have made the nation safer. pete williams, nbc news, washington. >> reporter: lax oversight or outside contractors, poor

planning and corruption for these huge losses, money that would be nice to have for a lot of things right now. and in washington today a big dust up over the president's plans to give a big speech to the nation may say a lot about where our politics and divisions are right now. our chief white house correspondent chuck todd is with us tonight. today we found ourselves pumping up against this situation t president wants to give a speech to a joint session of congress on jobs and the economy. the speaker of the house writes him back and says, how about the next night, because the night the president chose, we, on msnbc are televising a dedication to the reagan library.

>> >> reporter: here we go again, it seems as if the president and speaker boehner took up just where they left off before they august recess disagreeing on when the president could do this. the white house believed they had gotten clearance from speaker boehner that they would officially get this invitation to make this address on wednesday evening. well, speaker boehner felt as if that wasn't the case, that they weren't given much of a heads up. speaker boehner says it has nothing to do with the republican presidential debate. the white house claims the timing that they were asking for had nothing to do with the republican presidential debate, that said, as of right now, it's my understanding the white house is considering agreeing to boehners invitation and doing it on thursday, but a final decision hasn't been made, but i tell you, brian, here we go again. and thursday bumps it up against another television event and that is, let's face it, saints-packers as the nfl season gets underway. >> absolutely, they said the republican presidential speech or the nfl? they chose the republican presidential speech.

there are new numbers to announce tonight and they really are sad news for the country, not the kind of thing that instills great pride, these numbers have to do with infant mortality. and we have asked our chief medical editor dr. nancy snyderman to join us tonight. what are the numbers all about? >> hi, brown. you're right. the evidence tonight is in the numbers and the numbers are not very pretty. we expect developed countries to do well when it comes to infant mortality, but not necessarily. take a look at the countries that usually are at the top of the heap. they include japan, singapore and france, they're always consistently in the top tier. but now look at this. cuba, malaysia, slovakia, hungary and poland, they are ahead of the united states which now ranks 41st in infant mortality and that's a real concern because really we spend more money per capita for health care in this country and those are the results and no matter how you massage those numbers, we were ranked 29th five years ago. no way to paint this in a good

way. >> makes me look back at all the confidence of the world war ii era, the post war era, the space race, the confidence of america, how did this kind of thing happen? >> it happened because i think we took our eye off the ball. if you look at newborn health, so much of it is intervention. if you look just in the united states, there are some states what are doing pretty well, for instance, washington, utah, alaska, iowa, vermont, which has universal health care and new hampshire, those are all states that are doing pretty well. but now look at the bottom of the list. the states that aren't doing as well. north carolina, maryland, mississippi, alabama and unfortunately, at the bottom of the heap washington, d.c., one little moment of perhaps brightness, south carolina which is always at the bottom of the list too, they put newborn health as an important benchmark, they're inching forward because they're putting

people out in the field because they're trying to get ahead of the problem and not just acting after the fact, we have a crisis. but this is dismal and frankly appalling. >> we have to hope this gets everybody's attention, nancy, thank you, as always. still ahead here on a wednesday night, have airline pilots gotten so used to being on autopilot that they sometimes lack the right stuff when they need it most? and later, the four-day school week. can you blame a lot of parents for wondering who came up with this idea? all four of us, together? 24. he's low fat, too, and has 5 grams of sugars. i'll believe it when i--- [ both ] oooooh... what's shakin'? [ female announcer ] as you get older, protein is an important part of staying active and strong. new ensure high protein... fifty percent of your daily value of protein. low fat and five grams of sugars. see? he's a good egg. [ major nutrition ] new ensure high protein. ensure! nutrition in charge! whose non-stop day starts with back pain...

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oh, there's a prize, all right. is it a robot? no. is it a jet plane? nope. is it a dinosaur? [ laughs ] [ male announcer ] inside every box of heart healthy cheerios are those great tasting little o's made from carefully selected oats that can help lower cholesterol. stickers? uh-uh. a superhero? ♪ kinda. [ male announcer ] and we think that's the best prize of all. ♪ more than 20 homes, barns and a place of worship have been destroyed from several firings burning in oklahoma. the fires have also forced a shutdown of part of i-40. over 250 firefighters are battling the flames that have scorched edmond, oklahoma. they're facing high temperatures and strong winds that flared up late this afternoon.

national guard helicopters are attacking the fires from above. now back to brian williams in new york. this is something pilots sometime talk about and there are new questions tonight from some aviation safety experts who are concerned that the act of piloting a modern commercial aircraft has become too automated which could lead pilots to lose basic piloting skills they would need in an emergency. there are close to 40,000 commercial flights every day in this country, the vast majority of the time the plane is in the air, it's on autopilot, the computer is flying the plane. our report from nbc's tom costello. >> reporter: for all the attention given to captain sully's expert airmanship as he landed his plane on the hudson river in 2009, there are also cases of pilot who is seem to have forgotten basic piloting skills. the pilot of an airfrance a-330, stalled the plane by pulling the nose up when they should have maintained altitude or lowered

the nose. 228 people died. the pilot of a continental connection flight near buffalo made the same mistake in 2009, 50 people died. aviation safety experts call it automation safety addiction. aviation consultant former captain john cox. >> the challenge is to find the balance between the appropriate use of automation and maintaining the manual flying skills necessary. >> reporter: the concern, pilots who suddenly learn autopilot and then don't know how to react. a draft report by the faa and industry professionals found that 60% of the accidents and 30% of major incidents studied involved pilots who struggled to manually fly the plane or made mistakes with the automated systems. but dethis delta captain says pilots don't rely on automations. >> our pilots put their skills to the test every day, so don't

think for a minute they can't fly, they do a great job and the safety records show that. >> reporter: indeed, flying has never been safer. >> and automation is a big part of that safety record. but veteran pilots say maintaining basic flying skills meanings disengaged autopilot and regularly flying that plane by hand. tom costello, nbc news, washington. the justice department filed suit today to blocked this proposed merger between wireless carriers at&t and t-mobile. a $39 billion deal that the government says would reduce competition and lead to higher cell phone bills. at&t said it was surprised and disappointed by this action and will fight the decision. up next tonight, the debate over sending our schools fewer days each week. comes centrum.

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in our education nation report tonight, this idea of a four-day school week. on the face of it, it makes you wonder how this could be better for our kids, how it could help close the gap we need to close around the world or how it could be good for parents who suddenly learn their child is now going to be home on a weekday they have usually spent in school. but it's already a reality in some places, four-day school weeks are now in effect in several states. our report from nbc's lee cowan. >> reporter: change isn't a very frequent visitor to the oregon coast, but it's about to roll through some school districts here just as thick as the fog. >> are you all ready for school? >> reporter: for the first time,

students will attend school four days a week, not five. it joins more than 120 other school districts all across the country that have already gone to the shorter week. many of those did it to cut costs. but the new superintendent says economics is not the reason here. >> this had to be motivated by a deep concern for student learning. >> reporter: the number of hours in class won't change, just four longer days, kids may have fridays off, but teachers still have to come in to plan. is it more about student development or is it more about teacher development? >> you can't have one without the other. >> reporter: but the promise of a better education still lies in the shadow of a dark economy. the unemployment rate is still above the national average, the tax rate continues to shrink, and some parents fear that the four-day school week is the price their kids will pay. >> it seems to me like it was a budgetary decision. >> reporter: howard's teenaged son worries the longer days will

be too crammed with information. >> we'll probably get some work done during that period, but it's going to be so much at one time. >> reporter: but the biggest worry at this community meeting was still financial. and an extra day off of school could mean an extra day of daycare. and even offering friday programs for those who can't afford child care, for some it wasn't enough. >> this is a glorified baby sitting operation if you ask me. >> >> don went to the four-day school week two years ago and loved it. >> less really isn't less, it's just taken what's happened on a five-day and putting it into four. >> reporter: the result? he says test scores went up, so did attendance and morale. even he was shocked at first. >> it's a paradox, less is more. right? how can less be more? >> experts were split on the issue, saying there's not enough research on the issues to see if it helps or harms. for the pirates, shortened school week is uncharted waters, but the place that's used to finding their way in the fog is a direction worth exploring. lee cowan, nbc news, cus ebay,

oregon. when we come back here tonight, how about some resilience to feel good about? the americans who seem to get better when the chips are down. with an irregular heartbeat called atrial fibrillation, or afib, that's not caused by a heart valve problem. today we have pradaxa to reduce the risk of a stroke caused by a clot. in a clinical trial, pradaxa 150 mg reduced stroke risk 35% more than warfarin. and with pradaxa, there's no need for those regular blood tests. pradaxa is progress. pradaxa can cause serious, sometimes fatal, bleeding. don't take pradaxa if you have abnormal bleeding, and seek immediate medical care for unexpected signs of bleeding, like unusual bruising. pradaxa may increase your bleeding risk if you're 75 or older, have kidney problems or a bleeding condition, like stomach ulcers. or if you take aspirin products, nsaids, or blood thinners. tell your doctor about all medicines you take, any planned medical or dental procedures,

and don't stop taking pradaxa without your doctor's approval, as stopping may increase your stroke risk. other side effects include indigestion, stomach pain, upset, or burning. if you have afib not caused by a heart valve problem, ask your doctor if pradaxa can reduce your risk of a stroke. some constipation medications can take control of you. break free. with miralax. it's clinically proven to relieve constipation and soften stool with no harsh side effects. just gentle predictable relief. miralax. so i take one a day men's 50+ advantage. as a manager, my team counts on me to stay focused. it's the only complete multivitamin with ginkgo to support memory and concentration.

plus vitamin d to help maintain healthy blood pressure. [ bat cracks ] that's a hit. one a day men's. my name is lacey calvert and i'm a yoga instructor. if i have any soreness, i'm not going to be able to do my job. but once i take advil, i'm able to finish out strong. it really works! [ laughs ] [ male announcer ] make the switch. take action. take advil. >>fi finally tonight, a story about resilience, parts of this country have taken a big blow

from this storm that swept along the eastern seaboard. it was a punch to the gut to businesses in north carolina's cape hatteras when it was announced that it would be closed all through labor day weekend. so many had hoped to make back their losses from this storm. but as we're about to see the bounce back spirit in north carolina is alive and well anyway. our report from nbc's mark potter. >> reporter: for more than 30 years bob vogt has owned his own bait and tackle in duck, north carolina on the outer banks. his building is over 100 years old and has weathered many a storm as has bob. >> if you're going to live by the water, sometimes you're going to have problems. >> reporter: the problem is that hurricane irene flooded bob's house and ruined his fishing gear. >> saved the rod but not the reel. >> reporter: but he just shrugs it off and vows he will never leave. >> i have always taken the attitude of, okay, we have got a

mess, we're going the clean it all up and get started again. life goes on here. >> reporter: on down the road about a mile the storm surge from the sound tore apart the outdoor deck at this popular restaurant. john koch, the owner of the sun set grill is busy cleaning up and plans to reopen before labor day. >> the outer banks, we have seen this stuff come and go so many times it's just an inconvenience. >> susan o'neill admires the resilience of the tough people here and doesn't begrudge the hurricane. >> the places that are the most fearsome are the most beautiful and they say that i fell in love with the beach, with the waves, the angriness of the waves when i first came here. >> reporter: a place of beauty and people who respect the awesome power of nature passed on for generations. mark potter, nbc news on the north carolina outer banks. >> how about that? that's our broadcast for this wednesday night. thank you for being here with us.

i'm brian williams, we hope to see you right back here tomorrow evening. see you right back here tomorrow evening. good night. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com we begin with breaking news. i'm raj mathai. >> i'm jessica aguirre. san jose police officer under arrest aledge elleged of having contact with two teenage boys. >> this is just coming down in the past hour. what we know, officer patrick d'arrigo arrested for having sex with two gilroy teenagers. due off to the age of the victims police are relea