on ourroadcast tonight- cut off. help isn movin fast enough fothose whoeed it most in the philipnes. tonight dr. nan sneiderman with a teamf american doctors who have just reached one of the places hardest hit. they're out. the numbers are even worse than expected f the health care website, leading some to ask if the program itself is in trble. at what cost, the money spen to thwart potential terroris' airport and where the polar brs roam and a way of life is disappearing fast. nightl news begins now.

from nbc news headquarters. good evening. d we begin tonight with, ain, this desperate situation in the philippine as of no theood news is 33 nations have jned in the relief operation, pledging almost $100 billiono far. but e problem ireasingly is getting there with help, with supplies with people and then fanning out. new picture showhe area we've been concentrati , theity of tacloban befe and after this typhoon,nd pictures taken the airport just tod show the crush o people, all victims, all awaiting anirlift t of there or inomeases just freshwater or food. we're going to beg tonight with the reporng ofr. nancy sneiderman w today traveled by chper to the eastern edge of the philippes that we so f ha not seen since the stor and the people there have so

desperate. as you can see, our crew was concerned eir helicopter would be mistaken for a relief flight. >> reporter: there's a sense of desperation. and we don't have any protection. so obviouslye're assessing how vulnerable we are. this town is for the most part gonend has escap the world's attentn. it is foodless, waterless and increasily lawless. we're making a decision right now whether it'safe to proceed or not. so we decided to stay away from the crowds and touchdo in a remote spot. earn's saying that they need food and water. and this area looksore devastated to me thannything we've seen in sack l ban. imdiately we were surrounded. everybody's told me that american doctors have a clinic down here. so these pple are goi to show us t way. 're thronged by very nice,

ki people who have basally said they have buried so many, they're huny and thirsty. a man came forward and offered aride, and itappens to be a police offic named raw aol. d then we find the spital. american doctors and veterans from across the country are feverishly working. wood desks serve as operating tables a flashlights as overad lights. patien are evywhere. including thislderly woman who had her leg amputated yesterday. the wor is non-stop. doctors haven't slent in four days. >> it fix it the surgeonsre going to he to clean i up. reporter: upstairs theyreat an eight year o girl whose leg

was cut by flying debris. >> unfortunately, we've been doin proceres like this every day. we let the wake up, we dress the wound d give them the one-day anti-bott ies we have d have them come back. we need cipro, keflex. >> reporter: even dreingsre in short supply. we areutting our dressings into 24 dssings so we have engh rations t getthrough. but we nee some supies quickly. >>eporter: for those who have survived, the challenges of putting life back together are justbeginning. >> and after her data mash unit dr. nancy sneiderman is back at base camp in ce. and l's start with what's behind you. this is ver common. we saw it in katrina, in haiti. this is atwo-stage ing. the aid arrives on big pallets,

but getting it out to people is another thing entirely. how are those american doctors getting to tt post in the firsplace, and how do we get that list of supplies you reeled off. how do we get all of that to them? >>eporter: well, y're right about the suppliesround me. they're basically canned meat, sardines and rice. the big art remembeeries are op the capillaries to the peoples the tough rt. the doctors were ingenious. they were on their way to a five-d medical mission to xico, heard about this rerouted, got to hong ko and cebu a the military took them down to tacloban and then left them there. th then put their supplies on car and jeep, lot of them walked. th heard about this to that basically the wod hadn't been reporting. fod city hall. and this is mammoth medical mission. and ey are a bunch ofoctors

from around the country, but bad out of the united states. and i have to say, saving les anoing heroic work. but here's the problem. because they packed for a five-day end to end medic mission, they're leaving on fray. an they n't know if anybody's coming in to take their places. these are normal working doctors, and they have day jobs to go back to on mond. >> that'soing to be the problem througho the philippines and getting those arteries of supply open. thank you. in this country, tonight, the numbers are finally out, and they confirm the new health insurae program is i big trouble. just 27,000 people have enrolled on the federal websiteealth ca care.gov. just 106,000 have signed up for obama care erall. >> reporr: you know, the numbers tell a grim story.

frighteningly low enrollment barely enough ppleo fill one football stadium. and this just isn't disastrous news for the health care law. it's now a political firestorm for the presidents even the democrats in coness begin to panic. the news was so bad kathleen sebelius avoided cameras and delivered it over the phone. >> a of this fst peod, 106,000 americans have been enrolled in qlified health plans through the marketace. >> reporter: andhe admitted that of t 106,000 enrollees, ju a quarter registered thugh the website. most came through the 15 state-run exchans. in fact, california's exchange outnumbered the fed signing up ,000 lks. >> nobody who suppos health care reform is satisfied with whate've seen out of website. >> reporter: sebeliu tried to look on the bright side noting

there are nrly a million americans who have completed applicatns but are still shopng. >> thearket place is working, and people are enrolling. >> reporte but they aren't enrolling fast enough. ey had projected 500,0 people would sn up in october. in order for t program to work in itsirst year the administration needs at least 3 llion to enrolly march 31, a ta order b no reason f nic yet, says one of the chief architects of the law. >> we allant to pay attention to these numbe the but the point is is not the first month that tters. it's the sixth month. >> repter: but they hav to get rough novber 30, the new deline byhich the psident promis to have the healthcareov wsite funconing smoothly. in a contentious hearing today republicans doubted the new deadline would bmet. >> will it work on november ? proper, fully? >> the team set a goal for

having it work for americans. the team's workingncredibly hard to meet that goal. >> reporter: the white house got an earfu from picked house democrats. tomorrow t white house is gog to hear from nervous sete democts who fear their political powernd this law are suddenly on life support. >> allright, chu todd from the white housfor us. thanks. from the west coast, terrible news out of camp pendleton. four u. marines havedied. apparently in a accident volving explosives detonated on a firing range. federal investigators are out tonight with a report declaring a huge government expenditure a failure. it involves a tsa behavior detection stragy at u.s. airports where certain offics would be trained to look i effect for likely terror u.istt. th program has cost neay a billn dollars. they havetudied t data a

conclude there is no evidence it does any good our port from tom costello. >> reporte it's a ttic borrowed from the israelis. tsa offers scanning the crowd fornyone who doesn seem to fit in, nervous, jumpy, hostile, talking tohem to learn their motives. but a new reportalls for cutting funding t the program because there's no evidence behavior detection works. and the ability to accurately identify deceptive behavior based on behavioral indicators is the same as or slightly better than chance. tomorrow the tsa chief will face quesoning on capitol hill. >> how ithis a value to the erage american traveling through our airports? hos it going to make them safer, and therefore,s it worth the money we're investing in it. >> reporter: they have 3,000 agents dedicat to screening people and alrea kred rted

wi stopping armed suspects drug couriers a potential terrorists a behavior specialist was amo those wounded in the l.a.x. shooting ram page at left an officer kid two weeks ago. havior detection is vital to thetsa's layered approach to deter, detect a dispt individuals who poesz a threat. the former head of security in rael says behavior is not only critical b the program should be expanded. >> it should include law enforcent. but beyond that, allhe employees at the airrt. all e airport community, wherever they are. >> reporter:ehavior detection is used around the world. bu tonight the question i whether this core ts program has beenorth a billion dollars. some scary moments tay i pittsburgh where three students were sho andounded outside a high school. police say it hpened after

classes ended. might have been reled to a de related to drugs. they say the students were not seriously wounded and six were taken in for questioning. theabitat of polar bears disappeang. d late theearable technology tt has some people now seeing a whole new range of possibilies.

we are bk now with a journey to one of the most extraordinary places on the anet. itills itself at polar bear capital ofhe world. our chief envirmental affairs reporter has returnedrom northern canada toet a first hand look at what's hapning to these anals. >> reporter: this ten mon old polar bear club practicesis ice breing skills. ice thats disappearing in our warming world. he doesn seem to be afraid of much. >> he doesn't seem afraid of us at all. >>eporter: but this doctor says the greenhouse gases we are putting into the atmosphere threaten the cubs' future even today t population runs as high as 25,000 in the arctic.

>> liken it to the psengers on the tinic. didn'tatter how many people and h well they were doi, when the titan slipped beneath the wavhat was it. >> reporter: sea ice is where they hunt seals. it fors the par bearsnto la around the town of churchill where there are no seals to eat. here polar bears are tourist bait the sean lasts longer. the mother and cub you see behind me must spend an extra month on land. and researchers sayhat puts e species at risk. the doctor says a longer melt season shortens the bear time on thece to catch seals. >> they come ashore earlier and

have more body wast and they produce smaller cubs. they don't survive as well. >> reporter: on the tundra scieists rank the bearsn a ale of oneo five. one is starng, five is obese. this cub got a cnk of ice. shpen being his survival skills in a rapidly changing enviroent. churchill canada. we're back in a ment with what is surely the highest price ever paid f three-pies of bacon.

thanks to mr. crystal, that

was a big momen to the mallmars. theyre a seasonal cookie available every fall because the heat of the summer melts their shell. they are available late at night at connience stores. and all you connoisseurs know wh you are. there's an old expression at you don't wan to know how they make the sausage and now mcnald's customers may want to say tt about the mcrib. it shows a gy flat stacked product which mcdonald's admits is the back stage version of the cr, which, le their other pattieis flash frozen and gussied up in sauce back stable and is popular. want to show you the most expensive painting ever sold at

auction. three of them, actually. a trip tick. a painting of another painter. last night he i new york an anonymous ch person paid $142 million. there's a bittersweet story out a clam in the news. its with aavorite of rearchers when it was discovered seven years ago in the wers off iceland. they named itming. and they knew bypening it they would killit but they did for research. ba then they first deterned it was 405 years old. bu subsequen research just out proves it was actuall 507 years old. that mea ming the clam survived the enlightenment, two world war, iernet dial up and the fortd pinto. th this was one of those moments

when mother nature reminded us that we are tiny and inconsequential. beautiful picturesrom sex as of what's calle a roll cloud fogood reason. it's a horizontal vor text i the sky. we can thank bonnie, a truck driver. and when a cold wind started to passover her house in texas, she grabbe her camera and captured the rare event. when we come back tonight, the sll wearable technology now hing a big impact beyond its original inttion changin a lot of lives in the proces

finally tonight, you byow ha seen tse google glass, officially called google glass. it allows you to always have yo computern right there in fronof your eye. while ey are not for everyone, they have turned out t be a life changer for se folks. we get the story tonight from nbc's reporter. >> reporter: aeekend in the woods. >> yeah, it' awesome. >> reporter: something ax never thoughthe'd seeagain. a promising law student was on her way to a camping trip when a car accident left her paralyzed.

now she's part of a pilot program for google glass, the tiny wearable computer. it's helping her a other with disabilies navigate the world,ven go campin >> i can't set up a tent and i can't build a campfire, t if we needo figure out how to do it, i can ctainly look i up now. >> reporter: her vce activated softwarend hands free disay allow he to get directns, snap photos or look up informion. >> are there bears in the catslls? >> reporter: a this is stuff that you wouldn't have bee able to do? >> no. no. it isn't, but it's so exciting. >> reporter: wn she receny wentome toee her ailing grandfather, alexas able to record her polish grand parents taing about their family story. glass is being usedor other

sabilities too. this boy it deaf. >> when you're communicating with a dea person it's rude to be like hol on,nd you have to go look something up on a computer. it would be able to search a word real quick and sign it to them. >> reporter: a facial recognition app is being developed helpeople with autism. as for alex, she'sack at columbia law scho. >> the more i forget whai can't do andhe more i am focused on what i can do t less i think of myselfs a disabled person. >> reporter: starting to see t world in a whole new light. >>kay glass, take a picture. >> reporter: nbc new, balett, illinois. > great story to end on, on this wedneay night. we hope to see you right back here tomorroevening.

od night.