hope to see you back here at 6:00. >> find us online on twitter and facebook. see you in a bit. on our broadcast tonight, no end in sight. round two of a massive storm system hitting more than two dozen states. 120 million americans in its path. and warnings tonight about an even bigger storm to come. russian roulette. our nbc news investigation, how americans in sochi are playing a game of chance with their electronics and their identities. tonight, richard engel has a look at how fast our team got hit. his final days. we're learning more about the events leading up to the death of the great actor philip seymour hoffman. tonight the shocking comment he made at his last public appearance. and castaway. the man who says he's been adrift at sea for over a year, and why not everyone is embracing his story. "nightly news" begins now.

good evening. we have some big problems to report tonight in the american midwest, especially. that includes travelers trying to get through or around some weather, or those expecting someone who is. yet another storm is on the move with an even stronger one potentially right behind it. and in some places it is stopping transportation and commerce. the winter of our discontent keeps rolling along as this current storm has about 120 million americans in its path. to put it another way, more americans are under winter storm warnings tonight than they were for any single storm all of last year. janet shamlian has been out in it all day in kansas city. she starts us off from there tonight. hey, janet good evening. >> reporter: hi, brian. it is still coming down here tonight, on a day when schools called yet another snow day. many employers told their workers, don't even try to come in. and now there are concerns about tomorrow, because these roads

will not be clear by morning. another blast of winter, this time two dozen states slammed by a powerful storm. in kansas and missouri, blizzard like conditions. visibility near zero, and every snow plow and salt truck in the arsenal is out on the road around the clock. >> it's almost a whiteout now, and it's early. >> right. just imagine how it's going to be when we get the full effect of the storm on top of us. >> reporter: cory helms is at the wheel of a plow working the interstate. snow is falling so fast, he can barely keep up. >> we have to be very cautious. it's very dangerous out here. >> reporter: across the region, a familiar landscape. highway accidents stalling traffic, and concerns the situation could worsen. >> the wind picks up, we may see drifting. and that would be our greatest challenge. >> reporter: in arkansas, ice was the culprit. the assault began early this morning. freezing rain and snow made

roadways treacherous. a tractor-trailer toppled during rush hour. and trees and power lines took a hit, leaving almost 50,000 customers without heat and electricity in the bitter cold. from blowing snow in oklahoma to ice in pennsylvania. people across the country hunkered down. in kansas city, they all but rolled up the sidewalks. almost everything closed. >> 10, 12 inches of snow is quite a bit of snow for kansas city. we don't get these very often, but we're prepared. >> reporter: as what seems like an endless winter wears on, salt piles are thinning, with at least a half a foot of snow on the ground and more falling. wichita is using only sand on the roads for now. >> i think most people are staying home, and that's what i would recommend to anyone. if you don't have to be out here, don't. >> reporter: good advice. as the snow moves out, temperatures are plummeting. we're going to have windchills below zero by morning, and roads that are snow covered right now could be sheets of ice tomorrow. brian?

>> janet shamlian starting us off in kansas city tonight. janet, thanks. and al roker is here with us again tonight with more on this storm, and then there's the next one after this. al? >> that's right, brian. 1,700 flights cancelled tonight. there are going to be more tonight into tomorrow. look as we have ice storm warnings in southern ohio. we have freezing rain advisories through virginia, winter storm warnings. these warnings stretch about 2,000 miles, from new england all the way into the rockies. here's what we're looking at as far as the future cast. low pressure gets itself together. snow tonight from omaha into cleveland, syracuse. moves into new york city late tonight, into tomorrow morning. an icy mix by late morning, early afternoon. and that's going to dump ice amounts, we're talking anywhere from a half inch to an inch of ice throughout the virginias, into interior new jersey. snowfall amounts, look at the snow, we're talking generally 3 to 6 from kansas city, just south of chicago. cleveland 6 to 9 inches, into western pa.

and into central parts of new york and new england, a foot and a half of snow. and here comes the next misery maker over the weekend saturday night into sunday that blue line, that's the freezing line, we call it the 540 line. everything north of that is snow in the blue, and we could be looking at significant snowfall by monday morning from central new jersey on into new england, brian. >> just will not stop. al roker here with us in the studio. al, thanks. just a few days from now, of course, the world will turn its attention to sochi in russia, as the winter olympics get underway. they were still building today at some of the hotels that have gone up for the visitors who will descend there. and there are more concerns about safety being expressed today at the new course for a new snowboarding event called slope style. three snowboarders have been injured practicing on that course, including the american shaun white who jammed his wrist today. the opening ceremony is this coming friday night.

the games actually begin on thursday, two days from now, with three early events in prime time. as tourists and families of athletes arrive in sochi, if they haven't been warned, and if they fire up their phones at baggage claim, it's probably too late to save the integrity of their electronics and everything inside them. visitors to russia can expect to be hacked. and as richard engel found out upon his arrival there, it's not a matter of if, but when. richard, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. it is not just hacking, the state department warns that travelers should have no expectation of privacy, even in their hotel rooms. as we found out, you are especially exposed as soon as you try and communicate with anything. one of the first thing visitors to russia will do is log on. hackers here are counting on it.

so we decided to find out how dangerous that can be. >> kyle, welcome to moscow. >> reporter: with the help of kyle wilhoit, a top american security expert and two brand new computers. for the purpose of this experiment we start out with these fresh machines and we're going to see what happens when you turn them on in russia. >> exactly. >> reporter: back in the u.s., wilhoit had created a phony itety for me, phony contact lists with fake names and addresses. the only real detail, my name. you're putting my profile on these computers? >> that's exactly right. >> reporter: with our new computers now loaded with potentially attractive data, we headed for a restaurant, where we used a new smartphone to browse for information about the sochi olympics. almost immediately we were hacked. >> did you see where it said downloading? >> reporter: yes, i did. >> it's actually downloading a piece of malware. >> reporter: malicious software hijacked our phone before we even finished our coffee.

stealing my information and giving hackers the option to tap and record my phone calls. anything i say on this will endanger my financial security, maybe even my physical security depending on who's listening? >> exactly. >> reporter: kaspersky labs, one of the largest computer security companies in the world, is charged with protecting the games. but experts here say visitors will bring so many devices, the hackers will have plenty of targets. >> every segment of this huge, huge, huge infrastructure will be under attack. >> reporter: back at the hotel wilhoit was using specialized software to monitor my two computers. and sure enough, they had also been hacked. you were able to tell that very, very quickly, someone was poking around? >> exactly. >> reporter: it had taken hackers less than one minute to pounce. within 24 hours, they had broken into both computers and started helping themselves to my data. where is this information going?

>> that computer in particular, the traffic is actually going to a server within russia. >> reporter: american athletes and fans now coming to russia by the thousands are entering a minefield. the instant they log on to the internet. the best way to protect yourself, brian, is actually quite simple. if you don't really need a device, don't bring it. try to avoid the public wifi. and if there's anything particularly and uniquely important on your computer or phone, banking information, photographs, remove it before coming to russia. >> americans, other visitors as they say, have been warned. richard engel in sochi, we'll see you over there. we are learning new information here tonight about the final hours of the life of philip seymour hoffman. the events leading up to his death, and the sad comment he made at his last public event. nbc's katy tur is outside his apartment here in new york tonight. katy, good evening. >> reporter: and brian, there's been a steady stream of mourners coming to lay flowers and candles down at this doorstep.

this is where we're learning now details about his last days, and of course that very haunting comment. philip seymour hoffman's battle with substance abuse was no secret. he was in rehab as late as last december. in fact, just a couple weeks ago at the sundance film festival, a magazine publisher said he told him, i'm a heroin addict, i just got out of rehab. as late as three days before he died, witnesses said they saw him drinking in an atlanta bar, and that he looked okay. but by 8:00 p.m. saturday night, the night before he was found dead with a syringe still in his arm, sources say things were not okay for the actor. hoffman's girlfriend and mother of their three young children told police officers hoffman seemed high when she spoke with him on the phone. now, within the hour, sources say that hoffman was withdrawing money from an atm around the corner from his house. six transactions in total, totaling $1,200. a witness told detectives he saw hoffman at the two men carrying

messenger bags. it's unclear if he bought the drugs then or if he already had them in his possession. police say they did not find nearly that much money in his apartment. the investigation is still ongoing, brian. and we're still awaiting the results of the autopsy. >> katy tur reporting tonight from manhattan. katy, thanks. we have now heard from chris christie himself for the first time since friday night's allegations. from that former appointee of his that evidence exists as he put it, showing the governor knew about those forced lane closures on the george washington bridge that have plunged the governor into crisis. today the governor was on a tour of the post hurricane sandy rebuilding effort in the state. but last night on a local radio show, he spoke out and strongly defended himself and again proclaimed his innocence. >> the most important issue is, did i know anything about the plan to close these lanes? did i authorize it, did i know about it? did i approve it?

did i have any knowledge of it beforehand? and the answer is still the same, it's unequivocally no. while it dominates lots of other folks, it can't dominate me. because i have the responsibility for 8.9 million people. and i'll be damned if i'm going to let anything get in the way of me doing my job. >> meanwhile, bridget kelly, the now fired aide to the governor who orchestrated the lane closures is refusing to turn over documents subpoenaed by a legislative committee, citing her fifth amendment right against self-incrimination. the senate gave final congressional approval today to a farm bill that sets policy for hundreds of programs, including food stamps and farm subsidies. it would make small cutbacks to both, eliminating $800 million a year for food stamps, or about 1%. conservatives had called for much larger cuts to the program. president obama plans to sign the bill on friday. another big headline today

in washington, the nonpartisan congressional budget office says this new health care law is going to cause more than 2 million americans to reduce their work hours or leave the workforce all together. but the white house is cautioning, for its part, that those departures are more a result of workers flexibility to leave their jobs and still have health insurance. the cbo report also projected the federal deficit will fall to $514 billion in 2014 down from $1.4 trillion five years ago. we'll take a break. and still ahead for us tonight, castaway. the man they are calling a castaway. he says he's been adrift at sea for over a year. but not everyone is on board. and later, it takes a village. how an amazing army of strangers helped make an american olympian's dreams come true.

we are back as promised with the kind of story movies are

made of. in fact, one was, but it starred tom hanks. this one is the modern day story of a man who has been lost at sea for over a year. surviving, he says, only on what he could find and catch in his small fishing boat. he showed up the other day on the marshall islands in the pacific. nbc's miguel almaguer picks up the story from there. >> reporter: his sea legs buckled as he planted his legs on solid ground. jose alvarenga's tale of survival is as wild as his long hair and matted beard. "prayer and god," he says kept him alive, especially after a crewmate starved to death. alvarenga says a storm washed his 24-foot fishing boat into the ocean. it drifted 6,000 miles for more than a year from mexico to the marshall islands, he says, without food, water, or fishing gearment alvarenga told telemundo he used a box to hide

from the sun. "i was going to kill myself," he says. "i watched my friend die of hunger and thirst. i asked god to get me out of here, and that's what happened." he says he stayed alive on a boat about this size by eating raw fish, birds and turtles. and he says he drank rain water whenever he could. doctors say it is possible, the 37-year-old who looks healthy, is said to have swollen organs from exposure to sun and salt. which could explain his bloated appearance. sailor and author steven callahan survived 76 days lost at sea. >> it seems very unrealistic to me that it would be a hoax. i'm not saying it couldn't be. but it seems like the simpler explanation is that it actually happened. >> reporter: if true, alvarenga's story is what movies like "castaway" are made of, survival against all odds. news that has reached his family in el salvador.

"thank you, god," she says. "i didn't think i would ever hear this news." a castaway thought to be dead back on dry land with an incredible story, if it's true. miguel almaguer, nbc news, los angeles. and we're back in a moment with a big change at the top for a big name in american business.

it all the started with a guy in a hoodie in his dorm room at harvard ten years ago today. facebook celebrating a decade of status updates around the world. the company now claims more than 1.2 billion monthly users around the world. put another way, facebook's monthly user total is about the population of all of north america and europe combined. the u.s. and canada combined make for about 20% of daily active users. savannah guthrie spoke exclusively with founder mark zuckerberg to see how he is marking the occasion, and what he sees coming next, if he'll tell us. the full interview is tonight on our website, nbcnews.com. microsoft has a new boss. satya nadella will become only the third leader in the company's history.

he will replace steve balmer, and notably, bill gates is stepping away from his official post as chairman, though he remains on the board and he'll advise the company. the new boss, nadella is a 22-year veteran of the company. their commercial was on a lot of top ten lists for best commercial at the super bowl. radioshack made fun of itself in the latest ad for being locked in the '80s. even though radio is in its title, they're promising a new look at their stores. but not all of radioshacks roughly 4,500 stores may stick around to see how the turnaround turns out. "wall street journal" is reporting they're getting ready to shut down about 500 of them. radioshack itself declined comment. it's the latest in a string of notable vladimir putin photo ops, many of them shirtless. in this one the russian president is fully clothed at a rehabilitation facility for endangered persian leopards in the sochi area. two things here. the animals are not native to

sochi. and only the most domesticated and pacified leopards allow humans to pet them like house cats. when we come back here tonight, the olympic dream for the family of one american athlete, and how a whole lot of folks made it a reality.

finally here tonight, the story of an american olympic team family. their daughter won a place on the u.s. speed skating team, but then there was the next challenge, getting her family to sochi so they could watch her compete. that's when something really remarkable happened. and it's not like they live in grover's corners, they'd like to think that small town spirit is very much alive. we get the story tonight from nbc's harry smith. >> reporter: most every saturday you'll find raina smith cutting hair at bob's barber shop in melvindale michigan. if you hang around a little, the conversation inevitably turns to her daughter, jessica. >> she'll bring home at least a gold, i'm sure. ing right? >> reporter: jessica, a short track speed skater is competing in sochi. mom, dad and brother want to go too. the price, listen to this -- >> probably about $40,000. >> thank you. >> reporter: customers and townsfolk have been coming through with cash and encouragement. a spaghetti dinner at the legion hall, a raffle.

at the ice arena. it seems like everyone in melvindale is pulling for jessica and her family. >> these are her very first pair of roller skates. she was one year old. >> reporter: not long after jessica started walking, she started skating. she even played hockey on the boys team. an alternate in vancouver four years ago, jessica swept her three events at the u.s. trials in january. come hell or high water, raina her husband rick, a truck driver, and their son travis were determined to see jessica race in the olympics. while the community did pitch in, they were coming up short. >> we're going to go regardless of what we had to do to do it. take loans out, whatever, we were going to go. >> reporter: but that won't be necessary. without their knowledge, friends of the smiths started spreading the word on facebook, and within days, money started pouring in, some from complete strangers. >> because this person's got 800

facebook friends and this person that they talked to has 500 of their own. >> reporter: enough friends with enough money to put them over the top. >> it tells me there's a lot of good people still left. >> oh, yeah. what did you do today? >> trained twice. >> did you? >> reporter: instead of face time on a smart phone. they'll be in sochi rink side. >> just to know that my family's going to be a part of this, and it's been a long road. >> reporter: olympic dreams are not dreamt alone. and maybe, the more a dream is shared, the better its chance of coming true. harry smith, melvindale michigan. >> there you go. that's our broadcast on a tuesday night. thank you for being here with us. i'm brian williams. we, of course, hope to see you right back here tomorrow evening. good night.

right now at 6:00 stunning new information in the murder of a three-year-old napa girl and the details are coming from the litt little girl's own mother and her boyfriend. thanks for joining us, i'm jessica aguirre. >> i'm raj mathai. a mother and her boyfriend accused of murdering the woman's three-year-old daughter admitted they stored the body in a suitcase and freezer for days. the mother was quivering today in court.

jodi hernandez is there where the couple made the first court appearance this afternoon, jodi. >> reporter: raj, it was emotional not just for the napa mother accused of killing her girl but friends and family who came here to the courthouse today to see the pair formally charged. tonight we're learning new details that make the stomach turn even more. >> rarely do we have things of this level here in this community. we're a bedroom community. it's quiet for the most part. this type of crime really goes -- it rarely occurs, you know. it is, it's shocking. it's shocking to everybody. >> reporter: and now even more disturbing details are emerging about the killing of a three-year-old little girl. according to court documents, sarah kruger and her boyfriend ryan war near told police they stored kruger's little daughter kaley in a suitcase then a freezer before police