on our broadcast tonight, on the move. first one nurse, now the other transferred away from the dallas hospital where they contracted ebola, as the head of the cdc answers tough questions about the string of errors that exposed them both. the insider, a woman risking her job revealing what happened inside that dallas hospital. and just how unprepared they were for ebola. cause death, tonight the autopsy results are out. we'll look at what they reveal about the death of joan rivers. and to the rescue, the scene that played out on live television today as viewers followed the flight of a bear cub stuck far from home, and one very worried mother. "nightly news" begins now. from nbc news world headquarters in new york, this is "nbc nightly news" with brian

williams. good evening. and let's begin here tonight with a little perspective. ebola has so far killed upwards of 4,500 people in western africa. and one patient here out of three known cases. nevertheless, the presence of ebola in this country has caused fear, in some cases mild panic. and we've learned not all of our medical facilities are ready for it. that was made clear again today. we have it all covered again tonight beginning again tonight with nbc's kate snow at the hospital in dallas. kate, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. we have late word tonight from the cdc. they say they cannot rule out the possibility that amber vinson, the nurse, may have been sick when she first flew a week ago on friday to ohio. that means they're now going to be looking for passengers on that flight as well as the second flight that she took on monday of this week. vinson was moved to emory university hospital. and tonight the other nurse,

nina pham, is being flown to the nih in bethesda. today, hazmat teams continued the cleanup at the apartment of amber vinson, the nurse taken to emory last night. nina pham, who's been at texas health presbyterian since saturday is headed to bethesda. the county executive says the hospital here only has three isolation units, and unfortunately they need to be ready to deal with new ebola patients. >> if we're going to have more cases, it's likely that they're going to be coming up soon. >> reporter: sounds like you're worried about that. >> i'm extremely concerned given 75 heroic health care workers potentially exposed to the same sort of risk that nina and amber were. >> reporter: on the "today" this morning brian na still employed described a hospital woefully unprepared to deal with ebola. >> i just couldn't believe it, you know. in the second week of ebola crisis at my hospital, the only

gear they're offering us at that time and up until that time is gear that is allowing our necks to be uncovered. >> reporter: she said contaminated garbage was stacked up in the hallway. >> our infectious disease control nurses had been up and down that hallway. there was garbage piled to the ceiling without so much as even gloves on, without so much as even having their feet covered. and then just walking into other general areas that are supposed to be clean. >> reporter: in response, the hospital referred us to a written statement released earlier this morning saying thomas eric duncan was moved directly to a private room and placed in isolation. staff wore the appropriate personal protective equipment as recommended by the cdc at the time, and waste was well contained in accordance with standards and it was located in safe and containable locations. skyping into a hearing on capitol hill, a hospital official apologized for how they cared for duncan. >> we made mistakes. we did not correctly diagnose his symptoms as those of ebola, and we are deeply sorry. >> reporter: the director for

the centers for disease control was questioned about amber vinson flying on a plane while running a fever of 99.5. vinson did call the cdc and was never told not to fly. >> she was told by your agency she could board the plane, is that right? i just have one more question -- >> that is my understanding. i need to correct that. >> okay. >> i have not reviewed exactly what was said, but she did contact our agency. and she did board the plane. >> reporter: the ripple effects from the actions of one patient spread from texas to ohio. in central texas three schools were closed today because two students were on vinson's flight. at two cleveland hospitals 13 nurses on the flight were put on furlough. schools were closed in akron and a cleveland suburb. and anyone who was at this bridal shop in akron on saturday is being asked to call a special hotline. vinson shopped there over the weekend planning for her own wedding. a friend of vinson's defended her on facebook. it saddens me the way the media has portrayed her, she wrote, in

my eyes she is a hero. the pastor for thomas eric duncan's fiancee says she got a phone call today from a hospital official for the first time since his death more than a week ago now expressing their regret that they could not save duncan and apologizing. brian. >> kate snow at the hospital in dallas starting us off again tonight. kate, thanks. that nurse we just heard from in kate's report believes she is risking her job at the hospital by coming forward and speaking. but as she told matt lauer this morning, she felt she just couldn't stay silent anymore. >> my co-workers, i know a lot of you will be proud of me right now. and i'm sorry for those of you that are not. what i'm doing is not wrong. i know that. i'm just very concerned about losing my job. it's the best job i ever had. i travel a great distance to work there.

i don't live close to the hospital. i am the breadwinner of my family. and i'm terrified. i'm just like any other, you know, the majority of middle class, working class people. i'm just a couple paychecks away from not being able to pay my mortgage, and i'm terrified about that. and i don't know about my future there at that hospital or at any hospital. >> brianna, finally for you, you're in that 21-day period where you're monitoring your temperature a couple times a day, although i mention there are no restrictions placed on you moving around right now. but if -- this is hypothetical, if you were to start to experience symptoms of ebola, texas health presbyterian hospital would be the recommended hospital for you to go to for treatment. how would you feel about that? >> you know, i've played that situation out in my head. knowing what i know, i would try anything and everything to

refuse to go there to be treated. i would feel at risk by going there if i don't actually have ebola, i may contract it there is how i actually feel. and i would do anything to refuse to go there. >> nurse brianna agiri. it's worth noting tonight at least one other staffer from the hospital told nbc news she has confidence in texas presbyterian, feels the hospital has done a good job keeping the staff informed. at the white house, president obama once again stayed put. he canceled a trip, stayed back to discuss the ebola threat. he called in key advisors for another strategy session on this chris jansing at the white house for us tonight. chris, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. this is the second straight day president obama canceled campaigning to deal with the ebola crisis. this afternoon he signed an executive order. the pentagon calling the national guard and reserves cutting through red tape to get to the source of the disease in liberia quickly. the first team will be small.

engineers and logistical experts to help build 17 ebola treatment centers. administration officials also admit they're working under the assumption there will be more ebola cases here. the president had another late-day meeting with advisors focusing on specifics like how many of the so-called s.w.a.t. teams can be dispatched when someone is diagnosed, and how quickly? as one senior official said to me, we're still very much in the middle of the details of this response. brian. >> chris jansing on the white house north lawn. chris, thanks. now to the fears ebola has caused especially to do with travel. more focus on the commercial flights that the dallas nurse, amber vinson, took to ohio and back, as fellow passengers have been told to stay home. nbc's tom costello with that end of the story. he's at dulles airport outside d.c. tom, good evening. >> reporter: hi, brian. frontier airlines says it's now reaching out to people who were on five flights after amber

vinson was on a plane. but those five flights used the same plane. out of an abundance of caution, they say the risk to those passengers is thought to be near zero and very low for the people who were actually on the plane with amber vinson. frontier airlines says the plane that carried nurse amber vinson has been cleaned and thoroughly disinfected out of an abundance of caution. the airline has replaced seat covers and carpet around her seat. meanwhile, health authorities have been reaching out to other passengers onboard flight 1143. >> they told me to take my temperature twice a day and monitor it at least six hours apart. >> reporter: axel good sitting in 13c learned he was just three feet from vinson. he's been told to stay home until november 3rd. the cdc, he says, should have never allowed an ebola health care worker to fly. >> and i never would have risked my life. if i'd known she'd been in contact with patient zero, i never would have gotten on that flight in the first place.

>> reporter: but experts say it's highly unlikely vinson was contagious or that the virus remained on the plane. a 2007 cdc study found that even an ebola hospital ward the virus did not survive on dry walls, desks, bed frames, light switches, floors or mattresses. pandemic disease expert says anyone who's at the contagious stage of ebola would most surely be too sick to travel. >> when you're in that infectious phase, you are incredibly sick. and you are in no condition to get up and walk, to do any traveling. >> reporter: but today four more u.s. airports began taking the temperatures and questioning passengers arriving from west africa. in chicago, pulled aside after arriving from sierra leone. >> checked my temperature. made sure everything was okay. questions, going to stay, my phone number and everything and then released me. it's a bit embarrassing what we have to go through, isn't it? >> reporter: there are no direct u.s. flights from the u.s. into those three countries directly

affected by ebola. most of the people in those countries transit through europe to the united states, which makes tracking them and screening them all the more difficult. brian. >> tom costello at dulles for us tonight. tom, thanks. now to the weather system making news. hurricane gonzalo has reached a category 4 churning north in the atlantic and sadly taking aim at bermuda. this is the view from the international space station just today packing winds up to 145 miles an hour. nbc meteorologist dylan dreyer is in bermuda for us tonight. >> reporter: 120-mile-per-hour wind gusts, concrete roofs ripped from homes. this was the damage tropical storm fay did to bermuda just last weekend. today, this is the calm before the big storm. beach-goers soaked in the last of the sun before hurricane gonzalo bears down on the paradise islands. hotels and residents boarded up homes and businesses. and stocked up on supplies and gas. extra flights were added to evacuate people ahead of the storm.

>> leaving. just in time. >> starting friday morning right out of the gate expect conditions to deteriorate. some worst conditions in the afternoon and evening hours. >> reporter: eerily reminiscent of 2003, killing four people and causing $300 million in damage. here's the track of fabian near bermuda. here's the track of gonzalo, side-by-side they look nearly identical. a tiny speck in the atlantic but most sits very high above sea level. there's also a natural reef that surrounds the island that really protects it from that storm surge flooding that so many hurricanes produce. >> anything to be prepared for a hurricane. just have your family around. people that you love. board up windows and pray. >> reporter: now, hurricane gonzalo is a category 4 storm with winds at 145 miles per hour. the center of the storm is expected to track 20 to 50 miles

to the west of where i'm standing on bermuda right now. the hardest expected to hit friday afternoon. this category 3 storm will be the strongest storm bermuda has seen in more than ten years. we're also watching tropical storm ana in hawaii. it should remain as a tropical storm as it moves through the hawaiian islands this weekend. >> dylan dreyer on an otherwise beautiful night in bermuda. sadly it won't stay that way. now to a bizarre scene that played out on television last night. this may say more about the broken state of our politics these days than we'd like to admit. the governor of florida and his challenger, a former governor, set to debate right before the evening dissolved in a fight over a small electric fan. we get the story tonight from nbc's andrea mitchell. >> reporter: has to be the first time a political fan took place center stage in a debate. >> the two candidates take part

in this debate right now are not stepping up on stage. ladies and gentlemen, we have an extremely peculiar situation right now. we have been told the governor scott will not be participating in this debate. >> reporter: his objection, his opponent, charlie crist had brought along an electric fan. turns out charlie crist, former governor, doesn't go anywhere without his fan. perhaps he never got over this image, richard nixon sweating profusely in his first debate in 1960. the fan has its own twitter account. governor scott finally caved in. >> that has to be the most unique beginning to any debate. >> reporter: who won perhaps the fan's twitter account, it picked up a thousand followers. andrea mitchell.

>> unbelievable. still ahead, what killed joan rivers? tonight we know the answer. we've learned what went wrong during an otherwise routine medical procedure.

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wothe way als dismantles someone like stuarty. is so painful. embryonic stem cells have so much promise, but barbara comstock voted to ban that research funding even though conservatives like nancy reagan support it. that takes away hope for a cure -- but also, for families like ours, who just wanted a little more time. house majority pac is responsible for the content of this advertising. she was a global celebrity. and at age 81 she was still playing more than 300 dates a year. so the death of joan rivers came as quite a shock. and the questions started immediately about her throat procedure and her medical care. and tonight, we now know more about the cause of death. our report tonight from nbc's stephanie gosk. >> reporter: the new york city coroner confirms what medical

experts suspected. joan rivers died from a lack of oxygen to her brain while undergoing a throat procedure. the 81-year-old comedian checked into an outpatient clinic in manhattan to find out why she was suffering from raspy voice and stomach reflux. while undergoing the examine rivers was given the common sedative propofol, a drug made infamous after its use led to michael jackson's death. while under anesthesia, oxygen to her brain decreased. her death resulted from a predictable complication of medical therapy. >> they didn't seem to suggest there was any foul play or any issues that were out of the ordinary although this is a rare event. >> reporter: today the clinic door was locked and the office did not return calls for comment. last month yorkville endoscopy said its chief physician, dr. lawrence coenwas no longer medical director and was not currently performing procedures.

melissa rivers released a statement saying, in response to new york city's medical examiner's report we continue to be sadden by our tragic loss. no further comment at this time. despite her age, rivers death took many by surprise. the comedian was as active as ever with a best selling book, a retail line and regular tv appearances. the new york health department continues to investigate the circumstances of her death. stephanie gosk, nbc news, new york. we are back in a moment with a big job not for everyone. this is jim. a man who doesn't stand still. but jim has afib, atrial fibrillation an irregular heartbeat, not caused by a heart valve problem. that puts jim at a greater risk of stroke. for years, jim's medicine tied him to a monthly trip to the clinic to get his blood tested. but now, with once-a-day xarelto®, jim's on the move. jim's doctor recommended xarelto®. like warfarin, xarelto® is proven effective to reduce afib-related stroke risk.

but xarelto® is the first and only once-a-day prescription blood thinner for patients with afib not caused by a heart valve problem, that doesn't require regular blood monitoring. so jim's not tied to tt monitoring routine. gps: proceed to the designated route. not today. for patients currently well managed on warfarin, there is limited information on how xarelto® and warfarin compare in reducing the risk of stroke. xarelto® is just one pill a day taken with the evening meal. plus, with no known dietary restrictions, jim can eat the healthy foods he likes. don't stop taking xarelto®, rivaroxaban, unless your doctor tells you to. while taking xarelto®, you may bruise more easily and it may take longer for bleeding to stop. xarelto® may increase your risk of bleeding if you take certain medicines. xarelto® can cause serious bleeding, and in rare cases, may be fatal. get help right away if you develop unexpected bleeding, unusual bruising, or tingling. if you have had spinal anesthesia while on xarelto®, watch for back pain or any nerve or muscle related signs or symptoms.

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it's become apparent to those of us who cover tornadoes that they're increasingly showing up in clusters. and sure enough the folks at the severe storms laboratory in norman, oklahoma, confirmed that. tornadoes now occur in multiples more often. and increasingly. just in recent years where there's one there are likely to be others. one more weather note from the climate prediction center, they say a repeat of last year's awful polar vortex is unlikely

because the climate patterns needed to cause it are unlikely to form. the old farmer's almanac on the other hand is calling for a rough winter. it is the work of the great architect aero seranin, tallest arch in the world, tallest structure in missouri, tallest manmade monument in the western hemisphere. and the only way to check its condition and take corrosion samples is to get up there and walk the arch with ropes. the national park service wants the exterior to be positively gleaming for the 50th birthday of the arch a year from now. the headline we saw today was straightforward enough. archaeologists uncovered giant sphinx in the california desert. that sounds like it's a long way from home. back at the dig the archaeologists traced the source of the sphinx to 1923 silent

black and white movie "the ten commandments." when shooting was over they buried 21 plastic sphinxes, the sands of time have now exposed a bit of hollywood history. when we come back, the mama bear, the baby bear and the concrete walls that came between them today. day tting up the perfectg begins with arthritis pain and two pills. afternoon arrives and feeling good, but her knee pain returns... that's two more pills. the evening's event brings laughter, joy, and more pain... when jamie says... what's that like six pills today? yeah... i can take 2 aleve for all day relief. really, and... and that's it. this is kathleen... for my arthritis pain, i now choose aleve. get all day arthritis pain relief with an easy-open cap. people with type 2 diabetes come from all walks of life. if you have high blood sugar, ask your doctor about farxiga. it's a different kind of medicine that works by removing some sugar from your body.

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finally here tonight, a slow speed chase through southern california kept people across the country watching the live pictures on tv and the web. this time though it was a story about family, about habitat, about man versus nature and about bears. we get our report tonight from nbc's joe fryer in l.a. >> reporter: news choppers in southern california were not chasing cars today. all eyes were looking down on a baby black bear trapped inside a dumpster in pasadena with a protective mama bear desperate to get her cub out. >> they look cute, but you want to leave them alone. >> there goes mama climbing up to get her baby. look at that. >> reporter: game wardens could hear the mother crying and knew they had to help. so they fire a bean bag at mom to scare her away. >> oh, well now you get out. look at that. >> reporter: then safely coax the cub out of the dumpster. the little one shimmies up a tree to safety calling out for

mom. and before long they're back together. >> awe. that's going to end happy. >> reporter: the story of the pasadena bears was hard to resist, described on twitter as the cutest thing i've seen all day. such sightings are not rare in these foothill communities as bears trek down from the mountains looking for food and water. >> a bear! >> reporter: in august one family found this guy cooling off in their backyard kiddie pool. in 2012 this 600-pound bear became a celebrity named meatball for the food he pilfered. he now lives in an animal sanctuary. now the pasadena bears, spent the day hanging out. they pose little threat to people and should soon return home. >> this is about protecting the animals, getting that mom and that cub reunited. >> reporter: as for the connection between mom and cub, we probably don't need an expert to explain that. some things are universal. joe fryer, nbc news, los angeles.

part of our world on this thursday 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. how can i avoid maintenance fees?

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