nbc's rehema ellis is in berwyn for us tonight. good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. take a look at this tree, now horizontal and scraping up against the house behind me. this is what a powerful storm can do in a community. trees and electrical lines snapped under the heavy snow leaving hundreds of thousands to wonder when will the lights come back on? much of pennsylvania woke up this morning to buzzing sounds of repair. roads were blocked by fallen trees and downed power lines cutting off electricity for more than 800,000 customers at the height of the storm. donna graham and her two daughters woke up to a very cold house. did you think, i need to buy a generator? >> well, we say that every time the power goes out and we never get one. but now we're going to get one, right? >> reporter: jackie and frank pedigree in maple glen spent the night close to the fireplace in their den. she slept on the couch, he slept on the recliner. this is your central heating right now? >> yes. >> reporter: like the pedigrees, there are still more than 400,000 without power with parts o

we get that story tonight from nbc's rehema ellis. >> reporter: in kindergarten, children learn their abcs. experts say it's also a crucial time to learn a healthy lifestyle. in a new report, emory researchers followed more than 7,700 children starting in kindergarten from 1998 to 2007. they found children who were large at birth and overweight by kindergarten were four times as likely as normal weight children to become obese by the eighth grade or around 14 years old. >> the first five years of life are really, really important. so, as parents, as clinicians, as a society, really focus on those first five years on ensuring healthy nutrition, ensuring healthy lifestyles. >> reporter: at the lewis household, they're making changes. >> i just want them to learn how to be healthy, because diabetes runs in my family and heart disease run in my family. >> reporter: andrea lewis says now her family tries to eat healthier. plus, she's enrolled her 8-year-old and 5-year-old in the children's healthy lifestyle program at duke university. >> you get to have fun with your friends and ride your

rehema ellis with us tonight. as always, thank you. >>> we turn overseas now to ukraine, still unstable after the president was driven from power four days ago. that has prompted this country to send in a small team of specially trained marines to help protect the american embassy in kiev just in case. we're also getting a better understanding of why so many ukrainians were so fed up with the president, viktor yanukovych. for many, it begins just north of kiev at a lavish 340-acre estate he left behind, where we can now see how he lived. our chief foreign correspondent richard engel takes us inside what is being called tonight a monument to corruption and greed. >> reporter: ukrainians still hunting for their deposed president, today flock to ring his doorbell and pose for pictures on the grounds of his former estate. with police gone, it's guarded by protesters now. but there's been no looting, just curiosity. and like with so many fallen leaders, there's no accounting for taste. viktor yanukovych kept a fancy ri

rehema ellis, nbc news, new york. >>> thank goodness. and that is our broadcast for this wednesday evening. brian will be back with you tomorrow night from sochi. i'm ann curry, and for all of us here at nbc news, thank you and good night. >>> it's dry now but the rain is on the way. i'm raj mathai. >> i'm jessica aguirre. a live look outside the live camera network. dark clouds in san francisco, oakland and san jose, the start of two powerful storms headed to the bay area. if you're not seeing rain yet, just yet. chief meteorologist jeff ranieri is tracking the storm now. >> the moisture moving into the storm system beginning to produce a few rain drops over the past 15 minutes. radar beginning to show light areas of rainfall beginning here in the north bay south down to san firefighter yell. it's beginning to get wet here. there is green on the radar but taking a lot of moisture in the mid levels to actually get this to hit the surface. it's drier in the lower levels, a few spotty showers to palo alto and here toward the the bay bridge

>> what a mess, rehema ellis, thank you so much. natalie is here. you have an alarming report about the u.s. power grid, the safety of it. >> that's right. there are concerns this morning that power plants in the u.s. could be vulnerable to terror attacks. this comes after authorities in california concluded that damage to a substation last april was caused by a sniper. surveillance video shows bullets hitting the equipment in south san jose. in an effort to make transformers overheat and shut down, knocking out the substation. a former executive at pacific gas and electric calls it a potential dress rehearsal for a major terror attack. the fbi is now investigating but it says it does not believe the incident was linked to terrorists. >>> the united nations has published a scathing report on the vatican's handling of sexual abuse within the catholic church. the u.n. demanded that the vatican immediately remove all clergy known or suspected to be child abusers and turn them over to authorities. the watchdog for children's rights also said the church