welcome to "world news tonight." the record-breaking storm. nearly two feet of snow. blinding winds, more than 100,000 without power. ginger zee right here. abducted. breaking now. the chilling video in one american city. authorities asking for help as a 22-year-old woman is taken right off the street. the nascar showdown. the racing stars and the brawl. what authorities are saying tonight. and walking a tight rope. the stunning moment. what we didn't see. no net, no harness and tonight, what he was fighting on that rope. and less than 24 hours now until your voice, your vote. the one number to watch.

good evening and we begin this monday night with that massive snowstorm. winter is still weeks away, but you wouldn't know it. tonight, records broken. about 100,000 people without power. in maine, those power lines snapped this evening. the driving miserable. icy, slick roads. a lot of accidents. one family capturing this outside their back window. watch this. autumn rain giving way to a winter storm in just hours. abc meteorologist ginger zee standing by with what's coming next. but we begin with abc's gio benitez in the middle of it. >> reporter: from maine to philly to the deep south, winter's wrath starting long before winter. turning november into snow-vember. the blowing snow making this truck roll over in portland, maine. frozen power lines with nowhere to go but down. knocking out power to 135,000 in maine alone. >> i've never seen anything like this this early. >> reporter: and this is author stephen king's house here in

bangor, maine. look at this. even his jar boils are covered in snow. the snow breaking records all along the east coast. caribou and bangor, maine, getting more than ten inches of snow. parts of the south feeling the freeze. in columbia, south carolina, it was 87 degrees midweek. by the weekend, the earliest knowfall on record. in tennessee, 22 inches of snow. snow drifts waist-deep. thousands of miles away, winter also coming early. this snow outside sacramento. even flagstaff, arizona, got an inch. 18 days earlier than average. and back here in bangor, extra crews are coming in from new england and new brunswick to help with the cleanup. it will take several days for everyone here to get their power back, david. >> gio, thank you. we're thinking about those people. we want to get to ginger zee with what's coming next. >> reporter: places like south carolina had their earliest and

first trace snow of the season. look at the numbers. maine going to warm into the 40s, but 50s in the southeast. 70s in parts of the southeast that just came away from freezing mornings. i wanted to point this out to you, david. in the pacific, hurricane vance. the moisture from that will converge with this low pressure system. texas, oklahoma, arkansas, the next 48 hours, this could be rough. we could see some flooding, especially in the yellow area in south texas. >> all right, ginger, thank you. we're going to turn now to new details in the investigation tonight after that spacecraft crash. you'll remember the images, the aircraft in pieces in the middle of the desert. tonight, what authorities have now discovered in the video. and the mastermind behind that rocket ship, sir richard branson, now weighing in. abc's david kerley tonight. >> reporter: with the space smip's rocket engine found intact, investigators turned to video and found something unusual. it has to do with the craft's wings that tilt up to slow down. they're called feathers.

see them move? think of it as the breaks on your car. but video from inside the cockpit spokes that the co-pilot unlocked a feathering device at a slower speed than specified. the wings started moving on their own. the head of the ntsb. did the co. high lot make a mistake? >> we don't know if it was a mistake. we don't know why it was moved. was it a design issue? was it a process issue? was it lack of training? >> reporter: the craft started breaking up, captured by those still photos. the co-pilot, a father of two, did not survive. his children attend school with the children of people earl see bold, the surviving pilot. the virgin galactic ceo richard branson hoped to start taking people to the edge of space and weightlessness by early next year. some observers suggest there was pressure to pick up the pace of the program. >> if any of our rocket engineers warned something wasn't safe to go, we wouldn't

go. >> reporter: branson says two more people signed up for the $250,000 ride the day of the accident. and he said today he's confident virgin galactic will fly again. david? >> david kerley tonight. david, thanks. 24 hours from now, our first look right here of how america is feeling. the message you'll be sending at the polls. tomorrow, of course, the midterms. it's your voice, your vote. will republicans take control of the senate, too? it could all come down to these key 16 races. keep your eye on the map and keep this number in mind. this is the magic number, six. republicans need to pick up six senate seats to win control of the senate. and though president obama is not on the ballot, you wouldn't know it in the ads. republicans running against him, even some democrats running from him. listen to this. >> michelle nunn. obama's senator, not yours. >> pryor. o-b-a-m-a. >> i'm not barack obama. >> she's a democrat there. what's the love here? let's bring in jonathan karl

tonight. and jon, no question here that republicans are trying to make this about president obama. >> reporter: there's no secret why they want to run against obama. look at the job approval rating. it's at 42% among like little voters. and it's starting to get personal. look at his favorability rating. this is whether or not people see the president as personally likable. it's now at just 44%. an all-time low. when he first came into office, he had a 79% favorability rating. those that disagreed liked him. that's disappeared. >> we'll be here tomorrow night with george. one of the tools will be tracking the mood of the nation. we asked them tonight, do you think this country is on the right track. look at this number. 70% saying no. in fact, just 26% saying yes. and jon, i have to ask you about nate silver. he was dead-on in the presidential race. every single state last time around. so, where does he put republican chances tonight at taking over the senate? >> reporter: one week ago today, he said it was a 63% chance.

now, david, right now, 75.1% chance of republicans winning control of the senate. the momentum is on the republicans side. >> jon karl, thank you. george stephanopoulos, election night, tomorrow night right here on abc. in the meantime, now to that headline out of chicago this evening. authorities say teenagers who were trying to fly overseas to join isis. we reported here on the 19-year-old terror suspect being arrested at o'hare airport last night. he's been ordered held without bail. his younger brother and sister were allegedly traveling with him. meantime, in the fight against isis, there are new images of heavy fighting in syria. you can see the tracer fire there. and tonight, what would appear to be a possible major setback in president obama's strategy. rebels supported by the u.s., the u.s. had armed them, now surrendering to al qaeda. i want to bring in abc's chief global affairs correspondent martha raddatz. authorities trying to confirm the reports, but the bigger question, if true, where are the

weapons? >> reporter: david, they are very credible reports coming out of the region. and those wells that you talked about are missiles, anti-tank weapons that can destroy tanks. our weapons that we gave to the american-backed syrian rebels who are essentially our ground forces, fighting isis and there are reports tonight that this al qaeda-affiliated group has captured those weapons from the syrian rebels. >> all right, martha, see you on election night, tomorrow night, as well. we turn back here at home and police are studying a chilling new video this evening, asking for your help. you can see it here. a young woman in philadelphia, seemingly abducted right off the street. you can see her dragged down that sidewalk. tonight, that city on alert and here's abc's mara schiavocampo. >> reporter: tonight, police releasing this chilling surveillance video of what they say is a woman being kidnapped by a complete stranger. watch as the suspect's car parks on the street sunday evening.

less than a minute later, this man walks up the street. police saying he spots his target and begins stalking her. 22-year-old car lisa freeland gather, who reportedly lives just blocks away. the suspect, described as a black male about 5'10", then crosses the street and strikes. grabbing freeland gaither, forcibly dragging her down the street. the video is silent, but witnesses say they heard her screaming for help. >> i just want her to come back home safe. i don't care what everybody has to do. >> reporter: philadelphia police have embraced using social media to help solve cases. this man convicted of trying to snatch a little girl off the street. he turned himself in just six hours after the tape was released online. tonight, officials hoping for a similar outcome in this case. police describe that car as a gray ford taurus. they do not believe freeland

gaither knew her attacker and they are treating this as a life and death search. >> mara, thank you. we're going to move on now to the world trade center here in new york. opening its doors for the first time since 9/11. the aiconic new york city skylie transformed. it seems to be whole again. workers have moved into office space. and what they've built around the elevator, should anything ever happen again. abc's dan harris taking us inside. >> reporter: it is the culmination of years of effort and emotion. 1 world trade center, today, at last, open for business. here it is. the tallest building in the western hemisphere. let's go inside. those first office workers swipe their i.d. cards today. they work for the publishing giant conde nast, and they say they are not afraid to be pioneers. >> don't live in fear. >> reporter: joining them soon, anna wintour,le of fictionalize

"the devil waerls prada." >> this is the safest class-a office space any place in the world. >> reporter: this new tower, specifically built with a massive concrete core to withstand an attack. as i saw when i visited the construction in 2011. the elevator banks and the stairways there are all within that concrete core, so, if, heaven forbid, something happened on an upper floor, people would be able to get out both above and below. and now, three years later, i got to be back on top of this completed tower. not only can you see straight up the magnificent island of manhattan here, but just a few feet this way, you can cross the hudson river and see not only new jersey, but beyond it, the state of pennsylvania. but the most important view may be from the outside. this towering building proof of a city's resilience. dan harris, abc news, new york. >> dan, thank you. and all those american workers

helping to rebuild it. we move on tonight and to that headline about gas prices in a freefall. under $3 a gallon for the first time in nearly four years now. $2.99 a gallon, the average, down six cents in just one week. that's welcome news. and two automakers in the news tonight. hyundai and kia hit with a $100 million fine for the epa. the biggest ever under the clean air act. authorities say they were misleading 1.2 million customers, overstating gas mileage by up to six miles per gallon. now, to a young woman named brittany may narnarmaynard. facing a terminal illness and an agonizing choice. taking her own life on her own terms. abc's steve 0 sun sammy now on the life, the death and the very strong opinions on both sides tonight. >> reporter: 29-year-old brittany maynard made a choice to celebrate the last days of her life her way. traveling to yellowstone with her husband, and taking a boat trip through alaska with her mother.

>> my goals really are quite simple and they mostly do boil down to my family and friends. >> reporter: she always wanted to visit the grand canyon before she left this earth. she did that two weeks ago. then this saturday night, she met one last goal, taking her own life, instead of seeing cancer destroy it. in her own words, today played over and over again online, she explains how her unbeatable brain tumor would lose and how she would win by dying in her own bedroom, surrounded by her family, putting an end to her pain and seizures. >> i had two in a day, which is unusual. and i remember looking at my husband's face at one point and thinking, i know this is my husband, but i can't say his name. >> reporter: she and her new husband dan moved to oregon for this reason. one of five states allows terminally ill patients to end their own lives. her family says she died peacefully. steve osunsami, abc news, atlanta. >> steve, thank you.

and we are going to move on tonight and to that history-making walk by nick k wallenda overnight. it was in the dark, hundreds of feet up, balanced on a cable no wider than a penny. abc's matt gutman this evening with what we didn't know. *>> reporter: nik wallenda tiptoed into history sunday night. first conquering the burnett building for the highest incline tightrope walk ever, 600 feet up. that rise, 19 degrees, equivalent to climbing an eight-story building. all on a three-quarter inch cable. about as wild as a penny. moments later, the highest blindfolded walk ever. 50 stories up between chicago's iconic marina towers. what the cameras didn't capture, spectators phones' did. wallenda seeming to walk right out of residents' balconies. and what you don't see at home -- hundreds clinging to the railings for each heart-thumping step. you can hear the wind howl. whipping wallenda nearly 30

miles an hour. i recently spent some time with a window washing crew, terrified. wallenda seemed fa eed fear lel. as he did when crossing knee yag gra falls in 2012. wallenda says his next feat will be to cross the tallulah george in georgia, just like his grandfather did and top it off with a headstand. matt gutman, abc news, miammiam. >> matt, thank you. coming up, nascar now waking in after this. take a look. the shoatedown. the racing stars in the middle of that brawl. what was behind us and what could be coming now. we've seen it before. tom cruise and his own stunts hanging from that cliff. tonight, though, what he has pulled off, thousands of feet up and in a suit, no less. and you'll remember the march of the penguins. tonight, though, the view we haven't seen. there is an imposter in that group of penguins. how they managed to pull off these pictures. when we come back here.

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next tonight here, two of nascar's biggest stars throwing punches and this evening, nascar now weighing what to do. abc's ryan smith. >> reporter: it's the melee dominating the racing world tonight. that's nascar icon jeff gordon, lunging at racing champ brad keselowski after keselowski's car slammed into gordon's on a texas track sunday night, spinning him out. look again. after the race, gordon rushes to keg low ski's car, barking at him. grabs his collar, the crowd noise builds -- an all-out brawl ensues. sweeping up the drivers, afterwards, gordon, a 20-year veteran of the racetrack, lashing out at his competitor. neither driver backing down. >> he's just a [ bleep ]. >> i didn't want to ruin anyone's day. i wanted to win the race and that was our opportunity. >> reporter: keslowski posting this week last night "you either take the gap or regret it forever." nascar fights are nothing new.

this is keselowski's second in the last month. is this all just theater or are these emotions real? >> what you're witnessing is authentic. the drivers, in my opinion have never been under more pressure. >> reporter: pressure added by nascar's new racing format, introduced amidst sagging ratings, emphasizing weekly wins, some say, making drivers push even harder at every race. nascar says they are now reviewing the video and according to reports, could penalize those involved in the mellee as soon as tomorrow. >> ryan, thank you. when we come back here, we remember an american original. millions of americans listen to him on the radio. and the story behind this picture. tom cruise clinging to that plane. what he pulled off this time. and the secret lives of penguins. the spy who fooled them. how they pulled this off. the basics, you know.st gm i got this. [thinking] is it that time? the son picks up the check? [thinking] i'm still working. he's retired. i hope he's saving.

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the co-host of npr's "car talk." he and his brother ray were auto mechanics. he was known for his wit as much as his wisecracks. tom cruise seen at it again. 5,000 feet up for his new movie, "mission impossible 5." no stunt double and wearing a suit, no less. you have to love old fashioned romance. an elderly couple in this cafe. the husband stands up on his chair, say nalds h, say naldere. ♪ my heart for you >> the other customers recording it all. he sits down and finishes his dinner. we loved that. when we come back here, we're taking you on an undercover mission tonight. the spy who manages to fool the penguins. you've got to see this. they call it planning for retirement because getting

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and finally tonight here, perhaps you remember the march of the penguins. tonight, another march captured, but this time, with help from a little imposter. abc's clayton sandell reveals the spy.

>> reporter: any scientist preoccupied with penguins knows sometimes you have to get this close to unclock their secrets. but getting too close causes penguins to stress out. their heartrates soar. which is why researchers working in antarctica came up with a furry gate crasher to do the work for them. a penguin robochick camera hidden in fur, so convincing real emperor penguins let it get close enough to collect data from chips under their skin, some even sang to it. this eary version casued chaos across a colony of king penguins. birds gaurding their eggs, pecking furiously at the intruder. but when it stops, notice everybody chills out, calming down faster and behaving more normally, scientists say, than when a human shows up. the chick cam was invented by the same filmmakers who pioneered using fake penguins to give us unprecedented access to the lives of these flightless

birds. this faker's most successful moment may have been this one, when fellow chicks huddled against the cold with their new found friend. no questions asked. clay son sandell, abc news, denver. >> we have to hire that chick cam. i hope to see you right back here ç?ç?ç?ç?ç?ç?ç?ç?ç?ç?ç?ç?ç?ç?ç?ç?

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