to know. more than 30 dead in buffalo. anger and frustration and now questions mounting about the response. were residents adequately warned about this monster storm? the national guard going door-to-door and more than 400 pieces of snow equipment on the ground to reopen streets. calls for prayer around the world for the former pontiff. pope francis saying his predecessor s health has taken a turn for the worse. one nation overdosed. the break glass tool that high schools are turning to do stop fentanyl overdoses in their hallways. and the incredible come back. a varsity athlete attacked by a shark. how she recovered to swim her way to a state title. announcer: this is nbc nightly news with lester holt. and good evening. i m tom llamas in for lester on a very busy night. we are tracking two developing stories right now. one of the worst airline meltdowns in recent memory and for southwest it is far from over. the airline canceling more than 2,500 or 62% of it
in the scores of unclaimed suitcases from dallas and st. louis to chicago and baltimore. a viewer fetched his luggage after spotting it from a nbc report. i was in d.c. so i drove up, found my bag. reporter: transportation secretary pete buttigieg telling tom this week the continued mayhem is southwest s direct ponceability. they will told me in their words that they will go above and beyond their written customer service plan. i will hold them accountable for doing that. financial? yes. i am truly sorry. reporter: southwest s ceo apologizing to the airlines employees and customers today rolling out a new website for travelers to submit requests for any refunds. compensation experts say it could cost the airline hundreds of millions of dollars. for some passengers it may be too little, too late. we need to be compensated big than just our flights. it makes me second-guess flying southwest or ever checking a bag again.
lucky to be alive. holy [ bleep ]. all right, time to get out of here. reporter: no word yet on what caused this crash, and so far, the air force is the only branch of service ordering its troops to take a day off for this safety review. david? steve osunsami on this story again for us. thank you, steve. and now, the primary showdown in four states tonight. and the early indicators coming in right now, we ve got breaking news. indiana, ohio, west virginia and north carolina and it comes ahead of november s crucial midterms. it was last night here we reported on one west virginia senate candidate, don blankenship, a former coal mining executive. you ll remember that deadly disaster in his coal mine. he now says it was caused by the federal government. tonight, abc s chief national affairs correspondent tom llamas, right there on the ground, and one voter telling tom that he lost family members in that mine, still voting for blankenship. reporter: tonight, the polls just closed