about to dip under 2 a gallon. nightly news begins now. announcer: from nbc news world headquarters in new york, this is nbc nightly news with brian williams. good evening. when the power went out in our 18th largest city today, the city we used to call the engine om democracy, a lot of people, especially those paying attention to the news of late, suspected the worse, perhaps even an outside entity. then the investigation zeroed in. the question became not so much who turned out the lights in detroit today but what. tonight the probable cause speaks to the aging pipes and wires and girders in so many american cities. it s where we begin tonight with nbc s john yang in detroit. reporter: a massive power outage in downtown detroit today. no power on this end of downtown. reporter: it started at about 10:30 this morning. a major cable failure at the masturski power generation plant. courthouses, fire stations and schools all went dark. hospitals forced to rely on
nightly news begins now. announcer: from nbc news world headquarters in new york, this is nbc nightly news with brian williams. good evening. when the power went out across a big section of the nation s 18th largest city today, the city we used to call the arsenal of democracy, a lot of people, especially those paying attention to the news of late, suspected the worst, perhaps even an outside entity. then the investigation zeroed in. the question became not so much who turned out the lights in detroit today but what. tonight the probable cause speaks to the aging pipes and wires and girders in so many american cities. it s where we begin tonight with nbc s john yang in detroit. reporter: a massive power outage in downtown detroit today. no power on this end of downtown. reporter: it started at about 10:30 this morning. a major cable failure at the masturski power generation plant triggered a blackout to the municipal power grid. courthouses, fire stations and sc
announcer: from nbc news world headquarters in new york, this is nbc nightly news with brian williams. special good evening to our viewers out west tonight. that s where we begin our broadcast, in fact, with a situation of immediate concern. you can see it here on the radar loop, huge and powerful storm unleashing record amounts of rain, bringing with it major flooding and land slides. california, a state that is parched with drought, badly needs rain. as they say, not like this. we ll get our report tonight from nbc s jacob rascon in glendora. reporter: northern california was hit first and hit hard. the storm toppling trees and power lines, causing accidents and four-hour flight delays at sfo. we did miss the first one but got on the second. reporter: in southern california the storm is really coming. it s coming. it s coming. reporter: this is more than just a storm. the house could go. damage, severe, lives are at stake here, yeah, it s a big deal.
Aaron Cooper, 26, faces manslaughter charges after allegedly crashing into a utility pole and tree at 109mph in a drunken joy ride in Valley Stream that killed passenger Pablo Rivera.