Rushing air/waterfall sound, oil smell, car won't start now

We check fluids frequently, in fact my husband had checked oil yesterday and it was good, and water day before that, which he put some in.

I realized last night that since the alternator was replaced (by my husband, he also admitted to me that he lost a little black nipple off of something putting in the alternator, but he claims it was to keep dust off something?) The gauge showing temperature has not been moving off cold and am wondering if it somehow got messed up.

The radiator never showed hot last night, and when checked last night was cold. Now he has looked at radiator and it had almost no water in it. He filled it, and just found a large hole in a hose leading from the radiator, but not a hose that he has had to replace before (we replaced upper and lower radiator hoses about a year, and a year and 3 months ago). He is trying to figure out what it is, how to take it off, where it leads, etc. As we speak.

The car never acted like this though when previous problems with radiator hoses, radiator itself. Is there possible there was damage done by alternator? Is there possible there was additional damage done to engine from whatever has happened with hose? Do we need to look for something else?