diff --git a/pkg/controller/node/nodecontroller.go b/pkg/controller/node/nodecontroller.go
index b7f4c15ddbd..a90ddf87987 100644
--- a/pkg/controller/node/nodecontroller.go
+++ b/pkg/controller/node/nodecontroller.go
@@ -57,6 +57,7 @@ type NodeController struct {
 	cloud                   cloudprovider.Interface
 	clusterCIDR             *net.IPNet
 	deletingPodsRateLimiter util.RateLimiter
+	knownNodeSet            util.StringSet
 	kubeClient              client.Interface
 	// Method for easy mocking in unittest.
 	lookupIP func(host string) ([]net.IP, error)
@@ -118,6 +119,7 @@ func NewNodeController(
 	}
 	return &NodeController{
 		cloud:                  cloud,
+		knownNodeSet:           make(util.StringSet),
 		kubeClient:             kubeClient,
 		recorder:               recorder,
 		podEvictionTimeout:     podEvictionTimeout,
@@ -147,6 +149,12 @@ func (nc *NodeController) Run(period time.Duration) {
 	}, nodeEvictionPeriod)
 }
 
+// We observed a Node deletion in etcd. Currently we only need to remove Pods that
+// were assigned to it.
+func (nc *NodeController) deleteNode(nodeID string) error {
+	return nc.deletePods(nodeID)
+}
+
 // deletePods will delete all pods from master running on given node.
 func (nc *NodeController) deletePods(nodeID string) error {
 	glog.V(2).Infof("Delete all pods from %v", nodeID)
@@ -203,6 +211,29 @@ func (nc *NodeController) getCondition(status *api.NodeStatus, conditionType api
 // not reachable for a long period of time.
 func (nc *NodeController) monitorNodeStatus() error {
 	nodes, err := nc.kubeClient.Nodes().List(labels.Everything(), fields.Everything())
+	for _, node := range nodes.Items {
+		if !nc.knownNodeSet.Has(node.Name) {
+			glog.V(1).Infof("NodeController observed a new Node: %#v", node)
+			nc.recordNodeEvent(node.Name, fmt.Sprintf("Registered Node %v in NodeController", node.Name))
+			nc.knownNodeSet.Insert(node.Name)
+		}
+	}
+	// If there's a difference between lengths of known Nodes and observed nodes
+	// we must have removed some Node.
+	if len(nc.knownNodeSet) != len(nodes.Items) {
+		observedSet := make(util.StringSet)
+		for _, node := range nodes.Items {
+			observedSet.Insert(node.Name)
+		}
+		deleted := nc.knownNodeSet.Difference(observedSet)
+		for node := range deleted {
+			glog.V(1).Infof("NodeController observed a Node deletion: %v", node)
+			nc.recordNodeEvent(node, fmt.Sprintf("Removing Node %v from NodeController", node))
+			nc.deleteNode(node)
+			nc.knownNodeSet.Delete(node)
+		}
+	}
+
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
diff --git a/pkg/controller/node/nodecontroller_test.go b/pkg/controller/node/nodecontroller_test.go
index 4648a3529e2..d10b96b49a0 100644
--- a/pkg/controller/node/nodecontroller_test.go
+++ b/pkg/controller/node/nodecontroller_test.go
@@ -554,6 +554,83 @@ func TestMonitorNodeStatusUpdateStatus(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
+func TestNodeDeletion(t *testing.T) {
+	fakeNow := util.Date(2015, 1, 1, 12, 0, 0, 0, time.UTC)
+	fakeNodeHandler := &FakeNodeHandler{
+		Existing: []*api.Node{
+			{
+				ObjectMeta: api.ObjectMeta{
+					Name:              "node0",
+					CreationTimestamp: util.Date(2012, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, time.UTC),
+				},
+				Status: api.NodeStatus{
+					Conditions: []api.NodeCondition{
+						{
+							Type:   api.NodeReady,
+							Status: api.ConditionTrue,
+							// Node status has just been updated.
+							LastHeartbeatTime:  fakeNow,
+							LastTransitionTime: fakeNow,
+						},
+					},
+					Capacity: api.ResourceList{
+						api.ResourceName(api.ResourceCPU):    resource.MustParse("10"),
+						api.ResourceName(api.ResourceMemory): resource.MustParse("10G"),
+					},
+				},
+				Spec: api.NodeSpec{
+					ExternalID: "node0",
+				},
+			},
+			{
+				ObjectMeta: api.ObjectMeta{
+					Name:              "node1",
+					CreationTimestamp: util.Date(2012, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, time.UTC),
+				},
+				Status: api.NodeStatus{
+					Conditions: []api.NodeCondition{
+						{
+							Type:   api.NodeReady,
+							Status: api.ConditionTrue,
+							// Node status has just been updated.
+							LastHeartbeatTime:  fakeNow,
+							LastTransitionTime: fakeNow,
+						},
+					},
+					Capacity: api.ResourceList{
+						api.ResourceName(api.ResourceCPU):    resource.MustParse("10"),
+						api.ResourceName(api.ResourceMemory): resource.MustParse("10G"),
+					},
+				},
+				Spec: api.NodeSpec{
+					ExternalID: "node0",
+				},
+			},
+		},
+		Fake: testclient.NewSimpleFake(&api.PodList{Items: []api.Pod{*newPod("pod0", "node0"), *newPod("pod1", "node1")}}),
+	}
+
+	nodeController := NewNodeController(nil, fakeNodeHandler, 5*time.Minute, NewPodEvictor(util.NewFakeRateLimiter()),
+		testNodeMonitorGracePeriod, testNodeStartupGracePeriod, testNodeMonitorPeriod, nil, false)
+	nodeController.now = func() util.Time { return fakeNow }
+	if err := nodeController.monitorNodeStatus(); err != nil {
+		t.Errorf("unexpected error: %v", err)
+	}
+	fakeNodeHandler.Delete("node1")
+	if err := nodeController.monitorNodeStatus(); err != nil {
+		t.Errorf("unexpected error: %v", err)
+	}
+	podEvicted := false
+	for _, action := range fakeNodeHandler.Actions() {
+		if action.GetVerb() == "delete" && action.GetResource() == "pods" {
+			podEvicted = true
+		}
+	}
+	if !podEvicted {
+		t.Error("expected pods to be evicted from the deleted node")
+	}
+}
+
 func newNode(name string) *api.Node {
 	return &api.Node{
 		ObjectMeta: api.ObjectMeta{Name: name},