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Hurricane Bands Lashing Carolina Coast; Maryland Bracing for Impact; Hurricane Hammering Carolinas; Sandy Impacting Race; Des Moines Register Endorses Romney; NYT Endorses President Obama; Hurricane Sandy Charges North; New Jersey, New York Brace for Sandy; President Obama Gets FEMA Briefing; Battling for Ohio Votes

Aired October 28, 2012 - 14:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. THE NEXT LIST will return Sunday, November 11, after Election Day weekend at 2:00 pm Eastern Time.

But right now, we want to bring you the very latest coverage of Hurricane Sandy. Tens of millions of people along the East Coast, from North Carolina to Maine are preparing for a monster of a storm that could have a devastating impact on the entire region. The outer bands of Hurricane Sandy right now pounding the Carolinas. The storm is about 250 miles southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, carrying 75 mile-an-hour winds. Sandy is moving north and is expected to turn toward the East Coast tomorrow and collide with a cold front, producing a possibly very dangerous mega-storm.

Storm surges could trigger massive flooding, and power could be knocked out to millions of people, from North Carolina all the way up to New England. We have reporters all over the region covering this major storm as it bears down on the eastern se seaboard. We'll hear from all of them straight ahead.

But first let's now look at the weather picture and take -- get an idea of the track of this storm. Let's check in with Sara Dillingham here in the Severe Weather Center. We know it's not far off from the North Carolina coast. Is it moving relatively fast?

SARAH DILLINGHAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, well, Fredricka, we got the latest advisory from the National Hurricane Center. Sandy is still a hurricane in the 2 p.m. advisory. Take a look at this, winds at 75 miles per hour.

If you asked about the forward movement of the storm, we're still holding out at about 14 miles per hour because that ridge of high pressure that is centered out here in the Atlantic is really starting to going to push Sandy up.

And also this low pressure area is going to start to draw Sandy in over the next 24 hours. So we could see the forward motion of Sandy's feet up a little bit as we go through today and into tomorrow right before it slams into the north eastern coast.

So taking a look at the latest track of Sandy, we still have it as a Category 1 hurricane, even through Monday morning at around 8 a.m. winds at 80 miles per hour.

This is still expecting to slam into the north eastern coastline anywhere from Washington, D.C. all the way to New York City. We're in that cone of uncertainty and winds holding possibly at 70 miles an hour.

Now at some point before Sandy makes landfall, we're still expecting that what we call extra tropical transition to take place in which Sandy is no longer strictly a tropical storm, but we are going to actually see Sandy become a hybrid storm as we are going to call it this hybrid storm.

As we take a look over the next 24 to 48 hours, these are the kinds of storm surges that we are going to see with Sandy, as we get all of that wind onshore bringing all those waters back into the coastline, three to six feet here.

As we go to coastal Massachusetts, four to eight feet possible from Atlantic City to New York. But these are going to be life-threatening storm surges possible. We take a look down further on the coast, even further south, even north to Ocean City. You can see two to four-foot storm surges over the next 48 to 72 hours, even four to six along the outer banks of the Carolinas.

Take a look at the wind threat. We could see wind gust of 80 miles per hour, Fredricka, that is definitely a Category 1 hurricane force winds, so power outages are going to be a huge issue with this as we go through the next couple of days.

Even gusts as high as 60 miles an hour as far north as Boston. So, Fredricka, this is a huge storm system that is really going to start impacting a lot of people. Power outages are going to be possibly in the tens of millions for some folks.

You really need to stay close to those local affiliates and just make sure that you're preparing for this storm because the time to prepare is certainly now.

WHITFIELD: Yes, and it's very significant because your map shows it right there, you're underscoring it with your message that it's not just along the coast, but we're talking about a storm colliding with that cold front that can certainly cause some problems further inland.

So, you know, people have to brace whether they're right there on the coast or whether they're even a few tens or hundreds of miles inland.

DILLINGHAM: That's right, Fredricka. You know, not only is the wind going to be a big issue, but also we're going to talk about heavy rainfall. We could see rainfall totals into the 6-inch ranges and we're talking snow on the back side of this system.

For portions of the Appalachians, you could see record-breaking snow somewhere from 6 to 10 inches. Some of the earlier model forecasts were showing impossibly higher amounts.

So this is a very broad storm that will affect a lot of people over the next several days, so you really need to pay attention to this one.

WHITFIELD: Sarah Dillingham, thanks so much. Appreciate that. We'll check back with you momentarily.

So let's zero in on the area that Sarah was talking about, that DelMarva Peninsula, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, that area. All of that could take a direct hit from Hurricane Sandy right now a Category 1.

Parts of Ocean City, Maryland, in fact, already under a mandatory evacuation order. Our Sandra Endo is live in that area, which is usually a hot vacation spot toward the summer and Labor Day. And now we see the wind is picking up. Sandra, give us an idea what's happening there.

SANDRA ENDO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Fredricka, they're certainly bracing for Hurricane Sandy. The waves are pretty rough out here already and this is actually low tide, but in about five hours, it will be high tide.

And people will be feeling more the effect of Hurricane Sandy as it approaches this area, and that's why local officials are very concerned. They're concerned about the combination between this storm and high tide.

That's going to create a huge storm surge and that's why they've asked all residents in the downtown area to evacuate and all non-residents to get out of town as well. There is also a voluntary evacuation order for low-lying areas.

We've seen people all day long boarding up, people in businesses gearing up for this storm, and state troopers have been going around knocking on doors, asking residents to leave or be prepared for this storm. Listen to what the mayor had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR RICHARD MEEHAN, OCEAN CITY, MARYLAND: I think the storm is only going to intensify as you get past 6:00 p.m. tonight to 8:00 p.m. this evening with the next high tide cycle. You're going to see people disappear.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ENDO: And Fredricka, what's really unique about this storm, the mayor is concerned about the duration of it. Hurricane Sandy could hover and affect this area for 36 hours. That means several high tide cycles and that's the real concern. Again, flooding and a storm surge. Again, the waves are very rough right now. It's only going to get worse -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, Sandra Endo, thanks so much. Appreciate that there in Ocean City, Maryland.

By the way, just as Maryland started early voting yesterday, already today it has been suspended because of this impending storm. And then further inland from where Sandra is in Washington, D.C., already the mayor there indicating that schools will be closed as a result of this impending storm.

All right, let's move further south now to North Carolina and just a couple hundred miles off the coast there is Sandy. We find our George Howell there in Kill Devil Hills.

So George, clearly you're getting the rain, you're getting pelted with lots of wind. What else is happening?

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka, it's fair to say Sandy is living up to her name. This storm bringing in the sand from the side here, a lot of strong winds, a lot of rain coming in associated with this storm.

You see what's happening here in the Atlantic. You see the choppy surf. This is a good example of what's to come for these major me metropolitan areas, for New York City, Philadelphia, for Washington, D.C.

Again, in this area alone, Fredricka, we're talking about a storm surge anywhere from 4 to 6 feet, and on the sound side of things, the other side, there is a real worry about flooding, flooding anywhere from 3 to 5 feet. So everyone is keeping a very close eye on the system as it moves past.

WHITFIELD: All right, George Howell, thanks so much in Kill Devil Hills. Appreciate that.

And of course, as the storm continues to move north, George, was talking about places like New York and Pennsylvania that are also going to be impacted.

Later on we hope to hear from the mayor of New York City who has already indicated that the subway system, that service is being suspended later on today. We'll bring you a complete update on how this storm is impacting so many cities along the eastern seaboard.

All right, meantime, Hurricane Sandy also affecting the race to the White House. I mentioned in Maryland already a suspension of early voting, and it's also meant that the two running for the White House, Romney and Obama, they're adjusting their schedules as well. We'll bring you up to date after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Some have anticipated that October surprise in the race for the White House. It turns out it could just be Hurricane Sandy. The storm has both presidential candidates cancelling events.

President Obama's final Monday campaign event in Virginia and his first Tuesday event in Colorado now canceled. The president will instead return to the White House to monitor the storm.

As for Romney, he canceled his events in Virginia today and said he would instead join his running mate on a bus tour of Ohio. So Mitt Romney has added an important endorsement in Iowa.

The "Des Moines Register" has chosen Romney because, they say, it's all about the economy. It marks the first time in 40 years that the newspaper has backed a Republican in the presidential general election.

Meanwhile, President Obama has added the "New York Times" to his, yes, endorsement column. The editorial page listed Obama's achievements, like saving the auto industry and health care reform is reasons for that endorsement. The "Times" also endorsed Obama back in 2008 and has not backed a Republican since Dwight Eisenhower.

All right, so let's get back to our coverage now finding out exactly where it is. We know that it is kind of hugging the North Carolina coast right now.

It is making its way so far at about 85 miles an hour. We have our Chad Myers who is here with us to give us a better view as to the track of this storm, the Delmarva area and parts of New England are bracing.

They are already putting preparations under way even making some cancellations as well. This is going to be a monster of a storm.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You know, Transit Authority very concerned that power lines, trees could fall on the tracks. They don't want trains running on tracks where there maybe tree branches or real trees.

So that's why they've shutdown or will shutdown the transportation a little bit earlier than maybe people want or expect. You just need to know that you need to get to where you're going too soon because -- otherwise you may have a really long cab ride.

This is a serious storm. Even though people have been yelling at me on Twitter, it's only a Category 1, settle down, no, it's not just a Category 1. There's not only a Category 1 storm out there, there's also a mid-latitude snowstorm that's going to combine with this.

We'll get one plus one equals three. Not one plus one equals Category 3, but a Category 1 here, a storm in here that's going to pick it up and multiply it in ways we haven't seen before. We've never seen a low pressure system come on shore in this area at this time combining with a low pressure that's come in from the west.

We know about one, called the perfect storm. It was a movie. But that storm never made landfall. All of that damage in all of that story all happened for a storm that stayed offshore. This storm is not going to stay offshore, it's going to come onshore.

And it's literally going to almost stop for 48 hours, only going from here to here in two days, and spinning around one band of rain, or snow for that matter, after another for hours and hours and hours.

And here's the deal. If we push a storm, Category 1 anywhere between here and here, that's basically where the cone is right now, you're going to push a tremendous amount of water into New York harbor. This is the thing that we're worried about with Irene that didn't happen.

What if 11 feet of water pushes up into the east river and up into the sound and the Hudson River? What gets flooded? That's why people are being evacuated right now. That's why it's such a serious storm because we've not seen anything like this before.

Ocean City up the Chesapeake 1 to 2, 2 to 3, maybe 4 feet, that's it for you. Now for many people that's still significant. If you have a boat tied up in the harbor and the water goes up four feet and you don't have lines long enough, you're going to do a lot of damage to the boat or the dock itself.

And then to the loss of life -- the problem with is, is that if we get 12 to 20 inches of rainfall in any one spot, there will be flash flooding. The winds are going to be cold. This won't be a hurricane where it's 70 degrees outside.

This may be more like 45 with hurricane force winds outside. You get wet. You let it rain on you. You're outside at 45 degrees and the winds blowing 50, you're going to get hypothermia in a really quick time.

This is a cold core winter type storm that's getting energized with the energy of a Category 1 hurricane. That's the multiplication problem. That's where we are with this and it comes in late tomorrow night into Tuesday.

WHITFIELD: Chad, I know the primary concern is what Hurricane Sandy would bring, but let's talk about that cold front just west of the system that you're talking about. And there were some indications there might be snow that would come with that cold front. Is that still a concern?

MYERS: Feet of snow, feet of devastating snow. There may be snow even into Ohio and Pennsylvania even though the forecast doesn't really show this, parts of the Alleghenies, all the way down, this is West Virginia getting covered up by snow.

There could be spots, and I'm not kidding you, there could be spots of 60 inches of snow, five or six feet of snow. You have all that moisture from the hurricane and then you have air cold enough to make the snow and then it spins for 48 hours. An inch of snow for 48 hours, multiply it out, that's already four feet without even trying.

WHITFIELD: My goodness, OK, already very clear how it's impacting early voting in many of the places you just mentioned. It's going to be interesting to see with all the potential power outages how long that would last if it, indeed, does end up encroaching on November 6, Election Day.

We're going to talk about that a little bit later on. Chad Myers, thanks so much. Off to New Jersey right now where the governor, Chris Christie, spoke a short time ago about Hurricane Sandy.

He said his state is indeed bracing indeed for the worst. Alison Kosik is in Sea Bright, New Jersey. What's happening there in Sea Bright. It's definitely very windy. You don't have the rain yet, but what are they bracing for? What are they expecting?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Actually, it did start to rain a little bit ago and we definitely do have the winds. The winds are picking up. Check out the ocean, the Atlantic Ocean. It's really fierce.

The winds picked up steam there, but believe it or not, this is still low tide. High tide is coming in a few hours at 9:00 p.m. We talked with the sheriff. He expects the water to move up much more forward. You see how the beach erosion is happening here.

Much of the beach is gone here. He expects that to move even forward. The town is not far away to my left. They've been boarding up their storefronts. They've been putting sandbags out.

Their biggest concern is just behind those buildings that you see is the Strusberry River at high tide early this morning even came forward three to four feet. So the big worry is, you can see the whole town over there flood over even at high tide tonight -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: OK, now what about evacuations, mandatory, you know, or otherwise, voluntary. What's the word there on that?

KOSIK: Right, so for New Jersey, mandatory evacuation is in order for many of the barrier islands, including Sea Bright where I am right now. Also, trains are going to be shut down this evening, New Jersey Transit.

Then when you move over to New York where you're seeing mandatory evacuations for low-lying areas, 375,000 people are expected to be evacuated. They are providing 72 shelters there for people who are evacuated.

New York City public schools are closed for tomorrow, and New York City subway system and buses and commuter rails, all of those are shutting down as well this evening until further notice.

And some may think that it's a bit of a pain that that's happening, but the governor of New York did say that it is certainly needed and necessary. Listen to some of what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOVERNOR ANDREW CUOMO (D), NEW YORK: The suspension of the service is for three main reasons. Number one, it is unsafe to operate the trains in high winds. Second, we don't want the equipment damaged. And trains are designed to deal with a lot of tough duty. They are not intended to be submerged.

And we don't want to damage the equipment and then have a real problem getting the system up and running. And thirdly, we don't want to encourage people being up and about. We want people staying in their homes, be prepared and stay at home.

(END VIDEO CLIP) KOSIK: And back out here live at Sea Bright, New Jersey, you see how the waves are really picking up strength here. On my way over to Sea Bright from Manhattan, Fredricka, we ran into lots of long lines at gas stations. Supplies are really dwindling at stores, everybody really hunkering down and getting ready for Hurricane Sandy.

WHITFIELD: All right, thank you so much. Appreciate that. Alison Kosik there in Sea Bright, New Jersey. So all along the eastern seaboard from North Carolina all the way up to Maine, people are bracing for Hurricane Sandy, putting preparations in place. Just as you see right there, we're going to update you on the other states and localities and what they're doing to prepare.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Welcome back to our continuing coverage of Hurricane Sandy now, at least beginning this evening, commutes all along the eastern seaboard will be either crippled or stopped altogether, and that's involving local transit all the way to Amtrak.

Our Josh Levs has more on how all this transit, railroad, all the roads will be impacted over the next few hours.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's incredible. Fred, look, we're obviously looking ahead to this storm, but already right now millions of people are being affected today.

Let me tell you all where I am. I'm in the middle of the CNN newsroom, which is now the CNN Hurricane Desk. If you look at this team that's surrounding me, these are the people who are focusing on every single state and even within those states, every city, every region that could be impacted, likely will be impacted in the coming days.

I know we have some photos for you here of things flying off the shelves. Let me talk to you a little bit about what's going on around the country right now.

First of all, you do know a lot of people are clearing out grocery stores, but that's only the beginning when it comes to the numbers of people being impacted.

Listen to this, just in New York alone, on a typical day, 4.3 million people ride the subway system and the public transportation system in general for that area per day, 8.5 million riders on a typical day there.

That's just the beginning. Amtrak has already canceled some of its trains in the region. They're not giving us specific numbers, but we do know this much, Amtrak's north east corridor generally has more than three quarters of a million riders every day.

So just in terms of transportation, we're seeing a major impact. Let's do this. I want to show you some of the pictures we have up for you on cnn.com and where you can see all the latest information as it comes in through our just in blog. Take a look right here. First of all, this is a picture of Sandy from the sky, which obviously is getting a lot of talk. Take a look here. Let's see if we can zoom in on this. I'm amazed by this picture.

It's from Rockaway Beach in Queens, New York. You can already see some of these really powerful surges. Take a look here. This one is out of Atlantic City. I want to bring you to a couple more, Cold Springs, New Jersey.

A lot of people all over the country boarding up windows today, doing what it takes to prepare for the storm. I want everyone to remember what we've already seen from the storm. So, Fred, this picture here is from Santa Domingo, the Dominican Republic.

As we know, Sandy was already a deadly storm as it came cruising through the Caribbean. I want to show you one more here that might have escaped your notice. Take a look at this fire here. This is Jamaica. All of these pictures on cnn.com.

That fire is believed to have begun when there was a faulty generator in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. That's just a little bit of what we're getting. Fred, throughout the evening, I'm going to be having lots of details for you as they come in from right here at the CNN Hurricane Desk and we'll let you know news as they break.

WHITFIELD: Yes, and you mentioned parts of the Caribbean hit. This was a very deadly storm in Haiti. At least 65 people is the death toll there in Haiti. So this is a monster of a storm.

Clearly, the greatest concern here in the states is going to be kind of the surge. We're talking about upwards of 11-foot surges, the kind of flooding it could bring, and lots of rain, too, and power outages.

LEVS: The National Hurricane Center is saying if you take a look at the area that could have flooding, it's where millions of people live. That's the potential monstrosity of this storm.

It covers an area in which millions of Americans live. There could be various types of flooding including just as you were saying up to 11 feet there of storm surge flooding in some areas -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, Josh Levs, thank you so much. Keep us posted. Of course, right now, Sandy is kind of hugging the coast of North Carolina. We're going to take you to North Carolina momentarily as well as Ocean City, Maryland where they're bracing for the worst.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Welcome back to our continuing coverage of Hurricane Sandy. President Barack Obama suspending his campaigning, now back to the primary duties of his job as the country's leader. Just moments ago he was at FEMA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. talking about the hurricane. Let's listen in.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Good afternoon, everybody. Obviously all of us across the country are concerned about the potential impact of Hurricane Sandy. This is a serious and big storm.

And my first message is to all people across the eastern seaboard, mid-Atlantic going north. You need to take this very seriously. Follow the instructions of your state and local officials because they are going to be providing you with the best advice in terms of how to deal with this storm over the coming days.

We just had an excellent meeting with the FEMA team here, the various agencies that are in charge, including the Department of Defense, Department of Energy and others that are going to need to respond very quickly.

Under Craig Fugate's leadership here at FEMA, we've had a chance to talk to the regional officials as well, and I just had a phone call with the governors of potentially impacted states as well as some of the major cities in the region.

At this stage, everybody is confident that the staging process, the pre-positioning of resources, commodities, equipment that are going to be needed to respond to the storm are in place. But as Craig has emphasized, this hasn't hit landfall yet, so we don't yet know where it's going to hit, where we're going to see the biggest impacts.

And that's exactly why it's so important for us to respond big and respond fast as local information starts coming in. I want to thank all the members of the team for the outstanding work that they're doing, but the other thing that makes this storm unique is we anticipate it will be slow moving.

That means that it may take a long time not only to clear but also to get, for example, the power companies back in to clear trees and put things back in place so that folks can start moving back home.

So my main message to everybody involved is that we have to take this seriously. The federal government is working effectively with the state and local governments. It's going to be very important that populations in all the impacted states take this seriously, listen to your state and local elected officials.

My message to the governors as well as to the mayors is anything they need, we will be there. And we're going to cut through red tape. We're not going to get bogged down with a lot of rules.

We want to make sure we're anticipating and leaning forward into making sure we got the best possible response to what is going to be a big and nasty system. So again, thank you, everybody. Craig, would you like to add something?

CRAIG FUGATE, FEMA: Again, as the president says, it's really going to come down to the public heeding those evacuation orders, taking protective measures. If you haven't gotten ready, go to ready.gov. Get information how to protect them and their families, but also check on your neighbors. This is a big storm and we need to be there for each other.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Let me emphasize that again, ready.gov for the general public, if you need to know how to respond, that's where you can get centralized information. I think Craig's point is exactly right.

In times like this, one of the things Americans do is we pull together and we help out one another. So there may be elderly populations in your area. Check on your neighbor, check on your friend, and make sure they are prepared.

If we do that, we'll get through the storm just fine, but we have to make sure that we are vigilant and vigilant for a couple of days. Don't anticipate that just because the immediate storm has passed that we're not going to have some potential problems in a lot of these communities going forward through the week. All right, thank you very much, everybody.

WHITFIELD: Again, President Obama there at FEMA Headquarters warning that this storm, Hurricane Sandy, is one that will be, quote, "slow moving," and you also heard from FEMA's head, Craig Fugate there, who says the key to all of this is people heeding the evacuation orders they get from their various localities.

So tens of millions of people along the east coast preparing for this monster of a storm that is expected to create extremely dangerous conditions from North Carolina all the way up to New England. The outer bands of Hurricane Sandy already pounding the Carolinas right now.

The storm is about 250 miles southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina carrying 75-mile-an-hour winds. Sandy is expected to move north and turn toward the east coast tomorrow and collide with a cold front producing a dangerous mega storm.

You heard from our Chad Myers earlier to the west of the storm with that cold front could also mean several feet of snow that might be dumped in West Virginia and Ohio.

And the big threat from this storm that it may knock out power, if not for hours, possibly days, maybe even up to a week in some locations.

And this storm could dump up to several inches of rain, and in the Appalachian area, it could be as much as a foot of snow as well as the other areas that I mentioned that have that cold front kind of hovering.

So we have reporters all over the region covering this major storm as it bears down on the eastern seaboard. We'll hear from all of them straight ahead.

But first let's go to North Carolina. Our George Howell is in Kill Devil Hills where they've been feeling the effects of this storm for some time now.

And it is a slow mover, apparently, as we've been seeing, as we heard from the president there. You're still being pounded by a lot of wind and rain. HOWELL: Fredricka, you know, I want to talk about what we just heard from the officials and the president saying that this is going to be a big storm. Now keep in mind, the center of the storm hundreds of miles away from where we are now, but we're still within that wind field.

On the edge of that wind field where we are here on the outer banks, we're feeling these wind gusts up to 40 miles an hour. Think of what it's like closer to the center of that storm, and then think about that storm moving up and making that hook in the major metropolitan areas.

What we're seeing right now here on the outer banks, what we're seeing around North Carolina in these counties that have declared states of emergency, this is a taste of what's to come as this storm, again, a big storm, reaches into those metro areas and merges with that cold front.

It will be a nasty situation. Sandy living up to its name kicking around a lot of sand, and take a look at what's happening back there. When you look at the ocean, it's choppy, rough waters.

There was a beach out there. We lost that beach yesterday. Fredricka, the beach is not there now. The storm surge here expected to get to 4 to 6 feet on this side of the outer banks, and on the south side, you can see flooding anywhere from 3 to 5 feet.

WHITFIELD: All right, George Howell, thanks so much. Appreciate that from Kill Devil Hills. Let's move further north up to Maryland already under a state of emergency ahead of Sandy's arrival. Let's go to Ocean City, Maryland. That's where we find our Sandra Endo there braving the heavy wind already.

ENDO: Yes, similar to what George just said, Fredricka, we've been feeling a steady wind, about 25 miles an hour here in Ocean City. We just came off high tide. Check out the waves here, a very rough surf.

Luckily, if anything, Ocean City is not experiencing their peak touring season right now, so that may be the only silver ling of this whole storm, but they're certainly bracing for the worst.

The mayor here ordering a mandatory evacuation downtown Ocean City as well as voluntary evacuation for low-lying areas. Also, non-residents are also being forced away from Ocean City right now as they're preparing for this storm.

And we watched a lot of local residents board up their businesses, board up their homes because the threat of this storm is the high tide, which is about to hit in about five hours.

The effects of this storm, again, a lingering, long duration of rain and wind, plus the high tide cycles. That's a combination for disaster -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, thanks so much, Sandra Endo. Hold on to that hat, the wind kicking up in Ocean City, Maryland. OK, well, this storm is very serious. So much so, of course, the presidential candidates are suspending their travel plans. Both were planning to be in Virginia, and Romney was planning to be in New Hampshire. All of those plans have now changed as a result of the path of Hurricane Sandy. We'll bring you an update on the campaign trail after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: We will get back to our continuing coverage of Hurricane Sandy in a moment.

Meantime on the campaign trail, Mitt Romney will now be campaigning in the all-important state of Ohio. President Obama will be staying close to Washington as he continues to monitor the developments of this storm.

Let's talk about Ohio and why it is a particularly close race there. We asked likely voters who their choice was for president. Barack Obama has a 50 percent to 46 percent margin over Mitt Romney in this latest poll, which is why Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are stumping there today after modifying their plans.

They were going to be in Virginia, but because of the storm now they're in Ohio. As you see here, the two rally supporters just a short time ago in Salina, Ohio. They have both spent several days in the buckeye state and have more on their calendar.

Let's talk a little more about the direction of that state and the voting electorate. Stephen Koff is the Washington Bureau Chief for the "Cleveland Plain Dealer."

His paper's editorial board has endorsed President Obama and you have your own new polling out this morning showing a dead heat there. Obama and Romney both pulling 49 percent of support among likely voters.

This is in line with that tightening national race according to a number of major polls. So why is, or is it your view, that Ohio is kind of the microcosm of the country?

STEPHEN KOFF, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, "CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER": Ohio is, indeed, Fredricka. It always is. It's tied this time, but if you were to compare, let's say, Texas or Utah with New York and put them all in one state, you would have Ohio.

WHITFIELD: So the president has traveled to that state at least 24 times, Mitt Romney somewhere more than 40 times this year alone. Both of them clearly know it's a very important state. But at this juncture, as the two still will descend on Ohio with just a few days before Election Day, if everything goes according to plan, what do Ohioans need to hear from them?

KOFF: I think they need assurance from the president that things will get better. Things are bad, everyone knows that, but that they'll improve relatively quickly, that the worst is over, if he can convey that effectively.

Governor Romney needs to continue to persuade voters that Obama has had his four years. It's time for new leadership. They're both making that case and it's really about getting those voters who have made up their minds or who are really close to voting for one or the other out to the polls.

WHITFIELD: What about the undecided? We keep hearing about the undecided? Is there a significant populace there in Ohio?

KOFF: It's a tiny populace at this point. I mean, our poll found 1 percent of undecided. It's really minute.

WHITFIELD: One percent, wow. OK, if we break down the state, the northern portion of that state is traditionally one that would vote more Republican. It seems as though according to some of your polling and some of the articles that that is the portion of the state that is leaning toward Romney.

But that's also the portion of the state that's heavy on manufacturing of ships and cars, especially since Obama has been getting a lot of credit for helping to save the U.S. auto industry. That doesn't seem to make sense.

KOFF: Right. Well, actually, the northern part, especially the north eastern part is traditionally Democratic. The north western part has been Democratic, but if you move away from Toledo, it gets to be a little less.

So it's consistently, really, especially northeast Ohio, Cleveland area, Akron area, that's traditionally Democratic. It's really a matter of whether President Obama can keep up with those margins that he had in 2008 there.

WHITFIELD: The 800,000 Ohioans have already voted. Early voting is really kind of maybe changing the landscape of this election season. Is there any way of knowing to whose advantage this will be, Romney or Obama?

KOFF: Yes, there are two ways to tell. One is our poll. It seemed about one in five voters had said they voted early and they were definitely going for Obama in the early polling. As well, you can look at where the returns are coming in.

You can't tell who voted for whom, but you can look for instance our Democratic stronghold is seeing more ballots return than Republican strongholds, and it would seem that's the case. The Romney people are saying, so what, these are people coming out to the polls on Election Day, anyway.

They're voting early that's not the same as lining up other people who still need to be slightly persuaded a little bit more and get them to come out. So they say none of that matters.

WHITFIELD: All right, can I talk to you about weather real quick? You're there in Washington. You'll definitely be impacted by the weather with Hurricane Sandy.

For our fellow Ohioans, when we hear our Chad Myers talking about several potential feet of snow because of the cold front that will be hovering over Ohio, is there big concern that is going to impact Election Day?

KOFF: I think it's too soon to know about Election Day. It's certainly going to impact the next few days. They expect it to be rather cool, in the 40s, high in the 40s by Wednesday. I'm sure that will affect early voting, at least.

WHITFIELD: All right, Stephen Koff, thanks so much, of the "Cleveland Plain Dealer." Appreciate your time and insight.

KOFF: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right, Washington D.C., let's stick with that for a moment as it pertains to Hurricane Sandy. Guess what? Public schools there will be shut down ahead of the storm. We'll find out what else in the area might be impacted by Hurricane Sandy.

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WHITFIELD: If you have travel plans for the mid-Atlantic or northeast, you need to think again. Chad Myers will explain that Sandy is going to make a mess of anyone's commute, short or long.

MYERS: Short or long. Airlines are already saying, you know, give us a call if you can. If not, get online. We're going to waive those fees. We know you can't get there. We know the planes won't be there so plan accordingly.

You can go to your web site there to your local airport, your airline and find that out because we're getting it one minute after minute of airports being added.

Philadelphia Newark, La Guardia a little slow today, but literally that's nothing where we're going to be. These airports will come to a grinding halt. Here are JFK's planes, still 128 in the air to JFK.

So things are still moving. It hasn't stopped just yet, but when you see this, and you see wind gusts that are going to be 60, 65, 80 miles an hour, there will not be one airline that wants to fly a plane in that kind of weather.

They don't even want the planes on the ground waiting through the weather to clear. There might be nothing on that tarmac. There will be no planes at all on some of those gates with some of these airlines.

Keep in mind it will be difficult travel for airline travel, and driving travel may be very difficult through -- this is Virginia, West Virginia all the way down to Tennessee, four feet of snow likely in some of these passes.

Then you talk about some of the planes, trains and other things going up here, most of the metro in New York City, the transit will start shutting down at around 7:00. You need to get to where you want to go now. It's that simple.

WHITFIELD: It really is. All right, thanks so much. Chad Myers, appreciate that. He'll be joining us again momentarily.

Meantime, let's go to one of those mid-Atlantic states, Maryland, Annapolis, specifically. That's where we find our Athena Jones. So Athena, we already know that early voting has been suspended just one day after people were excited about voting early there on a Saturday for Maryland not today. What else is taking place?

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. It's been canceled for tomorrow. I can tell you that we're here in Annapolis. This is one of those places that really particularly prone to flooding because it's so low.

It just started raining here a few minutes ago and the wind is picking up, but this is one of many communities up and down the eastern seaboard that is preparing for Hurricane Sandy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JONES (voice-over): Annapolis resident, Kim Kimball, is hoping the sandbags she's collecting here will protect the museum where she works from rising waters.

KIM KIMBALL, ANNAPOLIS RESIDENT: That's the one most vulnerable, because it's closest to the water. When it comes up, it will flood the basement. It's just one of the problems with living in the city in front of water.

JONES: She's been through this drill several times. Her friend, Jack is a novice.

JACK PAULSEN, ANNAPOLIS RESIDENT: This is my first time doing the sandbags, so I'm sort of playing out, how does it go.

JONES: In Washington, authorities are handing out sandbags and store shelves are being emptied. This region knows about weather. Last summer, it knocked out trees and cut off power to some communities for more than a week.

Northern Virginia resident Ann Hargrove isn't taking any chances.

ANNE HARGROVE, ALEXANDRIA RESIDENT: There were no batteries to be had. I got four jugs of water from Wal-Mart, but I got paper towels, paper plates, paper cups, flashlights.

JONES: Richard Heilman who owns a hardware store in low-lying Alexandria, Virginia says the surge of customers began Thursday. They cleared out of many basic supplies.

RICHARD HEILMAN, HARDWARE STORE OWNER: Alexandria has had a couple of bad storms over the last several years, particularly two where they lost power for an extended period of time. So I think they are a little bit smarter this time.

JONES: Pepco, the power company serving Washington and parts of Maryland warns the damage could be significant.

DAVE VELAZQUEZ, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, POWER DELIVERY: I think everyone needs to recognize that a hurricane style event is going to be a multi-day event.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JONES: So you heard in the end talking about power. That's one of the concerns just right here by the docks. We've spoken with a few businesses here. One of the ice cream businesses, for instance, said if they lose power, that ice cream is only going to last a short time.

They could lose everything. And a coffee shop here told us that in the past, they've been able to bring coffee from another location to here if the flooding is not too bad so they can continue to get coffee and caffeine to the folks around here -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: OK, well, lots of businesses and those historic landmarks, protection being put into place. Quickly, how about where people live there in that low-lying Annapolis area?

JONES: Well, really, as you saw in the beginning, sandbags are what people are coming to get. They were handing out sandbags until this morning, so people have stocked up. That coffee shop I mentioned had a whole pile of them.

They were going to start putting them out later on as the rain really picks up. We did speak to some residents. It goes uphill pretty quickly around here, so if you're higher up, you'll be better off, of course, but the other folks will be hoping the sandbags will do the trick -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, fingers are crossed for all them. Thanks so much, Athena Jones there in Annapolis, Maryland. Appreciate that. We will continue our coverage of Hurricane Sandy right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Welcome back to our continuing coverage of Hurricane Sandy. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Tens of thousands of people on the east coast from North Carolina to Maine is on alert as a huge storm threatens to cause major destruction.

The outer bands of Hurricane Sandy are already pounding the Carolinas right now. The storm is about 250 miles east of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina carrying about 70-mile-an-hour wind.

Sandy is moving north and expected to turn toward the east coast tomorrow. We'll be right back.

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