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New Update on Sandy's Track; N.J. May Take Brunt of Storm; State of Emergency in Delaware; Hurricane Sandy Lashes East Coast; Nearly 12 Foot Surge Predicted; Sandy Halts Trains, Planes and Cars; Jersey Shore's Mandatory Evacuations; Dramatic Coast Guard Rescue; Hurricane Could Affect 60 Million; Hurricane Sandy Lashes East Coast

Aired October 29, 2012 - 14:00   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Good to see all of you. I'm Brooke Baldwin here on this Monday, an incredibly busy Monday for, I know, a lot of you.

You are watching CNN's special coverage of Hurricane Sandy. Keep in mind, eight days from the presidential election, one-fifth, one-fifth of the United States is bracing for this gargantuan storm hitting here, all up and down the East Coast. Take a look here as we have pictures all up and down the East Coast. We'll be looking with you.

First of all, obviously, you're looking at this. This is from space. This is Sandy there swirling. These are images, thanks to NASA, a little earlier in the day where you can see it is this gigantic storm. Been as big as between basically the swath between Memphis and Los Angeles if you were going to try to map that.

Want to move on, though, and tell you, if we have these live pictures here, Atlantic City. These are tape pictures. But you can see, look at the water here. Some cars moving. Atlantic City. We've been looking into Atlantic County, specifically. Something like five feet of water on some of these roads. And, folks, it will get worse. Right now we know of at least 116,000 homes without power. Those numbers will obviously change.

But I just want to hit home this point, that everything about Sandy is huge. You see this system. This is on your screen here. The wind field, this is something we'll talk to Chad about, the wind field roughly 900 miles wide. Sixty million people all the way from North Carolina to Maine could be affected by this hurricane.

About 61,000 National Guard troops have been deployed. The president making the point that a lot of the resources, as best as they can, have been prepositioned in anticipation of this storm. $87 billion worth of homes reportedly at risk.

And in Manhattan, the New York Stock Exchange, closed today. And we know it will be closed tomorrow. Also shut down, Amtrak, subways in New York, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and in Boston. And at the top of the hour here, we can tell you now that New York's Holland Tunnel and the Brooklyn Battery Bridge are shutting down, closing. No traffic there. Not only is Sandy big, Sandy is very slow. And that's part of the problem. It could stick around, possibly 48 hours, and keep people in the dark for as long as 10 days. The bottom line here, as you look at these pictures with me here, government leaders, they say this is not hype, folks. This is real. Sandy has already killed 67 people, and that's outside of the United States.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. MARTIN O'MALLEY (D), MARYLAND: There will undoubtedly be some deaths that are caused by the intensity of this storm, by the floods, by the tidal surge, and by the waves.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: One important note I want to bring you here. A live briefing. We'll be getting this live briefing from FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency. That should be happening in about half an hour. So we'll be watching for that.

Also, we heard from specifically the president just a little earlier today from the Briefing Room. Here's part of what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If the public's not following instructions, that makes it more dangerous for people, and it means that we could have fatalities that could have been avoided.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: That was the president earlier today. We have correspondents covering this hurricane up and down the northeast coast here, all the way from North Carolina upward.

But I want to go straight to Chad Myers.

Chad, just walk on in and let's talk whether -- as we've now gotten this update, this is breaking, the fact it's --

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: That's breaking news right there.

BALDWIN: It's moving faster.

MYERS: Twenty-eight miles an hour. It is now hauling the mail right toward the coast. Right toward the coast very close to either Cape May, Atlantic City, or maybe it just slides just south of Cape May, right where the ferry would run, and right into Wilmington, Delaware, with a huge surge there. Worried about Wilmington, worried about Philadelphia, even into Baltimore as this thing now moves a little bit faster from -- they're saying northwest.

BALDWIN: So walk me through this map.

MYERS: I'm seeing -- I'm seeing this a little bit west, northwest, not just -- not this way. More this way. BALDWIN: OK.

MYERS: Which puts Washington, Baltimore more in play than let's say Boston, because that's just not going to go there now. This cone is nowhere near the northeast coast, although there are still waves 24 feet high pounding parts of Maine. You said how big it is. That's the issue. There's not really -- we don't even care about the eye with this storm.

BALDWIN: What about, in terms of pressure alone, this could be the biggest storm, what, north of Cape Hatteras ever?

MYERS: Ever. This is now -- this is now bigger than the Long Island Express. North of that line right through there.

BALDWIN: That was in 1938.

MYERS: Now we are down to 940 millibars on the last update. That is the lowest pressure ever north of that line. And the pressure means there's a difference -- the difference between the low that's here and the high that's here will cause winds to howl. Buffalo, even into Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and all the way down even to Charlotte as it continues to spin.

It's not going to be a hurricane for very much longer. It is going to be this coastal low --

BALDWIN: OK.

MYERS: A nor'easter, that hits land.

BALDWIN: Don't go too far. We have so much to talk about.

MYERS: I won't go.

BALDWIN: The trajectory, wind, flooding, snow. So just join me here through the next two hours. Do me that favor.

MYERS: Sure.

BALDWIN: I want to move along, though, and tell you that the brunt of Sandy is supposed to hit, as Chad was mentioning here, supposed to hit somewhere from Delmarva, that where Delaware, Virginia, and Maryland meet, to the Jersey shore. And just a couple of hours ago, the governor of New Jersey, Governor Chris Christie, scolded those who ignored any kind of mandatory evacuation orders. Here he was.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE, NEW JERSEY: But there are some towns in Atlantic and Ocean Counties that are only 50 percent evacuated from reports that I've gotten. I read some joker in the newspaper this morning saying, you know, I've never run away -- in his fatigues saying he's never run away from one of these, he's not going to run away now. Well, you might wind up under it, not running away from it. This is not a time to be a show-off. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Chris Christie this afternoon.

I want to go straight to New Jersey to Maggie Lee. She's in Asbury Park for us, which is on this mandatory evacuation list.

I can see the rain, I can see that wind there, Maggie. Tell me exactly where you are and how bad it is from what you can tell.

MAGGIE LAKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Brooke, we are on the Boardwalk. Just the shadows of the historic convention center here in Asbury Park. And this is -- if we can swing around, Tom (ph), exactly what Governor Christie is concerned about. We have a family out here who came to the boardwalk to check it out despite the fact that there are police riding up and down, trying to tell people to get to safety. The conditions are definitely worsening from this afternoon. That is not a good position to have your family in right there.

We've got horizontal rain, hail coming. The only thing I will say is that in terms of tide, we had a high tide this morning, most of the beach covered. If we could swing around out here, we are starting to see that come back up. You can just see a little bit of the beach.

Earlier last hour --

BALDWIN: Maggie, you OK?

LAKE: They lost us.

BALDWIN: No, we've got you.

LAKE: They lost us.

BALDWIN: We've got you, Maggie. Keep going. We see you. Or perhaps she lost us.

But, again, Asbury Park, New Jersey. Maggie just holler if you can hear me. If not, we'll just have to go back to her. But they're getting reports apparently of parts of that historic boardwalk collapsing.

Let's move on. Where shall we go? OK. Let me show you an image from Chesapeake Bay. Chesapeake Bay. This is Kent Island, Maryland, just across the bay from Annapolis. And we'll look at the video here in just a second. Here it is. Look at these waves. This came off our feed just about an hour ago, waves crashing into Chesapeake -- this is Kent Island, Maryland, hours before landfall.

We showed you the president within just this past hour. The president declared a state of emergency in the state of Delaware. So up and down Delaware's coast, flooding has started in earnest this morning. And CNN's Brian Todd is there.

Brian. BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're here in Lewes (ph) Beach, Delaware, where the storm surge from Sandy is pretty heavy, as you can see. The beach is several hundred yards that way, but the surge is taking the water toward the beach right now, I guess just because of the way the winds are blowing in the storm. You can see just how deep it's getting. Almost to my knees here. And the wind is pretty heavy.

The flooding goes on down this street just several hundred yards for as far as you can see on the beaches near here. We've been at Rehoboth Beach and up along this area just south of here. They're really worried about beach erosion. They're getting a lot of it right now. They had some beach replenishment earlier this year where they expanded the beach 200 to 300 feet toward the ocean. They say right now that is saving the coastal buildings and the businesses that are right along the boardwalk. If that replenishment had not taken place, those buildings might be destroyed already.

But you can see the surge from Sandy already starting to cause some pretty heavy flooding over here. Our photojournalist, Chris Turner (ph), panning to my right, to your left. You can see that street completely flooded over there. Some businesses already being threatened. Residences being threatened. The governor has ordered a mandatory evacuation for everyone about three-quarters of a mile from the beach inland. The city manager for Rehoboth told me a short time ago he believes about 90 percent of the people got out.

Brian Todd, CNN, Lewes Beach, Delaware.

BALDWIN: Brian Todd, thank you.

As we continue to cover this breaking story here, in anticipation this evening of landfall, Hurricane Sandy, we're going to talk about potential record-breaking storm surge, specifically the high tide surge. That's next. CNN, back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: You know in places up and down the coast here, we've been watching conditions through the day worsen, relentlessly hour by hour by hour. In fact, we've been watching our correspondent Sandra Endo struggle to give her reports from Ocean City, Maryland. Ocean City, a tourist town, taking on water from the very angry Atlantic Ocean. Let's go to Sandra now. She's live for us.

And I can see -- I know it's been pouring rain. The winds have been whipping you, Sandra. Just give me a condition update right now.

SANDRA ENDO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, I just wanted to take advantage of the low tide we're seeing right now to show you the effects of Hurricane Sandy already, which hasn't even reached landfall here. There's already destruction and devastation and damage left behind. You can see the erosion on the beach here.

This fencing was going all along this protective sand dune, but you can see all that's left now are these wooden posts all along the shoreline before this fencing, like this, was up around this area, but now obviously these strong waves have really damaged a lot of this protective sand dune. And these dunes were protecting this water from property area. So you can see, as you mentioned, Brooke, it's a beautiful coastal destination for a lot of tourists, and now this beach is really being weathered and obviously these waves coming over the sand dune, as well as flooding a lot of that property surrounding this coastal line. So that's certainly something the residents are going to keep a watchful eye on in terms of the flooding, as well as all the damage that's going to have to be replaced, as well as replacing a lot of these sand dunes.

So certainly this is just the beginning because if this keeps going like this, it's unclear how much damage and destruction Hurricane Sandy will cause here in Ocean City alone.

BALDWIN: Sandra, do me a favor. I see behind you what I can only assume is some sort of hotel. And is that for the most part now given the wind, given everything, is everything intact? Have you seen anything flying around just because of this whipping wind?

ENDO: Well, even -- yes, good question. Even on this big, nice hotel here, this waterfront property has endured some damage already. We saw part of the metal roofing break away from the foundation, really, and they had to have workers cut off that metal so it wouldn't fly around.

And they're really bracing for this storm here. Last night, I can show you, as we pan over here, Eddie Rose (ph), the photographer working with me, you can see that light bulb. That was blown out. The glass globe around it just blew off in the wind and shattered right as I was doing a live shot up there.

So certainly feeling the effects of a lot of the wind here. The rain is just relentless. Nonstop coming down here. And again, we're still several hours away from Hurricane Sandy actually reaching this area.

BALDWIN: Sandra Endo, we appreciate you and your crew. Stay safe. Heads up for that flying debris. It will get worse before it gets better. Sandra, thank you.

And, you know, this hurricane's tidal surge, this is the number we're now hearing. It could come in at 12 feet. Twelve feet. And, tonight, full moon, the high tide, throw that in, and that makes Sandy's landfall a potential worst-case scenario.

Jeff Masters is a hurricane specialist with wunderground.com -- or Weather Underground. This is his blog.

I know, Jeff, you also flew with the NOAA Hurricane Hunters for four years. You are in Ann Arbor, Michigan weather me. And I just want to point out, Chad Myers here, our meteorologist, is standing along with me. I asked him to join me in this interview.

And just in terms of this storm surge, from what I'm reading, and particularly in pars of New York, as Mayor Bloomberg is talking about 12 feet, that is record-breaking, correct?

JEFF MASTERS, WUNDERGROUND.COM: Yes. The highest storm surge we've ever seen in New York City occurred in 1960 with Hurricane Donna. The surge reached about 11.5 feet above mean low or low water. And the forecast for this storm is for it to reach up to a foot and a half higher than that.

BALDWIN: So when we talk 12-foot storm surge, what does that mean? My concern, I'm thinking about the people who hopefully have evacuated, heated the orders, gotten out of these lower lying areas. But if not, you've been covering, you know hurricanes inside and out, sir, what's your advice to these folks?

MASTERS: The surge is the number one killer in hurricanes. And you should be prepared for the water to come very quickly. That surge isn't the wall of water, it's more like a dome of water, but it moves in very quickly. With the speed of the storm, you could have about a 10 or 20-mile-an-hour current when that water starts flooding into your home.

BALDWIN: Chad, jump in.

MYERS: Hey, Jeff, it's Chad Myers.

I'm very concerned about the area of the East River as the water comes in -- big surge going into Long Island Sound -- and surge trying to go up from New York Harbor, colliding somewhere near Roosevelt Island. Any thoughts about what that will do, where those two water masses might collide?

MASTERS: Yes. It's going to pile up waters very high. And if we get a lot of rain over the next few hours, that's going to inhibit the drainage and keep things piled up even higher. We've already got a four and a half foot storm surge going in New York Harbor right now. That's a half a foot higher than Hurricane Irene brought there. And when the high tide starts to be flooding in late this afternoon, early this evening, we're going to see record-breaking surge hikes.

MYERS: Jeff, does that mean water goes in the subway?

MASTERS: Probably.

BALDWIN: Oh.

MYERS: Probably.

MASTERS: I don't know what kind of sandbagging efforts that they're going to be having in place. I mean, since Irene, I know they've taken some steps to see if they can get some sort of better protection for the subway entrances, but the official forecast is calling for, you know, a 10 to 12-foot storm tide there and it only needs to be 10.5 feet to flood the subway.

BALDWIN: Jeff, we've seen the pictures. We keep hearing these adjectives colossal, mammoth, gigantic, to describe this hurricane. We're almost in November. It's cold in the north. How does a storm like this, this size, form?

MASTERS: Well, it started in the Caribbean, which it's always warm enough year around to make hurricanes form. And then once it got north of the Caribbean, it found itself right over the gulf stream, at least over the past day or so, and it was in a very unique spot, right over an axis of the warm gulf stream waters that right now are about five to nine degrees Fahrenheit warmer than average. And the ocean temperatures off the Atlantic Coast are about two to three degrees Fahrenheit warmer than average right now. Very unusually warm for this time of year.

MYERS: Jeff, a couple more things. Talking about -- and I know we focus on New York City a lot. But let's move down the coast a little bit into Wilmington, into Philadelphia, Atlantic City, because the surge there will be very close to the center -- and we'll call it an eye, whatever -- as the center makes landfall later on this afternoon or early evening. What are your thoughts about Wilmington, Philadelphia, and the surge going up through that tidal basin?

MASTERS: The highest surges we're going to see are going to be in Raritan Bay, just south of Staten Island, and then on the opposing coast of New Jersey. Certainly also very high surge levels in extreme northern New Jersey, Atlantic City, going up towards Philadelphia. And, in fact, in this morning's high tide along the coast of New Jersey, they already recorded the highest surges on record going back over 100 years at some locations. And that was, you know, well before the storm hit, more than 12 hours. So this evening's high tide cycle is going to cause an immense amount of damage, billions of dollars.

BALDWIN: Jeff Master, we appreciate your expertise. Thank you for talking to us. And just looking over at you, quickly, Chad, when I see you say wow, that makes me nervous.

MYERS: Yes. You know, this -- there's no word for it. It's historic. It's never happened.

BALDWIN: Yes.

MYERS: That idea. What we talked about earlier with this pressure never being this low north of Cape Hatteras or any storm on current record. Now, we don't know what happened in 1710.

BALDWIN: Sure.

MYERS: But on current record, where we have barometric pressures. This storm is a nor'easter so to speak that came onshore. This is a perfect storm like the one in 1991. But the one in 1991 never even made landfall. It stayed in the ocean. This is coming on land now. So we're not only worried about the shore, we're worried about all of those people. Even to Ohio, Pittsburgh, Buffalo will get wind damage. Albany will get wind damage. Baltimore, D.C., even Richmond.

BALDWIN: It's affecting travel. We have to talk travel. Hundreds of flights canceled. Passengers, stranded.

Coming up next, Sandy's impact on transportation up and down the eastern seaboard and, as you point out, in other parts of the country.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've been here for a long time and I'm going to tell you right now, this storm that's coming in right now is scaring me a little bit.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Water, toilet paper, paper towels, paper plates, paper cups, flashlights.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are nervous. We've loaded up with water, batteries, masking tape, duct tape.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Preparation. Whatever we can do to minimize any damage to homes and the city in general.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm' nervous. I'm very nervous. But I think that I'm in good hands here. I think I'm safe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Hurricane Sandy stopping travelers in their tracks. In fact, Amtrak canceled train service across the eastern seaboard. Thousands of flights canceled ahead of this hurricane. Look at the pictures. We're going to show you here. You see that. You saw Air France. This is France where Sandy is stranding travelers trying to fly to the U.S. East Coast.

And this is Atlanta's busy, busy Hartsfield International Jackson Airport. Same story. Travelers with flights to the northeast and Mid- Atlantic absolutely stranded. Fights canceled. You see the boards there -- canceled, canceled, canceled.

Alison Kosik, let me bring you in. You're in New York for us. And before we chat, I know -- I just want to share some more pictures. First, Grand Central Station. Normally the hustle and the bustle there. Look at that -- empty.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yep. Desolate.

BALDWIN: Subway platforms, empty. No one in sight. I have never seen New York look like this, have you?

KOSIK: Neither have I. I have not either. You know, I came into the city in the middle of the night last night because I was in Jersey covering the hurricane for CNN. Coming back, you know, you usually see this scene in the middle of the night, the lights are on, people are around. Didn't see that. Just like a ghost town.

And this is because you're seeing trains being shut down. You talked about Amtrak suspending service in the northeast corridor. Add that to the public transportation suspensions here in New York. You know, all of this really cripples the northeast region. You know, we rely on our trains. We rely on our buses. And, guess what, today, more than 12 million commuters, they can't rely on that.

This is from Washington, D.C., all the way up to Boston. Boston just shut down, I don't know, what, 20 minutes ago, shut down its public transportation. And in New York City here, we've got the biggest transportation system in the country. You have to realize that some of the trains run above ground, so they can't keep going forward with the high winds happening. Others are below ground and then you've got the possibility of flooding. And then some trains are at street level and you worry about downed trees that could on the tracks.

So that's why you're seeing these shutdowns, the MTV -- the MTA is being proactive. It's getting these trains and buses into safer areas. They say this will help things get back up much faster once the storm passes. But you know what, Brooke, it's going to take a while. They'll have to inspect all those tracks first.

Brooke.

BALDWIN: Yes, we were just talking to Jeff Masters, who used to fly -- who was one of those guys that would fly in the hurricanes and his word was probably as far as some of those subways flooding with some of the result of this hurricane.

From trains, let's talk flights. And we have a picture. Let's pull it up. Here it is. This is the flight tracker, right? So you see all the little itty bitty planes across the country. See where they're going. If they're still a go. I know airports, are they closed? How many people are stranded? Obviously this is the kind of thing that affects folks nationwide.

KOSIK: Yes, I mean closures, cancellations are happening left and right. Almost 9,000 flights were canceled since yesterday. That includes 2,500 flights canceled tomorrow. And, guess what, number of flight cancellations, that's likely to grow. You look at New York, it's three major airports, they are closed. Philadelphia, same story. Most flights canceled out of Washington, D.C., as well.

And for the airlines, this is tough because they take a huge hit. Analysts say every day that these flights are down, it costs carriers $10 million industry wide. Now, the good news for many travelers, Brooke, is that most of these carriers, they are allowing you to make free changes. Usually there's a penalty. Analysts say flights should, should be back to normal by the end of the weekend. We can only hope.

BALDWIN: Yes, no one really knows for sure, do they.

KOSIK: Right.

BALDWIN: Alison Kosik for me in New York. Alison, thank you.

Let's talk New Jersey now. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie reporting just this afternoon here that more than 2,200 people in New Jersey spent the night in state and local shelters.

And you can see why. We're going to show you this map here. This is the map of the Jersey shore. You see all of the red, all on the right side of your screen there, that red represents areas under mandatory evacuations. On the phone with me now, Todd James from the Red Cross. He is in Atlantic City, New Jersey, where we learned just this afternoon there was a mandatory curfew in place just about three and a half hours from now. So 6:00 p.m. Eastern through 6:00 in the morning.

And, Todd, that's happening pretty soon. Tell me where you're calling me from and the conditions on the roads right now where you are.

TODD JAMES, FIELD AGENT, AMERICAN RED CROSS (via telephone): I'm currently at the Sheraton Hotel right across from the convention center. The convention center is where they staged some of the command for the emergency response operation here. The conditions are very poor. It is extremely nasty here. High winds, rain, a lot of the roads around the hotel here are already flooded. In talking with some of the other people that are staying here, a lot of them are already emergency personnel. They have had several rescues already they've had to do in the community. Most of the roads, especially as you get closer to the beach, are already well flooded.

BALDWIN: Hearing the president earlier today in that briefing, you know, his point was, look, if you're in these mandatory evacuation areas, listen to the officials. To paraphrase, he says, don't delay, done pause, you know, just evacuate. How many people are you seeing in that Red Cross shelter in Atlantic City and how many more do you anticipate?

JAMES: Well, we actually did not open one here in Atlantic City because we didn't want to be in the evacuation area. So I know several shelters were open a little further inland. Places like Point Pleasant and at Mammoth College. Last night I know, just in about, oh, we had nine states where shelters were open, we had over 3,200 people. And I know that we've had several thousand people that were evacuated yesterday from here in Atlantic City. They staged a lot of that transportation right across the street from us, so we had a chance to meet some of the folks as they were getting on the buses and, you know, they just grabbed what they had and then followed the orders to get out and hoping that they'll be able to come home to their homes in a few days.

BALDWIN: And, Todd, in talking to those folks who were heeding those mandatory evacuations, getting out of town, how did they seem? How nervous did they seem?

JAMES: I wouldn't say extremely nervous. I mean, they've been through this, many of them, before with other storms in the past. I think they really did understand how dangerous Sandy a storm is, that this is going to be a record setter in many ways.

More than anything else, as understandable as it is, very anxious about leaving their homes and hoping that when it's all said and done and they're able to come home, they'll find their homes and all their belongings in good shape but afraid that they won't.

BALDWIN: We appreciate you. I've covered many a disaster and it's the Red Cross that truly, you know, rides us out and is truly tremendous. So we applaud you. You have a long couple days ahead of you, Todd James, in New Jersey and Atlantic City. Thank you, sir.

We do now have some new information on this Coast Guard rescue. I want to bring in George Howell, who has now just spoken with survivors. As we're looking at these pictures, this camera appears to be atop a helicopter. George, tell me what we're looking at? Tell me the story after the break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: One story here amidst all of this in anticipation of this hurricane, one story we've been watching through the day is the ship that was off the coast of North Carolina. It is called the "HMS Bounty." There were 16 people on board, 13 as it started going down, because of all of the storm, 13 hopped into lifeboats.

Three washed overboard. Two are still missing. So that's just a little bit of the background. I want to bring in George Howell. He is live in Elizabeth City, North Carolina with sort of an update here.

We're looking at some of the Coast Guard pictures of this rescue, George. Tell me what happened.

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Yes, Brooke. We know that they were able to rescue 14 people off that boat. And it's great news when you consider what they were dealing with out there.

Really when you look at the video, it's like looking for a need until a haystack out the there. There were two lifeboats out there, people on those and then one person who was just floating out in the ocean.

But I learned a few things in talking with one of the crews. There were two helicopter crews that went out there. Learned first of that the "Bounty" contacted the Coast Guard right around 6:30 yesterday with distress calls, Brooke, saying their ship was taking on too much water, couldn't pump it all out.

That's enough and they expected they would have to abandon ship at 8:00 a.m. this morning, but ended up, Brooke, abandoning ship 4:00 a.m. so much earlier than they thought they'd have to. That's when the Coast Guard came in with their helicopters.

And what you're seeing with this video, that's what they were dealing with. We're talking about waves that could have brought these helicopters down. They had to hover very low to the ocean just to pluck these people up and out.

Brooke, we're turning around an interview right now with a rescue swimmer, and when you hear what he had to deal with, he would go down, swim out there, get people, and bring them to the lines and hoist them back up.

When you would ask him, you know, what you did, do you consider yourself a hero. This is a guy who's very humble. He says, you know, this is what I'm trained to do and he's honored to have saved lives.

And there's still a rescue operation right now, Brooke. There are still two people missing. The Coast Guard has helicopters out right now looking for these two people.

We tried to talk to a few survivors, but the Coast guard is not letting us do it at this point till they determine where those two people are or if they're able to recover the two people.

They don't want any information about identities out, something if the Department of Defense rules they're going to stand by so, they're not letting us talk to any of the survivors at this point.

BALDWIN: OK. I'm just looking at this video. This is obviously compelling stuff. Turning my head here to sort of understand how far down they would have been, you know, rescuing some of these I guess swimmers, some of them off of this boat so still two missing. Hopefully, we'll have that interview shortly.

HOWELL: Absolutely. We're working on it right now. One thing that I want to point out, all the people who were on that boat, they all had on survival suits. They all had on what you see there, those orange jump suits. And they had strobes with them.

So when these rescuers came in, that's what they were looking for, looking for the strobes, looking for these orange jump suits, but dealing with rough winds, rough waves, it was a difficult situation, Brooke. But again --

BALDWIN: It's incredible. It's incredible. George Howell, thank you so much for jumping on the phone. We'll look for the sound from that Coast Guard rescue swimmer as soon as we can get that.

n the meantime, we are covering this really up and down here, this hurricane sandy. Coming up, I'll talk to the mayor of Ocean City, Maryland. Look at these waves. Back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Want to turn your attention to coastal Maryland, Ocean City to be precise. We've talk about this. We've seen these pictures. This is a huge, huge tourist town.

On the phone with me now is the mayor of Ocean City, Mayor Rick Meehan. Mayor Meehan, tell me -- I know you are inside this emergency operations center where I'm sure people are gearing up for a long couple of days. Tell me what is your concern, number one, right now.

MAYOR RICK MEEHAN, OCEAN CITY, MARYLAND (via telephone): Well, our biggest concern for from the beginning was the storm surge. We knew we were going to experience extremely high tides on the bay side as well as storm surge on the ocean front.

So that's been our primary concern. And the storm surge we've gotten is exactly what was projected, probably the highest storm surge we had in ocean city since Hurricane Gloria in 1985.

And we are experiencing flooding in our downtown area, which would be south of our 17th Street, and also some beach erosion along the ocean.

BALDWIN: Were you in Ocean City in '85? Do you remember that?

MEEHAN: I was in Ocean City in '85 so I do remember that. And similar in many ways, it's a slow-moving storm. At least the speed has picked up. That's good for us. The longer it sits of the coast and in the Atlantic and more tide cycles that affects us, the worse it is.

So too similar to what Gloria did, but the impacts have been just as projected. We do have real high tides. We have a lot of water on the streets downtown, a lot of water in some other areas. But we've really had no injuries. We've had no calls for emergency service, so all in all we're weathering the storm pretty well.

BALDWIN: Mayor Meehan, what is your beyond the surge here in terms of people who live and many of whom have hopefully gotten out of Ocean City, what is concern number one with regard to the citizens?

MEEHAN: Well, we were very fortunate, we had a mandatory evacuation for all non-residents and visitors, and they all complied with that. We had another mandatory evacuation in other low-lying areas. They did comply with that.

We do have people in town. What we want them to do is stay inside, ride the storm out. They're going to be safe, just don't do anything foolish. Use common sense. We've got about 12 more hours to ride through. Then it will be sunny again and life will go on.

BALDWIN: It will indeed. Mayor Rick Meehan, best of luck to you there calling in from Ocean City, Maryland. Thank you.

Here we go, more breaking news right now. We are learning -- look at these pictures with me. This is a partial crane collapse in New York City.

We're told the crane attached to the building right there smack dab in the middle of your screen is currently under construction, clearly, appears to be scaffolding there on multiple floors. That is the crane -- Chad Myers is getting plugged in.

I presume that's the crane on the right side of your screen that's dangling. That's confirmation. Yes. That is the crane. It is dangling precariously, might I add, above West 57th, West 57th. Do we know what the cross street is? OK, this is the before. Is this the before on the left side?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes.

BALDWIN: So I know it's dark. There you go. But if you look closely on the left side of your screen, you can see the crane upright and now it's down. Chad, is this wind?

MYERS: Absolutely wind.

BALDWIN: This is wind.

MYERS: There is no question. You know, as the storm gets higher and higher or as you go higher and higher, the winds also go up. And so at a thousand feet high, I'm not sure how high that building is but it there's at least a 70 story. I would say you're looking at not only on the ground what would be a 65-mile-an-hour wind gusts, but 78 or 80 up there and that crane has broken right there.

BALDWIN: So the crane has broken. I know you had a graphic earlier that sort of explained -- because I keep thinking of anyone living in these high-rises in Manhattan. So many people do. And I'm wondering about the glass, the windows. Here we go. We have it spotlighted. The higher you go, the higher the wind.

MYERS: Well, the first thing you should do if you live in a high-rise is take everything off your balcony, that's for you and for your neighbors. Bring in the chair, the potted plant and the ottoman because those will begin to fly.

If they fly into another building or another piece of glass, that glass will break. One thing you have to worry about in Manhattan when the winds pick up, they're not as high as they're going to get yet.

You have another six hours before that happens, probably. Here's the deal, a lot of the buildings have the tar and stone roof. Put tar down and you lay little stones on top.

When those stones become dislodged in the wind, those stones start to fly and they can hit other buildings across the street. And those are 80-mile-per-hour little bullets hitting that glass. As the storm gets close, you need to stay away from the windows and on the wind side of your building.

BALDWIN: I want to stay on this. We have to get a break in. We'll stay on this crane story. Folks, this is before. We're still hours before this storm is supposed to make landfall and we're already seeing evidence of the situation in New York specifically deteriorating because of the winds. Quick break. We're going to take you back to the streets of New York after this.

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BALDWIN: Back here live, covering the conditions up and down the eastern seaboard, they are beginning to deteriorate in anticipation of land fall of this horrendous, gigantic, gigantic hurricane later on this evening.

We mentioned before the break, we showed you these pictures. If you are in Manhattan right now and you are on the west side right around 57th Street, this is what you're going to see.

You see this very, very tall building. The guess is 70-plus stories, just a guess. And you see this thing on the right, almost looks like a candy cane. That is a crane. If we can pull up the before and after pictures, it gives you better perspective as to what's happening.

This is clearly, as Chad Myers standing next to me, was pointing out. This is because of the winds and the wind gusts. If we have that picture, you can see what the crane is supposed to look like. Because of the wind, we presume that it has now been kicked over here.

We want to take you straight to the streets of New York here just to get a better sense -- there's the before and the after. It's tough to see. It's dark. But there's the crane above that building. The crane is now just dangling above West 57th.

Ashleigh Banfield is in Manhattan. Ashleigh, tell me where you are. How bad are the winds right now?

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Not to bad this minute. But about 5 minutes ago a gust came by and nearly knocked me off my feet, Brooke. I hear that story all the time, but I got something else I want to tell you about.

Southern Manhattan at Battery Park City is where I'm right now. The southern tip of Manhattan where we're expecting possibly 12-foot storm surge, look at this water, about 10 feet, maybe eight feet down.

Brooke, if all is to be expected, the worst-case scenario plays out as Michael Bloomberg suggested, a 12-foot storm surge might have the water right about here by 8:00 tonight at high tide. That's New Jersey down there.

This is the Hudson River. I heard you just talking about 57th Street. I want to show you something. When those winds come onshore they're expecting to be somewhere around 80 miles an hour. Well, you know, buildings might be able to withstand that.

But look at this building over here. It's about 60 stories. If you go halfway up, about 30 stories, that's when the wind changes, 80 miles an hour down here becomes a 96-mile-an-hour wind up there.

BALDWIN: Ashleigh, I have to stop you. I just saw joggers -- look to your left. Do you see the joggers just blew past you? Who are these people?

BANFIELD: Yes, joggers, tourists, a lot of people. And I just saw some and told them to get home. The police have been patrolling. The National Guard has been called out, 1,100 Governor Cuomo has called out. It is not a joke.

Yet we have a lot of people out for a stroll or a jog and some wanting to see the waves. If you go up 80 stories in Manhattan and you know how many buildings are 80 stories in this city, those winds that might be 80 miles an hour down here become 106 miles an hour sustained.

So New York City, one of the most famous high cities in the world is in for some serious damage -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Ashleigh Banfield, thank you. That's an excellent point. We're going to tackle that here with Chad, just the point of these skyscrapers, case in point, the one you're looking at, the crane that's now dangling over this. We have more on this story after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BALDWIN: Back here, breaking news talking about Hurricane Sandy, anticipating Hurricane Sandy. We're going to get you back to Manhattan and that partial crane collapse in just a moment.

But these are pictures from Scituate, Massachusetts, Chad Myers. This is an affiliate reporter. We're going to eavesdrop and take a look at these pictures as the storm, the waters are coming in.

MYERS: You know, we can't stress how big the arms of this storm are. I just got a wind gust to around Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, 81 miles per hour, and that's Massachusetts. That's just incredible how -- that's hurricane force gust over 500 miles from the center of the storm.

BALDWIN: Over 500 miles.

MYERS: So you're talking about a bowling ball that's going to knock things down, knock trees, power lines, limbs, everything down from the coast of New Jersey as far north as Massachusetts and Connecticut, as far south as Virginia, then go inland about 400 miles before it finally stops and turns to the north and heads up into Canada.

BALDWIN: When you talk quickly about a wind field from what I was reading, you were saying it's as large as, what, 900,000 -- what was it?

MYERS: You know, I have a graphic.

BALDWIN: Here we go.

MYERS: Do we have 30 seconds?

BALDWIN: Grab it. You were saying it's twice the size of Texas, the wind field.

MYERS: Even the camera can go in and I'll go back to the cube. That's the wind field tropical storm force or greater. That's Massachusetts. Cape Cod all the way to the border of South Carolina, that red hot is hurricane force or greater. But that is going to move onshore. Not just the coast. This goes inland. I can't tell people to prepare enough. This is bigger than you think it is.

BALDWIN: We saw the pictures in Massachusetts. We want to take you back to the pictures in Manhattan that partial crane collapse. We're going to do that after this break.

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