Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Huge Fire Burns 80 Homes In Queens; Berm Fails, Rescues In Three New Jersey Towns; New Jersey Governor Updates Storm Damage; Sandy Leaves 7.5 Million Without Power; West Virginia Mountains to Get Two to Three Foot of Snow; Obama Signs Disaster Declarations
Aired October 30, 2012 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Fourteen crew members were rescued by the Coast Guard, but one person died. The 180-foot long vessel was built as a replica of the famous British ship. It was used in the 1962 Hollywood movie "Mutiny on the Bounty."
The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.
Good morning. Thank you so much for joining us. I'm Carol Costello. Of course, we begin this hour with a story that's shaping up to be nothing short of a national tragedy, a historic superstorm that covers 1,000 miles and impacts millions of lives.
At least 16 people are dead and floodwaters are washing across the most populated corridor in the United States, the region still largely paralyzed. Airports, trains, bridges all shut down.
In New York, the head of the century old subway system says it has never faced this kind of devastation. In the flooded borough of Queens at least 80 homes burned to the water line.
Electrical fires and power outages only adding to the misery of the eastern United States. To give you an idea of how massive Sandy still is, fierce winds are blowing from Canada all the way down to Georgia.
This morning some seven million homes and businesses without power or heat. Sandy is also whipping up huge amounts of snow from Maryland to Tennessee and West Virginia a blizzard could dump three feet of rare October snow.
CNN's crews are scrambling to bring you all the latest information on this epic disaster that's still unfolding. Our reporters are at some of the worst points of the superstorm and breaking down the details on how all Americans can feel the impact.
Major concern to go along with the flooding from Sandy is fire. Check out the flames from this huge fire in the Breezy Point neighborhood of Queens, New York. At least 80 homes have been destroyed.
Deborah Feyerick is there. What are you finding out, Deb?
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol?
COSTELLO: I'm here. Take it away, Deb.
FEYERICK: Carol, yes, thanks, Carol. We're having a little problem. The weather out here is -- sort of gusts of rain to the sun coming out. We want to sort of pan down all the way, you see a fire truck, a vehicle there.
You mentioned 80 homes, Carol. We are now told that Gotham Watch is on fire and the problem is, first of all, these homes are -- they're old homes, most of them are wooden structures. They're side by side.
There's really just sort of a little path, little sidewalk between the two homes -- water onto those fires. So they're really stuck. There's just nothing that they can do. We spoke to somebody who is kind of like the mayor here of Breezy Point.
He told us probably about -- evacuated. We took a walk down along the bay, Carol. I have to tell you, it looks like this storm took a massive sledgehammer and just started whacking at the individual homes. Windows completely blown out.
Some of the homes are simply knocked off of their foundations. Others are sinking. Water is rushing back out into the bay. It is just -- it is nothing like I have seen before. We spoke earlier to one man. He decided to try to ride out this storm. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD RYAN, RESIDENT: I never thought it would be this bad. It was bad. This is the worst. I was here in Hurricane Donna and Donna was nothing like this. We only had maybe 18 inches of water. I had four foot of water. It was coming in the windows.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FEYERICK: And you can see some of the people walking up. This is what we're seeing now, people coming back to their homes to figure out exactly just how bad the damage is. As we pull out a little bit, you can see some of the homes where there's just garbage on the inside.
These are the homes. These are not so bad compared to the ones we saw over on the bay and then clearly the ones that have been completely destroyed by fire.
Right now this community just -- it's a strong community. You've got a lot of retired policemen and firefighters, but they're just trying to make sense of this entire thing -- Carol.
COSTELLO: I'm just trying to make sense of all these homes that are catching fire. The initial fire probably was an electrical problem I would assume, although I don't know that for sure, but since the homes are so close together, is the fire just jumping from house to house to house?
FEYERICK: Well, that's exactly right. That's exactly right. We're talking about sidewalks that are maybe this big between the homes, maybe a little bigger. But that's the problem, and you would think that these homes are so wet that there's no way they can catch fire, but, in fact, they are, and that really is the problem. All the power in this area has been shut down.
We don't know whether these are transformers that are sort of igniting, sparking, but, again, we saw just a whole bunch of people just tear off down in that direction. We asked one gentleman, who lived here since he was 12 years old, he said, yes.
And this is what's incredible, Carol. He said Gotham Walk is on fire, all of Gotham Walk. So we're talking a complete row of homes, and we can smell it in the air.
We've got emergency vehicles that are making their way here, and people just, again, trying to piece together the devastation. This truck over here with all those fire hoses, the problem is getting water and because the water pressure is so intermittent.
If they do get water onto a home, there's no sense of how much water you can actually get on that structure. So this is still very much sort of, unfortunately, one man described it, he said it perfectly. He said this is a war zone -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Deborah Feyerick reporting live for us this morning. We're also following rescues and evacuations that are under way in Northern New Jersey.
There's been a breach in a levee there, at least we think so, and several communities are now flooded. One police chief says there's up to five feet of water in the streets of Moonachie and Little Ferry. Rescues also under way in Carlstadt.
CNN's Maggie Lake is live. She's on the phone near Moonachie. Describe the scene for us, Maggie.
MAGGIE LAKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): A lot of chaos, Carol. We are at the evacuation site where they are bringing people that they are literally plucking off the roofs and they're coming in by the busload.
They're confused, they're upset, they're basically just wearing the clothes they have on, carrying pets with them and their children. This is a community that was completely caught off guard. There was no evacuation order there, not used to being hit with this type of flooding at all. It's unusual for them. There are -- one officer we talked to, he estimates this is a community of about 7,000 to 8,000 when you combine them all, and, of course, this started last night when Ferry Creek, a levee there broke.
The water came in swiftly. People climbed on their roofs. They have a coordinated effort here not only with Bergen County officers, they have National Guard trucks in here, the high trucks rolling in to try to get some of these people out. They're using helicopters, boats, pretty much anything they can get that you are hands on. The state police are here as well. Port Authority police are here. The coordinated response has been rapid. The problem is the water.
One person getting off was saying, I didn't have a chance, I wanted to go in my house and get some belongings and the officer simply told her we can't do that, we simply don't have the time for the equipment to do that.
So the other issue here, and this is leading to the confusion, is at the moment because this in play, there is no list, there's no register list, they're trying to get that organized. People are coming here looking for their loved ones that they know live there. They tried to drive into the town, couldn't get in, it's flooded. The roads are very perilous right now. They're blocked off all over the place with detours. This one couple sort of went in u-turns to try to find their parents.
They finally made it here and they're literally inside looking for them. There's a lot of coordination that has to happen. We're trying to get the latest in terms of the rescue from the officers on the ground, but, frankly, they're scattered. They're trying to take care of the people coming in here, a lot of frustration and confusion here -- Carol.
COSTELLO: And there's confusion about where this surge of water is coming from. They think it's a breach in the levee. Like where is the dam though? Where is that levee located? Do you know yet? I know you just got there.
LAKE: It's not clear. We are going it try to see if we can get closer. It's high tide again, which is complicating the rescue efforts, as you can imagine.
From the one officer I was able to talk to, believed it was in the vicinity of Ferry Creek, that's where the problem with, a levee that broke. There's an extreme amount of water everywhere though, carol, even places where you're not used to seeing it.
We came up from the Jersey Shore to get here, and what should be a 50- minute drive took over two hours. Major arteries, the turnpike, the parkway, off-ramps all over the place flooded with water or scattered debris. So it is very difficult to get around. It's been hard --
COSTELLO: Maggie, we're going to have to interrupt you. The New Jersey governor is now holding a news conference, Chris Christie. Let's listen.
(BEGIN LIVE FEED)
GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE, (R) NEW JERSEY: -- assistance we need it. He moved an expedited process this morning by declaring New Jersey a major disaster area. The counties that are receiving an immediate declaration for individual and public assistance including Atlantic, Cape May, Hudson, Essex, Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean, and Union.
Please note that this list is not final. Other counties most certainly will be added as we make a damage assessment. The biggest issues we're facing right now in our most impacted counties are search and rescue and restoration of power.
Want to make sure we're getting to New Jerseyans who chose not to leave evacuated areas or got caught in unsuspected floodwaters. Our priority is to ensure the safety and security of every New Jerseyan. Our state police and National Guard helicopters are in the air as we speak engaging in coastline rescue efforts. Our swift water team is positioned in Atlantic City and has begun rescue and recovery for those who remained in Atlantic City. These units from central and south to Union Beach, Middletown, Belmar, are beginning search and rescue operations.
We saw significant tidal flooding in several areas, everywhere from Jersey City to Newark Bay area, Moonachie, and Little Ferry. In Moonachie and Little Ferry, we have dispatched state and federally supported teams to assist in rescues and are providing shelter to those in need. Eighteen members of our speed deployment are also headed there in addition to the swift water rescue team, ten high wheel vehicles and boats.
We've provided temporary shelter at Teterboro Airport for the affected residents. We're delivering dry clothes and blankets and we're working to transition them to different shelters. We've provided support to the Jersey City Police Department, the Newark Fire Department, and the Essex County Sheriff's Office in the face of a citywide power outage in both Jersey City and Newark from high tidal surge.
Four high wheeled National Guard vehicles were sent to Jersey City from the Jersey City armory to assist them with evacuations at the request of Jersey City Chief of Police. The National Guard has repositioned equipment to strategic locations across New Jersey and has more than 450 high water vehicles including Humvees and heavy trucks available to assist civil authorities. They are also providing helicopters with video download capabilities to conduct reconnaissance of shorelines, river basins, and other areas of post landfall damage assessments. There are currently over 5,500 residents in state and local shelters as of our latest count.
We're working to set up shelters as we learn of new needs in addition to the five existing state-supported shelters. We are in the process of opening a sixth shelter at the Rutgers Athletic Center that could support nearly 2,000 people. We want to make sure people have enough food and water for a while, which is why we are working with the Salvation Army and the American Red Cross to bring in mobile kitchens to serve thousands of meals. Boxed lunches are being delivered to state shelters today.
We are also using FEMA food and water resources. The National Guard has deployed soldiers and airmen at the free hold and Woodbridge Armories for support of state supported shelter facilities if needed.
There are a vast number of New Jerseyans today without power. In fact, we currently have 2.4 million New Jersey households without power. This is, just so you understand the order of magnitude here, this is twice the number of impacted households as Hurricane Irene. Hurricane Irene was 1.2 million impacted households. This is 2.4 million impacted households, and 1.2 million of the 2.4 million are PSE&G, 935,000 from JCP&L, 195,000 from Atlantic City Electric and 45,000 from Orange and Rockland.
During Hurricane Irene, restoration took eight days for full restoration. For Hurricane Sandy full restoration may, in fact, take longer. Full damage assessment will not be complete until 24 to 48 hours due to some of the weather delays. They cannot develop a time frame for restoration until damage estimates are under way and obviously these difficult weather conditions are making this more of a challenge.
However, the utility companies have continued to reach out to other states for assistance and we're expecting additional linemen and service men from states as far away from Texas and Indiana and even folks coming in to us from Canada.
It will remain extremely dangerous in areas where trees and wires are down. Ask people to use extreme caution. Assume any wire you see down is a live wire and please do not go near it. There are currently 173 incidents statewide involving highways and lane closures. Most of these closures are the result of downed trees, utility poles, and flooding.
Closures are statewide with the highest concentration in Monmouth County, but no county in the state has been spared. Avoid travel unless absolutely necessary.
I want to say this now to private employers. Unless you can identify a safe route for your employees to get to work, I'd ask you to allow them to stay home from work today. We've deployed 800 employees from NJDOT to clear these incidents and we're able to open the Garden State Parkway this morning.
New Jersey Turnpike is open from Exits 1 to Exit 10. The Turnpike Authority is continuing to work to clear inner roadways between interstates 10 and 14 of seven-foot high debris fields. Twenty four small rail cars were deposited on the northbound outer roadway in the Carteret area by tidal surge.
For those who have driven in that area, you know it well, the small freight rail cars off to the side of the roadway. Those rail cars were picked up by the tidal surge and carried onto the elevated roadway and landed all throughout the outer roadway of the New Jersey Turnpike on the northbound side.
Additionally, the southbound ramp from Exit 15W to Interstate 280 has a large washout. This is currently being looked at by our engineers with a stand-by contractor, and as soon as we assess the complete nature of the damage, we'll begin repair work on that ramp.
New Jersey Transit Service remains suspended throughout the day today. Later today New Jersey Transit will begin assessing the status of the system and testing of critical infrastructure before any decisions are made regarding the potential resumption of service. We do know this. There is major damage on each and every one of New Jersey's rail lines. Large sections of track were washed out on the New Jersey coastline. Numerous power lines and trees have fallen along New Jersey transit railways across the state.
Several rail bridges damaged by storm surge including boats and other debris lodged on the railroad tracks. New Jersey Transit rail station hubs at Hoboken, and North Penn station were also impacted significantly by flooding.
New Jersey's Transit rail operation complex in Carnie is fully surrounded by floodwaters, which came during the height of the storm. Regarding our drinking water, we're seeing numerous water supply issues because of flooding and power loss.
We currently have at least ten facilities with minor to major problems. Our waste water treatment facilities, we have at least 13 facilities again with minor to major operational issues due to flooding and loss of power. We're working with all these facilities to see how we can bring them power supply, equipment, and resources to help bring them back online as soon as possible.
In terms of our health care facilities, a total of 91 health care facilities have reported that they lost power. This includes 29 hospitals, 58 long-term care facilities, and others. However, we're expecting this number to increase as people call them in. Some are reporting phone problems in their ability to be able to phone in issues to us. Most are managing well and many are using generator power to be able to continue to care for their patients.
Department of Health has requested 100 ambulances from the FEMA ambulance contract and we have received assistance from numerous other states.
I'll ask before I take questions, upstairs in the conference room that we're using to manage this crisis we just were given a look for the first time of the -- of portions of the Jersey shore by state police helicopter who was operating their cameras and relaying the images back. We looked at Ortley Beach, Seaside Heights and Seaside Park. All of them are nearly completely under water. Houses are moved off their foundations. There are houses in the middle of Route 35.
The amusement pier at Seaside Park is essentially half washed out. I don't know if it was the roller coaster or the log plume is now in the ocean. The second pier, the more southerly pier, is also significantly damaged and some of those amusements are now in the ocean.
The level of devastation at the Jersey Shore is unthinkable, and we know that there are many people who own homes who we've evacuated who are going to want to get back onto the island to assess the damage to their homes.
We are nowhere near being able to let you back onto the island. There is no place -- I'm leaving here soon after this press conference to go and tour. There's no place for me to land on the barrier islands. So we're going to have to get -- the rest we will have to see from the air. With the instability of infrastructure on the barrier islands, we haven't been able to assess the natural gas situation and others. We know there's no power. It would be completely unsafe for homeowners to think about today or any time in the next couple days going back onto those barrier islands. So we want everyone to remain patient in that regard.
I will report back fully to you in my press briefing this afternoon what I see. Today, we'll be taking press with us on a pool basis so that you can see what I see from the helicopters and report back to the public as well.
But to prepare the public for what they're going to see, it is beyond anything I thought I'd ever see, terrible. And so we need to remain patient, let the waters recede, and then we can go in and make a full assessment about rebuilding that area of the jersey shore, but it is a devastating site right now.
So we have a lot of work to do. I have absolute confidence in the fact that we'll be able to do it and do it together. I have confidence in the fact that we'll have complete support from the president of the United States and federal authorities.
I think it's very important though for me today now that the -- at least the wind has let up a little bit to see it myself so that when I talk to the president later today I can tell him personally exactly what I have seen to give him the full measure of the devastation that's happened to our state.
No question in my mind given the reports that I have seen so far that the devastation that's happened to New Jersey is beyond what's happened to anyone else, at least from the reports I have seen so far, and that should come as no shock since the storm made landfall here.
(END LIVE FEED)
COSTELLO: All right, we're going to break away. Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey, obviously exhausted, laying it out in stark terms for all to hear, the damage done to his state unthinkable, worse than anything he thought he'd ever see in his lifetime. Utility crews can't even assess the damage for 24 to 48 hours. That means, he says, people could be without power or heat for up to eight or nine days. Be prepared for the worst if you live in the state of New Jersey.
We'll be back with much more after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: All right, we're going to head to the weather center to check in with Alexandra Steele because you heard the governor of New Jersey say, you know, Alexandra, you said the weather is still so bad that utility crews can't even get out and assess the damage yet.
ALEXANDRA STEELE, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, and it's because of the winds. The winds still a player, and you can see why here, Carol. Here is the center of circulation. It is still only 90 miles west of Philadelphia, and we're talking such an incredibly energetic system.
Imagine the confluence of things that have come together to bring all this rain to the east, all this snow with another foot left coming through West Virginia so incredibly energetic. Here are two numbers, both of them going down.
One is a good thing. The other one is not. The movement west/northwest is 15. So that's been good, it's been moving along. The problem is that number is going down, meaning that will slow. Any type of development and low pressure system be it an area of low pressure that's a nor'easter or a tropical, anything that slows exacerbates the issues, be it the wind or the rain.
The winds are coming down and will continue to come down because it is weakening. That is for sure, but the problem is the slow nature of it all. All right, here is a look. Can you imagine the energy, at least 9 inches of rain on the eastern flank of this in places like Delaware where more rain continues to fall.
Western flank of it, 9 inches of snow in West Virginia and that continues to come down. So it begs the question, right? We know the flooding, with he know the fires, where is this thing going?
Meteorologically that's really the most game in town right now. Here's the area of low pressure. This is this morning. As we head through tonight, watch it move. It stays in western New York. That is certainly not good news.
Again, I told you it will slow. By the time we go from Tuesday into Wednesday morning now, it's only in western New York from western Pennsylvania moving to western New York. That's it in the next 24 to 36 hours.
So you can see it will still be a player even on Wednesday, New York to Washington, 35 to 45-mile-per-hour wind gusts abating still, but still an energetic windmaker and still some rain coming around.
This is Thursday morning. Still the snow continues to fall in Western Maryland and West Virginia. So here are the current wind gusts, 20s and 30s. Just saw a report around New York, 52-mile-per-hour wind gust.
So, you know, it is still robust in nature. It is far from a done deal. I mean, the worst of it is over in terms of the winds coming down, the rain, the worst of it we've most likely seen. High tide was this morning so that continues to abate although the damage obviously has been done.
Wind threat through Wednesday, still 60-mile-per-hour wind gusts, 50s and 40s as for south as Atlanta, Georgia. The breadth and depth is immense. You know what's incredible? On Friday the commuter models had this pinpointed to move where it moved so the accuracy of them really is phenomenal.
COSTELLO: Well, I was just going to ask you, you have been doing weather a long time. Where will the storm go down in history do you think?
STEELE: Certainly at the top of the game. I mean, pressure wise, people don't understand surface pressure, all you need to know, the lower the numbers, the more energy is storm, be it a low pressure system associated with a nor'easter or a tropical system.
The lower it is, the more energetic it is, and the more energy it has, this was the lowest on record as far north, north of the Virginias coming ashore so incredible. It's certainly in the record books going down on myriad fronts.
I mean, you heard the governors all talking about what Irene did and this is double that in terms of the subways, in terms of the rainfall totals, the snow. Record books myriad from snow to rain to flooding, it will go down.
So it's really -- we talked about it being historic, and it really panned out. You know, on Friday we talked about 10 million without power. Who would have believed it? It seems so outlandish, but came to fruition.
COSTELLO: Yes. Sadly so, Alexandra thanks so much.
STEELE: Sure.
COSTELLO: Let's talk about -- let's talk a little bit more about the snow because as Alexandra said, Sandy is also responsible for this -- this heavy, wet snow in the mountains of West Virginia as hard as concrete in the words of one meteorologist. The governor of West Virginia asking only essential state workers to report to work today.
Martin Savidge is in Kingwood, West Virginia and I think you're practically frozen by now, Martin.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It feels pretty chilly out here. I've got to tell you it's 33 degrees which of course not that cold, but ideal for heavy snowfalls and that's exactly what we've got going on here. Prescott County -- Preston, rather -- is one of 12 in this state that is under a blizzard warning.
We've got near whiteout conditions now. Heavy winds are blowing and you can see how it's all piling up here. Let me -- let me show you how they are trying to deal with it. This is actually a parking lot of a shopping center. You can see they brought in farm equipment, earth moving equipment because the snow is so heavy, so thick. That's the stuff you were talking about, like concrete.
It's very slick underneath because of course the temperature, street temperature still warm and so that's causing a lot of slipping and sliding but then the buildup is so fast they barely get this lot cleared and then it starts getting driven by the wind and it gets coming from the sky.
We've already got about ten inches of snow. They anticipate at least another foot. Blizzard warnings in effect all the way through tomorrow, we've got at least 30 counties that have canceled school. You already mentioned the nonessential personnel.
Power out in this area, actually 200,000 people without power in the state of West Virginia. I-68, the main thoroughfare, they're fighting to get that back open again from Morgan Town to the Maryland state line.
So there is a lot of trouble what this state is dealing with. But so much unlike what others have dealt with, I'm talking about the tidal surge and about the winds. Here it's wind and it's -- it's snow, just tons and tons of snow dragging down the power lines, bringing down the tree limbs. The ride up here, white knuckle with trees exploding and bringing their branches right down on top of us. Really quite amazing to see, and of course, it's the day before Halloween. Not the day before Christmas -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Boy, thank you very much, Martin Savidge.
We have the Governor Tomblin on the line. That's why I'm hurriedly going away from Martin Savidge.
Governor, thank you so much. I can't imagine what your day is going to be like.
GOV. EARL RAY TOMBLIN, (D) WEST VIRGINIA: Well it's been an interesting morning to say the least, Carol, but you know as Martin was saying, the snow continues to come down. It's a heavy, wet snow and we -- I think, have at least the westbound lane of I-68 back open again.
We're approaching a quarter of a million customers right now without power and those continue to -- to climb as the -- as the snow continues to come down, the high winds, you know, knocking the trees down as well as, as the snows.
So we do have our National Guard deployed along with our Department of Highways and Division of Forestry people to -- to clear roads ahead of the power company crews. Both First Energy and Appalachian Power have brought hundreds of workers in from their sister or affiliate companies into the state.
So you know, we are getting them deployed wherever we can. Obviously, we've got to reemphasize to people that are on the road to please slow down. Some of our problems are being caused by especially trucks jack-knifing and so forth. So we just encourage everybody if you got to be on the road to drive slow and realize it is slick whether it's the snow, the slushy snow, or the leaves that have collected on the highways.
So you know, we are -- we're working as well as we can and we're -- I think we've been pretty well-prepared to you know with our state crews working with the power companies to be able to clear the roads as well as to get the power back on as quickly as possible. However --
(CROSSTALK)
COSTELLO: And I just -- I know, I can't imagine that many people without power all at the same time. What kinds of watches and warnings are in place? Because it's a strange conglomeration this morning.
TOMBLIN: Well it is. We have everything from flood warnings in our panhandles to the high winds and the snow continuing to come down from all over the state of West Virginia. So it's a -- it's a massive storm, and it's different than what we've been watching on the seashore, but it's affecting our people just as well in a little bit different manner, the fact it's snow piling up and the snowshoe of one of our resorts, we've got over two feet of snow there. They expect that to continue throughout the day.
COSTELLO: That's just unbelievable. How long do you expect people's power to be out because you're getting rain. You have this heavy snow. There's going to be high winds. That does a number of power lines.
TOMBLIN: Yes once again, the fact that we did have some warning on this one the power companies do have their additional crews coming in. We already had our highways and National Guard stationed strategically around the state, so it should be much quicker than it was with the storms that we had during the summer when we had 53 of our 55 counties without power, but once again we're getting to the areas most affected first. Where our priorities for power are our hospitals, water systems, 911 centers, and our shelters and our priorities as far as clearing the roads is the main arteries first and then we get into the secondary roads.
So you it's just -- in an event like this, you just got to be patient. And we've got -- you know everyone we can have out working and the snow continues to come down. So places that were plowed two hours ago were probably covered back up with snow again.
COSTELLO: Oh, I'm sure. Governor Tomblin, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy morning to share with us. We appreciate it.
TOMBLIN: OK, thanks for thinking of us, Carol.
COSTELLO: Sure, always.
You heard the New Jersey Governor Chris Christie say that FEMA and the federal government are stepping in to help his state which he says the damage there unthinkable. He's going to be talking to President Obama later today. We'll talk about the federal response to the storm after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Superstorm Sandy, today's kids will one day tell their grandchildren about the history being written as we speak. The destruction hard to fathom, power outages in 13 states. This morning seven million homes and businesses without electricity or heat. Hurricane-force winds ripping into the eastern corridor, the most populated chunk of the country. Even today fierce winds are blowing from Georgia all the way up to Canada. At least 16 people have died and floodwaters have paralyzed much of the East. In New York, airport airports, bridges, subways all closed. The disaster already shaping up to be one of the worst in U.S. history.
And there are health concerns piling up. Floodwaters have washed raw sewage out of a treatment plant in Howard County. That problem is almost certain to have happened elsewhere in the region. We'll keep you posted on all of that.
President Obama remains on top of the changing situation in the northeast ever since returning back to Washington just before Sandy hit. The President has been receiving updates on this superstorm. Overnight he signed disaster declarations for New York and New Jersey. Those will provide more federal money to assist in the cleanup efforts.
Our White House correspondent Dan Lothian joins us now. I know that Chris Christie is going to talk with the President later today. Tell us more.
DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right. You know we were told by a White House official that the President will be calling up mayors and governors in the impacted areas, specifically New Jersey and New York and this is in addition to some phone conversations that the President had with these state and local officials overnight.
As you pointed out, the President was briefed overnight, will continue getting briefings today. The primary briefer we're told is John Brennan, his advisor for homeland security.
The big question is A, will the President be touring any of the impacted areas. As you know anytime there is a disaster the President will often go out and take a look at the damage firsthand.
I did reach out to a couple of White House officials who told me that there are no scheduling announcements to be made at this time. So we'll be looking for that.
Looking to see if perhaps the President will also make another appearance in the briefing room, which he did yesterday. Talked about the latest information that he had been getting from his emergency management officials and making the point to warn those out there in the impacted areas to heed the warnings of local officials to evacuate, to follow all the added instructions so that those first responders will not be putting their lives in danger.
In addition to that, the President dismissing at least at this point any concerns about what this -- this particular disaster could have on his campaign saying that now is not the time to focus on that. He's focused on the people who are impacted by this and those first responders -- Carol.
COSTELLO: It's interesting though because the President probably would naturally say, yes, I want to go tour these damaged areas, but you know, he's open to criticism now because the election is not so far away.
LOTHIAN: That's right and you know, in addition to that, he has to also balance whether or not he's going to go and tour the impacted areas, but also when he will go back out on the campaign trail. I did talk to a campaign official who said that is still fluid. The hope was that the President would head back out on the campaign trail tomorrow.
As you know, he's already suspended trips both for today and yesterday, so two critical days leading up to the election day that the President has not been out there on the campaign trail. So those outstanding questions and it's still too fluid for officials to say with any certain degree of certainty that the President will be heading back out there real soon.
COSTELLO: Dan Lothian reporting live from the White House this morning. For more information about how you can help those affected by Sandy, and I know many of you do, check out CNN.com/impact.
I'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: We heard a little earlier from New Jersey's Governor Chris Christie that the damage in his state is unthinkable. He's going to go up in a helicopter. He's going to bring members of the press with him just so that everybody can see just how much help this state needs.
Ali Velshi is in Atlantic City, part of the boardwalk there has been damaged. We're also wondering about the casinos there, Ali.
ALI VELSHI, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, they're shut down. We went for -- I went for a survey about two hours ago to look at the situation, but they had shut everything down. There was nobody on the boardwalk. There has been some damage to the boardwalk in an isolated area,. most of it is intact. Some signs have come down.
As for the casinos, these are all structures, they have probably experienced some flooding but we were talking to fire officials who were on the boardwalk and they said there was no report of anything that resembled an emergency.
Now these things were totally, totally closed down. If you recall a few days ago, it was the first thing Chris Christie did was shutting down the casinos and evacuating them on the boardwalk. So, you know, on the casinos you have the Taj Mahal over there. You've got Bali's. You've got Caesar's. You've got Trump Palace over there. They're all shut down. There's nothing going on, on the boardwalk.
Most of the stores on the boardwalk use those metal shutters to close their stores every night. The rest of them had plywood put on top. So there's nothing going on there. It did overtop. The problem that you have in New Jersey right now is the damage along parts of the Jersey Shore further south of here and those barrier islands. People were told to get out of there. Most did. The problem is the devastation was quite serious. So that's the situation there.
Now, in order to provide rescue for that, they have used Atlantic City as a staging area for the Red Cross, for the National Guard, and for a number of ambulances. We saw a convoy of ambulances from Indiana that were based here and have moved out. Also utility vehicles, those buckets, a lot of those have been coming in.
You know, Carol, I was on the CNN Express. I was in the western part of Virginia the other day, and as I drove in here to cover this storm, convoy after convoy of utility trucks. That's what's happening here.
The water is all gone, as you can see. Basically, Carol, the damage here is going to be some flooding. There are some power lines down. Atlantic City, while it flooded, and I had water up to my waist, the damage is not here as much as it is in those barrier islands.
I will tell you as far as rescues go including trees and power lines, you just saw, it's still windy here. There's still some heavy, heavy -- probably a little much for people to be up fixing the wires and trees just yet.
COSTELLO: Yes. I think the winds have to be blowing less than 25 miles per hour for them to go up in those cherry pickers so they can fix the lines.
VELSHI: Right.
COSTELLO: Question for you, Mr. Businessman, because Chris Christie asked all private employers to keep employees home today. He's probably going to ask again tomorrow because the damage is that bad along the areas you were talking about in New Jersey. Guesstimate for us how much money will be lost for the state of New Jersey.
VELSHI: Hard to tell for the state of New Jersey. The best estimates we got in at the last minute yesterday were sort of in the $20 billion range. Overall in terms of economic damage, that's insured losses, those are other losses, business losses. Hard to tell what it's going to be.
Remember, Carol, as devastating as things like this are -- boy, the rain has just picked up here -- as devastating as they are, where there is rebuilding and work to be done, sometimes that offsets it. So you always have to look at a hurricane or a big storm at least six months out and look back at it to see whether there's been a net loss or a net improvement.
Obviously, that doesn't matter right now. There are people with cash flow problems. There are people who want their paychecks. So that's not something most people are thinking about immediately, but we often look back and say, you know, on balance sometimes these things are not harmful to the economy because there's so much extra work involved in rebuilding, reconstruction, and rehabilitation.
COSTELLO: I hope you're right. Ali Velshi, reporting live from Atlantic City, New Jersey.
We're going to take a quick break. We'll be back with much more in the NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: All right. We're going to join our local affiliate WABC out of New York. Live rescues going on in Little Ferry, New Jersey, where there's been a breach in a levee. Let's listen.
(BEGIN LIVE FEED)
SARA WALLACE, WABC REPORTER: -- top floor. You know, these are homes that have first floors, second floors, and then they have even an attic area. So you were just talking about massive, massive amounts of water in a very short period of time.
So here you go, let me just take this picture. You have the folks over there just -- that are getting off and again, here is the other problem now. We're getting a downpour. It's now starting to rain again.
The rescuer was talking about that storm surge. Well, this just keeps raining. So every -- wow, wait a second. Hang on, Mike, I have somebody over here who's standing on her balcony. Mike, just take a sec. Walk with me right here. See, there's a lady, she's on her deck over there and there's no way she's going anywhere. She's going to need to get rescued.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sara, how deep is the water on those --
WALLACE: I just spotted her. Well, it's -- you know, it's at least, as they're talking about, it's chest deep. I'm not going to go anywhere near there but these cars on here are submerged and I would say it's at least up to here if I'm going to walk off into the water. You don't know what's under here. You don't know where the pit falls are so it's just a very dangerous situation.
We don't wanted want that lady, for instance, or that gentleman, trying to get off their decks and come walking out of here not knowing and get stranded or we don't know what their health problems are. That's another thing is imagine the trauma and the stress that these people are going through. And a lot of them that we're seeing are elderly and as you all mentioned, those little kids, it's just a really frightening situation.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And probably didn't get any sleep last night throughout the course of the storm. Sara, I wanted to ask you, since you have been there, have you seen any of the water recede at all?
WALLACE: Now actually we're seeing it just move around, and now with this pelting rain, I think it's actually on the increase. So that's a really bad sign. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Certainly you mentioned before that some of the folks there had called 911 during the course of the night and then didn't receive any response. I do recall at some point yesterday Governor Christie saying that at some point during the height of the storm it might be too dangerous for them to even send out first responders but certainly a lot of questions as to why they didn't even get an answer at the 911 system.
WALLACE: Well, I should also point out that, you know, part of this may be that the cell phones were not able to get through. We, for instance, have had a really hard time even getting cell service to you this morning. We don't know if the system is just overloaded. That may have been part of the problem with people trying to dial out last night. We just don't know for a fact if they were unable to get through.
Wow. Sorry, guys. See, this is the problem. I just stepped off here and there's a huge drop right in the water.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: yes. Step out of there, Sara. Don't get yourself into a situation.
WALLACE: It's all right, but you just really got to watch where you're going and that's one of the reasons why you really want to make sure that --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sara, are they taking the homeowners to Teterboro? Do you know which shelter? The governor was saying that they set one up in Teterboro but I'm wondering if there are other shelters being set up nearer?
WALLACE: I don't know that. At this point, these people have actually been here for a number of hours. The only people that we can say for sure that were taken out was the lady that you saw in the stretcher who obviously was having some kind of distress and, you know. I'm going to try to do the next time we come back to you is let me get some of the people over. We'll talk to them. We'll find out some of their stories, their personal stories, but we kind of wanted to bring you the situation as it's developing right now.
Oh my gosh, we have yet another rescue over here. You know, they're pulling more and more people out, and we have yet -- you can see these guys wading through the water.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you push in on that so we can see that rescue happening right now. We can see it a little bit in the distance there. You were watching these rescues as they happen.
This is happening in Little Ferry, New Jersey. One of the neighborhoods there just inundated with water and probably about two to three dozen people have been rescued so far this morning.
Sara Wallace has been there for us throughout the morning and she's been taking us through as homeowners and their families have been brought in to higher ground. WALLACE: Yes. And you can see they're trying to bring this family right now as we're talking about it, they're wrapped in blankets. You know, obviously these people just grabbed whatever they could and the water is very deep where they are. So I'm just trying to get an eyeball here on I think we have a little boy in that raft and I'm trying to see -- an elderly person I believe in the raft that's in the foreground.
And then what they're trying to do is they're transferring them to yet another boat, so those rafts can actually be ready to go back in and pull out more people in the area that's being flooded.
Here we have rescuer putting that little boy on his back. I'll let you just -- we'll push in here Mike, and there's a baby, I believe, in his arms as well as you can see the little child in the red.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We see that little boy clinging.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It breaks your heart to see anybody in this kind of situation. These people are leaving with basically little more than the shirts on their backs and not knowing when they're going to be able to get back in their homes. I'm sure happy that they're out of that situation.
The governor was saying earlier that they've set up shelters at Teterboro and other locations nearby. Everybody is going to get out of there. That's the good news about that situation in that home.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And not only the governor saying are they going to have to supply food and water to the people who have been rescued or are needing the shelter, but a lot of these people that we're seeing, just leaving with the clothes on their backs and will need dry clothes to put on once they get to the shelters. So they are now scrambling to try to find clothes for people as well.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Go ahead, Sara.
WALLACE: You know, we're just not going to stop and talk to these people. They're too traumatic, but I have to show you. Mike pull over here for a second, we have this lady who has just been reunited with her dog. Ma'am, I'm noticing you actually are walking with your bare feet. How are you doing?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Very, very cold.
WALLACE: I'm not going to hold you back, ma'am. You got your most precious possession here, right?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
WALLACE: Are you doing all right?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. Just glad to be safe. Yes.
WALLACE: All right ma'am. Let's get you to higher ground and warmer clothes. OK. Thanks for talking to us.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A lot of these people coming out don't have shoes on their feet.
WALLACE: They don't. They must be freezing.
