Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Superstorm Aftermath; Storm Overwhelms N.J. Barrier; More Misery from Sandy in Northeast; Sandy's Impact Will be Felt Through Wednesday; Obama Frees up Aid, Consults with Governors, Mayors; Thousands Spend Night in Shelters.

Aired October 30, 2012 - 11:00   ET

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


(BEGIN LIVE FEED)

SARAH WALLACE, WABC, CHANNEL 7, REPORTER: Let's get you to higher ground and warmer clothes, OK?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.

WALLACE: Thanks for talking to us.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah, a lot of these people coming out don't have shoes on their feet.

WALLACE: They don't. I mean, it's -- they must be freezing.

(END LIVE FEED)

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, ANCHOR, "CNN NEWSROOM": New York, this is one of their live reporters on the scene right now in a place called Little Ferry, New Jersey.

There was a breach of a levee, a berm of some sort, overnight that flooded this neighborhood and a few other neighborhoods actually within moments. Almost no warning at all and many of these people have had to be rescued.

Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey took to the airwaves not long ago to talk about the state of the state in terms of the emergency and mentioned these communities, specifically, and how the live rescue is ongoing, not only by helicopter and surveillance, but as you can see, on foot and by rescue boats, as well.

Just a few moments ago, that live reporter watching as rescuers brought out a small baby, a child and an elderly woman, all at the same time.

We're going to be listening in throughout the next few moments. Let's hear what's happening now.

(BEGIN LIVE FEED)

WALLACE: ... as they always do throughout our area every time there is a major emergency and these guys are just stepping up and women stepping up to the plate.

Let me see if I can get somebody here. Gentlemen, can you -- sorry. Actually just trying to figure out if there's more coordinated effort here.

Let me just walk over one more time for you in the staging area and show you some of the faces here, Mike, if we can over in the area with some of the people who are waiting here to be rescued -- should I say, to be taken away and find emergency shelter.

You know, there's a woman who is just standing there with -- the one that we saw earlier with her dog and her little bag and she looks so cold and, you know, as we said earlier, the people holding the babies and it's just -- this picture really says, I think, so much about the devastating impact of this hurricane.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE ANCHOR: Sara, can you make out who is coordinating the effort there? Does it look like it's Little Ferry police? Or is there a county presence? A state presence?

WALLACE: It's a multi-jurisdictional task force is what we're told, and, you know, I just don't know if I can stop and get anybody here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE ANCHOR: Right because clearly they have priorities of rescuing folks.

We do hear the Coast Guard helicopter that's been hovering above you and you can only imagine they're probably surveying the damage and the extent of all the flooding from the sky and there it is right now.

Is it a Coast Guard helicopter or is it perhaps a state police helicopter?

WALLACE: You know what? I'm just trying to get this gentleman right here now, so hang on. Bear with me for one second.

Hi, Sarah Wallace, Channel 7. Can you just ...

(END LIVE FEED)

BANFIELD: As we continue to watch the pictures coming out of the local affiliate, WABC, Channel 7 in New York, as they watch those helicopters hovering and speak to those local officials about their rescue efforts, we also have the mayor of New York City.

This is a multistate emergency and the mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, is also getting ready for a live news conference to update this city, as well.

He's got a number of his staff behind him and a lot of different moving parts to the crisis, notwithstanding a terrible fire and flooding.

Let's listen.

(BEGIN LIVE FEED) MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, MAYOR, NEW YORK CITY: Lydia Callis is signing for us and thank you.

We're joined by Senator Chuck Schumer and Council Speaker Christine Quinn and we're here to update you on Hurricane Sandy which has now officially left the New York City area, but I think it's fair to say the path of destruction that she left in her wake is going to be felt for quite some time.

Make no mistake about it, this was a devastating storm, maybe the worst that we have ever experienced.

Our first-responders have been doing a heroic job protecting our city and saving lives and they are still fighting fires and conducting life-saving search-and-rescue missions and we owe them an enormous debt of gratitude.

The storm bought something like 23 serious fires to parts of Staten island, Brooklyn, Queens, as well as City Island and the Bronx. The terrible fire on Breezy Point is now under control, but we believe we lost more than 80 houses and the search-and-recovery operations there are ongoing.

If any of you saw the pictures on television, it looked like a forest fire out in the Midwest. The winds were just devastating, blowing from one building to the next one and those buildings were close together.

We are hoping and praying that there was no loss of life in those fires, but even we can -- even if we can save every life, which know many people have lost their homes and I want to know -- them to know that we have -- they have our full support in the days and weeks ahead.

The 76 shelters we opened will remain open today and we will continue to keep shelters open until people displaced by the storm can safely return to their homes or find temporary housing.

Our first priority in this storm was and continues to be protecting lives and that's why we ordered an evacuation of the areas most at risk and why we worked so hard to get people out.

Sadly, the storm claimed the lives of people throughout the region, including at least 10 in our city and, tragically, we expect that number to go up as information continues to come in.

And I did want to extend my condolences to all the families who lost loved ones in the storm and ask all New Yorkers to keep them in their thoughts and prayers.

In addition to the lives we lost, the damage we suffered across the city is clearly expensive and it will not be repaired overnight. The two biggest challenges facing our city going forward are getting our mass transit system up and running and restoring power.

This morning, we have begun the work of clearing and reopening bridges and roadways, both of which will take some time and the best ways New Yorkers can help us get this done quickly is to stay off the roads.

The work is well under way. East River bridges have already been reopened. The work of getting our mass transit grid and our power grid restored, however, is going to take more time and a lot of patience.

MTA CEO Joe Lhota has described this as the worst disaster the agency has seen in the 108 years the subways have been running and Con Ed has described the damage done to its power systems as unprecedented in scope.

So, clearly, the challenges our city faces in the coming days are enormous. The MTA and Con Ed both have very strong leaders and extraordinarily dedicated workers. They're working extremely hard and they will continue to work around the clock to get their systems fixed.

Our administration will move heaven and earth to help them so we can get back up and running as quickly as humanly possible, but the damages that they face really are enormous.

Here's the information that we have as of this moment. Regarding Con Ed and the MTA, the most recent report has approximately three- quarters of a million New Yorkers without power. There are something like 326 buildings and 59 public housing developments without power. That's about 60,000 people in more than 26,000 apartments and many of them are in Zone A.

The steam system in Manhattan south of 42nd Street was shut down as a preventative step by Con Ed. That affects heating, air conditioning, ventilation systems, including many of our hospitals and, because they shut it down preemptively, we're hopeful that the steam system can be restored fairly soon.

I spoke to Con Ed's CEO, Kevin Burke, to offer any assistance that we can provide. We will talk to him again later on, but I think it is fair to say that you should expect, given the extent of the damage, power may be out in lots of places for two or three days and maybe even a little bit longer than that.

There is extensive flooding in all under-river subway tunnels, subway yards where rail trains are typically stored also flooded, and I think that shows the wisdom of Joe Lhota in moving trains out of there to higher ground.

I don't think there was any damage done to the rolling stock, but the tunnels are flooded and that's going to be a big problem to get them back going.

Public transportation remains closed until further notice is a good way to think of it. There's no firm timeline for the reactivation of bus or train service, but I'm sure the MTA will do everything it can to have limited bus service perhaps this afternoon and hopefully we'll be able to announce or Joe Lhota will be able to announce restoration of most bus service by tomorrow.

We certainly think the roads by tomorrow will be clear and free of water.

All major airports serving the metro area are closed today. Runways are flooded and there are no flights leaving or arriving. How much damage was done to the navigation equipment and lighting around them we don't know yet.

To help people get around, I've signed an executive order that the permits cab drivers to pick up multiple passengers, even if a passenger is already in the cab. It will also allow livery and black cars to pick up passengers off the street anywhere in the city.

These measures will be in place as long as MTA service is out. If you use one of these cars, please make sure that the car has a TLC license plate.

Now, let me bring you up to date on our hospitals. We reported last night that NYU Downtown and the Manhattan Veterans Hospitals were closed. NYU Langone also had to be evacuated overnight. That is virtually complete.

Bellevue Hospital has lost power, but at the moment is going -- is operating on backup power. Coney Island Hospital has been evacuated. The Department of Health is sending people to each of the hospitals and chronic-care facilities in Zone A.

We've had significant challenges at many of our hospitals and health care facilities. Fortunately, as of now, there has been no storm- related fatalities at any of them.

There are more than 6,100 people in our emergency shelters and I'm happy to say there are more than 2,200 city staff working in those shelters right now.

A number of our shelters lost power last night, but we were able to get backup generators to those that didn't have one.

We've received almost 4,000 tree service requests since the storm began. Those are for damaged or fallen trees. The majority of those are in Queens. Let me just urge everybody, 311 for downed trees please or text 311 to report damage. They represent a real and serious danger and we've seen very tragic proof of that today.

Yesterday, a partly damaged crane at a site on West 57th Street required evacuation of the immediate vicinity. The Department of Buildings has determined that the crane is currently stable. However, we can't fully secure the crane until the wind dies down.

The procedure there, when the winds die down, would be to try to get the boom and strap it to the building and then we could reopen the streets and then over a period of time the contracting company will have to figure out a way to build a new crane on top and take that one down.

Schools, as you know, are closed today and I'm announcing they will also be closed tomorrow.

As to city employees, here is what we've told them. New Yorkers need your help today, working for the city ...

(END LIVE FEED)

BANFIELD: As the mayor moves into some of the more local issues now concerning the people of New York City, he just mentioned 1.1 million school kids out of school again today and here are the other highlights from where Mayor Bloomberg just said.

New York City is known as a traffic hub for the entire world, not today. All three airports remain closed. The three major airports, Newark and JFK and LaGuardia, those runways all flooded.

Not only that, but the public transportation this city is known for, the subways, the tunnels, many of them all still closed. The priority is to get that mass transportation system back up and running and also to get power back to the 1.5 million people -- or excuse me, at least 1.5 million people who are without power in this city. That is also a priority for the mayor as well.

He also said stabilizing that crane, which is really a perilous situation for so many people who live in that very, very concentrated neighborhood. That arm literally bent all the way from the left-hand side of your screen over to the right-bottom of your screen in those heavy winds and it is dangling and that is dozens of stories, 70 stories, above the skyline of Manhattan.

And you can imagine with gusts of wind, that is very frightening. I drove through those streets last night. They are closed off with a large vicinity, but the mayor says they can't do anything to stabilize it until it is safe. So, for now, that remains a dangerous situation.

Many faces of the super storm, unbelievable. One of them in Queens, New York, a massive fire overnight. You heard the mayor updating the number of homes, 80, 80 homes burned to the water line.

The flooding, in fact, was just hampering those efforts to fight the fire, but they seem to have gotten it under control, as the mayor just said.

Our CNN's Deb Feyerick is there in the Breezy Point neighborhood. Some of the pictures we're seeing from overnight just such a sad story. Most importantly, though, Deb, do we know that everybody got out alive?

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Ashleigh, we're having a little trouble hearing you. I know that you're talking to us here at Breezy Point.

Right now let me just bring you up to date a little bit because it looks like some of the reinforcements have arrived. You've got members of the National Guard who are here. You've got some ambulances. Firefighters are on scene. The NYPD's emergency services units are also now.

They're sending divers just to scour some of the homes closest to the water to see if anybody is inside and just to sort of assess the damage.

A lot of people have arrived really within the last 45 minutes to an hour. As you see this wind and this rain that's just kicked up, this is what's so crazy about it. You almost feel like this super storm just keeps kicking and kicking and kicking. I don't know if we have enough cord. You can see boats. They're planning on putting some boats in the water -- the bay. We shot some video earlier. I don't know if you've got that, but it really looks, Ashleigh, as if this storm just took a massive sledgehammer and just started pounding away at the homes. Some of the entire fronts completely shattered. Homes have slipped off their foundations. You've got others that are just sinking into the sand. Water continues to just to rush back out into the bay. We were walking in some of those -- the thing about Breezy Point is that you've got homes, wooden homes -- side by side. That's why you lost so many homes in one go in part because one home caught fire and then the rest just started coming down afterwards.

So, you had a combination of floods. You had a combination of fire. You know, one man said it looked like a war zone. Another man said it was almost like a mini-Hiroshima. You look and the houses have been razed to their foundation.

You've got cars that are completely burned out. We're not talking about one or two, Ashleigh. We're talking about more than 50.

The damage still has to be assessed.

Take another look, members of the National Guard here. You know, this is a very tight-knit community. Folks are trying to get into their homes. Some are able to and they're not finding too much damage, a little bit of water and flooding, but others, there's significant -- and there are those clearly who just don't even know whether their homes are still standing.

So, that's where we are -- tell you, probably about 20 after 8:00 this morning, you know, when the impact of this began to dawn, we saw this incredible rainbow that sort of lit up the sky and for a brief moment everybody paused and everybody caught their breath because it was so moving, but a lot of people right now just really trying to process this and it's hard.

BANFIELD: And, Deb, the mayor was just giving a news conference talking about the death toll, which is 10 people in the New York City area, but he said he believes that toll is expected to go up.

I don't know if you can hear me, but do you know if all of those people got out alive?

FEYERICK: No, Ashleigh, I'm having a little bit of trouble hearing you. That's one of the things. These winds are knocking out a lot.

There's no electricity, by the way. We do want to just let you know that they turned out all power here. The reason, of course -- they're flooded in --

BANFIELD: I think we're getting some signal breakup on Deb Feyerick's line and, obviously, she's having some trouble hearing. I will get that question answered for you. I think it's critical and I'm sure that they're trying to get that information, as well, as they start to go from house to house and neighbors start to confer with one another.

We're going to get a quick break in. Just before I do, though, I want to let you know we have a lot more to cover. There are a number of states that are in this emergency and millions of people without power.

More after the break.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... the Ocean Heights Marina in Egg Harbor Township, we saw another boat that had definitely ended up after Sandy in a different spot from where the boat started before Sandy because you wouldn't have parked a boat across a road like that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: All up and down the New Jersey shore there is widespread flooding in the streets and there are homes that are flooded, trees have been uprooted, and more than 2 million people in the state have no power as we speak.

Rob Marciano is live in Asbury Park, one of the places that got hit really badly, and he joins me now, live.

You're on that famed boardwalk. Give me a feel for just what it's like this morning after, Rob.

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, I can tell you we'll start with the good news. First of all, there's no serious injuries or fatalities here in Asbury, but a tremendous amount of damage.

We're at low tide now. The ocean is still churning pretty good, the sun trying to break through, but the winds are still pumping and we've got a lot of debris on not only the beach, but the boardwalk. Some ramps have been broken off.

This line of what used to be stores and probably souvenir shops, now it's just used really to store stuff. That's pretty much gone.

These holes are kind of strewn throughout the boardwalks. They're designed to pretty much relieve pressure as the water goes underneath them so that it doesn't rip the entire boardwalk off, so this stretch has done OK.

But where our cameras can't get down to the south, the southern part of this town, that part of the boardwalk has seen a tremendous amount of damage, as has part of Atlantic City and a number of likely coastal communities across Jersey, their boardwalks seeing serious damage.

Where the we're walking right now, this is where the brunt of the storm surge came through last night around 8:00, 9:00. It really started pouring down here with huge waves taking all sorts of debris, ripping up parts of the sidewalk and sea debris, as well.

Here is just a piece of concrete. We've got logs and then rocks.

These lamps, a lot of them were just completely torn off. This brick building, the backside of it seeing a decent amount of damage. So, it's going to take some time for these folks here in Asbury Park to pick up the pieces.

Two groups of senior citizens did not evacuate. They are without power, but they're OK. But, again, lots of damage here in this scene likely echoed up and down the Jersey Shore.

Ashleigh?

BANFIELD: And those groups among 2 million of their neighbors in New Jersey without power this morning.

Rob Marciano live in Asbury Park, thank you for that tour. It really helps to show how far that surge went.

We also have an update for you on a story we started telling you about yesterday. It was a crisis yesterday and it is a disaster today, the sinking of the tall ship "HMS Bounty."

You're looking at the rescue effort right now. The U.S. Coast Guard saying that the search is still ongoing for the missing captain. The captain of "The Bounty" was one of the people who was missing yesterday.

That ship went down off the outer banks. He has been identified as 63-year-old Robin Walbridge. He, with 14 crew members, were on that boat.

The 14 crew members were pulled out of the water in those dramatic rescue shots that you saw the Coast Guard and their helicopters, you know, out in this terrible weather during the hurricane, but they were forced to abandon the ship because look at the condition, the ship ultimately going down.

The Guard says that one missing deck hand, identified as Claudene Christian, was found, but we are sad to report that Miss Christian did not survive. They did recover her body and took her to the hospital, but she was pronounced dead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We'd also be watching road conditions so we can advise EMS personnel and other emergency services here is where the problems are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: There is a reason we're calling this Super Storm Sandy. It's not hyperbole. It truly is an amazing event.

Flooding isn't the only concern from Sandy. We're also watching snowfall because Sandy mixed with a cold front to produce this.

It's a blizzard, and it's a dangerous one. It's one of the reasons we have so much coverage that extends inland, as well.

CNN's Martin Savidge is in Kingwood, West Virginia, about 100 miles south of Pittsburgh, and the snowfall there, I have been watching you all morning, it looks as though you're in the Rockies. What's the expectation where you are?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ashleigh, I mean the expectation is anywhere from a foot, with he clearly have that already, you can just take a look, but it could be two feet, it could be three feet, depending where you are in the upper elevations of the state of West Virginia.

And right now we're under a blizzard warning. Pretty easy to see why. It may look like fog, but this is actually heavy snow that's coming down.

On top of that, we're also dealing with very strong winds. That's why we're under a high-wind warning, and then if you can believe it, we're also under a flood warning. So it's a triple whammy here.

And this snow is the really thick, heavy kind which is the problem when you look out there because you've got the high winds blasting into the trees. They're getting knocked about. These ones are doing OK, but we went down the road a bit and it is very, very difficult driving.

Plus, the tree limbs are coming down. They're exploding literally, the branches, and cascading down. That is just making it extremely dangerous to be out, dragging down the power lines.

Power is out for the entire area here and also for about 240,000 people in the state of West Virginia, so truly very difficult.

But, you know, that's what's so amazing about this storm is that yesterday you saw it coming ashore, the storm surge. Up in the mountains this is what it looks like and it's a full-blown blizzard all the way through today, maybe even through tomorrow, depending on what area of the state. Many of the roads impacted.

I could go on and on, but you can see for yourself.

BANFIELD: It's amazing, Martin. You know, look, you and I grew up in Canada and there are a lot of communities that can handle snow like that, but you're in West Virginia.

Are they -- do they have what it takes to clear that, let alone the flooding that's now possible?

SAVIDGE: Yeah, no, they do. I mean, these areas are accustomed to heavy snow. They just aren't accustomed to getting it, say, the day before Halloween.

If you want to talk about any bright spot, and maybe we should just to try to lift some people's spirits, there are a couple ski resorts, including Snowshoe which is a big one about two hours to the south, they actually plan to or think they can open.

If they do, it would be about the earliest opening they have ever had. That's the good side of the storm, but otherwise, it is predominantly bad and here getting worse, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: CNN's Martin Savidge in the midst of a blizzard in the midst of a super storm. Thank you, Martin. Keep us posted on those storm levels and the snow and the flooding, of course, as well.

Several hundred thousand people, as Martin mentioned, are without power in West Virginia and this is not going to come as a surprise to you. This is just one of many areas that has been declared by the president as a disaster area.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We thought it was going to be a normal old, good Florida hurricane and then we started looking at the weather and things aren't the same as a normal hurricane.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: I want to take you back now to that story we began our newscast covering, that berm that was simply no match for Superstorm Sandy. Overnight, in a span of 30 minutes, several New Jersey communities just west of Manhattan actually were under five feet of water. Again, it didn't take long for five feet of water to consume these neighborhoods.

The governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, just spoke to reporters within the last hour.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS CHRISTIE, (R), GOVERNOR OF NEW JERSEY: Team units from central and south to Union Beach. Middletown, Belmar and Manasquan are beginning search-and-rescue operations. We saw significant tidal flooding in several areas. Everywhere from Jersey City to New York bay area, Sayreville, 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: CNN's Maggie Lake is at an evacuation center within that community right now.

Tell me what you're seeing where you are, Maggie.

MAGGIE LAKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ashleigh, we are seeing people pour in still from emergency vehicles that are being rescued from their homes. I want to turn to a family that just got out of one of those vehicles. They were rescued from Moonachie.

What can you tell us? What happened?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Last night, we were about to go to sleep and actually we were like in the bed and my husband heard something loud and he woke up, and he saw in the backyard, and I think he realized that water started to come in the house and we just ran downstairs. And I checked the garage door and like literally we have in the five minutes we actually took out the stuff as much as we can.

LAKE: It came up very quickly.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just five to 10 minutes like the whole ground floor was flooded.

LAKE: now you have been waiting all night to be rescued. You're here with your two children, who are being so brave about this. You just drove in on the truck. How scared were you?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was scared last night really. And I was about to say that like we actually tried to call in the town but nothing was working last night and in the morning I think my husband called two people and let them know that we were in the house And we actually scared. And some people responded that, OK, somebody will be there and they will take you out.

LAKE: thank goodness he was able to get a call out because cell phones -- how much water is still near your house and how were you taken out, by boat, by truck?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The water you mean?

LAKE: How high was the water?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Like now, it's almost like one foot, I think, I would say in the house.

LAKE: In the house. And how were you and your family evacuated? How did you get guys get out?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We --

LAKE: On a boat? Did a boat come get you?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.

LAKE: In a truck?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

LAKE: Ashleigh, they're being very brave. You can imagine children this small.

Just very quickly, before I let go, where is your husband now? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's in the house with my mother-in-law and father-in-law and one nephew I have in the house.

LAKE: And they're waiting to be rescued?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

LAKE: OK, we're going to let you go, tell authorities where they are.

Thank you so much.

Ashleigh, the difficult thing about this, these people are coming off, some of them barefoot, just holding a diaper bag. They were not able to bring any items out of the home with them.

BANFIELD: That leads me to ask you, what about the earthen barrier that was breached? We still have high tides and flooding concerns for these communities. Is anyone fixing it and will they be able to get those neighborhoods back to at least a condition where they can go and get their things?

LAKE: Not even close to that, Ashleigh. From what I understand from a Bergen County executive we spoke to earlier, they're not even exactly sure why this happened. This is not a zone that sees this type of flooding. There was no evacuation called. This took them completely by surprise. Their best guess is it was multiple factors combined that caused this. Right now, they're not doing any repairs. They are strictly on search and rescue. No fatalities so far but they do not believe they have all the people out.

We are watching these trucks still stream in full of people. They say they will go house to house until they get everyone.

BANFIELD: Let's hope these numbers stay where you said they were with no fatalities.

Maggie Lake live for us in Teterboro with the rescue efforts ongoing there.

More in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED CORRESPONDENT: This spot right here is considered to be one of the most vulnerable spots for flooding not only today, not only this morning, potentially later today and into Thursday and Friday as a wall of water comes in from Pennsylvania. I will tell you though, we are buttoned up tight here. The floodwalls are up in Georgetown and the waterfront and they're going to stay up during this situation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: What a situation. Just a remarkable series of events that this map, which may look innocuous to you, but on the ground in reality has been deadly and very, very damaging.

I want to update something that we told you at the top of the hour. Mayor Bloomberg said all three New York area airports are closed. And I can tell you that at least one of those airports, LaGuardia, will not be opening at least tomorrow. According to the governor, Andrew Cuomo, of New York, there's been extensive damage to New York's LaGuardia Airport. And if you have ever landed there, you know it is right at sea level. So the chances are that flooding may not just affect the runways, as Mayor Bloomberg was suggesting, all three runways for all three airports were flooded, there may be damage to the structure of that airport as well. We'll continue to watch that for you.

In the meantime, the destruction elsewhere has been inflicting misery from West Virginia to the western Great Lakes. That is a huge swath. The death tolls have been sort of moving and they are a difficult target, but we can tell you 16 deaths definitely confirmed, solidly confirmed, since this one-time hurricane hit the New Jersey coast last evening. 7.5 million homes and businesses without power in 15 states and the District of Columbia. Hundreds of people in northern New Jersey and New York City are surrounded by floodwaters. Many of them are having to be rescued.

And when we talk about misery, consider this, a disabled waste water plant in Maryland, it is spewing two million gallons of raw sewage every hour, two million gallons every hour into the river. So that's another crisis they are looking to resolve as soon as possible.

Natural disaster of this magnitude, the Sandy situation, it really leaves many people in awe of the extraordinary efforts to help those people who are in the direct path of danger. And that was the case at New York University Langone Medical Center last night. Among the 260 patients who were evacuated after the center lost power yesterday, four tiny newborn babies, each of them on a respirator. You can see the nurse holding that baby. Those nurses had to hand-pump those respirators so those babies could breathe. There was no power because the basement was flooded. And some of those babies had to be carried down nine flights of stairs. There's 15 flights at that hospital, so you can imagine just how perilous that is for those who were trying to save those little babies and get them to a safer place. At times the only light source going down those stairs were just flashlights. And New York University says that it didn't anticipate that there was going to be such heavy flooding from this hurricane. It didn't evacuate all the patients before the storm hit. Most of the hospital's power was knocked out because the basement and the lower floors and the elevator shaft filled up with up to 12 feet of water. One hospital official says the flooding was simply unprecedented.

Sandy is still a very dangerous storm as well. For some, the worst isn't even over yet, I am so sorry to report.

Meteorologist Alexandra Steele has had a busy time trying to track what's been happening and what is about to happen. She's in the extreme weather center for us. So who needs to be worried now? We've got so much damage that we're reporting.

You need to take us forward, Alexandra, if you can.

ALEXANDRA STEELE, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Absolutely. We know the damage, the destruction, the death, the flooding. This storm going down in the history books on myriad fronts from the surface pressure, i.e., the energy of it, through the rainfall, the snowfall totals. So we know the damage that's been done. So where is it going? Right now the latest advisory has it down from 65-mile-per-hour peak winds to 45. That's a good thing. This number, too, though coming down not such a good thing. This is the movement, west at 10 miles per hour. Again, continuing to slow, and that is not good. Meaning it will take a long time for this to get out. So here is a look at the radar. Nine inches of rain on the eastern flank, the tropical flank of this. Nine inches at the very least on the western flank of this. More snow in Charleston, West Virginia, with eight inches, than they typically see with October, November and December combined.

Today through tomorrow, by tomorrow, it's only in western New York. As we head from Thursday into -- Wednesday night into Thursday, it's in western New York. Western Pennsylvania to western New York, still though even on Thursday, Ashleigh, Washington, New York seeing wind gusts 20 to 30 miles per hour. It's not until the weekend this thing filly moves out and our winds completely subside. It's going to take a while.

BANFIELD: Did you just say up to 30 miles an hour for New York City? I'm just thinking of that because of that crane that's still dangling up there.

STEELE: Absolutely. Without a doubt. Even today, winds still gusting at LaGuardia. Earlier, 59 miles per hour. And it's moving so slowly away that the winds are slowly going to subside. They will subside, but because it's going so slowly, it will take a few days.

BANFIELD: Hopefully, we can get someone up at the 70-story building to secure that sooner rather than later.

Alexandra Steele, live for us, thank you. Keep an eye on things, if you would.

Also, I know if you have been watching this, it's probably been a lot to take in and a lot to process, especially if you're a long way away from the storm, but you can help. And people really do need your help. So if you want to reach out, we have a great way for to you do it. Check out CNN.com/impact. Again, CNN.com/impact if you want to help out your fellow Americans who are in need right now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: So once again the job of being president is crowding out the job of seeking the presidency. One short week before the election, President Obama is occupied instead with disaster relief and disaster response.

And CNN's Dan Lothian has been watching how this has been unfolding at the White House. This is obviously a delicate situation for any candidate who is on the stump, and the stump hasn't even been mentioned. Tell me what the president is doing at the White House, Dan.

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: It is a delicate balance. Just to tell you that noise behind me, the leaf blowers, working here to clean up some of the leaves and branches knocked down in the wake of the storm. So I'm competing with that sound.

But to your point, the president has been getting briefed on the situation with surrounding Hurricane Sandy, and at the same time trying to figure out when he'll be heading back out on the campaign trail. The latest word from the White House now, in fact the president will not be heading back out tomorrow. He'll stay here at the White House. The president was to have gone to Ohio, an important battleground state, to campaign tomorrow. That has been put on hold so the president can continue to get briefed, stay on top of the situation.

He wrapped up not long ago video conference from the White House Situation Room with a number of top senior members of his team, including Defense Secretary Panetta. Also Secretary Geithner updating the president on the financial markets. Vice President Biden, we're told, also on that call.

Based on the readout from the White House, the president got a sense of the coordination ongoing between the federal government, state, local officials. The president also promising that the federal government will continue to assist in any way possible. This comes in the wake of calls that the president has had with state governors and other local officials overnight and the impacted areas, New Jersey and New York, also declaration -- disaster declarations that were assigned for New York and New Jersey, and emergency declarations for additional states including Virginia and West Virginia. So the situation remains fluid.

Unclear beyond Wednesday when the president will be heading back out on the campaign trail. It's a critical time, days to go before Election Day, so the president, the campaign, they want to get back out to encourage early voting and perhaps try to deliver their closing arguments for those voters out there still undecided in those critical battleground states.

BANFIELD: Dan, I'll tell you what, as if to say politics does come to a screeching halt in the face of disaster. Republican Governor Chris Christie lauding the president's efforts, the disaster relief today, maybe not something that everyone expected but it's a relief to us to not have to hear campaigning on a day like this.

Dan Lothian live at the White House. Thank you.

I let you know exactly what Mitt Romney is doing as well today. He rebranded what was to be the campaign rally in Ohio. Instead it's called a storm relief event. He's in the town of Kettering, the suburb of Dayton, Ohio. And alongside him is his list of the A-list guests that were scheduled to attend the same venue. The time has changed. The tone has changed. Race car driver, Richard Petty, is there. Country music star, Randy Owen, is there.

Mitt Romney spoke a few moments ago. We will re-rack the comments and let you know what he said about the victims of Superstorm Sandy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY, (R), FORMER MASSACHUSETTS GOVERNOR & PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The trucks, send them into I think New Jersey, as a site that we've identified that can take the goods, distribute to people who need them.

We won't be able to solve all of our problems with the effort. A lot of people will be looking for goods though we've gathered these things, as you know. I know that one of the things I've learned in life is, that you make the difference you can. And you can't always solve all of the problems yourself but you can make the difference in the life of one or two people as a result.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: By the way, the vice presidential candidate, Paul Ryan, has a down day today in Wisconsin.

Much more still ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We jumped on a truck to go to a structure fire because the regular engines couldn't make it down the street we started pulling people out trapped in homes. And it was rising in their house and they wanted to get out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Very, very brave first responders have been working very long shifts in a lot of states and helping people, who today find themselves displaced.

Thank God for the Red Cross, is all I'm going to say as I introduce our next guest. She's joining me live on the telephone now, Anne Marie Borrego, the director.

Anne Marie, if you can hear me, can you give me a status update in terms of number of people, shelters and how you're managing?

ANNE MARIE BORREGO, DIRECTOR, RED CROSS (via phone): Sure. Thanks for asking, Ashleigh. We actually had almost 11,000 people spend Monday night in more than 250 Red Cross shelters across 16 states. We believe numbers could increase as the storm moves into Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, and Milwaukee with heavy wind, rain, and snow.

BANFIELD: 11,000 people. How long can you manage with that many people? BORREGO: We can manage as long as need. Of course we couldn't do the work we do without the help of the American people. Put in a plug for donations, I'd appreciate that.

BANFIELD: Absolutely. 1-800-red-cross is on the bottom of our screen I want to let you know.

BORREGO: Great. Thank you. They can also donate texting Red Cross to 90999, or they can go to our web site at redcross.org.

BANFIELD: I want to ask you something else developing last night. As I was in the field, I heard word could be a blood shortage because there were so many blood drives that had to be canceled because of the disaster that was looming. Is this really a looming crisis?

BORREGO: Well, we did pre-ship some blood to the east coast in advance of the storm. You're correct. We've had nearly 300 Red Cross blood drives that have been canceled due to the storm. We're expecting more will be canceled as well. This represents a loss of as many as 9,000 units of blood and platelet products. We're asking people eligible to give blood, especially in places not affected in the storm, schedule a blood donation now.

BANFIELD: Anne Marie Borrego, thanks for joining us, and for all of the work you and the volunteers are doing to help out.

If you want to help out or get information about those affected by Hurricane Sandy, you can go to 1-800-red-cross or go to CNN.com/impact. We have a lot of different connections for you to help neighbors as well.

And don't forget, we're working hard to confirm number of people who have lost their lives and millions of people without power who are struggling to get their lives back up and running again.

In the meantime, I hand the baton over to my colleague, Suzanne Malveaux, getting things under way in NEWSROOM.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: And welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Suzanne Malveaux. I want to welcome international viewers.

Our teams and reporters and correspondents covering this story like no other network can. This is CNN continuing live coverage of Superstorm Sandy.