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Storm Overwhelms NJ Levee; Fire Devastates Queens Community; Millions Left With No Electricity; Candidates Turn Attention To Storm

Aired October 30, 2012 - 12:00   ET

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

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Suzanne Malveaux. Want to welcome our international viewers. Our teams of reporters, correspondents covering this story like no other network can. This is CNN continuing live coverage of Superstorm Sandy.

We are talking about flooding, fires, massive power outages, all the result of Sandy's devastating assault along the Mid-Atlantic. At least 21 people have died in the United States from this storm. Right now more than 7.5 million customers in 15 states and D.C. have no electricity. According to some early projections, damage from the storm could be between $10 billion and $20 billion.

In New Jersey, rescue crews have been plucking people off rooftops after a natural levee broke and flooded three towns in Bergen County. In Queens, New York, fire destroyed dozens of homes. At least 50 burned to the ground. Another 30 were on fire. And the head of the New York Transit Authority says the city's subway system is facing the biggest disaster in its history, including flooded tunnels and power outages.

Now, just a short time ago, we heard from New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, (I) NEW YORK CITY: 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: We certainly do.

And happening right now in New Jersey, a natural earthen berm, a levee, near the town of Moonachie, has given way. Now, if you know this area, this is west of Manhattan, on the New Jersey side, right next to Teterboro Airport. And several nearby communities, including Little Ferry, they are now under water.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE, (R) NEW JERSEY: In Moonackie, Little Ferry, we've dispatched state and federally supported teams to assist in rescues and are providing shelters to those in need.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Our Maggie Lake, she has made her way there. She is at a shelter. And talk a little bit about what you have seen. You've just arrived. How big is this rescue effort and what are people facing that they really need the most?

MAGGIE LAKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Suzanne, it is big and it's being coordinated not only across Bergen County officials, rescue officials, but also the National Guard, state police. We have been seeing people pour in all morning that are being rescued from that area.

I want to talk -- turn right now to a relative who is waiting for some of his people, family, that are trapped in that area still. Leno (ph) joins us. He doesn't live there.

But, Leno (ph), who is there and what are you most worried about?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who's there? My parents, aunts, uncles, pregnant cousin due tomorrow. So it's kind of crazy.

LAKE: Now, you're from that area. Have they ever experienced anything like this? And have you heard from them? How nervous and scared are they?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, my parents say they're OK. They're on the top floor. Cars are floating around. But they were fine during Irene. I want. I live right across the river there. But, yes, they were just -- their -- they say they're fine now, but I said just get over here. I'll take you home.

LAKE: Any word on when they're going to come out? Do the officials -- are they going for them in boats or trucks? Do you know when they're going to arrive here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, it looks staggered. I got one aunt already. I took her to one of my cousin's house. But, yes, it's just, you know, go outside and kind of try to flag someone down.

LAKE: Right. Yes, it's a little hard to get information. Leno (ph), best of luck to you.

And, Suzanne, this has really been the case. Officials are doing the best they can, but it's hard to keep tabs of who's here and who's not. We see the cars streaming in all the time as people go in. there is water here. There are towels. There's some dry clothes. These people are coming of these trucks and boats with just the clothes on their back, maybe a small bag. Some of them have no shoes. So they're trying to get them as much as they need.

Officials from the Teterboro Airport came over looking for someone saying, we've got supplies, we want to help you out and give you some supplies. You can imagine the officials more than happy to hear that. But these residents are absolutely shocked. They were not expecting this. This was not an evacuation zone.

Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: And, Maggie, I can relate to your guest there. You know, after Hurricane Katrina, what that is like to actually try to search for your relatives. It takes days and days and days to figure out where folks are and to sort it all out.

LAKE: Yes.

MALVEAUX: This is a search and rescue effort. Are we assuming that the people that they are trying to get to and find are OK? That they are alive, that they are not injured, that are in fairly decent condition?

LAKE: Yes. The last we talked to executives here, from the county, there were no fatalities. They felt fairly confident about that. Of course until they get in there themselves and see, we're not going to have final word on that. But we're keeping our fingers crossed.

Most of the people, we do have a little bit of cell phone -- it's spotty, but there is cell phone coverage, which helps a lot. Of course, there is no power. And we were just speaking to another woman before who said they had jet skis that they had stored for the winter in their yard. Her husband took it out. He was ferrying people around to dry land, coming back here. And the people coming in are reporting about who's left, neighbors that need help. So that is certainly helping.

Daylight is very important, Suzanne, as you know. So officials here scrambling to do house-to-house searches while they still have light because there is no power in this area.

Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: All right, Maggie, thank you very much. And, Maggie, we're just learning now, CNN confirming an update on the death toll from this Superstorm Sandy now at 26 people who have perished here in the United States from this superstorm.

We are also watching a dangerous situation that still exists in New York. It is a construction crane that is on top of a luxury skyscraper. It is dangling over West 57th Street. This is in Manhattan. We've been watching this very closely because this crane partially collapsed yesterday during these high winds that they experienced during Sandy and left this giant arm hanging over the street below. A lot of people very worried, very scared about this.

So authorities, they closed the street. They evacuated this area, including a nearby hotel. Now, the city is working with structural engineers to figure out what are they going to do about this? How are they actually going to secure that dangling crane.

No disaster has ever hit the New York subway system this hard. That is according to the chairman of the Metropolitan Transit Authority who says this system is 108 years old. Never -- he has never seen devastation like this. Seven tunnels under the East River are flooded. You can see the East River crossings between Manhattan and Brooklyn right there. Now the pictures are showing flood water spilling out of an elevator shaft into a train station.

This is Hoboken, New Jersey. It could actually take up to four days to get all that water out of the flooded tunnels. You can imagine that. It is not going to recede on its own, so it's actually going to have to be pumped out.

As for vehicles that are actually going under the Hudson River, the Lincoln Tunnel is open today, but the Holland Tunnel is still closed.

Now let's head to Queens, New York. What is happening right now in the neighborhood of Breezy Point, really heartbreaking. At least -- at least 80 homes have now burned to the ground. Families, as you can imagine, are absolutely devastated. They're in shock by all of this.

Our Deborah Feyerick, she is there. And, Deb, very quickly, if you could tell us how this happened in the first place and what are people doing today?

I understand that -- Deb, can you hear us?

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Suzanne. We're having a little bit of trouble hearing you. I hope you can hear us. We are joined by T.J. Gilmartin. You came to check on your brother's house. Tell us specifically what you're seeing.

T.J. GILMARTIN, NEW YORK RESIDENT: Total destruction. One hundred percent, 110 percent destruction, everything.

FEYERICK: What does it look like when you're walking there? Are there any (AUDIO BREAK).

GILMARTIN: It's nothing and it's one cluster of homes. And every house along the side that's still up is totally -- is damaged. Every one. They're off their foundations. The windows -- houses are sitting this way.

FEYERICK: When you heard that the damage was going to be pretty severe here, did you have any expectation of what was going to come?

GILMARTIN: No. As I was walking back there, and I'm saying, wow, nice house, good house, good house, good house, could be fine. Got to his block and this one cluster of three blocks (AUDIO BREAK) destroyed. Every -- I mean there is nothing, nothing left. Even the sidewalk is ripped up.

FEYERICK: The firefighters were trying to fight those fires. Did you speak to any of them? I know you're a first responder of Ground Zero.

GILMARTIN: I'm a first responder, but I'm a construction shop steward building high rises. I'm not a -- these are all my friends. We went lobbying to Washington with. But --

FEYERICK: OK.

GILMARTIN: Did I speak to anybody? No.

FEYERICK: All right.

GILMARTIN: No. I walked up to the house, took a few pictures and I'm going to e-mail them to my brother.

FEYERICK: All right. All right. T.J. Gilmartin, thank you so much.

GILMARTIN: Take care.

FEYERICK: You know, and this is -- this is what's happening. People are just trying to come back. We saw a number of folks who their homes were standing, Suzanne. They were able to get a couple of things and get out. They were carrying bags. They were carrying coolers. And then they were just leaving.

We spoke to one gentlemen. He, his wife and three young children weathered this storm. He was incredibly shaken. Could not believe that he had not listened to the warnings having lived through what he lived through. So very shaky.

You know, some of the homes, they just look as if a sledgehammer was taken to the front of the homes, the sides of the homes. They're off their foundations. The fronts are completely shattered. So this is a community that's going to have to do a lot of rebuilding, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: All right, Deb, we certainly wish them the very best. That is a very big, big job ahead there.

And we had heard from the head of FEMA earlier, the director of FEMA, Craig Fugate, who is warning folks that this is not yet over.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRAIG FUGATE, DIRECTOR, FEMA: This is not over. We still have more weather to deal with. Hopefully people will be able to stay safe until we can get to the other side of this storm.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Power crews have fanned out across the northeast and the Mid-Atlantic. They are trying to restore electricity to the millions left without power because of this storm. The storm caused record outages in an area that stretches across more than a dozen states, as well as the nation's capital.

Alison Kosik, she is actually tracking all the power problems. And, Alison, this number seems to grow by the hour. How many people are we talking about who actually don't have any power?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I was just going to say that. Yes, and these numbers are getting bigger by the hour. They're up to 7.5 million customers now without any power. This includes 15 states. That includes -- that's up, actually, from 13 this morning because we've got two new states in the mix. That's Ohio and South Carolina. It's because this storm is so big. The wind covers a 1,000-mile swath. And that's why you're seeing these other states being included.

It was New jersey, though, that was hit the hardest. Two million people are without power. No surprise there because Sandy made landfall there. Of course there's New York, also hit pretty hard. ConEd saying at this point that it's the biggest storm related outage in its history.

Now, during the storm, we got an idea of just how bad it was going to be. We saw lots of flashes of transformers blowing. At this point, much of lower Manhattan is still without power. And it's in these low- lying areas where all of this massive flooding happened. And, you know what? For some, Suzanne, it's worst-case scenario. You look at one hospital here, NYU Langone Medical Center, power went out there. Patients were evacuated. Even some shelters here in New York City temporarily lost power last night, but then got the power going again.

Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: Yes, we heard that from the mayor earlier this morning that there were actually shelters that had lost power and, fortunately, had it restored because of those backup generators. Do you have any sense, Alison, because this the one question that everybody's asking, especially in New York, is when are they going to get the power back?

KOSIK: Yes, it really is the magic question, isn't it. And if you're without power, you ask that every minute of the day. And it really depends on what area you're in, how extensive the damage is. We -- as you said, we heard from New York City -- the New York City mayor, Michael Bloomberg. What -- it really is one of the city's two biggest challenges, besides getting public transportation up and running, is restoring power.

And, you know, at this point it's because so many places were hit. Most people are saying it could be days before you see the power going back on. And the reality is, this is a process. You know, what really has to be done is a determination needs to be, OK, who needs the power on most first? So you see these crews, they go to hospitals and 911 centers and shelters and water treatment facilities. You go to the most important places first, then they trickle on down to the residential areas that were hit the hardest.

Got some good news for you to leave you with. Some power has been restored in Delaware, Maryland. And that's partially because -- and for a lot of these places, you know, because a lot of steps were taken before the storm hit, that could help things get back on line faster. We can only hope.

Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: Yes. Alison, we're looking at these pictures here, unbelievable just how dangerous the situation can be when you've got those downed power lines. This is in New Jersey, some of these pictures that we're seeing.

KOSIK: And that's ...

MALVEAUX: Clearly ...

KOSIK: And that's also why, if you start walking outside your house and you're in a lot of water, you can't see what's on the ground, so you've got to really, really be careful. You don't know what your foot's going to run into.

MALVEAUX: Yeah, leave it up to the professionals to take care of all that.

KOSIK: Exactly.

MALVEAUX: All right, Alison, thank you. Appreciate it.

There could be millions of people in the storm's path that are stuck inside with no power, so we're going to find out how one is actually doing.

This is George Nikolis. He is one of our iReporters and he sent us a pretty compelling video showing incredibly strong winds. This is along the Hudson River outside his Jersey City apartment. This is just yesterday.

And George is with us via Skype, I believe. George, unbelievable when you look at what you were dealing with, just the power of the wind and the force of that water.

I understand that you're OK. You've got food, you've got water, a backup generator, but yesterday, you actually saw the Hudson River rushing into your apartment building. Is that right?

GEORGE NIKOLIS, CNN IREPORTER: It is. That is correct.

I mean, it was unbelievable sight to just watch the Hudson rise and it rose so quickly. When that storm surge came in at around 7:00, it was just a rush of water coming down Second Street which we live on between Newport and Exchange Place, and it was wild.

All then, all of the sudden, we had to race upstairs to the sixth floor where there's a common area because the water came into the lobby. Now, we're trapped in the apartment.

MALVEAUX: And, George, I understand it was you and your fiancee. You were rushing to try to get to safety. What happened next?

NIKOLIS: Well, at that point, they said we can't leave the building because there was water in the lobby, so we -- and then we had stayed on the sixth floor which is a common area which was well above-ground.

And then some of the neighbors, we were told some of their windows had blown out, so then we were a little concerned whether or not to go upstairs for fear, if the windows were to blow in, then what do we do?

MALVEAUX: What are you doing today? Where are you now and how are you living?

NIKOLIS: Well, luckily, fortunately, this building does have a backup generator, so we actually are one of the fortunate folks that have power, which is good.

And we have been just watching the news and just, you know, taking in all of this footage of all of the destruction. We just can't believe what we're seeing. It's -- it really is unbelievable what happened.

MALVEAUX: Are you able to get out of your building? Has the water cleared from your lobby?

NIKOLIS: No. We were told we cannot leave because so much water had gotten into the lobby that it's dangerous for us to go downstairs for fear that the wires -- there could be some electrical issues and they don't want us going down there. It's dangerous.

So, they said stay put. The elevators are not working. They don't have the elevators working and we're just hunkering down here in our apartment, waiting for word for when we can leave.

MALVEAUX: Have they told you at all, did they give you any guidance on when that might be? Or they're just telling you, hold on and wait as long as possible and then we'll get back to you?

NIKOLIS: They said just be patient. They're short-staffed right now. I guess it's very difficult for some of the other staff people to get here and we're just waiting for word.

They made an announcement on the p.a. about two hours ago and said just please be patient and we'll give you further notice when you can leave.

But they even told us that I think there's a curfew going on in Jersey City and that we're not allowed to go out. I can't confirm that, obviously, but they said to stay inside until further notice.

MALVEAUX: There is a curfew, as a matter of fact, George. How much food do you have for how many days? You guys set?

NIKOLIS: Yeah, we're set for food, food-wise. We're just concerned how we're going to get to work. I mean, we saw those pictures from the Hoboken PATH Station.

My fiancee and I take the PATH to work every day and we just don't know when we're going to be able to get to work, if we're going to be able to get to work, because it appears -- apparently, the subway system and the PATH was under water last night.

MALVEAUX: George, what do you do there? Is your office still up and running now at this point?

NIKOLIS: Well, my company was very nice and they said to work remotely. They call us "wireless professionals," so we actually are able to do work from home for now. But they said to be -- safety was first with my company and that was nice. They said that in an e-mail, just be safe, and my boss has been checking up on us, saying, just be careful, be safe. And, you know, he's been checking in on us pretty good.

MALVEAUX: All right, George, that's a good boss. We're going to be checking in with you on a regular basis if you don't mind. We love your reports. We love your pictures and, clearly, we want to follow your story and see how you guys are holding up there, as the days go on, and, hopefully, you'll be able to get out, but get out safely.

Thanks again, George. Really appreciate it.

We've got reporters everywhere along the storm's path and, you know, we've got you to help tell this story with your iReports.

Want you to take a look at what the storm did. This is in Dover, New Jersey. Our iReporter there says he's in the house. He heard the wind howling, went outside and this is what he found, the flooding from the Jersey's Long Beach Island.

Our iReporter documented these scenes near his family summer home.

We always want to get these pictures, want to hear from you, but we want you to be safe, as well, so please don't put yourself at risk.

Go to our website, CNN.com/ireport, to see more or to share your own stories.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Got a number of updates from New York here. This from Fire Island, New York, some of the residents whose chose not evacuate earlier in the week are now surrounded by floodwaters. That is according to a Suffolk County, New York, official who has told CNN about the condition that is taking place there.

One of them saying, it was mandatory evacuation as of 2:00 p.m. on Sunday. Monday morning, they were able to rescue 14 people from Fire Island. Believe there are now about 60 people who are stranded on Fire Island.

What's going on is some air surveillance that is taking place by the Coast Guard to see what is happening with residents to make sure they're safe. They don't have any power. And this happened after this mandatory evacuation.

The water supply, also, we understand, is contaminated and, so, not a good situation for those folks who decided to stay there on Fire Island. And certainly the hope is that they will be rescued shortly.

We've also got more information, Metropolitan Transit Authority, this is coming out of New York. They are restoring now -- MTA's restoring limited bus service that is going to take place. This is starting at 5:00 this evening. The fares are going to be waived for the first time. And, according to official Twitter account for the public transportation provider, all of this is happening about 5:00 p.m. and, again, restoring limits bus service in the city. If you need to get around, that start as at 5:00.

And if you still have any doubts that about Super Storm Sandy's power, take a look, the moment to look at this photo here. This is a huge tanker sitting on the shore of Staten Island. It moved.

Listen to WABC reporter Michelle Charlesworth describe what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHELLE CHARLESWORTH, WABC REPORTER: This a giant, 160-foot, 700-ton tanker that was just picked up by the Narrows and dumped here on Front Street.

We are on Front Street in Staten island and, if I show you, this is the Narrows here. You can see the water coming in. There's lower Manhattan and then we swing around to show Brooklyn and this is the Verrazano Narrows Bridge.

Now, this tanker came from about a mile away from a marina that has just been chopped to bits.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: It's an unbelievable situation when you see that there on the shore. Two tugboats being called in to try to help remove the tanker.

And the Super Storm Sandy is causing chaos for flyers, as well. Transportation, the New York area airports are still closed today. Just heard that LaGuardia -- it's -this one is the one located in Queens. It's not expected to open Wednesday because of extensive damage.

Richard Quest, here, here, during this week of all weeks, you're here to explain, you know, if people can come, if they can go.

RICHARD QUEST, HOST, CNN INTERNATIONAL'S "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS": All the airports, the crucial point to note is that all the major airports, New York, Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark are closed and they're likely to remain so for some time to come.

Come, let me show you over, if I may, at the super screen and you will see what I mean. This just makes the point, as if you needed it to be made any clearer. Kennedy, LaGuardia, Newark closed. Serious delays elsewhere as a result, of course, of the knock-on effects.

But we are talking, primarily, about LaGuardia and this is why. Now, anyone who knows the runways at LaGuardia, 14-22, 13-31, they are the two runways of New York's premier, if you like, domestic airport. Some 24 million passengers, although it doesn't rate in the top 50, globally, in the United States, this is one of the core airports in the transit system. And I want you to just look at how these actually runways are. They come in this way, this way and, of course, this way. Anybody who has flown into LaGuardia knows that this one is that stomach-churning, left-hand turn as you come in over that way and they are all around water.

Now, when they say extensive damage, I'm guessing not only flooding on the actual runways themselves, which will be pretty serious -- you don't want to land 100 tons of metal on dubious ground, but look at the pontoons of the airport. They are actually over water.

And then, you have -- just to change of colors -- then you have out here all of the navigation equipment outside the airport.

This is why LaGuardia is probably going to be the most seriously affected of all the runways of all of the airports for the time being.

Moving on, if I can just move over there, you can see nationally at the moment, still the picture in the United States, lots of traffic in the rest of country. Boston is now starting to pick up again.

Traffic is now moving into Boston. They have to get planes in before they can get them out and that's a similar situation with Washington Dulles. There has been a lack of traffic in those airports because what they do, of course, is, when they know there's a hurricane coming, the airline flies the planes out. Now, they have to bring them back.

LaGuardia will not be operational, I'm guessing, for days.

MALVEAUX: A lot of people are going to be stuck right where they are for days to come.

QUEST: Absolutely. Because, not only that, (INAUDIBLE) -- you and I have talked about (INAUDIBLE). Amtrak's not running. Greyhound's not running. It will pick up slowly, but for the time being, no one is going anywhere.

MALVEAUX: All right, then you'll probably stick around here for a while, I imagine.

All right, thank you, Richard. Appreciate it.

Want to get some live pictures here for you to watch. This is out of New York. This is our affiliate, WABC. What we are watching here, major -- there was some major flooding there. They're giving an update on some of the rescues there. Let's listen in.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... and, like I said, this area, this town, I was told there was 10,500 people in Little Ferry alone and we have a couple of thousand, I think, will be taken out of this area alone.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right, we'll let you get back to work. Thanks so much for taking the time to go with us, live.

One of the people that I spoke with, you know, they're standing over here. This is the staging area for where they're waiting to get on those five-ton military vehicles and be taken to the nearby shelter.

But, you know, it's really traumatic. They have been standing out there, some people in bare feet, some people just with sandals and little shoes and they're waiting for about three hours to get on these military vehicle.

So, you know, you think, oh, gee, they had this planned, but this is just such a -- the magnitude of this is overwhelming. All of these agencies are doing an incredible job trying to rescue people, but, you know, that's the priority. Get them out off these homes where they may be in danger, where there's some health concerns, get them to the staging area and get them to the shelter.

But the primary thing at this point is, obviously, getting these people out of the homes. Some of them are sick. Some of them have asthma. You know, there are lots of elderly people, as we've been seeing, we've been showing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're not carrying much with them either. They just sort of grabbed what valuables they thought they need immediately, I guess.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Absolutely. They were told this morning when rescuers arrived, grab what you can. You get one bag. Grab what you can and get out and get out now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. Great job.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right, Sarah, thank you. We'll check back with you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now, we're going to head down to the Atlantic ...

MALVEAUX: Out of WABC, obviously, some rescue and some folks who are really, really in bad shape there, trying to make sure that they can get to safety, get to shelter, with very little with them.

For more on the storm rescue and recovery, stay with CNN.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are a lot of issues out there, so we're taking this in priority of safety of life for either search-and- resecue or hazardous materials response under our statutory authorities.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Welcome back to "CNN Newsroom." We want to welcome our international viewers from around the world.

People across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic are taking stock of the damage from Super Storm Sandy's pummeling of the region. We are talking about a really severe, unprecedented storm.

Our teams, reporters, correspondents are covering the storm like no other network can. Here's the very latest. At least 26 people have died in the United States from this storm. Right now, more than 7.5 million customers in 15 states and the District of Columbia have no electricity. According to some early projections damage from the storm could be between $10 billion and $20 billion.

Now, this is a dramatic story. At one Manhattan hospital, this is a harrowing night. After the storm filled the lower floors with more than 10 feet of water, knocked out the rooftop generators, officials at NYU's Langone Medical Center called an emergency evacuation of all 260 patients.

Nurses carried newborn babies down dark hallways, in some cases using bags to pump air into their fragile little lungs by hand. Sick adults had to be hauled out down 15 flights of stairs onto ambulances headed to other hospitals. At 9:00 in the morning, 40 patients still were waiting to be taken out.

Joining us now, Elizabeth Cohen as well as Andrew Rubin. He is the vice president for clinical affairs and affiliates at Langone Medical Center.

First of all, I want to start off with you, Andrew, if you can explain the evacuation and the state of the patients now. Are there still patients at that hospital?

ANDREW RUBIN, NYU MEDICAL CENTER: Well, first, let me tell you that all of the patients have been evacuated safely.

Let me, second, by telling you that, on days like today, I could not be more proud to be associated with NYU Langone Medical Center. People were working throughout the night, doing heroic things, the fire department, the police department, the staff, the physicians, the medical students, extraordinary work, doing incredible things, evacuating very quickly with really no lead-time, getting people into other hospitals.

It was incredible work. I could not be more proud.

MALVEAUX: Andrew, have you maintained contact with all of these patients? How are they doing? Is everyone safe?

RUBIN: I can tell you now everyone is safe. We know where all of our patients are located. They're at their other facilities. Some of our staff is at other facilities. The patients are safe.

Clearly, like the rest of the northeast, we're struggling with communications at the medical center. Our phones are down. Our Internet is down. But we do know where our patients are and we're working very hard to restore those services.

MALVEAUX: All right, I want to bring in Elizabeth here to talk about some of the things that we have seen. It's really extraordinary when you take a look at NICU, those tiny babies and the fact that there were some people, the nurses and the practitioners and doctors who had to help them breathe while they got out of the building. Explain just how serious this was.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right in medical terms it's called bagging and, so, literally, a nurse sit there's and pumps oxygen. It's what a respirator were to do if there were electricity.

So, you can imagine -- excuse me -- the NICU at NYU is on the ninth floor. So, they had to walk down nine flights of stairs with a nurse bagging the baby all the way down and, plus. bagging them before they even started that trek because they lost power.

And, you know, what -- if we talk a little bit about what Andrew just said, not only are these folks heroes for what they did, this happened so quickly. I was told at 7:00 night they had no water. By 7:45, they had more than 10 feet of water. And, so, they had to move very quickly to get those patients out of there.

MALVEAUX: Is this a matter of people, the heroic efforts, getting through this or is it a little bit of luck involved here? I mean, it sounds like it was very precarious.

COHEN: You know, I think it's more than luck. I mean, at NYU, they know they're on a river. I mean, I've been there. I mean, the river's right there, so they're aware things can be flooded. So, they practice for this. They rehearse for this. I mean, they know that this is a possibility.

And, just to let you know how bad this was, there's an academic building there, no patients, called the Smilow Research Building and it was built three years ago, specifically to withstand a terrible flood and it got more than 10 feet of water.

So, even with a special foundation and all of that, even with that, it flooded.

MALVEAUX: Andrew, I want to ask you a question here because, clearly it's amazing what your staff was able to do. This is a hospital that was evacuated last year for Irene and Sandy was forecast to be even worse.

Was there a reason why they decided to ride it out this time or stay as long as they did?

RUBIN: Listen, there will be plenty of time to figure out what decisions were made and weren't made. I know for certain that NYU was prepared. We have generators all over the place. We're talking about a large, massive complex. It's a very safe complex. The buildings are safe now.

We're talking about a 100-year storm with a river that rose beyond anyone's expectations and clearly, you know, a lot went wrong, but a lot went right. The staff, as Elizabeth pointed out, worked very hard. We drill for this. We train for this. And they did even better than that. And it's remarkable. Now, it's important for me to let you all know that we are currently assessing our infrastructure, as you can imagine, with 10 feet of water. There's a lot of damage to our infrastructure. We are assessing that infrastructure right now.

We have a lot of patients who we treat in our ambulatory network. That's our doctors' offices, our cancer center, our sports medicine center through both nearby the main campus and throughout the region and we are working very hard to restore those services.

You know, patients are trying to reach us now. They have appointments. They want to see us. We're doing everything we can to make contact with them and restore those services as quickly as we can.

We rely on an electronic medical record to treat our patients. If we have no power, we don't have the electronic record systems running. So, we're doing everything we can as quickly as we can to restore those services so we can get up and running from business as soon as possible.

First order of priority is evacuating patients. Now, it's in assessment stage.

MALVEAUX: All right, Andrew Rubin, really hats off to your staff, the remarkable work, heroic work that they did to keep those patients alive, especially those little babies.

And, Elizabeth, thank you for putting it all into context. It really was quite an extraordinary thing that a lot of people did to come together and make that happen. So, thanks again. Appreciate it.

Besides flooding parts of the Northeast, Sandy leaving a mark, of course, on the race for the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOVERNOR CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: So, I don't give a damn about election day. It doesn't matter a lick to me at the moment. I've got bigger fish to fry than that and so do the people of the state of New Jersey.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: We're checking in on the storm's impact on the presidential election.

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MALVEAUX: To the presidential election now, President Obama and Mitt Romney caught in the middle of the storm. Both men have a tough balancing act, between the campaign and responding to the disaster.

Dana Bash joining us D.C. And, Dana, you know, the president, he's being president. He's in the White House. He's in the situation room. He's talking with the governors, the mayors about relief efforts, And that is really the power of being the incumbent here. But Mitt Romney, he's still trying to stay relevant. He's holding these events with relief groups in Ohio. So does that help? Does that look like he's trying to be political? Can he really do anything at this point?

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, let's start with the president. You mentioned that he is trying to look presidential. It's easy when he actually has that title. He canceled tomorrow's planned campaign events, as well as today's. But he does, as you say, have the benefit of incumbency. Look at this picture. He's using that benefit big time. The White House just released new photos of him getting a briefing inside the White House situation room. They're getting out as much imagery as they can of Obama in command. That's helpful when he can't be campaigning in battleground states.

MALVEAUX: Sure.

BASH: But let's be honest, Suzanne, even without the president in those battleground states, his advertisements are still flooding the airwaves there. So that's important to point out.

Mitt Romney, you asked about that. It's a great point. He is definitely on more of a political high wire with this storm. He wants to look empathetic, not political. So he canceled his events, sort of. What he did today is he had an event, a rally, to try to help with relief efforts in the very important state of Ohio. Check out what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY, (R) PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We have heavy hearts, as you know, with all the suffering going on in a major part of our country. A lot of people hurting this morning. They were hurting last night. And the storm goes on.

I've had the chance to speak with some of the governors in the affected areas and they've talked about a lot of people having hard times.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: This still allows Mitt Romney to get good press in this key battleground state and get ads up and running. I should mention also to you that the Romney campaign announced that he is going to resume his campaign events tomorrow. He's going to be in Florida and on Wednesday -- excuse me, Thursday, he's going to be in the state of Virginia, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: And, Dana, it was interesting because we heard from New Jersey Governor Chris Christie earlier today really praising the president for the way he's been handling the storm. And we know that Christie is one of Romney's top supporters. What kind of political impact does this have when you've got one of Romney's guys actually, you know, giving a pat on the back to the president during this time?

BASH: You know, Chris Christie is known for his candor. You heard earlier -- played earlier in the program. He said that he doesn't give a damn about politics. That's not what he cares about right now.

This kind of candor has generally served Mitt Romney well since Christie has kind of softened Romney in certain times, humanized him other times. Bu, today, that candor may have helped the president. Listen to what Christie actually told NBC this morning.

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GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE, (R) NEW JERSEY: I was on the phone at midnight again last night with the president personally. He has expedited the designation of New Jersey as a major disaster area. I expedited that on the phone. Last night I was on the phone with FEMA at 2:00 a.m. this morning to answer the questions they needed answered, to get that designation. And the president has been outstanding in this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Now, it's not like New Jersey is a battleground state, but to have a high-profile Republican praise the president and the federal response, that can't be going over well, at least that well, at Romney headquarters in Boston right now.

MALVEAUX: A week before the day that everybody goes out to vote. This has just been the October surprise that nobody could ever suspect or imagine.

BASH: Not at all.

MALVEAUX: Dana, thank you. Appreciate it.

Superstorm Sandy wreaking havoc across the northeast, leaving a lasting mark on much of the coast.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's been very -- it's like camping out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So you --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No electricity. No running water. No flushing toilets.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: You're looking at what super storm Sandy did to the boats on the coast of New England. This is the fishing town of Gloucester, Massachusetts. This town was made famous by the 1991 Halloween nor'easter, better known as the "Perfect Storm". Chad Chalberg (ph) of Gloucester shot the video for us as some heavy winds batter at the shore, did some damage, but Chad says that things are looking OK there today. Pretty dramatic pictures there.

Superstorm Sandy, the full impact, it's still unknown. Stay with CNN for more on the storm. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So it's probably looks (ph) like a war zone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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MALVEAUX: We're getting some breaking news. An update on the New York Stock Exchange. We are just learning it will open tomorrow, Wednesday. And the last time that you had the New York Stock Exchange closed for two days in a row due to weather was back in 1888. A blizzard that happened back then. But now the New York Stock Exchange to reopen tomorrow. That is good news.

The captain of a submerged ship is still missing. The HMS Bounty was trying to escape the storm Monday morning when it began taking on water off the coast of North Carolina. Well, the crew, they abandoned ship and the Coast Guard was called in to save them.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Were you nervous going in there?

LT. JANE PENA, U.S. COAST GUARD: I was. I hadn't seen anything like this before. This is the first case that I had been into a hurricane. The waves were just sort of tossed and this way and that way, 50-knot winds, visibility was still pretty poor.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The first guy we pulled up, he was -- he was really happy to see us, that's for sure.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Fourteen crew members were rescued by the Coast Guard. One person was found dead. And the captain, still unaccounted for. The 180-foot ship was built as a replica of the famous British ship and was used in that 1962 Hollywood movie "Mutiny on the Bounty."

As we mentioned, more than 7 million customers are without power. This is across 13 states.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The short version is, we got through it. And pretty much all plans worked.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: David Letterman's live in-studio audience, not so live this go around. The city's subways shut down and officials telling people to stay indoors. The late night comedian forced to tape his Monday night show without a live crowd. Here's how it went.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID LETTERMAN, HOST, "LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN": Good night, ladies and gentlemen. We're in the middle of Hurricane Sandy and we -- we have no studio audience.