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Water Overwhelms Parts Of New Jersey; National Guard Has Arrived To Assist In Rescue; NYC Assesses Storm Damage; Dire Warnings Bear Out; DC Area Survey's Storm Damage; Assessing the Damage from Sandy; Superstorm Sandy Wreaks Havoc; National Guard Called in to assist Hoboken, New Jersey; Fire Devastates Queens Community; West Virginia Snowed Under After Hurricane

Aired October 30, 2012 - 13:00   ET

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

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: -- subways shut down and officials telling people to stay indoors. 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, "THE LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN": Good night, ladies and gentlemen, we're in the middle of Hurricane Sandy, and we have no studio audience but by god we do have quite a show for you tonight. So, thank you very much for joining us here in the Ed Sullivan shelter.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: I'm Suzanne Malveaux. We welcome our international viewers. This is continuing live coverage of Superstorm Sandy. I want to get right to it here. Superstorm Sandy taking a deadly and devastating toll on the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast region, 26 deaths in the U.S. now being blamed on this storm. We are learning more about the destruction also the stories of survival. Rescue crews carried people to safety after a natural levee gave way, this is in Bergen County, New Jersey. In some cases, folks had to be plucked from their rooftops. Familiar sites, like Atlantic City's famed boardwalk, took a pounding.

And in New York, floodwater rushing into the city's subway system. The storm left 7 1/2 million customers without electricity in 15 states and D.C. Our teams of reporters and correspondents, they are covering this story like no other network can. We're going to have the very latest on the where storm is and where it is headed.

I want to start in New Jersey. Floodwaters overwhelmed towns in the northern part of the state. A natural urban berm or levee near the towns of Moonachie and Little Ferry, they gave way. Parts of the area are under at least four feet of water.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE, NEW JERSEY: In Moonachie and 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: If you know the area, this is west of Manhattan on the New Jersey side, right next to the Teterboro Airport. Our Maggie Lake, she has made her way there. She is outside a shelter. How are folks doing today? Are they holding up all right?

MAGGIE LAKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They are. They're staying calm, Suzanne. And no doubt about it, they are just stunned and shocked about what happened and it's extraordinary. Since we arrived at 9:00, there have been people getting off anything that moves basically, shuttle buses, national guard vehicles, sanitation equipment. Anything that they can get in there to get these people out of there. They've been doing it all night through the middle of the night, and it has continued all day.

I just spoke to the lieutenant in charge here who said they will continue to do it until they feel that they've reached everybody who needs to be reached. They're going house to house. This is not a community that expected anything like this. They were not under evacuation. They see minor flooding but nothing to this extent. They are still investigating what happened. The extraordinary thing for the people here though is that they were caught by surprise in the middle of the night when the power was out. We caught up with one elderly woman. Listen to her story.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We could actually see the water coming in and it took less than half an hour for it to be somewhere around two to three feet deep. By midnight, it was starting to pour into our trailers. So, we started -- so, we went up to where we have a recreation center that's two floors up and we were all trying to get sleep or anything but nothing was happening -- you know, we couldn't sleep. We were all just too nervous. And then, at 5:00 in the morning, we went (INAUDIBLE) and pulled us out with a roll-off container.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAKE: Suzanne, many people are coming here with just the clothes on their backs. Some of them don't even have shoes or socks. Some were able to grab a very small bag, sometimes a diaper bag. There are a lot of children here. There are a lot of elderly. We spoke to one relative searching for his loved ones, very concerned about a pregnant cousin that was due today. She left her home for fear of flooding and went over to Moonachie, unfortunately. So, there are EMS standing by here. They have supplies, water, dry clothes, and they are trying to relocate those people either to family or to shelters to keep them overnight. Many of them lost their cars. They have no way to get around. So, the people here are really struggling, for the most part staying calm -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: Maggie, that must be very upsetting to imagine that your home is under water or you have no idea where people are, where folks are. Has anybody from that shelter actually been tempted to go back into the neighborhood, talk about taking a group and trying to find their homes and their loved ones?

LAKE: Absolutely, Suzanne, that's what officials here are very concerned about. They are anxious to get them out to those shelters. They do not want anyone going back in. They've been telling them all day that they're probably not going to be able to return for at least five days. They not only want -- are concerned about the flooding, clearly, any downed lines if power goes back on, but also the structures, you know, whether they are safe to go in, whether they are structurally sound to go in. So, they are going to have that blocked off.

We're going to try to go a little bit closer later to see what kind of damage is still there in terms of flooding but they're very concerned about that. They are urging people, please stay out. But as you can imagine, this came unexpected. People lost a lot of things on the first floor of their home at least, cars floating around, people are on their jet skis, and this is the kind of vehicle, Suzanne, that's been coming in all day long, full of people, little children, some of them have been open air vehicles. Again, a coordinated effort by officials. They are using everything they can. Everyone has had great things to say about the response of the state, in terms of getting the personnel here needed, but there is still much to be done. Again, they say they'll go until they can tonight -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: And, Maggie, I assume that it's a search and rescue, that they are looking for people who they believe are alive, who are in fairly decent shape at this point, the day after the storm, is that right?

LAKE: that's right, Suzanne. But so far, no fatalities. Of course, they're going to, you know, be keeping a close eye on that. Fingers crossed that remains the case. One good thing about this is that there was cell phone coverage, it was spotty. Even though the power out, some people were able to make calls on their cell phones. Those that came out were able to direct officials where the remaining relatives or friends and neighbors were. And we talked to one woman earlier today whose husband had two jet skis they had stored for the winter. He was out on them, that's how they got out. And he went around to houses taking neighbors to dry land and, again, getting word out where people were located. So, in terms of that, a little bit of good luck on that front -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: All right. Maggie, we appreciate your reporting. We're seeing pictures of pets as well. I'm assuming that they are allowing pets at those shelters which makes a huge difference between some who decide they're going to stay in their homes and they are going to seek shelter.

We've got some new pictures here, CNN video. This is out of Falls Church, Virginia, looking at damage there. Trees down in that area, in the D.C. metro area of Falls Church. Big trees that have hit the homes in these residential areas. A lot of power that is still out. And it's going to be a long time before they're able to actually remove much of that debris. They've got workers who are out there. They've got people in the community as well. But still a very dangerous situation as they try to get a lot of these major trees and branches and get them off of the homes.

It's very much unclear whether or not these homes are going to be able to be salvaged, depending how much time they have. We certainly know that in previous storms, in Hurricane Katrina, as the water stays there or even if the water subsides and the homes remain as they are, mold will take over those homes and they will not be able to be salvaged. And so, that is just one of the things they are working on, trying to get debris out from around those homes and to see if they are actually going to be survivable and livable in the future.

I want to head to Queens, New York. What is happening now in the neighborhood of Breezy Point, really heartbreaking. If you look at this, this is 80 homes. They have burned to the ground. Families really in shock from all of this. I talked to Deborah Feyerick. She has been covering this, checking in with folks in the community, trying to get a sense of what has happened there, as well as emergency workers who are dealing with the fallout.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: 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: Total destruction. 100 percent -- 110 percent destruction, everything.

FEYERICK: What does it look like when you're walking there? Are there any --

GILMARTIN: There is nothing in this one cluster of homes, and every house along the side that's still up is total -- is damaged. Every one. They're off their foundations. The windows, houses, they're sitting this way.

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

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

FEYERICK: The firefighters were trying to fight the fires. Did you speak to them? I know you're a first responder 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.

FEYERICK: OK.

GILMARTIN: Did I speak to anybody? No.

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

FEYERICK: 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 gentleman, he, his wife and three young children weathered the 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 front of the homes, the sides of the homes. They're off their foundations, there is -- the fronts are completely shattered. So, this is a community that's going to have to do a lot of rebuilding -- Suzanne.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: We are now getting new figures of death toll. It is now raised to 29 people who have died in the United States due to this Superstorm Sandy. We are also getting new tape in, this is feeding in now. This is WTVI out of Atlantic City. We are seeing aerials -- first aerials of this -- the boardwalk. Of course, the famous boardwalk, sections of it that were washed away. And you can see the boats that are just tossed about there, the homes that are right there on the water. And just remnants of what the boardwalk used to be, as it just goes out into the water. Eleven thousand people spend the night in Red Cross shelters in that area. But this is one of the first aerials that we're seeing from the famous boardwalk out of Atlantic City.

Ali Velshi was in Atlantic City last night, and it was really extraordinary to see just how quickly the water had risen. And when he was doing those reports, got up, at one point, to his waist. It really was a city that, for the most part, people had hunkered down. You did not see a lot of people out on the streets. It was pretty much abandoned. But in the light of day, you're just beginning to get a sense of the damage and the devastation that that Atlantic City area has experienced, particularly the boardwalk area and the commercial area that was abandoned last night. For the most part, people stayed indoors or they went to shelters, evacuated. But this is the site -- a portion of that boardwalk now destroyed and under water.

In New York City, almost 2 million people now without power. I want you to take a look at all of this. This is trees down in Central Park. Central Park, as you know, this is a beautiful, beautiful place. A lot of runners and folks who spend time there. Well, it is just laden with trees. And these are folks who are checking it out because it is such a different scene today as what we've seen before. The National Weather Service says that the storm surge in downtown Manhattan hit a record high of almost 14 feet yesterday.

The chairman of the Metropolitan Transit Authority says the subway system, it's 108 years old, he's never seen devastation like this before. Seven tunnels under the east river are now flooded. It could take up to four days to get all the water out of the flooded tunnels. We're taking a quick look there, a drive through. Mayor Michael Bloomberg saying it is going to take a while to get all of this stuff back to normal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, MAYOR, NEW YORK CITY: In addition to the lives we lost, the damage we've suffered across the city is clearly extensive 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Here's what we are working on for this hour. Rescuers have pulled hundreds of people from their homes. We are now prepare -- preparations are adequate ahead of the storm. We're going to actually talk to the man who led the military response to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

And more than 7 1/2 million people are living without power today because of this massive storm. We're going to go live to Virginia where 10s of thousands are in the dark.

And half of the city of Hoboken, New Jersey is flooded. We're going to talk with the mayor about what folks are going through there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Want to bring you a couple of updates here. The death toll now rising. Twenty-nine people who have died from this storm in the United States.

We are also watching new tape that is feeding in now. This is from WTVI. This is out of Atlantic City. And these are some of the first aerials that we are seeing from the area. The devastation that occurred there. We're talking about a section of that famous boardwalk, the Atlantic City Boardwalk, that just simply washed away.

And we are getting reports now from "The Star Ledger." It says 85 percent of the city was actually under water at Monday morning's high tide. And you can see what you're dealing with there as the streets, just absolutely abandoned. People were either inside their homes or they evacuated.

We saw the water rise dramatically about 8:30 at night last night. Our Ali Velshi was out on those streets and they were deserted with the exception of some rescue crews that were trying to make sure that everything was OK and that people were not out there. But it was absolutely devastating to Atlantic City. And the boats that have just simply washed up to the shore, to the houses, the Boardwalk that has been partially collapsed and water that has just streamed into those homes. Flood -- massive flooding. It is going to be an unbelievable recovery effort.

As you take a look at these aerial pictures, you can really get the sense of the scope of just how massive this flooding has been to this community. And it gives you a sense of just how long the recovery effort is going to take because you are talking about many, many people who have been impacted by the storm surge, by this super storm that has devastated many communities on the East Coast.

Well, starting days before Sandy hit, we heard about these dire warnings from public officials all along the East Coast. The stunning images, the flooding, the wind damage, in many cases it's exactly what was predicted actually. But the question is whether or not the preparations were adequate, was the response going well? How is it going now? We're actually joined by retired Lieutenant General Russel Honore. He led the military response to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. Since then he's been traveling the country preaching about disaster preparedness.

And, General Honore, thank you. It's very good to see you.

I can't help but have a lot of the images from Hurricane Katrina and my own family and what people are going through when you see people actually looking for their loved ones and trying to reach out and find out where are they. They don't know what's happened to their homes. Do you think, when you take a look at these pictures, how do you think the federal response was this go around?

LT. GEN. RUSSEL HONORE, U.S. ARMY (RET.): Well, I think the federal response was positioned well, number one, by the president signing those declarations before the storm hit. What that did was empowered FEMA, which has a philosophy of leaning forward, to put supplies in place. Most of those things will come into play in the next 24 hours. These first hours are actually local mayors and governors prevalence to solve, which is the search and rescue. Then the federal assets are there to assist. The main thing is to -- the funding of the National Guard. And each governor has the authority to call whatever National Guard forces they need out to be positioned to support the first responders.

So I think everything is going in the right direction. But you know, Suzanne, the first phase of this is much about strategy and tactics. Now we get into the hard part, the logistics. And from what I see unfolding on television, I think the National Guard is doing a great job. There are federal assets and backup from north -- from Army north and northern command, federal assets standing by. And you'll start seeing helicopters -- once the winds go below 40 miles an hour, you'll start seeing a lot of helicopters moving around and that will happen in the coming hours once the wind goes down.

MALVEAUX: So the wind is expected to go down. They were talking about perhaps days, maybe Thursday or Friday, in the in term before the wind goes down and those choppers are able to get down there. What is the most important thing that needs to happen now?

HONORE: It will be continuing to send a message for neighbors to help neighbors. Find out who around you is in worse shape than you are to save lives. And that's the message they need to continue to go, because there aren't enough first responders -- every building that was flooded will now have to be enter by a search team to see if anybody is in that building and then they have to actually go in the building to see if you didn't get a response when you knocked on the door. So that's two searches that's got to be done in every building there and every apartment that was evacuated, Suzanne. This is a big effort.

MALVEAUX: Now we know that 11,000 people are actually -- spent the night in shelters last night. But a lot of our CNN reporters and those who are out there, were talking to folks who stayed in their homes, they hunkered down. Is that the better strategy here than those who actually tried to get out and who are stuck in these shelters at this point?

HONORE: Well, I think the concentration by the mayors, what we saw in many cases, was to evacuate certain areas of their city that they expected to flood. And I think, by and large, that happened. But there's always a certain percentage of people that do not evacuate. And I think that is what we're going to be dealing with where the bottom floor of the buildings got wet, to get those people out. Now the -- and, look, most of the people we're talking about are people from a vulnerable population. Either working or poor people, elderly or disabled, who may not have heard all those warnings because they don't have cable and it's the end of the month. Evacuation has an economic impact if people evacuate. So that's what we are faced with today.

MALVEAUX: And you have still millions of people who are without power. You have freezing temperatures. No way to get around transportation. What is the most important thing right now for federal officials, local officials, to look and watch out for so that people don't die?

HONORE: Right. Number one, the big threat, of course, is hypothermia, which you brought up, which is this temperature. And this is how this storm is different than any storm of this size we've dealt with before. The second piece is, to have a balance between security and letting people get in and go check on their neighbors and their relatives. Many times, as you saw in New Orleans, there's a big emphasis on preventing looting. So the police want to shut everything down. My advice to these mayors, leave these streets open. You do not have enough first responders to go find every elderly person that might be shut up in -- leave those streets open.

MALVEAUX: All right.

HONORE: Let the neighbors and relatives go in and check because they know where their relatives are.

MALVEAUX: All right. General Russel Honore, we've got to leave it there. Good to see you, as always. Thank you very much.

HONORE: Good luck to the people.

MALVEAUX: Yes, absolutely. They need a little bit of luck as well.

At least two people in Maryland have died in the super storm, but the nation's capital escaped most of the devastation. We're going to be live in D.C. up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Water came inside the house. It came in the basement first and then uncontrollably it started coming up to the first floor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: You're hearing directly about super storm Sandy's impact on the people in the northeast. The nation's capital and surrounding areas are surveying the damage from super storm Sandy. The storm shut down popular tourist attractions, knocked out power to more than 22,000 customers. The Washington metro area planned -- the metro, rather, plans to have bus and rail service running again within the next hour or so.

I want to bring in our Chris Lawrence, not far from D.C. He's in Falls Church, Virginia.

So, Chris, that's welcome news. That's pretty quick to actually return some of the metro service back to folks. How are people doing today?

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's a big help, Suzanne, especially -- you lived in this area, so you know how dependent people are on public transportation.

MALVEAUX: Yes.

LAWRENCE: But there's still a lot of problems. And nothing probably says that better than this. I mean I'm standing in the middle of the road and this tree shows you what it's like on some of these roads and trying to get by. You can take a look here as we swing around and you can see that it's knocked down some of the telephone poles in this area. On the other side, power lines are down. So a lot of folks in this area have been coming up to us, telling us, over the last hour, hey, we still don't have power.

Overall, big picture in this area, still about 140,000 people without power. Some tens of thousands of people have had their power restored.

But here's the good news. The magic number of 35, as in 35 miles per hour. The wind has to get below that for the crews to get up on some of those ladders to start fixing the power lines. Well, we almost have no wind at this point. So that will happen fairly quickly.

When you take a look at a tree like this, we're going to show you another one where the family wasn't quite so lucky. It was just a few miles away from here. We spoke with a family who last night the tree came down on top of their roof. Dad was sitting there with his sons watching TV, hoping to just sort of ride out the storm. At about 8:00 at night, they hear a boom and literally the tree just splits their roof in half, comes right down into the attic. They just ran out of there very quickly. And, today, he's trying to put things in perspective. He didn't have renter's insurance. So they're taking a huge financial hit. But he's got to look at his boys and say, hey, look, my sons aren't in the hospital. We're OK. At least we're going to walk away from this.

Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: All right, Chris, I guess he's seeing the silver lining there. And a lot of people don't even realize that D.C. has a tremendous amount of trees, as well as Falls Church, where you are. It's just a beautiful area, but it is saturated with trees and that really makes it, in situations like this, pretty tough when you have a big storm like this.

Chris, thank you very much. We really appreciate it.

New Jersey's governor calls the damage in his state unprecedented.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE, NEW JERSEY: The devastation is unprecedented. Like nothing we've ever seen reported before.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You were watching these rescues as they happen. This is happening on Little Ferry, New Jersey. One of the neighbors --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Hundreds have been rescued. Hundreds more still --

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. Want to welcome international viewers around the world.

People across the northeast, mid-Atlantic taking stock from the damage of Superstorm Sandy's pummeling of the region. Our teams and reporters and correspondents, they are covering the storm like no other network can.

Here's the very latest. The death toll from the storm has risen to 29 here in the United States. 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. Rescue crews are at work across the northeast today. They're in boats, wading through bone-chilling water to try to help folks. We're talking about mostly children, elderly, those who never expected Sandy to push water into their houses.

Our affiliate WABC caught up with one crew in New Jersey this morning. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The water's very deep where they are. I'm 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 is in the foreground. What they're trying to do is 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.

So we have a rescuer putting that little boy on his back. We'll push in here, Mike. There's a baby, I believe, in his arms as well. You can see the little child in the red.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Yes. And we see the little boy clinging.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: It breaks your heart to anybody in this kind of situation. These people are leaving with basically little more than shirts on their backs, and not knowing when they're able to get back in their homes. But I'm sure happy they're out of that situation.

The governor was saying earlier they've set up shelters to Teterboro and other locations nearby. Everybody's going to get out of there. That's the good news about that situation in that home.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: For more information about how you can help those impacted by Sandy, check out CNN.com/impact.

And what's being done to restore power to the 7.5 million people who have lost it? There are a lot of trucks with equipment that's being moved from state to state.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(WIND BLOWING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Superstorm Sandy wreaking havoc along the east coast. This was a street in the Ocean City, Maryland. Now it looks like a shallow lake.

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

Alison Kosik is tracking all the power problems.

Alison, I guess my family was lucky. I have people in Virginia, Maryland, D.C. They've held on to power. Goes out, comes back on. But they're OK. How many people aren't?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They were some of the lucky ones. 7.5 million customers, Suzanne, they're in the dark. 7.5 million customers in 15 state states.

What's interesting is you look at this may and you see how far west it goes, as far west as Ohio, and as far south as South Carolina. And the reason you're seeing outages, the area's so big and the wind of the storm was huge. It covered up 1,000-mile swath. New Jersey hit the hardest because Sandy made landfall there. Two million customers are in the dark. New York, clearly hit pretty hard. Con-Ed is calling this the biggest storm-related outage in its history.

We had an idea of what was coming. Watching coverage on CNN, during the storm, we saw flashes of transformers blowing. And much of lower Manhattan is without power. These are the low-lying areas here in the city where we saw the massive flooding. For some, there was a worst- case scenario. Power went out at NYU Langone Medical Center. Shelters in New York City lost power but that power was eventually restored -- Suzanne?

MALVEAUX: We talked to officials at NYU Hospital. Extraordinary how they managed to get patients out of the hospital in time. People are asking the question, when is my power coming back on? How do they determine who gets power restored first?

KOSIK: We're finding out this is a process. We talked to several states and they need to figure out who needs power on the most. The crews, they first get power back on in hospitals, 911 centers, shelters, water treatment facilities, and then they work their way down to the residential areas that were hit the hard effort. The good news is some power's been restored in Delaware and Maryland.

And you know, also helping that authorities were proactive before the storm hit. What they did, they shut the electricity down ahead of time. But it could be a while before the power comes back on. New York City's Mayor Bloomberg says power could be out in New York City for two, three days. Newark Mayor Corey Booker, on "Starting Point" this morning, says it will be several days. I guess just get used to it. When you least expect it, you'll see the lights go on.

(LAUGHTER)

MALVEAUX: Celebration time.

Alison, thank you. Appreciate it.

The National Guard being called in to help rescue thousands of people in Hoboken, New Jersey. That is where more than half, half of the town is flooded. I'll speak to the mayor. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Another city hit hard by Superstorm Sandy, Hoboken, New Jersey. The mayor says half of the city was flooded.

Joining us by phone is Dawn Zimmer. She's the mayor of Hoboken.

Mayor, thank you so much for joining us.

First of all, I think it's unbelievable that there were no fatalities in your city. How was that even possible?

DAWN ZIMMER, MAYOR OF HOBOKEN, NEW JERSEY (voice-over): Well, we're so proud of, you know, how our emergency personnel and volunteers came together to protect our city. Yes, we have no serious injuries reported at this time and no deaths. We are so, so proud because it's been a very, very difficult situation, really. This has been historic flooding for the city of Hoboken.

The Hudson River literally came in and made Hoboken an island unto itself. The Hudson River breached. The city and the south side, I, myself could se the water coming in over the New Jersey transit, our train yards and on the north side it came in, flooded North Hudson Sewage Authority. We had to evacuate two fire stations, our municipal garage. We -- it's just been a really very difficult situation. Our hospital was evacuated and also flooded. Historic flooding throughout the city. 50 percent, I'd say 50 percent of our city's flooded. Remains flooded.

People are still in their homes you know. We're doing our best to try to, you know -- thankfully the pump station did not get flooded. So that is pumping out. At this time we do not know what the exact time frame will be when literally the Hudson River came in and filled Hoboken, half of Hoboken like a bathtub. That's the situation we're dealing with. Our substations are flooded as well. So it will be until those waters recede. You know, much of Hoboken will not be able to get power back because of the substations are flooded.

So it's a severe situation. But our, again, emergency personnel's working around the clock and using whatever equipment we can. We used a pay loader to get to some people. So it's been a real challenge. But again, we're so proud --

MALVEAUX: Mayor?

ZIMMER: -- of the volunteers that came together, manning a phone center to answer people's questions. And also the shelters, we've had run by volunteers as well. We're very -- it's very difficult, but we're very proud of what's happening here in Hoboken and the community spirit's coming out now as it did --

MALVEAUX: And, Mayor --

ZIMMER: -- in Hurricane Irene.

MALVEAUX: If I could interrupt for a moment here. You say that people are essentially hunkered down in homes. There's some places were evacuated. Half of your town, the city's under water now. How long do you think they have to stay from where they are, stay put with the food they have, the water they have, before they can get out of their homes?

ZIMMER: Well, we hope we can get them out as soon as possible. Again, I can't give an estimate because I don't -- I mean that pump station, I can say is pumping 75 million gallons a day, as we speak. But again, it's the whole Hudson River that came in and consumed half of Hoboken. Waters appear to be receding but not as quickly as we'd like. There's no entrance to south Hoboken. It's completely flooded. And north Hoboken, also flooded. You can get in through the viaduct but we're asking for only Hoboken residents to be allowed in. We're asking that people don't drive in Hoboken because we have no traffic signals now.

There's people out walking around, and the major concern that is we've got live wires in several locations and they're in the floodwaters and we just don't know literally whether people could get seriously injured or possibly electrocuted by being in some of the water. So that's the major concern. It's difficult to reach people in homes. Maybe their cell phones have died. They have no access. They can't get out. I'm concerned --

MALVEAUX: All right.

ZIMMER: -- they'll be walking out into the waters and we want to keep them face. That's our focus right now.

MALVEAUX: All right.

ZIMMER: We have asked the National Guard to come in and we're hoping they'll be here soon.

MALVEAUX: OK, Mayor Zimmer, thank you so much. Obviously, we're keeping track with you and how you are all doing there. It's an extraordinary story, the fact no major injuries or fatalities, but still a dire situation in Hoboken, New Jersey.

Superstorm Sandy, the full impact, we really don't know. But we want to help. If you want to help as well, visit CNN.com/impact.

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MALVEAUX: Getting new pictures now. This is Breezy Point, that Queens community in New York. And this is where at least 80 homes have been -- burned to the ground. It is just unbelievable when you take a look at that field, nothing but charred structures that remain there in this community. This is a place where more than 200 firefighters tried to put out these homes that were set on fire. It's a fire that jumped from home to home and spread with the strong winds that this community had experienced. There were three people who were injured from this.

And the mayor, Michael Bloomberg, said the winds were so devastating that literally they were flames jumping from building to building. Some of these structures are still standing. But for the most part, within a very compact area, 80 homes had burned to the ground. This is something that was just devastating to so many people. The high winds making it more perilous as you head down the electrical wires that were causing -- sparking a lot of fires. You can see there -- looks like one of the residents who is looking at the remains of what is left in the morning light. It surprised and shocked a lot of people who couldn't imagine this would be the outcome of this storm, of wind and rain, that you would have a massive fire event in this one community here. And by day break, emergency personnel and local volunteers, you can see, like this man here, just going through these streets and looking at the patches of flames and remains in this neighborhood. A tremendous loss for that community.

You have been looking at the catastrophic flooding as well that Sandy's heavy rains have caused. But the superstorm also dumping heavy wet snow in some places. We'll take a look at that next.

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MALVEAUX: We're looking at new pictures. This is from Breezy Point, the Queens community in New York. This is just unbelievable when you look at this. 80 homes, at least 80 homes burned to the ground. This was the outcome of fires that were set as the wind -- as the electricity was lost and wind jumped those flames from one home to another home in this tight, tightly packed community here. Three people were injured. And the mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, said it was so devastating because of those winds that were literally jumping from one building to the other. And in the morning light -- this was the six alarm fire. In the morning light, people returned. There were those looking at their homes. There were rescue personnel who were just looking at the charred remains of this community, and really a shock to so many people who did not think that this could come from winds, from rain, from this superstorm, a massive fire.

Superstorm Sandy has spawned a blizzard as well that could blanket parts of West Virginia with as much as three feet of snow. It's pretty, but it's also dangerous.

Martin Savage is in Kingswood, West Virginia, where you have the blizzard, flooding, high-wind warnings, all at the same time.

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MARTIN SAVAGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is a real indication of just how powerful this storm system is. The hurricane that was Sandy struck that struck the east coast of the United States is a blizzard here in the upper elevations in the mountains of West Virginia.

Take a look, maybe you can see the trees are bending in the wind. We have a high-wind warning. We're under a blizzard warning. And on top of that, I think we're also under the threat of a potential flood warning. All of that coming together in a trifecta.

But the blizzard conditions are the ones they're worried about here. And they're likely to last not only through today, but also possibly through much of tomorrow. A dozen counties in the state are under that blizzard warning.

This is that thick, thick heavy snow. It is hard to move, hard to walk, hard to plow, and it's just coming down by the bucket loads here. Then on top of that, I can show you, underneath here, see, it is slush. That's making it extremely slick. So even when the plows can scrape off the snow, you're coming down to that, and it just is a real mess out here.

On top of that, the power problems. And there are many of them. Over 200,000 people without electricity in the state. A lot of that is due to not only the high winds, but of course now with the snow, hitting the trees. trees, in many cases have leaves on them being dragged down by the weight of the snow and that's pulling down the power lines on top of it. So this is that nasty combination, very heavy wet snow -- we had a foot. Could be two feet or more in other areas of this state -- and then the high winds. All of that having a tremendous impact on the mountains of West Virginia, and will do for some time.

Back to you.

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MALVEAUX: Our coverage of Sandy continues right now.