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New York City Staggered by Sandy; Crane Dangles Off Luxury High-Rise; Flood Rescues in New Jersey; Burned Homes in Queens; Sandy Hits Asbury Park; Romney on FEMA; Romney in 2011: Cut FEMA; The Science of Sandy; Floodwaters Rush New Jersey; Close to 8 Million Without Power; President Obama at Red Cross Headquarters

Aired October 30, 2012 - 14:00   ET

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


ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Anderson Cooper. This is CNN's special coverage of Sandy, a super storm being called unprecedented. I'm live in New York City from a balcony in the Time Warner Center. Just over my shoulder, the collapsed crane. You still see it there hanging over 57th Street. We'll get to that in a moment.

But first, across the Mid-Atlantic, state and local emergency teams are rushing to save people and to save their homes.

is living up to the warnings that it would bring devastation never before seen in this region.

A white-capped rush of water took over the streets of Ocean City, New Jersey, after Hurricane

made landfall at 8:00 last night. The governor is calling the damage there unprecedented. So far, 29 people have died here in the United States -- 29 -- and dozens of survivors today feared what would happen if rescuers had not shown up in time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We tried to stop it. We just -- we put towels down. We had the sandbags down. It just -- it was rushing in. It was rushing in from the windows, the doorways, everywhere.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We lost everything. It came all the way to the top of the house.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And where were you at that time?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm downstairs trying to save them and I couldn't do anything about it. And it just kept on pouring in. It was coming all over the place. Under windows, from the sides.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: So many people in this storm's path have never experienced anything like this. We have more than 8 million people in this city. Nearly half a million customers with no power today. That is challenge number one. Challenge number two, transportation. Speaking to us late this morning, Mayor Michael Bloomberg reported that all the major subway lines have taken on water, saltwater. They flooded. No public transportation for 8 plus million New Yorkers. Here's Mayor Bloomberg.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, NEW YORK: Public transportation remains closed until further notice is a good way to think about it. There is no firm timeline for the reactivation of bus or train service. But I'm sure the MTA will do everything they can to have limited bus service perhaps this afternoon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Well, the city's now saying it will try to roll buses at 5:00 this evening with business as usual tomorrow. No promises yet, though, on restoring subway service. I can tell you, there are a few cabs around in the city. It is very difficult for people to get around. I actually biked up to this office today to get here in time.

No promises either on the airports. Kennedy Airport, LaGuardia, they remain closed. Mayor Bloomberg spoke of flooded runways and possible damage to instrumentation. CNN's Ashleigh Banfield is south of my location. She's in the neighborhood called Chelsea in downtown New York.

Ashleigh, how are things there now?

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, it's surprising, I was just listening to you, Anderson, as you were talking about your experience in New York City. In pockets of New York City, it's a little strange. It looks like any other day. Look at the traffic behind me.

And this is an area that experienced some severe damage. It looks like a dollhouse. Literally the front of this Chelsea building ripped right off. There is a report in a local newspaper "The New York Post," that this was an illegal hotel. But you can see all four of those rooms completely exposed. People have reported, at least to "The New York Post," that they heard something unusual and they came out and then all of that front facade came crashing down.

I want to show you just a little bit of what I'm seeing behind me, behind the lens. All these people. They're all out, as New Yorkers would be. Not deterred in the least by the reports of this difficult weather. It's cold and it's a little rainy, but other than that, it's not a problem to get around on foot.

And the traffic is really remarkable too. Anderson, as I was driving here, I just popped my iPad up and started taking some pictures out the window of the car so that you could see it looks a little like business as usual on a lot of the streets. A lot of stores are open and a lot of restaurants are open and a lot aren't. As you were mentioning, there's still that problem of mass transit. And in the subways, like you said, all seven subways, tunnels are flooded. And that's 5.3 million people a day using those subways to get to and from work. So most people using their feet to get where they need to today.

I did want to tell you a couple of things that was really unusual. Down on southern Manhattan, where I was reporting for you last night, it was an absolute dark zone. It reminded me a lot of 9/11, I hate to say. It was so dark and so quiet but (ph) for all the police vehicles everywhere. And something I hadn't seen in New York City before, never thought I would, downed trees. You know, I live in the suburbs, so I'm used to downed trees after a storm, but I'm not used to that in New York City. And New York City doesn't necessarily have the equipment to get downed large trees off of major thorough fares. So, so many of those were closed.

The other thing was is a lot of the traffic lights in this city were either bent or twisted or off altogether. So there were very few traffic lights operating in this city as well. And, at least as we were driving, it was just hazard lights and slow as she goes to get around last night.

There's still a lot of people without power. And, as you also mentioned, the mayor said power -- restoring power to the 1.8 million people, at least New York state's 1.8 million people, but restoring power to the people of this city and getting mass transit back up is a priority. But I'm going to quote him directly. "No firm timeline," as you mentioned as well.

The government is predicting that in New York City, the economic loss alone of what I'm just reporting to you is going to be upwards of $7 billion. Now, that's an early estimate. And since we don't know when things are going to be up and running again, who knows if that number is going to balloon. But look at the -- look behind me. This is as it is, and there's no one doing any work to clear those streets. That is going to be a secondary priority to getting -- to making sure that everything else is operational in this city.

One other thing I just want to tell you, and it's -- it's just the way New Yorkers can be. We get a bad rap a lot of times here, but we have a live truck that's operating that has a lot of power and we've got neighborhood people who have come and formed a (INAUDIBLE) just to plug in and get a little bit of electricity for their telephones, to charge up their phones. So we've got a lot of people who are coming together and it's a pretty good mood, I have to say, despite the fact that what came through here was, as Mayor Bloomberg said, the worst storm that this city's ever seen.

Anderson.

COOPER: Yes. And a lot of parts of lower Manhattan, too, there's very spotty cell service. People aren't getting e-mails on their mobile devices. I actually had to bike up about a mile from my house in order to -- I found a coffee shop, that it was closed, but there were a lot of people kind of grouped outside the coffee shop, I guess because there was a wi-fi there. I was actually able to finally get e-mail and call my office from there. So people trying to make due as best they can, trying to go to parts of the city where they can communicate, where their cell phones are working, where they can get their e-mails.

Ashleigh, thank you. We'll continue to check in with you throughout these next several hours.

We have new pictures from LaGuardia Airport of basically runways underwater. A lot of water we are seeing there. And as we said, closures at all the major airports. Unsure when they are going to reopen.

In the midst of all this chaos on the ground, 90 stories up, that massive crane is still teetering over the New York City skyline. You can see it from New Jersey. You can see it from far and wide. We now have video showing the moments that the crane buckled in the violent winds. Take a look.

(VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Part of a video showing that partial collapse. It happened on top of a nearly completed luxury apartment building, said to be the city's tallest residential building. Its neighbors evacuated as officials try to figure out how to stabilize this thing.

I want to bring in CNN's Alina Cho, who is joining us now.

It is incredible to see this towering over the skyline. This whole area is closed off.

ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is. It's a seven block area that's been evacuated around that crane, Anderson. It is literally the site that took New Yorkers' breath away.

COOPER: Yes.

CHO: And if you think about it, it is still dangling precariously a thousand feet up from the ground.

We do have a bit of good news from Mayor Bloomberg this morning. He said that it appears at this point that the crane is stable, but that the winds are going to have to die down even a bit more before they will be able to secure it.

Now, when that happens, and hopefully given the conditions now, hopefully that will be very soon, the crews will go in -- and listen to this, it's incredible -- they'll actually try to go in, grab a hold of the boom and strap it to the building.

COOPER: Right.

CHO: And that's how they will secure that crane. And at that point they'll be able to reopen the streets. Remember, as I mentioned, a seven block area was evacuated. Hundreds, possibly thousands of people, including one luxury hotel with 700 people inside.

COOPER: Right. Right, not just people on the streets, but in neighboring buildings.

CHO: That's right.

COOPER: They didn't know where this crane could go. CHO: That's absolutely right. And they all want to get back home. They all want to get back to their original hotel rooms, not where they're staying right now.

COOPER: Right. You also got --

CHO: They haven't been able to do that.

COOPER: You also looked into the records of the building, the construction site.

CHO: Yes, it's pretty remarkable, Anderson. CNN has actually learned from the New York City Building Department that they issued a stop work order on this construction site on two separate occasions. One we should mention was fully rescinded. But having said that, they were cited for hydraulic fluid leaks and permit problems at this very site.

Now, keep in mind, as you mentioned, this is a trophy residential building. Ninety stories high when it is will be completed. The tallest building in New York City with top floor apartments going for $90 million. So --

COOPER: That's incredible, $90 million for one apartment.

CHO: That's right. And given all of that, one would think, or hope, that more precaution would have been taken prior to this storm.

COOPER: Right.

CHO: Now, we spoke with one crane expert earlier today. Let's listen to what he said about the moment he saw the collapse.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THOMAS BARTH, PRESIDENT, BARTH CRANE INSPECTIONS (voice-over): My first thought was human error.

CHO (voice-over): Ultimately, ultimately the buck stops with the crane operator, right?

BARTH: Yes. If he has any doubt about safety, he should contact his supervisors, engineers, or anybody until he feels safe about the crane.

CHO: And in your estimation, obviously that wasn't done?

BARTH: No. No. It certainly wasn't done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: And, obviously, there are a lot of residents who want to get back into their homes.

CHO: That's right. In fact, we spoke to the Maser (ph) family. One of those residents. A father and mother and a 12-year-old daughter. They've evacuated a couple of blocks away to a private New York club, but they said when they first heard what happened, they thought it was a gunshot or a bomb. They went downstairs. They saw police coming from four different directions within 90 seconds. They escaped with what they said were their Blackberries, their chargers and their books, as any good New Yorker would, and they're waiting it out and hoping they can go home soon.

COOPER: Right. Well, we continue to watch it. It's just -- it's unbelievable to see it up there. Alina, appreciate the reporting.

We are getting word right now of more flooding and more people trapped. For that I want to go to Brooke Baldwin in Atlanta.

Brooke, what are you hearing?

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Anderson. I have Chad Myers standing next to me. I just want to quickly bring him in as obviously this whole thing is fluid as we're learning of more and more rescues. And a lot are these are urban rescues.

We've talked so much about -- and specifically in New Jersey, Bergen County. But I want to talk Toms River. Which, if you look at the map, it is, what, 45 miles or so east/southeast of Trenton. One hundred people need rescuing.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: The water went completely over Seaside Heights Beach. It's a --

BALDWIN: Seaside Heights Beach. OK.

MYERS: It's a barrier island. And the water went completely over it. We have some video. It's scary to watch.

BALDWIN: Look at this.

MYERS: It's unbelievable how much sand is now just blocks in to this community.

BALDWIN: I was wondering what the color was. So that's all sand surrounding the homes.

MYERS: That's all sand. The water went over it. You can't see the back side, but this isn't really land. This is an island. The water went over the island, filled the bay behind this and filled up Toms River. The water just poured right into Toms River with a significant surge and people are trapped there and they're trying to rescue them at this point in time.

And this, you know, is what General Honore was talking about at this point in time --

BALDWIN: Neighbors helping neighbors.

MYERS: Yes. And the local communities.

BALDWIN: Yes. MYERS: And the mayor and the sheriffs and the police. You know, FEMA's not here yet. They don't know -- they have to still put their stuff out there. This is the local people helping local people.

BALDWIN: So, Anderson, we're going to keep an eye on this. This is Seaside Heights, New Jersey. Also Toms River in New Jersey, which I know Michael Holmes is there. So he's talking to police there and they say least 100 people or so need rescuing as well.

Anderson, back up to you.

COOPER: All right, Brooke, Chad, we'll continue to check in with you.

When we come back, we're going to talk to the mayor of Asbury Park to find out what kind of damage was there. I was there last night when the storm came ashore. We'll talk to him to see what daylight has brought. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Hey, welcome back to our continuing coverage. We're live from New York. Basically from Columbus Circle, where that crane is still dangling over 57th Street. We continue to watch that situation.

We're also getting new video showing the destruction caused by a six alarm fire in the New York borough of Queens. At least 80 homes have burned to the ground. That's extraordinary for this part of town (ph). Eighty homes. You're looking at pictures of the smoldering remains where these homes once stood. CNN's Deborah Feyerick is in Queens.

Deb, the pictures are so disturbing, so upsetting. Have you spoken to any of the owners who lost their homes?

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we spoke to one man. He was here looking at his sister's home, as a matter of fact. And what was so amazing is that he stood at his sister's home and he said, you know, over here, this is my sister's, this is my father-in-law, these are the Langs (ph). And he went by -- he went through each sort of rubble and pointed out the owner of those homes. These -- some of these people live here year round. Others, they are -- it's just a vacation home. But everybody knows each other.

And one of the reasons, Anderson, why this fire spread so rapidly is because the alley ways between the homes are actually quite thin, so the trucks couldn't get to the home where the fire first started. And then the wind seriously just swept it from home to home to home to home.

One man who we spoke to said, you could open up the windows on the ocean and you'll feel the breeze all the way at the back end. Take a listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETER JOYCE, RESIDENT OF BREEZY POINT, NEW YORK: It's just a community. I can (INAUDIBLE) me to my brother-in-law. This is -- it's like handed down to generations to generations. And what happened here really was when Irene came last time, everybody left here and a lot of people houses in Windham (ph), so they rushed off to Windham and they got devastated in Windham. So I think people felt this time like, you know, let's just wait here and see what happens. But, you know, whether you're here or not, this is tremendous. I -- you know, to rebuild, this is going to be a mammoth -- I don't know how they're going to go about starting it. You know, this is really tragic, you know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FEYERICK: And, Anderson, in these -- this area, everybody is assessing the damage. But take a look. Look at this car. The rubber of the tires, completely burned off. The interior, reduced to smithereens. The wheel, completely melted off. People did not move their cars out and, as a result, they simply caught fire. Homes that are nearby that didn't actually get the full impact of the fire, the siding simply melted off from the sheer heat.

You can see some firefighters here. Again, they have been here around the clock, through the night. This is a community where you've got a lot of firefighters, a lot of retired police officers, folks from the Coast Guard, all know each other, all grow up here. And right now they're kind of just assessing the damage.

The smell is just so pungent, Anderson, of the fire in the air. Along the coast, along the beach and the bay, what's fascinating is you look at the homes and they look -- they're completely smashed. Like somebody took a gigantic sledgehammer and just went to the (INAUDIBLE) home after home. Some of them, the entire front is gone. Some knocked off their foundation. Furniture completely rearranged inside the home. You can peer in, you can walk through the front, actually. So it really is just quite some devastation. And, you know, they're going to have to figure out how they clean this up, Anderson.

COOPER: Well, certainly everyone is thankful that there wasn't loss of life in those 80 homes, but a lot of rebuilding at this point to be done and the work is, you know, just beginning at this point.

Deborah Feyerick, I appreciate the reporting.

I want to turn now to the mayor of Asbury Park, New Jersey. Ed Johnson is joining us on the phone.

Mr. Mayor, it's good to have you on. Has anybody been injured from Sandy in Asbury Park?

MAYOR ED JOHNSON, ASBURY PARK, NEW JERSEY (via telephone): Good afternoon.

No, we have no confirmed injuries or death, which is the good news here. We certainly have severe conditions here on the ground -- devastation down to the Boardwalk area, to trees and power lines down throughout our neighborhood.

COOPER: When I was there last night, I mean the water came up so quickly on that Boardwalk, and then just seemed to spread very fast for several blocks. How extensive is that damage along the coast?

JOHNSON: It is very extensive. There are famous -- I guess Howard Johnson's restaurant, the first floor is just gone. There are pieces of the Boardwalk which are being located blocks away from the Boardwalk. Throughout our towns we're seeing trees 100, 150 years old, just ripped up by the roots. And I mean many of those throughout our town. And then, of course, power lines down everywhere.

COOPER: And, a, what's the situation with power right now? I assume there isn't power. We didn't have power at Asbury this morning when I was there. Do you have a sense of the timetable it might take to restore it?

JOHNSON: Well, our power is out in the majority of the city. The good news is that at the light of first day our crews hit the streets hard and have been working to get the trees out of the way, get them away from power lines so that the power company can come in and do what they need to do. So that's the first thing we're doing. And so we've gotten the majority of our streets cleared of debris and trees and our next step is going to be working to try to restore the power.

COOPER: Well, I've got to say, I was there at sawn and saw your police, your firefighters, your utility crews out in the darkness with their lights on looking over -- looking for people, looking for any damage. And so it was great to see that even before first light this morning. I know you have a lot of work ahead of you. Mayor Johnson, I appreciate you joining us today. Thank you.

JOHNSON: Yes. And I would just like to say, you know, to all of the emergency crews throughout the entire area, Jersey and the East Coast, they have all done an amazing job and we're very thankful for them.

COOPER: I think there is a lot of people in a lot of different communities all throughout this region who are very, very thankful and yet again reminded of the incredible work that they do frankly every day, but you really see it at a time like this.

Mayor, we'll talk to you, no doubt, in the days ahead. Thank you.

There's a lot of effect of this storm, not just on people, not just on property, but also on the political campaigns that have been happening. Also, Mitt Romney today getting a lot of questions about what he would do with FEMA based on comments he had earlier about returning power to the states for disaster relief. Details on that ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO, NEW YORK: Sandy packed a punch for the metropolitan area yesterday. I don't think words like catastrophic or historic are too strong to explain the impact. The most devastating news is that we lost 15 New Yorkers last night. That is our best estimate at this time. My guess is, if anything, that number's going to get larger.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COOPER: Welcome back to our continuing coverage of the -- what remains of super storm Sandy and the aftermath of it. In the island of Manhattan, there's a real division between neighborhoods that have power and that don't. The upper west side, the upper east side, they do have power. This area around Columbus Circle, south of Central Park, does have power. Central Park itself is closed down. Authorities all day have been trying to assess the strength of trees there. They don't want tourists, they don't want people walking in the park and being killed by falling trees. We have had a number of people who have died in this storm as a result of trees elsewhere, not necessarily in Central Park.

And below 39th Street on the east side, below 31st Street on the west side, there is no power. Cell service is spotty. People aren't getting e-mails. It's a very different situation down there. A lot of people are just kind of wandering around, don't want to stay in their homes without power. Looking around. Kind of a stunned feeling in parts of lower Manhattan, especially, today. And no doubt as the city returns to normal and tries to rebuild as quickly as possible and clean up, hopefully the lower part of Manhattan will get power. No word, though, from officials on when that may, in fact, occur. And no word yet on when subways may reopen.

It is very difficult to get around town right now. There are not a lot of cabs. The cabs that are around seem to be selective in who they're saying and how much they're charging people. No doubt we'll be hearing more about that in the days to come.

Let's go down to Brooke Baldwin in Atlanta, who's covering some political angles.

Brooke.

BALDWIN: Yes, we'll take you back to the damage and the rescues here, Anderson, in just a moment.

But folks, we do have an election. It is one week from today. And as you may have heard by now, the Obama and Romney camps, they canceled rallies planned for today, even before this super storm hit. But Mitt Romney, he got out this morning. He collected some relief supplies in Kettering, Ohio. And he was peppered with questions about his stance on the federal government providing disaster relief. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Governor, what should FEMA's role be? Governor, would you eliminate FEMA if you were president?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Governor, what (INAUDIBLE) would you do with FEMA? What's your response? Why won't you answer (INAUDIBLE)?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: You're hearing all the questions. No answers from Mitt Romney today on where he stands on the federal government providing disaster relief through FEMA. So, let's go to Washington, to Dana Bash, who joins me to talk about this here. And just, Dana, do me a favor, remind us why this has become such an issue for Mitt Romney.

DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, this stems from a CNN debate during the Republican primaries and it was in June of 2011 where Romney was asked about federal relief. At the time it was about Joplin, Missouri. It was just after that was hit in the devastating way by a tornado. Romney said he wanted to give the states and even the private sector more power, but he did not propose eliminating FEMA. Listen to exactly what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KING, CNN: FEMA's about to run out of money and there are some people who say do it on a case by case basis and some people who say, you know, maybe we're learning a lesson here that the states should take on more of this role. How do you deal with something like that?

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Absolutely. Every time you have an occasion to take something from the federal government and send it back to the states, that's the right direction. And if you can go even further and send it back to the private sector, that's even better. Instead of thinking in the federal budget what we should cut, we should ask ourselves the opposite question, what should we keep? We should take all of what we're doing at the federal level and say, what are the things we're doing that we don't have to do and those things we've got to stop doing because we're borrowing $1.6 trillion more this year than we're taking in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Now, Romney's campaign issued a statement reiterating that he wants the states to take the lead because they and the local authorities are the closest to the ground and they know what the needs are the most. But the Romney campaign is also saying that they should continue to get help from the federal government. That includes FEMA.

And, of course, Brooke, this speaks to the larger question about the role of government and that is a definite philosophical difference between the two. And privately I can tell you that the Romney campaign is not upset that this has become a question, particularly when they're rolling over pictures of him helping people in disaster stricken areas, especially in the state of Ohio.

BALDWIN: Right, bringing it up to the current date. I mean here we are in the aftermath of this tremendous, tremendous storm. And that was in 2011 when we heard the question posed to Romney. That was when FEMA was running out of money. When you look at some of these damage estimates from Sandy, it is in the multiple billions of dollars. Just wondering, does FEMA even have the money to handle this current disaster?

BASH: You know we, especially our Senate producer, Ted Barrett, has been checking in with sources on the Republican and Democratic side, and there's rare agreement at this point that those sources do think that FEMA likely at this point has ample funding to deal with Sandy.

The current budget which is an extension of funding levels from last year gave between $6.5 billion and $7 billion. We're not exactly sure -- won't be until all of the totals are tallied, what exactly they need. But at this point, people in Congress don't think they're going to need to pass an emergency spending bill.

BALDWIN: OK, Dana Bash for me in Washington. Dana, thank you. Anderson, back to you in New York.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks very much. Yes, there is a lot more to talk about in particular the makeup of this storm. People talk about it once in a century storm, storm of historic proportions.

When you look at the wind speeds though, it wasn't that big of a storm. So why has it had such an impact in this region. We'll talk about that ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Welcome back to our continuing coverage of the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, superstorm Sandy. I'm Anderson Cooper live from New York.

Before we get to the science of the unprecedented storm, which is fascinating, I want you to see a timeline straight from the cameras of our CNN I-Reporters. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rushing water across the streets going into homes. NYPD is setting up their boat. Search and rescue later, evacuation plan A.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Look at the storm from our I-Reporters. We want to look at what makes Sandy so intense. Professor Michio Kaku is a theoretical physicist from the City College of New York, host of "Sci-Fi Science" in the Science Channel. You say Sandy is the result of several things coming together.

PROFESSOR MICHIO KAKU, PHYSICIST, CITY COLLEGE OF NEW YORK: That's right. The hurricane from hell was created by a collision of three large air masses creating an animal that we have never seen before.

COOPER: We've never seen it.

KAKU: Right. First, we have an ordinary hurricane off the coast of Florida. Then you have the jet stream from the arctic going all the way down to Florida, colliding with this hurricane. And then you have another storm coming in from the west. The merger of three large air masses created a new animal, the likes of which we have never seen before.

COOPER: It is fascinating because when you look at, it is a Cat 1 hurricane, on paper that doesn't look so bad. KAKU: You can't use the ordinary nomenclature of hurricanes. Hurricanes are smaller and faster. This was humongous, 800 miles across, and velocities are much lower.

But the amount of energy stored in it was huge because of the warm water from the Caribbean, fed by the energy from the jet stream. And this is a very unusual pattern that caught scientists off guard.

COOPER: Was there any way to better prepare for it?

KAKU: It is hard to predict these things because, first of all, you have the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico heating up, possibly due to global warming and that's the basic energy that drives all these hurricanes. But then you have the energy difference between that and the gulf -- the jet stream coming in from the arctic, colliding with it.

COOPER: What did you find most, I mean, from a scientific standpoint, most interesting about it, most surprising?

KAKU: Most surprising is our computer simulations are not good at modelling the collision of two air masses. Here we had three air masses being colliding at the same time and so we were basically powerless to give an accurate computer simulation of the collision of the three air masses.

COOPER: Before we went on air, we were just talking about some of the things that have gone wrong in New York, that crane which is dangling, the NYU Medical Center, the backup generator not working, you were pointing out it is little things, little mistakes that are made that can have a big impact.

KAKU: Mother Nature is showing us who is really boss because they could have secured that, but they didn't. And at NYU Hospital, they should have checked the backup. These little things catch you when Mother Nature wants to prove who is really in charge.

COOPER: Yes, it is fascinating to hear your perspective. I appreciate you being with us. Thank you so much. You walked over here, so I very much appreciate it. It's difficult getting around town right now.

KAKU: That's right.

COOPER: Thanks for being with us. There is a lot more to cover. I'm going to speak live with the person who shot this video, water rushing in to a neighborhood. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Well, it has been a miserable day here in New York City and now it is starting to rain to add insult to injury, starting to rain lightly here again as it has been throughout the day.

One of our CNN I-Reporters captured some video of fierce winds around his apartment on the Hudson River in New Jersey -- in Jersey City. Take a look at this.

Amazing. With each passing hour, we are going to be getting more and more videos from people as they come back online and send us those videos.

If you want to know what it was like for some of those who stayed behind, we have some video of the moment when monster waves began crashing through a suburban street in Ocean City, New Jersey. Take a look at this.

The man who shot this incredible video is with us, Trevor Moran. He's safe. He joins us from Ocean City. Where were you, Trevor, when you shot this?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (via telephone): I shot it from 53rd Street in Ocean City, that's on the south end of the island there. The row of houses right there borders the ocean. So we're on the first street right behind the ocean.

COOPER: This is probably a dumb question, but have you ever seen anything like that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, not at all. Surfers, we stick around for hurricanes and tend to chase these things, but by far that was probably one of the scariest waves I had ever seen come through houses, the amount of water coming through I had never seen anything like that.

COOPER: Is that why you decided to stay, because you were hoping to surf?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's part of the reason. The other reason being that our family has a lot of rental houses and things like that so I came down to help batten down the hatches at the last minute and ended up staying basically to see where it went from there.

COOPER: How do things look today?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Today kind of like a disaster. I heard a lot of people calling it a war zone. There is a lot of debris everywhere. The street that it was shot on now has about two feet of sand on it.

There are all those houses I went back up this morning, some of them the entire facades have been ripped down with all kinds of sand on the inside of the houses covering up the entire living rooms and things like that. It is definitely a mess down here today.

COOPER: Yes. Well, Trevor, I hope it gets cleaned up OK and I appreciate you sharing us that video. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No problem. Thanks for having me.

COOPER: All right, we just learned nearly 8 million people are now without power, unlike the aftermath of normal hurricanes, it is getting cold in a lot of areas, chilly here, rain. We're going to take you live to Virginia next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: And welcome back to our continuing coverage, the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. We have been devoting a lot of our coverage today to the situation here in New York, the problems in New Jersey.

Let's remember we got close to 8 million customers without power in more than a dozen states up and down the east coast and even inland.

Chris Lawrence is with us right now in Falls Church, Virginia. Chris, what is the situation there?

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, we still have got a couple of hundred thousand people without power and this is primarily the reason why. Take a look. I'm standing in the middle of the street.

As you can tell, there is a huge tree blocking this entire street. As we swing around, you can tell it knocked down some of the telephone wires here, on the other side the power lines are down. We do -- are getting some good news, though.

When you look at the big picture, some of the power companies like Pepco say they expect to have power restored to about 90 percent of their customers by tomorrow morning. Other companies are reporting by Thursday.

Now, this tree obviously came down on the roadside, not the house side. We talked to a man just a few miles away from here, who wasn't so lucky, 8:00 last night he's sitting with his son, watching TV, trying to ride out the storm.

The tree outside his house literally is uprooted, splits his entire roof in half, caves in part of his house, and crushes his car. Today, he's very lucky to have his family alive.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAYMOND VALENTINE, HOMEOWNER: We heard it crash into the house itself. So the wind was just whipping like crazy. And so we just all heard it crash and we all just started panicking and then the water started to come in.

So fortunately didn't break through the actual ceiling and the kitchen, so all of that damage that you see is still up in the attic area. So we were really, really lucky.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAWRENCE: So the magic number down here, 35, 35 miles per hour. Once the wind drops below that, the crews can start getting up on those ladders and getting the power restored. Fortunately here, Anderson that wind has died down. The crews will get out a lot faster than they initially thought.

COOPER: From the New York Stock Exchange to tell you when markets will reopen and what it means for the economy in the days ahead. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: As you know, President Obama has not been campaigning for last day or two in order to deal with this storm. We got some new video of him at the headquarters at the Red Cross in Washington, D.C. Take a look.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: -- Charlie who are on the scene doing work every time we have a disaster here in the United States of America, but obviously the Red Cross is doing outstanding work internationally. So we want to thank them for their outstanding work.

A few things I want to emphasize to the public at the top, this storm is not yet over. We have gotten briefings from the National Hurricane Center. It is still moving north. There are still communities that could be affected.

And so I want to emphasize, there is still risks of flooding, there is still risks of downed power lines, risks of high winds, and so it is very important for the public to continue to monitor the situation in your local community, listen to your state and local officials, follow instructions.

The more you follow instructions, the easier it is for our first responders to make sure that they're dealing with true emergency situations. So the better prepared individual families are for the situation, the easier it will be for us to deal with it.

Next, obviously, I want to talk about the extraordinary hardship that we have seen over the last 48 hours. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all the families who have lost loved ones. Unfortunately, there have been fatalities as a consequence of Hurricane Sandy.

And it is not clear that we have counted up all the fatalities at this point. And obviously this is something that is heart breaking for the entire nation. And we certainly feel profoundly for all the families whose lives have been upended and are going to be going through some very tough times over the next several days and perhaps several weeks and months.

The most important message I have for them is that America's with you. We are standing behind you and we are going to do everything we can to help you get back on your feet. Earlier today, I had a conversation with the governors and many of the mayors in the affected areas, including Governor Christie, Governor Cuomo and Mayor Bloomberg.

I want to praise them for the extraordinary work that they have done. You know, sadly we are getting more experience with these kinds of big impact storms along the east coast and the preparation shows.

Were it not for the outstanding work that they and their teams have already done and will continue to do in the affected regions, we could have seen more deaths and more property damage. So they have done extraordinary work, working around the clock. The coordination between the state, local and federal governments has been outstanding. Obviously, we're now moving into the recovery phase in a lot of the most severely affected areas. New Jersey, New York in particular have been pounded by this storm, Connecticut has taken a big hit.

Because of some of the work that has been done ahead of time, we have been able to get over a thousand FEMA officials in place, prepositioned. We have been able to get supplies, food, medicine, water, emergency generators to ensure that hospitals and law enforcement offices are able to stay up and running as they are out there responding.

We are going to continue to push as hard as we can to make sure that power is up throughout the region and obviously this is mostly a local responsibility and the private utilities are going to have to lean forward.

But we are doing everything we can to provide them additional resources so that we can expedite getting power up and running in many of these communities. There are places like Newark, New Jersey, for example, where you have 80 percent, 90 percent of the people without power.

We can't have a situation where that lasts for days on end. And so my instructions to the federal agency has been do not figure out why we can't do something. I want you to figure out how we do something. I want you to cut through red tape, cut through bureaucracy.

There is no excuse for inaction at this point. I want every agency to lean forward and to make sure we are getting the resources where they need -- where they're need as quickly as possible. I want to repeat, my message to the federal government, no bureaucracy, no red tape, get resources where they're needed as fast as possible, as hard as possible.

And for the duration because the recovery process obviously in a place like New Jersey is going to take a significant amount of time. The recovery process in Lower Manhattan is going to take a lot of time.

And part of what we're trying to do here is also to see where some resources that can be brought to bear that maybe traditionally are not used in these situations.

For example, there may be military assets that help us move equipment to ensure that pumping and getting the flooding out of New York subway systems can proceed more quickly. There may be resources that we can bring to bear to help some of the private utilities get their personnel and their equipment in place more swiftly so that we can get power up and running as soon as possible.

So my message to the governors and the mayors and through them to the communities that have been hit so hard is that we are going to do everything we can to get resources to you and make sure that any unmet need that is identified we are responding to it as quickly as possible. And I told the mayor and the governors, if they're getting no for an answer somewhere in the federal government, they can call me personally at the White House. Now, obviously the state and local and federal response is important. But what we do as a community, what we do as neighbors and as fellow citizens is equally important.

A couple of things I want the public to know they can do. First of all, because our local law enforcement, our first responders are being swamped, to the extent that everybody can be out there looking out for their neighbors, especially older folks, I think that's really important.

If you got a neighbor nearby, you're not sure how they are handling a power outage, flooding, et cetera, go over and visit them. Knock on their door and make sure that they're doing OK. That can make a big difference.

The public can be the eyes and ears in terms of identifying unmet needs. Second thing, the reason we're here is because the Red Cross knows what it is doing when it comes to emergency response. And so for people all across the country who have not been affected, now is the time to show the kind of generosity that makes America the greatest nation on Earth and a good place to express that generosity is by contributing to the Red Cross.

Obviously, you can go on their Web site. Red Cross knows what they're doing. They're in close contact with federal, state and local officials. They will make sure that we get the resources to those families as swiftly as possible.

And, again, I want to thank everybody here who is doing such a great job when it comes to the debt and disaster response.

The final message I would just say is during the darkness of the storm, I think we also saw what is brightest in America. I think all of us obviously have been shocked by the force of Mother Nature as we watch it on television.

At the same time, we also have seen nurses at NYU Hospital carrying fragile newborns to safety. We have seen incredibly brave firefighters in Queens waste-deep in water, battling infernos and rescuing people in boats.

One of my favorite stories is down in North Carolina, the Coast Guard going out to save a sinking ship. They sent a rescue swimmer out, and the rescue swimmer said, hi, I'm Dan. I understand you guys need a ride.

You know, that kind of spirit of resilience and strength, but most importantly looking out for one another, that's why we always bounce back from these kinds of disasters.

This is a tough time for a lot of people, millions of folks all across the Eastern Seaboard, but America's tougher. And we're tougher because we pull together, we leave nobody behind, we make sure that we respond as a nation, and remind ourselves that whenever an American is in need, all of us stand together to make sure that we're providing the help that is necessary.

So, I just want to thank the incredible response that we have already seen, but I do want to remind people this is going to take -- this is going to take some time. It is not going to be easy for a lot of these communities to recover swiftly. And so it is going to be important that we sustain that spirit of resilience, that we continue to be good neighbors for the duration until everybody is back on their feet.

All right? Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you, Red Cross.

(APPLAUSE)

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