Fires, all the consequences of a powerful storm of historic proportions. In sandys wake at least 28 are dead in the u. S. Dozens of homes lost to fire or swept to sea. Mass transit stalled, and some 8 million without power. The president has been hunkered down at the white house declaring states of emergency, working with governors, and helping to coordinate relief efforts. Just an hour ago he traveled to the headquarters of the red cross pledging for support for whats expected to be a lengthy recovery. My message to the federal government, no bureaucracy, no red tape, get resources where theyre 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. Indeed. The president will travel to hardhit new jersey tomorrow, and just a week from election day the president s challenger was hardly content to sit on the sidelines. For his part, mitt romney tried to turn an Ohio Campaign rally into a relief rally. Collecting donations for storm victims with a viewing of his Campaign Video before hand and a few remarks. A lot of people hurting this morning. They were hurting last night and the storm goes on. I have had the chance to speak with some of the governors in the affected areas and theyve talked about a lot of people having a hard time. You cant always solve all the problems yourself, but you can make the difference in the life of one or two people as a result of one or two people taking an effort. Romney declared he would send the boxes of Rice Krispies and canned goods in a truck to new jersey. Asked if romney would be visiting the state himself, new Jersey Governor Chris Christie dismissed the idea with a large dose of disdain. Is there any possibility that governor romney may go to new jersey to tour some of the damage with you . I have no idea nor am i the least bit concerned or interested. I have got a job to do here in new jersey thats much bigger than president ial politics and i could care less about any of that stuff. Its no wonder really. Romneys answer to Disaster Relief being to shut down fema and place the burden of recovery on the back of the states and the private sector. Something that might be a bit offputting to governor christie on a day like today. Well have more on the storm and the election in this hour but lets get to richard lui who is in battery park where the waters of new york harbor bashed into vulnerable flood zones. Richard, 24 hours since the storm surge began there. How do thiges longs look right . Reporter 24 hours ago looked a lot like this, a lot of white caps, stormy movement of the water. Of course, the water at that point 24 hours ago was just starting to rise. Since then in that 24 hours the city has been crippled. Were talking about 20 billion in infrastructure damage, 10 billion to 30 billion in lost business reeceipts. If those numbers are right by some estimates, that would be the worst disaster in u. S. History. Were also looking at a subway system, the best in the world some say, that currently is not working, not functional, and wont be for several days. It could be more than that. Electricity south of 39th street gone for the most part. Overnight and now today in some parts of where im standing right now, battery park on the southern tip of manhattan, they dont even have cell service, they dont have Broadband Service here and there. Theyve just taken down a tree that was felled not too long ago. That took about 45 minutes. Up to my right theres a residential tower, just to give you a sense of how the Financial Center of the United States is not necessarily at its best, crippled at the moment, that tower normally would be lit up with lights. Theyre not right now. Martin, it is difficult going right now and we look at what is happening here in an area where they are used to making 70 billion in income a year. By that measure, we have lost half a billion dollars in the last two days. Richard lui, thank you so much. Lets bring in our panel now. With us from atlanta, mayor kasim reed, and in philadelphia, Professor James peterson of lehigh university. Gentlemen, id like both of you to respond to this Statement Today from the president who visited the red cross in washington. Take a listen. The red cross know what is theyre doing. Theyre 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. Mayor reed, so the red cross know what is its doing. Did you detect, perhaps, a subtle dig on mr. Romney who spent today going against the guidelines established by the red cross and holding a Campaign Rally in ohio that was dressed up like a Charity Drive collecting food and other supplies when the red cross expressly asked people not to do that . Well, what i think the president was doing was being commander in chief, and he continues to distinguish himself as someone who is focused on the needs of everyday americans, and this is more important to him even than the presidency. Thats why hes going to be traveling to the site personally. Thats why he had multiple personal conversations with the governor of new jersey. I think that this is yet another moment where you see the clear, striking difference between a president who has a heart for the American People and someone who simply wants to be president of the United States. Indeed. Professor peterson . I would agree. I mean, its xration thcompassi shows through in times like these. Its humanity that shows through in times like these and it just seems clear that the president , in addition to stepping up and doing what he does as commander in chief, demonstrates compassion in these remarks and in his approach to this kind of serious disaster. All weve seen from romney and from his surrogates is all kinds of politicizing and misdirection and i think the American People in this sort of disastrous moment can really see in bold relief the differences between president obama and former governor romney. Mayor reed, to professor petersons point, you need compassion, yes, but you also need funding, and you need fema, and you need support. Now, i wonder, sir, if you would just listen to mr. Romneys discourse here on federal disaster management. Take a listen, sir. Fema is 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 maybe were learning a lesson here that the states should take on more of this role. Absolutely. Every time you have an occasion to take something from the federal government and send it back to the states, thats the right direction. And if you can go even further and send it back to the private sector, thats even better. Mayor reed, everyone acknowledges the role and importance of the private sector. As mayor of a major city, you do. With all due respect to mr. Romney, if the private sector was to great at disaster response, why arent they doing it already . The whole point of having government is to take the role that the private sector does not wish to take. Is that not right . You know, the clip shows the old mitt romney that we know and folks dont like very much. And, of course, hes now a new mitt romney, but the fact of the matter is government really is the collective of us, and in times like these you are reminded that you want a strong government that will take Decisive Action when lives are at risk. Unlike mitt romney and paul ryan, who said that they would bloc grant fema funding to states. States are having fiscal problems and that responsibility would fall to them. Its so unfortunate that we have people that take these ex prem p extreme positions just to score political points. When youre in harms way you dont want a private company thats trying to save money. You want a government that will do what is required to save lives and thats not the policy that mitt romney or his twin paul ryan have advanced while they have been in office. They have done just the opposite unfortunately. Mayor reed, im sorry to press you on this, but isnt that the point of the way these gentlemen have been speaking . This is their patently clear philosophy, and yet when it collides with reality on a day like this, its not something that the people of america like at all. The idea that were going to make the responsibility for emergency relief not just in the hands of the states but preferably according to mr. Romney in the hands of private businesses . Really . Well, i mean, unfortunately, martin, we shouldnt be shocked by this. I mean, i think this shows who mitt romney is. This is irrefutable. This came from his own mouth, and he really hadnt walked away from this. He hadnt said that we need a strong fema right now. He has continued to stand behind his positions, and while this is an awful time and our hearts, our prayers are with the folks on the east coast, we do have an election coming up, and we do need to remember what these folks position are. Thats right. And this is yet another space where mitt romney would privatize an essential government function. Thats what he said he would do. Thats right. Indeed it is. Professor peterson, when you consider the fact that Congressional Republicans led, of course, by paul ryan, actually cut funds for Disaster Relief by 43 and that fema was nearly destroyed under the irresponsibility and neglect of george w. Bush, could we be forgiven for concluding that republicans, can they be trusted on this issue . It doesnt seem like we can. Sequestration will cut fema another 8 . Remember, the republicans kind of led the charge with sequestrati sequestration. There are so many challenges for us to consider. We talk about october surprises. Its really unique to have a National Natural disaster as an october surprise because i think it should open peoples mites up to what the folk on the right have been talking about about gutting government and privatizing everything. You cant privatize Disaster Relief. We know about all the scams. You need the government to coordinate across the states. You can sakic it back to the states but we need coordination across the states for this kind of relief effort and also, martin, finally here, in the absence of any kind of Government Intervention with respect to Climate Change, to go on the other end of that and then to also say we want to cut and demolish fema is absolutely absurd. We need both. We need to address Climate Change and we need to sort of make sure that fema is also a resource because if youre looking at tsunamis on the west coast or hurricanes on the east coast, we are going to need some Government Support in order to address these natural disasters. Indeed. Professor James Peterson and mayor kasim reed, thank you both for your considered views. Stay with us. Much more ahead. Thank you. 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 mayors and the governors if theyre getting no for an answer somewhere in the federal government, they can call me personally. [ female announcer ] you can make macaroni cheese without freshlymade pasta. You could also cut corners by making it without 100 real cheddar cheese. But then. It wouldnt be Stouffers Mac cheese. Just one of over 70 satisfying recipes for one from stouffers. Five days later, i had a massive heart attack. Bayer aspirin was the first thing the emts gave me. Now, im on a bayer aspirin regimen. [ male announcer ] be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. [ woman ] learn from my story. During the darkness of the storm, i think we also saw whats brightest in america. Nurses at nyu hospital caring fragile newborns to safety. Weve seen incredibly brave firefighters in queens wa waistdeep in water fighting infernos and rescuing people in boats. That kind of spirit of resilience and strength, but most importantly looking out for one another, thats why we always bounce back from these kinds of disasters. That was the president a short time ago speaking about the superstorm that has brought much of bustling new york city and the greater northeast to a stand still. The president spoke from the American Red Cross headquarters pledging federal support to the hardhit eastern seaboard. Id like to welcome now new york congresswoman Carolyn Maloney who joins me here appropriately dressed because youve been out in the community as i know, but i also understand that youve been just involved in a Conference Call with regard to First Responders and the response of the federal government. What can you tell us . Well, janet napolitano, the head of Homeland Security was there. We have a coordinated response now since 9 11, and the head of fema, who is coordinating the response of all the federal agencies, craig fugate, they are sending federal aid. They are sending generators down tomorrow. All of our tunnels are flooded. It is the worst flooding that the nta has had in 100 years and the worst outage in the history of con edison. Con ed does not have the power to clean the tunnels out so the mta can see how it needs to be repaired. The federal government is coming in with generators, with emergency aid. I just got off the phone earlier today with ray lahood, the head of the transportation, and hes working with fema and with napolitano to get aid to the city of new york and the resources. They are coordinating responses with the red cross and others in terms of food, water, and seeing that people down on the Lower East Side where i was working today, its the american spirit as the president said, people at their brightest. Its the american spirit, but its also the american government. Absolutely. And weve been hearing a great deal about reducing government, about government being our enemy, and yet on a day like today i imagine millions of people are relying upon our government. Were relying on them to help us get our infrastructure in order so we can return to helping people and moving people. Fema was an icon during 9 11 and theyre an icon now. They are coordinating the federal response. It was slashed under the ryan budget 43 , and now its been restored by president obama, and they are responding as they should to the northeast and to all states that have been inflicted. They have called it a National Disaster zone. New york and new jersey are hit harder than other areas. Theyre allocating resources, responding, saving lives, and they are helping the First Responders, the volunteers, really the city, state, and federal workers who are doing a heroic job in our great city responding to this worst storm in my lifetime for new york. You represent constituents here. Yes. How are they reacting to whats happened . They were rising to the occasion. The Lower East Side and Lower West Side has absolutely no power. There are no traffic lights. People are helping people cross the street. They were serving as the police directing traffic. They were helping each other. It reminded me of the spirit after 9 11 where everyone did whatever they could to help. But you need the city government, the state government, the federal government to come in and help. Mr. Romney says rely on the private sector. What if they decide not to fund it . The federal government is there funding Disaster Relief, disaster coordination. They are moving in supplies and equipment that is needed to help us restore our great city and to help the people. We had a terrible problem with one of our hospitals, New York Hospital had a power outage. All of the hospitals opened their doors and said bring your people here. Everyone is doing everything they can to save lives, to help, and to respond. I believe the mayor, all our First Responders, all our city workers are doing a brilliant, brilliant selfless job in helping our great city get through this, and thank you, mr. President , for being there directing fema. Thank you fema, thank you to Homeland Security for coming in to help new york during this period. We couldnt do it without them. Con ed doesnt have the power. We need the federal government. They say the generators will be here in 24 hours helping us restore our city back to an operational level. Thank you also for what you are doing. Thank you for having me today. Thank you. Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, thank you so much. If youd like to make a donation to help with the storm recovery efforts, please go to redcross. Org or call 1800redcross. Stay with us, much more ahead. [ male announcer ] in blind taste tests, even ragu users chose prego. Prego . but ive bought ragu for years. [ thinking ] wonder what other questionable choices ive made . I choose date number 2 whooo [ sigh of relief ] [ male announcer ] choose taste. Choose prego. We are warned this would be a storm of historic proportions, and as Hurricane Sandy moves west, it has left an unprecedented path of destruction. At least 28 people are confirmed dead. Over 8 million are without power, and multiple communities along the east coast are flooded. Joining us now from one of the hardest hit areas, Point Pleasant beach, new jersey, a nbcs ron allen. Ron, you bravely witnessed firsthand the power of this storm. What has been its impact from where you are . Reporter well, martin, all the san