Storm surge, a power transformer not very far from here has exploded. It plunged this neighborhood into darkness, forced the evacuation as well, the partial evacuation of one of new yorks largest hospitals. Transportation here in the city has been paralyzed. The subway system could be shut down for days. From the carolinas to new england and beyond, cnn is covering the aftermath of the storm here in new york and where this super storm is headed, like no other network can. It is tuesday, october 30th and special coverage of super storm sandy begins right now. Morning. Welcome, everybody. Youre watching our special coverage. We want to welcome our international viewers. Theyve been calling this as a storm for the ages that has aek iffed people from North Carolina to new england and as we speak, it is pounding pennsylvania. This storm is not over yet. Heres how it looks in new york city where i am, new york city very hard hit. A transformer just up this direction on 14th street blew out and in fact, it was it took where i am. Its very dark around us. Were struggling to hold on to our lights here. The wind has picked up a little bit. Its plunged this neighborhood into darkness. Been a big problem here obviously. The winds as well. Theyre significantly less than what they were late last night. It was a big problem. We saw a crane, a crane in fact that we had within standing in front of yesterday afternoon. That crane did topple, crashed down. Also flooded failed generators, forcing nyu to evacuate some of its patients. Month are than 200 out thereof had to i taken out of there, babies, newly born in intensive care had to be evacuated as well. Further along the new jersey shore, towns like ocean city are under water there. So far we know there are 13 deaths being blamed on sandy across the northeast, more than 6 Million People are without power. Youll remember they were predicting it might be as high as 10 Million People by the time the storm is over and the worst is not over by any means. 50 homes are now destroyed by a fire in queens, in rockaway queens. We know that two dozen more of hose homes are now actively burning. Cnn is covering the aftermath of this epic superstorm like no other network. Mike galanos is live for us in Atlantic City, new jersey. Deb feyerick is on the south shore of long island and lyndon hurst. John berman is in Lower Manhattan. Brian todd is covering Rehoboth Beach which is in delaware and sandra endo is still in maryland. Well bring you updates from philadelphia mayor michael nutter, Maryland Governor martin omalley, all of them will check in with us as well this morning. Lets tell you where we are, Lower Manhattan, this is houston street. If you were to go down this way, youd hit the fdr. If you were watching last night, the fdr drive flooded, very, very unusual. What we can see behind me, behind this downed branch, further back, is more flooding as we head down toward the fdr. Much of the flooding in those evacuation zones. These Apartment Buildings behind me had been evacuated. Evacuation zone. Of course, flooding a big problem. The good news here its actually receded a fair amount. The flooding where i was standing the water was coming up to here. Its back maybe 50 yards. So thats some good news. Its happening slowly and were expecting as the day progresses that the water will go out and recede. Up this way is that transformer explosion. People reported seeing green sparks and blue sparks yesterday evening, trying to figure out what it was. In fact, many messages on twitter about that. It tornadoed out that that transformer was exploding. So they shut down the power. Thats why this area has plunged into darkness. If you were to go up another 30 blocks or so, the power is on for much of the city. As we drove around this morning, we noticed theres not too much debris from the bulk of the city. Certainly the parts in the middle, Lower Manhattan. There are downed trees, signs that have flown down, awnings have been knocked down as well. Flooding is a big problem here. I want to get you to Atlantic City. Mike galanos is there for us. We were watching Atlantic City very closely yesterday afternoon into the evening where it was just devastating. Tell me how it is this morning. Reporter its a lot different. As the driving rain hits. As i was listening to you, the wind has picked up and its a bitter cold wind as well. Behind me, soledad, i was standing in just a few short hours ago, behind me was basically a raging river. This is a city street in Atlantic City and water was above my knee. If i would have tend to walk, basically the ocean was behind me. Im not sure if you can see the red valley sign. If you continue, youre heading toward the ocean. The water just got deeper and deeper and deeper. The mayor of Atlantic City was telling people, this was before it hit in full, we haven stading water in many places, 2 and 3 feet deep, fearing the water was going to be 5 and 6 feet deep. He told people at some point and has taken some criticism for that, if you havent made it to a shelter yet, hunker down now. There were 500 or 600 people at one county shelter. Interesting back and forth on that front. Bottom line, you wanted to get out of here. It was brutal yesterday as it was in new york city. It was surreal to be standing half a block back and it was just a raging river, the winds were swirling, the water was swirling and kicking up and every Emergency Vehicle that drove by would kick up a wave that would rush my water to my waist. It was quite a scene in Atlantic City and still is. The rain is still pounding. It looks like massive damage there. Walk me through overall the assessment, financially, looking at the pictures youve been showing us, its going to be massive damage but how about loss of life and other things . Reporter we have not heard, again, of loss of life right here in Atlantic City proper. They did a pretty good job of trying to get everybody out of here. I had a chance to talk to some people. A couple elderly couples that i ran into, i was coming in, they were coming out. The wife had to convince the husband, lets get out of here. Theyre happy they did. I know they ended up in a hotel. Thats what most people did. I ran into a family of ten that all met in a hotel just outside of Atlantic City. That was the way to go. If you didnt, there was no place to go. The power was out. In front of me is the Atlantic City convention center, to the left is a large hotel. Think of that, im somewhat sheltered and the wind is still blasting me. It was ten times worse yesterday as this storm hit in full, soledad. These pictures look amazing. Mike galanos this morning. Thank you, mike. Appreciate it. Lets get right to long island, lindenhurst. Those pictures, that flooding was ridiculous yesterday. Walk us through what youre seeing now. Reporter soledad, same street, a little different layer of flooding. You can see behind me here, some of the water and you cant make it out. This entire street is still flooded. That water expected to push up as it does. The big problem here on long island, you have a lot of communities that have been cut off. Soledad, you mentioned those homes in the rockaways by the way. I want to bring you up to date on something. Got off the phone a couple moments ago with an official. Hes telling us one of the reasons the fires are burning as they are, theres no water pressure. Right here we can smell several fires that took place here overnight as well. You have a lot of power lines that are down, incredibly dangerous, streets are flooding, areas that are completely cut off. Massive beach erosion. We were talking to somebody last night who basically said some of the beaches have simply disappeared because the ocean met the bay and everything sort of washed away. The official that i smoke to said what theyre really waiting for is first light. Nobody is going to know how bad the devastation is, nobody will know where the damage is and what needs to be fixed until they can get eyes on the ground and see exactly what is happening. We have police cars stationed all around here. Theyre making sure people dont drive down the streets. Again, just walking a little bit around this area. One of the things is, we are being told to be extremely cautious. You dont know how deep it is. You dont know if there are potholes or electrical wires. Thats one of the greatest problems. We have been told that Senior Centers were evacuated. Evacuation centers full no as people keep an eye on this storm. A lot of folks, soledad, they have no idea what it is theyll be going back to. Soledad . Oh, gosh, it looks just terrible. Deb feyerick for us this morning. Certainly appreciate the update. I want to go inside to Zoraida Sambolin. Shes been monitoring whats been happening with two big stories. One is that crane collapse. We were talking about that crane and how worrisome it was to see this massive crane on a 90story building. I dont you in particular, you were standing out there, worried about the heavy winds and thats precisely what happened. The powerful wons from super storm sandy causing partial collapse of a construction crane that is dangling, high above in midtown manhattan. On the left is what the crane looked like before the collapse. On the right what it looks like now. It dangles dangerously from a highrise building. The fear, of course, it could plunge to the ground at any time. Last night piers morgan talked to a crane expert about the potential danger there. There are several different scenarios. If you see the boom hanging down, lets say the house swings around and the boom gets into the arms that are holding the crane up, that come out of the building, if it hits that, theres a possibility they could be they can break, then the cranes coming down. So these are live pictures that youre looking at right now. And theres still a lot of concern about this. Theyre looking at the situation, trying to assess it, to try and figure out what they can do about it. This is what i can tell you about that crane. Its 158 feet. It includes a 108foot boom and 58foot jib at the tip. They were concerned about that boom. That either broke during those high winds. It had been inspected, though, on friday and deemed safe. But, of course, as you can see, its not. Police and fire crews evacuated people in the area, including guests at the parker meridian hotel. Police say stay away from the area. Because they have no idea what could potentially happen there. They are looking into it very carefully today to see if there is a way to secure that. Heres another big story. A sudden rumble, then a cloud of debris. The facade of a manhattan Apartment Building is ripped off. This all happening as sandys intense winds rip right through that area. And unfortunately one firefighter did have some minor injuries there. Well continue to follow these developing stories. Well head out to john berman. He is in battery park. Good morning, john. Reporter hi, zoraida. Can you hear me, zoraida . This place where im standing right now in battery park, the part where im standing right now overnight at about 9 00 last night this was part of new york harbor. An unprecedented storm surge, nearly 14 feet. 4 feet higher than theyve ever seen before. The record was 1960 at 10 feet. Believe it or not, out in new york harbor, which is out that way, they measured waves 32 feet high, 6 feet higher than ever recorded there. I just want to show you what the water did. It swept in through here. This doesnt look like much. The plants were standing high here yesterday. They were flattened by water which swept them the water swept back out that way overnight. As i was coming down here, i should also tell you, ive never seen manhattan like this before. The power completely out from about the 20s down to here on the west side. Very, very eerie. I heard soledad say she didnt see much debris. On the west side highway we saw constructionlike pieces of wood down, signs, trash cans. We had to weave our way through on the west side highway. Ive never seen it like this before in manhattan. A very, very eerie site. Soledad . All right, john berman down in Lower Manhattan. Im on the opposite side of the city from where you are this morning. Thanks for that update. I want to go to jennifer delgado. There is a sense for people here in new york, jennifer, that its done but really the storm is not done. Were not done. Were still talking about a blizzard setting up through parts of the appalachian mountains. Were talking wind gusts still up to about 50 miles per hour. You can see the rain still spreading into new york, new jersey, were also looking at the rain all the way up towards areas, including new england. But right now, the heaviest rainfall coming through for areas like baltimore, washington, d. C. Here is the center of the circulation of whats left of sandy. And this is where were going to see it moving over towards the west. But the problem is on the backside of that were talking about some very heavy snowfall. Now, the big story, of course, has been the storm surge. Want to talk about some of the records that have been broken. For battery park we had a high of 13. 88 feet. And then for sandy hook, were talking 13. 31. All types of records were broken. Thats why were seeing the flooding coming out of these areas. It was way too much with the wall of water coming through. Right now, the winds are very gusty out there. For new york, winds roughly around 25, 26. We point this out to you because of that hanging skyscraper. Im sure a lot of people are very concerned about that. In addition to all the flooding and the rain and, of course, soledad it will be very cold when you add in that wind. Its going to be miserable for people who are without power. Oh, my goodness. Youre absolutely right about that. Its cold. Yes. If you dont have power, its brutal. Were in pretty good layers. If youre in your house for days without the power coming back on, thats brutal and that crane as well. Youre absolutely right. Our hotel was evacuated yesterday because there were concerns about that craine. We were moved out of our hotel. Jennifer delgado in atlanta, thank you very much. Still ahead, well update you whats happening here in terms of transportation. Theres been major flooding here in the city. Which means the subways could remain shut down, the buses, the trains as well, for days. Well update you on that. Straight ahead, youre watching a special edition of early start as we update you on super storm sandy. Back after this break. Stay with us. p p welcome back to our special live coverage of Superstorm Sandy which brought new york city to a virtual standstill, crippling transportation. Sandy forcing parts of the fdr to close in both directions. You can see why. Intense flooding making it impassable and dangerous. Long Island Railroad crews are fighting floodwater with water. Look at this time lapsed video showing how penn station prepared for sandy. Woshers pulled 300 train cars off the tracks sunday and fill a balloonlike dam with water to trap the storm surge and pump it back out. Check out this picture of train station flooded tweeted by the Port Authority of new york and new jersey. It shows floodwater gush into a commuter train underground station through an elevator shaft in hoboken, new jersey. Its unclear when the trains will resume service. Wow. Speaking of rushing floodwaters, this is what it was like inside a vent building inside the holland tunnel yesterday. The tunnel was closed yesterday afternoon as the threat from sandy loomed. Soledad . All right, christine, thanks very much. Flooding obviously a big problems so youve been pointing out here where we are in Lower Manhattan. Im not far, christine, from that flooded fdr drive. The water has been receding a little bit although the rain has picked up. Thats some good news. The water was where i was standing there. Its gone back probably 50, 75 feet. Thats been good news. Other big problem is the wind. An we know that in rockaway, queens, theres a massive fire burn, some two dozen homes are actively on fire. Big problem for the fire department, no water pressure. They cant put out that fire. Also the wind causing downed power lines which is what caused that fire in the first place. Well update you on what happened there. Thats straight ahead on the other side of the break. Were back in just a moment. Upside down. Hi. Hi. You know, i can save you 15 today if you open up a charge card account with us. You just read my mind. Announcer just one little piece of information and they can open bogus accounts, stealing your credit, your money and ruining your reputation. Thats why you need lifelock to relentlessly protect what matters most. [beeping. ] helping stop crooks before your identity is attacked. And now you can have the most comprehensive Identity Theft protection available today. Lifelock ultimate. So for protection you just cant get anywhere else, get lifelock ultimate. I didnt know how serious Identity Theft was until i lost my credit and eventually i lost my home. Announcer credit monitoring is not enough, because it tells you after the fact, sometimes as much as 30 days later. With lifelock, as soon as our network spots a threat to your identity, youll get a proactive risk alert, protecting you before you become a victim. Identity theft was a huge, huge problem for me and its gone away because of lifelock. Announcer while no one can stop all Identity Theft, if criminals do steal your information, lifelock will help fix it, with our 1 million service guarantee. Dont wait until you become the next victim. You have so much to protect and nothing to lose when you call lifelock now to get two full months of Identity Theft protection risk free. Thats right, 60 days riskfree. Use promo code gethelp. If youre not completely satisfied, notify lifelock and you wont pay a cent. Order now and also get this shredder to keep your documents out of the wrong hands a 29 dollar value, free. Get protected now. Call the number on your screen or go to lifelock. Com to try lifelock protection risk free for a