With inevitable Power Outages that could last for days, if not more than a week. Thats why hundreds of thousands of people who live, work or play near the water, including the spot youre looking at right now, atlantic city, theyre all under a mandatory Evacuation Order. Its why classes are canceled for more than 2 million schoolchildren. Its why more than 10 million commuters in new york, philadelphia and washington have no bus service, have no Subway Service today. And thousands of airline flights, almost 10,000, in fact, into and out of the northeast corridor are canceled. If you need to drive anywhere in connecticut today, you better hurry up because the governor of connecticut has Just Announced hes shutting down the highways at 1 00 eastern. And that is just two hours from now. Here where i am in new york and where we begin our mega coverage, my colleague, john berman is down in battery park city, which pretty well can be expected to get battered as the namesake is. Sandy is turning towards the shore and picking up speed. Give me a bit of a read from your location. Reporter its really been an interesting place to be all morning. About two hours ago, i was standing in 8 inches of water right here. It was up past my ankles. What happened was after high tide here in morning, there was a small storm surge. The water came up over this seawall right here and began to flood this area. This is the evacuation zone in lower manhattan, some 370,000 people have been told to get out from here and also the other boroughs in new york city to evacuate, get to a friends place uptown, get to a hotel or to one of the 76 Emergency Evacuation Centers throughout the city. Theyre expecting a storm surge of anywhere between six and 11 feet. Thats a lot. We saw at high tide this morning it come over the wall here, that was a mere fraction of what it will be tonight at about 8 50. Thats high tide tonight. With this full moon and with this storm hitting the east coast, the water could come in and simply flood this whole area. What youre seeing here is a lot of tourists, a lot of people coming to take pictures. This is a bad idea. I dont think these people knew just an hour and a half ago, they would have been standing in 8 inches of water or if they come here tonight, they would be floating or sinking. The police have come through here and told people to get out of here. This is really a bad place to be. This is a mandatory evacuation zone in lower manhattan. 6 to 11 feet of storm surge. Its not big waves like youve seen up and down the east coast. There are some Pretty Amazing pictures up and down the east coast. No, this is a slow creep. The water will simply rise behind me. Hour by hour by hour as we get closer to 8 50 tonight. And then it could simply be devastating. Ashleigh . This is even more sort of secret and stealthy for those who dont know what theyre about to walk through. New yorkers, all 400,000 of people who have been ordered to evacuate are a hearty lot and dont heed the warning. What do we know about where you are, where the mayors threatened to shut off the power down there . Have they left and gone anywhere . Reporter most of the people ive seen here are tourists. They arent native new yorkers. Theyre people who may be in hotels nearby and they just came to get a look here. You can see the police are walking down here right now and telling people to get out of here. Its not a good place to be. Im telling people that i see here, they should get in, hunker down, it really only started to happen about half an hour ago where people started to come out. Earlier this morning, it was a ghost town. Thats what new york should feel like today. It is a very good day to be at home. Im glad to see what im seeing behind you, the Police Officers responding and telling people this might look like there isnt a problem but there is. Stay with us, john, if you would. I want to move on that Jennifer Delgado because ill tell you something, theres a lot going on that people might not be able to see. The new advisories have been rolling in. We just got one from the National Hurricane center. Hurricane sandy is about 205 miles southeast of atlantic city. And our meteorologist, jen delgado, is joining me live from the hurricane center, tracking this storm. Theres some significant news thats just come out. Tell me about it. Absolutely. Most importantly, we are going to start off with the winds. The winds have gotten stronger from the last advisory at 8 00 a. M. We are now seeing the winds sustained at 90 Miles Per Hour with some gusts up to 115. So, yes, we are still seeing strengthening out of it. And were talking Hurricane Sandy has been moving right along the gulf stream. We think that was allowing Hurricane Sandy to strengthen over the last couple of hours. Want to point out to you also the pressure. The pressure has also dropped. Were now looking at it being 943 millibars. Thats the lowest pressure recorded for a storm north of cape hatteras, north carolina. We are not done by any means with Hurricane Sandy. We still have to go through late tonight as well as into tomorrow morning before we see that circulation making landfall. Again, you can kind of see for yourself right now, its located roughly about looks like 268 miles southsoutheast of new york city. And its now made that northwesterly turn. As it makes landfall, its going to bring hurricane conditions across the region. Talking those winds are going to be extremely gusty. They will be moving very slowly. As it does up towards the north this is going to be producing a tremendous amount of rainfall. And the rain is already coming down. You can see for washington, d. C. As well as for baltimore, the storms in yellow and orange, of course that indicates the heavyyear rain. Out towards the west, snow. Ashleigh . Just quickly, ive got a lot of ground to cover, but when we came into this today, we thought wed be looking at winds around 75 miles an hour. And then to hear now maximum sustained winds, 90 miles an hour, gusting to 115 miles an hour and the wind speed, the fact that its a cat 1, that makes this thing so damaging and powerful. Can you explain to our viewers why its far more serious than that . Absolutely. Its going to be interacting with a low thats coming through. This is going to turn into essentially a perfect storm. Its going to shift over and getting its energy from a baraclinic motion. The storm is going to continue to blow up on radar. Talking very heavy rainfalls intensified out of this. And of course snow. Some of these locations, talking about blizzard on the backside of that low. Thats going to be developing in parts of west virginia. You asked with the intensification, as we said, moving along the gulf stream, very warm waters. The gulf stream moves along the eastern coastline and has been moving over there. And thats what really, we think, been the fuel. Weve seen that intensification of the storm developing and the center of circulation. Dont focus on the center. The strongest winds are all around the storm. I keep hearing posthurricane winter cyclone. I dont like the sounds of that at all. Jen delgado, thank you so much. We have more to update you on right after this. Were lucky, its not every day you find a companion as loyal as a subaru. Love. Its what makes a subaru, a subaru. If youre a man with low testosterone, you should know that axiron is here. The only underarm treatment for low t. Thats right, the one you apply to the underarm. Axiron is not for use in women or anyone younger than 18. Axiron can transfer to others through direct contact. 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Go to higher, safer ground. The margin for error for me being wrong and you going to stay at a friends house for two days i think is significantly better than winding up with a severe injury or death for yourself or for your family. Thats new jersey governor Chris Christie. Hes not messing around with his message. His state is right in the path of this storm. Newarks liberty airport is basically shut down. Hundreds of flights have been canceled because of this storm. Our rob marciano is keeping an eye on things in asbury park, new jersey. Rob, last year just before hurricane irene, Chris Christie told people in no Uncertain Terms and i will quote him here, get the hell outfit beach. My question to you, are people heeding his message to get out and get to safer ground . Reporter you know, they are. And you may remember, he caught some criticism for using those strong words last year after what people along the immediate jersey shore felt was an overreaction. Certainly after irenes disaster, turned out to be a wise choice, especially for those living along the immediately shoreline. Here in asbury park and up and down the northern coastline of new jersey, they have certainly heeded his warning. Heres a look at the surf that continues to pour in. The tide is actually receding now. But ive only seen it go down maybe five, ten feet in the last 20 minutes because the actual surge continues to push water over what should be dry, sandy beach here. But obviously thats not the case. So i think throughout the afternoon, even though the tide is going down, were going to see it hold where it is. And when high tide comes again later on tonight around 8 00, right when this is supposed to make landfall, about 50 to 80 miles to our south, thats when we expect the water to come up and over the boardwalk. Tell you what, this surf coming in here has been impressive. All day long, weve seen 10, 15, even some 20foot huge breakers really testing some of the jetties and seawalls here that protect this stretch of coastline. Yeah, everyones evacuated. Mandatory evacuations up and down the coastline to all of new jersey. There are shelters set up. Theres been a few hundred people that have taken advantage of those. Officials here at the Fire Department here tell me there have been a few calls theyve had to deal with. But all in all, so far, so good. The storm itself is still a couple of hundred miles away. We have all afternoon long and all night, residual wind pounding the coastline to deal with. In for the long haul here. Looks so aggressive that, surf behind you. Were just at the beginning stages of it. Rob mars nocianomarciano, stay. Were not only going to watch what robs been watching, the surf, surge and the flood danger. But coming up, whats going to happen when millions of people are almost certain to lose power and how long is it going to take for people to get up in the buckets and fix those power lines and make sure that it is safe just to go outside . Thats coming up next. [ woman ] its 32 minutes to go time, and the candidates speech is in pieces all over the district. The writers desktop and the coordinators phone are working on a joke with local color. The secure cloud just received a revised intro from the strategists tablet. And while i make my way into the venue, the candidate will be rehearsing off of his phone. [ candidate ] and thanks to every young face i see out there. [ woman ] his phone is one of his biggest supporters. [ female announcer ] with cisco at the center. Working together has never worked so well. Seems like a pretty vulnerable area because were so close to the water. Preparation, whatever we can do to minimize any damage to homes and the city in general. I have two little kids and a dog. I figured if the power went out, we dont have any generator. So going up 15 flights of stairs would be a pretty big task. Smart people getting a move on things early. As many as 60 Million People could be personally affected by Hurricane Sandy. The storm could leave whole cities powerless for as long as a week. Maybe even longer because some of these sustained winds that are going to stick around for a while mean that those Power Companies cant get their guys up in their equipment to fix the lines. It could be very dangerous to be out on the street and it could be very bad for getting power restored. We saw the impact of this when major storms tore through the northeast earlier on this year. But the red cross says it is ready for this storm. And joining me now on the phone is katherine barday, a spokeswoman for the red cross. Shes in atlantic city, new jersey. Katherine, we just saw in an area that where rob marciano was, the storm surge is coming up. Even when the tide is receding, the water is still coming up. That should be a clear indication for someone whos out there and wondering when they need to leave, right . Absolutely. If water is rising in your neighborhood, we absolutely courage people to evacuate. Red cross has shelters open all up and down the eastern seaboard. Weve had over 190 shelters open with over 4,500 people staying just last night alone. We have hundreds of disaster workers and were ready with supplies and emergency vehicles in place to help. And to find a shelter, we have very easy ways to do so. You can download our hurricane application from redcross. Org. Visit our website, or call 1800redcross for this information. Thats great information. Just quickly, i want to ask you, if someones watching this and saying, i see standing water in my neighborhood. Its very dangerous to drive on just an inch or two of water. Lets say theyre about to leave. What should they grab before they head out the door to get to a shelter . Well, first and foremost, we want everybody to use extraordinary caution going through their neighborhoods and standing water. But when they leave, we courage everyone to take their medications, personal documents. If they have special needs or need lifesaving medical devices, please take those. Battery chargers. And if you have pets, please bring pet supplies with your pets, collars, leash. And make sure that you are headed to a petfriendly shelter. We have many of those open. And we also partner with other agencies to make sure that pets can be accommodated. Please do not leave your pet behind. And make sure they grab their insurance policies, along with those important documents. I just want to jump ahead really quickly to after the storm. I know that youre busy now but youre going to be busy then as well. What he is the plan for after the storm when the damage is done and people are really going to need the help . Well, red cross will be here for weeks to come. This is a largescale disaster response. And really we rely on the generosity of volunteers and the public to be able to support such service, whether its shelters, mass feeding, all of the services that we are going to be providing. And we encourage if you would like to find out how to volunteer or make a donation to red cross, please visit redcross org or text the word red cross to 90999 to make a 10 donation to this Disaster Relief effort. Catherine barde, thank you so much. Stay safe yourself as you continue to watch out for the safety of others. Again, for more information from the red cross, 1800redcross. Check them out also at redcross. Org. A whole bunch of apps on your ipad that will help you to find shelters and get information and find the go bags and what to pack in your go bag. I want to just direct your attention to live pictures right now. The International Space station just happens to be, as we speak, flying over Hurricane Sandy. So the picture that is youre seeing are the actual live shots of what this storm looks like from space. Its remarkable that we just had this timing. But we seized on the opportunity to jump onto their live cameras from the International Space station. Thank you to nasa tv for this as well because you can just see that wall of clouds. Its hard to get perspective when youre looking at the globe from that angle. But you can certainly see what everyones been talking about. And that this is a monster storm. Weve got a lot more very valuable information for you coming up. Choose the Perfect Hotel starts with arthritis pain and a choice. Take tylenol or take aleve, the 1 recommended pain reliever by orthopedic doctors. Just two aleve can keep pain away all day. Back to the news. Just two aleve can keep pain away all day. 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