Eastern seaboard for days. Expected to create dangerous storm surge, flooding, as well. Cnn has Hurricane Sandy covered like no other network. Were talking with the delaware governor jack markell, new jersey mayor cory booker, craig fugate will be our guest. Virginia governor Bob Mcdonnell. John berman is live in battery park, Lower Manhattan. Expecting big storm surge there. Rob marciano has the forecast but also is live in asbury park, new jersey. Sandra endo is in ocean city in maryland. Youve seen the deteriorating weather conditions there. George howell in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, on the outer banks. Has for hours now. Lets begin with rob marciano for the latest on what sandy is doing right now. When she is expected to make landfall, and how it will be all the way through. Rob . Good morning, again, soledad. The center of sandy is about 380 miles southeast of of new york city. The wind field expanding. Weve got 800 miles of Tropical Storm force winds that will be battering this coastline. And just in the last hour, winds and rain have picked up here along the jersey shore. Satellite pictures showed you just how immense this storm system is. Second only to hurricane olga. But tied now with the 1938 historic hurricane, the long island express, as far as barometric pressure goes. Historic event unfolding already. The trag of this expected to make a left turn toward the delmarva, peninsula. Making landfall later on tonight. As massive as this is, the affects are going to be felt as far north as the Canadian Border and far south as north georgia. The radars scraping the coastline have been heavy rains and wind across Virginia Beach and through washington, d. C. And certainly in through North Carolina. Some of the wind gusts, as youre seeing here, from as far north as new york city, into the 20s. Atlantic city, seeing winds gusting over 30 miles an hour. And Virginia Beach seeing that, as well. Speaking of winds, Wind Warnings, forget about the hurricanes, Wind Warnings extend from maine to as far west as columbus, ohio, to as far south as north georgia. And with that wind, in some cases, will be snow. Cold air infused in this system, blizzard warnings are up for places in West Virginia, could see snow over two feet in total. And blinding snows whipped by winds no doubt about that. Here along the jersey coastline, massive evacuations along coastal communities here in monmouth county, and in asbury park. Weve got a couple of thousand people that have been evacuated. Two shelters have the capacity of 2,000 people. 600 people already in shelters. But most are in the homes of friends and families, just trying to wait out this storm. It will be a wait, soledad. We expect this to be a one to twoday event before things begin to wind down, and widespread Power Outages across northeast. Well have people in the dark for days, if not weeks. When this storm is all said and done. Soledad . Rob marciano monitoring. Thanks for us. Thank you, rob. Lets get right to ocean city in maryland. Where sandra endo has been watching things for the last 24 hours. Sandra, good morning. Good morning, soledad. Weve felt constant, steady rain, and a steady wind at about 30 Miles Per Hour here with wind gusts reaching up to 55 Miles Per Hour at some points. And as it gets lighter you can start seeing the situation here, which is not high tide yet but you can tell those rough waves out there, those waves are fierce. And theyre toppling over this protective sand dune at times, and theyre starting to be flooding around the Coastal Property areas here. You can see its about 100 yards from where the water line is to where the property starts here in ocean city. And thats a big concern for local residents, and local authorities here. They are going to be watching that coastal surge, the storm surge, and the tidal surge, as Hurricane Sandy starts pounding this area later on this evening. Soledad . Sandra endo for us this morning. Thank you for that update. Lets get right to George Howell in Kill Devil Hills. Nice to talk to you. Hows it looking where you are, george . Soledad, where sandra is starting to see those winds, winds 50 miles an hour plus, we are seeing less wind here, after what has been a threeday event. Weve seen the strong winds, weve seen sideways rain. This area has really been under the gun for several days. And the problem now, theyre keeping a very close eye on two things. Number one the storm surge. You cant really see it right now but when you look at the atlantic, it is very high covering the beach that was there. Theyre concerned about a storm surge, soledad, anywhere from 4 to 6 feet on this area where we are. And further south along the outer banks could get up to seven feet. On the other side of the outer banks, the sound side, theyre worried about flooding, as the winds continue to shift out here. Theyre worried about pushing water in different places. Three to five feet of flooding, a possibility there. Also want to talk about whats happening out at sea. About 90 miles from where we are, about 160 miles from the eye of the storm, there is a shipping rather a sailing ship out there with 17 people on board. Its the same ship that was used in the movie pirates of the caribbean. 17 souls on board. U. S. Coast guard doing its best to get out there, to get people off that ship. This is a ship that lost propulsion, not able to go, at the mercy of the sea just floundering right now. Definitely a bad situation that theyre trying to deal with. Oh, my gosh. Sounds absolutely horrible. George howell updating us on whats happening on the outer banks. Here in new york city, everythings shut down. We havent seen the inclement weather that we saw in ocean city and maryland, but we are expecting it to come our way. But theyve shut down the subways. Theyve shut down the buses. Theyve shut down the schools. Central park, they kicked everybody out at 5 00 last night. John berman is a little bit south of me, in Battery Park City, where they are predicting a severe storm surge. Tell me a little bit of what theyre expecting where you are in the evacuation zone. Soledad, this is the evacuation zone. Battery park, also staten island, areas in brooklyn and queens as well. Theyre concerned a storm surge from six to eleven feet high. Thats a full two feet higher than it was during hurricane irene which do cause some minor flooding in this area. Theyre concerned this could cause major flooding. There was a study out of Columbia University that said had hurricane irene been one foot worse it could have caused an additional 50 billion in damage. The fear here is that if the water comes up over this seawall, which is right here next to me, it could flood the subway tunnels, even the electrical grid here. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said hes considering shutting down two Electrical Networks in Lower Manhattan. That would shut down power to some 17,000 people but it could quickly get much, much higher than that. As the day continues were expecting this storm surge to grow. High tide is about 8 50 tonight. Theres a full moon so its an even higher tide than usual. If that storm surge of six to eleven feet hits right at that bad moment, that is what concerns them most, soledad. Of course, john, its cold usually when we cover these hurricanes its much warmer. But if they lose power, as many people are predicting, 10 Million People up along the east coast could lose power, youre talking about 30 degree temperatures with no power that will make a bad situation brutal for some folks. Thats exactly right. You have that problem particularly in the suburbs here, too, where they may not get the storm surge and flooding but the wind could cause so many trees to fall down. With hurricane irene in connecticut and areas around here they had about a week without power. That goes on for a very long time. You start to feel that in the colder weather. John berman in Lower Manhattan. Lets get right to Zoraida Sambolin whos got a look at some of the other headlines regarding the storm. Zoraida, good morning. Good morning to you. Were going to start with breaking news this morning. We just learned that president obama has canceled his event in orlando today. White House Press Secretary jay carney released this statement. Quote, due to deteriorating weather conditions in the washington area, the president will not attend Todays Campaign event in orlando. The president will return to the white house to monitor the preparations for and early response to Hurricane Sandy. And nearly half of a Million People have been evacuated from homes in lowlying areas up and down the east coast. In new york, where forecasters say an 11foot storm surge could cause catastrophic damage tonight, and into tomorrow, mass transit is shut down along with wall street, and public schools, as well. In new jersey, and philadelphia, shelters have been opened. And thousands of cots are being prepared for all of the evacuees. The oncoming storm also causing airlines to cancel more than 7,000 flights in the northeast alone. Thats triggering delays across the country, with the Ripple Effect hitting travelers as far away as paris, soledad. Can you believe that . I believe it. Because, the conditions continue to deteriorate, you can imagine things are just going to go to a fullon stop until this storm passes. Unfortunately its a very slowmoving storm so it is reportedly going to just sit over the east coast once it makes handfall and sit there for hours upon hours. Zoraida, thank you for that update. Here in new york city its begun to rain a little bit, just slightly. Up till now its been pretty clear, cold but clear. Were going to continue to monitor what happens here in new york, as well. Coming up this morning were going to talk to delaware governor jack markell is our guest. And newark, new jersey mayor cory booker will talk to us about what theyre doing there. Thats straight ahead in this special edition of starting point as we monitor what is happening with Hurricane Sandy. [ female announcer ] today, jason is here to volunteer to help those in need. When a twinge of back pain surprises him. Morning starts in high spirits, but theres a growing pain in his lower back. As lines grow longer, his pain continues to linger. But after a long day of helping others, he gets some helpful advice. Just two aleve have the strength to keep back pain away all day. Today, jason chose aleve. Just two pills for all day pain relief. Try aleve d for strong, all day long sinus and headache relief. Welcome back, everybody. Live picks from ocean city in maryland. You can see the big waves and a steady rainfall. Its where our reporter sandra endo has been reporting for the last 24 hours. And conditions have been deteriorating there. Want to get to Christine Romans this morning because, of course, big Financial News is whats not happening today. Christine, good morning. Good morning again. You know, no trading of gm or google today. Stock markets are closed. The nasdaq and New York Stock Exchange will shut down because of this storm. The nyse hasnt been closed for weather since hurricane gloria in 1985. The bond market will close early today at noon eastern. Some 284,000 homes are in the path of this huge storm. 87 billion dollars in home at risk because of storm surge alone. Protecting all that property meant a rush for retailers this weekend, selling flashlights, flywood, food, water. Now the retailers are shutting their doors in the northeast and midatlantic and Insurance Companies are preparing for the claims about to come. Quick reminder about your homeowners insurance. You want to check, soledad. You want to check and see what your coverage is. Make sure you slide all of your paperwork in a ziplock bag and keep that with you. Next couple of days will be crucial. Very smart to do that now when its not an emergency yet and youre holed up at home anyway. Lets get to newark new jersey mayor cory booker. He comes on our show a fair amount. Going to update with him whats happening in this city. Good morning, mayor booker. Thanks for talking with us. What are your biggest concerns right now, sir . My biggest concern is people not taking it seriously and not taking the proper precautions. We still have some time here for people to prepare, get ready, to move out of lowlying areas, if necessary. To stay with other folks and to prepare not only for the storm to hit, but we anticipate there could be many days without power afterwards. You know whats interesting, i think, when we had hurricane irene come through there are many people because it packed a wallop. But only for specific communities. Many of us got off without any damage at all and there was a lot of notice about it. And i think people, i worry, that people may sort of be inured to any issued. Do you think people are not taking these warnings seriously . I mean this is a much different storm than irene. I think frankly people, me, like yourself, and a lot of the leaders around the region, have been doing a good job in trying to communicate to people how this is a different storm. Its going to have a different kind of impact. So i was around riding around until late last night seeing people really feeling understandably scared. Thats actually a good thing that people, you know, feel the fear of this coming or doing the appropriate things. Its very necessary. So i think people are getting the message. In our city i see a lot of people doing the right thing. I have to just say, give a lot of credit to folks the thing that inspires me most is seeing how people are helping people. Checking in on seniors. Delivering supplies. This is the time that we pull together, no matter how hard the storm blows, it doesnt beat us if were standing strong and standing to the. I have to say im a little anxious. Ive covered a lot of these hurricanes but ive got my kids in the apartment and theyre anxious. Reading all these reports, theyre, theyre quite, theyre quite dire they dont call storms epic, you know, by the willynilly if you will. You use twitter a lot. I follow you on twitter. Whats your strategy for tweeting during this storm . Because youre the kind of guy who actually gets out a lot of information and responds to a lot of emergencies via twitter. First and foremost making sure that people know whats happening. From closure information to evacuation information. Whatever it is i push it out a lot. Second thing i want to make sure is im engaging with people. If i get a question on my twitter feed i always assume its a question probably represented by a lot of folks. So engagement. And then the final thing for me always to look for is people that need help, so that i or Emergency Personnel can help them out. So its a great medium in a crisis, and its something that im on really around the clock. All right. Governor cory Booker Joining us, hes the governor of newark i just promoted you yet again. Mayor cory booker. I do that a lot. Mayor cory booker from newark, new jersey, joining us by phone this morning talking a little bit about the preparations there in his city. And of course, in the state as well. Weve been showing you some of the pictures there. Its new jersey that is expected to get the landfall for this storm. And its a big, massive, superstorm. Were continuing to monitor what happens in the hours between now and when that storm makes landfall. Coming up in just a moment were going to take you to delaware, talk to delaware governor jack markell with what hes doing in his state. Were back right after this. Ate. The only time ive ever had a break is when i was on maternity leave. I have retired from doing this one thing that i loved. Now, im going to be able to have the time to explore something different. Its like another chapter. Hi dad. Many years from now, when the subaru is theirs. Hey. You missed a spot. Ill look back on this day and laugh. Love. Its what makes a subaru, a subaru. Gives you a 50 annual bonus. And everyone likes 50 more [ russian accent ] rubles. Eh, eheh, eh, eh. [ brooklyn accent ] 50 more simoleons. [ western accent ] 50 more sawbucks. [ maine accent ] 50 more clams. Its a lobster, either way. [ male announcer ] the capital one cash rewards card. With a 50 annual cash bonus, its the card for people who like more cash. [ italian accent ] 50 more dough whats in your wallet . [ italian accent ] 50 more dough alriwoah did you get that . And. Flip yep, look at this. It takes like 20 pictures at a time. I never miss anything. Isnt that awesome . Uh thats really cool. You should upload these. I know, right . That is really amazing. The pictures are so clear. Kevins a Handsome Devil that phone does everything search dog tricks. Okay, see if we can teach him something cool. Look at how lazy kevin is. Kevin, get it together dude cmon, kevin take 20 pictures with burst shot on the galaxy s3. Welcome back to starting point, im Zoraida Sambolin. Were following Hurricane Sandy all morning for you. First heres a quick look at the rest of our top stories. Were going to begin here with breaking news. The storm has just forced president obama to cancel a Campaign Event this morning in orlando. He flew in last night but due to deteriorating weather conditions in washington, d. C. , he will return right away to the white house to monitor the storm. And both mitt romney and president obama had already c