Bergen county, new jersey, after a levee break there. Right now an enormous fire is burning in the queens section of new york. 50 homes have destroyed. A transformer explosion to tell you about. Ripped through the night as people described a powerful explosion, very loud. Look at those pictures. Update you on what happened at that con ed plant. 260 patients including babies from the nicu evacuated from a Major Hospital in new york city. Historic recordbreaking flooding consuming manhattan and parts of the northeast, as well. Homes are under water and more than 6 Million People are in the dark this morning. Transportation is at a standstill. Could be days before things get back to normal. Cnn is covering the aftermath of the storm, and Superstorm Sandys next path, like no other network can. It is tuesday, october 30th, and special coverage begins right here on starting point. Lots to get to this morning. Lets start with breaking news. Rescue efforts are now under way in three new jersey towns. A levee break is what they believe has happened. It sent four to five feet of water gushing into the streets. Zoraida sambolin has the latest on this breaking news for us. Good morning. Good morning to you, soledad. That break happened just after midnight in Bergen County. Authorities say theyre using boats and high trucks in an attempt to rescue people in the towns of carlstadt, little ferry and moonachie. We talked to the chief of Little Ferry Police department, ralph verdi a little earlier about some of the dramatic rescues that are taking place right now. Weve got a couple houses where lowlying areas, people were up on the second floor. They had to take them out the windows. We had several medical emergencies. We had to take from the house. Put them on a vote, bring them to land that was dry enough to tie them over to medical personnel and transform them to hospital. Been plucking people off of the rooftops, as well. In another developing story were following this morning, about 24 homes on fire in breezy point, queens. 50 homes already burned to the ground. Floodwaters and dangerous winds are keeping firefighters from getting close enough to put out those massive flames that youre taking a look at. Soledad . Obviously were following that, zoraida. It looks like 24 homes are still burning this morning, as well. Lots to follow this morning. Okay lets tell you what happened at nyu medical center. They were removing babies from the nicu, sometimes taking those pictures, 260 in all, had to be brought down the stairs for those infants who are on respirators they would hand res pirate them before they were able to relocate them into other hospitals. Also we have pictures of sandy. Superstorm sandy, as shes called, as she makes her way north, have iing really blown through new york city. Lots to follow as we see where shes heading next. Shes officially what they call a post Tropical Cyclone and the National Weather service says that still means high winds. 70 to 90 mile an hour still possible in the tristate area. So, sandy left quite a trail of destruction here in 9 United States. 16 people dead, 6. 5 Million People are without power and insurers are estimating Something Like 10 billion to 20 billion in damage. All right lets tell you where we are this morning. I want to walk you through this. Suns coming up a little bit. Might give you a better sense of whats around us. You can see there are some downed branches. But the big issue here in Lower Manhattan, were on east houston street at avenue d about a block from fdr drive which youll remember from pictures yesterday flooded yesterday afternoon. So look around me, no lights on. That is because, con ed power plant had a transformer explosion. People in the area describe it as being scary. It was loud, it crackled, and all of a sudden it just blew up and it was terrifying. Immediately after that it went dark. Lower manhattan is without power. Ran into a guy this morning who went to visit his mom. Hes in this building right back there and said she wasnt going to leave. Shes in her 70s and she was going to stay with the neighbors. A few minutes ago we also saw some families, some schools were Evacuation Centers. Those folks were gathering up their belongings leaving the Evacuation Center and trying to check out the damage to their homes. Asbury park was a big focus of our attention yesterday. Thats where rob marciano was set up for us yesterday, and he is there again today. Rob, the devastation, even before this landfall, was massive in asbury park. How is it today . Well, you know, its visual today. Once the sun comes up here well be able to shine the light on some of whats happened here. The water just started to recede briefly but still lots of puddles across this area. Where the storm surge came in was basically on this side of the building, and then the boardwalk was overtaken. Look at this damage right here. This is a combination of storm surge, water, and then the winds whipping around, and just tearing apart this brick building and these pilons here. Youre talking about well structured brick and mortar type of building torn up by this storm. Heres some of the leftover water. The way things work alone the jersey shore, when you get something that you get a storm surge that overtakes the boardwalk or a sand dune, or a levee of sorts, or a Barrier Island it piles up, because were back down at sea level here so it takes some time for all of this to drain. So weve got that to deal with. You cant really get around town very much. And then underneath that water you might have stuff like this. I mean theres debris all over the place. This is left over from actual fence that was blown around. And then a couple of these right here, these are actually street lamps that have been torn off of street poles. Just two of these in a 15foot span. You can imagine just what it looks like not only in this town but up and down the jersey shore. Good news to report from asbury park, no reports of serious injuries or fatalities. But power is out and obviously debris and damage just about everywhere. I have to believe, soledad, that this scene is really mimicked up and down the jersey shore. Still about 100 or so miles from where the center of sandy made landfall. Obviously the winds here, well over hurricane strength and likely in some cases last night, stretching into 100 miles an hour. It was a hairy, hairy scene as that storm surge came over the boardwalk, and when sun comes up well take a look over there and see how much damage was done to that. Theres some old, very Historic Buildings here in asbury park, and judging from what this building took on, it doesnt look too terribly well right now. Soledad . Its going to be a mess when you get to see the whole picture. Appreciate the update. Lets get to john berman in the lower part of manhattan. Where they were expecting a storm surge of Something Like ten feet plus. They got much more than that. John, whats the latest there . They got 14, soledad. 14 feet. A 14foot storm surge, which is simply unprecedented here. Its four feet higher than the record which was set back in 1960. Where im standing right now, was really just part of new york harbor last night when that surge came in. Let me show you where the water is right now. Its about two hours from high tide again right now and you can see, you know, we have four feet to go before the water gets backed up here, hopefully it will not come back over this wall again tonight. But you can see how low it is compared to what it must have been last night in this area where im standing right now. Simply swamped this entire area, and this side of manhattan where i am didnt have it nearly as bad as where you are. Out in new york harbor, which is out that way they measured a 36foot wave. 32 feet. 32 feet. Which is six feet higher than the record, which was set back during hurricane irene. I was driving down here this morning, the entire lower part of manhattan blacked out. Con edison says 250,000 homes inside new york city itself without power. The subways as youve been saying, shut down completely. Six of the tubes, six of the tunnels from manhattan to queens and brooklyn flooded. They do not know when theyll get them pumped out over the next four days, they hope. Again that flooding really did wreak some havoc here, soledad. Yes, it has. Were going to have a chance later this morning. As the suns coming up we can see the damage, john. This side there are lots of submerged cars. Im looking at someones tire standing in the middle of the street. That cant be good. Well update folks on the damage on this side of manhattan. Lets go to ali velshi. Ali was in Atlantic City yesterday and theyre watching whats happening with him, where he was just being battered by the high winds, and the surf, as well. Ali, im glad to see you in one piece, frankly. Hows it going where you are . Still a lot of wind as you can see. Still being buffeted by a lot of wind but the water is gone. Eight hours ago i was standing here in water that was as high as my waist. It was the ocean. There was vegetation from the ocean in it. And it overtopped the banks and overtopped the boardwalk which is about three quarters of a mile behind me. You can see those red lights over there. The water is gone. Now moments ago, a convoy of trucks with National Guardsmen pulled out from here. They are beginning their survey of Atlantic City. Just spoke to a utilities operator who said that it does not look like there was serious damage in the Atlantic City area. There are trees down, there are some power lines down, things have blown around a bit. But it does not look like serious damage. Remember, Atlantic City is substantially more built up than many of the areas on the shore. While there are great homes, great, strong homes, there are a lot of smaller homes all the way down to ocean city, maryland. Cape may, places like that. Were going to get a better sense of it once the sun comes up. Were going to head to the shore and get a sense of what sort of damage theres been around here. About 500 people said to be in shelters in atlantic county. The roads back to philadelphia should be fine. Philadelphias got some flooding, 60 miles west of here. The other thing is theres an ongoing tiff between the governor of new jersey Chris Christie and the mayor of Atlantic City. Governor said the mayor didnt follow the instructions properly, didnt work hard enough to get people out of the city. We had both of them on air last night, pretty much calling each other names. So i imagine there will be some phone calls this morning about what should have happened. But bottom line, our initial assessment of Atlantic City right now, soledad, is it may it splay dodged the worst of it despite how bad it looked last night. It surely looked bad. Thank you, ali, certainly appreciate it. Were going to head now to whos up next . Peter king, congressman peter king, looks like hes ready for us. Peter king is out in long island, and obviously long island took a big brunt of this storm. Congressman king, thank you for your time. First tell me exactly the damage that youve seen. I havent had a lot of live reports on what has happened in long island outside of my hometown, smithtown, which i know has lost power. Can you tell me what some of the worst damage is . Yeah, thats right. Absolutely devastating. For instance, long beach has lost all its sewage, all its water supplies, and its basically very difficult to get to. Hospitals have been shut down. People stayed behind, and a number of firemen were stranded trying to get them out. In places like massapequa, there are a number of fires. At one time 12 firemen stranded, had to send military vehicles down. Pretty much like wyndhamhurst are under water, babylon, really hit very, very hard. On long island more than 80 of the customers are without power. 1. 1 million customers, over 900,000 have lost their power. Its probably devastating a hit as long island has ever taken. Have to say that people in Suffolk County are bearing the brunt of this. They and the First Responders are doing a phenomenal job. But it was really very harrowing. Through the night, and this morning, basically, theyre still asking everyone to stay off the roads. Just, again, it was just exceeded the worst expectations for long island. You know, were looking at pictures from yesterday, as youre talking, and you can just see the floodwater and the damage there. We talked about the rescue workers helping people in to vehicles to get them out of there. So what are the expectations . I know the water is receding here where i am in manhattan. But, i know its very hard this early on to give a number like how many days people will be without power. But is there an expectation, four days or a week or two weeks . Right now expect seven to ten days before power is restored. Of course they couldnt do anything at all yesterday or even this morning yet because of the winds. Its only going to be this morning they can start with restoring of the power. Its going to be a long process. They are in place to do whatever they can as quickly as possible, but its important for people to realize that this is going to be a long, hard process. And also, to get unless its absolutely necessary for people to stay off the roads, because there still are wires down, its important to get the trees and everything removed from the roads, and as people are out there, much harder to get that done. But its, again, its going to require an allout cooperation from the public, and again last night, i know that probably too early to be showing you, but all those people who refused to evacuate, not only did they put themselves at risk they put many, many First Responders at risk. Areas where firemen almost lost their lives. Yes, yes, no, they decide not to evacuate until they suddenly decide they need to be evacuated and then everybody has to wade in and go and get them. Congressman peter king for us this morning. Thank you, sir. We appreciate your time, long road ahead for you to recover where your constituents are. So thanks for talking with us. Want to get to Zoraida Sambolin. Shes got an update on some of the other weatherrelated news. Youre looking at a live picture. And this is a partially collapsed crane in midtown manhattan. This was knocked down by strong winds from Superstorm Sandy. The crane is dangling from the 70th floor of that luxury high rise thats under construction. The building is 157. It is slated to be 90 stories tall when it is finished. Heres what the crane looked like before, on the left, and then after. The concern right now, of course, is that crane plunging to the ground. New yorks mayor bloomberg says the crane was just inspected last friday, and everything seems to be find. But, of course, the heavy winds created a problem there. Take a look at this. A sudden rumble, then a cloud of debris when the facade of a manhattan Apartment Building is ripped off. This is all happening as sandys intense winds tore through the area. Left apartments completelyics posed. One firefighter had minor injuries. Soledad . All right, zoraida. Thank you very much. Those are really dramatic pictures to take a look at this morning. Lets get to Jennifer Delgado at the extreme Weather Center in atlanta. Jennifer, where is sandy going next . Well, sandys going to be moving very slowly over toward the west. As it does it is still going to be squeezing out more rain out there as well as some snow. As i show you on the radar. Here is where this center is left, the area of low pressure that is left of sandy. About 90, 100 miles to the west of philadelphia. Now we are dealing with rain out there. For areas, including new jersey, washington, d. C. , as well as into maryland, and were also talking about snow for areas like West Virginia. Of course were talking about a blizzard there. As we zoom in a bit more for you, soledad, you see that spin right there . There it is for you. Again want to point out near baltimore, snow. Theres not snow, and there is not any sleet, were just talking about rain. But it is going to be windy day out there, soledad, with those wind gusts up to about 50 miles per hour. Its going to be dangerous, but also make conditions feel a lot cooler than the actual temperature. Right now we have 50s out there. I know it feels a lot chillier than that. Yep, it does. Its cold. Its starting to rain where we are. Obviously past the storm. About to get the brunt of this storm. Jennifer delgado, thank you very much. All right still ahead this morning were going to have a chance to talk to mayor cory booker, the mayor of newark, new jersey. We spoke to him yesterday as he was preparing for the storm. Hes wildly active on twitter. Well talk to him about how his night went and how things look for his city today. Smart comes with 8 airbags, a crash Management System and the worlds only tridion safety cell which can withstand over three and a half tons. Small in size. Big on safety. Check out the latest collection of snacks from lean cuisine. 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