people that work in the casinos and communities of atlantic city. our thoughts with them. >> our thoughts with them as we hope they get a break for the cleanup. our fingers crossed. that will do it for "power lunch" for this day. >> street signs begins right now. >> the storm has pass $but the cleanup and economic hit has just begun. welcome, everyone, the storm has passed but still as many questions as there are answers. for example, what's expected from stocks when trading resumes tomorrow? bob pisani with the latest on the exchanges. when a lot more than 8 million people without power have their electricity restored? and have the waters receded along the shore? could sandy turn out to be a $100 billion storm? women ask an insurance ceo about the damage and whether your premium plus go up. the former ceo of american air lines how the airports will handle the storm and how much this may impact the airlines

themselves. but first, let's get the very latest on what we know right now. mandy? >> hi there, brian. let's take a look at what's going on. a 100-year flood every two years now. now that is what new york governor cuomo says about the super storm sandy. now, the wrath of sandy has left more than 30 people dead that number has been rising, unfortunately. it may still rise. more than 8.5 million people without electricity, as you said, brian. mass transit system in and around new york city paralyzed and in many cases, guys, still under water. keep in mind it is not just removing the water here, you have electrical components that need to be cleaned before the system can be restored which means, for example the approximately 5.3 million people who use the city's subway system each weekday might have to wait days to be able to commute again. >> the damage we suffered across the city is clearly extensive and it will not be repaired overnight. the two biggest challenges facing our city going forward are getting our mass transit system up and running and

restoring power. >> as for the mta officials, the scant worps they have seen in the mta's 180-year history. now for good news you can governor cuomo told thanks jfk could up and running by tomorrow, welcomed news for the people on the more than 15,000 flights that have been canceled and both the airports in d.c. and philly partially operating. many of the brims are also beginning to reopen. we will keep everybody updated on what is going on. brian? >> mandy, thank you. well, stocks may be reopening tomorrow but we are a long way from being back to normal. the exchanges could be hit with a flood of orders on wednesday and lower manhattan is simply dealing with an actual flood. bob pisani and scott cohn are with us. bob, you first. give us the latest on the new york stock exchange maps as we know them at this hour? >> right now, all systems are go, what nyse ceo duncan niederauer told us on cnbc a few minutes ago. key point, open for normal

trading operations tomorrow, a normal day, new york stock exchange floor will be open, the hours, the regular hours, 9:30 to 4 p.m. they did say that the floor would be fully operational, they also said that the naz dark i spoke with them, the exchange open as well. two issues a sticking point for everybody, first, the connectivity, the nyse had to make sure they had clear connectivity between the floor and their systems in new jersey. mr. niederauer said that was the case. second, people, you have to have people on the floor, need a few hundred people to open that they are bringing in people today, even some are there already, but the key thing, the bridges and tunnels apaeb tore open and functional or will be by tomorrow morning. that was a key aspect of this whole thing. as of now, we are all system goes. >> i want to ask you though, okay, even if it is going to be fully operational there what will trading be like? will it be orderly, number one? number two do you think it will be up or down?

>> up or down, i'm not sure of. the futures haven't able to play off of the cash. the important thing is the end of the month a lot of traders are -- report their numbers their investors tend of every month. some traders are want to trade out of positions that are losing and get into other positions the last day of trading. so, that is a very important aspect of this i expect heavier-than-normal trading volume. >> the cboe open for trading tomorrow. thanks, bob. why the nyse closed today and yesterday, here is a look at how some dow components traded in frankfurt, germany, today. home depot, obviously could see lots of sandy-related rebuilding business up over 2%. travelers insurance, exxonmobil and chevron all higher as well. once again, the nyse looking like it will be open for trade you can at least for electronic trading, many more what do folks returning to work face? >> our scott cohn is live in battery park, the south end of

manhattan, a short walk from wall street, of course, a big storm surge last night. scott, how is it looking now in the water receding? >> reporter: the water has receded, brian, but that only -- that doesn't begin to tell the story. what will they be facing tomorrow, people that try to come into manhatten? they will, first of all, be facing an epic commute. that is because while bridges and tunnels maybe open, the subway operating sporadically at best and a lot of people take mass transit in from the suburbs. new jersey transit which operate the path traipse from new jersey into lower manhattan said that the system has been devastated based on early inspections. they have seen terrible damage on the metro north system, takes people in from the northern suburbs. we have seen flooding over the last 24 hours of historic proportions, you're seeing some of the pictures from the last -- from overnight.

a lots of damage may not be visible as you first get into the city it absolutely is underground and as a result, governor cuomo is calling in reinforcements. >> the army corps of engineers is sending us their best naal t they call it the national unwatering team. i didn't know there was such a name for a team, but the national unwatering s.w.a.t. teams on its way to new york and we need them very badly. >> reporter: they need unwatering. they were here, the army corps folks beginning to inspect things from the battery but the army team that worked in new orleans during katrina, the flood in 1993 in chicago, experts on these types of things but they have to be requested, first of all, by fema, that has not happened yet. we have been told that is in the process and that is just getting the bureaucratic hurtles cleared. they have a lot of water to try

to clear out from this city. it is not going to be back to normal any time soon. guys? >> scott cohn, thank you very much. the storm's devastation all up and down the atlantic seaboard but perhaps no area took it harder than the jersey shore. in seaside heights, part of an amusement park pier destroyed, including a roller coaster. hotels destroyed in point pleasant and sand swept from the beaches onto the streets heavily it actually nearly buried the parking meters. atlantic city suffered perhaps the worst of the damage. hurricane sandy or super storm sandy made landfall there. there is widespread flooding and severe damage to the casinos that dot the boardwalk. our kayla tausche is live in atlantic zwhachlt are you s atlantic city. what are you seeing, kayla? >> reporter: this morning at a press conference, governor chris christie saying he was trying to come out to the jersey shore to assess the damage but couldn't find anywhere to land in a

police helicopter that being said you most of his comments were directed to seaside heights, brian was just describing, a little bit due south of here. certainly, atlantic city took the brunt of that hit yesterday when sandy actually made landfall here. the storm surge was record height. flood the city, onto the boardwalk and several intersections back. it is a different story. you remember those iconic visuals of the iconic boardwalk floating off into town yesterday? well, that's not the main part of the boardwalk, we are happy to report. it is actually the far north end of the boardwalk, at the letters developed end that actually disintegrated and detached but the bulk of the boardwalk does still stand and the flooding has receded. the water has pretty much all gone out to sea. there is a little bit that remains here in the intersections. we can say that the wind is still whipping and there is still rain here and there but for the most part, the conditions are getting better here in atlantic city.

we did check on some of the casinos, namely revel, knute casino that -- or club that actually opened very recently here, very modern, tall structure with a lot of glass. some of those windows were blown out and there was damage to the roof and other parts of that structure but for the large part that building was unscathed and hopefully reopen soon. we did manage to speak to a security guard at caesars which got the power back on this afternoon, playing music on the outside, the slot machines were rolling, though no people were inside caesars, we were told, is expected to open on thursday. some other hotels in the area also expected to reopen on thursday as these companies start to assess the damage. no doubt though, any potential storm damage would be big than any potential lost revenue from irene or lost revenue even from this storm. i think they are just beginning to go inside their buildings, figure out what went wrong and figure out when they can reopen. as soon as thursday is a pretty good report, you guys. >> kayla tausche, stay safe. thank you very much. well, the storm not just

hitting the east coast, because the entire nation's air traffic system continues to face disruptions because of the disruptions to our airport. >> absolutely. we are going to ask one of the world's top airline experts to explain just how bad this is for anyone who needs to get on a plane. plus, a dramatic rescue at sea and a desperate search. that is next. [ male announcer ] this is joe woods' first day of work. and his new boss told him two things -- cook what you love, and save your money. joe doesn't know it yet, but he'll work his way up from busser to waiter to chef before opening a restaurant disruptions to our airport. fise from the great northwest. he'll start investing early, he'll find some good people to help guide him, disruptions to our airport. or to his last,

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amazing stuff right now. look at that the coast guard rescued 14 crew members of the "hms bounty" which sank during hurricane sandy. another crew member was also found. she passed away later. officials are still going off the north carolina coast for the captain, who went overboard early monday when the ship rolled. the ship, seen here in file pictures, was originally built for the 1962 film "mutiny on the bounty" starring marlon bran development it was also featured in several other films including one of the "pirates of the caribbean" movies. on typical days, delays in new york airspace account for about half of all delays across the country. so, when this area gets backed up, you get really backed up. and things have obviously been grounded for days because of sandy. let's get the latest on the situation with the airports and airlines with phil lebeau. phil, governor cuomo saying earlier on today that jfk airport may open, at least partially tomorrow. choose jive with what you were hearing as well? >> yeah, we will hear from the governor in just a little bit,

man ditch we also have a picture that you are not going to want to believe that shows just how bad things are out at laguardia.

sandy is now number two relative to the number of cancellations all-time, far behind snowmageddon, which had 24,000 cancellations but that number, just under 16,000, guys, i expect it is going to rise, in part, because of this picture. take a look at this comes to us from jetblue. that, guys, is a jetway at laguardia. look at where the water s look at the water there. and there are other photos we will be tweeting out throughout day. you know, that is the runway. think about the systems up close. in the airport itself now being hit with water or have been hit with water. that gives you an idea why la

guardiast closed. how do those ford earnings look? you knew i was going to beat bring it up. >> beat the street by ten cents. told me on the phone today, tell brian we are glad we dumped those earnings during a hurricane. >> i'm glad i'm on their radar. next step, stardom. phil la abortion thank you very much. , so when will the airports and the airlines get back online? some scary stuff phil just showed you. bring in bob crandall, former amr chairman and ceo, bob what is your take on how long this will take to get back to normal or a semblance there of? >> well, semblance thereof leaves a lot of latitude. putting the airline system back together is a gigantic jigsaw puzzle. you have got -- each individual airplane has a unique maintenance signature. as the airline sits two or three days and you get ready to asign

it to do something else, you have got to be sure that the reassignment you give that particular airplane gives it -- leaves latitude so that whatever the required maintenance may be at a certain number of hours or dates can be set? >> can i jump in? phil lebeau said 75% of the canceled passengers on delta's flights has been rebook bud this really makes my head boggled because how are you going to accommodate all the people and all the airlines who need to get rebooked? is that like impossible? >> no, no, they will get rebooked, yet when they will get rebooked. you have got a scheduled transportation system that is running at very, very high/low factor, in excess of 80%, which means all of those people who didn't fly who now want to fly some future time have to find a

seat that either previously assigned to a passenger who decided no to the fly or alternatively to a seat not reserved by anybody. so, all of the load factors are high, meaning they have to find seats for people that get backed up in a circumstance like the storm. >> let's clear something up, right, because i understand that storms are unpredictable and problems happen and nobody wants an accident but let's also be honest, right? if we had the money to upgrade our infrastructure in the airports, the next gen radar system, we could throw twice as many planes up into the air, reducing that you load capacities and all these delays by a great factor, right? >> you would certainly do vastly better than next gen system delayed and delabor day delay and delayed for a variety of reasons, congress sits right at the nexus of those reasons and

the faa's management of the system hasn't been very good either. the fact of the matter is we need to replace the system with next gen. it keeps getting the date -- the date for that to happen keeps getting pushed out in the future. i'm not sure that we have -- next gen is going to have a tremendous impact in a circumstance like this, what next gen is going to do -- >> bob, thank you for joining us, got see what the financial impact opts airlines is as well. we are all used to seeing gas prices spiking higher because of hurricanes. some refineries are closed but the price at the pump nationwide is still dropping. find out why, coming up. [ male announcer ] you are a business pro.

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that's why ally has a raise your rate cd. ally bank. your money needs an ally. we know that refineries on the east coast are largely closed because of the hurricane, but what happens went storms clear and they are reopened and why does it take so long to get them reopened? sharon epperson has more on those angles. sharon? >> getting a refinery back online after a full shutdown due to a hurricane or major storm

can be a lengthy multiphase operation. the first step, returning evacuated personnel to the refinery, could take a few days, depending on conditions in surrounding areas. once on location, the crew evaluates the storm damage, like flooding or downed power lines. if the power is out, the refinery has to wait for local utilities to restore it. once power is back, the team will restart the refining units. this is done in the sequence of the actual retyping process. at a large facility, there could be dozens of maps in the lineup. and each individual machine might require a day or two days to start up. but in order for the refinery to get back to business, it needs crude oil to process. however, storm damage could be trapping the oil tankers and therefore, supply could be stuck offshore. all told, it can sometimes take up to two weeks to get a refinery up and running again. and even a small facility could require as long as seven to ten

days. well do not expect gas prices to stay down if refineries stay closed. and though mother nature is very unpredictable, anything we can do better to avoid these kinds of outages? let's bring in john hoff meister, founder and ceo of citizens for affordable energy. also the former president and ceo of shell oil's u.s. operation. great to have you with us once again, john. very quickly, give us your assessment of the situation with the refineries, how quickly they can come back online what happened it means for gas prices. >> well, in the first instance this is a pretty big storm. we will have to check closely for any damage. the northeastern and the middle atlantic refineries are some of the oldest in the country. you have got old infrastructure so it's more vulnerable, so you want to check it ever more closely. i thought sharon did a good job describing what it takes to bring it back up so, that's the first issue. the second, you got to check the port, the northeast, the middle atlantic, very dependent upon both finnished product imports

as well as crude oil imports. if the ports are damaged by that sea surge, you are looking a what the ever time it takens to repair, how you offload finished product or crude. more importantly, and this gets to the issue of price, what happens in the distribution and retail network? if you have gas stations with no electricity, they are out of business. if you have wholesale depots where they don't have electricity, they are out of business. now you have the path trains down, metro north looks like it is down for a while. you are going to have parking lots on the freeways surrounding the metropolitan area of new york in particular and new jersey so you are going to consume a lot of gas. you also have the emergency sneernsd are going to drink diesel like it's milk, just going to keep running those vehicles. you also have the airlines getting back up. they are going to be very -- they are going to need aviation fuel. so prices could spike in the short term, not knowing the certainty of supply. >> but is that just going to be

a short-term issue you a short-term spike in prices or is there the potential to see a prolonged spike? >> well, i think it depends upon how quickly electricity gets back up, because what could make it very difficult is if you take two or three weeks to get retail stations to where they can operate normal labor day the distribution system operating normally, you could see, i don't know, 20 to 50 cents a gallon, which could be a short-term spike. if the refineries are damaged or the sports are damaged, you could see that kind of a spike or more because you can't really get gasoline from the midwest where it's in plentiful supply unless you truck it. the colonial pipeline will help, but i understood that one was shutdown for safety reasons, but that's not enough. the northeast has grown in the last 50 years, mandy, but we haven't built any new refineries. >> john, that's it. maybe salt mule can tow a barge of fuel from cleveland east, because that's about where we stand right now the last major

refinery in america built the last one, 1977 in gariville, louisiana, but we are shocked as a country when we find out refineries have problems. like the airport story we did we actually spend some money in this country to rebuild stuff, we are going to have these kind of problems more and more and more and eventually, be riding sal the mule to work? no offense to the mule. >> you are absolutely right. the population of the northeast and the middle atlantic states has probably doubled since the last refinery built. you are completely dependent on imports and not anymore pipeline capacity to move fuel from anywhere else in the country. it's real problem. it's been staring us in the face for decades. i can go into my whole spiel about how eight presidents and 20 congresses in a row have failed the american people.

but's also state legislature also, new jersey is about as anti-hydrocarbon a legislature as you will find. followed only by new york state. >> which is type, because nobody lives in new jersey and nobody drives there, as we know. sorry for the sarcasm, john, but i feel t listen, we got to go a sensitive topic, we will bring you on to talk about it later. i'm all fired up now. >> thank you. more on this story that broke yesterday, more on a crane atop a high rise in new york that started to dangle off the roof. 24 hours later and the situation is still dangerous. we are about to take you live to the scene where robert frank has the latest breaking details. stay with us.

generally at this time, we bring you street talk, right? but the storm is taking precedence today and every half hour, we are going to bring the very latest on that, sadly, the death toll does continue to

rise. we are now at more than 38 deaths from sandy and counting that number will likely continue to go pup. transportation, meantime is recovering with some of the bridges opening up, the mta remains closed, paralyzing many new yorkers. and also leaving new york city schools to be closed for a third straight day tomorrow. the other big story here is power outages, more than 8.5 million people remain without power from 18 states, something officials tell thanks really could take dies restore. no clear timing on that. in terms of new jersey, governor chris christie says the state was hit harder than any other state and a full recovery could take longer than eight days. >> we have a long road ahead of us but i have complete confidence we are going to come out of this better and stronger than before. the state is too tough to give in to this type of devastation and we, in the government, will be here to work with you to have new jersey completely recover. >> in new york, governor cuomo says these are some of the worst

conditions he has ever seen. brian? a terrifying situation in midtown manhattan continues that the hour, a multiton crane still hanging precariously. robert frank is on the story for us. robert, is there any plan in the next couple of hours, days, to secure this crane? >> there is, brian you and it is more days than hours. this is a very complicated rescue mission to get this crane secure. mayor bloomberg talked earlier about the need to get the winds down below 35 miles an hour before they can even send inspectors up to that crane. once they get there they are going to try to tie the crane to the support system and then figure out whether they need another crane to rescue this crane or whether they can take it apart piece by piece. either way, it's going to be days, perhaps over a week, before they can really at least secure it and maybe even start to take it apart piece by piece. meantime, this entire two-block area has been evacuated.

now, the crowds and the traffic jams are really back in midtown, except for that two-block area underneath the crepe where, of course this 30-ton piece of steel is swinging above manhattan's tallest res depps skyscraper, still a very dangerous situation even though life is beginning to return to normal here in midtown. brian? nch>> >>. >> that was terrifying video. some of the first we have seen. keep us updated on the stories, sir. new yorkers are used to crowds and difficulty getting around what sandy left behind is trying to everybody's patience. our bertha coombs is live in manhattan, talking to us, got power, what are you hearing what are you seeing? >> reporter: mandy, we are in union square, which is in lower manhattan. power is out to this section of manhattan from 39th street down. it started last night when a major substation went out here in lower manhattan because of flooding, perhaps because of

debris, debris flying. a hospital over here on the east side in the -- on the 30s area, nyu lang gone medical center, they found their redundant generator actually went out, an unprecedented situation for them. so they have to evacuate parents. it didn't -- wasn't completed until this morning. 300 patients went to four area hospitals. we are seeing crews in manhattan going down into man holes, trying to pump out the water that goes into the systems, electricity and you water certainly do not mix. when they can start doing repairs. what we are hearing is it could take up to four days in areas of manhattan. unprecedented in the 2003 blackout, we had power back in 24 hours or so.

4,000 crews coming in to help restore power. they have a quarter million people in manhattan alone without power. the big problem tomorrow, as some businesses try to open, including you the exchanges is going to be the travel infrastructure. there are cars out, all the bridges are eopening, however, the subway systems, the rails coming in from the suburbs are not working because they, once again, have been impacted by sea water. that is something very difficult for them to repair around deal w and again, for the subway system, it could be well into the weekend before we start seeing some restoration of that we will see bus surface resume this afternoon after 5:00 and limited sur advi limited service along different lines tomorrow. guys, if you are coming into new york or work in lower manhattan it is going to be a very

difficult commute to get to work. >> absolutely, live-scale disruption. thank you very much, bertha coombs. well, now to our special abbreviated street -- i guess we are having street talk after all, couldn't keep it away. all the three fans requested t all about one stock today. >> two of them are my parents. >> yeah. there you go as the storm hit here in the east, another storm out west. apple, in a surprising move last night, two apple executives leaving the company. jon fortt is following this for us. how big a surprise was this? >> big surprise, big surprise, brian, not just outside am, inside as well t is the biggest management shakeup at am since steve jobs took control of the company 15 years ago but the circumstances could hardly be more different. back then, jobs was remaking the company at its lowest point, trying to engineer its survival. today, tim cook is retooling management at the height of apple's success, trying to maintain momentum. john browet of retail is out but

the biggest change in the shakeup is scott forstall, the man steve jobs tasked with assembling and leading the team that created iphone software, project purple, is out. this is so important because ios and its apps store are arguably the most important software platforms assembled in a generation, he was the guy in charge of it, what i and other news organization, forstall wouldn't sign up to apple's apology for the maps fiasco. forstall was a divisive figure inside apple any watch the one happened, the success of ios raised his profile enormously, his golden touch had limits, i ad, siri and maps fallen flat. here is my take, a defining moment for tim cook, a big deal. software engineering talent is the lifeblood of apple right now. and their world just got shaken up. it is going to fall to cook's new software, and others to make sure they don't miss a beat.

the key moment to watch will be next summer's worldwide developer conference, we expect to see major new features in ios and icloud and the team's ability to build and deliver those in the next eight months, or not, will speak volumes. >> indeed it l i have a very quick question for you here, john. is certainly you said it was a surprise, i imagine the timing raised a few eyebrows, right, whenever be's eyes were diverted and watching the hurricane sandy news. i got to ask you you it was really surprise in terms of whether or not he would eventually kicked out? i heard his departure was a year in the making, tim cook trying to put his own stamp on the company and this maps fiasco was just the straw that broke the camel's back? >> still a surprise, mandy. you got to look at this guy's track record and though he has had some stumbles lately, particularly with services, in terms of software, boy, what he was able to accomplish is amazing. i don't know anybody outside apple who saw this coming. >> leave it there. thank you very much. >> wait. whoa. whoa.

suggesting a company would dump bad news an day when everybody is focus old something else? >> it's a conspiracy theory. >> get phil lebeau on the phone. kidding, phil, if you are out there >> healthy debate on that subject. >> tired of it. let's move on. coming up, could sandy be a 50, maybe even $100 billion storm in the latest on the costs ahead. plus, if you think there's been more storms the past few years, you're actually right, because some incredible stats coming your way on the weird weather that we've been facing in recent years. [ male announcer ] how do you trade?

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i'm bill griffin. wall street, normal trading day to how much trading revenue was lost because of this two-day closure. one exchange that did not shutdown was the cme in chicago. terry duffy tells us if everything goes smoothly when the markets open tomorrow. former new york stock exchange chairman dick grasso addresses that delicate question we have about thinking about the last few days, does the exchange really still need traders on the floor to be fully operational maria and i look forward to closing bell at the top of the hour. >> thank you very much, bill. check out this video.from

the jersey shore and atlantic city. it shows just how widespread the flooding is in that part of the garden state and the residue left when the water receded, obviously huge amounts of sand were dumped. the focus of san i did turning now to the insurance and obviously the claims millions of people will file. let's get the latest with courtney reagan what have you found, court? >> reporter: insurance industry estimates that hurricane sandy caused between $5 to $10 billion in insured losses that would rank sandy as the fifth worst hurricane in history by those insured estimates. now, potentially doubling hurricane irene's insured loss bus nowhere near the $62 billion incurred by hurricane katrina and because so many very dangerous and damaging storms have hit over the last decade, many are asking if these catastrophic weather patterns are, in fact, the new normal.

>> for us, i would say it's a manageable event financially, but i don't think it is any different, certainly the last few years. >> reporter: analysts don't expect a negative impact on guidance if the $5 to $150 billion estimate turns out to be accurate. white u.s. market remain closed in europe, european insurers and reinsurers trading on relief that the losses appear to be manageable when we are talking about insurance. morgan stanley estimates flood damage likely higher than wind and since the flood loss is likely to be absorbed by the government it further limits insurance loss totals. morgan stanley also says the initial insurance loss forecast at 5 to 10 billion within "tolerable range for reinsured". bernstein's research perhaps sums up sandy the best, early

estimates a terrible catastrophe but manageable event. >> courtney reagan. thank you vet. big numbers. if you think there have been more storms and just plain weird weather events the past few years it is not your imagination. look at this data. i got it this morning from reinsurance giant. these are weather-related events. storms. floods. fires. unpredictables. going back to the year 2000. the increase actually startling. if you go back to 1980, couldn't show it to you, even more startling. as the number of disasters goes up, so, too do the costs. how do insurance companies plan their coverage when the weather has gotten so weird? insure yin provides coverage for 25,000 small businesses nationally, one-third of those customers impacted by the storm. joining us on the cnbc news

line, ted devine, ceo of insure yin. how do you plan when things got insane the last five years? >> we help tense of thousands of small businesses protect themselves and many clients in the northeast, most importantly, our heart goes out to everyone affected. we have our clients basically do four things to get ready for a situation like. this the most important -- like. the most important is to assess the risk. gm or the small businesses that we help cover have three basic types of risk. they have property risk, people risk and liability risk. and we walk each of our clients through an assessment to quantify their exposure and help them understand where they have the greatest gaps. >> obviously, the risks are going up tour brian's point, seems we are getting more and more natural dissasers of grand

scale, tim. so, over time, will premiums have to go up? will prices go up for the businesses you insure? >> it meernts the amount of capital that the overall insurance market has and interesting to see went modeling finally comes out with the $5 to $10 billion of early estimates, what that's going to do with prices, probably increase prices in the near term. ex-poesh slurs going pup you the amount covered for businesses is increasing as well. >> ted devine, thanks for taking time with us on cnbc, ted. >> i really appreciate t. >> take care. some of the nation's biggest department stores and chain stores are sill closed right now and you closed means they are not making anymo money. >> we will ask an executive from

sears what the type a.m. could be and whether there will be a sill veer lining for h-- silver the storm is clear aid way.

well, we always talk about the calm before the storm.

but what you're seeing here are live pictures are the calm after the storm. it's quite pretty. people are out there on the beach, which is still a little choppy, but has somewhat calmed down since superstorm sandy. retailers certainly feeling the impact of the storm. let's get to stacy. she's president of sw retail advisers. to both of you, great to have you on the show. ron, i'd like to get to you first of all. i checked out your home page on sears. you have big headlines saying weathering the storm. lots of thing available for people. what will this do for your business? >> we think over the short-term, whether it be positive or negative, will be minor. our focus is moving from, you know, associate and customer safety to recovery and moving merchandise into the affected areas that's going to be needed

by both -- >> we do apologize, ron. i really hate to cut you off, but we have a technical difficulty, and we can't hear you very clearly. stacy, to what extent do these products for later on? >> that's exactly -- >> stacy, we're going to go to president obama now. >> -- on the scene doing work every time we have a disaster here in the united states of america, but obviously the red cross is doing outstanding work internationally. so we want to thank them for that are outstanding work. a few things i want to emphasize to the public at the top. this storm is not yet over. we've gotten briefings from the national hurricane center. it is still moving north.

there are still communities that could be affected. so i want to emphasize, there's still risks of flooding. there's still risks of downed power lines, risks of high winds. so it is very important for the public to continue to monitor the situation in your local community. listen to your state and local officials. follow instructions. the more you follow instructions, the easier it is for our first responders to make sure that they're dealing with true emergency situations. so the better prepared individual families are for the situation, the easier it is going to be for us to deal with it. next, obviously, i want to talk about the extraordinary hardship that we've seen over the last 48 hours. our thoughts and prayers go out to all the families who have lost loved ones. unfortunately, there have been fatalities as a consequence of hurricane sandy. it's not clear that we've

counted up all the fatalities at this point. obviously, this is something that is heartbreaking for the entire nation. we certainly feel profoundly for all the families whose lives have been upended and are going to be going through some very tough times over the next several days and perhaps several week and months. the most important message i have for them is that america's with you. we are standing behind you. we are going to do everything we can to help you get back on your feet. earlier today, i had a conversation with the governors and many of the mayors in the affected areas, including governor christie, governor cuomo, and mayor bloomberg. i want to praise them for the extraordinary work they have done. sadly, we are getting more experience with these kinds of big impact storms along the east

coast. were it not for the outstanding work that they and their teams have already done and will continue to do in the affected regions, we could have seen more deaths and more property damage. so they have done extraordinary work, working around the clock. the coordination between the state, local, and federal governments has been outstanding. obviously, we're now moving into the recovery phase in a lot of the most severely affected areas. new jersey, new york, in particular, have been pounded by this storm. connecticut has take an big hit. because of some of the work that had been done ahead of time, we've been able to get over 1,000 fema officials in place, prepositioned. we've been able to get supplies, food, medicine, water, emergency generators to ensure that

hospitals and law enforcement offices are able to stay up and running as they are out there responding. we are going to continue to push as hard as we can to make sure that power is up throughout the region. obviously this is mostly a local responsibility, and the private utilities are going to have to lean forward. but we are doing everything we can to provide them additional resources so that we can expedite getting power and up running in many of these communities. these are places like newark, new jersey, where 89% of the people are without power. we can't have a situation where that lasts for days on end. my instructions to the federal agency has been do not figure out why we can't do something. i want you to figure out how we do something. i want you to cut through red tape. i want you to cut through bureaucracy. there's no excuse for inaction at this point. i want every agency to lean

forward and to make sure that we are getting the resources where they're needed as quickly as possible. i want to repeat, my message to the federal government, no bureaucracy, no red tape. get resources where they're 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. the recovery process in a lower manhattan is going to take a lot of time. part of what we're trying to do here is also to see where some resources that can be brought to bear that maybe traditionally aren't used in these kind of disaster situations. for example, there may be military assets that allow us to help move equipment to ensure that pumping and getting the flooding out of new york subway systems can proceed more quickly. there may be resources that we can bring to bear to help some

of the private utilities get their personnel and equipment in place more swiftly so we can get power up and running as soon as possible. so my message to the governors and the mayors and through them to the communities that have been hit so hard is that 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. i told the mayors and governors, if they're getting no for an answer somewhere in the federal government, they can call me personally at the white house. now, obviously, you know, the state, local, federal response is important, but what we do as a community, what we do as neighbors and as fellow citizens is equally important. so a couple of things i want the public to know they can do. first of all,