essential difference between the sexes. there is jets demand. that is all the "money" we have. we will see you back here tomorrow. that promise no matter what "the willis report" is coming up next stay safe and be careful. ♪ gerri: hello, everybody. i'm gerri willis. breaking news. hurricane sandy set to make landfall at any moment. maybe as soon as to the 30 minutes near atlantic city new jersey. now, so far the storm has left 850,000 people, a million people without power tonight. possibly as many as a million according to some reports. the number is him of course in a rapidly growing. the hurricane will continue to sign the east coast with strong force tonight and into tomorrow. new jersey, delaware, pennsylvania, parses a maryland in storms direct path. in new york city the strong wind

gusts has caused a construction crane to collapse at a luxury high-rise building in midtown manhattan where it is now hanging on by a thread. no injuries had been reported, and residents have been evacuated. bridges, tunnels, trains also shut down in the manhattan area. the hurricane combined with a nor'easter is expected to stretch into the great lakes with up to 3 feet of snow forecast in the mountains. the appellation reason especially west virginia. airlines have canceled dozens of flights in the northeast, and air travel could be halted for days, if not a week. boston is the latest major city to shut down its transit system following the york, washington d.c., and philadelphia. complete coverage tonight from the impact on the markets to presidential election and most importantly, you and your family. accu-weather meteorologist joining me now. he has been tracking the path. what are you seeing? >> well, it looks like we are just upon landfall within the

next 28-30 minutes, like you said. far reaching effects, just the sheer magnitude, encompassing over 1,000 miles. we go from the heavy snow to the flooding rains. let's talk about the biggest impact for the next couple of hours. of course for coming above high tide. battery park 8:00. and thinking we will see 11, even 11 and a half feet of water rise, close to some record levels all the way down the jersey coastline with the biggest impact is felt, again, from the battery southboond. so definitely some very nasty conditions likely to continue for the next several hours. gerri: as you look at your map and you consider what is going on, i'm troubled territory for so many out there. is this storm, have you ever seen anything like this? >> nothing. in all my years of forecasting a have never seen a system make a move north and then been back off to the west.

extremely low pressure. will likely go down as one of the strongest we have seen north of cape hatteras ever. so very, very unprecedented. gerri: we are waiting for the full impact. thank you for coming on. we appreciate your time. all right. damages from the super storm now estimated in the 10-$20 billion range. let's go to the jeff flock in point pleasant beach, new jersey, directly in the line of fire. what are you seeing? [inaudible] gerri: all right. having trouble hearing jeff. frankly, it looks very dangerous out there. we will try to get him back as soon as we can. in the meantime, sandy is knocking out power to more than a million homes and businesses. very nearly 291,000 adages from jersey central power and light.

92,000 from atlantic city electric. right here in new york city, nearly 72,000 people without power. more big averages out oo long island. 296,000 people, 300,000 in the dark. connecticut also experiencing outages. more than 164,000 people without power. there are just the big ones, a handful of other power companies also experiencing outages. experts say power could be out for more than a week. but here we sit. this is the eye of the storm. just approaching new jersey. recent reports this afternoon have landfall on the south coast of new jersey or delaware. it now looks like new jersey. the good news, and actually there is good news. this is not hitting at high tide. it's just before high tide. and that is 30 minutes, 40 minutes, and our long difference in time and could make all the difference. thousands of people in this region from long island to

jersey to right here in manhattan and the southern tip where people have already been evacuated as we await this massive storm. now, when you talk to people in the insurance industry, this storm, this perfect storm coming together of three storms is one of the kinds of events that the industry itself has been worried about for years. concern that people in the region don't have the kind of coverage is that they need to rebuild and get better, but tonight we are sitting here waiting for the storm's impact. it's not quite here now. i can tell you from our weather window, we have rain, some wind, but we are certainly not feeling the impact of this yet. now, a little later in the show we will have more reporters on to talk to you about what's going on with the storm. what the impacts likely will be as we await this storm to hit. all right. for the latest on sandy making landfall let's go to ed

rappaport on the phone, the director of the national hurricane center. thank you for joining us. appreciate your time. you have great expertise year. tell us what you're seeing and what is surprising to you. >> we have two major risks coming ashore. right now along the shoreline we have a very high storm surge. 4 feet, now measured in delaware 7 feet along the new jersey coast. 10 feet for new york and back down to 7 feet. some of these are occurring near high tide, but others significantly, particularly new york, low tide. those storm surges continue for the next six hours. high tide. later on, a major fled, rainfall flooding inland. pennsylvania on southwards of virginia. gerri: we are watching the map as you describe what will happen tonight. tell me, how long is this event going to last? gumi, for how long will people need to be hunkered down staying

in their homes trying to avoid the weather, the wind, the rain. >> along the coast we are not quite at the halfway point. so the coastal areas seven of its robust 24 hours before things really calmed down and the water starts to go down as well. it is significantly lower. and lend it is just really starting. i mentioned there will be a lot of rain, perhaps as much as 10 inches of rain in the inland areas. expecting flooding. gerri: we continue to talk about this storm. loss of concerns about ultimately the damage, but we also have to think about what's going on right here. you said the searches are the biggest danger. what else should we be looking out for? and sitting here in manhattan. if the garbage can goes up in the air from the wind it could create havoc for people. >> yes. wind is a concern, particularly in this case where we have seen from our aircraft for the winds above the surface are significantly higher than they are at the surface.

it means that the high rises in the upper floors will be expecting to have even stronger wind. gerri: scary indeed. is this the worst you have ever seen? >> is certainly is for that area. an unprecedented storm. in a number of ways of the mid-atlantic and northeast. gerri: thank you for coming on. appreciate your time and your perspective. thank you so much. >> thank you. gerri: let's go to a fox business robert gray in lower manhattan where an estimated 3,705,000 were told to evacuate as the storm began to hate. robert is in battery park city. part of the financial district, one of the most vulnerable areas of new york city. what are you seeing? >> well, we are certainly seeing the range is starting to pull down a little bit harder. you can see the water just behind me, this well, the surge has now come up. when we arrive this morning around 4:00 a.m. it was around three and a half-5 feet below the sea wall. it is now obviously above that.

a little promise not here, if you are familiar with battery park at all, if you have been to new york city, bin to the statue of liberty. the torch of the distance. they disembarked from just a few hundred yards around the bend of to my left hand side here. so you probably know the area. and as a lock on the sideline. right now it is under water. we have not seen it this time. during high tide it came in about almost as high as this and receded, but nasa to come back. wind not really picking up that much, but the rain starting to come down. the area around here, i can tell you, pretty desolate. very desolate on the way in some but even during the day we made a few forays out, walks around the neighborhood. little delis are closed. mcdonnell disclosed. even starbucks is closed. the policemen were very happy to say they found one gun condone that's all the way up on canal street. pretty far away out of the evacuation zone.

the stock exchange, the nymex to mercantile, both down from above closed before trading as we talked about. electronic trading for commodities it happen at the cme floor trading there. as we know, stocks not traded all electronically or on the floor at the new york stock exchange, but around the area in the financial district right around wall street with its talk of your residence. there are hunkering down. they have supplies enough food, and provisions. things take a turn for the worse maybe she would have to drink a little bit more wind. we have to wait and see. the last thing, the fire department is concerned because some of the elevators have been shut down in some of the buildings around here. they are concerned that of elderly people or someone has an event up there, a stroke or heart attack, it could be difficult to reach the more worst-case scenario, fire and no elevator to get firemen appeared to put it out. there are concerns about people who did not evacuate, but by and large the streets have been pretty desolate except for

tourists with cameras. there are few. of course, some of new york's finest are here to escort them out. they have been doing that all afternoon reminding them that this area has been evacuated. gerri: thank you for being with us. you have been there all day long , since 4:00 a.m. thank you for helping us tonight. stay safe. >> we'll be back tomorrow. gerri: see you tomorrow. thank you. all right. as we wait for landfall which has not happened yet, we are expecting really any moment now, maybe another ten minutes or so. all major u.s. stock and bond markets have announced they will be closed again tomorrow because of hurricane sandy. it is the first time since 1888 in new york stock exchange will have been closed for two consecutive days because of bad weather. because then was a blizzard leaving 40 feet of snow. the labor department says it will release the all-important october jobs report this friday as scheduled. it is the last and upon a report before election day in critical for that reason.

more on that at the bottom of the hour. more to come, tracking the storm for you. monster storm called sandy. the question, the agency in charge of the federal government emergency response, is it up to the job? some my opening numbers. and how is all this going to affect the general election? some insight. stay with us. i'm a conservative invtor. i invest in what i know. i turned 65 last week. i'm getting married. planning a life. there are risks, sure. but, there's no reward withouit. i want to be prepared for the long haul. i see a world bursting with opportunities.

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chances are, you're not made of money, so don't overpay for motorcycle insurance. geico, see how much you could save. gerri: breaking news tonight. hurricane sandy has made landfall at 6:03 p.m. near atlantic city, new jersey. jan dean from a fox news is reporting that right now. again, in case you missed it, hurricane sandy has made landfall near atlantic city, new jersey.

more details from you, actually coming right now from jonathan hunt. floodwaters rising, obviously in jersey, but also on long island was will face extensive flooding . the storm surges are expected to be upwards of 12 feet high, even as far inland as long island sound. that is where jonathan hunters right now. started early this morning. this is one of the areas that we expect to really get hammered. it could be a big problem. what are you seeing? >> techniccl issues, as you can imagine. i can just about hear you. on the boardwalk right now. all day we have been watching waves' 12-15 feet high. just in the last hour i can tell you we have seen the beginnings of what officials say is going to be a monumental storm surge.

it is now sweeping up, going right underneath this boardwalk where i am standing. it has gone through the gaps. now the streets out in front of me which are lined with homes to my couple of feet deep in water year. and further back and think it is still surging. the bad news is for the people of long beach, officials tell us, the worst of this is going to be from 7:00 p.m. eastern through to a 11:00 p.m., so we have not even seen the worst of this yet, and 80's a very, very bad indeed. i was here 14 months ago. this is a storm and the results here in long beach of of very different magnitude. that was one of the problems in the run-up to this. a lot of people said we were year. it was not nearly as bad as we thought. i can tell you, this is going to be as bad as anybody dared believe it could be. these waters have not even reach their peak yet. we are told by all the experts

and already, as i say, hundreds of homes along broadway which runs parallel with the ocean here in long beach, seeing a lot of water coming through. all they officials up and down the boardwalk pleading with people, get off the boardwalk, get out of town, get out of long beach, which is, in essence, a barrier island. a very dangerous place to be. they employed the people. most of heed the pleas in to get off the island, but some have stayed here. when we wake up tomorrow morning, i guess we will see just how bad the damage is, but it is bad now. over the next four hours and markets is going to get a lot, lot worse. gerri: thank you for that. that was jonathan hyde from long island. l.i., new jersey. lower manhattan, as you can see. the damages all over. the storm 100 miles wide. and jonathan has the important question, what will the damage be like and what will we see tomorrow morning when we walked outside our door?

welcome expectations of the damages could reach 5- $20 billion. connecticut governor dan malloy earlier today said don't worry. >> all the money that we need. >> a ballpark. >> there is no limitation to our ability to spend money in preparation. >> no limitation to spend. it's also a government official. well, the agency most responsible for responding to the emergency in getting us on the path to recovery is in deep trouble. the federal emergency management agency which has the national flood insurance program is mired in financial and management problems. to the money first, typically once along year to year awaiting a congressional handout. fortunately they receive one this fall which should keep the agency running through fiscal 2017, but that does not solve all of their money issues, not

by a long shot. afterrhurricanes katrina and read it, the fund was $18 billion in the hole and still has that debt. then there is the issue of management. the government accountability office wrote a stinging criticism of the agency just last year describing? as actuarially unsound. it's systems are antiquated, running on pen and paper and imagine that, rather than computers. the department's at local state and national levels as a result have a difficult time communicating with fema. according to that report because of many of the process is the manual, the culture have become dependent on individual people. staff relying on personal relationships to accomplish tasks. including -- concluded from the gao, a total revamp. maybe that is why the improperly paid nearly $100 million to hurricane victims after katrina and rita between 2005 and 2010. just earlier this month the agency waived its demands for

repayment. altogether, 371 million was paid out in error. taken a reminder to everybody out there, that's our money fellow taxpayers. remember katrina trailers, 145,000 of them deemed unsafe because they had high levels of formaldehyde. we pay for that. there were used anyway by storm victims. if you're thinking poor fema is having problems because it is woefully understaffed, not true. the agency has grown in the wake of katrina. the funding extension passed by congress this fall addressed very little of these problems. made an attempt to stop insuring properties that are repeatedly flooded, but addressing the beer issue, not a chance. another can take down the road. at a time when we can least afford it. a lot more still ahead as we track hurricanes sandy. how will this storm that the elections to make some say president obama has the vantage. is that true? we will be right back. ♪ 0t[h7

gerri: an october surprise like no other, hurricanes and. gerri: of the election. which candidate will get blown off course next. ♪

gerri: we are, of course, in the final days of the election, but with hurricanes and the hammering down the east coast of president obama and mitt romney scrapping most of their events for today and tomorrow. canceling all of their advance, are we looking at the october surprise? joining me now, 64 impact chairman and democratic strategist. let's start with you. i wants to place some sound from obama and see what you make of what he had to say today. here's a president. >> i am not worried at this

point about the impact on the election. mario but the impact on families and the impact on our first responders. more about the impact on our economy and i'm transportation. the election will take care of itself next week. gerri: jonathan, the seas for the presidents look presidential. >> i think he has been looking presidential for four years, but i'm biased. there is no doubt he is concerned about the disaster and what could happen. but in a disaster presidents look presidential and the nation says to rally around them. so -- gerri: the natural course of things would be an advantage for the president right here. >> in the early days to short. gerri: tommy what you make of this. the president saying things that are pretty predictable. does it work in his favor? >> in the short run it certainly does, because he does look presidential. at the same time, though, we are taking the news cycle of life for mitt romney's momentum in the polls. as we saw today, leading for the first time in several weeks.

this hurts him in the short run and serve meals president obama, assuming nothing bad happens. if you have a gap like president bush was tagged with during hurricane to treat it could be an issue if the mother right now it favors president obama. really both campaigns are worried about how it will affect early voting internal election day. gerri: some people out there saying that, you know, the people who could be kept from voting booths are people on the east coast and in the northeast a particular hair tends to vote democratic. now, to you, do you think that is an issue? >> well, it could happen, but the outcome, if that were to happen, it is unlikely that it would change any of the lights are of town. he's going to win new york by a zillion points regardless of what the turnout is. what it could do is to press democratic turnout enough that he loses the popular vote and when the electoral vote. that could happen. now, i think it's unlikely. things will hopefully be back to normal by next tuesday. gerri: well, you know, the big question, what is normal?

to you. interestingly, romney today decided to use some of his time to raise money for victims of the storm. here's what he had to say. >> i would like to ask you who are here today to think about making a contribution to the red cross or to another relief agency to be of help if you possibly can in any way you could imagine to help those in harm's way. [applause] gerri: of course, the spotlight off of him now really truly. what do you make of this? and, i mean, look. i thought the candidate did the right thing in suspending appearances and ratcheting back. think he's even sending out your solicitations for campaign donations, but it could be a critical moment for him right before the election. >> that is absolutely right. he does not want to look too political. he wants to look compassionate. he was wise to suspend campaign events for the next couple of days. at the end of the data show has to go on.

to this point, the question is, the extent of the damage and how long is the power out in northern virginia, eastern pennsylvania to northern east and i/o s. that could really affect him. so we just don't know, but relief in the back of both campaigns minds, they're worried about early voting in turnout because of the end of the date fix we have been saying for how many months of this would come down to turnout. guess what. this is the october surprise. it's not very welcome. gerri: you know, the history of our responses to this event, i have to say, are mixed. so, i mean, it does not matter who is in office. so we will see what happens. thank you for coming on tonight. thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you. gerri: still ahead, we will check back in with our severe weather centers for the latest track of hurricane sandy. we will have the latest updates. and what is the daughter or government's response to this latest natural disaster? we will check in with our very own peter barnes in washington. ♪

gerri: with more than a million people without power, the effects of the storm could be felt for days, even a week, maybe more. for the latest, let's bring in a spokesman for new jersey central power and light xbox. ron, thank you for joining us at the last minute. we appreciate your time. i understand that your company serves the jersey shore, and you may have as many as 300,000 people without power tonight. what is your latest count? >> that's correct. good evening. jersey central power and light currently has more than 300,000 customers out of service. a good chunk of those customers, to wonder and 50,000 are located in ocean county where the storm is having a significant impact. gerri: how many people does your

company said total? >> over 1 million in 13 counties across new jersey. we also have significant portions of morris and warren counties in northern new jersey. gerri: how high the respective $300,000 ago? i mean, ultimately are more of your customer's address tonight? >> more of our customers certainly will see adages. the storm is yet to hit our northern region with a ferocity that it has to our central region. we are expected to cds near hurricane force winds in northern new jersey election night, so there will be increased outages. gerri: can you estimate how high this summer might go? >> i cannot commit but i can tell you that we have been preparing for the worse because the storm forecast was one that predicted dire consequences, and we have seen that. the storm is living up to everything that was built to be, and we told customers early on the we are preparing and asia as well. gerri: quickly, how long do you think these savages might last a mac. >> we estimate that it could be 7-10 days before customers are

restored. based upon the scenario of the storm. gerri: thank you for coming on tonight. an absolute pleasure, and i hope everything goes better than you expect instead of having the worst case scenario. >> thank you so much. gerri: waves are spicing up over seawalls from manhattan to ocean city, maryland. hurricane sandy makes land fall. winds are holding strong and 90 miles-per-hour with higher gusts for more on the storm and the track, picking of speed, we get to accu-weather meteorologist. welcome back. what's new? >> well, we are now looking at landfall. wildwood, new jersey, but it is not so much making that exact landfall as the sheer size and magnitude of the storm system, currently looking at wind gusts over 85 miles-per-hour up the new jersey coastline. the airport, 82 miles-per-hour command high rises, new york city of 10-15 stories, experiencing one of 85-90, maybe even 95 miles-per-hour.

we are looking a tremendous amounts of wind and tremendous amounts of water. water level rise. battery park. high tide in a couple of hours to watch this closely. i think we will see that water level rise around 11 feet. not too far off by some very historic levels fell by definitely very, very dangerous situation and it looks like these conditions will be at their worst for the next 3-4 hours 563-4 hours will be the big time friend to be safe and at home. thank you for coming on. appreciate your reporting. all right. let's get back to jeff flock in point pleasant beach, new jersey. he is directly in the line of fire. no, my goodness. i'm glad to see you. i was sorry. >> we just got washed off the beach. no big deal. it dress the microphone, but there you go. i can tell you, the power to always perfect. it washed off the beach and that is when the power goes out. that is just what happened here. now joining one of the many communities that are powerless

at the moment. very difficult to see. hoping later in the evening to light of what is going on. i can tell you, love of a wash. streets that are just rivers running water coming from the atlantic area. you know, where that stops, we don't know. listening to, you know, the report that maybe we have two or three more hours of the worst to go. i hope it does not get too much worse, but it is that the moment. a lot of flooding. gerri: well, you know, i hope you can hear me. this is a difficult way to communicate for sure. >> now i can. gerri: good. it or read about you in the last live shot. it looked very dangerous. i'm glad to see even a better location. i have never seen anything like this in the northeast. this is shocking to me. of course, we don't know how to prepare for this kind of thing. you're talking about man and not being lock down. you know, a crane that fell today. mangled. of course, you are in the heart of it right there. is this going to get this region

harder than florida where people are used to dealing with what is going on? >> absolutely. those towns and those places along the coast have been tested by other hurricanes. old buildings that are ready, the crane that was not properly attached, already bond down in those places, so when you get a big storm there, you know, it is what it is. here a lot of stuff that maybe has been hanging for a while. when you get a storm like this coming through the good kind of -- you have a lot of stuff that just goes wrong all at once. i think that is the problem. you have a very low pressure on the storm, which means is fairly intense. this region just as nasty as kind of thing. this is not new orleans. it has not been through the crucible, and it is right now. gerri: now, you are there, standing in the middle of it. tell us how you are experiencing right now. you know, if it is going to last for another 3-4 hours, how bad will it be by the time, tomorrow morning? >> well, you know, this is not

going to be in my view catastrophic. you don't have, you know, the kind of katrina crews ripped off buildings largely. this is mainly a surge issue. and it is over a logger amount of time than any of these other storms. frankly, i have covered every major hurricane in the u.s. since the mid-80s. and the duration of this may be longer, but the hammering may be longer than some of the other storms that have hit and move through and the next day you have sunshine. there is no sunshine in the forecast year-long the eastern seaboard for the next three or four days off. gerri: thank you. gerri: tonight. >> thanks. gerri: appreciated. thank you so much. well, s&p is impacting travelers across the u.s. and even europe and beyond as people are stranded by flights canceled by the storm. major carriers have canceled 9,000 flights already. experts say to expect air travel to be halted well into wednesday. in the air compared ceo says it

won't be until at least this weekend that flights will start to get back on schedule. airlines to try to unclog their system. amtrak service has also been cancelled for tomorrow along the east coast. you have to wait and see when we get back to normal on that score president obama is back at the white house after cutting a campaign trip short urging americans in sandy's path to listen to local mornings. for more on the federal response to the storm let's go to peter barnes in our nation's capital. peter. >> well, that's right. the president got back to the white house this morning after canceling appearances and campaign events today and tomorrow. by the way, we have some sandbags right outside the door here at the white house briefing room. the president's going to the situation room to talk to his emergency response, homeland security team this morning. answer oversee the mars is a response here. he? and briefed reporters afterwards , said that the federal assets, food, equipment,

personnel had been prepositioned in coordination with states and local communities here. and he advised people to be patient. he warned power outages for quite some time, transportation disruptions also for quite some time. gerri: we have been talking about the weekly jobless report. this morning we seem to get the sense that maybe we would not get it on friday. what is the latest mac. >> because the federal government is closed today, and it looks like it will begin tomorrow. and so the people who work at the labor department who are -- to work on this report for friday for the month of october, the last big jobs report before the election, they are not end today. they are not emergency personnel who are required to come in, so we were back and forth with the labor department today to find out if there might be a delay in that critical jobs report, and finally this afternoon we got our response. the labor department saying that it intended to still release the report friday as scheduled.

gerri: that is another way and see. thank you for coming on. always a pleasure to see you. >> thanks. gerri: we will be right back with more on the storm making landfall in this hour, including what we need to know about property insurance. stay with us.

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gerri: the economic impact of hurricane sandy may surpass that

of hurricane andrew way back in 1992, which tell now was considered the costliest disaster in u.s. history, 30 billion in damages. here with what homeowners need to know now, i'm joined by president of the insurance information institute in somalia have been talking about this kind of thing with for a long time. first of all, we have estimates out there up everywhere from 10000000-$20 billion possible damages. do you agree? where you think it will come in and how will bring? >> those of the economic losses. insured losses will be somewhat less. with the hurricane last year which is, perhaps to my less a storm off, that was number ten and the all-time list. right now the estimates are this good, a little bit more than that, so we could wind up with number seven, eight, or nine in the all-time list in terms of costly as to retain. gerri: as i talk to people in the insurance industry, this was their big nightmare, that a big storm would come to the new york city area and slam into it. high-density population, expensive property, you name it, we got it all.

a lot of coastal area to be heard. what do you say? >> that's right. we got it all this time, and we were only saved by the fact that this was not a category three storm. that is the one area where it could have been worse. gerri: what would have been the difference. >> it would have been tens of billions of dollars. a category three storm a beasley produced 30-40000000000 in losses. this will produce less than half that time probably less than one-third of that, so that is relatively good news. still a lot of damage ever wary -- very widespread. gerri: you mentioned a category three storm. we talked about 90, possibly 95. in some places tonight. certainly not over the next few days. it will lessen and strength. as you look at this, do you think most of the damage will be due to wind, due to rain, flooding to what do you see coming? >> a combination of damage associated with wind that a sustained over a large timeframe. but also, coastal storm surge which is something that would be covered under your national

flood insurance program policy. gerri: all right. so you clearly have to have bought your policy from the federal government, which may be sold to you by your local insurance agency. you have to do that 30 days before the event occurs. you cannot walk in at the last minute and by that cover its costs. >> that's right, but i read was a wake-up call, and we found that there was a surgeon purchases of flood coverage in the wake. and the one silver lining is that people were better protected than they would have otherwise been. gerri: tonight if you're sitting watching the show and wondering what to do, go find your insurance agent's phone number so that tomorrow when you wake up and start surveying the damage you make the all-important. >> that's right. give them a call in the clams adjusted right away. gerri: fingers crossed. a lot of people out there to talk to. >> ready. gerri: all right. we will be watching. that is for sure. thank you for coming on. >> thank you. gerri: appreciate it. the start stealing headlines from the election. eight days away next to one of the nation's top pollsters joining us with a look at how

the polls are trending. stay with us. ♪ follow the wings.

gerri: hurricanes and he might be pounding the east coast, but the election is still eight days away. my next guest says high anxiety time for the president.

gerri: well, we will continue to rise breaking coverage of hurricane sandy in just a moment, but for now we're turning our attention to the election 2012, which believe it or not is eight days from now. the number of undeciied swing state voters is going down, and lendl and according to new polling data if three my next guest says this is high anxiety time for president obama. that public nor the president and sells knows what will happen with a little more than a week to go fish. here wwth more, bolster and author. welcome to the show. i want to show this poll.

you know, at one point in time states like florida, ohio, and virginia to my really quite large, 10 percent, but now that is going down. what does that tell you? >> well, first of all, undecideds eventually break. and normally historical the undecideds, jerry, break toward the challenger. but maybe they're breaking a little early. still another week to go. clearly romney is in the ball game here fifth. the lead in the states is going back and forth. whenever it is, it is certainly not good news for the president. he just -- it is a time of high anxiety. he should be closing this election as an incumbent, and it does not appear to be at least not yet. gerri: the impact of the storm. out of pennsylvania, a real problem if they cannot get power back in quickly because it would affect the polling stations and

sells. what do you expect? >> well, to be honest, we have never been here before. and so it is very hard to project. certainly, you know, the greatest impact are usually in higher poverty, lower-income neighborhoods, those seemed to be the last ones to get their power restored. the ones that have transportation problems and so on. that cannot be good news for the incumbent president. to be honest, the truth is that we really just don't know. we don't know what will happen right up until tuesday, three tuesday. gerri: well, that is fascinating probably dead on accurate about who gets power last for. it is potentially impacting the election. something interesting to our producer. you said this looks like 2000 all over again. why is that? >> because we have leads changing every day, not only nationally, but in the battleground states. when you look at them, they are

not really leads. so sick of break away for president obama tonight is a lead of four in ohio. you can't go to the bank with a leader for. that is one of the bitterly is that we have. otherwise one or two points in virginia. gerri: let me give you a couple of points here. ohio, romney has in its 50-48. florida, romney 50, obama 49. north carolina -- neck and neck. so ultimately it seems to me this bill could go either way. and we will be watching. with this vote, decided on the basis of a single news story? could it be something that breaks over the weekend? something that carries the momentum? >> anything that moves a couple of hundred or a couple of thousand votes in any one of these battle ground states can determine the election. absolutely. my fear, and this is not as a

pollster, but an american is that instead of one court case that we had in florida in 2000, we can have multiple court cases. this is just so close. gerri: i hope that is not the case. we have to go. thank you for being with us. we'll be right back. >> thank you. [ male announcer ] at scottrade, you won't just find us online, you'll also find us in person, with dedicated support teams at over 500 branches nationwid so when you call or visi you can ask for a name you know. because pernal service starts with a real person. [ rodger ] at scottrade, seven dollar trades are just the start. ou support teams are nearby, readto help. it's no wonder so many investors are saying... [ all ] i'm with scottrade.

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