the sun will rise in about 2 2 1/2 hours over the east coast giving officials the first real look at the damage left by super storm sandy. at least 16 people have been killed, more than seven million have lost power. good morning. i'm chris jansing live in new york city. lower manhattan has taken a heavy blow from this storm. the financial district and ground zero were flooded. subway tunnels have also been inundated. the transit authority says this is the worst flooding in the subway's 108-year history. in the rockaways, a fire destroyed at least 50 homes.

that's 5-0. in new jersey, atlantic city was largely submerged and cutting it off from the mainland. up and down the new jersey coast, communities are seeing significant flooding. downto downtown hoboken and jersey city seeing water in the streets. we talked to the mayor and she said perhaps 50% of that city is underwater. some shoreline residents in connecticut are stranded in their homes and the national guard has been called out to rescue them. the storm damaged property from stonington to greenwich. in delaware, the storm wiped out beaches in several communities and rehoboth beach and dewey beach, thousands of people were evacuated from wilmington and delaware city. now one final word, there is some word that the potomac river, specifically the area between hancock, amaryland and washington, d.c., could begin flooding to night.

the national weather service says it could be worst flooding that area has seen in 16 years. nbc's michelle franzen is at battery park city on the lower tip of manhattan. that is where the storm surge hit a record high over 13 feet. she joins us on the phone. how are things looking there? >> reporter: good morning, chris. yeah, that is record high. nearly 14 feet, as you mentioned. this is where all the troubles began for lower manhattan where that water surge came in during that high tide and peaked last night at 8:30. at the same time, near the same time, sandy was ramping up here. it's still going strong with her winds here in lower manhattan. of course, that water surge coming up all throughout lower manhattan flooding parts of battery park as well as gushing into the battery brooklyn tunnel. we're told by the mta and port authority that the water has compromised the tunnel and also

the subway system in a way that they have not experienced in the more than 100 year history of the subway. so there's a lot of issue that they'll be waking up to today that seem to be dire in these initial hours after sandy moves through. also a situation that we've seen the rescue crews and emergency crews that just run into action following the storm. you had a generator that had gone out at nyu medical center. they had to remove patients from there both young and old. and they had ambulances waiting there to whisk them away, just the coordination operating and operating in dangerous situations where they didn't know, you know, what was going on inside and outside on the streets what sort of debris and challenges they faced there. they transferred their patients

to other hospitals in and around new york city. the coordination that is going on in the hours leading up to sandy and now, chris, in those hours afterwards has been impressive and massive. >> as elsewhere, there's going to be a lot that we see here in manhattan when the sun comes up and throughout the rest of new york city, throughout the night, we've been getting reports from everywhere up in harlem where we're hearing about devastation to businesses where awnings are ripped off and a lot of trees down, a lot of debris around. but maybe the most dramatic, michelle, happened in midtown manhattan. there was a crane situation earlier today which still is posing a problem for officials, isn't it? >> reporter: this happened in the hours where the winds weren't as severe as they continue to be now. but certainly a crane on top of what was, you know, under construction one of the tallest

residential buildings when it is supposed to be, you know, a crane leaned back over the -- toppled at the top and just dangled over the side of that building. and workers -- officials couldn't do anything to secure that because it would be too dangerous. what they did is evacuate the surrounding area as much as they could, the businesses, residences in that area and closed off the streets. and they still will have that problem to deal with and contend with today. we have the winds again. it could be some time before they figure out how they're going to secure that and hopefully it will stay put in the meantime. >> michelle franzen in lower manhattan, thank you. we also want to get updated on what is happening in long island. there are a lot of problems there. we've heard about homes on fire island that literally disappeared into the ocean.

two deaths reported, both of them from falling trees. one, a man just 39 years old. he was in the car pulling out of the driveway with his wife and two children when the tree came down killing him. they were not injured. and also an 84-year-old man was struck and killed while he was also moving his car. out on long island, new york wnbc's greg sergel is checking out the scene in river head and just filed this report. >> reporter: here in river head, we just got hit with a down pour of rain, a reminder that sandy is not completely out of the picture yet. but for the most part, the worst of the storm seems over. nassau police have now identified the rosalynn minuan was killed yesterday, 84-year-old safar shafanori went outside to move his car when struck and killed by a tree limb. another man was killed by a falling tree limb, john miller was preparing to leave his home with his wife and two young daughters when the tree hit him.

neither his wife nor his daughters were injured in the horrible incident. contrasting those two tragedies, a number of triumphs yesterday, acts of heroism and bravery by first responders and others. one of those taking place right here in river head. ambulances from the medical center here in river head traveled east to greenport at the height of the storm to rescue 12 patients from the eastern long island hospital as floodwaters were beginning to surround the hospital. the patients were brought here to riverhead. they're all doing well at a hospital being powered by generators. >> decisions were made around 12:00 noon with the approaching water and the rising tides for the sake of the safety of patients. we work collectively with the management team and ambulance crews. and we began moving 13 patients to this hospital around 1:00, 2:00 this afternoon.

>> reporter: so was eastern long island hospital in greenport the floodwaters war proeching there. they had to get the patients out and you came in and got them out? >> that's right. they're right on the water. and water was coming over the bulkhead. that was the right decision to make. >> reporter: we're in riverhead. back to you. >> thank you for that update. for the latest on sandy, we go to bill karins who has been tracking this all night. bill, i think what struck both of us and again we're going see a lot more when the sun come up, but so many of these local leaders and officials who we've been talking to through the night say it actually was worse than expected. so often they say the media overhypes these kinds of storms. but this has been absolutely devastating. >> yeah. it's not often that -- [ no audio ] >> bill? can you check your mike? i'm not sure your microphone is

on. he's on a riser. you got it back on? no. looks like he doesn't have his mike. we're going to take a quick break. we're going to come back. bill will have the complete forecast for us right after this. [ woman ] ring. ring. progresso. i just finished a bowl of your new light chicken pot pie soup and it's so rich and creamy... is it really 100 calories? let me put you on webcan... ...lean roasted chicken... and a creamy broth mmm i can still see you. [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup.

customer erin swenson bought so, i'm happy. today.u. sales go up... i'm happy. it went out today... i'm happy. what if she's not home? (together) she won't be happy. use ups! she can get a text alert, reroute... even reschedule her package. it's ups my choice. are you happy? i'm happy. i'm happy. i'm happy. i'm happy. i'm happy. happy. happy. happy. happy. (together) happy. i love logistics. try running four.ning a restaurant is hard, fortunately we've got ink. it gives us 5x the rewards on our internet, phone charges and cable, plus at office supply stores. rewards we put right back into our business. this is the only thing we've ever wanted to do and ink helps us do it. make your mark with ink from chase.

tomato, obviously. haha. there's more than that though, there's a kick to it. wahlalalalallala! smooth, but crisp. it's kind of like drinking a food that's a drink, or a drink that's a food, woooooh! [ male announcer ] taste it and describe the indescribable. could've had a v8.

12 minutes past the hour and massive flooding in connecticut trapped people in homes. it is particularly bad in certain towns with the water is several feet deep. liz, i understand you're about half a mile from the shoreline. what can you tell us about both flooding and power outages? >> reporter: good morning to you, chris. that's right, we're half a mile north of that shoreline where the long island sound meets the start of fairfield. and just to give you perspective, that water traveled half a mile all the way up to these streets. we really can't tell where the water ends down these side

streets here. and this has been a common scene playing out in fairfield all morning long. we took a walk down there to take a look at the cars. if you look down there, they're basically submerged under water. at least the fraont half of one car down there. the high winds took a really hard hit here in fairfield. we have downed power lines and trees as well. it's impossible to get around these streets. you really have to be careful. and, you know, just for the homeowners, a lot of people did try to ride out this storm. but now we've got water creeping into the basements, into the front doors of these homes as well. so just not an easy situation to be in at all. again, you know, we've seen emergency crews out here. but there's just not much they can do until some of the water starts to move out of the area. we should tell you also that fairfield, 98% of the town is without power right now. the local utilities, of course,

trying to do what they can to get everybody back online. but conditions like this, just one more look, that are making things extremely difficult here. again, no sort of indication as to when this water is going to be out of the area or when town officials with try to help move that process along. we're live in fairfield this morning. i'm liz dahlem. >> i want to remind people at 8:30 this morning, governor maloy will have an update there in connecticut. we'll get even more information. let's go back now to nbc meteorologist bill karins who has been tracking this. the amazing thing is the amount of devastation that we're seeing. this is a category 1 hurricane. >> if you told me that a category-1 hurricane hit this summer, i would tell you, that's a rare event. i'm sure it was bad. i wouldn't say it's historically bad. one of the worst storms environmenter to hit the region or new england or one of the worst storm surges, worse than donna or the great hurricanes we had in the early 1930s and 40s. these are the peak winds. these in themselves are not all

that impressive. they were plenty strong enough to knock over trees which is the reason we have so many power outages. long island, they're saying about 80% of the island doesn't have power. the wind gusts are stronger there, 90 at islip. central park, 62 mile per hour gusts. jfk, they were gusting to 80. central park is a little more protected. as far as the storm goes, the immense size of this storm is still just amazing, even about eight hours after land fall, 12 hours after land fall, chris. it takes up literally a quarter to a third of the united states. it is still moving west. it is going to be over the top of pittsburgh shortly. how rare is that? >> unbelievable what we're seeing from this storm. it continues. thank you so much, bill karins. in new york, 1.8 million people without power. and some of the worst flooding, the worst power outages are along long island. on the phone now, long island

congressman tim pitch open. good morni tim bishop. >> good morning. >> what can you tell us? >> well, it's very devastating. and, you know, it's 5:00 in the morning am i'm not sure how much current information i have. but as of last night, there was significant coastal flooding and coastal erosion. there was significant flooding in port jefferson and downtown riverhead was particularly badly hit. greenport was underwater. the area of the north shore was particularly hard hit. so we have some very serious flooding problems. and as of about 8:00 last night, 600,000 home on long island were out of power. hundreds of trees down. power lines down. you know, utility poles down. this has been a huge, huge storm. i won't say catastrophic results

but serious implications. >> and two men killed by falling trees. we should note that and our condolences to their families and friends. >> indeed. >> what can you tell us about these reports that fire island, there were homes that actually just were gone. they absolutely disappeared. >> as i've said, i've been without power since 1:00 yesterday afternoon. so the amount of information that i have available to me is limited. i know fire island was very badly hit. i cannot confirm those reports. but it wouldn't surprise me. >> finally, what do you think is the order of business number one as you try to get long island back up and running? >> first is we have to get power restored. we have to make sure that people are safe, if there are evacuations required as a result of rising waters and we have to get people out into high ground and make sure that they're safe. we have to begin the long

process of getting power turned back on. and then, you know, we need to -- the first priority is life and limb. and then the second priority is property restoration. but we're going to have to go to work and begin the hard work of repairing our island. i'm going to convene a conference call later this morning with fema officials and with officials from the army corps of engineers and we'll invite every elected official from the towns and villages and the counties of the areas that i represent to get them on the call so we can begin that process. and also i'm going to call on -- send a letter this morning to congress urging first order of business they pick up when we return to session is an appropriations bill for fema and the army corps of engineers and

the small business administration and any other federal agency that can be helpful in restoring some sense of normalcy to areas that have been so badly hit. but as i say, the very first priority has to be making sure that people are safe and making sure that we put people in safety and we deal with the devastation. >> congressman tim bishop on long island, thank you so much. good luck. >> thank you. for the second day in a row, super storm sandy is halting trading on wall street. that is the first two-day weather related shutdown in more than a century. unprecedented 13 foot surge of seawater flooded the financial district. the new york stock exchange and nasdaq say they plan to reopen tomorrow. some experts are predicting economic losses from sandy reaching $20 billion. [ male announcer ] free windows 8 training from your son. can you help me with something?

nope! good talk. [ male announcer ] or free windows 8 training when you buy a computer at staples. another way staples makes it easier to upgrade.

when you buy a computer at staples. you know it can be hard to lbreathe, and how that feels.e, copd includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema. spiriva helps control my copd symptoms by keeping my airways open for 24 hours. plus, it reduces copd flare-ups. spiriva is the only once-daily inhaled copd maintenance treatment that does both. spiriva handihaler tiotropium bromide inhalation powder does not replace fast-acting inhalers for sudden symptoms. tell your doctor if you have kidney problems, glaucoma, trouble urinating, or an enlarged prostate. these may worsen with spiriva. discuss all medicines you take, even eye drops. stop taking spiriva and seek immediate medical help if your breathing suddenly worsens, your throat or tongue swells, you get hives, vision changes or eye pain, or problems passing urine.

other side effects include dry mouth and constipation. nothing can reverse copd. spiriva helps me breathe better. (blowing sound) ask your doctor about spiriva. [ husband ] transfer! [ male announcer ] free data transfer at home. you just deleted all the photos! you did! no you did! [ male announcer ] or free data transfer when you buy a windows 8 computer at staples. another way staples makes it easier to upgrade. right now, jfk, laguardia and newark airports are all closed and the headaches that hurricane sandy is causing for travelers extend far beyond this region. we have more on that. good morning. chris, good morning. yeah, growing problem for americans around the world simply trying to get home with usair lines cancelling flights into new york, for example. united cancelling 14

transatlantic flights, american six, delta three, u.s. two and other carriers around the world, british airways, virgin, the gulf states airlines are cancelling flights into airports like jfk. we're being told 84 flights canceled today, 37 of those departures. and yesterday 59 flights were canceled. now some of the airlines are telling their passengers they hope to start to reinstate flights tomorrow. american saying it may take a couple days. >> all right, thank you. more than two million new jersey homes are without power this morning. on the phone with us is one of the companies providing power for that state. thank you very much for joining us. give us an idea of the challenges that are facing your workers as they head out this morning. >> thank you, chris. we have at the moment more than 188,000 people still without

power. the winds seemed to have died down a little bit which will make it okay for our guys s ts out. there are osha standards that will not allow them to go in the bucket trucks if the winds are gre greater than 35 miles per hour. we'll have assessors going out to assess the damage and then make the determination as to how we're going to deploy the crews so they can start back getting people back into power as quickly and as safely as possible. >> as i mentioned, atlantic city electric, one of several power companies that service various parts of new jersey. how much help are you getting from outside of new jersey? >> it's been great. we have a total in the pepco region, we have 1400 crew that's have come in from out of state and we're getting probably the majority of those because our region was hit the hardest. >> well, we wish you luck.

thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us this morning. i'm sure we'll be getting updates throughout the coming days. thank you so much. >> you're welcome. have a great day. so we're going to continue all throughout the day here on msnbc to cover the impact of sandy. "way too early with willie geist "so i coming up next. i'm chris jansing. we'll see you later at 10:00 a.m. on "jansing and company." jack, you're a little boring.

boring. boring. [ jack ] after lauren broke up with me, i went to the citi private pass page and decided to be...not boring. that's how i met marilyn... giada... really good. yes! [ jack ] ...and alicia. ♪ this girl is on fire [ male announcer ] use any citi® card to get the benefits of private pass. more concerts. more events. more experiences. [ jack ] hey, who's boring now? [ male announcer ] get more access with a citi card. [ crowd cheering, mouse clicks ]

i'm not worried at this point about the impact on the election. i'm worried about the impact on families and i'm worried about the impact on our first responders. i'm worried about the impact on our economy and on transportation. you know, the election will take care of itself next week. right now, our number one priority is to make sure that we are saving lives, that our search and rescue teams are in place that, people are going to get the food, shelte