we are keeping a close eye on sandy. right now the storm is blamed for at least 16 deaths, including one in anne arundel

county and one in montgomery county. more than 6 million homes and businesses up and down the east coast are in the dark. nyu's tisch hospital was evacuated last night. they started with the sickest and the youngest, including those in the neonatal care unit. a 15-foot surge of sea water flooded manhattan. coastal communities are also reporting severe flooding this morning. sandy is also being blamed for a burst of snow in west virginia. right now thousands of people in our area are in the dark because of sandy. most of the power outages are in northern virginia. dominion virginia power reporting more than 119,000 customers without electricity right now. pepco is trying to restore power to more than 30,000 homes and businesses in our area. bge says 3,200 area customers don't have electricity, and smeco is reporting 30,000

customers in the dark. >> the federal government is closed today for all nonessential personnel. metro rail and bus service is also suspended until this afternoon. then metro will reassess the situation. marc, vre, and amtrak service along the northeast corridor all suspended today as well. and flights out of dulles, reagan national, are cancelled until further notice. >> lots of schools closed this morning in virginia, alexandria, arlington, fairfax, falls church city, and loudoun county schools are closed. also manassas city, manassas park, stafford city and spotsylvania schools as well. in maryland, prince george's county, montgomery, and howard county schools are closed. >> as are anne arundel, charles, and frederick counties. you can find a complete list of schools running at the bottom of your screen as well as online at nbcwashington.com. >> all of this because of the

weather that rolled through yesterday. tom kierein keeping an eye on developments. what are we seeing now? thankfully, the storm is winding down for us. we still have moderate showers coming tregion, and it is snowing now. garrett county, western maryland. frostburg has snow on the ground. parts of eastern and southern west virginia. all this area in white on storm team 4 radar. meanwhile farther east in the form of rain. getting a few moderate views in washington. these areas in yellow and orange and fairfax county. just to the west of 95 down to prince william county. farther west, a couple of pockets of moderate showers in loudoun county. these are all just rotating around the general large circulation of what was sandy, now a post-tropical low that is now inland. it is a chilly morning. temperatures only in the low to mid-40s much of the region. reagan national is at 44.

meanwhile, out of the west where they're getting that snow, many locations just in the 30s. the high elevations around 2,000 feet are freezing. martinsburg and augusta, 43. we also have flood warnings in effect until 5:45. many creeks and streams will be out of their banks through much of the region. blizzard warnings in effect for these counties. generally above 5,000 feet, up to a foot of snow there. gusts to around 60 miles an hour, some of the higher ridges. high wind warning is in effect. hour by hour throughout the day today, we'll have a passing shower from time to time, and it will be chilly in the 40s throughout the day, but the wipd gusts will diminish by late afternoon. i'm back with another update in about ten minutes. right now a look at traffic. here's danella. good morning. >> good morning. this is what our area looks like. interstates not a problem. it's getting out of your

neighborhood, that's where you're going to face some challenges in a lot of our area. a lot of roads in our area. first let's start in the district. 41st street. this is at northwest military road due to a downed tree. heading over to virginia, braddock road, you're going to find closures also because of a downed tree. in laurel, maryland 198 sandy spring road, closed at old gun powder road due to debris in the roadway. we're also facing high standing water. if you're traveling along 29 in both directions, closed from lookwood boulevard all the way to university drive. i would not recommend heading out of the house if you're able to stay in. new from overnight, firefighters are blaming sandy for the death of a man in anne arundel county. the pasadena man died when a tree fell on his house late last night. firefighters say he died on the scene. breaking news out of connecticut. take a look at a fire, a late night fire that destroyed two

homes in old sandy brook. this is actually still going on as we speak. firefighters could not get to the scene because the area around that home is flooded. firefighters said they tried to check to see if anyone is inside that home using a fire truck, but they had to stop because the flooding caused electrical problems. the area is under evacuation orders. firefighters battling a massive fire involving 15 homes in queens, new york. the fire broke out last night at 11:00. firefighters say the homes are in a flood zone area. 170 firefighters are on the scene. two people suffered minor injuries. no word on the cause of that fire. right now a large part of lower manhattan waiting for water to recede in a big way. this is fdr drive. you see floodwaters that actually caused an explosion at the con edison substation, the power company there, that left nearly 250,000 people in manhattan without power. con ed says no one was hurt in

that explosion, but the company can't say how long it will take to get the power back on for everyone. angie goff with more on a more serious power outage in new york city. >> flooding o, outages, new yor city saw it all. a backup generator failed at nyu hospital, forcing 200 patients to evacuate. 20 babies from the neonatal intensive care unit also transported. ambulances lined the street as doctors and nurses moved the sickest and youngest out first. outages meant no elevators working. cancer patients carefully carried down the stairs. all made it out okay and were taken to other hospitals. another huge problem in new york, flooding in the city's tunnels and subway stations. this posted on twitter. water just pouring into the tunnel. transit officials saying it could take up to four days just to pump that floodwater out.

at the live desk, angie goff, news 4. >> angie, thank you. this morning people are surveying the damage left from sandy's impact. much of it has to do with downed trees. news 4's melissa mollet live in alexandria. melissa, we're hearing one tree left a whole neighborhood dark. >> not exactly sure which tree took down the power line. not one house has any power. take a look over this way. this is one tree that came down. take a look at all the debris, a lot of it here still in the roadway. you can tell that somebody came through, cut things, and sort of moved them around out of the way. let's take a look across here. we're at commonwealth and myrtle. look at this tree. i know this is really hard to see in the dark, but this tree is just massive. take a look at this. i'm going to stand next to it. you can see just how high it is. lots of trees. i'm going to be keeping an eye on things like this for you all

day. this area that is still under a coastal flood warning could get worse before it gets better. live in alexandria, melissa mollet, news 4. back to you. >> melissa, thank you. it is 4:09 right now. several reports on trees down in houses this morning. >> coming up, crews out surveying the damage themselves. >> and you, the viewer, showing us sandy's impact.

good morning. i'm tom kierein with a sandy update. getting showers locally. still getting snow out of the mountains. these showers are moderate showers across northern virginia and the nearby suburbs. these are going to continue to rotate around. passing showers the rest of the morning. and creeks and streams still running very high. it is chilly. we're just low to mid-40s much of the region right now. the current wind gusts, they've been gusting anywhere from 25 to as high as 40 to 45 miles an hour. remaining pretty much level, 25 to 45 for the rest of the morning and parts of the afternoon. then the winds will gradually diminish.

storm team 4 hour by hour forecast, we'll have highs reaching upper 40s by midafternoon. by 6:00 p.m. down to perhaps the mid-40s with gusts to 30 miles an hour. then those winds will gradually diminish after we get into the evening hours. and that is the way it looks right now. back to you guys. >> thank you, tom. it's now 4:13. coming up, today marks exactly one week until election day. next the impact sandy is having on the race for president and early voting in our area. and caught on camera. sandy causes an explosion in new york city.

we're looking at live pictures from ocean city, where we have seen a lot of damage.

>> that's times square. >> that is not ocean city. that is times square. and new york really bore the brunt of sandy. apparently, the subway system flooded there. a lot of fires have been sparked by damage from the storm, and it's going to be days and weeks before the mess there and the damage is cleaned up. >> the power, obviously, in mid town at least still on in times square, but bare streets. that's going to be the case in new york as it is in a lot of places along the eastern seaboard. we are out along the virginia, d.c. area assessing the damage. >> megan mcgrath is live where a massive tree fell onto a house. megan, good morning to you. >> reporter: good morning, eun. it actually didn't fall on the house. it fell in between two houses. a close call here. take a look at the size of this root fall, the size of this tree here. absolutely enormous. not too hard to figure out exactly why it fell. the ground that i'm standing on is absolutely saturated. it is soggy. it is spongy.

in the height of the storm when these winds came blowing through, it just pulled this tree right up out of the ground. an incredible two-story root ball we've got here came crashing down in between two houses. it took out the power. the houses are still standing. those homeowners have to be very, very happy this morning. what we're seeing is sort of hit and miss kind of damage. let's take a look at video we shot earlier this morning on 16th street. there were some trees that fell in that area. they actually crossed over the street. public works crews were on the scene early this morning using heavy equipment to chop them up and get trees out of the roadway. 16th street has now reopened. we've seen a number of trees all around the area. it toppled over in the wind, and, again, because the ground is so saturated with all of the rain. they really don't have much to hold on to. the wind kicks up. they just blew right over. in some cases crossing over roads, hitting cars, hitting houses, and the like.

keep your eye out for that. you may encounter sporadic, unexpected road closures as a result of the trees and the branches and the like. we're going to be out there all morning long taking a look at it, bringing you the latest on the damage we've seen. all in all, our area fared pretty well. we're not seeing the widespread, real intense damage we saw with that daresho over the summer, but by and large, it's not the concentrated kind of damage we've seen with other storms. reporting live in northwest, megan mcgrath. back to you guys in the studio. president obama and mitt romney taking a break from campaigning out of respect for sandy's victims. the president cancelled events yesterday and today and returned to washington to oversee the government's response to the super storm. he says he's more concerned about sandy's impact right now than about next week's election.

mitt romney also scrapping his campaign plans for today. the republican presidential nominee and his running mate paul ryan will hold storm relief events instead. their campaign is not saying what those events will involve. yesterday romney asked supporters at some of the rallies to donate to the red cross. governor martin o'malley ordered all early voting stations in the state to close because of sandy. he has ordered early voting through november 2nd to make up for the days. the board of elections postponed early voting in the district today as well. coastal communities are waking up to the heaviest damage this morning. >> erica gonzalez is getting a firsthand look on what kind of impact flooding had on dewey beach, virginia. erica, yesterday you were being swept away by the winds. it looks much calmer this morning. >> reporter: you know, it is much calmer, but the biggest difference this morning is it is about ten degrees cooler or

colder this morning than it was yesterday. i'm shivering. i've got on rain pants, but i need to put on another layer underneath because i'm freezing out here. we're in the 40s, and the rain is just slightly falling. but the biggest thing yesterday, here in rehoboth beach, in dewey beach, where we are at right now, we saw the brunt nft storm really in the morning. and even when the eye wall came over us, we still had a little bit of rain, still had a little bit of wind, but even at high tide last night, we didn't see the type of waves and the type of erosion that we were seeing yesterday morning. it was just tremendous. so now that we're seeing the after effects, or the effects rather, what we're seeing is flooding. we got a lot of rain, didn't get too much wind. so we're thankful that we're not seeing shattered glass all over the place. but this is what you're finding, where the ocean and the bay meet, and you're seeing roadways in low lying areas just

inundated, covered with water. there is still a driving ban that is in place for the state of delaware. residents here are not expected to be back to work until after 4:30. even then it's still questionable. we'll get an update from the governor of delaware. still the impact here is going to be in low lying areas. thankful is looks like the brunt of the storm was in the morning, and it looks like dewey beach and rehoboth beach may have really cut close and really done fairly well with this storm. live in dewey beach, erica gonzalez, news 4. >> erica, thank you. we're happy that you survived it all. >> and she's right. the temperature is here too. it's about ten degrees cooler than it was this time yesterday. tom kierein is keeping an eye on not only the temperatures but still a little moisture out there, tom. >> we still have rain falling. good morning. right now storm team 4 radar

showing a huge area of rain. it is raining from maine all the way down to north carolina, and from the atlantic seaboard all the way into ohio, indiana, michigan, and all this area in white is snow. it is snowing across parts of indiana into ohio, eastern kentucky, much of west virginia and into western maryland. all of these areas getting snow. some of the high ridges here right west of the blue ridge and shenandoah valley, they're getting snow. even mountain peaks are getting a little bit of wet snow right now. locally for us, we're still dealing with passing bands of light to moderate rain. anything from light yellow to orange is the light to moderate rain. that's along i-95 from franconia to arlington. and farther west light scattered rain where you see the green. and these areas of orange and yellow along the blue ridge, just west of leesburg, they're getting moderate showers here as well as frederick county,

maryland, and up into baltimore. temperatures are chilly. just in the low 40s throughout much of the region. we're going to be holding steady here in the 40s throughout the rest of the day. and those blustery winds going to make it feel even colder. we have windchills -- yes, we're talking windchills on october the 30th. going to feel like it's in the 30s this morning. and we have the current gusts that we have now around 25 to 30 milds miles an hour around the metro area. still gusts off to our west over 40 miles an hour, especially along the peak ridges, above 2,000 feet. they could have gusts to around 60 miles an hour this morning. hour by hour, throughout the day today, 6:00 a.m., still 30 to 40-mile-per-hour gusts of wind. we'll be in the low 40s, maybe mid-40s in the afternoon, and the winds diminishing to around 30 miles an hour. still some passing showers. those gusts will continue to diminish as we get into this evening. sunrise 7:34. sunset at 6:09. the storm team 4 four-day

forecast, improving news as we get into wednesday, thursday, and friday. diminished winds, a little sun back tomorrow and thursday. still quite cloudy. then into the weekend, friday, saturday, sunday. quite a bit of sunshine with highs in the 50s. cold in the mornings, only in the 30s. and maybe a passing shower on monday. that's the way it looks. i'm back in ten minutes. danella here with a look at very early morning traffic. >> many good morning, tom. situation in some areas hit harder than others. if you're thinking of leaving the house, checking on loved ones, i wouldn't recommend it. do it when the sun rises, several things to look out for. looking out for flooding, if you're traveling in annandale, wood burn closed at guinevere drive because of a downed tree. traveling on 301, southbound 301 taking the ramp from pennsylvania avenue, that is blocked by a tree in the roadway. i want to show you the beltway,

nice and clear, which is the contrast between local roads. live look at the beltway and 50, clear in maryland. not seeing any incidents along the beltway. aaron and danella, back over to you. 4:25 right now. it could be a while before all roads in the area are reopened. news 4's shimari stone taking a look. >> reporter: we're approximately a half mile to a mile from old georgetown road. this is closed right now. there's a creek along this roadway that has jumped the banks. there have been crews out here all night long to make sure people keep away from this roadway. that's why they're out there with their flashing lights. when you come across standing water, experts recommend you stay away because, if it gets above your bumper, it could destroy the electric components

of your car's engine, floods it out, and then it's thousands of dollars to fix it. that's why you need to be careful. also, they recommend that you stay away from streets that have logs and other things like that. it may be a no brainer for a lot of folks, but i can't count how many times we've come across people who have flooded cars and damaged cars because they try to go through the hazardous roadway. >> not worth the risk to go through the high water. don't do it. 4:26 right now. up next, the dire situation sandy causing in points to our north. >> and what images do you capture from the storm? send them to ic@nbcwashington.com.

good morning. i'm eun yang. >> and i'm aaron gilchrist. welcome back to "news 4 today." it's a very busy morning on tuesday, october 30th. most of the customers without power are in northern virginia this morning. dominion virginia says 120,000, almost 130,000 have no electricity across the state.