millions of people grapple today with the impact of superstorm sandy. the extent of the damage still not known. on this day after. >> the death count is now at 38. with the potential to climb. the storm's punishing winds and rain knocked out power to more than 8 million people in 20 states. in new jersey, water flowing over a levee led to the evacuation of hundreds of people. and new york, the city tt never sleeps is just now waking up after a night and day in the dark. >> new york's mayor referred to the storm as devastating. though the worst has passed now, we're still feeling some of the impact. this wall of clouds, shot by chopper 4 over rockville today. >> veronica johnson is in our weather center with the very latest. >> sandy has weakened but it is not quite done with us yet. we're seeing creeks, streams, rivers, all rise. coming up in a couple moments,

we'll talk about the specifics of which ones, where, and how cold it will get tonight. >> in new york, flooding surpassed what forecasters predicted in a worst-case scenario. jay gray is live with a look at the damage throughout the northeast. >> good evening. >> just starting to get a little rain here. the weather is back below the seawall for the most part, gone in battery park. the damage, the devastation not only here but along the coast. most certainly has not. >> reporter: the day after. the devastation is overwhelming. >> this is literally the storm of our lifetime. sandy battered the mid-atlantic and east coast, violent winds and floodwaters that turned deadly overnight. more than two dozen people killed and there is fear that number could climb. >> the enormity of the storm, the power of the storm. then you have call coming in and you cannot get to these people. we don't know if we have bodies

out there right now or not. that's why we're out. >> reporter: sandy's rage began across the jersey shore, shattering windows and tearing away boardwalks. >> the level of devastation along the jersey shore is unthinkable. >> reporter: this image of a roller coaster twisting into the water. a telling symbol of sandy's wild ride. cars and lives were in an instant turned upside down. >> i thought the house was going to come off the foundation. i thought we were going to die. >> reporter: that same fear and the force of the massive storm was felt all along the coast. more than 8 million homes lost power in more than a dozen states. material damage estimates are at $20 billion. some of the worst was here in new york. the nation's largest city, crippled by hi winds and a record storm surge. water pouring into lower manhattan. swallowing neighborhoods and washing out the subway system. ironically, it was that water that prevented firefighters from

dousing these flames in queens. 80 homes were lost. and now, as the clean-up begins - >> clearly the challenges our city faces in the coming days are enormous. >> reporter: the mayor and millions in the strike zone. >> it is really a catastrophe. >> reporter: understand it will take long time to recover from the damage sandy left behind. one of the major concerns in some of the hardest hit communities tonight is a lack of heat for so many families with temperatures falling and the wind continuing to blow. now back to you. >> these pictures from a chopper 4 show us some high water over maryland taken in the past hour. the mog county fire and rescue quads pulled a kayaker just a few minutes ago in this area. that water levels are still very high after torrential rains but things are slowly returning to normal. news4's keith russell is in our newsroom with more on that.

>> let's start by telling you the federal government will be open tomorrow. things are starting to get back to normal in these parts. let's get a look at the latest power numbers as we speak. the worst is sll in northern virginia. more than 72,000 dominion customers currently without power. and another 10,000 novak customers powerless. fewer than 10,000 pepco customers are now without power. that's the good news. 54,000 bg & e customers in our area out of luck. most in anne arundel county. and making a lot of progress, now fewer than 1,000 customers are affected as we speak. now the rails. metro has resumed schedule. trains and buses are running. they will operate on a normal weekday schedule starting tomorrow. now for the airlines. also starting to resume flights. delta and air tran have started flying in and out of national airport. air traffic is starting to come

back at bwi and dulles. as for the schools. montgomery county, prince george's county, fairfax county, open tomorrow. d.c. public planning to have all schools ready to go but they are still inspecting buildings for leaks and flood damage. last but not least, early voting will resume in maryland tomorrow. and that's the good news, because i plan to get my vote on. live in the newsroom. keith russell, news4. to northern virginia, take a look at this video out of old town alexandria. the street and sidewalks at the intersection of king and strand streets completely covered in water. at least one apartment building in the city was condemned due to water and high wind damage. still, as news4's melissa found out, most residents are taking it all in stride. >> reporter: after the worst of sandy has ripped through roads here look more like lakes. they're shut down and the water expected to rise a bit tonight.

windows in old town still covered with tapes and tarps. doorways stocked with sandbags. residents coming down for a look at what sandy did. >> it is not as bad as i thought it would be. >> a few feet of water. >> reporter: just before the storm hit, folks here were understandably nervous. they dress in the matching yellow slickers keeping an eye on the potomac. she's lived in old town for 40 years and is no stranger to its flooding. >> lots of canoes going up and down union street kind of thing. >> reporter: a few miles away, this massive tree came crashing down. take a look here. thanks to the whipping winds and the oversaturated ground, it just completely tipped over. the homeowners right there, very lucky it didn't come the other way. >> the winds were strong but everything seems to be okay. we lost a big tree here. but we're okay. >> reporter: like many neighborhoods across the region, most homes here near common belth and murlt out of power. >> it was very windy. it was very tense.

we didn't know if the tree would come crashing down. >> reporter: residents surveying dang, picking up. >> taking up debris and taking out the trash. >> reporter: take a look at this. the camera on top of the truck with a bird's eye view at a building on kenmoore avenue. the wind tore the roof right off. enough damage that it's been condemned. 20 people now staying somewhere else. by 9:00 this morning, water at union and king, a couple feet high. a few hours later it was down to about six inches. this could change a bit by this evening as high tide rolls in. we're expecting to be a little higher than it was early this morning. in old town alexandria, news4. >> route 29 is now open after flooding closed it for several hours. water pouring over the northwest branch spill way. left trees and debris trapped against the brink there. dozens of roads were closed for a while today because of high

water, downed trees and power lines. state highway crews say a driver plowed through police tape last night at the new hampshire on-ramp in the beltway. the driver got stuck in water and then abandoned the vehicle. sandy is to blame for lots of trees falling around the region. these rather large trees fell in laurel during the storm. they landed on some houses and caused some pretty serious damage. thankfully, no one was injured. we'll have more on the damage and the trouble sandy left behind in prince george's county coming up in a live report later this hour. >> there is a lot of work in northwest d.c. to clean up debris left by sandy. high winds and rain-soaked earth made the ground too unstable for many large trees. megan mcgrath has a look at how neighbors are dealing with sandy in northwest d.c. >> the clean-up began as soon as the high winds died down. on 16th street in northwest, public works crews made quick work of several trees that had

toppled across the road. as the sun came up, people ventured out to take a look for themselves. this large tree completely blocked cathedral avenue. >> it was wild. because all these trees were being whipped over the road. and i was out walking a dog. and the dog was not happy to be there. and i was not happy to be there. and the gusts would come through that were very, very strong and made me nervous that a tree would pop down. >> traffic this morning was light. many people stayed home from work. for those who did go to the office, there were some detours. rock creek looked more like a fierce river. also high, the potomac river. but concerns about major flooding did not come to pass. a lot of rain, wind.

it wasn't too bad. >> some of these trees that fell, they brought power lines down with them. we do have power outages in the district. pepco brought in some crews from other jurisdictions to help out. they're hoping to get he have one back online as quickly as possible. news4. >> coming up tonight at 5:00, an exclusive look at damage across the district. tom rides along with d.c. mayor vincent gray and a tour of sandy's impact. >> when news4 at 4:00 continues, residents evacuated get to go back home. we'll look at what they found when they got there. >> the presidential campaign takes a back seat to the super storm. the latest on how the candidates for president are handling this situation. >> veronica johnson is back with a look at the numbers on sandy. some live pictures

superstorm sandy is affecting the election which is just a week away. >> absentee voting deadlines might be pushed back. with the federal emergency response under scrutiny, it may

be president obama who has the most to lose or to gain. here's steve handelsman. >> reporter: the second day off the campaign trail in a situation room, coordinating relief. and president obama went to red cross headquarters. to reassure the suffering that fema and the other agencies are helping as fast as possible. >> 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. >> reporter: his message to governors is calling personal and staunch romney supporter chris christie has. >> the president has been outstanding in this. the folks at fema have been slept. >> reporter: the fema director looked ahead to next tuesday offering federal assistance, generators and the like to states where polling places might still lack power. mitt romney was in ohio not to talk issues, to collect cans.

romney backers brought food for new jersey. >> and i appreciate your generosity. it is part of the american spirit. the american way to give to people who are in need. >> reporter: mr. romney had argued in a primary debate for disaster relief to be shifted to the states. even to nongovernment charities. would he kill fema? no answer today. >> what would you do with people a? why won't you answer any questions? >> reporter: obama's spokesperson says the states are in the best position to direct the assistance. tomorrow, president obama joins high profile republican governor chris christie for a tour of new jersey damage. political opponents brought together by the super storm. i'm steve handelsman, news4. >> so far the federal response to sandy has been widely praised. veronica joins us now with numbers on the wind and rain. how much we got. >> that's right.

how much we got and the issues we're seeing today which is really some of the tributaries off the potomac, we're continuing to see those swollen, rivers, creeks, streams. the concern is frederick, maryland. we saw flooding in patuxent. for frederick county and for loudoun county, 19.6 feet and it is cresting at around flood stage. now some of the numbers with sandy again as it made its landfall late yesterday slamming into the southern portions of new jersey around atlantic city, la laytonsville. annapolis, maryland, close to 70. ballinger creek at 66-mile-per-hour wind gusts. gaithersburg coming in at 65. ellicott city at 63 miles per hour. of course, we did have a lot of rain. some neighborhoods had a little

more than others. some neighborhoods had a lot more than others. look at green belt, maryland. that's over nine inches of rain. reagan nat picking up the daily national record. i believe it may have been for the month of october at 4.76 inches. here's what's going on right now. a massive storm system, not doing a lot. it has lost so much of its characteristics when it came inland. getting absorbed. you have the winds coming out of the south for areas around northern new england. you've got the winds out of the north for areas around lake michigan. around chicago. they've even had flooding and thunderstorms with higher temperatures up to the north than what we have here today. we're at 46. look at boston at 63. and up in canada, 70 degrees right now. they've got thunderstorms up there with the main core part of the system right over us. areas of ohio, pennsylvania and

back to the west. what a system this has been. we're at 43 degrees right now with the wind out of the south at ten miles per hour. throughout the area, the chill is there. 30s to our north and west hagerstown, martinsburg, winchester, virginia, in the 30s right now. it has been chilly because we have still had some wind pushing us on. in fact, the current windchill readings. it feels like i've been walking around with my coat. upper 30s right now. we're going to see these numbers drop as the actual temperatures drop during the overnight period. there's that snow. still continuing in areas of west virginia w. snow shoe, around a foot of snow. they've had some very strong winds and flooding right around lake michigan. here's our forecast for the overnight period. early part of the day tomorrow. 40 to 39 degrees. we could have a sprinkle, a slight chance of some rain coming our way. not just during the evening hours but even first thing tomorrow morning. let me show you the futurecast.

that area of low pressure moving away. we stay with the cloud cover. we stayed wrapped around this massive storm system. clouds any time tomorrow. we could have a sprinkle or maybe a brief shower coming our way. so the forecast goes like this. we're cloudy, cold, breezy. with a few light showers for the evening. 38 to 42 degrees. then tomorrow morning, still overcast and cold. that's right, cold, with maybe a light shower possible. probably just a 20% chance. your temperature, 35 to 39 degrees. for tomorrow's forecast, cloudy and cool, breezy. a few showers around the area. very light. occasional coming through. 50 to 56 degrees. your four-day forecast. breezy for the next couple of days. wednesday, thursday, maybe even a wind. a little wind hanging on for friday. the good thing is we get sunshine in here for the weekend. we'll talk more about the weekend and more about sandy's impacts on coastal areas of the east coming up in a couple

minutes. >> evacuation orders have been lifted in the flood-prone huntington communicate. the neighborhood is located near cameron run. it has flooded several times after big storms. yesterday with sandy bearing down, county officials went door to door asking people to move to a temporary shelter set up by the robert e. lee rec center. one resident told us when he returned home, the flooding and damage were minimal. >> i came back looking to do drywall work and hauled off a bunch of drywall. >> the evacuation applied to about 150 residents. in november, there will be a $30 billion ballot measure to create drainage and other flood prevention for that neighborhood. >> we've got a lot of wind and rain here. coming up, we'll look at snow dumped by superstorm sandy.

a unique look around the country. >> and we're taking a look

we know millions of people up and down the east coast felt the impact of sandy. >> here's a look at the big moments of the massive storm that made landfall. >> this is a massive storm. hurricane force winds extend some 175 miles in every direction. >> it came north and now off to the left. we have never seen that. >> up and down the jersey shore. i gather we are the bull's-eye at this point. >> on the ground working with us here. >> in a dramatic rescue at sea today -- >> survivors coming out. >> hurricane sandy has been waging a war. the ocean is rushing in. >> the screen is dangerously

dangling. >> the island of manhattan all but shut off. no way in. no way out. >> long beach is flooding. that flooding expected to get worse. >> we lost a transformer. everybody is okay. we're just fine. >> you can see the fire on that front lawn. some serious flooding. they shut down the highway because it was completely submerged. >> stay put. stay home. every street, you don't know what you're going on find. >> look at that surf. >> 13,000 bolts of electricity. nothing to play with. >> whoa! whoa! i think it's time to go. >> much of manhattan, dark at this hour. >> trying to get the patients, 215 of them out of nyu langone medical center. i'm not sure why the back-up generator failed. >> the water spilled over. >> we've lived here all our lives. we like it down here. it's a shame stuff like this happens. >> coming up at 5:00, wendy

rieger is back home from the beach but she will have a look back on her four days there. she lost power when she got back but she's safe and sound. >> still to come, a dramatic rescue at sea during the height of the storm. how this amazing story of survival unfolded. >> i'm tracee wilkins in laurel. this is just some of the damage that they're dealing with after trees came down, power lines came down. plenty of home were damaged. we have standing water in other issues. we'll have a live report. >> and veronica returns with a look at sandy's impact and

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. welcome back to news4 at 4:00. >> the worst of sandy is over but the impact in our region will be felt for quite some time. and flood prone old town alexandria, a few intersections are still under water this afternoon. several businesses remain shut down. still covered with tape, tarp and sandbags. at least three homes in the city sustained some heavy damage. an apartment complex on kenmore avenue was condemned after the wind blew the roof off here. 20 sten 20 residents were displaced. >> tons of waste water overflowed after a water treatment plant in howard county completely lost power. both power sources to the little patuxent plant were knocked offline at the height of the storm. one of those power sources is now back online. officials say there was never any threat to howard county's ink doctoring water supply. >> here's the scene at snow shoe. so far they have 19 inches of

snow with winds at 60 miles an hour. the resort tells us they expect as much as two more feet in the next 24 hours. the power went out overnight but came back on this morning. with all this snow, the ski slopes may open early this season. >> people are returning to rehoboth beach after a crazy couple of days. winds and rain slammed the beach up to but today there's some flooded streets, minimal damage and only scattered power outages. >> of course our region has a long history of storms. we're talking summer, winter storms. how does this compare? >> we wanted to see how the storm system stacked up against recent storms. nose had a major impact on our area. so some call were made to pepco, bge. for irene, i'll step out of the way. you can see irene, over 600,000 without power. of course, a lot of folks remember that. that was just a year ago with

the derecho during one of our hottest times of the year and temperature over 100 degrees, we had a million people without power. that was the system that came in fast. and without of course, a lot of preparation. sandy, over 450,000 without power. so less of an impact in terms of power outages but a the downed trees throughout the area that had to be dealt with. such a large storm system that's having impact on the rest of the country. one that we will truly remember for quite a long time. 43 degrees is our current temperature with the south win at ten miles per hour. we're still feeling that moisture in the air. so as temperatures drop overnight, it will be a chilly start to the day tomorrow. in the 30s. 35, frederick. 38 in la plata. we'll have a lot more on sandy's aftermath coming up in a couple minutes. >> thanks. the next big project when it comes to sandy is the clean-up.

prince george's county bureau chief tracee wilkins has a look at laurel and the clean-up. >> repter: they're telling me that laurel got the worst in the county of prince george's. this house, folks can't live here anymore. mother and daughter were inside when the tree landed on their home, they're ofblg that's the good news. they have condemned this home. they're saying that i had sustained severe roof damage and also, damage to the attic. they can't allow them inside. this is just the beginning of it. take a look at what the rest of laurel is looking like. laurel got a lot of strong winds and trees that came down on power lines. then came down on top of houses causing severe damage. they had some standing water issues throughout the city of laurel and had to close a number of roads this morning, including route 1 which is a major entry point into the city of laurel. so there were problems for folks all around the city this morning. the good news is that a lot of people stayed home. federal employees didn't have to

drive from laurel into washington. helping the folks here in the city of laurel get the clean-up done a lot faster. we talk with mark brady. with prince george's county fire and ems. he said that overall, the county fared very well. ? we weathered the storm. there was a huge amount of preparation on the part of prince george's county and the ems department. we had all of our equipment staffed and ready to go and we still do. there is still the potential of flooding days after an event like this. >> you can see how huge the root system is for this tree. it just absolutely destroyed this home behind me again. this is just the beginning of the problems that we've seen in prince george's county. we've traveled today from laurel, all the way to upper marlboro and stopped at points in between. coming up, we'll show you how the rest of the county fared with sandy. reporting live in laurel, news4. >> the program note here, "nbc nightly news" will broadcast for a full hour tonight and will air

on nbc 4 from seven clog to 8:00 and nbc news will have a special program on sandy's fury coming up at 10:00. >> there's more to come. how sandy's fury led to a nightmare scenario for some new york firefighters. >> i'm liz crenshaw. sandy left a l anncr: it's said that character is what we do... when we think no one is looking. mitt romney: believe that they are victims. anncr: mitt romney thought no one was looking when... he attacked forty-seven percent of americans. his companies shipped jobs overseas. his plan cuts millionaires' taxes, but raises yours. he'll voucherize medicare... and make catastrophic cuts to education. so remember what romney said... and what his plan would do. president obama: i'm barack obama and... i approve this message.

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it was a nightmare scenario for firefighters. flames raced through tightly packed hoernlgs many occupied despite the mandatory evacuation order. to make it worse, the neighborhood was surrounded by floodwaters. this happened last night in queens. sandy ravaged new york. firefighters waded through to fight the flames. in some areas, the water was chest high. as many as 100 home were damaged or destroyed. it is not yet clear what started the fire. >> absolutely horrible there. with trees and tens of thousands of people without power here. lots of you have been writing in with lots of questions about how

to deal with the aftermath of sandy. >> liz crenshaw is here with with. let's start with safety and back-up generators. three people were rushed to the hospital because of carbon monoxide poisoning. officials are blaming the generators. what can go wrong here? >> we hear this every time there's a power outage. we're about using a generator inside. that's what went wrong. here's the problem. generators emit deadly carbon monoxide gas. they produce high levels within minutes. because you cannot see or smell it, many are poisoned. the u.s. consumer product safety commission warns never, never, ever use a generator inside your home or your garage or your crawl space or your shed. opening doors and windows won't help. generators must be set up outside far from doors and windows and vents. >> we just said it yesterday and then it happened last night. >> some people are dealing with flooded basements. what's the wisdom here? what to do now on this day after

in. >> how do you get it back to normal? this one takes a couple of steps. before you hire a contractor to help you dry it out, you might be able to get it back to normal yourself. first if the water was high in your basement over the electrical basements, you have to kill power to the basement before you go down. if your circuit breakers are in the basement, you have to call an electrician. to help get rid of the water, locate the drain in the floor of your basement or the outside stair well. if the water is more than two inches deep, you might want to rent a submersible pump to pump the water outside. and last, you have to get the air moving by bringing in large fans or rent a dehumidifier to help dry out that soggy mess. but there is stuff you can do. you don't have to spend a ton of money. >> when it come to homeowners' insurance, what's covered and what's not covered? >> try to remember this. we'll begin with the flooding. flood damage will not be covered if you don't have a flood insurance policy. but your homeowners will cover the damage to your house or

your, from the rain or from trees. we'll have more about flood insurance basically, how these things called the hurricane deductible kick in when i join you on news4 at 5:00. lots to say about insurance tonight. >> you've been busy. lots of e-mail to answer. when news4 at 4:00 continues, a political war of words erupts over evacuation orders after hurricane sandy hit atlantic city. plus, how sandy stacks up against other hurricanes. anncr: seven-hundred-thousand jobs. that's what the plan george allen supports... would cost our economy. newspapers called it "economically destructive." like allen's votes to give tax breaks to companies... that ship jobs overseas, his economic plan would... help big corporations, devastating the middle class. allen even voted against tax breaks for small businesses. virginia can't afford to go back to george allen.

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. more than a week august started about how we would remember this storm's name. >> that's right. chuck bell was in talking about

it. and we were hitting it hard last week. because sandy looked like it would be a system that would make a big impact on much of the east. much of the northeast and it certainly has. let's talk about that storm system sandy and how it stacks up against other storms. everybody remembers isabel, right? back in 2003. it was the costliest one for virginia with over $2 billion in damage. that was back then. isabel's track, you have irene's track and we'll put sandy's track on here. and you can see the movement of both of them coming very close to the mid-atlantic. not all of them. a very strong hurricane. as you saw, you don't have to have that with the landfalling hurricane. with sandy being a category 1 when it made landfall around southern new jersey but it is the way that it came in and the water that built up areas around long island, around manhattan that makes this storm system one

that will be again remember for many, many years and go down in history. that's the track coming in for sandy. a lot of beach erosion. we were talking about this the weekend before last. it did some damage in florida. did some damage around the outer banks and right through areas of the carolinas, as well as around new jersey, on northward. what we're seeing there is about 600 miles of beach that will need restoration somewhere between $3 and $5 billion a mile from beach restoration. that is a lot of money. we wish the folks well. right near coastal locations. take a look at the high wind gusts. newington, virginia, 63-mile-per-hour wind gusts. winchester coming in from sandy yesterday. and reagan national gusting to 61. fairfax city, gusting to 61 miles per hour. that was a gust so it wasn't not sustained.

we saw some high rainfall totals also. in maryland, over seven inches rain. eight and a half inches from sandy. what's next for us? we'll see a lot of clouds across the area. maybe a sprinkle, maybe a light shower coming through for the day tomorrow. really not, hardly even enough to need your umbrella tomorrow. temperatures will be topping out in the 50s. low to mid 50s throughout the area. we'll have some wind around for your day tomorrow. wednesday as well as for thursday. 55, the high temperature there at the end of the week on friday. again, that 55 coming tomorrow. halloween looking much better with less wind but still again, a lot of communities having to deal with clean-up. so i'm not sure halloween will be taking place in many neighborhoods. the weekend is nice and sunny. mid to upper 50s. >> sounds good. thanks. coming up next, thousands of people stranded on the wrong side of the atlantic by sandy. how they're trying to get back

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thousands of flights have been grounded across the northeast. the impact is being felt around the world. nbc's michelle kosinski reports from london's heathrow airport. it could be days before some travelers can get where they're going. the situation now has improved in some ways. more u.s. airports open but it is worse than others. here in heathrow, there are more flight cancellations today in both directions than there were yesterday. the effect has been thousands of americans stranded in airports around the world and thousands of others stuck in the u.s., unable to get back. there was one family trying to get out of city, back to a place

in connecticut that may or may not have power when they get back. they were thinking the only way might be through montreal. ? we need to get a place to stay in paris. and a little indecision. they don't know how long it will be before airports open. >> others are spending more than 24 hours trying to get to l.a. for others, but farther afield, for example, in asia. the next flight to the u.s., depending on the carrier, might not be for nearly a week. commerce of course flows constantly between new york and london. more than 7,000 passenger a day. more than 2.5 million last year between jfk and heathrow. right now, leaving people on both sides of that churning atlantic. just trying to get back. nbc news, london. >> and the political war of words in atlantic city, new jersey. two dozen people had to be

rescued from emergency shelter when's power was knocked out last night. chris christie called the atlantic city mayor, a democrat, quote, impossible to work with under a mandatory evacuation oers. on nbc's "today" show this morning, langford accused the governor of playing politics in a serious situation. still ahead on of the stor.

how this amazing story of survival unfolded. the very dangerous waters of the atlantic. 14 people were rescued yesterday off the coast of north carolina. after their boat started taking on water and sank. >> one person died and the ship's captain is still missing today. lester holt has more tonight on this survival story. >> the first survivors coming out. >> reporter: in tropical storm force winds, crew members of the ill-fated ship wearing orange survival suits are hoisted above coast guard helicopters. for the chopper crews, it was a daring mission into the teeth of the storm. >> the transit out there was relatively low level.

about 300 feet so we could stay out of the clouds. there was a lot of rain and wind. >> reporter: the drama began for the "hms bounty," a replica of the investigate that he will made captain bly famous, began taking on water. its pumps failing and losing propulsion. the decision was made early monday morning to abandon ship in two life rafts lieutenant commander steve and the co-pilot piloted the first of two jay hawk helicopters that soon arrived over the scene. >> the first survivor we found, the only one that happened to be in the water. he was in a survival suit and pretty much just laid out in the water. >> reporter: 13 others were huddled in enclosed life boats. coast guard video captured a rescue swimmer being lowered to them and into the heaving ocean. >> being down there in those waves is more like being in a washing machine. >> reporter: the petty officer third class daniel todd immediately tried to calm the strand crew. >> i pretty much hopped in and

that, i'm dan. i heard you need a ride. need some help. >> reporter: the ship was featured in marlon brando's 1962 film, "mutiny on the bounty" as well as the sequel to the pirates of the caribbean. the ship left connecticut thursday en route to florida. on saturday as it attempted to steer clear of the hurricane, a posting on the ship's facebook page read, rest assured that the bounty is safe and in very capable hands. boumy's current voyage is a calculated decision. not at all irresponsible or with a lack of foresight as some have suggested. rob hanson is the ship's owner. >> he was heading way out east to go around it and we don't know what happened yet. >> hard hit northern virginia cleans up from sandy. news4 at 5:00 starts right now. right now at 5:00, complete devastation up and down the east

coast after hurricane sandy. chopper 4 flew over our area, surveying the damage. >> tom sherwood goes on an exclusive interview with the mayor. >> plus, an amazing scene as the national guard flies over the coastline. sand just about piled up over every single home in this town. good evening. >> as life tries to return to normal, tomorrow the federal government will reopen. most schools will be back in session. >> but tonight, thousands are still in the dark. northern virginia was hardest hit in our area. news4's pat collins joins us live from arlington with more on some people's frustration after this hurricane. pat? >> reporter: pat, we heard a report of a tree down on chesterbrook road. we came out here. nothing but tree limbs there. then we looked over that fence and at that house. timber. no matter whether you live in a