we're going to try again to make contact with cnbc's brian schactman in the thick of the storm tonightn montauk on long island. brian, what's going on, buddy? >> reporter: well, billy -- bill, sorry, it's interesting what the meteorologists just said because so far out here the storm surge on the south shore where i am in montauk has not been as impactful on the storm surge on the north shore in long island sound which has had tremendous damage which might reverse. the storm surge has been bad but hasn't gotten worse. in terms of town here in east hampton, falling trees have been a major issue here and not so much flooding from rain. i look back at irene, they had maybe half a million outages, and we're already at 600,000 plus outages on long island, and we still have a ways to go. that's the thing that people need to take away in terms of geography. we're in the eastern point of long island, and there was a fear at one point that we might get cut off, that the atlantic ocean might cut over to the sound. there's less of a fear of that that would effectively cut us off, but generally sp

brian schactman joins us with the latest on the energy situation. brian?> we've lost his audio there. apparently he's at a gas station. we saw the gas line. >> but obviously a lot of consumers are trying to fuel up their cars and generators on which they're relying. you know, folks on long island who have a backyard can put the generator there as opposed to manhattan where there's no place for a generator in your apartment. brian schactman. >> sorry about that. it's a little crazy here. it's a supply/demand dynamic. 80% of long island is out of power. they need gas for the cars and their generators. they need gas for cars to charge their phones. when it comes to supply, a lot of the gas stations on long island are either shut down because they have no gas or no power. you have distribution points, refineries having some struggles. there's very little gas coming on to long island. we have an hour and a half wait outside of this station which was lucky enough to get a delivery of 7500 gallons earlier in the day. right across the street, there's a station tha

back to you. >> brian schactman, thanks so much. what's the best casino pick?e left is lvs still. caesars has issues with balance sheets. i stay away from the slot manufacturers. >> why not penn? >> penn of i've been in and out of over the years. local markets are great markets. i just don't know enough about penn at this point to recommend it. >> i actually don't like what i heard on those earnings conference calls from aska and frb penn and from boyd. >>> coming up, the new cold war. a congressional investigation says major chinese tech firms pose a national security threat. final trades next. smart comes with 8 airbags, a crash management system and the world's only tridion safety cell which can withstand over three and a half tons. small in size. big on safety. [ male announcer ] how do you turn an entrepreneur's dream... ♪ into a scooter that talks to the cloud? ♪ or turn 30-million artifacts... ♪ into a high-tech masterpiece? ♪ whatever your business challenge, dell has the technology and services to help you solve it. [ male announcer ] the exceedingly n

brian schactman live on the ground in columbus, ohio and the third casino opening this year. verdict, brian? >> reporter: well, so far, it's been very good, bob. it's funny, i talk about how quickly it's grown. it will be four casinos next spring. reason why is easy -- jobs and its taxes. but when you saw these doors open earlier today, thousands of people streamed in within minutes. obviously there is a lot of demand of what's going on here. they're here for one thing and one thing only -- that's to gamble. one-third of all the money made to penn national gaming goes back to the state and city in taxes. the city of columbus expects to get at least $15 million directly next year and that will go a long way. of course, interestingly when you spoke to t i spoke to the city's mayor today, he was just as focused on job creation. the city needed 3,500 workers to build it and 2,000 employees . >> the more jobs you have in a community, the more income there is to the city. >> ohio's considered a swing state. right? but unemployment here has been running well below the national avera

. >>> brian schactman is live at a new casino in columbus, ohio. >> it is true, brian, at least in theis absolutely true. about half the country is on-board with adding casinos. it's become an easy way to generate tax revenue and jobs. the number is sure to grow. here at the hollywood casino in columbus, ohio, they opened their doors up a couple hours ago. they've already had at least 12,000 people come through their doors and roughly one-third of everything they spend will return to the state, city and county governments in taxes. now i spoke with the chief operating officer of penn gaming which actually runs this casino. he said it shouldn't be difficult to figure out why there's such a rush to welcome in gaming. all you have to do is look at history. >> we've seen a growth early 90s when the desert storm recessionary period hit when a number of states in the midwest and south opened up their borders. now in these tough economic times we've seen states like massachusetts, ohio and florida open up their borders to commercial gaming as well. >> look what it's done in pennsylvania. it e

brian schactman is at a gas station on long island where actually they are getting refilled as we speak, brian. what have they told you about the difficulty in getting gas? >> the cavalry has arrived. my man carlos behind me is one of the most popular men in all of long island. owner of this shell station was actually shocked when this truck drove up. had he no idea it was coming. he told his wholesalers that he needed gas. i had a sheet of paper it was his last check before the truck arrived. he was out of 2,000 gallons after having started at 8,500 for the day. he probably had only two hours left of gasoline. originally carlos was working out of queens. that had nothing. this was out of holtzville on long island. he is not even sure how much gasoline they have left. he came with a delivery of 7,600 gallons of regular unlead. he's done. he's actually been delivering gas since 4:00 a.m. this morning. people that are getting gas here, some have been in line for upward of 45 minutes to getting people that come from two, three, four towns over telling me anecdotally there is no gas outside

cnbc's brian schactman is in williston, north dakota, focusing on a very controversial, but important, question -- to frac or not to frac. >> thank you very much, tyler. the boom here is very much still intact. maybe it's gone from frantic to just hectic, and some people are pointing to the political uncertainty for that. take fracking, for example. this entire story in the block in billions of investment dollars, all of that might disappear and disappear fast if anything severe is done about fracking. >> things could stop here as quick as a thief in the night. i think we've made dramatic changes and i think we're doing things with a great deal of caution and care. >> reporter: his point there is that they're trying to frack as environmentally conscious as possible but you have to be clear about this oil boom. it is not just about the oil. you look at construction behind me, it is all over the landscape. it's also a job story. homes will be occupied by the people working in the area, of course, and the hope is to bring prices down because right now it is not easy to live here. >> if y

as we head further out from new york city we find our own brian schactman. he's live on the far tip end of long island onmontauk. >> i'm seeing a lot of this flying past my head. that's shingles. that shed behind me was obviously fully shingled. two hours ago i was on tv, it had a couple missing. it is all going to be gone before too long. you look at the ocean behind me, we're at dead low tide right now and i was 7 years old in the storm of '78 in boston. those waves out there are as harsh as any i saw when my dad took me down to the beach there and that's what's going on in terms of concern. we went out and shot some video just a few minutes ago and the first high tide early this morning already wash out a road partially and we're expecting the next high tide about 8:00 tonight. where i'm standing right now, i'm told the water could come all the way up to me. at low tide we're already 20, 30 yards higher than the normal high tide if you can follow my lodger there. so right now on long island, there is about 45,000 people without power but the expectation i

brian schactman in montauk for us today.hour, as we get the opening bell, tomorrow night will be assembling some kind of game plan. >> i've got to tell you a lot of companies reported in the last 48 hours. i'll assess them out and put them in the prism to make some money. >> tomorrow is a net bearish day, fair to

brian schactman is covering that part of the story for us. he is live in new hyde park out on long island. over to you. >> reporter: simon, on long island there just aren't a lot of gas stations that are even open. the shell station behind me, the ones that are open, are tremendously busy. this is a side street. several streets lines are into the same station. the man who runs the station's name is bill. he said it is the absolute busiest day he has ever seen at this station. as for those people waiting in line, they're just trying to make the best of a difficult situation. >> about an hour. this is the only one that's working. >> this is the first gas i saw. so i pulled in. i've got a half a tank. i thought i'd top it off. >> oh, absolutely. the house is freezing. we got two, three cities no power and we haven't seen a truck yet. hasn't seen anybody. actually see fema, but no one else. >> reporter: the station behind me began the day with 8,000 gallons or under 3,000. they think they'll be out by 4:00 p.m. across the street they started out

. >>> brian schactman has breaking news on the mba. >> the mba board of governors voted unanimously haveam silver replace david stern as commissioner in 2014. that means david stern is retiring. he served 28 years to date so he'll get up to 30 years in that time. revenue has increased 30-fold. of course he brought the dream team to the olympics and he is an iconic figure in the world of sports and he will be stepping down in about two years. back to you. >> he's also an incredibly nice guy. thank you very much, brian. >>> coming up in the next hour -- tracking hurricane sandy. it is a monster of a storm. it could have a major and unprecedented impact on the northeast. we'll bring you up to the minute storm track when we come back right here on cnbc. [ male announcer ] you are a business pro. monarch of marketing analysis. with the ability to improve roi through seo all by cob. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle... and go. you can even take a full-size or above, and still pay the mid-size price. i'm going b-i-g. [ male announcer ] good

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