brian schactman reports to us live from montauk. what's going on down there? >> reporter: we've had a little bit more rain in the last few minutes but generally speaking it has not been a rain event. it's been a wind and a storm surge event. can i tell you in the last hour the storm surge is violent, but it hasn't gotten worse. we're about an hour away from high tide. the last dune where i stand right now has -- >> looks like we're having trouble with brian schactman's report. if you look at your map, he's at the very eastern tip in the green, the farthest point on long island. hence, one of the reasons why we're having trouble with that signal. >> even then as we test the technical limits there, he's on the south shore of long island. it's the north shore that's had the worst of it because of the swells as the water makes its way from east to west and then makes its way on over to manhattan, so long island is really taking the brunt of it tonight. >> it often does in the storms because it extends, a peninsula that extends out into the water. from long island

. >> thanks so much, brian shactman in montauk. made the point about insurers early in the program. >> they're ready. >> tonight on "mad?" >> there is some news. allen mckim, buying -- >> booking on a day like today is not easy. >> thank you, buddy. >> that does it for "squawk on the street." let's get to the fast money halftime, right over there. >> carl, thanks very much. welcome to a special edition of the halftime report. we're tracking the very latest from hurricane sandy as it churns towards the northeast with more than 50 million people in its path. the superstorm now expected to slam into the south central new jersey coast sometime later this evening. power outages expected to be widespread. transit systems from new york to boston already shut down. nearly 8,000 flights canceled thus far. financial markets are closed as well and may very well be dark again tomorrow. in fact, water already moving in to lower manhattan. that's where we find our scott cohn in battery park. scott? >> reporter: hi there, scott. at the moment, it

again montauk to about ocean city. we're going to watch this. as we get closer to the event, anything farther south, that is bad news. farther north and east better news. still it's going to be a rainy, windy period for the first period of next week. even sunday looks like the rain will be moving in with the front approaching from the west and the moisture from the south. this morning clouds, patchy fog and spotty drizzle. 50s and 60s to start your day. by noon still cloudy, 65. like yesterday i think we'll get some afternoon sun. 71 degrees. a little bit of fog in the mountains. quarter mile visibility in peteestburg and salisbury. but just reduced visibilities, nothing too horribly in the metro. frederick 59. 59 in cambridge. the cool spots in the mid-50s. we're holding on to pretty uniform air mass. outside on our michael & son weather camera, low clouds but decent visibility still in d.c. with 63 degrees. cloudy skies. a light north, northeasterly wind and the humidity way up there at 87%. i want to show you the futurecast. it's ereading the

the cone goes from montauk point to atlantic city. we could still have this adjusting.o stay on the west side of this and we want it more to the north. even on wednesday morning, only going to be near harrisburg. this will continue to produce some rain and some wind. there are going to be some problems around here. let's get this thing farther away from us and we'll be in better shape. at this scenario, we could have damaging winds with trees down, power outages and heavy rain. some localized flooding. we'll know more as we get closer to it. i just wanted to prep you on it. a quick look at the models. while it looks consistent through monday morning, look at the spread as we get into tuesday and wednesday now. just about everything making that turn again from around montauk point down toward ocean city. we have to watch this one. let's talk about today's forecast. the bus stop forecast. we've got clouds out there, some spoy drizzle, patchy fog, 50s and 60s. sunrise 7:29. for today we start like yesterday with cloudy skies. midday still cloudy65. but this afternoon some

just about an hour ago i could not have stood in this section of the montauk highway without the waterot being up to knee level. but now you can see it has receded. but if you stare into that blackness off to my right, this is one of many streets that still feed into the montauk highway, and those streets are still flooded, but again, the water has started to recede. some of the issues that they've been dealing with here in lindenhurst is not just flooding but also fires. we've reported at least several house fires in the area. electrical fires sparked by the flood waters. they've had to deal with that, putting out those fires throughout the -- throughout the day and into the evening. they'll be working into tomorrow morning as well, assessing the damage here. we're expecting when we see the light of day tomorrow that there are going to be dozens of homes here in the south shore that are dealing with flooding as residents who were under mandatory evacuation and heed the warning finally start to return to their homes tomorrow. as you can see, some of the emergency crews now still coming

this whole section of montauk highway is just flooded out.are they dealing with flooding here, but fires as well. just within the past hour, fire broke out just to our right. too dark to see now. emergency crews, volunteer fire force, was able to get out there, put that fire out. we're told at least five fires in this area just tonight. i can tell you, anderson, just from being in lindenhurst throughout the day, i can tell you it's got to be dozens of homes that are experiencing flooding. earlier tonight, we just ran into some of the residents who made a decision at the very last minute to get out of dodge, so to speak. they said their home had just become too flooded. i think by tomorrow morning, we're going to see a lot of extensive flood damage in lindenhurst. anderson? >> all right, jason, stay safe. we'll take another break. more of our coverage from asbury park, in manhattan and long island and more from this region. we'll be right back. oh...there you go. wooohooo....hahaahahaha! i'm gonna stand up to her! no you're not. i know. you kn

about an hour ago i could not have stood in this section of the montauk highway not being at least upvel. it's receded. if you stare into the blackness to my right, this is one street that still feeds into the montauk highway and those streets are still flooded. again, the water has started to recede. some of the issues they've been dealing with here in lindenhurst is not just flooding but fires. we've reported several house fires in the area. electrical fires sparked by the floodwaters. they have to deal with that, putting out fires throughout the -- worked throughout the day, evening the evening. they'll be working into tomorrow morning as well, assessing the damage here. we're expecting, when we see the light of day tomorrow, that there are going to be dozens of homes here in the south shore that are dealing with flood damage as residents who were under a mandatory evacuation and heeded the warning, finally start to return to their homes tomorrow. as you can see, some emergency crews now still coming through here, assessing the area, trying to keep people out. and picking up those

again, montauk highway, a section of it, it was breached. see the waters starting to recede. we actually had to move back a bit because what you can't see above me down here are wires. live wires. and obviously live wires and water do not mix. >> and i think we just lost jason's shot again. he was saying live wires and water don't mix. i can tell you that here as well. where the water comes up north of my knee, you know, obviously there were no live wires around here, but that sa problem for so many places where the storm is hitting right now. speaking of water, and how high it came, i want to show you another picture. this was taken by a city council members from queens. you can see four piers completely underwater in this picture. it's another sign of just how quickly the water rose. i can tell you where we are right now, not only did it rise quickly, but the little part of the city of manhattan right here is still an island. it rose quickly to eight or ten feet. very quickly, the combination of the high tide and full moon and storm surge.

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

go like a pro. >>> looking at the pictures of waves building over montauk, new york.tes declared a state of emergency at this point. you also have the stock markets closing both nyse and nasdaq and transportation is grinding to a halt. airlines canceling flights, bridges and tunnels closing and amtrak canceling travel along the east coast. phil, we know this has been a huge issue. what does it look like today in terms of what the airlines are doing. >> they've canceled pretty much anything on the east coast at least in the northeast. anything north of washington, becky. the network morning operations meeting is taking place right now. they're assessing where they are and what they're going to do over the next couple of days. when we've been here over the last day and a half, what we've noticed is they have drawn down their system. in fact, they have canceled a total of 2,100 flights when you count yesterday through tomorrow morning and they'll make a decision about when they start to bring back flights. delta says 60,000 people have had flights canceled. delta is park

south of montauk, there have been wind gusts of 130 miles per hour. that would be close to what that barometric pressure is. that is now down as low as we have ever seen it. this is an extremely serious situation. all of the new jersey shore will be devastated. we will have record high tides in new york city. the only bright spot for new york city in this area is the fact that it has not rained a lot in the hudson valley. that rain will not force even the water to back up higher. this is a devastating storm. connell: how much damage are we talking about and how many days will it take to leave? >> tomorrow at this time, things will be leading up. the storm, and said of going by, will continue to move inland. the wind stays from the south and southeast. there will be people under water for 24-36 hours. you will see the storm gradually subside over the next two-three days. we will be lying around with cloudy, cool: julie damp weather for a few days around this. this kind of storm that is spread out, you have to understand that the energy of the storm is

this is the canadian model comes toward montauk point. when you have models starting to turn to the coast, it gets me nervous on where the storm may ultimately end up. this afternoon we're looking at low 70s at 4:00 p.m. with 34eud 60s at -- mid-60s at 8:00. the high today about 73. not as warm as yesterday. we've got low 50s in the then goa dough ya valley this morning. -- shenandoah valley this morning. we're in the low 50s. easton, cloudy and 61 degrees. you can see on our michael & son weather camera the low clouds that have moved in although we're not seeing much in the way of reduced visibilities at the surface. just the low clouds. 62. east wind at 7. humidity 90%. so we'll watch the clouds. they're going to be with us on and off throughout the day. maybe more sun this afternoon. looks like the low clouds, drizzle and fog return tonight. then tomorrow we start with clouds and perhaps some afternoon sunshine and that will be probably the last couple of good days before things really start going downhill late in the weekend. so the f

areas in this community and where the montauk highway has breached this.dents who have lived here for years that this is an extremely rare occurrence. some cannot remember the last time the montauk highway is breached and flooded like what we are seeing here. this is an area under a mandatory evacuation. as you say, some residents still not doing that, at least not yetting. waiting to the last possible moment. joining me right now is diane howell. your brother is in one of the homes down here. you were saying to me earlier you warned your brother, get out, get out. now he's listening to what you have to say. >> yes. he called me up to tell me help me out of here. this is the result. we have to walk in high-high water. >> reporter: okay. who's this coming up? >> that's my brother's girlfriend and mother-in-law. >> reporter: okay. does she need help coming up here? this is -- this right here is one of the members of our crew. this is just sort of happening as you can see, kate. she is helped out of the home here. helped out of this area. you guys okay? >> we

we're raising the bar on flying and tomorrow we will up it yet again. >>> montauk on the eastern tipnd, we are basically in a dynamic where the winds have gusted upward of 50 miles an hour. i want to point people out to the ocean because the surf has gotten a lot more intense in just the last half hour or so. high tide was four hours ago. yet we're only about ten feet ls or so. they're very worried about 8:00 tonight when the next high tide comes in. the second thing i want to show you is this building right here. they banked this with sand. and it's a bar and grill during the summer. it's been damaged before. but the concern is with this moon tide it might take it o

brian shactman joins us from montauk with more. >> reporter: it's a study of contrasts on montauk.en the sun peeks through and to the shore there's a hen-foot drop to my left and there was no ten-foot drop yesterday and there's an incredible amount of beach damage. you can see the whole beachfront is destroyed. that was a bar and grill that has never seen damage like that. it is absolutely gone and you walk all the way up the shoreline and you see the same thing. they do think on the north shore, believe it or not, there's more damage because of the storm surge onisland sound. i talked to bill wilkinson the town supervisor, a retired disney executive who decided to run east hampton and he said the local fishermen told him they have never in their whole lives seen as much water come in as came in yesterday, so it's a big contrast. we have a beautiful ocean, a destroyed coastline on the south shore. on the north shore they're trying to assess the water damage. the one road out of here did breach, i was told, and was in about three or four feet of water overnight. they got in the bull

but we have gusts already out at montauk at 71. this is not like where you're going to have 130-mile-per-hour winds, so, no, the answer to that question is no, but there will be so much tree damage we think across interior pennsylvania and new york and new jersey, even parts of new england, back down through west virginia that that's a big concern. i mean, we're going to have, you know, multiple power outages and for many millions we think will be without power with this storm. believe it or not, the forecast is for -- or at least earlier was for record surge at the battery. i don't think we're going to get that. but also for record storm surge on the great lakes. that's unprecedented. 900 miles wide, that's the tropical storm wind field with this. something we've just certainly never seen before, something this big and this sprawled out. >> you cover natural events and meteorology, i cover politics. i'm thinking it's now monday, a week before an election. are we going to have this damage getting in the way of voters next tuesday a

montauk point had a wind gust of 71 miles per hour.cane-force wind gusts will be spread out over a very, very large area with this particular system. look at the current water rises that we have associated with the storm surge. battery park, new york, 4.8 feet. that's about a half of a foot higher than what we saw with irene, and it will go only higher, probably a couple more feet before all is said and done. we have a lot of concerns to deal with. there are power outages that may last for weeks, millions without power very likely. back to you. >> thank you for the update now. let's go to point pleasant in new jersey along the jersey shore. ron, we have information that the strong possibility of rapid water rising in the area where you are right now. we see the angry sea behind you. >> reporter: yes, tamron, we've been watching out for rouge waves splashing up here. some have come up along this dune here. right now the wind is really, really ripping. it's been getting stronger and stronger. the rain is coming sideways, and i can feel a

there are shows and their video library where we talk about montauk mining.uncover house and senate hearings on that issue. we have had guests including lisa jackson on to talk about it. you could talk about it -- find that on c-span video library at c-span.org. thank you for coming in, bob dean. the author of his latest book "reckless." he is senior adviser at the national resources defense council action fund. coming next, our your money segment looks at public funding for public health and dealing with public health emergencies. first, a news update from c-span radio. >> laurence pope, the new u.s. envoy to tripoli, liberally -- libya and his first remarks says the u.s. would continue "on the continue on the path" of chris stevens who was killed in a terrorist attack. he went on to say the u.s. is determined to bring to justice the perpetrators of that attack. the incident has triggered a debate in washington over whether the visitor -- ambassador and mission were given sufficient protection. turning to the economy, the commerce department says retail sale

south bronx, the surge that you're getting is surge that enters long island sound from out around montauklks about four hours to get down here. so the surge that you would experience there is much later than the surge that you'd experience if the water is coming up the east river and the hudson river. there has been some flooding already in the bowery as well as the fdr and some of the rockaways. we expect surge levels of six to 11 feet, a surge of nine to ten feet is possible along coney island and the rock waus and a surge of 11 to 12 feet may occur at the battery monday evening. maximum surge in these areas expected to be plus or minus two hours around 8:15, say 6:00 to 10:30. the peak surge will hit areas between long island sound between 10:00 and 2:00 a.m. now, if you live on a coastline -- >> as mayor bloomberg continues to give local updates to those around the five boroughs who are going to be affected so deeply by what he's saying could rise as high as a 12-foot surge, keep in mind, everybody lives pretty much at sea level here in the new york area. that is critical. he also sai

. >> brian, there are a number of mandatory evacuations where you are, whether it's from montauk even west into all of those hampton towns, correct? >> reporter: no. last check it wasn't mandatory. honestly, they can't change the policy because you can't move. if you're here, you're stuck with it. they opened shelters at 8:00 this morning. we talked to officials, and they have no plans to change their evacuations. it was not mandatory. >> brian, thanks very much. i know there are a handful of places a little more west, like dune road in westhampton. we'll keep checking back. kayla, you're in new jersey on the coast looking at cape may. what are you seeing? >> reporter: maria, the storm is at double the speed it was earlier today. 28 miles per hour which doesn't sound like it's going that fast but it's really barrelling toward us on the southern new jersey shore when you consider the fact it's sustaini ining wi of 90 miles per hour in that storm. that's greater than what we're seeing right now. we think landfall will happen within the next three hours, earlier than expected and right b

the flooding went up to montauk highway. very significant flooding. so we can expect to see that really intensify as the storm makes landfall. and high tide and storm's winds meet at the same time, really producing what we have been talking about for the last few days, and that is this incredibly dangerous storm. earlier today after the intensification of the storm, we were successful on a multiple agency level, including working with new york state assets, rescuing, evacuating additional people off of fire island. we understand now that those who have chosen to ride out the storm and made that decision on fire island, this is a life-threatening storm. we contacted people again and made additional efforts to evacuate people. we were successful in evacuating an additional 14 people off of fire island today. during that evacuation we lost one police vehicle, marine 3. but thanks to the assets that have been provided by the governor, we were able to aff t affectuate an additional 14 people off fire island. i want to thank the governor for all of hi suppo

as you get from ocean city, maryland, to montauk, long island, anywhere from 4 to 10 feet above their normal tide and, unfortunately, where this is heading it will be about an astronomical high tide so that's a big problem. rain also a big issue with a system like this. generally speaking about 3 to 5 inches of rain over the next 76 hours but as you get closer to the coastline anywhere from 7 to 10 inches of rain locally up to 12 inches of rain and that's why there are flash flood watches, flood watches, and right along the coast, coastal flood warnings in effect with coastal flood watches. and the winds are going to be a big problem as well. we now have high wind warnings in effect. winds gusting 75 to 80 miles an hour the mid-atlantic and the northeast. a dangerous, dangerous storm that will, once it moves inland, cause massive problems as well and some areas inland, west virginia, ohio, and the northeast and pennsylvania, southeast pennsylvania, jenna, could pick up to a foot of snow. this will be a monster. >> wow. al, thank you very much. and we're going to get the rest of the na

they're most concern about those polling places that are south of montauk highway. that's the area closest to the ocean. he says that's where the most damage has been. he says long island power has told them they'll prioritize polling places there. he said our plan is to be good to go on tuesday. they are going to hold this election on tuesday despite the high water. >> abeamon, thank you very much. >>> the new york mercantile exchange back in action today, as well as the new york stock exchange. at nymex, gold prices are closing down for the evening. >> we saw very low volumes as expected. not as many people here on the floor. rbc's analyst says a lot of funds are buying at the end of the month on the expectation we'll see post-sandy rebuilding stimulus and that will stimulate the economy and will stimulate perhaps copper demand here in the u.s. but for the month, that stimulus-led rally at beginning of the month that we saw for gold that had had it nearly $1,800 an ounce when the fed announced qe infinity. gold, copper, all snapping four-month winning streaks. >>>

brian shactman in montauk, long island. scott cohen in battery park, new york city. let's go to scott with the latest. >> probably will be the last report we do have from this location here because as you may be able to he the waters of new york harbor starting to lap up on to this area here at the battery at the tip of lower manhattan. precursor to the big storm surge that's going to come in with hurricane sandy. we don't want to be anywhere near it. i can tell you now that manhattan, crossroads of the world, sun creasingly now becoming an island because within the next couple of hours, the major bridge misand out of new york city, george washington bridge, other bridges in this area, will be closing down and the issue on that front is the winds. i want to show you video shot, just a few moments ago of one world trade center. people tower. these are the tallest construction cranes in new york city. the port authority of new york and new jersey says that these cranes are okay. i can tell new the short time since we shot that video, and now, the -- one world trade cen

if you take a look right behind me here, this is montauk highway. just about an hour ago, to give you some perspective, we could drive through here. it was dry, at least in this one particular spot. but it has breached here, it has breached in several other sections and that's the story we're seeing here. in this particular area of lindenhurst, you will see a lot of canals checkered throughout the area. right down this street here, this is a street, though it doesn't look like it, it's hard to see, it is not a canal. it is completely flooded and there have been several streets like this. we have been here throughout the day and just to give you a little more perspective, down the street is where we could have stood just a few hours ago and again, the water just keeps continuing to rise, keeps continuing to grow here. even earlier when i was speaking to some of the last residents who were holding out to the very last possible moment because lindenhurst is under a mandatory evacuation, they decided they were going to hang on but the water just decided

i will show you right over here, this is actually montauk highway. know people will find this hard to believe because residents who have lived here for generations say they cannot remember the last time water breached this highway. but we have seen several breaches along here. lindenhurst is under a mandatory evacuation but even so, throughout the day, we saw a number of people who were debating whether or not they were going to stay or go and just about, i don't know, maybe about an hour ago, we were live on the air and we just saw some of the last people coming out of their homes, struggling to get up the street. earlier today, we were out with the fire department, went out on some rescues with them, pulling people mostly out of their homes but we're also told they also had to pull people out of their cars, and this is one of the main reasons why when earlier officials were saying heed these very serious warnings, get out of harm's way, this is the reason why. though you can't see it, i can certainly smell it. there's a heavy smell of smoke in the

this storm is 200 miles offshore and getting reports of wind gusts in excess of 70 miles an hour on montaukp of long island. this will be a major event, one we have not seen in this lifetime unfortunately. megyn: a little bit of politics. 8 days to go until the presidential election. and now two pr -- two progressie groups are launching sharpest attacks on mitt romney and his type at bain capital. >> mitt romney is bain capital. he created it withino, made a fortune from it and is still invested tonight. bain is shipping jobs to china. they took down the flag the week that they left like we are suppose to be ashamed that we are americans. megyn: charms payne is here with some perspective. they are bringing back up bain capital and suggesting that it sent jobs to canada and mitt romney was behind. >> reporter: bain over the years invested in company, some that operate in china, some don't. this chinese firm that does infrared cameras. the investment happened in late 2007. obviously governor romney had long been gone from there. i find it interesting these ads don't bring up the investment in

the national guard telling people to get out anything south of the montauk highway. as you see, the road is now impassable. it is barely distinguishable from the marina across the road where boats are up on dry docks, seemingly about to float away. we have families on street corners who are calling out sos to people. we've had boaters, fire marshals. it's a scene that is about two or three blocks from the ocean where the swells were so large that they just have overtake then waterfront community. the next big question will be 12 hours from now when the full moon is out and this water hasn't receded. we'll have yet another high tide. it's a dangerous situation, and we're standing by. i'm enforjennifer mclogan in linden hurst, new york. back to you. >> thank you. >>> much of new york city shut down because of the hurricane. but the city's emergency management officials are very busy. senior correspondent john miler is at the nypd's joint operation center along with police commissioner ray kelly. john good morning. >> reporter: good morning, charlie. this is the nypd's

wind gusts happening right now, 43, 45 in montauk, 41 in farmingdale, connecticut, this is moving inlandowards new jersey. 40 miles per hour in mount holly. this is going to get eventually worse. that is why people are saying that we need to have major preparations already. you need to be in your state house right now. this storm is just going to get worse. conditions are already starting to deteriorate. there is our track, 11:00 o'clock, i don't want to let your guard down because we are still dealing with storms of 90 miles per hour in wind speed. maybe in excess of 100 miles per hour. the northeast corridor, the megalopolis. millions to be without power for days or weeks. there we are, monday at 3:00 o'clock. the storm is coming on shore. the worst of the weather will be a pm towards midnight for new york city and long island. heading into monday nights. again, it will continue to move north and eastward. still with us into tuesday, and look at the snow piling up. a foot of snow in the interior sections of the northeastern part of the appellations. showing the wind gusts, see 5 miles

i'll be in montauk if you need me. >> stephanie: we, as you know, had a party in new york city for sexyrom the shining. >> i was out with some friends. we were at a drinking establishment. we noticed there were a lot of people in costume in preparation for halloween and one of them happened to be dressed as a giant teddy bear and as we left and went to my friend's apartment that happens to overlook the street where the bar was letting out we saw the teddy bear and a couple of his friends on the street and my cohort said come on up! so we invited them up. in a moment of really excellent judgment. and -- i ended up taking some photographs of the big giant teddy bear hanging out. >> stephanie: right. >> look at her. >> stephanie: roland and i were like dear god. we cannot leave jacki behind again. >> i was not in any of the photos there. is no evidence of the fact that i was actually there. other than the fact that i sent you the picture. >> unless you were in the costume with the guy. >> stephanie: fur-vert. 1-800-steph-12 the phone number to call. you stick with that story. that is just

brian has had a busy few days, longing for us long term in montauk during the storm, and the story doesday here and there, as the stock ma