it's hard to believe that this is only the beginning of sandy's fury here in the rockaways. we want to show you what's happening right now. the ocean waves, at first they were kissing the sand barrier that had been built up, now they are crashing over it, coming underneath the boardwalk in what is evacuation zone a here in new york city. 375,000 people here were ordered to mandatory evacuate. here in the rockaways, we can tell you the lights are still on in several apartment buildings, even cars up and down the street. a lot of people after hurricane irene said they decided to stay put. what you see in the distance is a new york city bus that has been converted into a hurricane shelter transport. there's 72 hurricane shelters set up throughout new york city. so far at last check, there were only about 1,100 people staying inside of them. mandatory evacuations were in place for hurricane irene but that storm petered out. this, of course, expected to be much worse. so many people buying generators, water, extra food, deciding to stick it out. the problem with all of that is in

priollo, joining us from rockaway beach. one of the areas devastated by hurricane sandy. this is the atlantic ocean behind me. the boardwalk once lined it. and that boardwalk no longer there. the boardwalk ended up all the way here where you so that truck attempting to remove the sand and push the boardwalk out of the way. pieces of it are there and other pieces are here. across the street and down the block. in fact, that is i light pole there, and past it are street benches and before, we saw a man sitting on one and taking a moment to reflect. trying desperately to figure out what he is going do now that he has nothing left. the people here are determined to rebuild. they decided that despite the hurricane was a few days ago and this home here, when we got here a few hours ago, you could see all of the way through it and the last few hours, they have boarded it up and have taken any debris needed out of this house and they, like many of the people here in this town, say they will come back bigger and better than ever. all

the rockaway inlet and also the atlantic. and the surge pushed in a couple blocks, if you're familiar with the area, we were driving on new port avenue and homes there were destroyed by the surge that pushed on in. >> stephanie, i talked to a firefighter friend of mine who said the helplessness was the thing that got them because they just couldn't get to that fire the other night because of the storm surge, they couldn't get their vehicles in, they didn't have hoses that could reach that far, so they had to kind of stand by and watch as the fire jumped house to house and wiped out an entire neighborhood where many of them lived. this is a neighborhood heavy with firefighters and cops. you look at these pictures and it absolutely looks like a war zone. >> a war zone, a local bar washed away, firefighters battled neck high floodwaters to rescue 25 people. they used boats to try to get in. there was 170 firefighters that were on the scene trying to get there, a six alarm blaze. and it went on and as you can see, apparently it's

. >> i'm at a place called rockaway park.his is a part of queens, essentially an island that's wedged between jamaica bay and the atlantic ocean. and it's south of brooklyn, south of manhattan. and with the storm at high tide tonight both jamaica bay and the atlantic ocean converged and there was water -- it seemed like the water was everywhere. but then another problem popped up, and that was a major fire. there was a fire in this area of rockaway park that was consuming not only businesses but apartment buildings as well. and this is a flood-prone area. and yet there were still residents here. they hadn't heeded the calls to evacuate. they were here. they were going to ride out the storm. but then this fire happened and members of this specialized new york fire department unit had to go in and rescue them. and i saw these guys. there were about five to ten of them. they were wading through high water. they had a zodiac boat with them. and they had to scale some of these buildings to get to some of the people who were trappe

it's a very narrow ribbon out on the rockaway, not a lot of room on either side. one side is the ocean, the other is the bay. one or two bridges reach out to this region. they had horrible flooding during the storm and they had very low water pressure for the firefighters when they arrived out there too and the winds, you can see, i mean obviously the winds are going at 50 to 60 miles per hour. you can imagine a firefighter with low water pressure trying to fight the blaze. it looks like it was two or three city blocks and, again, if you go to google maps and see what this looks like before it burned it's around 130th beach street and just obviously these homes -- they're burning to the ground and the only thing that will probably stop it is when these winds just -- reach the water and there's no more homes left to burn. just absolutely tragic conditions out there, again, that was out there breezy point queens in the far rockaways not too far away from jfk airport which by the way we heard there was water all over that region on the runways, on all the homes out t

soledad, you mentioned those homes in the rockaways by the way. i want to bring you up to date on something. got off the phone a couple moments ago with an official. he's telling us one of the reasons the fires are burning as they are, there's no water pressure. right here we can smell several fires that took place here overnight as well. you have a lot of power lines that are down, incredibly dangerous, streets are flooding, areas that are completely cut off. massive beach erosion. we were talking to somebody last night who basically said some of the beaches have simply disappeared because the ocean met the bay and everything sort of washed away. the official that i smoke to said what they're really waiting for is first light. nobody is going to know how bad the devastation is, nobody will know where the damage is and what needs to be fixed until they can get eyes on the ground and see exactly what is happening. we have police cars stationed all around here. they're making sure people don't drive down the streets. again, just walking a little bit

thank you for joining us. >> thank you. >> what's your assessment of the damage in the rockaways and the breezy point area today which you were able to see? >> well, the breezy point area, the fire is just devastating. the picture -- the images remind you of the pictures you saw of world war ii, homes just burnt to the foundation, literally just a chimney standing in the midst of what had been over 110 homes. it was heartbreaking and as i was standing there senator schumer and i were there, people were coming to the area to check to see if their home had made it. they would walk from the evacuated area to breezy and see some with a degree of happiness and other people just with unbelievable sadness because they saw one that their home was one of the ones that had been burnt to the ground. but i have to tell you, rachel, as sad as it was and almost apocalyptic one of the first things somebody said to me, hey, quinn, make sure i get my building permits. so although this is tragic, there is no minimizing that there was a spirit there today that was truly a new york and really a rockaway

. >> rockaway park in queens, fire department folks trying to help some people. east river look at how high the waves are from the east river overflowing in long island stefment >> the hoboken path station this is like the metro, the pap system in new jersey, you can see the water faul, the stair well there. >> looks like an elevator there. >> an elevator shaft wow. the clean-up is going to be quite a task this morning. >> a couple of views up to the north. we're going to continue our special coverage near d.c. in just a minute, we'll have a live report from huntington county. >> we would love to see your photos and videos, so send them to us at iwitness@.com. >> just about 10 minutes after 4:00 this morning. our coverage of sandy continues with heightened fear for homeowner in the huntington section of fairfax county. >> they're concerned they should see a repeat in the flood-prone area. our john gonzalez there this morning live with a look. john, good morning. >> good morning, cynne. that is still the concern here this morning. fairfax county police and fire ha

mandatory order for zone "a" where we're standing in the rockaways. but driving around not a lot of people have heeded that warning deciding to stay put and batten down the hatches but are prepared for the storm and breaking out generators and boarding up their homes. it just remains un cleclear whe or not that will be enough to stand up to the storm. they're having coastal evacuations. the long island railroad that runs from new york city to long island has been shut down, service from new york city's buses and subways have come to a halt as well. there are evacuation shelters being set up in new york city, 72 of them that are up and running right now but we're told that only about 1100 people are currently staying inside of them. now, here in the rockaways preparing for a potentially life-threatening storm surge. all along the coast homes with a gorgeous ocean view and, again, many people have decided to stay put, tape up their windows and hope for the best. veronica? >> tracy trahan of wnbc, thanks very much. as hurricane sandy barrels closer to th

got to get to this fire that's happening in queens, rockaway section of queens.g pictures. just the sound of it. you can hear it. 50 homes have burned to the ground already. another two dozen are fully engulfed in this fire. 200 firefighters at last count are on this scene. they're having a hard time getting access to the fire. they can't get in there. there's a problem with water pressure and also a problem with some of the access as well. so, they are having a really hard time getting in to deal with this fire. we're continuing to monitor that, that taking place in breezy point in queens. then there's this landmark here in new york called jean's carousel, 90-year-old merry-go-round that sits in the middle of brooklyn bridge park. it was left standing in a sea of water. take a lock at these pictures, flooded by super storm sandy. satellite loop to show you the damage that sandy has done, moving on now. it was no joke. winds 70 to 90 miles an hour continuously. they're expecting in the tri-state area still even though it is no longer being considered a hurricane.

. >> i'm in a place called rockaway park. this is part of queens, essentially an island wedged between jamaica bay and the atlantic ocean, south of brooklyn, south of manhattan. with the storm at high tide tonight, both jamaica bay and atlantic ocean converged. there was water -- seemed like the water was everywhere. then another problem popped up and that was a major fire. there was a fire in this area of rockaway park consuming not only businesses but apartment buildings as well. this is a flood-prone area. yet there were still residents here. they hadn't heeded the calls to evacuate. they were here. they were going to ride out the storm and then this fire happened and members of this specialized new york fire department had to go in and rescue them. i saw these guys. they were about five to ten of them, wading through high water. they had zodiac boat with them. they had to scale some of these buildings to get to some of the people trapped in their apartment buildings. because of the high water, the fire department couldn't

in the rockaway section of the city -- >> breezy point, queens. take a look.t these homes here. they actually look like they were brought up and then brought back down. residents here are checking on their homes, checking on their families. this is an evacuated zone but many residents chose to stay. firefighters have been battling a six-alarm fire. 200 firefighters trying to put out fires at 50 homes and right now 10 homes are still burning. thankfully, we're hearing no injuries reported at that fire. these firefighters have been working at this since 11:00 last night. the flooding has made it difficult to get to the blaze and also there's been issues with water. they're trying to find water sources and they've been working through the storm and also through the aftermath. just one more look here. breezy point, queens total instruction. tons of homes. damaged cars moved by the floodwaters and people now returning to their homes, trying to check out the damage. many leaving in tears. that's the story from here in breezy point. back to you in the studio. >> that

and michael alacha, his house is where you are in rockaway, and his house was flooded.o while they were focused on the city's problems, they didn't have time to think about their own. >> pelley: john, thanks very much. the hurricane, of course, has overshadowed the presidential election. but it is coming just the same in just six days. polls show president obama and mitt romney in a virtual tie nationally. in swing states that will tip the balance, a new quinnipiac university cbs news/"new york times" poll finds the president ahead by two points in virginia, 49% to 47%. he leads by five points in ohio, 50% to 45%. and the president is ahead by a single point in florida. 48% to 47%. mitt romney took his campaign to florida today, and he was joined by senator marco rubio. he refraind from attacking the president directly, leaving that to former governor jeb bush. something found here in breezy point in the ashes of a burned out home, brings the owner to tears. we'll have her story next. , e c, you know it can be hard to bremy copd symptomsontrol by keeping my airways open

. >> reporter: i'm in a place called rockaway park, part of queens, an island between jamaica bay andic ocean. it's south of brooklyn, south of manhattan. and with the storm at high tide tonight, both jamaica bay and the atlantic ocean converged. and there was water -- it seemed like the water was everywhere. another problem popped up. that was a major fire. there was a fire in this area of rockaway park that was consuming not only businesses but apartment buildings as well. this is a flood-prone area. yet, there were still residents here. they hadn't heeded the calls to evacuate. they were here. they were going to ride out the storm. and then this fire happened. and then members of this specialized new york fire department unit had to go in and rescue them. i saw these guys. about five to ten of them. they were wading through high water. they had zodiac boat with them. they had to scale some of these buildings to get to some of the people who were draped in their apartment building. because of the high water, the fire department couldn't get their hoses and any water on these fires.

reporting live from far rockaway, jim dolan. channel 7 eyewitness news. >> thank you, jim for finding such -- >> anyway. >> the mayor, new york city mayor says the problem with this, they're not only endangering themselves, but they're now endangering the lives of the first responders who have to go in and try to rescue them should it become an emergency situation. >> any storm, part of the country. you always find the diehard, i'm not going anywhere. put perspective in here. in a measurement of pure kinetic energy, rank the surge and wave destruction potential for sandy, just the hurricane not hybrid it eventually will become at a 5.8 on a 0-6 scale. a very strong, dangerous storm. if you can get to a safe place get out of the way and let mother nature do her thing and come back. >> unfortunately for the folks, sound too late. kind of trapped. >> enjoy the pizza, could be your last. >>> still ahead, hurricane sandy throwing a wrench in a lot of people's plans. two guys, you may have heard of, barack obama and mitt romney. >> we

i also just came from far rockaway. lower manhattan, 40th street, now power is out, con ed, we're listening to same sources you are listening to, may take a couple days before, that and far rockaway, power out, i just witnessed our national guard troops, 30 of our soldiers helping evacuate 9 ambulanc 9 au laboratory seniors from a home, this is our pressure and honor to work with these first responders to help them take care of the people. >> well, at risk of sounds like i'm blowing you smoke, it is amazing how selfless you and your colleagues are, they put their lives on the line without thinking about it i want it thank you very much. >>okay,hank you so much, sir. neil: all right, well coming up, sandy is not done. you think we can relax, no, still tracking the storm, after this. @a 4g lte is the fastest. so, which supeast 4g lte service would yochoose, based on this chart ? don't rush into it, i'm not oking for the fastest answer. obviously verizon. okay, i have a different chart. going that way, look at verizon. it'

the rockaway section, we know 50 homes have beened to the ground. another two dozen homes actively on fire. these are the latest pictures coming in to us on cnn. we'll monitor both of these breaking news stories and update you in the aftermath of this region of what is superstorm sandy and tell you where sandy's going next. that's all ahead, stay with us. [ male announcer ] the 2013 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. check out the latest collection of snacks from lean cuisine. creamy spinach artichoke dip, crispy garlic chicken spring rolls. they're this season's must-have accessory. lean cuisine. be culinary chic. it'll cause cavities, bad breath. patients will try and deal with it by drinking water. water will work for a few seconds but if you're not drinking it, it's going to get dry again. i recommend biotene. all the biotene products like the oral rinse...the sprays have enzymes in them. the whole formulation

reporter: more than 5 homes were ce -- 50 homes were destroyed when a fire sparked in rock ji way -- rockaway. some curious new yorkers ventured out to inspect the damage. >> we saw the river coming toward us. it actually looked like something out of a movie. >> reporter: new york governor andrew cuomo said it will take awhile. >> we have an old system. >> reporter: while it may take days to get back online, the city is starting to return back to normal. reporting from new york. >> just devastating pictures from new york. they're not used to dealing with that. they use the subway. >> a storm surge of 30 feet. >> i mean, can you imagine? that's what paralyzed the lower half of manhattan. that has the entire island and city. take one part of the island, it's kind of a chain effect. the whole subway system -- not top contra-- to contradict brandy but it's going to take weeks. this is what we would be seeing coming into ocean city. this is a storm surge wave south of cape may courthouse. even in the history books i've never seen it. atlantic city, the boardwalk near trump plaza, amazing picture,

also 50 homes have burned to the ground in the breezy point area in rockaway peninsular. they are trying to reach the area and about 200 firefighters are there and they still have to check if anybody died or became trapped. >>> well the super storm is still packing a punch and it is expected to head across eastern pennsylvania today. before taking a sharp turn into new york. new york city and surrounding areas will see hurricane force winds throughout the day. >> we knew it was going to be a very dangerous storm and the storm has met our expectations. >> at least 16 deaths are being blamed on the storm which knocked out power to million. the subway system suffered extensive damage. now the storm has canceled more than 100 flights and out of the area, here is more on how it could a fact your travel to the east coast. >>> i just spoke to the manager at fso and they say most are canceled, most, not all and it is important to check with the airline. when we got to terminal two, we found a lot of people who were affected by this storm. a lot of people had to spend the night an

it is a section called far rockaway over by the atlantic ocean. this was in the evacuation zone some 50 homes caught fire. that fire started around 11:00 last night. a very tragic scene. we understand firefighters had difficulty reaching those homes because there's 3 feet of water in the street. 200 firefighters battling by the gusty winds that are still blowing. you might remember we have a taste of what happened early afternoon when a giant crane snapped on top of a guy p ant high rise. 90 stories tall. it was dangling over the streets of new york city. the other big issue is the storm surge that happened. i was in the storm surge had a chance to walk knee deep in the waters. the subway system flooded also a hospital new york city university. the hospital was flooded knocked out the backup generators they had to evacuate some 200 cases to other hospitals around new york city and of course the big story is transportation getting around the city. the subway systems inundated. the mta is calling it the wos disaster to hit the subway system here in

there was a devastating fire on the rockaway peninsula where much of the neighborhood burned down early tuesday morning. that fire left more than 100 homes destroyed. michelle miller is in breezy point queens with that story. michelle, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, norah. not a single building on breezy point was left unscathed. the storm surge rolled in and washed out everything. but what is still so hard for residents here to fathom is how after -- or how in five feet of rushing water and rain fire could do this to home after home? and block after block on this barrier island. it's the wake up call no one wants to recee. a six alarm fire that tor through the tiny beach town of breezy point. volunteer firefighter danny rushed to the scene. his brother's house was fully engulfed. both were among the 200 firefighters called into battle as the wind whipped flames jumped from house to house. >> everything was on fire. flames were 50 feet up in the air. just taking everything out. no stopping it. >> oh, my god. >> reporter: his mother's home was destroyed by the storm surge. it w

more than 50 homes were destroyed when two fires sparked in rockaway. >> there was a boat with us, we in in the boat and got there. firefighters rescued dozens e trapped using that boat. in new jersey family's retract in their flooded homes. >> we're trying to save as many lives as it is possible to save. snow is falling in multiple states. and millions are now without power throughout the region, including all of manhattan, south the 34th street. it could be a week before the area fully recovers. we did learn that the new york may reopennge tomorrow. >> back to you. storm.onger a tropical but the storm is still capable of lots of damage. this on how long we feeling the effects of sandy. feeling it for the the week in terms of flooding. feel pretty comfortable you can venture out and about your business, but to caution.me to be safe as you off and assess the damage for the day. overripe pittsburgh at this time. the wind is really strong across .he great lakes region feeling the wind effects and a continuingof rain last couple of hours here. we have this next map for you, e rainfall to

police can do little more than patrol the rockaways tonight. you just can't force people to leave their homes. most business are closed. ones that stayed open, like elegance pizza are busy as ever. people were told to evacuate by 7:00. many did not. they say they're ready. >> this is my hood. i want to see what happens. >> reporter: some admitted to be anxious what the storm will bring when the wind start kicking. others say bring it on. >> at the end of the day we ain't running. my fellow people, right now we are going to hold it down, you know what i'm saying. we thank y'all. thank you but no thank you. >> if it gets worse. i might be leaving. i will not be crazy. if it gets worse, i might leave. >> reporter: by then it may be too late. the bridges that connect this part of the city to the rest of the city close when the wind get high. and so, the people who decided to, who decide they want to get out of here by the time they leave it could be too late. because, once the bridges close, the people who decided to stay, are staying for good. rep

units were not able to get into rockaway last night. here for close to two hours. >> reporter: what is that like for guys who are trained, to go in and put fires out? >> i'm sure it was frustrating because units were staged on high ground right across the bridge, and they were able to see the fires, and a lot of them have family and friends over here, and what happened was, you know what, they just couldn't come here. you can't drive a fire truck through five to seven feet of water. we had to wait for the water surge to recede a little bit and by then you can see the results here, catastrophic. >> reporte >> back to the harbor light pub burned down where so much happened. the owner tragically lost his son on 9/11. he spoke to us after the crash of flight 587. >> everybody, it wasn't an i day, it was a we day and an everybody day. there are so many people in this neighborhood that are firemen and pd, civilians. everybody helped. this community will be together forever. >> reporter: his words spoken in a different time, echoing and being

more more than 50 homes were destroyed when two fires sparked in the rockaways. >> couldn't get any apparatus. we had a boat got in the boat and went down there >> reporter: firefighters rescued dozens trapped, using that boat. damage widespread in connecticut and new jersey where families are trapped in their flooded homes. >> we are trying to do is save as many lives as is possible. >> reporter: snow is falling in eight states, ohio, pennsylvania and west virginia where they may get up to three feet. millions are without power throughout the region, including all of manhattan south of 34th street. it could be more tan a week before this region recovers from -- sandy. we did learn the new york stock exchange will be reopening tomorrow. brandi hitt, abc news. >>> pg&e is sending more than 150 workers to new york. bay area crews will depart in the next couple of days. six red cross volunteers from the bay area are helping in the relief efforts and more may be sent once the airlines get back on schedule. >>> mike is tracking the storm live in the weather center. >>> no two hurricanes are alike.

more more than 50 homes were destroyed when two fires sparked in the rockaways. >> couldn't get any apparatus. we had a boat got in the boat and went down there >> reporter: firefighters rescued dozens trapped, using that boat. damage widespread in connecticut and new jersey where families are trapped in their flooded homes. >> we are trying to do is save as many lives as is possible. >> reporter: snow is falling in eight states, ohio, pennsylvania and west virginia where they may get up to three feet. millions are without power throughout the region, including all of manhattan south of 34th street. it could be more tan a week before this region recovers from -- sandy. we did learn the new york stock exchange will be reopening tomorrow. brandi hitt, abc news. >>> pg&e is sending more than 150 workers to new york. bay area crews will depart in the next couple of days. six red cross volunteers from the bay area are helping in the relief efforts and more may be sent once the airlines get back on schedule. >>> mike is tracking the storm live in the weather center. >>> no two hurricanes are alike.

prayer. >> reporter: catherine sullivan lives in the rockaway, the next town over. another community that saw fire hopscotch from home to home. >> we're just all devastated from this. i don't have words to tell you, but i know we will come out of this. >> reporter: breezy point lost 37 residents in 9/11. more died next dear in bell harbor a few months later when american flight 587 crashed. but even with this latest tragedy, many told us they're not leaving. they will rebuild. >> whole family lost everything. we'll figure it out. we have to. nowhere else to go. >> reporter: what is truly amazing, norah and charlie is that no one was seriously injured here. 111 homes burned to the ground. 20 more heavily damaged. and what is being called one of the worst fires in new york city history. >> michelle miller, thank you. just as the storm seemed to be ending tuesday, two new jersey towns were hit by massive flooding. hundreds of people had to evacuate. elaine quijano is in moonachie, new jersey. >> here in moonachie, the floodwaters have receded quite a bit, but there is

any concerns people still trapped in their homes anywhere either out in the rockaway peninsula? >> the breezy area, we didn't see any ongoing rescue when we were there. amazingly no one was killed or seriously injured in that fire. earlier in the day, mayor bloomberg and i did a larger helicopter tour over brooklyn and parts of queens. we did see a helicopter rescue happening then. that was around 12:30 or 1:00. >> okay. in terms of lower manhattan right now, obviously, you know the unprecedented nature of this large a power outage for this long a time. in a densely-populated area. what can you tell us about your expectations as to when power might get back on and if it will be spotty or the whole island coming back at once? >> just so folks understand, basically manhattan south of 31st street is without power. some parts of manhattan were turned off in a preventive sense by con edison because they are fuelled by steam. the fear was there would be flooding when the cold water hits the hot steam, the machines would be ruined. so some of the systems we powered down. there was also

in queens, the surf is high at rock rockaway beach. >> this seems worst than last year. >> reporter: the power of sandy is felt in midtown. a crane snapped at a construction site and in brooyndamaged ility lines created dangerous sparks. >> reporter: in termof numbers, in terms of power outages, 300,000 new yorkers are dealing with having no power right now. on top of that, the mass transit system is crippled. there is a complete halt of all subway, bus, and as of 7:00 p.m. this evening, the major bridges and tunnel getting you in and out of manhattan are closed. >> thank you. >>> sandy is shutting down airports on the east coast. it is grounding thousands of flights across the country. the ripple effect is felt here with hundreds of flights canceled. some travels are not sure how long they have been stranded. >> reporter: we're not seeing a lot of travelers camped out. word got out the flights to the northeast are canceled. >> i was out here for a wedding. i was supposed to fly out last night. things happened, obviously. so i have been here a while. >> reporter: this man is trying t

. >> we saw the rockaways, lower manhattan, south shore of staten island, coney beach and provided aat how extensive the damage from last night's storm was. it also showed the progress we're already making in our recovery. on the rockaway peninsula i walked through the part of breezy point that was absolutely devastated by the wind-fed fast-moving fires that took out more than 80 homes last night. to describe it is looking like pictures we've seen of the end of world war ii is not overstating it. the area was completely leveled. chimneys and foundations were all that was left of many of these homes. i actually ran into congressman bob turner and other breezy point homeowners and talked with them. it's very sad they lost their homes, but the good news is, there were no fatalities thank god. unfortunately, all together so far in the storm -- >> of course, we'll continue to monitor the comments from mayor mike bloomberg of new york city. let's go to brian shackman doing some of his own business assessment in freeport, new york. >> reporter: this is one of the hardest hit areas in all of

there has been some flooding already in the battery as well as the fdr and some of the rockaways.pect surge levels of 6 to 11 feet. a surge of 9 to 10 feet is possible aalong coney island and the rockaways and a surge of 11 to 12 feet may occur at the better monday evening. maximum surge impact in these areas is expected to be in some period plus or minus two hours around 8:15, so 6:00 to 10:30. the peak surge will hit areas along the long island sound between 10:00 and 2:00 a.m., four hours later. now if you live on a coastline, you have to add to that breaking waves. waves of 15 to 20 feet along the ocean-facing shoreline will result in severe beach erosion, but aulz it drived water right over the road and inland more. because of the heavy rains that we do expect, which will come in later tonight after the first we'll see higher winds and the surge and more rain. tomorrow morning we expect to be very wet. a high wind warning is now in effect. the heaviest winds will occur this afternoon and evening. sustained winds of 40 to 55 miles per hour with gusts of 70 to 80 are what's for

. >> as the water rose and the winds picked up, the fires began here on the rockaways, i'm standing in front of what was a home. you can see the devastation that this fire caused here. in fact this area was once a neighborhood. take a look what the it looks like right now. completely destroyed by fire. you're looking at what once were homes, one, two, three. my eyes here, i can count probably a dozen homes here that went completely up in flames. firefighters, you can hear them right now as they continue to work on putting out fires. they do continue to grow here in this neighborhood. we have been driving around here the entire morning. and all we can do is just look as these fire crews try to get to these scenes. the water here, the floodwaters that swept in yesterday, made it incredibly difficult for these crews to get to them in time. right now, all these downed power lines and trees continue to make it very difficult for druse get to these homes and put these fires out. again, take a look at what we are talking about. i mean, this was a home, a two-story home, like many of the homes

i have never seen anything like this particularly going into a tunnel. >> reporter: in rockaway park,bled to rescue people trapped in the path of a fire raging out of control. in manhattan hundreds of patients at this hospital, including babies, had to be evacuated after a backup generator failed. the city closed all tunnels and bridges. subway and bus service had already been shut down. the stock exchange is closed again today, the first time weather has caused it to close for a second consecutive day since the 1800s. sandy spawned snowstorms in west virginia and fear of flooding as far west as chicago. here in ocean city we've been getting freezing rainfall on and off, and part of the downtown area is flooded, rob and paula. >> all right. now, tahman, you are in ocean city. are there people stranded? were they given evacuation orders? >> reporter: people were given evacuation orders, but a lot of people are stuck here. some of the streets are flooded. there was a main bridge that was shut down. so the weather was very intense here, and a lot of people, really, with no place to go an

rockaway, new york--braced with bulldozed walls of sand. an expected storm surge during a full-moon, when tides are at their highest already could reach 11-feet. in midtown manhattan, high winds broke a construction crane atop a high- rise. "...of the 76 evacuation shelters located in public schools around the city, there are already more than 90-people here." at airports from washington to boston--a region of 50-million people, airlines canceled more than 13,700 flights through wednesday-- although some operations may resume tuesday afternoon. but for the first time since 18-88, the new york stock exchange will have been closed for two consecutive days due to weather, monday and tuesday. it intends to reopen wednesday, along with nasdaq. bond trading, which closed early monday will be closed tuesday. in chicago, the chicago board options exchange and parts of cme group were closed. "the markets are in disarray. there isn't a lot of participation on days like this." among those sidelined traders-- luke rahbari who hunkered down with his fam

we will rebuild rockaway and rebuild it better than ever.e absolutely correct about that. the incredible spirit of new yorkers are at work and they will rebuild. we are grateful to those folks who helped them and saved their lives. we'll hear a lot more stories about that area what's continue through the journey of covering hurricane sand deal. we are still waiting to hear from mayor boomburg. he will be speaking moments away. connecticut governor dan malloy is also giving an update on the situation. there were reports last night of very tough situations in connecticut as well. we will try to find out about that for you. he has been telling reporters that the storm may be over but the search and rescue operation are still underway. look at that huge hundred-year-old tree no doubt that is toppled. rescue operations there just beginning. >> we took a big hit over the past few days and i want to thank the people of connecticut for hanging in there. we did our best to protect you and stand with you and now it's our job to get people's lives back

cars that had been parked on bridges when we were coming over, but complete devastation here in the rockawaysm either the surge or the fire. >> thank you so much. >>> well, it is back to business on wall street today after sandy sidelined the heartbeat of america's financial world. plus george lucas makes a blockbuster deal that will bring three new star wars movies to the silver screen. you're watching "first look" on msnbc. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ you know it can be hard to lbreathe, and how that feels.e, copd includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema. spiriva helps control my copd symptoms by keeping my airways open for 24 hours. plus, it reduces copd flare-ups. spiriva is the only once-daily inhaled copd maintenance treatment that does both. spiriva handihaler tiotropium bromide inhalation powder does not replace fast-acting inhalers for sudden symptoms. tell your doctor if you have kidney problems, glaucoma, trouble urinating, or an enlarged prostate. these may worsen with spiriva. discuss all medicines you take, even eye drops. stop taking spiriva and seek immediate medical help if your breathing s

in the rockaways, a fire destroyed at least 50 homes. that's 5-0. in new jersey, atlantic city was largely submerged and cutting it off from the mainland. up and down the new jersey coast, communities are seeing significant flooding. downto downtown hoboken and jersey city seeing water in the streets. we talked to the mayor and she said perhaps 50% of that city is underwater. some shoreline residents in connecticut are stranded in their homes and the national guard has been called out to rescue them. the storm damaged property from stonington to greenwich. in delaware, the storm wiped out beaches in several communities and rehoboth beach and dewey beach, thousands of people were evacuated from wilmington and delaware city. now one final word, there is some word that the potomac river, specifically the area between hancock, amaryland and washington, d.c., could begin flooding to night. the national weather service says it could be worst flooding that area has seen in 16 years. nbc's michelle franzen is at battery park city on the lower tip of manhatt