this community was hit horribly tonight. the people here are amazing people, people with a lot of pride to them. and they re keeping it, and people i ve spoken to tonight said they re going to rebuild and somehow they ll get through this. reporter: it will be a long time before anyone in this neighborhood we walked through will be able to call breezy point home. more than 100 homes burned to the ground. dreams of retirement cottages now reduced to piles of ash. i haven t seen anything like this in my career. the only thing that came close to this was 9/11. reporter: this community, home to so many firefighters and first responders, has seen more than its share of tragedy. 29 of their own killed on 9/11. this is senator charles schumer s home district. he came today as well. have you ever seen anything like this? never. and i asked 20 firefighters who have had probably 1,000 years, 500 years of experience, asked
generators were out of date and at risk before the storm hit. abc s david muir was at the hospital as the evacuation began. reporter: when we arrived, all you could see was the outline of the hospital against a darkened sky. a lone flashlight in one of the hospital rooms there, as doctors and nurses rushed from patient to patient. out front, ambulances, images from my iphone as we approached the hospital. just one of the nearly 300 patients who were one by one brought out and taken to safety. from the sky, ambulances lined up around the block from all over the city. and we re learning more about the moment the lights went out, the moment the critical machines, the respirators stopped. this young doctor right there. the patients on ventilators. the babies. babies, yeah. reporter: their first concern, babies in intensive care. 20 of them. this nurse clutching a newborn wrapped in a blanket holding one of those plastic bags. she was doing the work of the respirators herself. in
reporter: the boats bringing people to where they could be trucked to safety. come on, mommy. reporter: whole families huddling together in the backs of trucks. the entire first floor gone. we were able to go up on the second floor, which was us. the water is almost gone. we have a baby and an elderly person. the baby. the baby is in here. reporter: the frantic rescue operation began after sandy s storm surge swamped new jersey. it happened so fast. within 15 minutes we had ten feet of water. reporter: stunned residents like vincent grabbed whatever they could as the waters rose. heartbreaking, heartbreaking. then you look. there s nothing there no more. nothing. you can t salvage anything. reporter: new jersey took the brunt of sandy s wrath, the coast especially hit hard. these images from the town of seaside heights. neighborhoods consumed by sand and water. down the shore, look at this. the community of seabright before sandy.
campaign event. you ve about got the stage, big american flag, campaign music, lots of romney supporters. but you also have over here canned goods and supplies that people have brought for victims of the storm. the storm put romney in a bind. while the president can lead relief efforts this is something heartbreaking for the nation. reporter: there s not much for romney to do beyond encouraging supporters to pitch in. and with fema working overtime, democrats are hammering him for what he said at a debate when asked if some of fema s responsibilities should be turned over to the states. absolutely. anytime you have an occasion to take something from the federal government and send it back to the states, that s the right direction. and if you can go even further and send it back to the private sector, that s even better. reporter: romney wouldn t answer questions about that. governor, would you eliminate fema if you were president? reporter: even with all the canceled even
sign up at rid-x.com. and, finally, what turned and, finally, what turned hurricane sandy into a hybrid monster was that arctic front that it collided with when it arrived on land. and that triggered a blizzard on the edges of the storm, and abc s lisa stark put on her snow boots and went to find out how people were coping with their early blast of winter. reporter: western maryland remains buried in snow. up to two feet in some areas. one of eight states walloped with blizzard conditions when sandy roared through. in west virginia even those sent out to rescue others had to be rescued. and at the snowshoe mountain resort, snow drifted into piles three feet high, whipped by 60-mile-an-hour winds. truckers and travelers were