Superstorm sandy has pounded huge portions of the northeast and midatlantic at this hour, we know at least 16 people have died. More than 7 Million People have been plunged into the dark and local officials have been stunned by the damage and devastation. Good tuesday morning. Im Chris Jansing reporting live from new york and parts of new york city are underwater this morning. The images from Lower Manhattan shows cars half submerged. Tunnels, subways and the financial district flooded. All of Lower Manhattan is in the dark. Some of those outages caused by a con Ed Substation that exploded overnight. More than 1. 5 million have lost power across new york city, long island and westchester. Now we also want to show you these pictures from breezy point, queens, at least 50 homes have been destroyed by fire. Further east at least seven homes on fire island have fallen into the ocean. Atlantic city, new jersey, took the full force of sandy when it came ashore around 8 00 last night. People that defied an Evacuation Order are trapped there now. Roads are impassable. Serious damage is being reported in several beach communities from Point Pleasant to seaside heights. Rescues are under way in belmar, one of several cities that saw the boardwalk ripped away. Further north in hoboken, the mayor estimates half the city is underwater. 2. 2 Million People are without power statewide. Now, in connecticut, the National Guard has been helping to evacuate shoreline residents who are trapped by high waters. At least two have been killed in that state. 600,000 people are in the dark. Theres also a fire burning in old saybrook, connecticut. Crews cant get to the fire because the area is flooded. Several feet of water there. Flooding has also been reported across large parts of delaware and maryland. Other parts of maryland are actually getting snow from this storm. This is Garrett County in the western part of the state and West Virginia is under a blizzard warning while north carolinas governor has declared a state of emergency in 24 counties. And take a look at manhattan. This is times square. We have a live picture here. I can tell you i come to work generally around 4 30 in the morning and those streets are usually busy. There are at least cabs, a lot of delivery trucks bringing bread and food and newspapers and its a ghost town through much of manhattan and thats what the mayor have asked for, people stay off the streets. Theres still a lot of downed power lines. Theres flooding. A dangerous situation in a lot of manhattan and, frankly, theres no Public Transportation so its tough to get anywhere anyway. Joining me on the phone now is dennis pilla, the mayor of port chester, new york, on the coast of Long Island Sound. Mr. Mayor, good morning to you and how are things looking in your community . Pretty dark. We have about half the village without power as we speak and we had historic flooding last night. Fortunately i think things could have been much worse because the High Water Mark of the flooding here in port chester came before high tide that second high tide. And yet you call it historic flooding. Give us a sense of the breadth youre talking about . A good part of the shoreline of port chester lies at sea line and were on the shore of the Long Island Sound and byram river and that river crested over the seawall and flooded beyond three blocks beyond the river itself. Our downtown was basically underwater. And the Fire Department and Police Department and dpw have been going at it all night. Weve had transformers, about a dozen transformer explosions, telephone poles snapped in half and many streets obstructed. We had three front loaders, these guys have been going at it for over 12 hours just pushing trees and debris out of the street so our emergency vehicles could get around to the calls for service that we experienced when once sandy hit land. What kind of calls for service have you had . In new york they had ten times the usual number of 911 calls and obviously they had to put out a call to people to just only call in cases of dire emergencies, but have you had dire emergencies . Have you had to do rescues . Weve had partial building collapses, roofs coming off, the red cross actually did an amazing job actually mobilizing folks in north carolina, texas, as far as north carolina, texas and as well as the Greater New York area. At our local high school we have 57 people in the shelter now. So, yeah, it was quite the scene. So where do you even start in the morning, mayor . Well, were going to do village data assessment at 7 00 once the sun comes up and really first and foremost will be working with con ed to make sure we can get power restored to our village and see how we can help to get our downtown back to being the vibrant Commerce Center that it was before sandy arrived. Unbelievable. Dennis pilla, the mayor of port chester, new york, good luck to you and thanks so much for talking to us. At the height of the storm a generator went out and 215 patients had to be evacuated from nyu Medical Center here in manhattan. Nbcs rehema ellis has been there since the beginning of the evacuation and joins us now with an update. When we spoke last hour they were still evacuating, rehema, have they finished yet . Reporter not yet, chris. This has been a long night. Its often long nights in hospitals, but im not certain how much sleep any of these patients got because of the fact that they had to be transported and as i say, even as were speaking now this has been going on for several hours all through the night trying to make certain they do this carefully. Remember were talking about patients, patients who are pediatric patients, some in critical care. They have to do this carefully and gingerly to make certain they dont upset these patients any more than they already by the fact that theyre being brought out of this hospital. It is cold out here. Its about 50 some odd degrees and if youre in a hospital gown, a blanket over you and youre being brought out of the hospital, an oxygen mask on your face its pretty unsettling so theyre doing it as carefully and as painstakingly as they can. Its taking a long time but theyre making certain they do the utmost care. Rehema ellis, who has been up all night tracking this for us, thank you so much, rehema. And joining us on the phone new york congresswoman yvette clark, a dmg from brooklyn, good morning, congresswoman. Thanks for joining us. Good morning, chris. There are quite a few who live in brooklyn whose families are in brooklyn while theyre here helping to get the news out. What can you tell us about whats going on in your community . Well, we were a bit more fortunate than some of my other colleagues in that in central brooklyn, our main problem were the high winds with the trees, and we had quite a number of trees down in the district, luckily, our electrical wires and central brooklyn are underground so we didnt have the blackouts that were reported in other parts of brooklyn, just outside of our district, however, an area that was outside of the flood zone that was identified for evacuation, the kanarsy area sustained substantial flooding and blackout so its been a mixed bag in brooklyn. For the most part we were able to withstand the brunt of the storm with minimal rain and electrical disruption in my district, but i know Communities Just outside of the boundaries of my communities that have experienced extreme flooding as well as electrical disruption. Im sure you are following, congresswoman, the reports from the metropolitan Transit Authority that in the 108year history of the subway system in new york, theyve never seen anything like this. Massive flooding. Were going to get an update in the morning but how concerned are you about the transportation situation come dawn . Well, were just concerned that theyre able to do whatever they need to do to get the subway and bus Services Running once were clear of the storm. I think that the mayor did the right thing, the mta did the right thing by making sure that the service was shut down in advance of the storm so that we could do everything within our power to make sure that the system can be put up as soon as possible so were hoping that will pay dividends, that well be able to get the system running once again and get our economy moving, get our people moving and get the city moving once again. And, congresswoman, let me ask you finally, i dont know how much contact youve had with federal officials, i know that the president had said earlier that he felt that the fema officials were in place at the areas where they felt they would need the most help. How confident are you that new york, that brooklyn, that throughout this region there will be enough resources to do what needs to get done . Well, i know that theres been a lot of focus on new york city as an area that was going to get the brunt and a large portion of the storm. I know that our governor and our mayor have the talks with the president of the United States and he has made it clear that he would do everything that he could possibly do to make sure that we received the type of support we feed to get the city moving once again. The city of new york is not only home to us, but it is also the economic engine of our nation, so i dont think that well be overlooked as a resource is put out to get the city moving once again. Congresswoman Yvette Clarke on this early tuesday morning, thanks for being with us. My pleasure. Now to delaware where Officials Say the flood damage from sandy could be equal to or greater than damage from some of the worst tropical storms in the regions history. Joining me on the phone is gary lang. He is from the office of Emergency Management. Good morning to you. Good morning. Weve been having reports of whats going on in your state places like rehoboth beach, dewey beach deluged by the surging waters. What can you tell us about the situation in your state. They got hit with surging waters with the Atlantic Ocean right next door and with the heavy rains that came in with the storm. On sunday, the major route through the beach area is route 1 between dewey beach and the Indian River Inlet became flooded and a number of areas. That road was closed and remains closed for an indefinite period as motion of the portion of that roadway is flooded. A sevenmile stretch. Have you had a number of rescues that you know about . Will there people still trapped. There may be people who chose to not evacuate but we have not been made aware of any rescues that have gone on across the state. A lot of people, it seems, took seriously the governors order to evacuate and got to Higher Ground to shelters or to friends and relatives hope. What will be the first order of business of your office of the office of Emergency Management in the morning when the sun comes up, gary. Damage assessment will begin and the recovery effort, we have downed power lines. We have trees that are down. We have flooded roadways. Crews will go out and start to alleviate those situations at the same time assessing the extent of the damage. Well, good luck to you, gary laing communications of the Delaware Office of Emergency Management. Thanks so much for taking the time to talk to us. Well take a quick break. An update for you on that fire in old saybrook and the problems that were seeing there and weve heard reported elsewhere that because of the conditions, flooding, downed lines, that they cant get rescue crews there to put out the fires to help people. So well have an update on that. [ male announcer ] introducing zzzquil sleepaid. Its not for colds, its not for pain, its just for sleep. Because sleep is a beautiful thing. Zzzquil, the nonhabit forming sleepaid from the makers of nyquil. Woman what do you mean, Homeowners Insurance doesnt cover floods . [ heart rate increases ] man a few inches of water caused all this . [ heart rate increases ] woman 2 but i dont even live near the water. What you dont know about Flood Insurance may shock you including the fact that a preferred risk policy starts as low as 129 a year. For an agent, call the number that appears on your screen. Devastating pictures we continue to look at from breezy point, queens, the Fire Department of new york tweeted out that there are 50 plus homes involved in this fire, 170 firefighters on the scene and they are going to have a very long morning ahead of them. Still no word on what might have caused that devastating fire. We are also keeping our eye elsewhere in new york. Weve talked a lot about Lower Manhattan but let me bring in herb boyd, a reporter for new York Amsterdam News calling us from harlem. Good morning to you. What can you tell us . Whats happening right now is that the high winds continue, but the rain has ceased. The streets, the neighborhood i live in is strewn with all kind of branches and limbs and twigs and what have you to be expected. There are a couple of trees that i saw that was crumbled and cracked in half and one nearly fell on a car. Occasional youll see on some of the storefronts the awnings are torn apart. One of the most eerie thing to see the west side highway without traffic. It was a strange thing when i was coming in i guess around 8 00, 8 30 tonight, so unusual to see the streets of manhattan absolutely deserted. Certainly in midtown which is usually teeming at that time at night. Seeing any downed power lines or Power Outages that far up in the city . No real sign of power outage here. You walk around and see that many of the lights are on in the streets and in the homes and in the various stores that still may have some that cut their lights off, but for the most part, it appears to be spared any kind of power outage up here. A noreaster, you know how it swept through and most of Lower Manhattan was really hit hard. Part of the problem if you dont live in new york city that people may not understand is with no Public Transportation, it becomes virtually impossible for a lot of these businesses to open for business because many of the people who work there dont necessarily live in the neighborhood. Exactly. And its hard to figure out how commerce is going to get going again until they can figure out what to do about the subways and bus, dont you think. You hear the mayor tried to talk about people getting to work the best way they can. You hope they live near their place of employment but as you suggest many of us depend on the Public Transit system here so its going to be very difficult for a lot of the people to get to work, for a lot of the stores to open. For a lot of the other kind of businesses and things that we depend on around here to be active at all. But based on what youre seeing where you are, does it look at least like further uptown in new york that there may be a relatively small amount of cleanup . Oh, the cleanup is just extensive. I mean you walk around and you got debris all over the place. Most of it is branches that have been torn away, particularly from the older trees. You have a lot of garbage, you know they tried to get some of the containers emptied before the storm came but you can see the receptacles all up and down the street, so its a lot of debris that has to be cleaned up here. Herb boyd, a reporter for new York Amsterdam News. That up for that report. We have a affiliate in south kingstown, rhode island. A lot of flooding there. What can you tell us, mario. Reporter a lot of damage here. Were along the coast here on a road called matunek beach road along the ocean and historically this area suffers from beach erosion, storm surge in big storms like this. Where im standing, im on someones front steps but as we widen out its sitting in a pile of water here detached from wherever it was supposed to be before. I mean, heres a mobile home area behind me, theyre just sitting in water. Now, were actually across the street from the beach and the ocean. What happens is the water, the storm surge is so strong the water just pushes across the road, floods this area across the street from the beach. If you were to drive up and down the main road you would just see piles and piles of sand as if it was like a snowstorm. The plows have come through. Theyve plowed the sand off the road because what happens is the storm surge is so strong, it literally pushes the sand and the beach right on to the road itself. So a lot of damage here, these homes are sitting in water. Further up a beach that suffered beach erosion, sought cottages were washed away. Several others damaged. Beautiful spot in rhode island, but the down side of that being right on the water here is severe storms like this and the damage it can cause, waiting for daylight to come a lot will assess damage and cleanup here. Big damage from hurricane sandy. And what miami marrow hilario. What can you tell us about the Power Outages in rhode island . We have right now reporting more than 1100,000 customers an households out wower. Thats in terms of people that several hundred thousand people in rhode island without power right now. National grid are the power utility here. They have crews staged and ready to go, several hundred cruise on the ground. The trucks are on standby in several locations just waiting for the wins to die down