Feels like little needles are hitting you in the face. A crane here in new york has put a force in a danger zone. We have all that coming up through the next hour. Live breaking the coverage continues of sandy. Lets go outfront. And good evening, everyone. Im erin burnett. Outfront tonight, i am live in new york city. A part of the city that has been evacuated. New york city is under siege right now from sandy a little hard here, even to talk, as you can tell. Lets get to chad myers in atlanta. I know its been downgraded, but right here, it feels like its stronger by the its just a different name. Its not so much that it got downgraded. It is just no longer tropical in nature, which means its colder than it is warmer. And you will feel that. You will feel that cold air wrap in. Weve had reports of sleet all over the eastern United States today as that cold air has been wrapping in. The wind blowing down and the rain drops on the way down to the ground turning into small, little sleet pellets. The reason why you are getting more wind right now is because the wind field is coming around to you, blowing that water into the battery. This is going to be an issue for you, its right where you are at Battery Park City will begin to flood. At least another couple of feet from where you are now because there are hours, hours, erin, of the same wind direction blowing water straight into new york city. And chad, its Pretty Amazing here. Watching it, literally over the past 20 minutes, we have started to see the water come up a little bit more, its going to be cresting over the south part of this promenade, the water has come over the edge. As i said, the next couple of hours are going to be among the worst were going to see. Atlantic city in new jersey has been getting the brunt of this for quite a few hours. Ali velshi is there and im going to go to him now. Erin, the rain has stopped in Atlantic City. I am standing in the ocean, but im no downtown Atlantic City. You can see behind me, probably three quarters to a mile away is the atlantic ocean, but i am standing in one foot of water at a major intersection in downtown Atlantic City. It is cold. What chad said is true. In the last hour, we must have felt a temperature drop 10, maybe 15 degrees. It is a very, very cold wind. This city is under curfew right now. Absolute travel ban. If you have not left, you cannot leave. You cannot get out even if you tried because the passage into it is washed over. Everything in Atlantic City is washed over. Flooding is widespread. There are Power Outages all over the city. All the street lights are gone. Traffic lights are gone. Theres auxiliary power behind me. Thats why you can still see the lights of caesars and a number of stores. Theres one set of traffic lights and three quarters of a mile. The only vehicles on the street are Emergency Vehicles and the National Guard imposing that curfew, making sure no one is out. It has become very cold. The water has risen dramatically in the last hour. Flooding now the major, major concern. We know there are people here, heres an Emergency Vehicle thats going to cross right in front of the camera right now. People are, the police are out here, Fire Departments out here. Chris christie has said if you are not out of your house, stay in your house, get to high ground and you will not be rescued unless there is a dire emergency, until the morning. Right now, weve got a utility truck just driving by, making sure that everybodys off the street, but thats the only activity in new jersey. In Atlantic City, new jersey, right now. And along the coast. The water levels are rising quite rapidly here, erin. All right, ali velshi, thanks very much. As he said, the water levels are rising there. So many of our viewers now are around the world and we want to give a welcome to you. New york city, most populous city in the United States and soon to be at the center of a storm affecting about 60 Million People in the United States. I have never seen new york city the way that it is today. Completely shut down. Schools were shut down. Subways. The bridges and the tunnels are shut down. It has never been like this before and as we said, we are anticipating record floods coming here within the next hour. I want to bring in ed rapaport of the National Weather center. Thanks so much for taking the time. Could you tell me how much worse do you think this storm is going to get from here . For the coastline, this is what, about the time youll see the worst of the winds. However, the surge continues to rise along the coast. Thats the greatest concern from this storm and for most storms and hurricanes. In this case, the flow is coming ashore. And its driven a storm surge across the shoreline, which is now on the order of seven feet in the battery and 12 feet at kings point in new york. Now, in addition to that, these are occurring not at high tides. The high tide for the battery is in about a couple of hours. The surge to the right end to the south here, to the left, seven feet of surge. And seven feet of surge as far east as connecticut. Its pretty incredible watching the water come up. Im hearing about record after order. Saying it doesnt matter how strong this storm is, that a lot is about the fact that the pressure is so low, and that its going to last so long. Can you tell me how much longer its going to last . Especially for those, i believe a million and a half of them have already lost power. Right. With the center about to move ashore now, in southern new jersey, this area in blue here, means that the coastal areas are just about halfway through their experience with this storm. That means another 12 to 24 hours along the coast. Inland, the conditions are just now dee tieruating and away from shore, the threat is still water. Its not storm surge. Its rainfall, expecting as much ten inches of rain in this area here. And im also curious about something. Gi given the fact we have more than 10,000 flights and we have a brief moment of calm here, this is obviously something people around the world are watching, ed. We have Hurricane Season ever year. Hurricanes often at the end of september, end of august, im sorry, early september, but how often is it that you get a storm this late . How rare is this superstorm . We get a hurricane about once every two years, actually, in november. Whats different about this case though is that the storm, the hurricane is so far north, we usually dont see storms of this strength at any time of the year for hurricanes in northern part of the midatlantic. Its this track thats causing us so much of the problem for the storm surge along the coast because the winds are piling the water up and as the center goes inland, those waters will begin to increase the surge even more to the south. All right, ed, thank you very much. Really appreciate you taking the time tonight. I want to get to jason carroll, in an area of long island that has been evacuated. Jason is now seeing some rescues happening on long island. What are you seeing . Well, just a few moments ago just as we were live on the air, we saw some of the very last residents in this particular area where we are finally deciding its time to come out and leave. The water was just rising too quickly. It was rising too high. They have been out of this yall day long. We saw the water steadily come up, people leaving throughout the day. This is an area under mandatory evacuation. Just as we were live a few moments ago, an elderly woman, her son, her daughter, decided it was time to go, so they were finally able to make it out. Even before that, we had a point where we went out with fire crews from the fire department, went out with them. We saw at least three rescues happening when we went out with them. They told us throughout the day they had rescued almost two dozen people. Sometimes, from homes, sometime, from cars. Its just a very valuable lesson. When you hear warnings about the storm like this, when you see the water starting to rise, dont wait. Emergency officials will tell you best thing to do is get out and get out safely. All right. And jason carroll, thanks very much to you. As mayor bloomberg said it so well, when they tell you to get out of an area that is supposed to be evacuated, you should get out. You wouldnt want it to be you that would cause a fist responder to risk or lose their life. Coming up, were joined by ray kelly. Hes going to be talking to us about the city subway system. Its protected by only about 700 pumps. Plus, this crane. Well show you a picture. We could see it out of our office us today. Along the edge of the tallest residential building in manhattan and it is dangling right now. Back in just a moment. Try running four. Ning a restaurant is hard, fortunately weve got ink. It gives us 5x the rewards on our internet, phone charges and cable, plus at Office Supply stores. Rewards we put right back into our business. This is the only thing weve ever wanted to do and ink helps us do it. Make your mark with ink from chase. Or that printing in color had to cost a fortune. Nobody said an allinone had to be bulky. Or that you had to print from your desk. At least, nobody said it to us. Introducing the business smart inkjet allinone series from brother. Easy to use, its the ultimate combination of speed, small size, and lowcost printing. Welcome back, we are here in the middle of the superstorm and im joined by the new York City Police commissioner, ray kelly. Have you seen anything like this before . How do you rate this . Oh, this is pretty bad. To go back to 1932, we had a northeaster here and certainly has the potential to be bad for a while. This storm is going to linger over the storm for a while. Wanted to ask you about this flooding because were in a mondmand story evacuation zone right now. High tide is coming, so its going to get worse. How concerned are you about flooding especially with the subways . Very much concerned. I think thats the major concern. We know that the residential buildings here, if you say the subway system as well. This is salt water, it can do damage to the system. So were concerned. We believe that is going to shut down. Actually, they have shut down, some grids in Lower Manhattan and there may be more. So, i think the major concern here is prolonged blackouts. Prolonged blackouts. People are watching around the world tonight saying new york city is the capital of the world in a lot of ways. The markets here closed down by choice for the First Time Since september 11th, 2001. When did you know how bad it would be . Im sorry. What . When did you know i think last week, there was a lot of talk about preparation for this storm. Lots of things were inspected, for instance, cranes were inspe inspected. Obviously, so earlier today, something that was unanticipated and a lot of preparation. I believe this city has done everything they could reasonably have done, but Mother Nature is Mother Nature. You know, were still going to feel significant effects. Let me ask you about that crane because i could see it outside today before i came down here. How did that crane end up in that situation . Was there a way to hold it down . And how many people are at risk . Its just dangling there. It seems like it could cause a lot of loss of life. Its really unknown as to how the crane got to where it was. It really tipped over, the boon tipped over, but the whole area has been evacuated and cleared. We know traffic, the street below it. The steam pipes are being turned off. The gas lines have been you know, made certain theyre not having any gas going through them. So in the event it did fall, its not going to cause any explosion or a fire. And how do you spend the rest of your night as the storm comes through . As we said, the next the next two or three hours, what are you going to be doing . Obviously, assess the damage that this water is eventually doing. Were going look at other areas in the city, brooklyn and the bronx as well, other areas at risk. In terms of loss of life, what do you know right now in manhattan . Weve had no loss of life, so far, obviously, want to keep it that way. Were doing everything we can to make sure that people get out of the affected areas. Weve provided transportation ourselves, but now, if people are not out, they should stay in place. Weve also hard reports perhaps of a building collapsing in chelsea. What can you tell me about that . The Building Collapse at 15th street and eighth avenue. Residential and commercial building. The facade fell. There are no injuries or people in the building. The building was evacuated at this time. No reports of injuries. All right, ray kelly, thank you very much. We appreciate you taking the time. All right. Were going to take a break and come back as our continuing coverage of the superstorm continues. [ female announcer ] nature exists on the grandest scale. And in the tiniest details. And sometimes both. Nature valley granola thins pack the big taste of granola and dark chocolate into one perfect square, under 100 calories. Nature valley granola thins. Nature at its most delicious. Nature valley granola thins. Perform, compete and grow. And people are driving this change. 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Say hi to the allnew 47 combined mpg cmax hybrid. R all right, welcome back to outfront. I want to get to david, hes in old saybrook, connecticut, where hes also feeling the wrath of the storm. David, what is happening right there . Well, erin, just to give you an idea of how fast this water is rising, just two hours ago, this intersection was dry. Now, you can see how high up it is now. The house over here behind me was completely dry. Now, the water is up in that house. We are more than a full block away from the water waterfront and yet this is the beginning of the storm surge expected to peek just hours from now, but right now, were watching this water slowly climb and coming from way back down there in the darkness now, this water had been relentless. The governor of connecticut probably put it best. He said if you live near the water on Long Island Sound, youre probably going to be in the water before this storm is done. And thats exactly what were looking at right here. Theyre talking about winds of 50 to 60 Miles Per Hour from now until 3 00 in the morning. Lelectricity is out everywhere. The numbers in the last couple of hours of people without electricity has tripled and this storm is really just beginning to make itself known in connecticut. And how bad do you think it will get there . As you said, just beginning and youve got hours and hours to go. Are you looking at records when you look at people losing power and the storm surge and the damage you might see . I know some of the real estate there is some of the most expensive in the country. What were looking at right now and these are the predictions before the storm came ashore. They were predicting up to 11 feet of the storm surge along the coast in some places. At this moment, no one has revised those figures, but were still expecting to see the worst of this, maybe four, maybe five hours from now as we start to approach a high tide. Like i was telling you, just a couple of hours ago, this intersection was dry. That house was on dry land and thats how fast this water is rising. All right. Thanks very much to david matingly and i want to update you on the numbers we have. 2. 2 Million People right now are without power. Across 11 states thanks to this storm and as david was saying, where we are tonight, as well as getti intin inting stronger and is just about to lap up here. Plus, were going take you to Seaside Heights, new jersey, where some of the real devastation is is just starting. Thats coming up in just a moment. Well be back. I love you, james. Dont you love me . Im a robot. I know. I know youre a robot but theres more in you than just circuits and wires uhhh. cries a machine cant give you what a person can. Thats why ally has knowledgeable people there for you, night and day. Ally bank. Your money needs an ally. And the candidates speech is in pieces all over the district. The writers desktop and the coordinators phone are working on a joke with local color. The secure cloud just received a revised intro from the strategists tablet. And while i make my way into the venue, the candidate will be rehearsing off of his phone. [ candidate ] and thanks to every young face i see out there. [ woman ] his phone is one of his biggest supporters. [ female announcer ] with cisco at the center. Working together has never worked so well. Welcome back. I am here in new york city and i want to welcome our viewers in the United States who are watching the storm as well as our viewers around the world. New york city has never seen a day like this. Everything was closed. The subways, all Public Transit was closed. The schools were closed. The streets were empty.