Downgraded to a Tropical Storm this morning, but it remains extremely dangerous. Sandy is expected to soon combine with two other major storm systems and then increase in strength. Right now its 350 miles off of charleston, South Carolina. Sandy ripped across the caribbean causing heavy damage in jamaica, haiti and cuba before moving over the bahamas. At least 40 people 40 people are dead in its wake. No one can be certain how powerful it will become but the signs are ominous to say the least. Lets get the latest from Mark Strassman who is in Virginia Beach, virginia. Good morning to you, mark. Reporter good morning. We have seen winds pick up overnight, no rain yet but you can see around me wind have picked up. Local forecasters say within the next 24 hours the winds will pick up more significantly and this area will get up to six inches of rain. For the most part many places farther north of here are going to get it much worse. Sandy, with its nickname frankenstorm has proved its a monster. Sandy lashed the bahamas, a category 1 hurricane with pounding rains and 75 mileperhour winds that swept across the island chain. I want caused widespread Power Outages and killed one man. Authorities said he was the ceo of a british bank. Since wednesday the killer storm already has taken more than 40 lives across the caribbean. Haiti took the worst of sandy so far. 115 mileperhour winds flooded rivers and collapsed homes. At least 26 people were killed. Sandy was cubans deadliest storm in seven years. Its fury killed seven people and destroyed homes on the eastern end of the island. Along the u. S. East coast millions of people are scrambling to protect what they own. In chesapeake bay, coal freighters and other big ships were moved to safe harbor in waters behind the beaches. The protection is much better there than here. Were wideopen for a noreaster. Reporter in chesapeake virginia this warehouse of emergency supplies belongs to operation blessing international. They are packing Roofing Supplies to heaters to mobile kitchen for a move anywhere up the coast where sandy could leave behind ruin. Were planning for Power Outages, winter storm, operation blessing will be ready with hot meals. We have construction trailers full of tools to help residents to clean up their homes after they are flooded. Reporter that same charity is already working in haiti. They were helping the earthquake, now they are helping the hurricane needy. So many people up and down the east coast, they are trying to stay ahead of this massive storm, preparing for the worst. Anthony. Mark strassman in Virginia Beach, virginia. Thank you, mark. Just how worried should east coast residents be about this storm . An obvious concern is that sandy could slam into the most denselypopulated region of the country. Lets get more on that from chip reid in ocean city maryland. Reporter good morning. You know yesterday was just a Beautiful Day at the beach here but this morning the wind and the surf are really starting to pick up and this is just a very small hint of whats to come. On the ocean city boardwalk some Business Owners are already boarding up and heading out of town. Im pretty worried. I would say its definitely a nine. Were concerned about the flooding. Reporter the ocean city mayor hasnt ordered an evacuation but wants everybody to be ready. Bet prepared. Go through their checklist. Reporter sandy is expected to hit the most denselypopulated area in the u. S. 65 Million People about one in five americans could potentially lie in the storms path. Last year hurricane irene caused loss of power, this time even more could be left in the dark. When youre facing 50 60 Miles Per Hour with all the leaves on the trees and a soaking rain well see trees come over and branches come down. Reporter up and down the eastern seaboard 20,000 utility workers are standing by to turn the power back on. Five refineries along the threatened east coast that produce 7 of the nations gasoline are expected to suspend operations as early as sunday. That could put upward pressure on the price of gas. The storm is affecting the president ial campaign. Parts of three battleground states North Carolina virginia and ohio are directly in sand chips path. Now Vice President biden already had to cancel an event that was scheduled for this morning and mitt romney cancelled one for tomorrow. Both campaigns are worried about the effect of this storm on early voting. Thank you, chip. To get a handle on the strength of sandy and the path its taking we turn to David Bernard, chief meteorologist in our miami station wsor. Also a cbs news hurricane consultant. David good morning. Good morning, rebecca. Lets take a look at what we have on sandy. The headline overnight if you want to call it that is that it weakened a little bit so it went from a hurricane to a Tropical Storm. With 70 mileperhour winds. Ill show you in a minute i dont think thats going to be real important. Right now its 350 miles southeast of charleston South Carolina, the forecast does reintensify this to a category 1 hurricane by sunday night and early monday morning and then as we go during the day monday thats when were expecting that landfall somewhere along the midatlantic or northeastern shore line maybe as far north as long island or as far south as portions of the delmarva. David, as chip reid just laid out one in five americans are looking like they are in this storms path. When do we expect it to strengthen again . Lets take a look at this map. Thats why im saying its not that important it weakened to a Tropical Storm at this point. This is the wind field, that yellow area is 40 Miles Per Hour greater. Orange is 60 Miles Per Hour greater. Thats a massive storm and we put this wind field into motion. Notice the Tropical Storm force winds spreading today and tonight over the outer banks of North Carolina and then as we go during the day sunday into monday, were expecting all of new england, all of the Midatlantic States to at least have Tropical Storm force winds and then areas where you see the orange that could be 60 Miles Per Hour greater and we call that our significant wind impact area, the greatest chances where we could have Power Outages and downed trees, something that chip was referring to in his last piece which will be an element of this storm that is going to be a major problem. Coming up in the next hour well talk about the other problem and thats coastal flooding. David, the fact that the storm has been downgraded to a Tropical Storm doesnt minimize the threat in any way. It doesnt minimize the threat at all because of the sheer size of this storm. Its pushing an enormous amount of water. Overall the energy is expanding in a way just by the sheer nature and size of the Tropical Storm. And besides when that cold front reaches it something called a process will take over and thats why the Hurricane Center thinks it will pick up intensity. Its minutia and were looking at a major storm sunday night into monday and tuesday. David bernard in miami. We look forward to checking in with you later in the program. Now to politics and the stretch to election day just ten days to go. Judging by the polls the race couldnt be any tighter. We begin our coverage with nancy cordes. Shes at the white house. Good morning to you. Reporter good morning, rebecca. Well both sides right now are cherry picking the polls they like. They are pushing their stats in the early voting states where they are doing well. Its about projecting confidence and momentum and not showing any sign of weakness and of course both sides are predicting gloom and doom if their opponent is elected as governor romney did again last night in ohio. These are tough times for middle income americans and his answer is forward. It feels more like backward to a lot of American Families ill tell you that. Reporter earlier in the day iowa romney argued president obama didnt deserve a second term. President obama didnt repair our economy. He did not save medicare and social security. He did not tame the spending and borrowing. He did not reach across the aisle to bring us together. Reporter the speech was build as a Major Economic address but president obama canned it in an interviews with an nbc affiliate in des moines. Governor romney like every challenger will suggest he has better ideas. The problem and you probably heard in the speech today theres no bear there. Reporter in a bid to turn out young voters mr. Obama did a live interview with mtv on friday. The most vibrant musical art form right now over the last ten, 15 years has been hiphop. Reporter he was asked about Student Loans, Climate Change and same sex marriage. I have a track record of not just talking the talk on this but also walking the walk ending dontask, donttell and im going to keep on pushing as hard as i can but, you know, whats really going to change this is the young people their attitudes, i think will reflect the future. Reporter the Washington Post is reporting this morning that the white house is considering proposing another tax cut for working americans next year would amount to a few hundred dollars or more. It would replace the payroll tax cut that americans have been enjoying the past few years and anthony i dont think anyone is surprised that a tax cut is being floated just a week and a half out before the election. No, dont think so. Nancy cordes at the white house. Thanks. One element that could wind up having a bigger impact on this president ial race than any before is early voting. Ten days before election day more than 10 million votes have already been cast. Plus the prospect of bad weather on the east coast adds another wrinkle to the vital question of voter turnout. Lets talk about what all of that could mean for both candidates with john dickerson. Hes in our washington bureau. Good morning john. Good morning. Chip reid mentioned just a little while ago North Carolina virginia ohio all in the direct path of this storm. How do you think it will affect early voting and both candidates in these last days before the election . Well its already affected the schedules of the candidates. And you know when a candidate comes to town its not just they come and give their message and people cheer. I want initiates a whole string of activity with getting people to come to the event and those people turned into volunteers in some states ohio i was just in ohio last week people were going from the rally to go vote. If the candidate doesnt visit all of that activity doesnt happen. So where the candidate is and events that are being postponed or cancelled in virginia and there arent too many in North Carolina but in virginia particularly and later in ohio that would be a problem for the campaign. John, might this tip the scales in favor of one candidate over the other . Well its hard to say. It depends on how severe the storm is. You could make the case that it has potential to hurt democrats more and heres why. Democrats have had traditionally a tougher time turning out their voters. Youll note in the polls theres a difference between registered voters the president does better with them than likely voters mitt romney does a little bit better with them. Leaving aside the question of the polls and the debate over the polls what that shows us is the traditional fact that democrats tend to be lower propensity voters. The more days you have to get those democrats out if youre the president s team the better. So if you take away a few days because of bad weather, that could hurt the democrats. John both campaigns have made a big deal about early voting. The president himself went back to chicago to vote early. Are you saying then that early voting is more critical to the democrats . It is. Because the democrats have lots more voters in a lot of places but over time its been hard in history its been harder for them to turn their voters out. For one reason or another they dont get to the polls. Early voting is great for democrats because it means youre not trying to motivate people for one specific day youre motivating them over a three week period which means you can grab them get them to vote and what they are trying to do in this early period is get low propensity voters. If you can get those voters who sometimes vote sometimes dont then you know your diehards will turn out so you want to grow the size of your vote by getting those folks who arent the diehard voters who vote in every possible election. Early voting begins today in florida, john. How much might we see the candidates chip resources after they see the initial who is coming in who is casting their ballots early . These campaigns are looking at specific voting places. I was talking to republicans in ohio, there are 88 different voting places in ohio and they were watching the ones in the areas where the president had visited last week to see if there was an uptick in early voting activity because if there was an uptick then they would change their plan and resources. So what they are monitoring this daybyday. As they see the results come in they will make decisions where to put the candidate in the state, whether to bring the candidate to state at all and,000 change the messaging. If you fine that a lot of your voters are turning out you can maybe change the message to appeal to swing voters who are more up for grabs than your democrats or low propensity democrats who would be appealed to. If youre going for swing voters they require more of a middle of the road than a left or right message. John dickerson, thanks john. It is one of the most shocking crimes to hit new york city in years. Two Young Children murdered and found by their mother on thursday. The alleged killer their trusted nanny. Elaine quijano has the latest on this heartbreaking story. Reporter police have been unable to interview the nanny suspected of stabbing to death 6yearold lucia and her 2yearold brother leo. The nanny, 50yearold Yoselyn Ortega is in Police Custody at the hospital where shes in critical condition. Officials believe she slashed her throat and wrist and a Law Enforcement source said she swallowed some pills. Its not clear what they were or how many she took. New York Police Commissioner ray kelly says so far investigators have found no history of violence in ortegas background. She has been employed by the family for approximately two years. She was referred to them by another family. Reporter it was thursday afternoon when the childrens mother marina krim arrived at her apartment with her 3yearold daughter. Krim was looking for her two other children and the nanny. Moments later a neighbor heard inconsolable cries. Unbelievable blood curdling screams. No words. Just crying from the bottom of the gut. Horrible screams. Reporter Officials Say it was krim who found her children stabbed in the bathtub. Nearby was ortega. Nanny began to stab herself as the woman entered the room or entered the bathroom. We initially thought that it had already been done but now information is coming out that she did it as the mother entered the bathroom. Reporter the childrens father kevin krim an executive at cnbc was notified as he returned from a business trip. Outside the Apartment Building strangers paid their respects. One card read so unbearable so unfair. For cbs this Morning Saturday elaine quijano, new york. And here with the latest on the investigation into these tragic killings is cbs this morning Senior Correspondent john miller. Hes a former fbi deputy director. Good morning. The obvious question also in Something Like this is why. Theyve been looking into the background of the nanny, apparently she was in some distress, yeah . So the why is a tough one here. In the hospital shes got a tube down her throat and shes been in an induced coma there. They are unable to interview her. Theyve been to the krim family and gone through that with them to the extent that they are able to cope with those questions, and nothing obvious is jumping out. When theyve been to the nannys family they said she was under increased stress. She was going through she wasnt herself. She was going through some mental emotional issues and she was seeking help. So yesterday they were going through her phone books, business cards, things in her room on Riverside Drive trying to figure out where was she getting that help can they find a doctor clinic somebody that can get those answers as to why from them or at least what was going on in the back gound of her life. The krim family hired her about two years ago and did pretty extensive background checks. And they got her the best way you can get a nanny which is on a recommendation from a family they knew who had already had her as a nanny and thats the best background check you can use, which is who else have they work for, do we know and trust those peoples judgment. But i sent this case down to Mary Ellen Otool one of the foremost fbi profilers, author of the book dangerous instincts. I said theres not enough data for a formal profile but from what you see what obser