that will eventually draw sandy back inland. exactly where that's going to occur, not yet set in stone. but we're keying in the area from the mid coast of maine, bangor, down to the delmarva peninsula. that's where the highest probability would be. but looking for a wide-reaching impact from this storm, soaking, flooding rainfall. coastal flooding and snowfall in the higher elevations. rob and paula, back to you. >> thanks, jim. a messy few days ahead. of course, the "gma" team is tracking sandy with a team of reporters up and down the east coast. all of that coming up at 7:00. >>> and as the race for the white house, with the two candidates zeroing in on one state. o-h. >> i-o. the battle for the buckeye state is shaping up to be the big fight with 11 days to go. getting close. abc's tahman bradley on why there is so much at stake. >> reporter: the race for the white house is at a furious pace for one key swing state. ohio. whoever wins the buckeye state will almost certainly win the white house. challenger mitt romney leads na

hurricane sandy packing winds of 105 miles an hour. how over the bahamas. she has cleared the mountain. some additional strengthening not out of the question. this is still a large powerful storm and all maryland del projections have trended this thing further west manying -- meaning the impacts could be felt. where in this swath the storm will come in is a key factor. if it's close are to virginia, a much bigger impact. if she tracks further north, jobs up toward long island, higher impacts for new england. either way, we'll sew a lot of wind, a lot of rain. we have more coming up. >>> the city of baltimore has taken steps. there are several things you can do. first, they say make sure you have a battery powered radio, flashlights and enough water to last three days. make sure to clear debris from your neighborhood storm drains. >>> sandy is already makes its mark on florida. tropical storm warnings have been issued. we'll take you live to delray beach and check in with our sister station for the latest. >>> he had come to visit family members on leave fro

send us your storm pics right now. >> find out where sandy is bringing snow. we'll be right back after this break. >>> crews out and about. roosevelt leftwich. >> reporter: we're in harford county near joppa farm road. i'm starting this off because the wind is coming up so hard. let me go outside of the car. this is joppa farm road between route 7 and route 40. there have been a lot of issues with water. suddenly it will become torrent. i'm walking close to the joppa farm road. this water has been coming down, lots and lots of rain. right here you can see joppa farm road is closed between route 7 and route 40. it's like a little creek that has overflowed the banks. there's a low spot. there seems to be issues. let me come over here and give you an idea. normally this is barrel just a -- looks like big ditch with a little bit of water but right up here you can really see where it's been coming down through here very, very rapidly. back up on the road surface, you can see it's been a mess for motorists as people are getting caught up and have to turn around. fur

sandy will slowly weaken as we head forward. a look at radar imagery, the northeast and mid-atlantic. >> okay. technical difficulty there. we apologize for that too. the question we were talking about earlier, the brunt of the storm is over. at issue, back surge, we are talking about, of course, high tide, as well, in a few hours this morning. >> i was talking with our meteorologist ginger zee. i said is it over? what more can we expect? she says there will be a back surge. with the back surge, you might expect higher wind. we don't know to anticipate more flooding, probably going to come when the sunrises. when the sun rises that's when we'll see the aftermath of the extent of the storm. sam champion our weather editor said, quote, this is the scenario everyone feared when making disaster plans. >> that's why, nickname it the perfect storms. so many dangerous factors collided and now we are seeing the aftermath of that. speak of aftermath, at least one of the nine nuclear plants in sandy's path declared an alert, oyster creek n

. >>> we are following sandy. this proves to be a deadly storm, two deaths in the state of maryland, 883 nationwide. >> breaking news out of the state of new jersey, the garden states, you will remember with your coverage yesterday for you, ahead of sandy, so much attention paid to atlantic city, in and around the areas we have news, a dam has been breeched near the community, near the county. ho hoboken would be a good landmark. a thousand plus homes expected to be affected by this. >> closer to home, when you think about a storm, you worry about your safety and property. that includes power outages. the latest situation from bge, under 200,000 people are without power, they restored power to over 77,000, that is something to keep in mind. should you lose power, that's a possibility today. we will pass along a number to you, we are told time and time again from the folks from bge, don't assume they know you lost power. 877-778-2222. they have brought in 3000 workers from out of state to help with this and help ge

welcoming hurricane sandy coverage. we'll be here for the rest of the night. >> definitely, as the storm moves ashore. let's check in with abc2 news brian kuebler. he is at mema headquarters. brian? >> reporter: hey, kelly, how are you? we're waiting on the governor and will talk to him in a few minutes and do a one-on-one interview. we'll have new information for you from the governor. from the last briefing he said sandy is coming quicker. a few bridges have been closed, tydings, 95, the big interstate that runs through the state is close to being closed. i ran outside real quick. the wind gusts, the wind is coming quickly. tomorrow -- pushing forward to tomorrow, mta metro closed, buses, light rail, everything closed tomorrow. state government is closed and there will be no early voting again for the third straight day tomorrow. they said they will make those hours up coming up soon. they have to figure out how they will do that. so far right now about 75,000 people without power. the governor should have more inform

mayor bloomberg says they may be closed as sandy approaches. for more on the damage sandy is already doing, we go up the florida coast to ginger zee. ginger? >> reporter: sam, cocoa beach is one of the widest beaches in florida, but not tonight. it's been cut in half thanks to the breakers coming in. 60-mile-an-hour wind gusts, this all from a storm that's almost 200 miles away. so, if sandy hasn't impressed you enough, check out these hurricane facts. the average hurricane has enough energy to power the world 200 times over. and during its life cycle, it can release as much energy as 10,000 nuclear bombs. it will interact with another trough in the northwest, a system in greenland and inject itself from the mid-atlantic to coastal new england. that's the area we're most concerned about, the area we find our linsey davis in new jersey. >> reporter: that's right, ginger. along the jersey shore, emergency manage officials are banking on sand dunes like this that they just moved into place today as the front line of defense. up and down the east c

you can see what happened as sandy hit the warm water. it got whipped in the jet stream and pulled into maryland, new jersey, and pennsylvania. we'll be dealing with this storm 24 to 36 hours at minimum. >> we want you to know that the highway administration is doing their best to keep everything open. >> good, thank you. >> thank you. heavy rains in the bay area. let's go to the falls. it is still falling isn't it? >> reporter: the rain is certainly not stopped here. we are seeing less intensity than we saw before. the rainfall is picking up. i'll step out of the way so you can take a look. at this point we are at meadow mills south of 41st street in hamden. the river is over the banks at meadow mill. the officers here are accustomed to this. this is one of the trouble spots in the city as far as flooding goes. this water is just extremely powerful and is washing all kinds of debris down through the streets and building up on the other side of the bridge, which is blocked off. you see the entrance to meadow mill blocked off throughout th

any question about sandy? there it is. >> it's insane. >> we're still surveying the damage left behind by slain di here in baltimore. >> we're riding along with the crew, surveying the damage from hurricane sandy. i'm joce sterman. he'll have the full report coming up. >> we're heading down to the ocean to see how sandy is fairing there. >> and the downed power lines are dangerous. >>> look like all the school systems -- i know howard county will be making that call by 6:00. >> as soon as we receive it, we will officially pass it on. >> in about 45 minutes we'll hear. >>> you know, we've been seeing all sorts of storm damage today but we've been seeing it on dry land. >> joce? >> reporter: i could not hack it with the members of the coast guard there. were only one to three foot seas and they were whipping me around. i felt like it was a crisis. i want to show you this boat on back river. this is exactly where the coast guard wants to see your boat, docked up out of the water so they don't have to deal with yo

hurricane sandy, crashing through the caribbean. it exploded in size and strength today as it hit the bahamas, after relentlessly pounding jamaica. the category 2 hurricane blasted out winds of over 110 miles per hour, and unleashed a staggering two feet of rain. here in florida, it won't be a direct hit, but more of a sideswipe. in schools are cancelled tomorrow as sandy approaches. this is ft. lauderdale beach and it is usually packed. but the only thing being packed up and locked down are these chairs. they expect up to ten-foot waves and deadly rip currents. but the real danger is farther northwest, when sandy collides with a cold weather system. a merger that could create a superstorm. >> we donald no't normally see end up this way. >> reporter: that's why it's been called a billion dollar storm. capable of causing more imagine than hurricane irene last year. the height of the storm should be tuesday, and it will take its sweet time making an exit. turning in the atmosphere over the same spots for five or six days. now, dependi

. >> hurricane sandy battered jamaica. we're talking about 80-mile an hour winds when that hit yesterday afternoon. the storm downed trees and it damaged homes and all across the island. it strengthened once leaving jamaica making landfall in cuba overnight. as a strong category 2 storm. and it's already kicking up to the seas off of fort lauderdale, florida and the beaches there. >> i love it. >> i went in the water. i did about three somersaults. strong rip currents. >> it is very, very rough. >> in nine minutes a live report from boca raton. >>> bge wants you to be prepared in case there are some outages in our area. stay informed and make a plan and also have a list of emergency phone numbers and build an emergency kit. in the kit you should have flashlights, batteries, a corded telephone and foods and of course you can never have too much water. >>> all right so the big question is is this going to hit us? if it is when and i know it's hard to predict but you've been doing that all morning. >> the time frame still the

all that is set to interact with hurricane sandy. that is a strong, strong hurricane churning into the open waters now just north of jamaica. there is the island of jamaica and it got pulmonary led by sandy. now moving too to the southeastern side of cuba. then it's crossing over cuba and will lose some strength over those mountains. as we look further ahead, you can see on the tropical track here, the projections for this storm to be off florida friday and then swinging out and once we get beyond saturday, still uncertainty. you see the bredth of the cone here, it could come in close to ocean city new jersey and up into new york city or it could be quite a bit further out at sea. a widespread sort of array of possibilities here where the final storm track could end up. if we take the average, we're talking wind and rain and beach erosion from sandy. we'll see what happens. tonight 54, partly cloudy, mild again. not as warm. and in the next few days we're still in that nice stretch of weather. not quite as warm tomorrow but look at s

we're talking about tropical storm sandy. as a pastor, my support for question 6 is rooted in my belief that the government should treat everyone equally. i would not want someone denying my rights based upon their religious views, therefore i should not deny others based upon mine. it's about fairness. this law does not force any church to perform a same sex marriage if it's against their beliefs. and that's what this is about. protecting religious freedom and protecting all marylanders equally under the law. join me in voting for question 6. >>> our continuing coverage on the meningitis outbreak. >> there was a less of more than 1200 hospitals who bought drugs from the pharmacy. that list has been taken off the site. the fda said they have to make some corrections but they're still expecting the number of patients to grow and a warning to those who received any of the drugs to watch out for symptoms -- fever or headache. >>> we're still thinking pink on abc2. we've all seen the pink shoes, shirts. but there's myths about br

sandy roared ashore this ev evening. the ocean is now flooding into the city. >> reporter: lashing out with fearsome winds and monstrous storm surge at communities up and down the coast for hundreds of miles. gigantic waves engulfed the coastline. >> oh, my god, it's washing everything away! >> reporter: in atlantic city, 15-foot waves crashed over the seawe seawall. in hatteras, the surf tore up roads and beaches. 70-mile-per-hour winds battered communities as millions of americans hunkered down under the fury of the storm. the drama began early this morning as the storm headed toward the eastern seaboard in the midst of the maelstrom an incredit helicopter rescue at sea. 14 people pulled from the roiling waters of a the tal shatall ship "hms bounty" safrpg to the bottom of the sea, one crew member confirmed dead, another still missing. earlier today, in cape may, america's oldest seaside resort, sandy battered the grand homes, devoured the broad beaches and flooded streets, particularly turning the cape into an island.

concerns don't ease after sandy's landfall. more than a million people in 11 states are without power and as many as 10 million may lose electricity as the storm pushes inland. >> reporter: this is a record surge of water, diane, we are witnessing right now. as you can see on the outer side of new york harbor cop out of the superlatives, the larger storms in new jersey, it is about 8 feet in this water is rushing over the edge of lower manhattan and if you think this storm was just new jersey coast, those lands were about 90 miles an hour on the shore but we also had an 86-mile per hour wind gusts as far north as the rhode island coast. diane? >> sam, we will be checking back in with you as well and now we go to delaware. as you heard sam say an estimated 10 million people are at risk of losing power and we ask them to tell us what is happening there and how fast. david question mark. >> good evening, diane, you can take a look at some of these ways back here, it is an angry ocean and it was going to be up on this boardwalk her

hurricane sandy, already deadly. 21 killed in the caribbean so far. >> a sandy is now beginning its move up the east coast, set to be a historic storm. and everyone from the carolinas all the way up to maine will feel its impact. it's expected to mix with two other huge systems, over one of the most densely-populated areas of the country. experts are predicting at least a billion dollars in damage. >> let's get right to sam, leading the coverage for our extreme weather team. >> good morning, george. we want to give people a couple of days to get ready for this storm on the eastern seaboard. that's why we're talking about it so much right now. look at the canopy of clouds here. about 2,000 miles across. that's unbelievable when you look at the size of the storm. but zoom in on where the storm is. that's what we're talking about. that's sandy. the hurricane center has it crawling up the seaboard. and this is new information. makes a turn. looks like by monday it goes out to the atlantic and hooks in, making a turn somewhere between washington, d.c. and new york city. most likely in the del

quick update on sandy's progress. . progress. it continues to churn into maryland and we continue to see intense wind and rains out there, especially to the west where the snow is coming down and the heavy rain, rain bands to the south. the rain will continue to lift. we'll to get soaked. lock at some of the wind gusts, still gusting to 30 or 40 miles per hour, so we're still looking for tree line damage in the overnight hours as temperatures con to fall. much more in an update coming up in one-half hour. let's get you back now to nightline. reporting hundreds of people trapped inside their homes, narrow barrier, low-lying barrier island near ken dart in new york city. floodwaters recreeding but some berms, sand berms that were reekted along the south shore here intended to slow or prevent waters from going into long beach, they dissolved under the pounding surf and the rising tide, floodwaters expected to reach eight feet high here in long beach, hearing reports of people stuck in their homes where the water came in from the nor

we will have much more on sandy in a moment. first a look at the other stories we are following this half-hour. >>> an absolutely heartbreaking story here on new york's upper west side. a mother comes home from running errand to discover her two toddlers stabbed to death inside their apartment. police say the nanny did it and then tried to take her own life. >> heartbreaking. also this morning, 11 days until voters go to the polls. new numbers show governor romney pulling ahead by a hair. >> he does have good hair. >> he does, except for a lot of times he has the one piece that falls in front. >> the piece that is pushing him ahead. >> by a hair. we're going to talk to our senior washington editor about what each candidate did right this week and what might lie ahead. the next crucial 11 days. >> here we go. lightening the mood a little bit. our friday morning edition of "insomniac theater." we will take a look at two new movies out there, one starring tom hanks, and my favorite berry, halle berry. that movie getting buzz. can't

it was suspended by superstorm sandy. but it's starting up again with the romney campaign heading to new states. and new polls showing president obama holding slim leads in the key battlegrounds. it's "your voice, your vote." and abc's jonathan karl is in florida. good morning, jon. >> reporter: good morning, george. that storm did not delay this campaign for long. joe biden and mitt romney will be campaigning hard down here in florida today. the storm has forced the president to cancel several campaign events. but it has also given him a chance to show some presidential leadership. >> my message to the federal government, no bureaucracy, no red tape. get resources where they're needed. >> reporter: and later today, he'll get a firsthand look at the damage on the new jersey shore, with none other than the state's republican governor, chris christie. christie is a die-hard romney supporter. but he's had nothing but praise for the president's handling of the storm, which he says is all that really counts right now. >> i don

but, where sandy goes next is a bit of an october surprise. it was just last october when another storm system dumped more than a foot of snow on halloween. many kids were forced to trick-or-treat in malls, as their communities struggled with widespread power outages. east coast power companies are already gearing up for sandy. anoother thing to keep in mind -- conditions this year are similar to october 1991, the year of the "perfect storm," when a hurricane combined with a huge cold weather system, the resulting storm killed 12 people and caused $200 million in damages. an at months fearic bomb. it may happen again later this week. let me show you this drop in the jetstream here, this very cold air moving down in the middle of the country. if you follow that, a big strong push of cold air, it opens up the jet stream on the east seaboard. allowing a window for sandy to run near the coast. >> okay, sam, show me these models on what the probability it is it will hit the east coast? >> it's a compelling watch on that eastern seaboard. as of yest

all of this power, all of this damage in sandy are still well offshore. what makes sandy special? this time of year, most tropical storms and hurricanes move east out to sea. sandy is traveling north and will turn west so its effects will be felt over a large land area. and this storm is monster size. clouds stretching over 2,000 miles, tropical force winds more than 1,000 miles. as sandy makes its way up the eastern seaboard it's colliding with an arctic cold front from the west. add in the jet stream and sandy is a superstorm. >> this storm is going to be destructive, historic and unfortunately, life-threatening. >> and we've got to talk about wind and rain from this storm, first. those are first the likely things that will cause the most damage early on in this storm. a quick look at its windfield. we'll show you is this not a coastal system. watch this thing come onshore and it spreads winds all the way in, look at that, chicago, you're getting winds. down south, atlanta you'll be feeling winds from the storm. take a look at the rainfall. again, this is not just the coastal st

we're really ramping up and beginning to see the full effects of sandy. we're not anywhere close to done. we have new information. this is the 2 p.m. informational update from the national hurricane center. we had to wait for the governor to say before we could bring you this. it has sped up in big time. if distance it's closed in the last three hours, almost 100 miles. the storm as close as it's going to get to ocean city maryland. the center of the storm, 100 miles. of course it's headed just north of ocean city. headed right into atlantic city new jersey. the fiercest storm surges will be just north of that but we have tremendous problems at the beach here in maryland and delaware as well. the movement has sped up northwest at 24 miles per hour. it will bring this thing in earlier this afternoon. we had model projection as early as 4, 5 this morning. the impact, the high winds as they come ashore will last well into the night, but actual landfall likely to come, you know, if you take 24 miles and divide it by about three more hours, three, four hours f

and as sandy marches west it's whipping up monster waves even on lake michigan. so here is the big picture at this moment, 14 states with cities and towns underwater and in places the water is 8 feet deep. and another night of darkness for millions of people, the new york city skyline in shadow. nearly half the island has no power at all. 8 million people in 18 states in the cold and dark tonight. and our extreme weather team is fanned out across the storm zone. abc's alex perez starts us out in little ferry, new jersey, still underwater, rescue is under way right now. alex. >> reporter: well, diane, we've learn president obama will be in new jersey surveying the damage tomorrow. but i want you to take a look around me here. this is what many blocks across little ferry, new jersey, look like tonight completely submerged. you'll see cars that tried to get out but just could not. in this neighborhood alone more than 400 stranded people were rescued today. rescuers made their way through flooded streets today picking up stranded families. >> want to come out? >> rep

let's talk about tropical storm sandy. the wind sustained at 70 miles an hour. we need four more miles an hour to become a category one hurricane. and it's forecasted to do that as it moves over jamaica. it's moving to the north at 12 miles an hour. and we are going to see that path now as by saturday morning, you can see it off the coast of the carolinas. and once again that track can jog more to the west more to the east. but again at this point we still are not sure if which dreck it's going to go in. but -- direction it's going to go in. we are watching the cold air and it's going to play a part in the storm that could be brewing as we go into the end of the weekend into the beginning of next week. because that cold air will begin to surge in so here are some of the storm possibilities for us. we do have if it moves inland, it will be very strong winds across the area and also mountain snow and if it stays along the coast, which is definitely a scenario we want, if that happens, we will be dealing with breezy conditions and also beach erosion and also some c

here is hurricane sandy. you see a massive storm system. center of circulation moving onshore in cuba, as we see. the cloud field extending northward. in the next 24 to 48 hours. gusty winds and rain to the bahamas. rain through florida. and soaking rain headed for, interacting with the system moving across the midwest. as we're into next week, likely impacts into new england. rob and paula, back to you. >> all right. thanks for that report, jim. we'll get another hurricane update from sam champion, coming up later today on "good morning america." >>> and now, we turn to the final sprint to the white house. president obama and mitt romney, trolling for votes in those key, battleground states. >> with just 12 days to go, the president is stopping in chicago today, to cast his ballot early. abc's tahman bradley has the latest on the mad dash by both campaigns. >> reporter: there's little in the way of rest for the presidential contenders. >> stay with me. and work with me. >> reporter: president obama, along with pop star, katy perry, showing

to the south, tropical storm sandy looking a bit more and more impressive here. winds to 60 miles an hour. still quite a ways from us but as we watch the hurricane tracking center, the track has moved west over cuba. that would bring it closer into florida but still we're projecting a turn out to sea thursday and into friday but again, timing is everything. if that trough slows down a little bit, that cold air slows down, this could push a little closer into the mid atlantic. if this thing comes in, coastal flooding is expected. if she stays out to sea, beach erosion, big waves coming in and it will l be colder no matter what happens. that cold air is coming sunday, monday, tuesday. how much rain, wind, how close will this had come, stay tuned. we'll keep watching it. we're going to say 830 degrees or -- 80 degrees for the two degree guarantee. i think we'll be dry and just trending warminger. thursday and friday a little cooler but the sunshine is going to be around. saturday a nice start but check out sunday, monday, tuesday, we bring in the weather. at the min

we're tracking sandy. this evening 60. we'll talk more about sandy and the extended forecast. >> more breaking news, this time involving the murder of a girl. >> the brothers are charged with autumn pasquale's murder. her body was found in a recycling container. two brothers lured her into the home. that's where police found her belongings, including the bike. autumn's father spoke to reporterrings. >> our little angel autumn has reached out to the world in her special way. she's an angel. she was an angel on earth and is an angel in heaven. she disappeared saturday and it appears she was strangled. >>> more on the 10-year-old girl strange strangled earlier this month. at this point besides similar locations police won't say exactly how these cases are connected. >> we're not able to go into details but we want the community to be aware that the police are linking the two cases. >> investigators found a miniature wooden cross, considered to be a key piece of evidence. police said the clues have resulted in more focus tips.

hurricane sandy moving across cuba as we speak. will emerge in open walters, and track across the bahamas. bringing soaking, rainfall there. outer squalls, rain, wind, tropical force at times in southern florida. this much we know for sure. also a cold front will move across the nation's midsection through today and through friday. the two systems going to interact. potential for an historic storm. as cold air moves east, it will interact with sandy moves its way northward, likely then curving the storm back into the northeast and new england. that will be a storm unlike we have seen in quite some time here if ever flooding rain, some heavy snow on the table. watch the storm headed forward. rob, paula, back to you. >> jamaica meantime recovering from the fir direct hit by the eye of the hurricane since gilbert back in 1988. authorities closed the international airports. police ordered 48-hour kur fucu to detour looting. two people have died. an elderly man, his home crushed by a boulder. and a woman in haiti. >>> security forces in

all this is courtesy is of that cold air that i showed you and also tropical storm sandy. right now you can see it's still the spinning looks healthy and it will make its move towards jamaica as a category one hurricane. and it heads towards cuba and that when we will see it make its way to the atlantic but the good news sight will become a tropical storm again. it will weaken a bit but the winds sustained at 70 miles an hour. and it's moving to the north at about 12 miles an hour. and you can see that track so you saw it for a second and that looks like it's in the track but it's the cone of uncertainty going through time you can see around cape hatteras and here are the storm possibilities. but first one takes it inland and we do have some strong windscoastal flooding and mountain snow from all the cold air. the second track will be breezy beach erosion and some coastal ran across the area. so no matter which track it takes we will be feeling the effects of this as we go through time. for today, the planner tops us off at 80 degrees. and the 7-day forecast still looks pr

>> i was tracking sandy >> jimmy: you were tracking sandy? >> i had normal stuff, weather stuff on top of the stuff. i was tracking sandy. me and my girlfriend got into a big fight >> jimmy: you did? >> because i'm tracking sandy and she bothering me about beefaroni. i said i'm tracking sandy! i had to know where sandy was because i was doing the ark. >> jimmy: like noah? >> i'm loading up two of god's creatures, two cousins, pancake and cookie d waiting on it. >> jimmy: is that a male and female? >> yeah. >> jimmy: which is the male? >> pancake is the male. they my cousins, you talking like they species. >> what are we talking about again? >> i built an ark. it was hectic because sears and roebucks had closed. so i had -- no power tools? >> jimmy: you had a weird tweet you said no electricity so i sit lean in my four-cornered room staring at candles. >> that's the beginning of the ghetto boys. "i said hello, sat in the room staring at candles," >> jimmy: you got pets? >> i got sharks and stuff. i got a generator when the lights went out. my

>> wow, issues from sandy still. we've got to monitor that. channel 2's locked into it. >> have a good night. >> night line -- nightline is next. as a pastor, my support for question 6 is rooted in my belief that the government should treat everyone equally. i would not want someone denying my rights based upon their religious views, therefore i should not deny others based upon mine. it's about fairness. this law does not force any church to perform a same sex marriage if it's against their beliefs. and that's what this is about. protecting religious freedom and protecting all marylanders equally under the law. join me in voting for question 6. syou know, i've helped a lot off people save a lot of money. but today...( sfx: loud noise of metal object hitting the ground) things have been a little strange. (sfx: sound of piano smashing) roadrunner: meep meep. meep meep? (sfx: loud thud sound) what a strange place. geico®. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance.

let us know with you think on facebook. >>> is sandy a bulldy? >> sandy bullying. that's lynette what do you have? >> i'm going to go with a yes t especially it's bullied jamaica and cuba and we're going to see if it bullies us through the end of the weekend into early next week. so we can see hurricane sandy right now. it has weakened some moving over land but it is about to reemerge back into the waters already bringing rainfall across southeastern florida. this track will take it up towards the north and then it will have more of a little bit of a jog towards the west. and we can see this so let me show you what's going on right now. the winds sustained at about 105 miles an hour moving quickly to the north 59 about 16 miles per hour -- at about 16 miles per hour. look at the cone now. now the national hurricane center actually thinking this could still be a category 1 hurricane. we were thinking a tropical storm as it moved along the coast. and then look at the cone now. the cone actually takes it you can see the coast of new jersey and also maryland. so ocean

tonight, millions of americans are bracing for impact, as hurricane sandy rapidly approaches, threatening to morph into a rare superstorm as it barrels up the east coast. abc's ginger zee of our extreme weather team is on the ground in florida with the latest. >> reporter: as hurricane sandy rumbles through the atlantic, just a few hundred miles from the east coast, its path of destruction has already killed at least 30 people across the caribbean. from space, you can clearly see the size of this thing. it has tropical storm force winds extending almost 300 miles. it's shield of clouds stretching almost 2,000 miles. the storm is far enough away that florida will escape the brunt of the danger, but what we can't escape is beach erosion. the search punding up and over. this should not be happening right here. the beach usually starts about 50 yards out. through the weekend, sandy will snake around the coast, lashing the carolinas with its western-most tentacles before making its dirty turn directly toward the u.s. somewhere from the mid-atlantic to new england. >> when you factor in the unu

we are looking at tropical storm sandy. so remember i showed you this yesterday it was not a storm yet but had an 80% chance of becoming so. it has done that. the wind sustained at about 45 miles an hour and it's stationary. it's not moving you can see it right there. but, the path is to take this over cuba, this track keeps it away from floor. in the next forecast i will shock show you two tracks it could -- i will show you two tracks it could take. by saturday it's in the at lant he can but it will move up the coast and could stay away from us or come inland. no matter what we are thinking we could be seeing coastal flooding across the area. but for today, we are going to be pretty quiet. we can see the shower i was talking about mainly staying to the north of us as we go through time bringing up a couple clouds across the area. we will see more sunshine as we go through the next several days and also some warmer temperatures. for today, 76 degrees. partly sunny by tonight. partly cloudy and it will be mild with the tempe

and we will have hurricane sandy by then. let's check the traffic now with lauren cook. >> reporter: good morning. today is going to be another beautiful day. looking forward to it. if you are heading to the harrisburg expressway no delays in hunt valley. it will be nice and clear from shawan road to 695. this is what 95 looks like in white marsh. at route 43 everything up to speed. you are looking at a 15-minute ride from the beltway all the way into the city. and as we pull up other drive times 695 going to be great shape. no delays from parkville all the way up to towson and you are looking at just a normal 11- minute ride over on the west side. traveling the outer loop from 795 down towards 95. that's a look at your traffic. megan and charley over to you. >>> making bottles and changing diapers and packing lunches are some of the things moms have to do around the clock. full-time or part-time it doesn't matter it. can be exhausting. >> coming up at 5, for you what moms are doing to help them get through all of this laundr

. >>> bracing for sandy. the superstorm on the move right now. preparations well under way in the caribbean. >>> on the lookout for a killer shark. an expert surfer is the latest to the killed off the california coast. >>> and quick getaway. brazen thieves getting creative. an epidemic using horsepower to commit their crimes. >>> good morning, everybody. we begin this wednesday with a presidential race that is just about as close as it can be. the two candidates separated by a mere fraction of a percentage point. >> our new poll comes as president obama and mitt romney blitz the battleground states. and with just 13 days remaining, romney is working to distance himself from another republican's controversial new comments. abc's tahman bradley has the story. >> reporter: the presidential candidates are storming battleground states in a final sprint to election day. the romney campaign, riding a wave of momentum may have hit a bit of a snag, as another republican senate candidate makes a controversial comment about abortion. richard murdoch was ask

how will hurricane sandy shake up the campaign? and with just nine days to go, could a final october surprise send this election into overtime? questions for our headliners. stephanie cutter and newt gingrich. >>> plus, insight and analysis from our roundtable. >>> hello again. with just nine days to go, the october surprise is here. hurricane sandy. threatening a massive stretch of the u.s. from virginia to new england. all of the way to the great lakes. it's caused both candidates to scramble their schedules. we'll get into that, plus our latest abc news/washington post poll in just a moment. but let's begin with sam champion from lower manhattan. he's following the track of sandy right now. good morning, sam. >> good morning, george. the satellite picture will show you this storm is one of the largest that we have ever seen in the atlantic basin. the latest out from the hurricane center, it feels exactly the same way for several days, making a left-hand turn to for the coastline by monday. we got tropical-force winds and hurrica

much more on sandy coming up in a few. a few clouds. we'll talk about how things shape up coming up. >> bullying in schools could be a big problem. >> students got a visit from mr. mojo. he's an antibullying coach who goes by the name travis brown. he teaches teens about bullying. >> it's a problem all across america. i get excited about the schools. we want to be ahead of the curve. we want to address the issue. it's a challenge across the country. these are the steps to take. >> he made the rounds here. mr. mojo talked to students at eastern tech. >> here at abc2news.com we are doing what we can. just log on to abc2/no to bullies. you can find information. >>> we're finding more about the shooting at the spa in wisconsin. the audio comes from an october hearing as zina haughton sought a restraining order. she said her husband pulled a gun on her. days later a long time customer of zina's was sitting in a chair when she pleaded with him to spare others. >> i think she wanted to protect all of us. >> a new gun purchased two days after t

some of the models now hinting at sandy becoming an issue going into next week and early next week. keep an eye on abc2news.com. back closer to home, nice evening but chilly, 43 for maryland. clear skies and then again morning temperatures starting out in the 40s. on our way for 70s. seven-day forecast looks like this, like phoenix weather. 77 on thursday. 75 on friday. a beautiful week if you have those comp days, use them. >> a nice day for outside. >> for saturday, clouds, sunday watching the potential of sandy. that's an interesting storm that we will talk about. it is possible. >>> we'll be watching, thanks, mike. >>> going to and nice week. >> yes, a great week. let's go through the course of this evening. a bit after chilly feel. 49 in the nighttime and when we wake up 43 degrees. on our way to 70s. we will tweak around for maybe better than 80s, possible. we'll talk about that and tropical troubles in the caribbean. >> will you be busy. >> yes. >>> that's all of the time we have for now. back at 11 right after 666 park avenue. have a good evening evening. ?o?o?oçoíc'; as

we can see the cloud cover down here all this is because of tropical storm sandy as of now. now we have this storm out in the tropics in the caribbean sea and we look towards the west and we will have a cold front. you can see some snow across the rockies. that cold air will begin to traverse the area as we go into the weekend. those two systems could meet up and we could see some difficult weather. some disasterous weather that is possible. but then there's the potential for no storm at all. we are on extreme end, but as we number down the days and count down the days, we are going to get a hone a better forecast for you. and we want to do that but you have to keep it tuned here. as we check out what's going on for today, no stormy weather. we can see showers off to the north of us. a little disturbance across ohio. we are dealing with partly cloudy skies and we will be seeing sunshine as we go throughout the day as well. temperatures this morning are on the mild side. coming in at 60 in ellicott city. more of the same in manchester at 63. look at middletown at 66 degrees.

flooding, the rescues and the shocking scenes of sandy's aftermath. >> uh-oh. uh-oh. some climbers tackle a sheer cliff. >> but check this out. >> can you hand me my leg? >> how guys with artificial leg, kicking butt on el capitan. >> it was amazing. >>> plus your wednesday buzzword and prank of the scary kind.>> ! >> get ready, because -- >> it's halloween. >> it's halloween? >> really? what gave that away? >>> guy, we've got ourselves what i think is the weirdest and creepiest streaker in the history of streakers. i should say maybe partial streaker in colfax, california, during a high school football game between the colfax high falcons and what in this picture doesn't belong? >> that guy. >> him! >> i think he looks like he's wearing, like, leather chaps. >> it's not chaps. jeans pulled down and just a belt around his waist. this is 26-year-old patrick hurley. police identified him. he gets on to the field after hiding in the bushes and jumping a fence, acting very weird, having very strange and creepy gaze. >> is that a weapon? >> this kind of looks like a

they have a warning about black licorice. >> and always eyes are on sandy -- all eyes are on sandy. ill have the i -- i'll have the latest on it coming up. >> there's also a serious crash and also the on west site the -- on the west side of the beltway. i'll track the delays and have your complete report coming up next. mayor: casino owners in west virginia are spending millions against question seven. that upsets me. and that upsets jonathan ogden. you don't want to upset jonathan ogden. ogden: no you don't. mayor: question seven means thousands of jobs and millions for our schools. but these west virginia casinos want to keep it all for themselves. we're not happy about that. ogden: no we aren't. mayor: so join us and vote for question seven. and west virginia, don't make me send jonathan ogden over there. mayor: vote for question seven. ogden: for baltimore. >>> thursday morning, this is your abc2 news to go, i'm megan pringle. >> and i'm charlie crowson. a check of the forecast with meteorologist lynette charles. >> as of now the eye now beginning to move back over open water an

, sandy well south of our area but getting closer as she crosses cuba. watch this track. this is saturday morning at 2:00. we will have it right off cape hatteras, up to cape cod with a lot of wind and big surf coming into maryland. now we're seeing more of a tilt in a push toward at least new jersey, new york. the worst of the weather will be the north side. we'll see what happens, but keeping a close sigh on the situation. 54. tomorrow 74 with sun and clouds, not as warm but a great october day. the next three days you're looking great, maybe a saturday night showers, phelps point, baltimore. then we move into our nor'easter days. this will be a slow moving system with winds picking up. the rain coming up on sunday. things go downhill into monday, probably into the new york, new england area and into tuesday and wednesday things will slowly improve toward halloween wednesday. the area, if this does come in, the area north of it, north like cape cod, boston, will really get slammed. this will be power outages. we want to stay on the south side. >> let m

early next week into halloween, we'll be watching this system closely, sandy in the caribbean. in the meantime it's quiet, a little chilly tonight. tomorrow upper 70s will be your two-degree guarantee, winds turning southerly. so even with the clouds, we should make, i think, the mid-70s tomorrow. 75. 80 on wednesday, the sun coming out and holding thursday and friday. take a look at the weekend projection. we keep saturday gorgeous. sunday things begin to change. we bring in a bit of a cooler breeze. showers at least the second half and machine day turning stormier. you notice a high in the 50s. this lefthands itself to wild and crazy weather for tuesday and wednesday. so, again, once you're seven, eight, nine days out, it's the land of 50/50. >> you won't be here wednesday. >> windy and rainy for halloween is probably a decent bet. >> you know, great weather yesterday, phenomenal. let's take a look at the photos. >> we had close to 20,000 people run, walk for the race. they raised more than $2 million. >> that is great. we were out there. beautiful weather and just great, gre

thank you, rich. >>> and before we move on, where is sandy tonight? the remnants of the storm are hurtling across the border into canada. flood warnings still in effect for parts of seven states. more snow on the way in west virginia and maryland. and our abc news extreme weather team continues the nonstop coverage throughout this night. >>> and now, the race for the presidency, and a powerful image today. the fire brand republican governor of new jersey, chris christie, side-by-side with president obama. joining forces in this crisis. and just as our abc news poll out today shows president obama and governor mitt romney in a dead heat, with five days to go before americans get to the polls. your voice, your vote. and abc's jake tapper has more. >> reporter: hurricane sandy has forced the president to cancel his appearance at seven campaign events. but he may have gotten something more valuable. >> you're going to be okay. everybody's safe, right? >> reporter: the opportunity to lead and be seen leading. today with new jersey's republican governor chr

this is the moisture from sandy getting in. we'll begin our forecast today with how much rain the eastern coast of south florida gets and all the way up the eastern seaboard. notice the parts that stick out farther in the atlantic, will pick up more rain. along the shoreline, miami, to jacksonville, you'll probably pick up two to three inches from this storm as it cruises by. the outer banks will pick up much more rain than that and will be likely closer to the stronger winds and the roughest surf as the system continues to cruise east. we'll watch it wherever it goes. here comes the shot of colder temperatures. 26 degrees in billings. that's the start and the end temperatures, it's that cold. kansas city, starts at 71, but drops all day long, as the powerful cold front moves through. that time of year. >> all of america's weather and updates on sandy all morning long. josh? amy? george? >>> coming up here, fighting back. this woman says ending up on a "girls gone wild" dvd when she was 14 ruined her life. >>> plus, leann rimes

will sandy turn towards the east coast of the united states? sam's been tracking this all night and morning long. he'll have the latest in just moments. >>> meanwhile, in the race for president, the romney campaign distancing itself from the midwest republican who has re-ignited the firestorm over rape and pregnancy. during the debate, richard mourdock said pregnancy resulting from rape is, and i quote, something god intended to happen. mourdock later explained that god did not intend the rape. romney endorsed mourdock in this ad here. but the campaign made clear he disagreed with mourdock on this issue. the latest poll shows romney maintaining a narrow edge over president obama among likely voters. 49% compared to 48%. >>> and a new warning in what could become a crisis in the u.s. health care system. a shortage of doctors. a national medical group says there's a shortage of more than 13,000 doctors across the united states. and the group warns that over the next decade, that shortage will grow to be ten-times worse as the population ages and

and that's going to couple with tropical storm sandy. by that time it could be a hurricane and that could be bringing us very unsettled conditions as we go through time. but for today, for this morning, temperatures are on the cool to mild side. let's check the abc2 timesaver traffic with lauren cook. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. if you are heading out to 695, there's absolutely nothing to get in are way. it's nice and clear. especially over on the west side traveling from 795 down to route 40. for those of you using the jfx, it's a typical 11-minute ride southbound from the beltway all the way down to fayette street. as we check in and look live downtown, here at 95 at 395, everything moving right along. there are no delays traveling through the fort mchenry tunnel or harbor tunnel. that's a look at your traffic. now over to you. >>> they have a few days off for the -- but the ravens came together to fight against breast cancer. >> we will show you how some of the players took to the pool hall raising money for uninsured can

this could be sandy as we go through time and sandy could effect us as we go through the next weekend. future trend not picking up on a lot for today. lots of sunshine in the forecast for us. the high temperature is 70 degrees, it's going be mostly sunny, and warm. now a check of the time saver traffic with loren cook. >>> we are following a fire right now in federal hill that shut down battery avenue. if you are traveling in neighborhood, you will want to use riverside avenue, as your alternate route. as we look at 95, downtown, here at 395, everything moving along, no delays through the fort mc henry tunnel or harbor tunnel. you will notice the beltway in great shape as well. no delay tons outer loop, 95, up to 83, that will take you 11 minutes. west side, normal conditions now, looking at an 11 minute ride as well on the outer loop, 795, towards 95. >>> medical staff are trained for all types of emergencies when it comes to people. what about animals. . >> a procedure they had to perform on a zoo animal after they discovered it was near death. aplçlçéd.ñ.ñhrókññoo[ before

the deal with sandy, exacting strengthening, a move to the north up through the win ward passage. that will put it out in the southern atlantic ocean off the east coast where we think it will make a move mapped could impact our area toward halloween. stay tuned on that storm. but none of that tomorrow. 62 degrees. 40s by tomorrow morning. a sunny day on the way. >> the family of a 14-year-old hagerstown girl who died last december after drinking two 24-ounce monster drinks is suing the company that makes them. >> anais fournier's family said she died from cardiac aright a. while she had an underlying mild heart condition, it's one that less than 10% of people have. >> the problem is kids are drinking these energy drinks and if they have an underlying condition, it's like pouring gas on a fire. >> the company said they are not responsible for the death and will defend the lawsuit. >>> the search goes on for the kill are of jessica ridgeway. her body was found earlier this month. area students have taken steps to protect other children. a high school junior went to his school's stud