AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
From the Carolinas to Maine, a nor'easter is pummeling the East Coast. Looking at satellite images of this storm that's meandering over the Atlantic Ocean, it is massive. But those pictures don't begin to tell the full story of what it feels like on the ground. Reporter Steve Kastenbaum is in New York, which has been getting hit hard. He joins us now. Good morning.
STEVE KASTENBAUM, BYLINE: Good morning. Thanks for having me.
RASCOE: So first tell us what's making this storm so unique, like, especially this time of the year?
KASTENBAUM: Yeah. It really is early for a nor'easter of this size to be hitting the region. It's the combination of the rain, the wind and the flooding. These wind gusts are up around 60 miles per hour from New England all the way down to the Carolinas. Over 31 million people have been under flood warnings and watches this weekend. The coastal flooding is really significant in some areas during these high tides, and it's been exacerbated by the fact that there's a full moon this weekend, and that makes those tides much more severe.
RASCOE: Public officials are putting out warnings about the dangers of this storm, even for people who don't live by the ocean. Has there been a lot of damage reported so far?
KASTENBAUM: There definitely has - a lot of downed trees on houses all over the region, a lot of power outages. And unfortunately, sadly, on Saturday, an employee at a public housing complex here in New York died. He was hit by a tree branch that was knocked down by a strong gust of wind. There's also a person missing in heavy surf off of Long Island that they've been searching for. New York Governor Kathy Hochul stressed just how serious this situation is.
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KATHY HOCHUL: Wind gusts exceeding 50, even 60 miles an hour have already been recorded on Long Island. New York City has already seen isolated wind gusts of 51 miles per hour. That is strong. It's ferocious, and it needs to be taken seriously.
KASTENBAUM: You've seen the images probably by now of the Hudson River pouring over its banks in Lower Manhattan and in Edgewater, New Jersey. When you go further south, they've had two feet of water in many of the Jersey shore towns. In Atlantic City, the high-tide flooding hit its highest point since superstorm Sandy in 2012.
RASCOE: And how bad are the power outages?
KASTENBAUM: Yeah. It's really bad. In some spots, they've been without power all day on Saturday, and it continues into Sunday. I've counted up tens of thousands of them, and we expect more today. Travel has been disrupted as well. The worst of it is at Boston's Logan Airport. About a quarter of all of the flights were canceled there. Lots of canceled and rescheduled events. You know, this is the last weekend of baseball's regular season. They had to move the Boston-Chicago series from Boston down to Florida.
RASCOE: This is a coastal storm. You mentioned the full moon. How big are the tides, and how dangerous are they?
KASTENBAUM: Those tides are extremely dangerous. In fact, Governor Hochul talked about how severe the surf is along the coast.
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HOCHUL: So a coastal flooding warning remains in effect, and it'll be worse during the high tides, as I mentioned. We expect waves as tall as 20 feet in some areas.
KASTENBAUM: Twenty feet - that's huge here on the south shore of Long Island. We've been seeing a lot of beach erosion. The Jersey Shore towns are really susceptible to that erosion as well, and this has been going on for days leading up to the storm's approach to the area.
RASCOE: OK. But despite all these warnings about rough surf, is it true that there are people still out there surfing?
KASTENBAUM: Yeah. It's hard to believe. But if you look at social media, you may have seen some videos and pictures of surfers in full-body wet suits in the Rockaways, a popular surfing area here in New York. Some photos show just how dangerous it is, though. One surfer was holding up his surfboard. It had gotten snapped in two by a wave. And this is not a joke. You know, first responders risk their lives to save people who go out surfing in this.
RASCOE: So when will the worst of the storm be over?
KASTENBAUM: So we're looking at this sticking around in the area till Monday, at least, maybe even meandering into early Tuesday in New England.
RASCOE: That's reporter Steve Kastenbaum in New York. Thank you so much for joining us.
KASTENBAUM: My pleasure.
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