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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

Cue the cancellations. Our last word in business today is: live audience.

With most of the East Coast shut down and all public transit halted in New York City, many of the major TV talk shows based in the Big Apple have gone dark this week.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

"The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report," scrapped their live shows Monday and have yet to decide about tonight. Katie Couric's show and "Live with Kelly and Michael," were also suspended and Jimmy Kimmel canceled a planned show from his hometown, Brooklyn.

New York City has been experiencing the brunt of Sandy. The New York Times reports that one death has been reported when a tree fell on a man's house in Queens. NPR's Margot Adler reports that the New York State Homeland Security and Emergency Services estimates four others are dead. The situation in Lower Manhattan sounds dire: Flooding is now widespread and a good part of the city is in the dark.

The latest and last NPR Battleground Poll for 2012 shows former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney holding the narrowest of leads in the national sample, but trailing President Obama in the dozen states that will decide the election.

The poll adds evidence that the Oct. 3 debate between the two men redefined the race. But the movement toward Romney that emerged after that night in Denver also seems to have stalled after the race drew even — leaving the outcome difficult to call.

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You're listening to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News.

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

The storm on the East Coast is making a devastating impression on New York City. Storm surge coupled with a high tide have swelled the water to record levels in some places that includes Battery Park, and now, reports of flooding in the subway and in automotive tunnels.

NPR's Margot Adler joins us from New York with more details. And, Margot, what can you tell us about these reports of flooding?

Robert Siegel talks with Associated Press correspondent Katie Zezima, who was in Atlantic City, N.J., close to where Sandy made landfall.

Sandy made landfall along the New Jersey coast, earlier this evening. The storm has already wreaked havoc across the Mid-Atlantic and northeast and its expected to affect millions more Americans as it moves northwest, dumping rain and kicking up winds of up to 80 mph.

We'll update this post with the latest news about the storm, which forecasters warn is historic in size and intensity.

Update at 5 a.m. ET Tuesday. Dozens Of Homes Destroyed In Fire

Sandy hit the East Coast on Monday and knocked out power for millions of people. Utility companies face major challenges to get power back online after the massive storm.

Doug Smith and his girlfriend Trenor Bender thought the worst of Hurricane Sandy had passed them by when they looked out the windows in the wee hours today. At their rental home, three rows back from the beach in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, there was no water in the yard at all at 3:30 this morning. But that didn't last.

"When I woke up, I couldn't believe it," says Smith of the view just a few hours later, "I saw this sheet of water on the ground."