[Wolf Blitzer, Cnn Anchor:] Happening now: wrenching new stories of survival and heartbreak on Staten Island. We're going to meet a man whose business was looted after he lost much of his home. Also, the growing fuel shortage in the disaster zone. Gas lines in some areas now stretch for miles. And, as Don mentioned, new poll numbers are just coming into THE SITUATION ROOM from the state that could decide who the next president will be. We're talking about Ohio. I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM. But we begin with the destruction from Sandy. Homes and livelihoods destroyed now lying in piles of rubble that stretch for miles across the New York City borough of Staten Island. Cleanup is under way. And with every new layer of debris that's removed, the tragic stories emerge of the residents whose lives have been turned upside down. CNN's Brian Todd is on the scene for us. Brian, what are you seeing on Staten Island right now?
[Brian Todd, Cnn Correspondent:] Well, Wolf, at just about every house you go to in the New Dorp Beach section of Staten Island, you hear horrific and pretty detailed stories of just how bad the storm was. Here's the story of one man who took a few hits.
[Todd:] If you can't imagine what it's like to suffer through a massive storm, listen to Nick Camerada.
[Nick Camerada, New York:] The water was so high. It was up to this part of the door. I couldn't get into the door. I went around the side of the house. And I stood on a box that was floating. And I went through a window to get back in the house with my family.
[Todd:] Taking us through his house on Staten Island, the retired UPS truck driver says he and his family scrambled to an upper floor away from water he was sure would keep rising.
[Camerada:] Absolutely. We thought we were going to lose our lives.
[Todd:] Camerada, his wife and four sons survived. Just about all of their first floor didn't. [on camera]: Then just as Nick and his family were recovering from the shell shock of the storm and the flooding and trying to assess all of this damage, he took another body blow. [voice-over]: He leads us to his side yard, where he had set up a small engine repair business and a trailer full of tools he'd need for his new profession.
[Camerada:] Last night, they were banging on doors. Anybody home? If you're not home, if we don't get a response from you, we're going to break your door down just to see if you're OK. They were all looters. I yelled out my window on a few occasions until I was exhausted tired. I wake up this morning, pushed my shed open and went through all my tools. I got nothing. Every tool that was hanging that was worth anything, all my air tools, there's nothing in the drawers but handprints.
[Todd:] Could these have been people who you knew, Nick?
[Camerada:] It's sad to say they're neighborhood guys.
[Todd:] So they knew you? You knew them?
[Camerada:] Yes, I knew one of them.
[Todd:] Camerada owns a house next door that was ruined by the flood. The tenant, Jeanne Valitutto, says she lost another home to a fire two years ago.
[Jeanne Valitutto, New York:] I can't even explain what did I do that the same thing happened to me twice. I feel like, why me?
[Todd:] A tenant, an owner, his family left with so very little except...
[Camerada:] My kids are alive. My wife is alive. We can move on.
[Todd:] Nick says he came up with a slogan for his new business. It says when your engine's sick, call Dr. Nick. But he's not Dr. Nick anymore, at least not for a while Wolf.
[Blitzer:] What's he going to do now?
[Todd:] Well, he says he's going to try to get a job as a handyman, just try to find work in the neighborhood as a handyman, helping people with home repairs. But he's got one son in college, another son applying to college. So it's going to be pretty tough going for him for a while.
[Blitzer:] Brian Todd, an emotional story. There are a lot of stories like that, unfortunately. The president is now speaking about the aftermath of the storm. He's in Ohio.
[Barack Obama, President Of The United States:] No matter how tough times may get, we always bounce back. We're all in this together as one nation and as one people. That spirit has guided this country along its improbable journey for more than two centuries. And it's what's carried us through the trials and tribulations in the last four years. Remember in 2008, we were in the middle of two wars and the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Today, our businesses have created nearly 5.5 million new jobs. And this morning, we learned that companies hired more workers in October than in any time in the last eight months.
[Obama:] Home values are on the rise. Housing construction is moving up. We're less dependent on foreign oil than at any time in the last 20 years. Because of the service and sacrifice of our brave men and women in uniform, the war in Iraq is over, the war in Afghanistan is coming to a close. Al Qaeda's been decimated. And Osama bin Laden is dead. Oh, oh, oh, and one more thing. An American auto industry that had been written off is back on top of the world. So we have made real progress these last four years. But, Ohio, we're here because we know we have got more work to do. As long as there is a single American who wants a job and can't find one, as long as there are families who are working harder and harder, but falling behind, as long as there's a child somewhere in Lima or anywhere in Ohio or in the country who is languishing in poverty and barred from opportunity, then our fight goes on. Our work is not yet done.
[Blitzer:] All right. So the president getting into his stump speech now after saying a few words about what was going on in the aftermath of the superstorm Sandy. We're going to continue to monitor what the president has to say. We will bring you more of that. We also have some brand-new poll numbers just in from the critical battleground state of Ohio. You see the president is in Lima, Ohio, right now. Our brand-new CNNORC poll shows President Obama with a narrow lead in that state, 50 percent to Mitt Romney's 47 percent. That's within the sampling error, making it still effectively a dead heat. Our chief national correspondent, John King, is joining us right now. He's in Ohio as well. John, take us inside these numbers.
[John King, Cnn Chief National Correspondent:] Wolf, they are fascinating when you look deep in this poll. The president, you just showed he's here in Ohio. Governor Romney will be here tonight. They expect some 35,000 Republicans at his rally in this part of the state. I'm in Cincinnati tonight. When you look deep in our poll you see this one will be fought out through the last poll closing on election night. Look at these two candidates among independents. Governor Romney with a slight edge, 48 percent to 46 percent. But, again, that's a statistical tie well within the margin of error. The auto bailout is one of the things the president thinks will help him here in Ohio. You just heard him mention there that in this speech. Look at this. In the industrial northern part of the state, across northern Ohio, where you do have many auto-related direct factory plants and related industries, the president leads 52 percent to 45 percent. Some evidence there that especially among white blue- collar workers the president is doing better than he might have done otherwise without the auto bailout. In a close statewide election, Wolf, what was fascinating four years ago when you visited where I am, Cincinnati, Hamilton County, you knew at this time the race was over because the president, then-Senator Obama, was doing so well here. Look at our poll numbers here from Cincinnati and the southwest part of the state, Governor Romney ahead 52 percent to 47 percent in a region that is absolutely essential to Republicans if they are to win a close statewide election here. We visited both campaign headquarters today in the Cincinnati area. Everyone concedes it is about as tight as it can get. The Democrats say it's much tougher, much tighter than it was four years ago. The question though, Wolf, is we have that slight lead, yes, within the margin of error. But the president has had a consistent two- or three-point lead in just about every Ohio poll conducted in recent months. The Romney campaign is telling us it believes it can overcome that on Election Day with more intensity and more energy from the Republican base. We will see. As you know, Wolf, no Republican has ever won without this state. The Romney campaign concedes it very much needs it.
[Blitzer:] If it's really close, John, there's been a lot of speculation on those provisional ballots that are available in Ohio that, that that could delay the outcome in that state. What's the latest you're getting on that?
[King:] There is a possibility. This is a state where you have early voting. And you also have other provisional ballots that come in, ballots that are contested. So, on Election Day, some ballots will be counted and some will be set aside and disputed. Look, let's hope as citizens that doesn't happen. But this state is so close right now and some other states are very close right now that both campaigns have teams of lawyers who will not only will be here on Election Day to watch, they have observers, but teams of lawyers ready to be in place if it's so close. Would there be an automatic recount triggered? Would there be court challenges over provisional ballots? That is a possibility as we head into the final days here and the final weekend, Wolf. Not only the candidates out and busy, their legal teams are very busy studying all the rules as well.
[Blitzer:] Yes, the lawyers are very, very active right now. Let's see what happens. John, you will be back later. Thank you. The most anticipated jobs report of the year is now out coming only four days before the election. The Labor Department reports hiring in October was stronger than expected with 171,000 new jobs added. The unemployment rate however ticked up.1 percent to 7.9 percent. Let's talk about what this means politically with our chief political analyst, Gloria Borger. Gloria, do you see these numbers, the unemployment number, the jobs created number, having a significant impact these final four days?
[Gloria Borger, Cnn Senior Political Analyst:] No, not really at this point because of what you said. You saw the unemployment rate tick up a little bit. So Mitt Romney can talk about how unemployment has ticked up. You saw job growth a little stronger than anticipated. So the president can say, you know what, this is a sustained recovery. It's not fast enough. But it's not that's spotty and it's sustained. And that's just what you heard from the president in the campaign speech you just played a little bit of before because he talks about the fact that since he's been president, he's created nearly 5.5 million jobs. So it really hasn't changed the calculation one way or another. By the way, Wolf, in a lot of these states, including the one John King is in, Ohio, there's been a lot of early voting. So it's too late anyway.
[Blitzer:] But the economy clearly is issue number one. I just want to alert our viewers, Janet Napolitano, the homeland security secretary, has been in Staten Island touring that devastated area. I think she's going to be speaking to reporters shortly. In fact, here she is right now. Let's listen in.
[Janet Napolitano, U.s. Homeland Security Secretary:] We know that Staten Island took a particularly hard hit from Sandy. And so we want to make sure that the right resources are brought here as quickly as possible to help this community, which is so very strong recover, even more quickly. Just to give you a sense of an overview, it's been mentioned that this was a large storm. The area that Sandy covered was roughly the size of Europe. We had major disasters in a number of states that President Obama already has declared, emergency declarations in a number of states that have been declared. We have seen some huge impacts on things like the availability of power. And with, of course, the loss of power comes attendant losses on things like gasoline. So all of these things, all of these issues being worked now as the community comes back and as we work to support Con Ed and other utility companies in getting the grid back on. We have over 75,000 survivors in New York and New Jersey who now have applied for disaster assistance already. Almost $15 million is already on the street. This is assistance directly to individuals. That spigot is going well. We have what are called disaster recovery centers. A disaster recovery center is kind of a one-stop-shop. It's where you can go and get the information about what assistance you can get, what the housing situation is, how you handle unemployment, if you need help with your kids in school, all the kind of associated issues that happen during a major disaster. But we have five open today in New York, one in Connecticut. Even more will be opening over the weekend and by Monday. As of yesterday, more than 7.1 million liters of water and 1.6 million meals were positioned to be delivered into New York. More than 1.6 million liters of water and a million meals have been transferred to other states to supplement their existing inventory. We have established a base at the Floyd Bennett Field here in New York. That's where we're bringing all the food and water. That's where the National Guard picks it up and takes it out to the delivery centers around the boroughs; 657 housing inspectors are already on the ground here helping individuals look at their houses, make a decision as to whether the house has any possibility of being restored or whether it's a total loss. We have 3,200 FEMA personnel working this storm in the Northeast. And more are on their way; 11,800 National Guard already are deployed in the impacted states. And we expect more to come. As was mentioned, 258 Red Cross shelters have opened. Nine federal search-and-rescue teams have been deployed, supplementing state and local efforts. And they have searched more than 3,300 structures in Queens and 870 structures here in Staten Island. With respect to other assets that are coming in, we all know that power remains the fundamental issue. You should know that President Obama has said that all of the federal government is here to help. And that means the Department of Defense. And the Department of Defense yesterday was airlifting utility crews with their equipment here to New York, to New Jersey and other places impacted by the storm. And more of those airlifts we anticipate to be coming over the coming days. There's an 800 number people can call, 1-800-621-3362, 1-800-621-3362. You can go to disasterassistance.gov. You can go to m.fema.gov. Or indeed if you go to a disaster recovery center, all of the information you need to find out about the assistance you are entitled to can be found. And as was mentioned, people are now going door to door. One of my concerns I think all of our concerns is as the temperature drops with power still out in many neighborhoods, making sure that everybody is safe and if they need to get to a warm place that we're able to do that. So, a lot of work ongoing. A lot more left to do. But the food, the water, all the assets coming into this area of the country, coming into New York. Governor Cuomo's been a great advocate, and coming into the borough of Staten Island. Thank you.
[Wolf Blitzer, Cnn Anchor:] All right. We're going to continue to monitor Janet Napolitano, the secretary of homeland security. She's been touring the situation in Staten Island. You see the president of the borough of Staten Island, Molinaro, right behind her. We're going to be speaking with Janet Napolitano later. We're also going to be speaking live with the president of the Manhattan borough. There's lots going on including a huge debate in New York City right now over whether or not that marathon should take place this weekend as scheduled. Lots to talk about. What's going on in Lower Manhattan specifically when we come back.