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Explosions, fires, and floods have devastated New York, killing at least ten people statewide. As Hurricane Sandy hit the city it left over 50 houses ablaze, at least seven subway tunnels flooded and nearly 2 million New Yorkers without power.

Parts of Brooklyn, Manhattan and Staten Island are underwater as hurricane Sandy passes over New York. Much of the city is now without power, and mass transit has been shut down until further notice.

Sporadic explosions could be heard throughout the city. Emergency 911 operators were receiving 10,000 calls per half hour, NYC Mayor’s Office reported.

Downed power lines had sparked numerous fires that continue to engulf the city. First reports of major fire were coming in from the Rockaway Park area of Queens, New York. A few hours later, fire engulfed 15 houses in Breezy Point, Queens, and 190 firefighters were on site battling the blaze. Fire has reportedly destroyed 50 houses.

Due to power outages and generator failure dozens of ambulances had to evacuate more than 200 patients from two Manhattan hospitals to Sloan Kettering and Mt. Sinai hospitals.

Earlier an explosion took place at a Con Edison power station in Manhattan, New York, leaving nearly 2 million New Yorkers without power.

More of the story…

Oct. 29, 19:17 EST:

Sandy is no longer a hurricane, but a “post-tropical” storm and is expected to make landfall in about an hour, the National Hurricane Center says.

Oct. 29, 19:15 EST:

Consolidated Edison, New York City’s utilities provider, is calling residents in low-lying parts of the city to warn that power could be shut off before the end of the night.
Oct 29, 18:50 EST:

More than 12,000 flights have been grounded as Hurricane Sandy pounds the US East Coast on Monday.

Oct. 29, 18:32 EST:

Sandy has so far left more than 1.5 million people without power in 11 states along the East Coast.

Oct. 29, 18:17 EST:Mayor Michael Bloomberg warns that conditions are expected to worsen, urging New Yorkers to stay inside. “Conditions outside are dangerous, and they are only going to get worse in the hours ahead,” he told a press conference.

Oct. 29, 18:10 EST: The United Nations headquarters in Manhattan will remain closed through Tuesday due to the weather.

Oct. 29, 17:56 EST:

All Broadway performances in NYC have been cancelled on Monday and Tuesday due to Hurricane Sandy, the Broadway League says.

Oct. 29, 17:30 EST:

Hurricane Sandy is expected to make landfall around 6 pm EST just outside Atlantic City, New Jersey. Sandy is moving “quickly” towards southern New Jersey and Delaware, The National Hurricane Center says.

Oct. 29, 17:00 EST: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo orders the closing of several NYC bridges, except those in Staten Island.

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Libertarian Party candidate Gov. Gary Johnson and the Green Party’s Jill Stein will sound off once more before Election Day, with both presidential hopefuls now slated to debate live from RT’s Washington, DC studio on November 5.

Tens of thousands around the globe watched earlier this week when broadcasting legend Larry King moderated a debate between the top third-party candidates live from Chicago. As those politicians continue to be shunned by the mainstream media and political establishment alike, though, they remain excluded from presenting their platform to the country on the eve of a historic election. RT aims to make a difference, however, and will host Johnson and Stein to speak their minds on the topics Americans really care about in 2012.

Following the success of this week’s Third Party Presidential Debate broadcast on RT live from Chicago, the top candidates as selected by voters on the Free and Equal Elections Foundation website will move on to a second debate from the nation’s capital, this time answering questions dedicated solely to foreign policy.

“The voters have spoken, and we are pleased to announce that Gary Johnson and Jill Stein will advance to the second debate,” Christina Tobin, founder and chair of Free and Equal, tells RT.

When Johnson and Stein took the stage to participate in the first third-party debate this year, the candidates sounded off on questions that, while vital to the voting public, were absent from the discussions held between President Barack Obama and challenger Mitt Romney during the televised debates that selected only Democrat and Republican politicians to participate.

The debate, which was originally set for October 30, was postponed as a result of Hurricane Sandy.

The second and final third-party presidential debate will be held on November 5 from 9:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Eastern Time, (November 6, 1:00 a.m. – 2:30 a.m. GMT)  and will be aired on RT America as well as RT.com and on RT’s YouTube channel.

The ‘Frankenstorm’ Sandy is set to be unprecedented in size once it hits the US mainland Monday night. Tens of millions of people could be affected as the hybrid hurricane wreaks havoc from the East Coast to the Great Lakes on Halloween week.

Increasingly dire warnings of powerful winds, power outages, widespread flooding, torrential downpours and even snow are being sounded in New York and other major population centers as Hurricane Sandy continues its trek up from the Caribbean.

President Obama signed an emergency declaration for the states of New York and Massachusetts and District of Columbia on Sunday evening.

Forecasters said Sandy is set to transform into “super storm,” as the tropical storm merges with a winter storm and a cold front, threatening up to 12 inches of rainfall in some areas and heavy snow inland.

“We’re looking at impact of greater than 50 to 60 million people,” says Louis Uccellini, head of environmental prediction for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Set to approach the coasts of the mid-Atlantic states by Monday, Sandy is likely to make landfall in the New York metropolitan area, home to about 22 million people, on Monday night.

The Category 1 storm’s sustained winds of 75 mile per hour are nothing extraordinary, but with hurricane force winds reaching out 105 miles from its center and weaker tropical storm-force winds extending 700 miles, forecasters are on edge about its potential impact.

The powerful gusts are expected to stretch as far inland as Pennsylvania.

“These winds are just amazing in terms of their high speed. I cannot recall ever seeing model forecasts of such an expansive areal wind field with values so high for so long a time. We are breaking new ground here,” a National Weather Service meteorologist in the agency’s Washington, DC/Baltimore office said on Saturday night.

“The size of this [Sandy] alone, affecting a heavily populated area, is going to be history making,” said Jeff Masters, a hurricane specialist who writes a blog for Weather Underground.

Life is complicated enough under the best of conditions.  There’s no question about that issue.  And if one brings societal issues of trust, loyalty, and/or betrayal into the equation, then life becomes, for some people, extremely uncertain.  It can even get down right nasty in the bargain.   Trust is a sacred compact between people, and when that promise is compromised, life has a way of unraveling for both parties to the implied agreement.

In “Collected Stories”, currently on the stage of the Coachella Valley Repertory’s new  (one-year) comfortable, and cozy 86-seat theatre at the Atrium, in Rancho Mirage, playwright Donald Margulies, intelligently addresses these societal concerns in his perceptive, two-character cautionary tale of writers and literati.    CV Rep artistic director Ron Celona, has sensitively and seamlessly directed the play and its two fabulous female actors, but more about them later.

Margulies, is a highly respected playwright of some thirty years standing.  He has won the Pulitzer Prize for his play “Dinner With Friends”, as well as the prestigious Lucille Lortel Outstanding off-Broadway play in 2000.  His career is filled with numerous honors and awards for plays both on and off-Broadway.

In “Collected Stories”, the action revolves around two authors over a six-year period: Ruth Stein (Eileen T’Kaye) a 55 year-old university professor and respected short story writer, and her student/protege Lisa Morrison (Erika Whalen).   In the beginning Ruth has doubts as to the talent and writing chops of her young tutorial pupil, but little by little, Lisa wins Ruth’s loyalty and admiration by sheer dint of hard work and the two women become friends and confidantes over time, with Lisa ending up as Ruth’s assistant.

     As their friendship deepens, Ruth, at Lisa’s urging begins to relate incidents and anecdotes about her earlier life.  Ruth ultimately shares details of her love affair with the celebrity poet and writer Delmore Schwartz.  There is an on-going and genuine trust and affection between the two women, until one day Lisa confesses that she has written a collection of short stories without telling Ruth.  She mailed off the manuscript to a publisher, and has just been informed that it is now going to be published.   Ruth reacts as if she has just been kicked in the stomach.  Why, she asks, “didn’t you share the manuscript with me before sending it off?”  As her mentor and friend that would have been the normal course Lisa’s project should have followed.  Ruth is disappointed by Lisa’ behavior, especially since Lisa demurs in her answers and in her evasive rationale.  To Ruth it looks like Lisa is withholding something; thus further straining their now unraveling relationship.

Sometime later, when the book is published some of the collected stories written by Lisa, are indeed, the stories and incidents related to her by Ruth.   The bond of shared confidences and trust that initially brought the women together now becomes the instrument that shatters their relationship forever.

The dilemma presented by playwright Margulies, to the characters of Ruth and Lisa, is whether another person’s life and events is suitable material for another to use and co-opt in creating a “new truth”?

Which brings me to the incredible performances of Eileen T’Kaye as Ruth, and Erika Whalen as Lisa, as they grapple with Margulies’ basic premise.  First, their onstage chemistry is absolutely palpable.  And as such, they produce moments of sublime craftsmanship that do not compete, but are moments that compliment one another.  Granted, T’Kaye has the showier part, and boy, does she make the most of it.  Her range of emotions stretch from guarded and private, to an openness and acceptance toward her younger protégé, to the feeling of being violated, as well as, being betrayed by the one you trusted.  It’s a terrific riveting performance.

     Whalen on the other hand, has the tough assignment of outwardly appearing as the grateful and eager youth “sitting at the feet of the master”, soaking up wisdom and craftsmanship, all the while harboring a hidden agenda.  It reminded me of Anne Baxter’s performance as Eve Harrington and how she studied Bette Davis as Margo Channing, in the film “All About Eve”.  The occupations are different: writers instead of actors.  But the blueprint is similar and just as effective.

Whalen’s Lisa, and her relationship with T’Kaye’s Ruth is very cleverly drawn by playwright Margulies.  Besides, it’s not easy being duplicitous and ambivalent, but Whalen is so deliciously engaging it’s understandable.  Forget the old lines about Greeks bearing gifts.  Just beware of gorgeous blondes in ski hats and jackets who have literary ambitions.

CV Rep and play director Ron Celona have gifted us with an evening of theatre at its best, and are about to have a genuine hit on their hands.  Don’t miss it !  “Collected Stories” runs through November 11^th.  For reservations and ticket information call 760-296-2966.