As the East Coast begins the difficult task of rebuilding from Superstorm Sandy, the largest Atlantic tropical system on record, we turn to the role of emergency responders and federal relief. Cleanup of the disaster begins in the final days before the presidential election. During a Republican primary debate in 2011, Republican nominee Mitt Romney vowed to cut the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, and hand it over to the states or the private sector. On Tuesday, Romney refused to answer several questions about whether he would eliminate FEMA if elected. We’re joined by Mother Jones reporter Tim Murphy, as well as Brenda Ekwurzel, assistant director of climate research and analysis at the Union of Concerned Scientists. [includes rush transcript]

We broadcast live from the Bainport encampment in Freeport, Illinois, where workers from Sensata Technologies — owned by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s former company Bain Capital — are on day 50 of their protest against plans to send their jobs to China. Bainport has gained national attention in the run-up to the presidential election, as the workers have unsuccessfully appealed to Romney to save their jobs. Last week, 14 people, including Rev. Jesse Jackson, were arrested following a protest march on the Sensata plant. The next day, several Sensata workers walked off the job to protest the way management has been responding to the protests. We’re joined by three Sensata workers: Joanne Penniston, a single mother of two; Bonnie Borman, who has worked at the plant for 23 years; and Tom Gaulrapp, who has worked there for 33 years. We also speak with Leo Gerard, president of the United Steelworkers, about why he is supporting the Bainport workers. [includes rush transcript]

Eight million people remain without power across 15 states following Hurricane Sandy, one of most devastating storms ever to hit the eastern United States. The storm’s death toll has reached 55 in the United States and is expected to rise. The storm also killed at least 69 people in the Caribbean, 51 in Haiti alone. In New York state, 90 percent of Long Island remains in the dark, as does Lower Manhattan and other parts of the city. As we continue to explore the links between Sandy and climate change, we’re joined by Brenda Ekwurzel, assistant director of climate research and analysis at the Union of Concerned Scientists. Due to technical difficulties, we regret that this interview was cut short. [includes rush transcript]

8 Million Without Power After Sandy; Outages Could Last for Days, Sandy Toll at 48 in U.S., 70 in Caribbean, Polling Stations in Storm-Hit States to See Extended Hours, Romney Refuses to Answer Questions on FEMA Stance, Ex-FEMA Head Brown: Obama Responded “Too Quickly” to Sandy, Texas Agent Shoots Dead 2 Guatemalans Near Border, 2 NATO Soldiers Killed in Latest Insider Attack, Syrian Regime Continues Deadly Air Strikes, Shellings, Bank of England Director: Occupy Was Right on Financial Reform

We briefly speak with longtime environmental activist Bill McKibben about his reaction to watching residents of New York City cope with flood waters that turned the Lower East Side neighborhood into an “extension of the East River.” McKibben is the co-founder of 350.org. His latest piece for The Guardian is “Hurricane Sandy Has Drowned the New York I Love.” “Click here to see McKibben speak with Democracy Now! on Monday”:http://www.democracynow.org/2012/10/29/bill_mckibben_on_hurricane_sandy_and, before the storm, in which he argues, “If there was ever a wake-up call, this is it.” [includes rush transcript]

We speak further with Henia Belalia of the group Peaceful Uprising about the issue of climate change, which was not raised in any of the three presidential debates. “The reason that we always bring this back to being a social justice issue is that we’re looking at this infinite growth machine that is the U.S. economy, and in order to continue to grow on a planet that is comprised of finite resources, we are decimating what were once independent economies and having those people be forced to leave their homes and to migrate out of their homes.” Belalia notes that once migrants get to the U.S. they are often treated as scapegoats by leaders who lack the political courage to address global warming. [includes rush transcript]

We get a live update from Red Hook, Brooklyn, a neighborhood near the New York City harbor where residents evacuated in the face of flooding — even though they live about 10 feet above sea level. “What we saw last night was that the surge swept in throughout basically the entire neighborhood,” says Jessica Lee, social media coordinator for Democracy Now!, who lives in the area. She describes water levels of at least five feet that moved cars off the street and onto the sidewalk, and says many surfaces are covered with an oily sheen. [includes rush transcript]

As Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman broadcasts from Salt Lake City, Utah, on her 100-city “Silenced Majority Tour,” we speak with Hans Ehrbar, a professor of economics at the University of Utah. He has been an outspoken proponent of confronting the climate deniers in both the United States, where there is a strong oil and coal lobby, and also in Europe, where he says “80 percent believe climate change is an issue” but “they’re not emotionally facing up to it.” [includes rush transcript]

We get an update from Arnie Gundersen, a former nuclear industry senior vice president who has coordinated projects at 70 nuclear power plants around the country, about safety conditions at Oyster Creek and Indian Point nuclear power plants. He says Oyster Creek was close to where the center of the storm crossed into New Jersey, and was forced to declare an emergency when the storm’s tidal surge came within six inches of flooding water pumps that cool its reactor. Gundersen says many of the plants have old designs that need to be re-evaluated, and could shut down in the coming days as electrical grids see power outages. [includes rush transcript]

As President Obama declares federal disaster areas in New York and New Jersey before full damage assessments are completed, we speak with Henia Belalia of the group Peaceful Uprising in Salt Lake City, Utah. “To think that less than a week away from presidential elections there is a climate silence and a lack of initiative in terms of linking what’s happening with our climate to our human activity and to our inhumane addiction to oil is absurd and, at best, laughable,” Henia says. [includes rush transcript]

Climate author and activists Mike Tidwell argues “we are all New Orleanians up and down the East Coast,” as he relates the devastation wrought by Superstorm Sandy to the experience of those in the past of similar storms that hit the Gulf Coast. “The fingerprints of climate change are all over this storm” and others, says Tidwell as he joins us from Takoma, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C., where the federal government has shut down and life has come to a complete stop as the nation’s capital faces power outages and flooding related to Superstorm Sandy. Tidwell is director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network and author of “The Ravaging Tide: Strange Weather, Future Katrinas, and the Coming Death of America’s Coastal Cities.” [includes rush transcript]

Superstorm Sandy has pounded the East Coast, bringing massive flooding and damage that’s left at least 16 people dead in the United States, killed more than 60 in the Carribean, and left more than seven million without power from North Carolina to Massachusetts. Parts of New York City were submerged under water as high as 13 feet, flooding a number of subway stations and causing blackouts. Sandy made landfall in New Jersey Monday night near Atlantic City after being downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone. But it still brought hurricane-force winds and rain, making it one of the largest storms the United States has ever seen. A snowstorm swept inland dropping heaving snowfall across Appalachia and shutting down large sections of the interstate in West Virginia and Maryland. Estimates of the damage so far have reached as high as $20 billion. Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman broadcasts from the road in Salt Lake City, working with our team in New York City, under blackout conditions, to bring you updates and analysis on the storm’s damage, its potential risks for East Coast nuclear facilities, and its connection to global warming. We’re joined by Jeff Masters, director of meteorology at the Weather Underground. [includes rush transcript]

Sandy Pummels Mid-Atlantic U.S.; At Least 13 Dead, New York Hit with Blackouts, Flooding; Obama Declares Disaster Areas, New Jersey Nuclear Plant Placed on Alert after Sandy Hits, Sandy Toll Hits 69 in Caribbean, Thousands Protest U.S. Drone Strikes in Yemen, Clinton in Algeria for Talks on Mali Intervention, Bahrain Bans All Demonstrations
, Jailed Pussy Riot Members Said to Face Harsh Conditions, Supreme Court Weighs Surveillance Challenge, California Death Row Prisoner Wins Appeal for New Trial or Sentencing, Report: Top Obama Strategist Advises Major Corporations

As Hurricane Sandy makes its way to the Eastern Seaboard of the United States, it has already left behind a trail of destruction in Haiti, Jamaica and Cuba. Government officials have reported 65 storm-related deaths across the Caribbean, with 51 of those in Haiti, which had three days of continuous rainfall that ended only on Friday. Flooding has since ravaged the southwestern areas of the impoverished country, and given the extent of the damage, the death toll may rise. Haiti is still suffering from the effects of Tropical Storm Isaac, which battered the country in late August, resulting in heavy flooding in the camps where some 400,000 survivors of the 2010 earthquake still live. We’re joined from the capital of Port-au-Prince by Haitian pro-democracy activist Patrick Elie. [includes rush transcript]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has acknowledged the massive Sandy storm could impact both coastal and inland nuclear power plants. At least 16 reactors are in the storm’s projected path, including North Anna and Surry in Virginia; Calvert Cliffs in Maryland; Oyster Creek, Hope Creek and Salem in New Jersey; Indian Point in New York; Millstone in Connecticut; and Vermont Yankee. So far, there have been no reports of reactors shutting down, despite operating under licenses that require them to do so if weather conditions are too severe. “The biggest problem, as I see it right now, is the Oyster Creek plant, which is on Barnegat Bay in New Jersey,” says former nuclear executive Arnie Gundersen, noting it lies in the projected eye of the storm. “Oyster Creek is the same design, but even older than Fukushima Daiichi unit 1. It’s in a refueling outage. That means that all the nuclear fuel is not in the nuclear reactor, but it’s over in the spent fuel pool. And in that condition, there’s no backup power for the spent fuel pools. So, if Oyster Creek were to lose its offsite power — and, frankly, that’s really likely — there would be no way cool that nuclear fuel that’s in the fuel pool until they get the power reestablished. … The most important lesson we can take out of the Fukushima Daiichi and climate change, and especially with Hurricane Sandy, is that we can’t expect to cool these fueling pools.” [includes rush transcript]

Forecasters say Hurricane Sandy is a rare hybrid superstorm created by an Arctic jet stream from the north wrapping itself around a tropical storm from the south. Jeff Masters, director of meteorology at the Weather Underground, warns that such a “Frankenstorm,” as it is called, is an outgrowth of the extreme weather changes caused by global warming. “When you do heat the oceans up more, you extend the length of hurricane season,” Masters says. “There’s been ample evidence over the last decade or so that hurricane season is getting longer — starts earlier, ends later. You’re more likely to get these sort of late October storms now, and you’re more likely to have this sort of situation where a late October storm meets up with a regular winter low-pressure system and gives us this ridiculous combination of a nor’easter and a hurricane that comes ashore, bringing all kinds of destructive effects.” We’re also joined by climate scientist Greg Jones from Southern Oregon University. [includes rush transcript]

Much of the East Coast is shut down today as residents prepare for Hurricane Sandy, a massive storm that could impact up to 50 million people from the Carolinas to Boston. The storm has already killed 66 people in the Caribbean, where it battered Haiti and Cuba. “This thing is stitched together from elements natural and unnatural, and it seems poised to cause real havoc,” says Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org. New York and other cities have shut down schools and transit systems. Hundreds of thousands of people have already been evacuated. Millions could lose power over the next day. Meteorologists say Sandy could be the largest storm ever to hit the U.S. mainland. The megastorm comes at a time when President Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney have refused to make climate change an issue on the campaign trail. For the first time since 1984, climate change was never addressed during a presidential debate. “It’s really important that everybody, even those who aren’t in the kind of path of this storm, reflect about what it means that in the warmest year in U.S. history, … in a year when we saw, essentially, summer sea ice in the Arctic just vanish before our eyes, what it means that we’re now seeing storms of this unprecedented magnitude,” McKibben says. “If there was ever a wake-up call, this is it.” We’re also joined by climate scientist Greg Jones from Southern Oregon University. [includes rush transcript]

U.S. Prepares for Hurricane Sandy, Largest Storm in Decades, Sandy Kills 66 in Haiti, Cuba, NYC Closes Schools and Subways, Orders Evacuations, Obama, Romney Cancel Campaign Events as Storm Nears, 4 Killed in U.S. Drone Strikes in Yemen, Fighting Continues in Syria Despite Ceasefire, U.N. Rapporteur Urges Boycott of Corporations Tied to Israeli Settlements, Planned Parenthood Files New Lawsuit Against Texas Funding Ban, Environmental Groups Seek Higher Monitoring of Fracking Toxins, U.S. Questions Pakistani Politician on Opposition to Drones

In the week when President Obama and Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney debated issues of foreign policy and the economy, we turn to world-renowned political dissident, linguist, author and MIT professor, Noam Chomsky. In a recent speech, Chomsky examined topics largely ignored or glossed over during the campaign: China, the Arab Spring, global warming, nuclear proliferation, and the military threat posed by Israel and the U.S. versus Iran. He reflects on the Cuban missile crisis, which took place 50 years ago this week and is still referred to as “the most dangerous moment in human history.” He delivered this talk last month at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst at an event sponsored by the Center for Popular Economics. Chomsky’s talk was entitled “Who Owns the World?” [includes rush transcript]

Suicide Attack Kills 40 Worshipers in Afghanistan, Syria Violence Continues Despite Informal Ceasefire, Hurricane Sandy Kills 21 in Caribbean, Threatens U.S., Casting Ballot, Obama Urges Early Voting , Romney Vows Jobs, Higher Pay if Elected, Workers Stage Walkout at Bain-Owned Plant Set for Closure, Texas Stops Payments After Court Affirms Ban on Planned Parenthood , Supreme Court to Rule on Appeal by Holy Land Five, 17 Arrested in Anti-Drone Protest at Hancock Air Base, Funeral Held for Former Senator, Antiwar Candidate George McGovern, Wesleyan President Grabs DN! Microphone as Students Protest End to Need-Blind Admissions