New York governor Andrew Cuomo confirmed that five people have been killed so far in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, which made landfall Monday night in New Jersey, and took out power in much of Manhattan. The only confirmed death in New York City was a man in Queens, who was killed when a tree fell on his house. The locations and causes of death for the other four fatalities have not been released.

The lights are out all over the East Coast, after the superstorm Sandy ravaged the mid-Atlantic power grid Monday night. An estimated 8 million homes are reported without power. Hundreds of thousands of those homes are in New York City, where electrical provider ConEdison preemptively shut several circuits to lower Manhattan and transformers exploded, leaving the skyline eerily dark. Central New Jersey Power & Light and Public Service Enterprise Group reported at least 620,000 customers were without power in the Garden State, while the Long Island Power Authority put its blacked-out customers at roughly 589,000. Hundreds of thousands were also without power in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and throughout the East Coast.

Storm Sandy made landfall just before 8:10 p.m. ET Monday, and soon after, Manhattan went underwater. Reports came from all over the city of flooded streets and surging water. In Lower Manhattan, the South Street Seaport and much of Battery Park City was flooded. There were reports of cars floating down Wall Street. Photos revealed portions of Alphabet City under water, as well as portions of the West Side Highway, the Battery Tunnel, and streets as far north as 33rd Street. Power throughough Lower Manhattan was also out, with electrical provider ConEdison preemptively turning it off as a safety measure.

A broken construction crane dangling from a building prompted authorities to clear the streets surrounding One57, a luxury high-rise on West 57th Street in New York City. Officials say the winds that high off the ground may have reached 95 mph. The building is still under construction, and its penthouse is reportedly under contract for $90 million. The New York Fire Department is on the scene, and authorities are clearing a large radius around the tower anticipating a fall.

The famous H.M.S. Bounty replica featured in Pirates of the Caribbean is now at the bottom of the ocean, after Hurricane Sandy wreaked havoc on its voyage from Connecticut to Florida on Monday afternoon. The Coast Guard rescued 14 crew members from a rubber life raft off the coast of North Carolina. Crew member Claudene Christian was found “unresponsive” later on Monday, and was taken to the hospital; Capt. Robin Walbridge remains missing. Crew members on the 180-foot replica of the 18th-century tall ship were reportedly in constant contact with the National Hurricane Center and trying to make it around the storm when their three-mast ship was wrecked amid 40 mph winds and 18-foot waves.

Just in time for the busiest sales season of the year, Apple announced on Monday that John Browett, head of retail operations, would be leaving the company. Browett joined Apple in January, and it is unclear why he is leaving the company less than a year later. The company also announced the departure of Scott Forstall, senior vice president of iOS software. Forstall will remain at the company until early next year, serving as an adviser to CEO Tim Cook. As a result of the changes, other Apple executives Jonathan Ive, Bob Mansfield, Eddy Cue, and Craig Federighi will pick up the slack.

Hurricane Sandy is literally putting a damper on everything—even everyone’s favorite monthly data announcement. The U.S. Labor Department is waiting until the “weather emergency” subsides to determine whether they’ll go ahead with the Friday release of October’s jobs report. The U.S. Census Bureau is also deliberating whether or not it will hold onto the economic reports it had planned to release this week. Typically influential on political polls, October’s jobs report will be the last released before Election Day. 

Bad news for people who thought Sandy would blow over by Tuesday. Airline carriers have canceled more than 12,000 flights through Wednesday, losing millions of dollars and leaving thousands of travelers stranded. Airports from Washington, D.C., to Boston have canceled most flights on Monday and  continue to ground more on Tuesday. A U.S. Airways spokesman said the goal is to have flights up and running by Wednesday, but they will first have to deal with a hefty backlog—and hurricane damage.

He’ll always have CNN. Despite a revamp in its second season, Anderson Cooper’s daily talk show will not return for a third. Anderson suffered from disappointing ratings. The show, which is produced by Telepictures, will now end after the summer of 2013. Although no official release has yet been made, an executive said that the studio “could have renewed the show but could not create a viable business model to move forward.” Cooper said in a statement, “I am very proud of the work that our terrific staff has put into launching and sustaining our show for two seasons.”

The show mustn’t always go on. Jimmy Kimmel Live! has canceled its Monday night show because of Hurricane Sandy. The show would have been the first of his five-day return to Brooklyn. It had previously been announced that the show would not be canceled, but the temporary studio in Brooklyn would have been difficult to reach since subways and bridges have been closed. “Due to stupid Hurricane Sandy and in the interest of the safety of our studio audience, Jimmy Kimmel Live! will not broadcast tonight from the Harvey Theatre at Brooklyn Academy of Music,” the show’s publicist said in a statement.

A drone launched into Israel snapped photos of military bases and restricted zones, a member of the Iranian Parliament said Monday. An Iranian news agency quoted Esmail Kowsari, chair of Iran’s defense committee, as saying that a drone shot down earlier this month by Israel took photos of “sensitive bases.” Hizbullah claimed the drone as its own after it was shot down. “These aircraft transmit their pictures online, and right now we possess pictures of restricted areas,” Kowsari reportedly told Iran’s Al-Alam news agency.

An unidentified male met the business end of a Taser when he wandered on to Tom Cruise’s Beverly Hills property Sunday. The man was zapped by one of Cruise’s security guards and arrested at about 9:35 p.m. The actor was not at home at the time. Police said that they found the man attempting to leave the property on their arrival, and that a security guard “had observed the suspect climbing a fence to gain access to the property.” The man was taken to a hospital after his arrest.

Don’t take friend requests from strangers. Girls in Indonesia have been kidnapped, raped, and forced into prostitution by sexual predators who lurk on Facebook and lure them in after online flirtations. According to Indonesia’s National Commission for Child Protection, 27 of 129 children kidnapped this year are thought to have been taken after meeting abductors on Facebook. Fifty million people in the country use the social network, and the capital city of Jakarta hosts some of the world’s most active Twitter users. Eighteen abduction cases thought to be Facebook-related were reported in 2011.

She’s as nasty as a whole bunch of super PACs. After months of attack ads and hard-fought campaigning, Hurricane Sandy might do the most to upset the presidential election as it nears the finish line. With the race still tight—though most projections show President Obama with more routes to 270 electoral votes—politicos fear the effect the storm may have on early voting. Obama senior strategist David Axelrod said Sunday that “to the more than 50 million people in its path, there are more immediate and potentially grave concerns that transcend politics.”

From Virginia to Massachusetts, towns and cities along the East Coast of the United States stood poised for Hurricane Sandy on Monday. The monster storm was predicted to send a surge of water rushing up America’s shores, causing a likelihood of flash floods and power outages. Four hundred thousand people have been ordered out of their homes in Manhattan, where subways and the Stock Exchange were closed as the storm loomed more than 400 miles off the city Monday. “It could be bad,” U.S. Coast Guard Rear Adm. Steven Rattior told reporters Monday, “or it could be devastation.”

Remember that other haircut? Paul Ryan has cut less of a conspicuous figure recently as the Republican ticket swerves moderate in the final days of the 2012 presidential race. After getting a red-carpet welcome to the GOP’s team, the wonkish congressman from Wisconsin has been playing second fiddle as Mitt Romney sought to seal up votes among undecideds in swing states. In recent joint stump appearances, Ryan has clapped along with the crowd while Romney took the lead. It’s a welcome change for many Republicans from the Palin days.

The Coast Guard responded to calls from a distressed vessel 160 miles from Hurricane Sandy’s center Monday. The three-masted, 180-foot HMS Bounty had 17 people on board and was 90 miles from Hatteras, N.C. The Coast Guard was called in after the ship’s owner lost contact with the vessel Sunday night, according to a Coast Guard press release. The ship, which is reportedly taking on water, was located with a homing beacon and confirmed by a Coast Guard aircraft, which reestablished communication. The crew members abandoned ship in two lifeboats.

While the East Coast hunkers down for Hurricane Sandy, the City by the Bay is celebrating: Major League Baseball’s San Francisco Giants took their second World Series in three years late Sunday night. Completing a four-game sweep over the Detroit Tigers, the Giants won 4–3 on a Marco Scutaro single in the 10th inning that broke a 3–3 tie.

Publishing companies Penguin and Random House have agreed to a joint venture, according to their parent companies. The German-owned Bertelsmann firm will have 53 percent of the publishing venture, while Penguin’s parent Pearson will hold 47 percent. A potential deal has been in the air since last week. Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.—owner of HarperCollins—jumped into the fray over the weekend and seemed poised to make a bid for Penguin as well. Pearson CEO Marjorie Scardino said that for Penguin the joint venture will “greatly enhance its fortunes and its opportunities.”

The effects of Hurricane Sandy reached New York City on Monday, knocking down trees and causing some flooding. A woman was rushed to the hospital after being hit by a tree in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. The victim, described as being in her 50s, was taken to Bellevue Hospital to be treated for a non–life threatening head injury. Flooding has been reported in parts of the city and water has breached the promenade in Lower Manhattan's Battery Park City. Mayor Bloomberg again urged residents living in the city’s Evacuation Zone A to leave, saying “Conditions are deteriorating ... the window for your getting out safely is closing.”

Hurricane Sandy is intensifying as the storm bears down on the East Coast. The storm has sustained winds of 90mph and wind gusts of up to 115mph. Water levels are already more than five feet higher than normal tidal predictions in some areas and are expected to rise. Roughly 116,000 customers in seven states had lost power as of Monday afternoon. During a press conference, President Obama urged everyone to obey authorities, saying “If the public’s not following instructions, that makes it more dangerous for people.” He added that transportation will be down for a “long time” and to expect long power outages. “This is gonna take a long time for us to clean up,” he said.

Her first concern was family—her own, that is. Alleged killer nanny Yoselyn Ortega, accused of killing two children in her care before stabbing herself in the neck in what may have been a suicide bid, woke up in the hospital Sunday and asked about her family, a source told the New York Post. Ortega is “talking a little,” the source said. The 50-year-old nanny lives in Harlem with her sister, 17-year-old son, and niece. Lucia and Leo Krim were found dead in their family’s Upper West Side apartment Thursday.

Nearly 500,000 residents of New Jersey had lost power by Monday evening as Hurricane Sandy inched closer to making landfall in the state. Gov. Chris Christie continued his brusque pronouncements on the storm, chiding Atlantic City's mayor for allowing residents to take shelter in public schools rather than evacuate. “For those elected officials who decided to ignore my admonition, this is now your responsibility,” Christie said at a press conference Monday afternoon.

There was never any truce. Warplanes from Bashar al-Assad’s military swept over a Damascus suburb on the final day of what was supposed to be a holiday truce—though neither side kept up their end of the bargain. Proposed by international envoy Lakhdar Brahimi and intended to extend over a long weekend in honor of the al-Adha holiday, the truce was broken by both pro- and anti-Assad forces. The bombing of a rebel stronghold Monday finished off any hope for a respite in the Syrian bloodshed.

The U.S. stock market closed Monday and will also shutter trading on Tuesday as Hurricane Sandy looms over the East Coast. Some banks are in evacuation zones, and many employees were expected to work remotely. Stock-index futures fell as the storm barreled toward New York City as the markets endured the first cease in trading for weather since January 1996. Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 fell 0.5 percent in the early hours of Monday morning.