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Surviving Sandy: Four Ways You Can Help

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Even thousands of miles away from Red Cross headquarters in Washington, D.C., there are significant resources we can pass around to help those affected by Sandy.

Five stories that have North Texas talking: doing our part amid the storm, updates with a week ‘til Election Day, and more.

Fleets of volunteers and energy workers from Texas and around the country have joined forces to help communities in states affected by Sandy. KERA-90.1 is preempting Fresh Air and the first hour of Think to make way for an NPR  News call-in special that runs until 1 p.m.

Here are some survival tips and storm-tracking links:

  • Google has launched aCrisis Map for Sandy. It gives you access to shelter lists, webcam feeds, public alerts, and evacuation routes.
  • The American Red Cross has afree app for most phone types; it has several useful tools with updated weather / survival information, including a single-press button that notifies friends & family members of your whereabouts.

Staytuned to KERA 90.1 and we’ll have the latest information as it arrives.

-- Justin Martin

Storming In

Not even a devastating hurricane can keep students from Dallas’ Bishop Lynch High School off the grid. The group is in New York for a mock debate tournament -- and was stuck last night on the 60th floor of the Doubletree Hotel above Timees Square. The kids have been doing homework via Skype, and talked with WFAA’s Shelley Slater. So how are they coping?

“Well, we read a lot,” one student said.

On the ground, the drenched-but-not-out New York public radio warriors at WNYC are getting props all over for  storm coverage via Twitter and a radar map that updates every two minutes. Further, though, the station has this Storify feed going with photos of staggering water marks and video of the Con Ed explosion and other effects of the storm.

-- Lyndsay Knecht

Flooding The Zone: Dallas Will Weigh In

With all the water inundating the Northeast, a few bottom-of-the-ballot issues for Dallas voters next week seem a bit more pressing. BJ Austinspells out the bond package, which includes big bucks for flood control and road repairs. The super-useful Vote Yes Dallas site makes it easy to find outwhich projects are planned for your area.

-- Lyndsay Knecht

NPR Poll: Presidential Race A Nail-Biter

NPR’s last Battleground Poll finds the race between President Obama and Mitt Romney too close to call. Romney has a 1-point lead overall, but Obama is up by 4 in a dozen crucial "battleground" states. Ron Elving and Mara Liasson compare the results of previous polls, which only serves to make any informed bets on who’ll win harder to make.

And locally, the DMN’s update on early voting results in Dallas County quotes elections administrator Toni Pippins-Poole as estimating that 60 percent of registered voters could turn out for the election -- and that guess is up, she says.

-- Lyndsay Knecht

Better Late Than Never? Sadler Ad Airs

A week before the election, Democrat Paul Sadler launched the first TV ad in his longshot bid for the U.S. Senate. Sadler christens his opponent Ted Cruz “the most extreme Senate candidate in Texas history.”

The Dallas Morning News’ Robert T. Garrett reminds how far behind Sadler is in raising funds for his campaign. Cruz’s ad, dubbed "American Dream," began airing a week ago.

The latest pollin the Sadler-Cruz race, released yesterday by the Texas Tribune and UT-Austin, shows the Republican with a comfortable 15-point lead.

-- Lyndsay Knecht