All Over Albany

New York City hit hard by Sandy, storm brushes past Capital Region, NY19 race narrowing, Schenectady council apparently considering public safety change

The New York City area suffered significant damage as Sandy passed through -- record storm surge pushed water into lower Manhattan, and caused flooding in many parts of the city. The subway system there is offline, with no timetable for when it will be running again. [NYT] [NYDN] [@hglaser1] [Gothamist] [Gothamist]

The federal government has declared NYC-area counties a major disaster area. [State of Politics]

The storm has caused at least 13 deaths, including five in New York State. [NYT]

About 1.94 million households are without power around the state -- many of those outages are downstate. [Cuomo admin]

Sandy just brushed past the Capital Region -- if the track had been another 30 or 40 miles north the damage would have been much more severe, a NWS meteorologist says. [TU]

Some state employees in this area were working overtime Monday assisting with disaster response and coordination for other parts of the state. [TU]

The storm has disrupted political campaigning in the state. [TU]

Sandy prompted a bunch of travel problems for planes, trains, and buses in and out of Albany. [TU]

The Cuomo administration was active on Twitter through the night, providing a stream of updates. Andrew Cuomo's demeanor during the disaster, according to NYT: "hunky local fire chief." [NYT]

An Albany school district spokesman, in explaining why the district cancelled classes Monday and Tuesday: "If you're going to make a mistake, make it on the side of being overly cautious," [TU]

A UAlbany professor was part of a NOAA research team that flew into the center of then-Hurricane Sandy this past weekend. [TU]

The Round Lake man who pleaded guilty to kidnapping a 15-year-old from an Albany group home and repeatedly sexually abusing the boy has been sentenced to 8 years in prison. The ADA prosecuting the case called it "a heinous crime." The other man who pleaded guilty to being involved with the kidnapping and abuse is scheduled to be sentenced in November. [TU] [Saratogian] [Daily Gazette]

Frank Soriano -- the man convicted in the Wilton road rage case -- has had his bail revoked after the Saratoga County DA's office says it got a report he tried to contact a trial witness. [Daily Gazette]

Chris Gibson's lead over Democratic challenger Julian Schreibman in the race for the NY19 Congressional District is now 5 points, down from 16 six weeks ago, according to the Siena poll out this morning (MOE +/- 3.8). [Siena SRI]

Democratic members of the Schenectady city council -- that is, all but one of the council members -- went into a closed budget meeting Monday night, apparently to discuss getting rid of the city's public safety commissioner position -- a move that would significantly affect the city's discipline process for police. [Daily Gazette]

The hot items in the Capital Region ahead of Sandy: generators, batteries, and water. [Daily Gazette]