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Sandy is likely to go down as one of the costliest storms in U.S. history. The initial estimates of the losses are anywhere from $20 billion to $50 billion. But as NPR's Jim Zarroli reports, the impact on the economy is more complicated than it may appear. Some companies will even make money.

JIM ZARROLI, BYLINE: Economist Greg Daco has been tallying the potential costs of Hurricane Sandy and he says there's no question it's going to hurt the economy more than it will help it.

Switzerland, which is almost synonymous with secretive banking, is looking for more staff to handle a flood of new requests from other countries that are looking for tax cheats. Last year the number of inquiries from overseas tax authorities almost doubled, to more than 700.

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On the first of November, it's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.

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And I'm Renee Montagne.

Portions of the New York subway system are up and running again after being shut down for three days after Superstorm Sandy. There is, of course, a giant hole in the middle of the system. The lines stop short of Lower Manhattan, where many tunnels and stations flooded.

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It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.

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And I'm Steve Inskeep. Good morning.

We'll talk next with the man coordinating the federal response to Hurricane Sandy. Craig Fugate is head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He's at FEMA headquarters in Washington.

Mr. Fugate, welcome to the program.

CRAIG FUGATE: Good morning.

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Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep. Hurricane Sandy disrupted flights all across the United States. Even people far from the storm discovered planes could not get to their airports. And of all the people affected, the saddest were surely 1,300 people from the East Coast stuck in Honolulu.

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What a shame.

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Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne with news of jack-o-lantern art this Halloween. Ray Villafane is a former teacher who found his medium after carving a gourd a student gave him. The sculptor began with a pumpkin, this year, weighing just under a ton to create a vividly realistic life-sized stringy haired orange zombie pulling other zombies out of a pumpkin garden. The work of pumpkin art is now giving people the shivers at the New York botanical garden. It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio.

President Obama offered thoughts and prayers Tuesday for all those who have been affected by Sandy. He also offered something more tangible: the full resources of the federal government.

"The most important message I have for them is that America's with you," he said. "We are standing behind you, and we are going to do everything we can to help you get back on your feet."

For Obama, the federal government is a critical vehicle for that kind of help. Republicans put more faith in local government, and even voluntary efforts.

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And I'm Renee Montagne. Earlier this morning, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie boarded a State Police helicopter and had a look from overhead at the communities by the Jersey shore, towns near the place where the center of Hurricane Sandy hit land last night.

NPR Jim Zarroli speaks with Steve Inskeep about how Superstorm Sandy has impacted parts of New Jersey.

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And I'm Renee Montagne. As superstorm Sandy battered the East Coast with rain and wind, she also brought blizzard conditions to much of West Virginia. Earl Ray Tomblin is the governor of West Virginia, and he joins us on the line to talk about his state.

Good morning.

GOVERNOR EARL RAY TOMBLIN: Good morning, Renee.

Renee Montagne talks to Frank Formica, owner of Formica Brothers Bakery and Cafe, in Atlantic City, N.J., about his experience during Hurricane Sandy.

You can barely listen to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney make a speech or give an interview without hearing some variation of this vow:

"On Day 1 of my administration, I'll direct the secretary of Health and Human Services to grant a waiver from Obamacare to all 50 states. And then I'll go about getting it repealed," he told Newsmax TV in September 2011.

For an update on superstorm Sandy's impact on the East Coast of the U.S., Renee Montagne and Steve Inskeep speak with NPR reporters Joel Rose, Elizabeth Shogren, Jim Zarroli, and Zoe Chace.

Steve Inskeep talks with Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley about Hurricane Sandy and how it's affecting his state.

For Jennifer Kaye, Hurricane Sandy is a threat to her livelihood. Kaye is General Manager and Captain of the Schooner Woodwind, a family-owned business based in Annapolis, Maryland. She and her crew are riding out the storm on board a 74-foot sailboat. Kaye explains how being on the boat is key to protecting it.

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And let's get another glimpse, as we are all morning, of New York City in the aftermath of what was Hurricane Sandy. We saw, overnight, dramatic video of around 50 homes burning in Queens. There was massive flooding in lower Manhattan.

NPR's Robert Smith is there. Robert, we saw a video of water that was going up to the door handles of cars. I trust that the waters receded somewhat at this point.

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Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne. In the midst of a monster storm, let's take a moment to contemplate a monster pumpkin. Out in California, John Sach grew a pumpkin weighing just under 1,000 pounds. He calls it Sally, and it won Orange County's annual Pumpkinmania contest. Sach's pumpkin outgrew the runner-up, named Gourdita, which was downright slim at 795 pounds. According to the O.C. Register, Sally's secret is simple - a lot of food and water. It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio.

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Mitt Romney says he'll grant a waiver to all 50 states on Day 1 of his presidency so that they don't have to comply with the Affordable Care Act. But even his supporters question whether he would have the legal authority to do that. He's also promising to repeal it — a process that could take months, at a minimum — and he may not be able to totally repeal the law.

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As Hurricane Sandy, or whether - at this point in time, it's Superstorm Sandy, when it did thunder ashore as a hurricane, Tamara Brownstein(ph) was assessing the damage. She was working for the Red Cross in Sea Bright, New Jersey.

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Now, both campaigns are slicing and dicing the electorate, trying to find the exact combination of voters that results in a win, find just a few more of your people, identify them, get them to the polls. Ronald Brownstein of National Journal has been examining this. When we spoke several weeks ago, Brownstein said the following: President Obama's strategy is to capture 80 percent of the minority vote and at least compete for some of the white vote, as he did when he won in 2008.

The latest and last NPR Battleground Poll for 2012 shows former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney holding the narrowest of leads in the national sample, but trailing President Obama in the dozen states that will decide the election.

The poll adds evidence that the Oct. 3 debate between the two men redefined the race. But the movement toward Romney that emerged after that night in Denver also seems to have stalled after the race drew even — leaving the outcome difficult to call.

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Coyotes have moved into the Boston suburb of Belmont, Mass. The Boston Globe says they've lost their fear of humans because people feed them. So, Belmont is training volunteers for coyote hazing. Their job is to harass coyotes — shouting at them, throwing objects their way, even squirting them with water hoses.

Political commentators will be working overtime in the countdown to the presidential election. So will political comedians, including the candidates' impersonators.

Impersonators have been part of the political landscape for so long, it's hard to imagine a time without them: Rich Little, Dana Carvey, Will Ferrell, Dan Aykroyd, Darrell Hammond, Tina Fey and other comedians have all famously done their turns as candidates. Remember "I can see Russia from my house"?