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lage, a gigantic wall of water defied elaborate planning and expectations, swamped underground electrical equipment, and left about 250,000 lower Manhattan customers without power.
• Last year, the surge from Hurricane Irene reached 9.5 feet at the substation. ConEd figured it had that covered.
• The utility also figured the infrastructure could handle a repeat of the highest surge on record for the area -- 11 feet during a hurricane in 1821, according to the National Weather Service. After all, the substation was designed to withstand a surge of 12.5 feet.
• With all the planning, and all the predictions, planning big was not big enough. Superstorm Sandy went bigger -- a surge of 14 feet.
• ___

• WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republicans hit the jackpot with casino mogul Sheldon Adelson. Worth an estimated $25 billion, Adelson has donated $44.2 million so far to aid Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and organizations supporting Romney this election.
• Other top donors giving millions of dollars to aid Romney's campaign include a trio of Texas money moguls and the head of a South Florida-based energy conglomerate. Their contribution totals expanded by $17 million in the first half of October, according to Federal Election Commission records. Adelson remained ahead of the pack, donating $10 million in October, but the others also added recently to their totals.
• Those donors and others are funding a presidential election that surpassed $2 billion in October, with money going toward individual Democratic and Republican campaigns as well as independent, "super" political committees working on the campaigns' behalf.
• Political donations can open doors that are closed to most people. Big-dollar donors are often invited to state dinners at the White House and other events with the president. They also may be asked to weigh in on public policy, especially if it affects their own financial interests. And the ranks of ambassadors, advisory panels and other government jobs traditionally are filled with those who have been unusually generous during the campaign.
• Based on an examination of more than 3.9 million campaign contributions

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