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"Blood-drinking festival." Reading those words, it's hard not to get either creeped out or curious — especially around Halloween.

I opted for curiosity. Which is how I discovered photojournalist Jana Asenbrennerova's stunning photo essay on an obscure custom that takes place each year in the remote, mist-wrapped highlands of Nepal. These festivals are actually a reflection of the complex relationship that Nepal's Buddhists have with eating meat.

While we're on the subject of devastating storms, consider a report published last year by the National Hurricane Center. The title alone makes it worth a look:

THE DEADLIEST, COSTLIEST, AND MOST INTENSE UNITED STATES TROPICAL CYCLONES FROM 1851 TO 2010 (AND OTHER FREQUENTLY REQUESTED HURRICANE FACTS)

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

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

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: Hi, good morning.

Across New York City, much of New Jersey and other places hit hard by Superstorm Sandy, power remains out today and the long, hard process of digging through debris and starting to rebuild continues.

Suppose Sandy had struck a week later. With power out across multiple states, how would people be able to vote on Election Day?

"If this were happening next week, we have no provisions for dealing with this in law," says Thad Hall, a political scientist at the University of Utah.

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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.

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

What a shame.

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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

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 NPR.

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.

"The New York City subway system is 108 years old, but it has never faced a disaster as devastating as what we experienced last night."

That's how Joseph J. Lhota, the chairman of the Metropolitan Transit Authority, explained the damage caused by Superstorm Sandy to the venerable mass transit system on Tuesday.

The problem is so big that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had deployed an elite 12-member team to help out.

The center of Superstorm Sandy passed less than 25 miles from Philadelphia. In most cases that would mean that the city of brotherly love would have been whipped with the strongest of winds from the weather system.

But Philly, the country's fifth-largest city, emerged today fairly unscathed.

With the death, destruction, flooding, power outages and transportation disruptions caused by Sandy the Superstorm, it may seem crass to ask about the impact on next week's election.

But here's a question: Could the trail of devastation left by the storm in a part of the nation whose states are generally colored blue in presidential races depress turnout in those states, especially among Democrats?

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From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

I'm Audie Cornish. And we begin this hour with Sandy by the numbers. At least 39 people on the East Coast have died, as a result of the massive storm.

SIEGEL: Sixty-nine are dead in the Caribbean.

CORNISH: Eight-point two million people, in the U.S., are without power.

SIEGEL: And while it's too early for an accurate tally, insured losses alone are estimated at 5- to $10 billion.

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Two straight days makes this the worst weather-related closure of the New York Stock Exchange since 1888. There was a monstrous snowstorm in March of that year, drifts of over 40 feet. You know what was also happening right about the same time? The American Arithmometer Company started up in St. Louis. It went on to sell the device that its founding Vice President William Seward Burroughs invented - the adding machine, which raises this question for me.

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From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

And I'm Audie Cornish.

Looming over the recovery from Super Storm Sandy is what to do about next Tuesday's election? The prospect that some voters could still be displaced or without power a week from today has election officials trying to come up with alternative plans.

It even has some people talking about the highly unusual step of delaying the vote, as NPR's Pam Fessler reports.

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In lower Manhattan, the New York Stock Exchange was closed yesterday. It's closed again today; slated to reopen tomorrow. More on that, coming up. But Wall Street is not the only industry in lower Manhattan facing trouble from the hurricane. Zoe Chace, of NPR's Planet Money team, has been getting a look around.

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Homeowners, businesses, and insurance companies are still assessing the damage from the storm in much of the eastern U.S. But some early estimates are in.

And as NPR's Yuki Noguchi reports, Hurricane Sandy inflicted heavy economic damage.

The power was still out in northern New Jersey on Tuesday. Floodwaters from Sandy trapped people in their homes and spread debris over a large area.

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From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

And I'm Audie Cornish.

Sandy has spoken. Over the past 24 hours, the storm has swamped vast sections of the Jersey shore, crippled much of New York City and left more than 8 million Americans in the dark.

As this long election comes to end, Superstorm Sandy is offering a chance for President Obama to showcase his leadership skills one last time.

For Obama, this campaign has truly been a fight against the elements: a painfully slow economic recovery and a political landscape in which the Republicans swept the table just two years ago. The Obama campaign, with its trademark discipline and meticulous organization, set out to overcome these obstacles.

But the long campaign has also put the spotlight on features of Obama's own personality and performance.

When Superstorm Sandy slammed into the East Coast on Monday, the fragile U.S. economy was just sitting there, stuck in a sluggish-growth mode.

Now, as the massive cleanup begins, business owners, workers and investors are wondering what impact the megastorm ultimately will have on their wallets. Did Sandy weigh down economic activity enough to drown the recovery? Or will the rebuilding efforts boost growth over the longer term?