“CBS Evening News,” “NBC Nightly News” and “ABC World News” will expand to an hour again tonight as superstorm Sandy moves north, and the devastation in its wake is measured. Joe Lhota, the chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the bridges, tunnels, buses, subways and commuter railroads just remarked in a news conference, “I can say unequivocally that the MTA last night suffered a disaster as devastating as it has ever faced in its history.”

The MTA chairman was speaking along with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo — brother of “20/20″ anchor Chris Cuomo who has been contributing to ABC’s storm coverage. Lhota mentioned the 40-foot boat (image, right) that sits across the Metro North rail line, pushed there when the storm surge sent the Hudson River onto nearby tracks.

Being the governor of the third most-populous state in the Union does not have the clout that being a network anchorman does, apparently. As evidenced today when Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) Tweeted at his brother, ABC News “20/20″ co-anchor Chris Cuomo asking him to send out a #FF so the governor could up his Twitter following. Right now, the younger anchorman Cuomo has 996,107 followers while the older governing Cuomo has just 19,530 followers. The younger brother obliged.

The late night vote to legalize same sex marriage in New York State changed up the primetime lineup on cable news Friday night.

CNN’s Anderson Cooper anchored the 10 and 11pmET hours of his show live, with the final 33-29 vote occurring at 10:30pmET and remarks from Gov. Andrew Cuomo at 11:22pm. Cuomo signed the bill into law later. When it goes into effect in 30 days, New York will become the sixth and largest state to recognize same-sex marriage.

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow anchored beyond her normal 9pmET timeslot into the 10pm hour when the vote occurred. Maddow anchored until 10:41, before the network returned to its normal documentary programming.

Fox News was in the middle of a two-hour special on the Casey Anthony case hosted by Jeanine Pirro when it broadcast a Fox News Alert at 10:38pm. Marianne Rafferty anchored that alert as well as another at the top of the 11pm re-air of “The O’Reilly Factor” and others into the early morning hours.