A fire and explosion at a fertilizer plant in West, TX, about 80 miles south of Dallas, is keeping CNN live on the air into the Midnight hour. The news broke around 10:30pm as cable news anchors were focused on the investigation into the Boston Marathon blasts. CNN’s Anderson Cooper covered the news during the 10pm hour, and remained with the story through the 11pm with Erin Burnett, then Piers Morgan live at Midnight. Fox News and MSNBC aired cut-ins but remained with taped programming, as of this writing. Update: MSNBC went into rolling coverage around 12:15am with Mara Schiavocampo and, later, Richard Lui anchoring until 5am. Fox News’ Elizabeth Prann anchored overnight coverage beginning at 12:38 until “Fox & Friends First” began at 4:30am. ABC’s “Nightline” was live for the East Coast, and then did a live update for the West Coast (3:35 am ET) with Terry Moran anchoring from Boston and Steve Osunsami reporting from Texas.

As the fire raged, a driver pulled out his camera phone and began recording. He wasn’t expecting what happened next. After the explosion shakes his vehicle, you hear screams and then his daughter: “Dad, I can’t hear. I can’t hear. Please get out of here.” Watch here.

An eyewitness told DallasNews.com “It was a small fire and then water sprayed the ammonia nitrate, and it exploded just like the Oklahoma City bomb.” The 18th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing is tomorrow. In fact, this part of Texas was in the news 20 years ago this week, when the final siege on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco began, resulting in the deaths of 76 people. West, TX is about 20 miles north of Waco.

Fox News Channel is blowing up its primetime programming to provide coverage of Hurricane Sandy’s landfall. “Hannity” will air as normal at 9 PM, but every other program is affected by the changes. There will be live coverage going through tomorrow morning, where “Fox & Friends” will pick things up.

Tonight’s lineup:

“Fox Report” 7-9pm
“Hannity” 9pm
“On the Record” 10-midnight
“America’s News Headquarters special coverage of Monster Storm,” co-anchored by Gregg Jarrett and Heather Childers midnight to 4am
“Fox and Friends First” will begin again at 4am tomorrow
“Fox and Friends” 6-9am

After the jump, an update on where some of FNC’s correspondents are.

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TV news organizations are gearing up for covering Sandy. There is still lots of uncertainty  but here is what we know so far. We will update this story as we get more information.

Cable:

The Weather Channel not surprisingly, has a slew of coverage planned. “Wake Up With Al” will air this weekend starting at 5:30 AM, and 5 AM starting next week.

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Hurricane Isaac is expected to make landfall overnight tonight on the Gulf Coast, and you can bet that cable news channels are planning special live programming to cover it. Weather Channel, CNN and Fox News Channel will be live overnight in the hours normally reserved for repeats.

Weather will have live coverage throughout the night, with Reynolds Wolf and Jim Cantore in New Orleans, Mike Seidel in Alabama and Paul Goodloe and Eric Fisher in Mississippi. Locations are subject to change, if Isaac’s path changes.

Fox News will be live from 1-4 AM, with Gregg Jarrett and Jamie Colby anchoring. The network is sending “Fox & Friends First” anchor Anna Kooiman to Baton Rouge, joining Elizabeth Prann, Jonathan Serrie and Casey Stegall in New Orleans. Steve Harrigan is in Biloxi, MS, Rick Leventhal is in Dauphin Island, AL, and Phil Keating is in Mobile, AL.

CNN will have a live edition of “Piers Morgan Tonight at midnight (it was already planned for the RNC), and will add live coverage from 1-4 AM. “Early Start,” which normally begins at 5 AM, will start even earlier at 4 AM tomorrow.

Update: MSNBC will be live til 1 AM with live coverage of the RNC and Isaac. An overnight decision will be made soon.

Update AM: MSNBC ended up replaying its primetime programming through 3 AM, and rerunning the RNC speeches beginning at 3. It broke into programming twice an hour with Hurricane Isaac updates.

We’ll update with more information as we get it.

Fox News Channel has sent Rick Richmeuth and Jonathan Serrie to Memphis to cover the flooding along the Mississippi River, and further south in Mississippi, Steve Harrigan and Elizabeth Prann are covering. CNN has David Mattingly, Ted Rowlands and Ed Lavandera along the river. On MSNBC expect to see NBC News correspondent Janet Shamlian in Memphis, as well as Weather Channel reporters in the days ahead. CBS’s Mark Strassmann is covering, Bloomberg’s Lizzie O’Leary is downriver in Norco, LA and as we mentioned earlier, ABC’s Diane Sawyer will anchor tonight from Memphis.

Greta Van Susteren‘s former assistant Elizabeth Prann has returned to the Fox News fold as a correspondent.

Prann, who was Van Susteren’s assistant from the summer of 2006 to the summer of 2008, left FNC to take a local news reporting job in Panama City, Florida. She was hired by Fox earlier this month as a reporter in the Atlanta bureau.

But leaving Florida was not easy. The Florida Newscenter blog reports Prann was stopped by Panama City police late last month for speeding 30 mph or more over the posted limit which carries a $350 fine.

(h/t Newsblues)