CNN has named Indra Petersons as its new weather anchor and correspondent. Petersons will primarily contribute to “New Day” with Chris Cuomo, Kate Bolduan and Michaela Pereira which begins June 17, but will also appear across all CNN shows and platforms. With the devastating tornado in Oklahoma, Petersons is starting her field work early for CNN, and will be reporting from Moore this week.

Petersons joins CNN from KABC Los Angeles, where she was a meteorologist and general assignment reporter. Before KABC she worked at KEYT Santa Barbara and KVIA El Paso, also as a meteorologist.

She is effectively replacing Rob Marciano, who left as CNN’s weather anchor in November of 2012 to become the co-anchor of “Entertainment Tonight.”

CNN news and weather anchor Rob Marciano is leaving the cable channel to become the co-host of the long-running entertainment news program “Entertainment Tonight.”

Marciano will join Nancy O’Dell in Los Angeles starting in January. “ET” had been seeking a new co-host since Mark Steines left the program over the Summer. A source close to Marciano tells TVNewser that while he was happy at CNN, he had been looking to move beyond weather reporting, and into more general news. “ET,” which launched in 1981, is the gold standard for entertainment news shows, and routinely draws between four and five million viewers every day, far more than any program on cable news, except perhaps for “The O’Reilly Factor.”

“This is a terrific opportunity for Rob,” a CNN spokesperson says. “We thank him for all his years of reporting for CNN and we wish him the best of luck.”

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Lower Manhattan is currently something out of an apocalypse movie. With no power or cell service, I saw people bartering on the streets for food and supplies, and wandering northbound to try and find a plug to charge their phone into. I was one of those people marching uptown, past downed trees and pitch black shops, restaurants and offices.

One of the few things with plenty of power in southern Manhattan? TV satellite trucks, as CNN’s Rob Marciano saw firsthand:

Crowd charging cell phones via our satellite truck. #CNN gaining new viewers one plug at a time.twitpic.com/b924ng

— Rob Marciano (@robmarcianoCNN) October 31, 2012

CNN will be keeping its usual primetime lineup on tonight to cover Sandy, and will be live until the worst of the storm passes, whenever that may be. Anchors Anderson Cooper and Erin Burnett will be reporting in the field tonight across primetime. CNN International will be simulcasting CNN/U.S. from 11AM-2PM and again starting at 4 PM.

The list of correspondents in the field for CNN is after the jump.

Update: HLN is blowing up its primetime lineup to provide hurricane coverage. Those details are also after the jump.
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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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Two stories dominated TV news coverage this morning: the landfall of Hurricane Isaac in New Orleans, and the speeches from Ann Romney and Chris Christie at the RNC.

On Weather Channel (which it should be noted was the first outlet to report Isaac’s landfall), Al Roker and Jim Cantore reported from inside the heart of the storm this morning. The duo also appeared on “Today”:

For CNN, Anderson Cooper and Rob Marciano reported as Isaac made landfall:

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Reynolds Wolf and Jacqui Jeras

Wolf has been with CNN since 2006. and has specialized in reportage from dramatic weather events such as hurricanes, tornadoes and floods. He was one of CNN’s most prominent correspondents during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster in 2010.

Jeras has been with CNN since 1999, and also dedicated a significant amount of her time covering natural disasters. During Hurricane Katrina Jeras spent 84 hours on the air covering the hurricane and its aftermath.

CNN still has Chad Myers and Rob Marciano in its weather unit, as well as meteorologists at CNN International and CNN en Espanol.

It appears as though Wolf and Jeras are the only cuts in CNN’s weather unit, but we will update if we hear more.

CNN sent over the following photo of news and weather Rob Marciano this afternoon. It was taken near Cherokee, Oklahoma over the weekend by CNN international senior meteorologist and senior weather producer Brandon Miller.

Category 4 Hurricane Earl will skirt the Outer Banks of North Carolina later today, and the TV weathermen are in place. Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina is the place to be for the network meteorologists: Al Roker of NBC, Dave Price of CBS and Rob Marciano of CNN are there. ABC’s Sam Champion is in Atlantic Beach, North Carolina.

Mandatory evacuations are in place in several coastal counties with Hurricane watches or warnings stretching from North Carolina to Maine.

Developing…

Tonight CNN has a special documenting the Gulf clean-up efforts. “Rescue: Saving the Gulf” will be hosted by Rob Marciano and air at 8 p.m.

The special will look at how oil skimmers work, what needs to be done to decontaminate beaches and how to rescue animals that have been caught in the slick.

“The persistence of the people working to clean up the Gulf demonstrates their grit and strength,” says Marciano in a statement. “It’s a fight and a struggle every day – against the elements, against the oil, against sheer exhaustion. This is what it takes. Viewers will be inspired by their extraordinary determination to reclaim their way of life.”

The press release is after the jump.

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