This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. • The superstorm that's ravaging the East Coast is enormous, even when seen from space.

The commander of the International Space Station, Sunita Williams, said Tuesday that she and her crew were able to make out the big swirl at the center of Sandy as it neared land Monday. She says the cloud cover stretched from the Atlantic almost all the way to Chicago. Her family lives in New England, and she's keeping a special watch over what's happening on the Eastern Seaboard.

As for the other big news — the U.S. presidential election — Williams and the one other American on board, Kevin Ford, already have cast their votes. The two filed absentee ballots before rocketing into orbit from Kazakhstan. Ford arrived at the space station just last week.