The rain has picked up and much to my annoyance the repairs to the rear gutter either were not done or are ineffective as rain is still dripping onto the bay window below.
Schools are closed, the government is closed ( though outside of the lighter traffic, does it make any difference if the government is open or closed?) and citizens are urged to stay home. The high winds are expected later in the day, and if I was the elderly woman living next door to us, I would be seriously concerned. On the property line there are several now very tall pine trees, trees I and another neighbor have asked her in the past to trim to a more manageable height, but she has turned a deaf ear. Up to now they have been a nuisance for us as they block sunlight for most of the day. But now they are a threat, to her mostly, as if one or more fall, they are going right into her house. Talk about penny-wise and pound foolish.
As expected, there was a run on stores and gas stations yesterday. The photo below shows what was left last night of the bottled water section at wife unit’s store. Suspect the store will do a very brisk post-Sandy business as it has its own generators and can brew coffee, prepare hot meals and allow people to keep their electronic devices charged.
Nope, no bottled water here
Inaformerlifeanexpat's Blog 
I am grateful we do not have any tall trees around us. The neighbor across the back alley used to have one but he lost it last storm (onto his neighbor’s garage!).
And I’ll bet he liked paying to rebuild his neighbor’s garage.