New York:
The Statue of Liberty reopened after a year of renovation and quickly closed again, the Empire State Building shut its doors and New York airports halted operations on Sunday as the Hurricane Sandy megastorm bore down.
Nervous New Yorkers stripped supermarket shelves of water, bread and batteries. Tourists could not get their shopping fix though as Macy's closed and just opposite in 34th Street Victoria's Secret puts a promised "seduction bombshell" under wraps.
"Frankenstorm." "Hell-oween." "Perfect Storm II."
Call it what you want, most of the 10 million people in the New York region found their lives turned upside down by Sandy even before the first gale force blast had hit.
The Statue of Liberty was meant to have a gala reopening after a $30 million refit, but Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and a group of army cadets were the only ones to get a tour. No one else will be able to climb the 393 steps to the torch until Wednesday, at the earliest.
The order to close the New York subway brought most other business to a halt. Busloads of Scandinavian, Chinese and Japanese tourists were turned away from the Empire State Building. Broadway also cancelled what limited Sunday shows were running.
"I cannot climb to the observation deck and my wife cannot go shopping. But I suppose we will remember being in New York when a hurricane hit," said Swedish visitor Per Ullqvist.
Authorities predict Hurricane Sandy will start to be felt late on Monday. New Yorkers prepared in their own special way.
Doug Barotra managed to carry more than 50 cans of beer out of his local supermarket after waiting 45 minutes to get to the cashier. He is expecting the worst.
"As long as the power doesn't go, I think I'll survive," Mr Barotra said as he struggled with his load on New York's Third Avenue back to his Midtown apartment. "I live on the 18th floor, if it gets bad I'm just going to stay there for the next three days."
Long lines formed at supermarkets to get water, bread, fresh food, batteries and anything that could help ride out the storm heading for the northeast United States.
At the Trader Joe stores in New York's Upper West Side and on Union Square, the queues wound out of the supermarket entrances and staff let customers in a few at a time. Many supermarkets said they would stay closed until the storm passes.
New York city's subways and bus lines shut down on Sunday night and airlines also started bringing their operations to a halt with thousands of flights canceled.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg ordered a mandatory evacuation for about 375,000 people in seafront zones that could be hit by a record storm surge.
Seventy-two schools and other buildings were opened up as emergency shelters. Many inhabitants said they were going to ignore the evacuation order, however.
Richard Bogart filled sandbags and set up a wall across the driveway to his home in Coney Island.
"I have heard the order, but when Irene hit last year the cellar was flooded and I have to be here in case something happens."
Many of his neighbours followed the same tactic.
Hurricane Sandy was on target to collide with a cold front bearing down from the north, creating what meteorologists have named "Frankenstorm," threatening floods, high winds and even heavy snow across many eastern states.
The storm surge from Hurricane Irene last year was between four and five feet (1.2 and 1.5 meters). This time experts are predicting a surge twice as high.
New York authorities have ordered 1,100 national guard troops into the state, including 200 who will patrol Manhattan streets and 300 in threatened Long Island districts.
Bloomberg said people who ignored the evacuation order would not be arrested but condemned them as "selfish" individuals because they would have to be rescued if the worst predictions come true.