Local students usually do not have days off from school for Halloween, but things are different this year with so-called "Frankenstorm" set to hit Schuylkill County today through Tuesday.
All local schools - public, parochial and charter - and universities canceled classes for today with the approach of hybrid storm Sandy.
Local retailers ran out of generators, size D batteries were in short supply and the bread and other aisles at local food stores were empty as people stocked up on staples in advance of the storm.
Schuylkill Technology Centers North and South campuses, Penn State Schuylkill and Penn State Hazleton, McCann School of Business & Technology campuses as well as Schuylkill Health School of Nursing also canceled classes for today.
The Schuylkill Transportation System, in a notice on its website, said it will cease service at noon today and cancel all services on Tuesday.
Many Halloween activities also were canceled or postponed. In a release, the Pottsville Lions Club said its Halloween parade has been canceled and the Pottsville Merchants Association trick-or-treat has been moved to 4 to 6 p.m. Thursday.
The National Weather Service has issued a high wind warning and a flood watch for Schuylkill County and neighboring areas about 6 p.m. Saturday. The wind warning runs until noon Tuesday and the flood watch runs until 8 p.m. Thursday, coinciding with the citywide trick-or-treat.
According to the NWS, sustainable winds will be 35 to 40 mph with gusts reaching 70 mph. Widespread rainfall totaling 3 to 6 inches is possibly by late Tuesday. The heaviest rain should fall Monday into the night.
"Winds (this morning) will be 20 to 30 mph and 30 to 40 mph in the afternoon with gusts of 50 mph continuing into the night," David Martin, NWS meteorologist at State College, said Sunday night. "There will be a few gusts Tuesday morning reaching 70 mph. Wind could cause fairly widespread damage once they reach above 60 mph."
Martin said winds should die down into Tuesday night as the weather slowly starts to improve Wednesday.
He said there is really no chance of the storm missing the county.
"This storm is very wide in diameter and slow moving so it affects a large area for an extended amount of time," he said.
He offered some advice to state residents.
"Use caution when traveling the next two days. Put away lightweight lawn furniture or things that can be blown away. Also, make sure you have emergency items and enough food and water. There will probably be some outages, which might take longer to restore if utility companies are working in other areas. Be prepared to lose power for at least a day or two."
Since Gov. Tom Corbett declared a state of emergency for Pennsylvania Friday evening, local grocery stores have been packed.
Patrick Murphy, evening manager of Redner's Warehouse Market at the Gold Star Plaza in Shenandoah, said things have been pretty hectic at the store Saturday and Sunday as people got water, milk, bread and eggs among other supplies.
"When we get a scare, people get nuts. It's something that we're used to as a grocery store," Murphy said Sunday evening.
Murphy said the store ran out of bottled water by Sunday night and was low on other supplies as well.
He said there will be a truck shipment to the store today, depending on the weather.
"We have no plans to close, but it's a possibility," Murphy said.
Gov. Corbett's emergency declaration authorized the transfer of $5 million in surplus funds for disaster-related expenses. The declaration also puts the Pennsylvania National Guard on standby.
Utility companies also have employees working overtime this week.
According to a press release from The Edison Electric Institute, an association of U.S. shareholder-owned electric companies, most utility companies in the storm's projected path have already been mobilizing thousands of storm and field personnel and are calling upon extra workers and resources from all across the country through the industry's Mutual Assistance Network.
Customers who experienced outages should report them by calling PPL at 800-342-5775 or through the online outage center at www.pplelectric.com/outagecenter.