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"In many east coast towns, children will be unable to celebrate Halloween on October 31st for the second year in a row-last year, the impacts of the infamous Halloween snowstorm brought record-breaking amounts of wet, heavy snow that tore down trees and cut power for upwards of two weeks. It remains unclear whether most towns will be able to support trick-or-treaters among fallen trees and nonfunctional street lights, but many annual events have been called off. In New York City, authorities cancelled the infamous Greenwich Village Halloween Parade for the first time in 39 years. Even the popular Halloween editions of The Today Show and Good Morning America were cut. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who many believe adequately prepared the state for the storm (considering it was the hardest hit), recently tweeted that if conditions weren&amp;#039;t safe enough for trick-or-treating, he would sign an executive order that would reschedule Halloween for the state of New Jersey. Dozens of theme and amusement parks were forced to close their season early, cancelling Halloween celebrations as well. Many towns are encouraging citizens to move Halloween festivities to Friday, November 2nd, or even Saturday, November 3rd. But businesses counting on the estimated $8 billion Americans were to spend this holiday will certainly take a hit as towns continue to clean up and rebuild after the storm of a century. Nearly 8 million customers remain without power in a dozen states. Many towns in the New York metropolitan area are fighting through flooding and water damage. Some southern states are even buried under two feet of snow. In most places, there are vague estimates as to when electricity and other services, such as the New York City subway system, will be restored, and due to damages and the loss of business, the storm is predicted to cost billions of dollars. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.womansday.com/life/news/a47533/east-coast-halloween-festivities-cancelled-due-to-sandys-destruction/>