Schools are closed, transport services are suspended, and houses and shops have been boarded up as Hurricane Sandy makes its way along the US’s eastern seaboard.

The Salvation Army has readied more than 300 emergency response vehicles and more than 600 units in the affected states.

The units have the capacity to serve thousands of meals and drinks every day.

Response teams have been deployed to communities where residents have had to leave their homes and move into emergency shelters.

The Salvation Army teams are assisting shelters at Salisbury Bennett High School and Annapolis High School, and providing food to shelters across Atlantic County.

The Salvation Army in Baltimore has been asked to provide food to neighbourhoods that lose power as a result of the storm.

In Norfolk, Virginia, the Salvation Army has said it is prepared to evacuate guests from local homeless shelters in the event of flooding.

In New Jersey, the Salvation Army Red Bank Corps is receiving evacuated nursing home patients.

There are fears Hurricane Sandy could become a super-storm when it makes landfall between Virginia and southern New England later today.

The storm has put a halt to the election campaigns as President Barack Obama warned the country to take it seriously.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has ordered 375,000 people to evacuate the city’s low-lying areas.

He said: “If you don't evacuate you're not just putting your own life in danger, you are also endangering lives of our first responders who would have to rescue you.”