Five Things You Need to Know Today: Oct. 29

1. Hurricane Sandy. New England will start to feel the serious effects of Sandy today, including high winds, rain, flooding and power outages. According to the WHDH Weather Blog, the worst winds will be from late morning today into the evening. Particularly hard-hitting winds will occur from 2 p.m. - 8 p.m. Make sure you stay tuned to Newton Patch's Hurricane Information Center to get all the updates you need.

2. School canceled, city buildings closed. School is canceled today for the Newton Public Schools as well as several private schools and colleges in the city. In addition, all non-emergency municipal buildings (including City Hall and the Newton Free Library) will also be closed. 

3. Trash/recycling delayed. Due to the storm, trash/recycling will not be picked up in Newton today. All trash/recycling pickup will be delayed by one day this week.

4. Gov. Patrick: Don't go out, if you can. During a press conference Sunday afternoon,. He also encouraged all schools, colleges and universities to close. All non-emergency state workers have been asked to stay home today, and all state office buildings will be closed.

5. Halloween candy collection for the troops. This Halloween, trick-or-treaters are encouraged to bring their extra candy to Dr. David Oliver at Move Well Chiropractic and he will send the candy to troops overseas. Candy will be collected at Move Well Chiropractic on November 1 from 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Nov 2 from 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. The candy must be unopened. It will then be shipped to Operation Shoebox which will send it to the troops overseas. Oliver did a similar candy collection last year.