(11/12/2012) Televised and published pictures plus personal appeals of Hurricane Sandy victims in New York and New Jersey touched the hearts of Shelter Islanders who generously filled truckloads of clothing and other goods bound for Island Park and Long Beach last week. But the word from the Federal Emergency Management Agency now is "stop."

It's not that the victims of Sandy have their needs met, but that FEMA has strict rules what can and can't be accepted.

"We stopped taking things now," said Marie Eiffel whose boutiques on Shelter Island and in Sag Harbor have been drop-off centers for goods that Sweet Tomato's Jimi Rando trucked to neighborhoods devastated by Sandy.

"It was great," Ms. Eiffel said. "We did get to those people before FEMA stepped in and it was a great turnout," she said of the goods contributed by her friends and neighbors to boost the relief effort. Not only did Ms. Eiffel make her stores a drop-off point, but she contributed some of her own store inventory.