reporter: especially because he s on vacation the president is trying to be aggressive in showing he s on top of this storm. you saw what happened to president bush after katrina and what happened to his own administration after the oil spill in the gulf. they want to make sure they are ahead of this. he had an emergency management conference call with his homeland security secretary janet napolitano. there was a call with reporters after his call with the president coordinating with governors and local official on the east coast. in martha s vineyard they are preparing for the storm late sunday, the early wee hours of monday morning. the hardware stores are selling flashlights. but local officials are seeing a lot of people trying to race off