The city removed six generators and 13 gasoline cans from Occupy Wall Street protesters on Friday, a day before an October Nor'Easter was set to thrash the tri-state with cold winds, rain and even snow.
The FDNY said the items were illegal safety hazards.
Protest volunteer Iana Dikidjiea says the generators were used for the kitchen, emergency lights and media equipment.
She said protesters are "rethinking how that's going to work." But she adds: "We'll deal with it."
With the temperature dropping, Wall Street protesters throughout the country are stockpiling donated coats, blankets and scarves, trying to secure cots and military-grade tents, and getting survival tips from the homeless people who have joined their encampments.
Activists are also sorting through packages arriving daily that include coats and jackets.
Temperatures were expected to drop into the 30s across much of the Northeast by Friday morning, and forecasters said snow is possible in some places over the weekend. Boston got its first dusting late Thursday night.
In Denver, as protesters prepared for this week's snow, a few dozen sympathizers stopped by to drop off blankets, gloves, chili and hot chocolate. Police refused to let activists erect a tent. That left some sleeping on the wet ground, covered by snowy tarps.
"I welcome the challenge of this cold weather," said Dwayne Hudson, a landscaper who has been living at the Occupy Denver site for nearly two weeks. "This is like war. You know, soldiers do it when they occupy a place. I'm sure the mountains of Afghanistan get pretty cold."
But after the first snowfall, he admitted: "It's getting tough."
Eric Martin, who is on Occupy Boston's winterization committee, said the group had raised about $35,000, which could help buy winter supplies. Various ideas are being discussed to keep tents warm without using combustion-based heaters, which are forbidden. Another proposal: igloos.
"We're looking at ideas from military vets to survivalists, to the homeless community to indigenous peoples," Martin said.
Activists in Philadelphia are also researching sturdier, warmer structures that could replace the 300 to 400 tents set up on the concrete plaza surrounding City Hall.
Chris Goldstein of Riverside, N.J., owns one of the tents, though he sometimes sleeps at home. He learned the hard way during the first rainfall that the site has poor drainage: "I occupied a puddle." The self-employed writer and activist put pallets under the tent to lift it off the ground, and outfitted it with small carpets for insulation.
In the meantime, he and other activists have access to a Quaker community center two blocks away where they can shower and thaw out in common rooms.
In Chicago, where winters are famously bitter, protesters living in Grant Park are working to secure several indoor locations to get them through to spring. A church nearby is letting some demonstrators sleep overnight. Activists in Portland, Ore., likewise said that moving the protest inside is the only realistic option.
Patricia Phelan and her fiancee, Savanah Kite, have been camping in the Providence park in a $20 tent from Walmart. As temperatures dipped into the 40s in the morning this week and people could see their breath, they hadn't yet employed their hand warmers or a down comforter Phelan had in the car just in case.
Their plan is to add layers as necessary.
The trick will be keeping morale up, Phelan said, "and not letting the climate get to us."
