Preparing for Sandy

Those are the storm tracks from seven different models for Sandy as of 7:54am EDT today.¹ The white one is the official forecast from the National Hurricane Center. We are under a flood watch from Monday morning through Tuesday afternoon and a high wind warning from 6:00am EDT Monday through 6:00am EDT Tuesday. Here's how the National Weather Service describes what a flood watch and a high wind warning mean:

A FLOOD WATCH MEANS THERE IS A POTENTIAL FOR FLOODING. MONITOR 
THE LATEST FORECASTS AND BE ALERT FOR POSSIBLE FLOOD WARNINGS. 
THOSE LIVING IN AREAS PRONE TO FLOODING SHOULD BE PREPARED TO 
TAKE ACTION SHOULD FLOODING DEVELOP. 

A HIGH WIND WARNING IS ISSUED WHEN SUSTAINED WINDS OF 40 MPH ARE 
EXPECTED FOR AT LEAST AN HOUR...WITH GUSTS OF 58 MPH OR GREATER 
AT ANY TIME.  DAMAGE TO TREES...POWER LINES...AND PROPERTY ARE 
POSSIBLE WITH WIND OF THIS MAGNITUDE. POWER OUTAGES ARE LIKELY. 
TAKE ACTION NOW TO SECURE ANY LOOSE OUTDOOR OBJECTS. 
 

At home we have batteries, water, and non-perishable food. We'll fill our cars with gas today and make sure that our laptops, cell phones, and iPads are fully charged. At this point, the University has not posted any closings or delays, but I won't be surprised if that changes later today. Some coastal towns will begin evacuations later today, and both Fairfield University and Quinnippiac University (which are close to the coast) have decided to close.

[Connecticut Governor Dan] Malloy, at a 2 p.m. briefing Saturday, said that residents should anticipate extended power outages, road closures and suspension of Amtrak and Metro-North rail services. He urged residents to heed local orders to evacuate the shoreline and signed an emergency declaration.

"We expect a large loss of electrical power that we cannot get to quickly and high tides that will exceed Irene and potentially will be worse than the 1938 hurricane," Malloy said. "We need to prepare for a much longer storm than we have ever had. Irene had a 12-hour impact. That's not what we are talking about here. This is more like a monster nor'easter than just a hurricane."

...

Power company officials, who are trying to avoid a repeat of the anger and frustration that was widespread during after Tropical Storm Irene and last year's October storm, said they were readying their own crews as well as bringing in workers from other states.

At the same time, they said, they anticipate widespread outages and say that because the storm is expected to linger over the state, it could take time before it is safe enough to begin restoration work.

At the briefing Saturday, Connecticut Light & Power officials said that they were predicting that between 300,000 and 600,000 households will lose power during the storm, and that they expect to have 5,000 workers available to restore power. (source)