Tropical cyclone Sandy approaches

Next Tuesday is the anniversary of the Halloween 2011 storm that devastated New England with downed trees and lengthy power outages.  Loss of electricity closed the registry of deeds for two days (and many of our staff were without power at home for five days).  That experience caused me to pay much closer attention to a recent blog post by Matt Noyes, the New England Cable News weather person about the possibility of New England being struck by Sandy, a "tropical cyclone" now located near Jamaica.

While Noyes reminds us that forecasts are just informed predictions, he does explain how a number of factors make it increasingly likely that this powerful storm will strike us Sunday night and continue on through Tuesday.  While there might not be the heavy wet snow that brought down so many trees last October, this storm will bring high seas, heavy winds and much rain.  Noyes advises folks who need to be prepared for such events (i.e., those with boats still in the water on the Cape) to begin making preparations now just in case.  Here's the weather person's conclusion:

In summary, it's quite likely New England will feel impact from this storm - the questions focus on just how severe those impacts will be, but given that the potential for significant and severe damage, especially to coastal communities, does exist, it would be irresponsible for me not to give full disclosure for those who need a few days of preparation time.  Yours Truly is hoping we can back down and call of the dogs on this one, but at this point, I simply can't say that's the case.