It doesn't look good. Hopes that Hurricane Sandy might bypass New England are growing slimmer by the hour as forecasters determine the massive storm's track.
"The models have really settled in this solution in the last day or so," said hurricane specialist Carl Parker of The Weather Channel. "The models generally agree on the storm moving north, and then beginning to move to the northeast and grazing the southeast coastline."
Models call for Sandy to either run along the coast line and hit land in the mid-Atlantic region on Monday afternoon or to "hook around" and then come into New York. "Still in both cases, we're talking about a widespread windstorm that affects most of the northeast," Parker said.
The Weather Channel's hurricane specialist Bryan Norcross described it as "a nor'easter with a hurricane embedded in it."
Two days ago, the chance of the hurricane hitting the East Coast was about 60 percent. Now, forecasters are putting that chance at 90 percent, and the storm won't leave quickly either.
As of Friday morning, Mansfield is under a Hazardous Weather Outlook through Thursday, Nov. 1, according to the National Weather Service.
High winds accompanied by heavy rainfall resulting in flooded areas is likely, the NWS reports.
"It's almost a week-long, five-day, six-day event," said Jim Cisco, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecaster who coined the term "Frankenstorm." "It's going to be a widespread, serious storm."
In preparing for the storm, CL&P has sent a request to utility companies and contractors in the Midwest for help and is seeking 2,000 workers to come to Connecticut by Sunday night, said Mitch Gross, the utility's spokesman.
CL&P, which provides power to more than a million residences and businesses, is warning its residential customers to prepare a home emergency kit and has begun reaching out to local officials to update them on how the company will respond if there are widespread power outages.
