Westover Air Reserve Base is being used as an emergency staging area with 77 FEMA trucks arriving with emergency equipment and supplies.
People walk the beach near Bally's Atlantic City in front of a rough ocean, Saturday in Atlantic City, N.J. With Hurricane Sandy taking aim at New Jersey, Gov. Chris Christie ordered Atlantic City's 12 casinos to shut down at 4 p.m. Sunday as part of his statewide emergency declaration.
Residents and city officials across Western Massachusetts continue to prepare for the worst from Hurricane Sandy, but Saturday’s late forecast shows the region may be spared from serious storm damage.
Gov. Deval L. Patrick declared a state of emergency for the entire commonwealth and the Massachusetts National Guard was activated Saturday in advance of the hurricane taking landfall.
At the same time the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced it was using Westover Air Reserve Base in Chicopee as a staging area to serve New England. By Saturday evening 77 trucks full of water, cots, generators, food, tarps and other emergency equipment were heading to the base and will be driven to any community where the supplies are needed.
The behemoth storm, which already left five dozen people dead in the Caribbean, is heading north and expected to cause havoc over 800 miles from the East Coast to the Great Lakes as it meets up with two other powerful storms. More than 50 to 60 million people may be impacted.
In Western Massachusetts people flocked to gas stations to top off their tanks, to grocery stores to buy last-minute rations and to hardware stores to buy everything from a $7 package of batteries to a $700 generator.
“All hands are on deck,” said Springfield Mayor Domenic J. Sarno. “Hopefully we are wrong but we are prepared and godspeed to anyone who is in the path of the storm.”
The latest information Saturday night put Western Massachusetts on the edge of the storm and out of the path of what will likely be the worst destruction.
“For us here in Western Massachusetts we are not going to see a hurricane strength storm. We could see low-category tropical force winds,” said Mike Skurko, meteorologist with CBS 3, media partner of The Republican and MassLive.com.
On Saturday heavy clouds on the northern edge of the storm arrived. Showers are expected to start Sunday afternoon and steady rain should start sometime early Monday before sunrise, he said.
The eye of the storm is now expected to hit the coast of Delaware Monday night and continue westward through Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania, but Skurko warned that if the trajectory changes a little northward and has the storm landing 100 miles north it would hit New York City and the winds and rain could be more severe here.
“If it makes landfall in New York it could be worse but that seems like a less and less possibility,” he said. “The track has been holding steady over the past several days.”
In Western Massachusetts the peak of the storm should hit Monday night, bringing wind gusts of 40 to 45 miles an hour, which can blow things off porches or knock down loose tree limbs, Skurko.
“A severe thunderstorm has (a minimum) of 58 miles-an-hour winds. We are not expecting any more wind damage that we would see with an ordinary thunderstorm,” Skurko said. “The problem is the duration. A thunderstorm sweeps through in 10 minutes.”
Rain is expected to continue steadily from Sunday through Tuesday and total 2 to 3 inches in most spots but could bring 4 to 5 in some places. Localized flooding is expected in low areas and places like underpasses, he said.
People still reeling from the August 2011 flooding from Tropical Storm Irene that hit Westfield, the hilltowns, Franklin and Berkshire counties, and southern Vermont should know there are differences between the two. For one thing, that storm dumped 6 to 8 inches of rain on the region in less than 24 hours. The eye of the storm also went right through the Berkshires, he said.
It also looks like Western Massachusetts will also be spared from a repeat of last year’s October snowstorm which dumped heavy wet snow on the region, snapping power lines and leaving some without power for more than a week. Hurricane Sandy will mostly be fueled by warmer ocean winds in Western Massachusetts, but in Pennsylvania it could be hit with colder Canadian winds and that state could see as much as 2 feet of snow, Skurko said.
City emergency personnel and residents are still preparing for the worst, especially after the devastation from last year’s storms.
The governor’s declaration of a state of emergency and the fact the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency is already operating around-the-clock is a help, especially if the storm is worse than the most recent prediction, Sarno said.
“I want to be wrong on this. How many natural disasters can we take?” he said.
Springfield emergency personnel started planning for the worst earlier in the week. They have been in close contact with officials for Western Massachusetts Electric Company, the two local hospitals and other key players, Sarno said.
The emergency operations center in the city will open starting 7 p.m. Sunday night and remain open throughout the storm, he said.
Other communities are doing the same. Several city mayors have asked residents through Facebook to clean out any storm drains near their homes of leaves and other debris to help prevent flooding.
Residents are also taking their own precautions.
Since Friday Westfield Home and Garden has sold nearly 300 generators and have been putting in rush orders for more. It even extended its hours Saturday because a truck with generators that had been pre-sold was arriving, said Brian Kelly, general manager.
But people are not just looking for generators.
“We are filling many propane tanks today. It is one of the hottest items, people are assuming even if they lose power they can cook on the grill,” he said.
There has also been a run on oil lamps, flashlights and batteries.
“We are selling a fair amount of chain saws because people are preparing for what is to come,” he said. “The type of business we are seeing today is the same thing we saw after last year’s (October) storm.”
Children who are wondering if they may benefit from a day off of school or hurt by a second year of canceled Halloween trick-or-treating will have to wait another day.
Most officials are holding off making any decisions on school cancellations or trick-or-treating until the storm gets closer.
“We will make the call Sunday night in advance of the storm,” said Chicopee School Superintendent Richard W. Rege Jr.
If the storm continues on the same course, Rege said it is likely school will be held Monday but after-school programs would be canceled so children can get home before the worst of the storm hits Monday evening.