All Madison Residents South Of Boston Post Road Should Consider Leaving Sunday Afternoon, Town's Emergency Management Director Says

Madison Emergency Management Director John Bowers said Sunday morning the town is likely to institute mandatory evacuation orders for all homes in low-lying areas that normally flood during high tide. He also is recommending an evacuation for people in Madison living close to Long Island Sound.

"For all intents and purposes, all homes south of Route 1 should consider evacuating by [Sunday] afternoon," Bowers said.

Bowers said the town is preparing the town's emergency shelter and that town's it may be open as early as Sunday night and that it "almost certainly" will be open Monday evening. Madison officials say that the town's emergency shelter will be the gym at town campus, at 4 Campus Drive, off of Duck Hole Road, just north of Hammonasset Connector.

Sporadic outages of water and gasoline reported at some stores and gas stations

As Madison residents on Facebook reports sporadic outages of essentials like water and gasoline in town at a few stores and gas stations, forecasters are getting more specific about when Hurricane Sandy will hit Madison and the shoreline.

NBC CT/WVIT Meteorologist Ryan Hanrahan says most of Sunday should be OK, but that the evening and night could bring some squalls. Monday the weather will start to deteriorate with winds as high as 60 mhp, which could affect tree limbs and power lines. Monday evening and night is expected to bring a hurricane with a destructive storm surge. Tuesday could bring additional wind damage, and another storm surge is possible then.

Hanrahan, a meteorologist with the NBC station in Hartford, said on his blog:

There’s no way to sugar coat today’s trends. Hurricane Sandy is going to pummel Connecticut with damaging winds and storm surge. The storm’s track has ticked north a bit from what earlier models were showing and now there’s a strong consensus in our models that Sandy will make landfall in central New Jersey or just south of New York City. This track is highly unusual. The hurricane will continue losing longitude until it takes an abrupt left turn east of Norfolk, VA. Our major global models, the GFS and European, agree with a central New Jersey landfall. When coupled with the tropical models we are quite confident in this landfall location. It would not surprise me to see a swing of 30 miles in either direction, however. I do not think major inland flooding will be an issue with this storm. I’m expecting the heaviest rain to remain to our west. What will be a major issue is the wind and storm surge potential.

To keep up to date with his Connecticut-specific forecasts, follow Hanrahan on his blog, or follow him on Twitter.

Madison declares civil preparedness state of emergency

Madison officials have declared a civil preparedness state of emergency effective Monday at noon.  . Madison officials say that the town's emergency shelter will be the gym at town campus, off of Duck Hole Road, just north of Hammonasset Connector.

Residents at Apple Care Rehab Center in Guilford, just over the town line, are being evacuated today, family members of residents say.

Gov. Dannel Malloy Saturday told residents from Greenwich to East Haven, about 15 miles away from Madison, to evacuate.

• .
• Old Lyme shoreline residents have also been asked to leave by 6 p.m. Sunday.
• Guilford residents were told Saturday "residents living south of the railroad tracks should anticipate a voluntary evacuation later Sunday  at a minimum. There will be further updates Sunday, but anyone needing immediate information can call the Town's dispatch center at 203-453-8000."
• In .
• In Clinton, the emergency shelter will be open Monday for Clinton residents. Pets are welcome. Town officials are meeting Sunday to plan further for the storm.

Towns along the shoreline get ready for the storm

All towns, including Madison, town officials announced they are getting ready for the storm.

To find out what other towns are doing to get ready, read this story in The Day.

Malloy urged anyone who rode out Hurricane Irene last year along the shoreline not to do so this time. “Folks, this could be bad, really bad. It could impact us in several ways and the moment when you need the most help is often the moment when emergency personnel are least likely to be able to get to you.”

Make plans, make sure you are ready

In Madison, town officials have urged residents to decide whether they are going to stay or go, and to plan accordingly. Here is a list of the town's recommendations for Madison residents. Madison School Superintendent Thomas Scarice has said that all afterschool activities for Monday are cancelled and that he and other school officials are tracking the course of the storm to determine if schools should be closed.

Forecasters have said the storm, combined with astronomical high tides, when high tides are ordinarily higher, will create a storm surge significantly higher and potentially more destructive than the town experienced in Tropical Storm Irene, and that size of the storm means there could be repeated storm surges.

High tide schedule

High tide in Madison is

• Sunday night at 10:56 p.m.
• On Monday, high tide is at 11:07 a.m. and 11:36 p.m.
• On Tuesday, high tide is at 11:45 a.m.
• On Wednesday it is at 12:15 a.m. and 12:22 a.m.

The National Hurricane Center says dangerous surf conditions will continue from Flordiay through the mid-Atlantic states for the next couple of days and spread into the northeastern states later today.

"Gale force winds are expected to arrive along portions of the mid-Atlantic coast later today, and reach Long Island and southern New Engalnd by Monday morning. Winds to near hurricane force could reach the mid-Atlantic states, including Long Island, by late Monday ... the combination of an extremely dangerous storm surge and the tide will cause normally dry areas near the coast to be flooded by rising waters."

Accuweather issued the following weather statement Sunday morning:

AccuWeather.com reports Hurricane Sandy remains on track to become a historical storm with places from Washington, D.C., and Norfolk, Va., to Boston bracing for catastrophic impacts.

The worst of Sandy will be Monday through Tuesday, but the Southeast coast is already feeling the effects of the hurricane.

An overview of the catastrophic impacts that await the mid-Atlantic and southern New England can be found in this news story, while below are more detailed impact stories for specific cities and communities.

Updates on Sandy:

6:00 a.m. EDT: Sandy is a truly massive storm on satellite. One of, if not the largest tropical cyclone to ever develop in the Atlantic basin.

5:00 a.m. EDT: Sandy holds serve. Still a hurricane. Headed on a crash course with New Jersey.

4:00 a.m. EDT: Rainfall from Sandy reaches Philadelphia.

2:00 a.m. EDT: Sandy still a hurricane with winds at 75 mph. Pressure hovering around 960mb.

11:00 p.m. EDT: Repeated 54 mph gusts at the alligator river bridge in far eastern NC.

8:29 p.m. EDT: Ferry service to Oracoke, North Carolina was suspended and people are reported stranded.

7:52 p.m. EDT: Rodanthe, N.C. on Hatteras Island already experiencing ocean overwash.

7:29 p.m. EDT: Delaware declared a state of emergency and has begun limited mandatory evacuations in preparation for Sandy's approach.

6:58 p.m. EDT: Amtrak is canceling some service for Sunday. Routes in Va., D.C., and N.Y. are affected, according to the Amtrak Facebook

6:16 p.m. EDT: Ferry service for Cherry Point, N.C. has been suspended, according to a spotter.

6:00 p.m. EDT: New York Mayor Bloomberg spoke during a press conference at 6 p.m. EDT Saturday. He said, "We will make an announcement tomorrow in the middle of the day on whether or not to close mass transit." Bloomberg also said that people needing public transportation should travel to their destinations by 7 p.m. EDT Sunday.

5:36 p.m. EDT: A local emergency manager in North Carolina reported a tree down and blocking one lane of a road near Bolivia.

5:00 p.m. EDT: The center of Hurricane Sandy with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph was located about 335 miles east-southeast of Charleston, S.C.

4:00 p.m. EDT: Winds over 40 mph are hitting the North Carolina coast along with heavy rains. Radar shows high winds spreading across the North Carolina coast.

3:00 p.m. EDT: Computer model that was showing a farther south track into the Delmarva is now bringing Sandy into central New Jersey, lining up with the AccuWeather.com Hurricane Center's track.

2:03 p.m. EDT: Hurricane Sandy recently produced a wind gust of 76 mph (Category 1 hurricane force) about 140 miles east of Cape Canaveral, Fla.

1:46 p.m. EDT: AccuWeather.com Senior Meteorologist Brett Anderson stated, "Strongest winds headed to the corridor from Baltimore to Philadelphia to New York City will be coming in from the north-northwest to east direction; keep that in mind when parking your car near large trees."

12:40 p.m. EDT: Tropical storm-force wind gusts reach the North Carolina coast. Highest wind gust reported so far today was 40 mph at Cherry Point, N.C.

12:25 p.m. EDT: AccuWeather.com meteorologists just held a discussion on Hurricane Sandy and have pinned down its landfall site to central or southern New Jersey Monday evening. However, it should be stressed that the worst of the storm will occur ahead of its center.

11:20 a.m. EDT: The wind field of Hurricane Sandy is extremely large with tropical storm-force winds extending 450 miles away from its center.

11:00 a.m. EDT: Sandy has changed little in strength in the past three hours with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph. The center of Sandy is located about 355 miles southeast of Charleston, S.C.

9:57 a.m. EDT: Evidence that Hurricane Sandy is a large storm: Charleston, S.C., and Bermuda are seeing from from Sandy despite being separated by 900 miles.

9:30 a.m. EDT: AccuWeather.com meteorologists are now concerned that all of Delaware, southern New Jersey and southeastern Pennsylvania--including Philadelphia--will be inundated with more than 8 inches of rain from Sandy.

8:00 a.m. EDT: Sandy regains hurricane strength after weakening briefly to a tropical storm.