Weather

NStar now reports 39,055 customers without power, including 4,882 in Boston, where trees are coming down and transformers exploding across the city. We've heard of outages in Ashmont, Roslindale, West Roxbury and East Boston so far.

Stephanie Giunta practices being a TV reporter at the very end of Long Wharf early this afternoon.

The folks at the Fort Point Pier, meanwhile, watched as Fort Point Channel rose and then began to flow over the seawall (it's hard to tell, but that's Vivien Li of the Boston Harbor Association and Fort Point resident Anne Salemme on the right):

Fort Point Channel resurgent

Yes, it's bad out there - Ed Harding at Channel 5 just put his glasses on.

NStar reports 23,047 customers without power - including 378 in Boston and 1,046 in Cambridge.

The museum is closed today, so they're delivering art online.

NStar reports 2,575 customers without power across its service region - including 842 in Cambridge and 315 in Boston.

On Channel 5, Bianca de la Garza just advised people not to go down to the beach to look at the angry sea - right after John Atwater checked in from Scituate, where he stood by a seawall, looking at the angry sea.

A ton of kite surfers flocked to Revere Beach today to take advantage of the strong winds.

Maybe Adam blew away. Anyways, here's highlights from the press conference Governor Patrick just gave at MEMA headquarters.

• Governor Patrick has asked all schools across the Commonwealth to close (especially along coastal communities).
• All state non-essential employees are to stay home
• Encouraged private employers to close
• HOV lane on SE Xway will be reserved for emergency providers tomorrow
• MBTA will be operating normal service (as they're able ...)
• 200 National Guard are here now, with additional 800 expected by morning.
• Evacuation decisions are town by town, block by block (based on topography).
• Fall River, Newbury, Weymouth have voluntary evacuation centers
• at 1830 MEMA director will speak again with Governor Patrick

Steven Hodges tweeted at 12:39 p.m.:

Was driving back on the Pike from western Mass and saw at least 50 power and tree trucks from out of state coming east!

UPDATE: Boston Schools are closed Monday.

WBZ is posting the list, although we really need Gary LaPierre to be reading it.

Latest GOES photo of Sandy, Sunday morning.

For more, see the French Toast Alert page.

Meanwhile, up in Rockport, somebody took what could be a last look at the dead beached whale before waves from Sandy take it away.

Christopher photographed the scene in the water aisle at the Waltham Shaw's on Saturday night.

At the Dedham Star, a manager went on the PA: "Attention shoppers, get all your power-outage needs at the front of the store." At the front of the store was a table with votive candles, cans of propane, empty gasoline containers, batteries. pink umbrellas, "12-inch Mini-Quick disposable grills," and those fire-starter wand gun things.

Daisy reports:

The clerk at Blanchards in West Roxbury assured customers that they'd be open during the storm.

Ahoy! Anybody home?

The Boston Police harbor unit plans special checks of the boats in which several dozen people may be living to make sure they're prepared for Sandy.

Police say fulltime harbor denizens are concentrated in marinas in Charlestown and East Boston. Yesterday afternoon, during a patrol with several members of the local media, a BPD boat pulled aside the Alice C., moored off Rowes Wharf, whose owner is one of the harbor's veteran residents. They hailed him twice. Nobody answered back, though, so they moved on.

Police urged people with sailboats moored in the harbor to make sure everything is battened down and mooring lines in good shape. One person who won't have to worry is John Henry - his behemoth yacht Iroquois is no longer berthed at Rowes Wharf - presumably it's sailed to safer (and no doubt warmer) waters.

Gov. Patrick declared a state of emergency in advance of Sandy's arrival sometime tomorrow. If something can be tied down, tie it down or bring it inside - including Halloween decorations. Stock up on emergency supplies and first-aid stuff, get cash (in case ATMs go down) and brace and hunker down like nobody's business.

In Boston, police Supt. William Evans urged everybody to stay home and stay off the roads once the storm hits, both so drivers stay safe and so they keep from blocking police, fire and EMT crews racing to emergencies through roads that could already be blocked by downed wires and trees.

This photo, taken around 11:15 a.m. by a GOES satellite, shows Sandy and the front with which it's about to collide, creating a SuperhumongousFrankenstorm. The National Hurricane Center reports that after weakening yesterday, Sandy regained its hurricane status overnight and that the storm approaching from the front will only make it stronger before it slams into the continent somewhere in the area of New Jersey.

UPDATE: Looks like the storms have started to merge. Photo taken around 5:15 p.m.:

Boston city officials today announced a series of steps to prepare for possible effects from Hurricane Sandy, including clearing as many catch basins as possible before Monday and ordering that all utility work and road construction be secured by 5 p.m. today.

Assuming Sandy starts to lash the area, Boston Police will add extra patrols while Boston Fire will add extra firefighters to respond to downed wires. Boston EMS will also call in extra EMTs and paramedics.

City officials add that ISD will call in extra inspectors in areas hit by flooding, while city homeless shelters will open additional beds starting Sunday - as community centers prepare to serve as emergency shelters.

Can you spot Sandy? Photo from GOES East.

WCVB warns we could get "the strong side" of Sandy as it slams into the Delmarva Peninsula (and it would only go downhill if it hit closer to us). Worst Storm in 100 Years Seen for Northeast U.S., Bloomberg blares. Hurricane Sandy is a wolf in sheep's skin, CNN oddly declares.

Just in time for Sandy, NStar has unveiled an outage map for you to call up on the tiny flickering screen of your smartphone. MassEMA sent out its first Ping alert about the storm (the city of Boston has its own alert system).

A Google search on the phrases "Hurricane Sandy" and "perfect storm" this morning results in 82,200 hits, up tenfold from Wednesday.

Meanwhile, over at ArchBoston, people already bored with Sandy are considering what would happen if a 6.0 earthquake hit Boston.

With Sandy churning up the Atlantic as it bears down on a coast that could face the brunt of its fury, WBZ meterorologist Todd Gutner advises:

Don't bother raking, waste of time.

Infrared view of Sandy, via NOAA.

At 6:30 p.m. yesterday, Google had 8,040 results for a search on

"Hurricane Sandy" "Perfect Storm"

As of 7:40 a.m., that was up to 8,790.

Of course, what do you expect, when AP reports the storm's measurements are spooking meteorologists? So what choice do we have here in the weather fortress but to kick the French Toast Alert to yellow? Especially since, unlike the '91 storm, Sandy seems more likely to actually blast right onto land after, of course, it churns up the Atlantic (because churning is what major tropical storms do)?

UPDATE: As of 11 a.m., the Google tally has risen to 39,700.

Matt Noyes rubs his eyes in front of the monitor and says it's not too early to think about what could become Hurricane Sandy, beginning to form in the Caribbean:

[I]f everything comes together in a worst-case scenario, this would be an extremely damaging storm for much of the coastal Eastern United States, and particularly the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast corridor.

Sometime Sunday to Tuesday if it comes to it.

Matt Laskowski looked out his window this morning at a monsoon along Comm. Ave. in Allston. He reports:

Granted, it's atop Mt. Washington, but never fear, the National Weather Service has issued a frost advisory for eastern Massachusetts for tonight:

THOSE WITH AGRICULTURAL INTERESTS ARE ADVISED TO HARVEST OR PROTECT TENDER VEGETATION. ALSO...POTTED PLANTS NORMALLY LEFT OUTDOORS SHOULD BE COVERED OR BROUGHT INSIDE AWAY FROM THE COLD.

Juan Boria, Jr. captured the scene inside the Quincy Center Red Line station this morning.

Citizens Connect has several reports of tree damage from last night's storm, including this tree on wires on Ansonia Road in West Roxbury and this snapped tree on wires off Clarendon Street in the South End.