There’s a storm swirling out at sea that could impact New England—giving Boston a proverbial weather beating— and officials are already making sure utility companies in the Bay State have preparations in order so that constituents aren’t left in the dark.

While the exact track of Hurricane Sandy is still up in the air, weather experts predict the storm could bring “gale-force winds, flooding, heavy rain and maybe even snow.”

According to the National Weather Service, early next week, Sandy could make a “direct hit” on the region and with it bring “high astronomical tides…coastal flooding” and cause “downed trees and power lines.”

On Thursday, during an interview on WTKK-FM, Governor Deval Patrick said he is plotting the course of the storm closely and he will be getting plans for storm damage repairs and customer service response from utility companies on Friday.

When asked if the utilities will be ready, Patrick responded “They’d better be.”

“We will be watching them and watching the course of the storm,” he said. “People don’t want to deal with their utilities being out days at a time.”

When Tropical Storm Irene hit in the summer of 2011, 13,000 wires went down and thousands were left without power across the state.

A few months later, in October, following a strange yet severe snowstorm, people were shut off from electricity for up to nine days in some instances. Collectively, 1 million residents were left without lights.

The lack of accountability for storm response and damage led to Patrick signing a bill into law in August to improve customer service and make utility companies work more closely with the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency to aid those impacted by stormy weather.

Peter Judge, public information officer at MEMA, said the state has already been chatting with utility companies about the supposedly severe weather surging out at sea.

“We continue to have conference calls with the National Weather Service to get serious updates and have been reaching out to folks like the utilities, as well as local officials, throughout all 351 cities and towns,” said Judge.

According to Judge, it’s too early to tell where the storm will hit the hardest, if it hits at all, so they are preparing for a “statewide event.”

He said utilities specifically had to put together stronger plans relative to restoration of power.

“People are going to lose power. If this turns out to be a big storm and trees come down, wires will come down, and restoration of that power is important,” said Judge.

Patrick isn’t the only politician on the prowl, making sure utility companies have everything in order with an execution plan prior to the potential storm.

In July, Attorney General Martha Coakley’s office went after local utility company National Grid for their “consistent lack of communication,” preparation and response to two large storms that slammed the Bay State in 2011.

The AG’s office was seeking more than $16 million from the company for “leaving thousands in the dark, literally and figuratively.”

At the time, Coakley said National Grid’s response to Tropical Storm Irene in 2011, and a snowstorm that left tens of thousands without power in October, was “inadequate.”

“Particularly, as we have noted, National Grid didn’t better predict…the length of [the storms]. They indicated they used their own expertise—a seat of the pants response. We think that’s inadequate in 2012,” she said in July, during a press conference.

If Hurricane Sandy does hit the Bay State, experts have said it could bring a mess of snow along with it. If that were the case, it would be the second October snowstorm in Massachusetts in as many years.

Last year around Halloween, heavy snow stalled city-goers and brought traffic to a stand still on main highways during the storm’s peak.

“Hurricane Sandy is slowly coming up the east coast and Boston could see damaging wind and heavy rain as early as Sunday, but most likely sometime Monday,” said representatives from Boston EMS. “Now is the time to put those plans in place— tie down yard furniture or bring things inside; clear gutters and street drains; and have battery powered radio, flashlights, food and water, and activities for the kids in case you lose power.”

BostInno reached out to utility company NStar for comment but has not immediately received a response.