At this point, most people in central Pennsylvania are hunkered down waiting for Hurricane Sandy to blow by.

It has been a stunning storm with its impact on the region. Because of the damage and flooding, the financial cost is likely to be high. But one thing must be said about it: We had plenty of warning and time to prepare. Gov. Tom Corbett and the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency have been on top of the situation, giving out information to residents since Friday on the path of the storm and how to get ready for it.

For anyone who was able to prepare for the storm, there was no excuse for not having flashlights, candles and kerosene lanterns ready to go in case of power outages. There were days to get the food and other supplies needed to sit out the storm. No official was taking this storm lightly.

Schools and county agencies also announced closings on Sunday to allow families enough time to make arrangements for the next few days. Utilities, who were criticized after past disasters, started texting, emailing and leaving recorded messages during the weekend, telling customers where to call or what website to look at for information related to power outages and how much time they could expect to go without electricity.

It seems everyone might have learned from mistakes made during severe weather in the past. We don’t have to think back that far to see what happens when there was not enough planning. Katrina, of course, is prime example No. 1 and probably will be for a long time.

But in Pennsylvania, we can think back to the Valentine’s Day blizzard of 2007 when motorists were stranded on closed highways with no notice or the power outages that followed tropical storms and hurricanes last year when residents had little information on when to expect their power to be returned.

Because of the storm last year, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission investigated utilities’ responses and issued guidelines to address widespread concerns from customers that companies had not responded in a timely or sensitive manner to power outages.

The heart of those guidelines called for use of social media, including Facebook and Twitter, as well as cellphone texting, to communicate information with customers about outages in their neighborhood and power restoration.

The utilities say they have learned a lot in the last few years about how to better address outages and expect to be better prepared to handle whatever comes from Sandy. We certainly hope so. For whatever reason, our region these days is facing more and more brutal weather — floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards and snowstorms.

Because of the trend, we are fortunate that weather services are able to track storms days and even weeks in advance and give us notice.

It is important that government officials and utilities also take as much advantage of these early warnings as possible and give us the necessary information to prepare.

So far during Hurricane Sandy, it appears that is happening.