As Hurricane Sandy swirled toward the Eastern Seaboard Friday after killing at least 40 people in the Caribbean, Massachusetts braced for a fearsome storm with the potential to pummel the region with torrential rain and high winds.

The late-season hurricane, which moved slowly north after ripping through the Bahamas, was projected to make landfall early Tuesday near the border of Delaware and New Jersey, bringing the threat of widespread flooding and power outages to much of the Northeast. But forecasters said it could take a more northerly track, coming ashore in New York or Connecticut, that would inflict far more damage to the region.