A computer model developed by a Johns Hopkins University engineer predicts that 10 million people in the path of Hurricane Sandy will lose their power, the university said in a release.

According to Johns Hopkins, Seth Guikema and his team "developed a computer model built on outage data from 11 hurricanes to estimate the fraction of customers who will lose power, based on expected gust wind speed, expected duration of strong winds greater than 20 meters per second, and population density."

The estimation was based on information from the National Hurricane Center at 3 p.m. Saturday. Guikema cautions that the number of estimated power outages could change with the weather forecast.

It is possible that 10 million without power is a conservative estimate, the release said.

The computer model is intended to help prepare for storms and restore power faster to people affected by outages, according to the release.

Guikema will be running the model throughout the weekend and into next week as Hurricane Sandy makes landfall, the release said.