20 to 30 inches expected; travel banned on all roads; plows may be unable to keep up

As a blizzard of historic proportions took aim at the state Monday, southeastern Connecticut residents hunkered down with state and municipal officials urging everyone who could stay home today to do so.

On Monday, cities and towns opened emergency operation centers and shelters, their public works departments readied snowplows and generators while businesses closed early as the Blizzard of 2015 hit the region. Schools are closed today with some already canceling classes for Wednesday as well.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy declared a state of emergency and issued a travel ban for all roads starting at 9 p.m. Monday.

"People need to take this storm seriously," Malloy said in a statement. "If current predictions are accurate, we will need people to stay off the roads so that emergency personnel and utility crews can get to the places they need to get to, and to make sure that our plows can keep critical roadways clear."

Calling it a "crippling and potentially historic blizzard, the National Weather Service said southeastern Connecticut will be blanketed by anywhere from 20 to 30 inches.

Adrienne Leptich, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service, said snow could fall at rates of 2 to 4 inches an hour overnight Monday into this morning with even higher snowfall amounts in hard-to-predict bands.

This storm will be accompanied by a northern wind at 20 to 30 mph with gusts as high as 55 mph or more. Minor or moderate coastal flooding is expected during the overnight hours during the height of the blizzard. The snow will be the light and fluffy variety.

Kevin Nursick, state Department of Transportation spokesman, said the state fleet of 632 plow trucks were ready for the storm, including 200 additional contractors.

"This is no joke," said Nursick. "People need to stay off the roads so we can do our jobs effectively."

State and local police say they have called in extra manpower to deal with emergencies.

"We put additional manpower out there, the thought process being a better response time. We want to get to people, accidents, disabled vehicles, as quickly as possible," said Lt. Paul Vance, the state police spokesman.

Vance said state police will have all of their four-wheel -drive and specialty vehicles strategically placed around the state.

In response to a state ban on trucks on state roads during the storm, the Motor Transport Association of Connecticut has advised its 800 trucking company members to bring their vehicles home and anticipate parking them through tomorrow, according to a statement released by the organization.

The state has arranged to open the parking areas in both Hammonasset State Park in Madison and Sherwood Island State Park in Westport as Truck Refuge Areas, to allow out-of-state truckers to wait out the storm.

Norwich police Capt. Patrick Daly said city police have also called in extra manpower for the overnight hours and into today. In addition to stationing police across the city for quicker response times, Daly said police will help to enforce parking bans to ensure the work of snow plows is not impeded. He expects roads to narrow quickly as the snow falls.

After a meeting with city staff Monday morning, New London Mayor Daryl Justin Finizio outlined the city's preparations.

"We're hopeful at this point that we are as prepared as we're going to be for a storm of this magnitude and we are taking the early steps necessary to address our concerns," Finizio said outside the Emergency Operations Center at fire department headquarters Monday morning.

Finizio said he and other city officials began planning over the weekend for this storm and early Monday morning participated in a conference call with the state EOC.

City officials - including the mayor, the fire chief, the director of the Public Works Department and others - will live and work primarily out of the Emergency Operations Center during the storm.

As the first flurries began to fall Monday morning, the city declared a state of emergency at 10:13 a.m. and activated all emergency personnel to give the city the ability to respond to emergencies around the clock.

The fire department has called in extra personnel for the next two days and is getting all of its four-wheel-drive vehicles on the roads, Fire Chief Henry Kydd said.

The city will have 13 plow trucks on the road, DPW Director Tim Hanser said.

"We spent the morning making sure all of our equipment is up and running; we will be working around the clock to make sure we keep the roads open," Hanser said. "We are ready for the storm, we'll do the best we can to keep up with it."

At the height of the storm, if the snowfall rate becomes too much to keep up with, the city might have to pull its plows off the roads and "we could be dealing with a very serious incident" that could take several days to clear all the snow, the mayor said.

"If blizzard conditions exceed our capacity to keep trucks on the road, this could be a storm that clogs the city for several days," Finizio said. "It will be our priority to keep our plows going throughout the entire storm to keep our main arteries open and to respond as well as we have in the past."

Finizio said the city contacted private contractors that can provide front loaders and other machinery to help clear the downtown neighborhood of snow once the storm stops.

The state has also lifted its restrictions on dumping snow into waterways, Finizio said, so the city may look to push snow into the Thames River if there is nowhere on land to put it.

New London, like other towns, has imposed a parking ban until further notice. Downtown residents may park their cars in the Water Street Parking Garage free of charge during the parking ban.

Finizio said he will be keeping an eye on possible flooding, particularly in the southern end of the city, but flooding is expected to be "manageable" and not more serious than during a major rainstorm.

Norwich officials declared a state of emergency starting at noon Monday. The city's emergency operation center opened at 5 p.m., and the emergency shelter for Norwich and surrounding towns at Kelly Middle School on Mahan Drive opened at 5 p.m. The shelter includes a pet shelter for people who must evacuate with their pets.

Groton does not plan to open an emergency shelter unless the town gets reports of power outages expected to last a long time, said Joseph Sastre, Groton's director of emergency management.

If a shelter is needed, the town will open the Groton Senior Center, he said.

One potential issue in Groton and nearby towns is the number of homes on well water, because when they lose power, they lose water.

To prepare for a short-term outage, Sastre said people could turn up their heat a bit higher than usual so the house stays warm longer, and keep their refrigerator colder than normal, so food stays cold longer.

"The best thing for folks to do is to stay home and hunker down. Stay off the road," Sastre said.

Hospitals reschedule surgeries

All Lawrence + Memorial Hospital outpatient facilities closed at 3 p.m. Monday and will not reopen until 11 a.m. Wednesday. That includes outpatient laboratory and diagnostic areas at the main hospital in New London and offsite, all offices of the Lawrence + Memorial Medical Group, the L+M Cancer Center, and rehabilitation facilities, among others.

Hospital spokesman Mike O'Farrell said elective surgeries planned for today will be rescheduled. Elective surgeries will resume at 11 a.m. Wednesday.

Cots were provided so nurses, doctors and other patient care staff could stay overnight, O'Farrell said.

All outpatient centers of The William W. Backus Hospital will be closed today, and elective surgeries planned for today are being rescheduled, said Shawn Mawhiney, hospital spokesman.

The main hospital in Norwich and the emergency department in Plainfield will remain open through the storm, he added.

The hospital also asked doctors, nurses and other staff to stay overnight through today, offering cots in the hospital for the night.

"We've gotten a good response," he said.

Ledge Light Health District contacted the municipalities it serves about storm preparations, Stephen Mansfield, deputy director of health, said. Ledge Light serves New London, Groton, Ledyard, East Lyme and Waterford.

The district also contacted its Medical Reserve Corps volunteers to determine who would be available to staff the emergency shelter in New London and the regional shelter in East Lyme, he said.

For those who use homeless shelters, snow poses no greater a danger than the cold that persists through the winter, noted executive director Cathy Zall of the Covenant Shelter and Homeless Hospitality Center in New London

"We need to be ready every day, so it's not that unusual for us," she said.

The center is prepared to feed its guests for the duration of the storm, Zall said. She said the shelter was not planning on transporting guests to the New London Community Meal Center as it normally would.

National Guard at the ready

Electric Boat canceled the second and third shifts Monday at its Groton, New London and Quonset Point facilities. Further announcements will be posted on the Electric Boat website, www.gdeb.com.

Maj. Gen. Thaddeus J. Martin, adjutant general and commander of the Connecticut National Guard, said that soldiers and airmen throughout the state have reported for duty.

The focus overnight was supporting the Connecticut State Police assisting any stranded motorists on state highways or responding to any emergency coastal evacuations during high tide. A total of 16 highway assistance teams equipped with four-wheel-drive vehicles have been positioned at more than a dozen military facilities throughout the state, according to a news release.

Members will also be prepared to provide route clearance assistance and snow removal support.

The Naval Submarine Base closed to all but essential personnel at 4 p.m. Monday, and will remain closed through today, according to its Facebook page. The Naval Branch Health Clinic and the Navy Exchange also closed Monday afternoon.