Norwich – The city activated its Emergency Operations Center at 7 a.m. Tuesday at the Norwich Public Utilities headquarters at 16 S. Golden St., staffed with representatives from several city emergency departments and city leaders.

At 9:30 a.m., NPU had not experienced any issues with natural gas, water, waste water or electric services and was prepared to respond to emergencies.

City officials participated in an early morning conference call with Gov. Dannel P. Malloy that included updates on the storm forecast and status reports from several state agencies.

The NPU Customer Service Center on North Main Street will be closed to walk-in customers Tuesday, however NPU will continue to manage customer phone calls through normal business hours at (860) 887-2555.

During the blizzard, NPU crews will only respond to natural gas odors, carbon monoxide calls, wires down and emergency situations.

In Stonington, George Brennan, longtime tactical operations director, said the high school could be opened if there are widespread power outages. In the event of scattered outages, the town is part of a regional shelter plan in which residents can be bused to other locations such as Groton.

But Brennan said the extensive tree trimming work Eversource has done over the past few years has decreased the chance of power outages.

He said the town's emergency operations center is in contact with Eversource and if there are extensive outages in town, Eversource is ready to send a representative to the EOC to help coordinate restoration efforts.

Reporter Joe Wojtas contributed to this story.

c.bessette@theday.com