Malloy Declares a State of Emergency, Issues Travel Ban

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy declared a state of emergency due to the blizzard that is expected to wallop Connecticut Friday through Saturday, and is asking residents to limit non-essential travel during the storm. 

The Governor announced a ban on motor vehicle travel on limited access highways in the State of Connecticut beginning at 4 p.m. Friday. These prohibitions do not extend to emergency response and recovery vehicles, including public safety vehicles, utility vehicles, and vehicles carrying essential personnel or supplies.

The travel ban will remain in effect until further notice. The State of Connecticut coordinated the travel ban with Massachusetts and New York.

Public transportation is gradually coming to a stop as the storm progresses.

• Regional bus services provided by SEAT makes its last run today at 1 p.m. with plans to stop service on Friday at 2 p.m. Service is expect to resume on Saturday Feb. 9 at noon but that will depend on the weather. 
• The 9 Town Transit will end all service at 2:30 p.m. today.  There will be no service on Saturday, February 9. Service will resume a regular schedule on Monday, February 11. 
• CT TRANSIT bus service will begin shutting down service at 4 p.m. today, and all buses will stop running by 6 p.m.. This shut down will be in effect for the entire state until further notice.
• Metro-North was adding extra trains to the schedule earlier today but will plan to scale back services beginning at what would normally be peak travel times this afternoon.
• Bradley International Airport is suspending all commercial airline traffic as of 1:30 p.m. Friday and flights are not expected to resume until mid-to-late morning on Saturday. The airport will remain open as long as airport personnel are not in harms way. Passengers are encouraged to contact their specific airline for more details about the next scheduled flights. Phone lines are jammed right now so the best way to get information about a flight is through the airline's website, Facebook or Twitter pages. 
• New London's Cross Sound Ferry has suspended services due to high winds.

"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. Please stay home once the weather gets bad except in the case of real emergency."

Per Malloy's office, a Declaration of Emergency provides the governor with a number of emergency powers, including:

• The ability to modify or suspend any state statute, regulation, or requirement (for example: altering work hours, waiving licensing requirements, etc.)
• The ability to order civil preparedness forces into action
• The ability to designate vehicle and person routes and movements