Governor speaks about storm

HARTFORD, Conn. (WTNH)--  As we have seen so many times in the past two years, the Emergency Operations Center at the State Armory, is the state's command post for major weather events.

The Governor is in frequent conference with state and city and town officials, getting updates on conditions in every corner of the state so that any needed state resources can be dispatched to help.  All the major utilities are also at the center.

The power companies are estimating that 30% of their customers are likely to lose power.

"They continue to muster resources and to place them, in the case of CL&P, somewhere between 13 and 17 locations in the state for response. I will remind everyone;  it's hard to fix a line, if you have gusts of 40 miles per hour, they won't put up the bucket," said Malloy.

The Emergency Operations Center has been fully staffed since 9 AM and on advice from the various state agencies, the Governor declared a state of emergency at noon, which gives him the authority to close the interstates and take other actions.
 
"The whole point of this is, if you don't currently have a reason to be on the road, if you're not an emergency personell that's required to report to work, stay home," said Malloy.

Bradley Airport is suspending operations early this afternoon, and with other major airports here in the northeast doing the same. There is no estimate on when flights might resume.

"It's going to be very difficult to state when flight activity will resume here. We'll certainly reach out to the media and try to keep people advised as to when we plan resumption of operations here at the airport," said Kevin Dillon, CT Airport Authority.