Malloy visits cities to address storm cleanup efforts

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) -- Crews are making visible progress in cleaning up the mess left behind by the blizzard but there is still a lot to do. Governor Malloy visited towns on Tuesday to address the cleanup.

Gov. Malloy says there were historic snow fall totals in 7 of 8 counties across the state.

"Now many municipalities are reaching out and helping other municipalities and we've seen that happen time and time again and we're very grateful for all of that," said Gov. Malloy.

The DOT reports that 95% of its main roads are free of snow debris and will probably reach 100% over night.

"We'll pay more attention to some secondary state roads and widen those in the coming days," said Gov. Malloy. "Our rail system will be back in full service tomorrow, we are informed."

"It's going to take us a little longer to get back to normal but we are rapidly getting there," said Gov. Malloy.

To see Gov. Malloy's full news conference from Tuesday at 6:00 p.m., watch the video above.

The dig out is continuing around the state and in some places it is going to take the rest of the week. Governor Malloy visited two of the hardest hit areas Monday afternoon.

Nerves are getting frayed in many places as digging out from the Blizzard of 2013 continues.

The state DOT is still in the process of cleaning up the interstates with heavy equipment, clearing out those lanes on the right and left that are still covered with several feet of snow.

In Milford, which was one of the storm's two bulls-eyes with 38 inches of snow, Hamden was the other, the process of widening roads which are still just passable, will continue for several more days.

It was one of the communities visited by the Governor on Monday and one that got some help from the National Guard.

"For the next foreseeable future, we will be widening the roads so that we get them curb to curb, but at this point we have the city of Milford streets passable," said Democrat Ben Blake, Mayor of Milford.

Larger cities like Hartford, Bridgeport and New Haven are still struggling to get things cleared out. New Haven was another stop for the Governor on Monday.

"And urban areas, I mean, Stratford's a very urban community as well. Milford has some real urban environs and so it's not just defined by numbers, it's really defined by density," said Gov. Malloy.

Following Monday's calls from Pennsylvania and Maine, more equipment for the big dig continues to arrive.

"National Guard has arrived with some additional equipment and some expertise and so we're going to distribute that. That's probably going on at the EOC as we speak," said Gov. Malloy.