Rhode Island Governor Dan McKee announced Monday the state of emergency and travel ban will remain in effect through Tuesday morning as a major blizzard dumps up to 30 inches of snow across parts of the state.
McKee said the emergency declaration will be reassessed Tuesday morning to give state and local plow crews time to make progress overnight. State offices will remain closed through Tuesday afternoon due to blizzard impact. At an afternoon press briefing, Rhode Island Energy President Greg Cornett said crews will begin damage assessment late Monday afternoon. He expects restoration to be a multi-day process that may take up to 72 hours to restore all power.
At a Monday morning press briefing, McKee emphasized people need to stay off roads during the height of the storm, as crashes and disabled tractor-trailers are taking away resources. “That cannot continue. We need to stay off the roads. Let’s respect everyone’s safety out there,” he said. “People who are out there unnecessarily clogging our roads are putting others’ safety at risk.”
Around 50,000 Rhode Island Energy customers were without power as of 10 a.m. Monday. The governor said restoration crews are staged across the state but cannot repair lines when winds are gusting. “Currently we are only able to deal with 911 and public safety issues because of extreme winds,” Cornett said. “This will be a multi-day outage for some folks. We are expecting probably about a 72-hour outage from the peak for some of our customers. Meaning we be into Thursday before we are probably wrapping up restoration.” The agency is expecting a couple dozen additional crews from Pennsylvania on Tuesday morning depending on I-95 road conditions.
Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency Director Marc Pappas said some roads are experiencing paralysis, with cities and towns reporting plows getting stuck while assisting emergency responders. Rhode Island Department of Transportation interim Director Robert Rocchio said around 500 plow trucks between the state and vendors are working around the clock. “They’re dealing with limited visibility, downed trees, heavy winds, stuck or abandoned vehicles including tractor trailers. It’s really impacting our ability to clear roadways,” he said. Rocchio warned the cleanup will take time, noting traffic cameras are snowed over, traffic signals are out because wires are down, and signs are damaged throughout the state.
The National Guard has been activated and is prepared to respond to emergencies. McKee declared a state of emergency Sunday ahead of the storm and said he will not lift it until there is no potential safety issue.
