nothin New Haven Independent | State Starts Moving Again

State Starts Moving Again

Mary Johnson Photo

The sun peeked through the snow this morning, perhaps an omen to come as the state slowly gets moving after a strong winter blizzard left more than a foot of snow overnight; more is expected as the day unfolds. The statewide travel ban will be lifted at 2 p.m. today, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced at noon. 

Mary Johnson Photo

Preparation paid off. The governor’s decision to close all state roads at 9 p.m. Monday meant there were far fewer accidents on the state’s primary and secondary state roads. In Branford, Route 1 and other state roads were closed to all traffic except emergency vehicles and plow trucks clearing roads. The governor noted that in the aftermath of prior storms, electric companies had undertaken an aggressive tree cutting program that is now paying off. 

A travel ban on state roads, including those in Branford, was still in effect this morning except for Litchfield and Fairfield counties. Gov. Malloy imposed the travel ban last night but lifted it for those two counties early this morning. With the lifting of the ban at 2 p.m„ Branford will soon get moving, too.

The governor was optimistic: I think we can be up and running tomorrow on a normal basis,” he said at an early morning briefing.

Mary Johnson Photo

Public Works in Branford reported the town’s state roads were clear. Plow trucks were out working on clearing secondary roads this morning. There were huge drifts of light and fluffy snow everywhere. Here’s the scene near Town Hall earlier today. 

Mary Johnson Photo

Town Hall and virtually all businesses in town were closed. Schools were closed, too. Kids took full advantage of the day off. A decision has yet to be made on whether schools will open Wednesday. 

Mary Johnson Photo

The snow also summoned two cross-country skiers to the town Green.

Mary Johnson Photo

We caught up with First Selectman Jamie Cosgrove as he headed for his desk in Town Hall shortly after noon. 

Cosgrove told us the town was well-prepared for this storm. Public works was busy through the night. The challenging part are the drifts,” he said. He recalled Blizzard Nemo in February, 2013, a storm that had serious impact on towns and cities.

After going through Nemo,” he said, people are learning.” 

No Power Outages in Branford

There were far fewer power outages during this blizzard, compared to previous storms that left whole towns without power for up to a week – a major difference, for sure.

Connecticut Light & Power reported this morning that only 43 of its 1.2 million customers were without power this morning. United Illuminating, which serves a population from New Haven to Fairfield counties, had only one outage. 

The governor noted that the snow was light and fluffy, not icy, and that helped the power lines.

Hydrant Help Needed

Acting Fire Chief Shaun Heffernan told the Eagle the roads look great.” He said, Our fire crews have been doing a fair amount of calls,” mostly medical, adding, All volunteer fire stations are staffed.”

Heffernan said, People are heeding the no travel on state roads ban,” which has enabled public works to keep up with the snow. Last night we saw virtually no vehicles on the road. Just the plows. It worked out great.”

The governor’s decision to ban vehicles on all state roads was a game changer, he said.

Mary Johnson Photo

Heffernan asked residents to help the fire department by shoveling out fire hydrants near their homes. We have 741 hydrants in town and for us to get out there to shovel each one, well, it would great if residents helped, too.” 

We asked if there had been any carbon monoxide reports this time around. Not a one, so far,” he said.

###

Sign up for our morning newsletter

Don't want to miss a single Independent article? Sign up for our daily email newsletter! Click here for more info.


Post a Comment

Commenting has closed for this entry

Comments

There were no comments