A Nor’easter shut down much of the state on Monday after dumping more than a foot of snow in most cities and towns overnight with blizzard conditions expected to continue throughout the day.
The storm brought whiteout conditions and wind gusts that were between 40 to 60 mph. By the morning hours, most parts of the state had already gotten a foot or more of snow, with portions of the southeast corner of Connecticut reporting nearly 20 inches.
A blizzard warning remained in effect across the state until 6 p.m. on Monday, according to the National Weather Service.
In preparation for the storm, Gov. Ned Lamont ordered all executive branch office buildings to close to the public and declared a state of emergency. He also put a commercial travel ban in place beginning Sunday evening and “until further notice” and activated the state Emergency Operations Center.
“This is an intense storm and it is expected to continue throughout Monday morning and into the afternoon before finally tapering off,” Lamont said in a news release. “I am urging everyone who does not need to be on the roads to avoid all unnecessary, non-essential travel and do their best to stay home and stay safe.”
The National Weather Service said high winds and snow were expected to bring down tree limbs and power lines. According to Eversource, more than 14,000 customers were without power as of about 10 a.m. on Monday, making up a little over 1% of the more than 1.3 million residents in Connecticut served by the power company. These included 962 customers without power in Guilford; 625 in Groton; 629 in Farmington; 570 in Woodstock; and 684 customers in Burlington.
Ahead of the storm, Eversource said it had about 700 crews, including outside line workers from neighboring states, prepared and “in position” to respond to outages. The company warned that restoration efforts could extend into multiple days with the slow moving storm expected to bring a combination of heavy wet snow and intense winds.
United Illuminating, which serves more than 350,000 customers in Connecticut, reported a total of 1,156 outages as of 10 a.m. on Monday. These included 500 in Orange; 244 in Milford; 115 in New Haven; and 88 customers in Trumbull.
Multiple major roads across the state were closed in the morning hours because of downed power lines and crashes. According to the Connecticut Department of Transportation, trees that came down on power lines shut down portions of Route 42 in Beacon Falls; Route 106 in Darien; Route 130 in Bridgeport; Route 77 in Guilford; and Route 63 in Naugatuck.
A jackknifed tractor-trailer shut down Route 67 in New Milford, and a disabled dump truck closed part of Route 138 in Lisbon, the DOT said.