Travel Ban for RI Starts at Midnight, State of Emergency Declared

Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo will be declaring a state of emergency and has ordered a travel ban to go into effect at midnight in advance of an historic storm that could knock out power and require digging out for days.

“Stay home, hunker down, let us do our jobs, plow these roads. . . and keep people safe,” Raimondo said at a State House press conference.

At the same time, Raimondo urged business owners to “be flexible” and consider letting employees home early or refrain from making nonessential workers report to work.

“Please consider the life and safety of employees,” Raimondo said.

The Governor said that the state has been fortunate to have time to prepare ahead of time on Monday before the storm begins to wallop the state.

The worst part of the storm is expected between 1 a.m. and 10 a.m. Tuesday and people are being asked to stay off of the roads to enable crews to plow.

National Grid is dispatching 1,000 additional crews to handle potential power outages and other problems associated with the snow and the potential for hurricane-force winds upwards of 70 mph. As a result, motorists could encounter bridge closures in addition to the treacherous travel conditions.

“This will take days for us to cleanup,” Raimondo said.

The travel ban will be strictly enforced and nobody will be allowed to travel on the roads, Raimondo said, and people should be home and ready to stay put by 8 p.m.

Tim Horan of National Grid said that crews can’t conduct work when winds are above 35 mph. That could mean that outages could linger as long a the wind keeps blowing.

Utility crews are staged at the Community College of Rhode Island campus in Warwick and at Twin River in Lincoln.

Photo Courtesy Ian Donnis, RIPR @IanDon via Twitter