As snow and ice continued to fall upon Connecticut, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy declared that all non-essential state employees should report to work on a delayed opening at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday.
In addition, Hartford Mayor Pedro Segarra announced that all non-essential city employees should report to work at noon.
The state Capitol was quiet early Wednesday as Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman was the first state official to arrive at 5:45 a.m. after she participated in a conference call with Malloy and other leaders that started at about 4:30 a.m. Wyman arrived with a state trooper in a sport utility vehicle and reported that the roads coming from her Tolland home weren't all that bad at that early hour.
Aside from some city buses, there were few vehicles traveling in Hartford before 6 a.m.
In a live television interview on Fox CT this morning, Malloy said that one of his largest concerns is roof collapses.
"We are worried about that, and we did ask people to clear roofs to the extent that they could,'' Malloy said.
In order to keep the roads clear, the state is operating a voluntary ban on tandem-trailers on the highways in concert with New York State and Connecticut's Motor Transport Association. The group, headed by Mike Riley, has been working closely with state officials and has participated in previous conference calls regarding the weather and road conditions.
"We really are just waiting to see how much ice [will fall], and where we're going to get icy conditions,'' Malloy said in the television interview. "That's what we're watching at the moment.''
If the state receives one-quarter of an inch of ice, there should be relatively little impact. But Malloy said that one inch of ice would have "a devastating impact.''
In an interview in her state Capitol office at 7 a.m., Wyman said it has been highly fortunate that - despite treacherous travel conditions - there have been relatively few injuries in any of the storms of the past several weeks. She credited the work of the Department of Transportation plow drivers and the state police, among others.
"You've got to be proud of DOT,'' Wyman said. "It's been amazing teamwork'' among agencies.
Wyman advised drivers to slow it down on the highways and avoid accidents. She noted that cars zoomed past her on Interstate 84 this morning as they traveled past the large sport utility vehicle that was driven by a trooper. In an odd twist, she noted that she looked out the window at the state Capitol during the snowstorm on Tuesday and saw a man riding a bicycle.
The 4:30 a.m. conference call Wednesday included Malloy, Wyman, Department of Administrative Services commissioner Donald DeFronzo, acting public safety commissioner Skip Thomas, and Commissioner Jeffrey Parker of the state DOT, among others.