Massachusetts State Of Emergency Issued Due To Blizzard (VIDEO)

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick declared a state of emergency Friday and banned travel on roads as of 4 p.m. as a blizzard that could bring nearly 3 feet of snow to the region began to intensify. “I have declared a state of emergency effective of noon today,” Patrick said during a midday briefing Friday at the state’s emergency management headquarters.

Via FOX Boston:

He said those crews are at the ready, including 2,000 utility crews to deal with expected power outages.

Boston and much of eastern Massachusetts was under a blizzard warning until 1 p.m. Saturday. A flood warning was going into effect at 8 p.m. Friday until noon Saturday for the state’s east-facing coastline.

A steady, light snow began falling at midmorning in Boston, where a snow emergency and parking ban was set to take effect at noon.

This is a storm of major proportions,” Mayor Thomas Menino said Friday. “Stay off the roads. Stay home.”

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority planned to shut down all service — including subways, commuter trains and buses — after 3:30 p.m. Commuters who use public transportation in the morning were being told to plan carefully so as not to get stranded after the T suspends operations. State transportation officials expect service to be up and running again by Monday morning.

Boston’s Logan International Airport said it would try to stay open during the storm but airlines had already canceled many flights through Saturday.

Predictions of 2 feet of snow or more could make the storm one of the biggest in recorded history, but an even greater concern than the snow could be the possibility of a damaging coastal storm surge.

The National Weather Service was warning of moderate to major coastal flooding at high tide on Saturday morning, with large waves a 2- to 3-foot storm surge that could damage shorefront homes, cause beach erosion and make some coastal roads temporarily impassable.

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