i ll make it, one time or another. reporter: so you re prepared for a long trip? yeah, and i have friends in clinton so if anything goes terribly wrong, i can pop over there and spend the night. well, let s get to peter boynton who is standing by for us on the phone. peter is the commissioner of the connecticut department of emergency management and homeland security. what is happening in your state tonight, and how are emergency services responding to the weather conditions? well, good evening. governor jody rell held a conference call earlier today with over 200 officials from all towns across the state of connecticut to review preparations for the storm, and she ordered the state emergency operations center opened at 3:00 p.m. today, and they will be open through the night and tomorrow helping to coordinate response throughout the state for this storm. all right. so we re talking here about places staying open.
i m not sure. i didn t look at weather before i left, so hopefully it s not too bad when i get down there. reporter: do you think you re going to make it? sure, i m an optimist. i ll take it, one time or another. reporter: so you re prepared for a long trip? yeah, and i have friends in clinton so if anything goes terribly wrong i can pop over there and spend the night. well, let s get to peter boynton who is standing by for us on the phone. peter is the commissioner of the connecticut department of emergency management and homeland security. what is happening in your state tonight, and how are emergency services responding to the weather conditions? well, good evening. governor jody rell held a conference call earlier today with over 200 officials from all towns across the state of connecticut to review preparations for the storm, and she ordered the state emergency operations center opened at 3:00 p.m. today, and they will be open through the night and tomorrow helping t
cancelled cancelled the trains, but not yet. we re getting home hopefully. reporter: metro north trains are still running on a normal sunday schedule. amtrak has said it s shutting down its train service between boston and new york. this long day could turn into a longer night. even if you are able to board. i m not sure. i didn t look at weather before i left, so hopefully it s not too bad when i get down there. reporter: do you think you re going to make it? sure, i m an optimist. i ll take it, one time or another. reporter: so you re prepared for a long trip? yeah, and i have friends in clinton so if anything goes terribly wrong i can pop over there and spend the night. well, let s get to peter boynton who is standing by for us on the phone. peter is the commissioner of the connecticut department of emergency management and homeland security. what is happening in your state tonight, and how are emergency services responding to the weather conditions? well, good e
you ve seen weather conditions similar to these before, but this must have come as a surprise so early in the season, right? well, we we have storms here, and we ve actually been tracking this storm since wednesday and thursday of last week, briefing the governor and state agencies and local communities that there was a potential for a major storm, so we feel like we ve had time to prepare, the national guard, connecticut national guard has pre-positioned equipment at armories throughout the state. the department of public health has communicated with hospitals across the state in the event they are needed, and, as i mentioned, the d.o.t. has all of their equipment out on the roads, so we think we re in fairly good shape in terms of the preparations. all right. is it going to be a long night for you? where are you, peter? i was in the emergency operations center earlier this evening. i think it will be a long night for all of us, but that s what we re here for, and we re very p
for you? where are you, peter? i was in the emergency operations center earlier this evening. i think it will be a long night for all of us, but that s what we re here for, and we re very pleased with the preparations so far, and we ll be briefing governor rell again at 5:30 in the morning prior to the rush hour to make sure that we re on track. all right. peter boynton, the commissioner of connecticut s department of emergency management and homeland security joining us on the line there. thanks very much from hartford, connecticut. you can find out about the travel delays in your area online if you go to cnn.com/travel. click on the link airport delays, and you ll find a status update on the busiest u.s. airports, the average delay time and what is causing it, and some of those airport closures as well in the new york area. we ll be right back. stay with us. you re watching cnn newsroom.