Good day, everyone, as we brace for the storm. Preparations are under way across the northeast as a potentially historic blizzard nears with almost 30 Million People directly in its path. Weather experts have been using words like catastrophic and life threatening to describe it. Accumulations could reach up to 3 feet in some areas with Hurricane Force winds. Press conferences are under way or about to be under way in at least three states scheduled to start any moment now. New yorks governor cuomo, new jersey governor christie and Massachusetts Governor baker prepared to address the preparations taking place in their states. For the latest snow from across the region nbcs chris palone is in boston and boston getting ready for what could be historic levels of snow there. Reporter thats right, andrea. Weve noticed that the weather has changed a little bit in the past hour or so. This morning there was sun peeking through the clouds and now the wind has started to pick up. Were starting to see a couple of flurries forecasters have said there may be ocean effect snow that precedes this storm. Its clouding up more. Forecasters say maybe 20 to 30 inches of snow in and around the boston area. The governor is urging people here to use today to get prepared and prepare for the worst. The possibility that maybe you have to stay in your home for two or maybe three days and possibly without power. As you might imagine, Grocery Stores in this area are absolutely wiped out. Many of them opening early this morning. Some as early as 6 00 to let people get the last minute essentials to help them through through this storm. As you mentioned, its not just snow 2 to 3 feet snow is a lot and hard to deal with but we may deal with Hurricane Force winds and storm surge. Theres many coastal communities up and down the coast of massachusetts where people have already boarded up houses as if they would anticipate a hurricane. As this storm surge comes in it could be a lot of problems. Everybody here remembers the blizzard of 78. With technology improve and ability to get out and plow the roads, things shouldnt be that bad. People are taking the warnings seriously. Were expecting to hear from marty walsh coming up at 8 00 about the latest preparations. We expect hell announce that school is officially announced tomorrow and Logan Airport announced all flights in and out of Logan Airport have been canceled after about 7, 7 30 tonight. There will be ripple effects throughout the transportation system. People are gearing up for whats being described as a possibly historic storm. Thank you very much. Chris christie is having a News Conference to alert people in the new jersey area. Lets go to that. Nonessential state employees beginning at 1 00 p. M. Today. We want individuals home and off the roads as quickly as possible. The storm will worsen as we get deeper into the day and the overnight hours. First responders and transportation officials to be able to do their work safely. We want everybody to get home and get off the roads. Ive already close state offices for tomorrow due to the forecast. To our response to transportation officials to do their work in an unimpeded way. This is a different kind of storm than weve had before. Its going to effect our state in different ways. Down in the southernmost part of the state, especially the southeast we may have accumulations only as much as 6 inches. But we can have as much as 2 feet with blizzard conditions in our northeastern counties as well as our coastal counties. And in Middle Sex County and ocean county. The worst conditions will be overnight from 9 00 until noon tomorrow with lighter snowfall afternoon tomorrow expected until midnight. Again, this is going to present very dangerous and difficult conditions on our roadways. Theres going to be extremely colder temperatures than were experiencing right now. And the real potential for blowing and drifting snow giving winds this is the first weather event of this magnitude this season thank goodness. I want to make sure everyone in new jersey knows what steps were taking to be ready and what we need from them. Its our expectation that with state offices and early school dismissals, the rush hour will be early this afternoon. Prepare yourself accordingly. It will not be the normal rush hour. As youre leaving work picking up children from School Getting home get off the roads as quickly as you can. Obviously drive safely and cautiously. We want you to do that all the time but particularly now. Road crews are going to be out working to clear and salt the roads. We need everybody to get through the storm safely. If you do not have to drive, please remain home and remain off the roads. Since yesterday d. O. T. And trans i will and turnpike and parkway and south Jersey Transportation authority have been preparing equipment, putting staff and contractors on alert. Its a full statewide mobilization thats been ordered. Were prepared to clear snow and ice from the roadways and transit facilities in every part of the state and we believe we have the manpower to be able to do so. The turnpike parkway and south Jersey Transportation authority have 3700 trucks ready to roll. They started spreading salt on the roads yesterday and continue to do so as conditions warrant. D. O. T. Is working with the state police tow have tow trucks for disabled vehicles and new Jersey Transit of course is equipped with plows and tested and ready, 750 switch heaters to allow trains to access all tracks and perform all usual movements. Our top priority is passenger safety. Anyone planning to travel during the storm is urged to allow extra time. Be extremely careful traveling in and around stations and on platforms and on board trains and buses and light rail vehicles and our access vehicles. Transit plans to operate a regular weekly schedule today and through wednesday and cross honoring is in effect. Due to the predicted severity of the storm well have shutdowns and probably start shutting down transit at about 10 00 tonight. I dont expect that well have transit tomorrow. But again, its as conditions warrant as we go forward. Customers are advised to regularly track nj transit. Com for the latest service information. Residents should be prepared for potential Power Outages mostly due to the high wind conditions. Bpu president has been on Conference Calls with all of the power and Utility Companies and leadership. They have begun to assemble essential personnel and additional crews here in new jersey to be ready to respond to outages as they come forward. Residents should prepare themselves as usual for possible outages including supplies of water and nonperishable food items and personal hygiene items and cold weather clothing and supplies and cell phone, et cetera. From all of the reports ive seen, you all seem to have been to the supermarket in the last 24 hours and dont know why the rush on bread but what the heck if you wants more bread, im sure youre able to get it. If you have a member of your family dependent upon medications or electric powered health equipment, make sure you have a plan in place as a backup to assist them. If your power does go out, the First Contact should be to the Power Company so they can work to restore your service as quickly as possible. Bpu is activating the storm cloud reporting system for Power Companies to collect outages and other information. Bpu is posting on the website links to the utilities. Storm web pages for reporting of outages and obtaining outage information. We expect many schools to be closing early today and many schools to be closed tomorrow due to the weather. As always in these situations check with the local School District and watch tv for specific times on early dismissals today and districts plan for Tomorrows School day regarding closure. The overall message is this weve been through this plenty of times before. I was at a hockey game yesterday in bayonne of my son patrick and had a resident who said are you worried about the storm . This is my sixth winter as governor. Ive had double digit states of emergency imposed for snow. Weve had hurricane irene. Hurricane sandy. For better or for worse, we know how to deal with these situations. I feel completely confident that the folks behind me and all of the people that work for them are prepared. But you never know how bad these conditions are going to be. Heres one thing we know for sure. Starting later this afternoon, you should stay home if you can. You should only go out in the case of an absolute emergency or necessity necessity. Same for tomorrow, we do not need people on the roadways. If we get between 18 and 24 inches of snow thats a lot of snow to move to make roadways passable and safe. We would like to make wednesday productive for everybody. And the only way for us to make wednesday productive is for you to give us the opportunity to do our job on tuesday and this evening. So please stay off the roads. Its not only for your own safety. Its for the operation of the state for us to be able to have the state be as fully operational as we can be on wednesday and for the rest of the week. You should feel confident that myself and Lieutenant Governor are engaged with all of the leadership throughout state and local government. Oems throughout every town have been engaged with by the bpu and d. O. T. And all of the other leadership that we have. The Emergency Operations center is activated by the state police and was activated last night to exchange information. We all feel we know how to do this. This is going to be a lot of snow no matter how you add it up were going to be challenged but we feel like were prepared and were ready. If you all stay home and help that will make things significantly safer for you and your family. Significantly easier for the men and women who are going to be working hard to try to restore new jersey to normalcy after the storm is over. So i thank all of you for your time. I can Chris Christie of course the governor of new jersey declaring a state of emergency. And urging people to stay home for their own sake and also those trying to keep roads clear can do their job. Nbc meteorologist dmen ka davis joins us. New jersey and new york both in the path of the storm. Absolutely. These blizzard warnings are for coastal new jersey and all the way up to maine. This goes through new england. The reason why this is so major, 29 Million People that are going to be affected from this. Its not just conditions but were talking about a lot of snow and a lot of people that this is going to impact over the next 48 hours. Heres a look at storm tracker. Its important to note this isnt the main part of the storm. This is an Alberta Clipper were looking at. The storm is still organizing over the carolina coastline. That low pressure moves up this evening and thats when well see the storm intensify. For new york its going to be closer to the evening commute, around 6 00 7 00 well see the snow pick up and conditions start to deteriorate. Through boston and further north well see that closer to about 10 00, overnight everybody is in the thick of it. Well be looking at the worst 6 this. Heres a look at future cast as we roll through the day. The storm starting to move up. Here we are by 6 00 were looking at pretty good snowfall nothing block buster its overnight where it comes in and well look at winds at times that will be close to 65 Miles Per Hour. Visibility at zero. That is going to last through tomorrow morning as well. By the time this storm settles down, it will be lunchtime on tuesday. Andrea . Thank you. With the wind and storm warnings this is not just snow and andrew cuomo new yorks governor is speaking right now about new york state. Dangerous and difficult from our point of view. Its the snow combined with the wind. It affects visibility snow drifts this is supposed to be a very light snow. So they will be dangerous and difficult conditions difficult to clear and difficult for the plows et cetera. Weve been preparing for it over the past three days or so. We have deployed assets from across the state to the new york city metropolitan area. Were focusing rockland west chester, new york city nassau and suffolk, we have 750 plows from across the state that are coming down. Ironically, a few weeks ago we had 7 feet of snow in buffalo. 7 feet of snow. And we had to do the reverse, we had to ask all of the plows in down state new york to go up to buffalo. So now were asking the reverse and the upstate plow operators are coming down down state to help. 50,000 pounds of salt we have several hundred National Guard who have been called out. And will be stationed in new york city and long island area primarily. Few measures that we are going to put into effect, number one, im declaring a state of emergency Effective Immediately from Sullivan Counties south, rockland west chester, new york city and long island. Declaration of a state of emergency allows me to waive certain laws and regulations. So it actually allows the government to move faster. State employees who are nonessential will be released at 3 00 p. M. The new york city subway system will continue to run until 7 00 to 8 00 on the usual schedule. At that point, there will be limited service on the subway system. So as weve been saying for the past few days you should plan to leave work early or wherever you are to try to get home on the early side because 7 00 8 00, they want to start to put the trains away. They want to put the subway cars in a place where they are not going to be hurt by the snow so theyll be available quickly to protect the subway cars we have to close down the subway system earlier. Metro north, Long Island Railroad, we are well have Early Service and were anticipating at this time closing the metro north and lir service at 11 00 p. M. That is the current plan. We will confirm these after the 4 00 weather advisory. But if nothing changes, we plan to stop Service North on the lir at 11 00 for the same reason so the trains can be put in a place that is safe from the weather. The path will operate on the usual schedule at 9 00. The past will go on weekend schedule. So a reduced time frame currently set for 9 00. We will have a tractortrailer ban on the main state roads, 84 287 thruway south of exit 17. That will go into effect at 4 00. Tractortrailer ban on those roads. Were considering at this time a travel ban on all main roads starting at 11 00 tonight, again to be confirmed after the 4 00 weather advisory when we have the most updated weather. The closing of the roads is a safety precaution. Its never an easy decision. You close the roads and people cant travel and some people find it an inconvenience if you leave the roads open people can get stuck on the roads. Weve had some potentially dangerous situations where people have gotten stuck on the roads during the course of a storm. And we havent had any tragedies but very close to it. So this is not a storm to take lightly. And were taking what we believe are prudent measures. The times i gave you today again are based on the information we have at this time. As you know from the weather reports, they change from time to time. 4 00 well get the most recent update and then well confirm or adjust these times at that time about 4 15 4 30 after we get the 4 00 broadcast. With that ill turn it over to questions. Governor, at what point after 4 00 p. M. Do you think you may shut down and you just heard the new york governor, andrew cuomo. Let me recap. A lot of Important Information for all of you commuters and potential commuters. Getting 50,000 pounds of salt several hundred National Guard bringing people from buffalo down to new york and long island. Declared a state of emergency Effective Immediately for new york and city and long island. Mother nature has decided to come visit us in an extreme way. A Little InformationImportant Information for commuters. People should start going home early because the subways are going to be shut down starting at 7 00 p. M. Theyll verify this at the 4 00 p. M. Hour when they update the forecast but they are planning provisionally to close metro north and the Long Island Railroad around 11 00 p. M. Tonight to get the cars and subway cars and metro north cars an lirr in a safe place so they can start when this is all over. The path is supposed to be operating as normally but consider all of this as a travel ban. They are considering, rather a travel ban as of 11 00 p. M. On main roads. The point is get off the roads early so they can do their work. Im joined now here by lou, director of the National Weather service. Lou, its you and your teams that are in fact embedded in new York New Jersey and elsewhere, telling these governors these top emergency officials what to do and when to shut down roads. What are you forecasting now . The latest youre seeing about the size of the blizzard. We provide them the forecast and they decide the emergency actions that have to be taken based on those forecasts. Were seeing from observations that the system is starting to come together as predicted off the carolina coast. And the recent models all confirm that this storm is going to develop very rapidly this evening into tonight producing very heavy snows from northern new jersey up through new york city and up into new england. Very strong winds. You heard ohio are the winds . Were expe