And the response to it. Here you see a live look at the podium. It is all set and ready to go. When that happens, of course, we will bring it to you live. First lets begin with our weather team. Meteorologist jeremy reiner. Jeremy we have that blizzard warning in effect. Plymouth county as well as the cape and the islands. Until 7 00 tonight. Winter storm warning in the city of boston north shore, metrowest, worcester hills, portions of the south shore, especially west of route 24 and interior southeast massachusetts. Midnight tonight. Steadiest snow right now until about 4 00 or 5 00 this evening. And then it doesnt completely shut down. But i think we will have patchy light snow continuing through the evening hours up until just after midnight. We will have the wind happening right now also. Thats been a real issue. Gusting 4050 Miles Per Hour. When the wind fades away, so will the snow. That will happen after midnight. Coastal flooding is a major issue at this time. With moderate coastal flooding happening. That will subside as we continue to come off the high tide. Again, most of the numbers down through the south coast, buzzards bay, the cape, the canal, west falmouth, 6. 2 inches of snow. Sandwich, 5. 5 inches of snow. Har wip, three inches of snow. Then you come off the cape, the numbers drop off. Only a coating to an inch or so around metroboston. Here is the snow right now, the snow. You look close, the deeper shading of blue, and there is a number of these little fingers, if you will, of deeper shades of blue. That is where we have the steadier snow. There is one on the east slopes of the berkshires. One in the worcester hills right now. One in metro boston. There is another batch which most of the bands of snow, the steady snow has been focused down through the cape and the islands. That is why your numbers of snow, much higher than everyone else. When you look at visibility, that helps to pinpoint where the steady snow is. Anything under a mile, showing the steady snow. Nashua just now dropping under ten miles. Down to a mile visibility. Bedford, half a mile visibility. Through portions of southeast massachusetts, a third of a mile in visibility because of falling snow as well as huge, huge storm in the atmosphere exploded off the carolina coastline yesterday. This is the toings of that storm right now. In fact, it is wound up so tight hate thes actually closed itself off. We call it warm air seclusion. The warm air low cans off from the rest of the storm. It is right here. That is a sign that the storm matured. Meaning it is not going to get any stronger from this point out. It is a hefty storm as it is. It is very far away for the new england coastline. Because it is a mass i storm, it is able to reach out and pummel us with snow and wind. So weve got snow happening through the afternoon. Now, the intensity does fade evening hours. More so midnight tonight. There you go right there. You notice the dry air starting to chew away at the snow around 11 00 tonight. That really shuts down about so that we are done with the snow by tomorrow morning. The amount of snow on the way by tomorrow morning, again, a lot of this is already on the coast and the canal and the cape. Bit of work to go to get to these numbers. It is a slow process. You wont have nine inches of snow in boston by this evening. This will be the number. Generally, between five and nine inches of snow in this deep shading of blue by very early tomorrow morning. A foot of snow on cape ann. The New Hampshire seacoast about 78 inches of snow. You work down on the south shore. This is where the steady snow has been happening this morning. This will continue for the afternoon. A foot of snow likely. Along route 3. As well as 24 to route 3. Down to the south coast, and the upper cape. East of hyannis, out toward chatham, truro, wellfleet, 59 inches of snow. Now for the wind and coastal concerns. Chris we have many factors with a big ocean storm. We have had coastal flooding an issue here for the last couple of hours. A lot of moderate coastal flooding. Basically, inundation of some nearshoreline roads across the south shore, down through the cape and over to nantucket. We expect that moderate go back to minor and then recede back into the ocean over the next couple of hours. Some of the roads closed off, water continuing through the afternoon. Winds gusty at times. Not quite as active in the city of boston right now. 28 in boston. Going to kick it back to the news desk for breaking news, guys. Christa all right. We have breaking news right now. We will go to the governor, Charlie Baker giving a news conference. Employees that live in or work in barnstable, bristol, essex, middlesex, norfolk, suffolk, plymouth, duke and nantucket, not report to work today. That was due primarily to our desire to try to keep the roads as open as possible so a lot of the folks associated with the Highway Department would have the opportunity to do their work and to do it completely throughout the day. I have been in the statehouse since 6 00 a. M. We have been in Constant Contact with the National Weather service, with mema, to monitor the storm. The snow is falling a little later than originally forecasted. But the storm is expected to have same impact. It will be slow and steady all day. And in many parts of the massachusetts, it will be snowing and accumulating up until midnight. The heaviest accumulation will last until around 1 00 this afternoon. Then as i said, it is going to keep snowing and accumulating until around midnight in many parts of massachusetts. So far, the current models we have show the heaviest accumulation is expected to be across southeast massachusetts and the cape and the islands. A foot or more of snow is possible along with blizzard conditions. The way i have been describing this earlier today was to say that if you are south of the turnpike and east of worcester, you are probably going to get somewhere between 815 inches. Depending upon how close you are to the coastline. Plymouth county, at this point, describe as the big winner in this storm. Most likely to get somewhere between 1218 inches there. 610 inches are likely and possible across the rest of eastern massachusetts. And parts of rhode island. And 48 inches are expected northeast connecticut and central massachusetts. Wind speeds will vary, but again, its bristol, barnstable, and plymouth that winds. Probably up in the 5060mileperhour range. They will certainly be 2535, 45 mile an hour gusts elsewhere around massachusetts. The d. O. T. , mass. D. O. T. Currently has over 1,900 pieces of equipment and nearly 550 employees doing cleanup on the roads. Almost half of this is currently active in district five. Which is bristol county. Road conditions are deteriorating quickly in the and especially in plymouth and on the Plymouth County and on the cape and the islands, Traffic Volume so far has been light. Visibility of those roads is reported to be poor in many areas with strong winds, downed wires are possible. Wins hazard throughout the day. The heaviest snowfall in many parts of massachusetts has yet to come. Due to the worsening weather conditions, the speed limit has been lowered to 40 Miles Per Hour on the mass. Pike from warren to westborough. Appears to be taking this storm seriously. And staying off the roads. We would appreciate it if you continue to do that through the rest of the day and into the evening. Unless you must travel. This is not only a Public Safety issue, but will allow our road crews to continue to clear the snow quickly. The forecast is set to bring high windchills and frigid temperatures. Once it is finished snowing which will cause freezing and if you are able to get out and shovel during the day, please do your part by clearing driveways, sidewalks, and fire hydrants in your neighborhoods and if you can, help elderly neighbors and those in need around you. The National Weather service has advised us that strong winds will likely result in widespread moderate coastal flooding along the east coast, south of boston, cape cod and nantucket for the high tide late this morning. To the north of boston, coastal flooding should be minor. We just passed the 11 00 a. M. High tide and will continue to monitor our coastal communities throughout the day. We expect the high winds to result in down trees and power lines with scattered Power Outages likely. Especially in southeastern massachusetts and on the cape and the islands. Due to the very strong winds and the heavy wet snow. Although at last check, i think there were 1,700 homes without power. But obviously, people are paying very close attention to as the snow gets lighter and fluffier toward the northwest, travel will still be dangerous due to whiteout conditions. The m. B. T. A. And Commuter Rail have reported no major incidents and are running a regular schedule. The Commuter Rail has activated snowfighters to clear the tracks as the snow comes down. Riders are encouraged to check m. B. T. A. Com winter for scheduling updates. Massport has announced that 30 of flights have been canceled at logan airport. That has more to do with the wind than the snow. Folks should call the airlines ahead. As the day goes on. Mema has reported some Power Outages, as i said before, and we will continue to remain in Constant Contact with the that we are doing everything we can to return poweller to our communities as quickly as possible. We remain in contact with our cities and towns and encourage municipalities to reach out if concerns. Governor polito has talked to about twenty local officials this morning and obviously, secretary pollack has been here being badgered by questions and observation and really bad advice from both the Lieutenant Governor and me throughout most of the morning. With that said, happy to take questions. So so good now. I certainly think the relatively light volume on the Commuter Rail and on the Transit System and on the roads means that we are able to spend a good part of the midpart of the day continuing also to continue to clear the tracks associated with both t. I would ask the secretary if she would like to speak to this one. So in southeast crews are keeping up with the storm, but the roads are increasingly snowcovered. People should try to head home early. The storm. The t and Commuter Rail will run on a regular schedule. So all of the trains that normally run on a weekday will be running and people can plan to head home for the afternoon. Do so. So hopefully, we will have a lowvolume afternoon commute commute. And folks will have a smooth trip home. Suspended service. They ran the morning schedule with minor delays. They rely on the coast guard for advice and so far, the coast guard has not asked them to shut down so. They are planning to do their return evening schedule. Check. Obviously, if conditions become unsafe, they wont be able to do that. Can you give us a bigger picture, how the t is i would say the t has been able to keep service at regular levels which is, you know, what we want. People should be able to actually, use the m. B. T. A. Instead of their car when we have bad service. And thats what we all lost faith in last winter and we need to restore that faith. Every storm where the t is able to run service pretty well, i hope will help to restore that service. And i think one of the things that i see and the governor and the Lieutenant Governor see is how much work is going on before those storms, during those storms and after those storms that maybe wasnt happening last winter. That is what is allowing the system to function as well. For example, as you will recall last winter, we had issues with the snow piling up before the next storm hit. Once this one is done, depending on where the snow levels the plan is to pull the plows out and plow that stuff out of the way and not leave you look at the longrange cold for the next week. We are not expecting a lot of melting. We are not going to leave the accumulated snow in place. There is a loft changes that have been made since last year so. Far, they are producing the kind of service that our customers need and deserve. What was the o. T. This morning ran 91 on time. That is a typical weekday. Friday they did fall behind. Ontime was not as good as we would have liked. But this morning went pretty well. Hopefully, this afternoon will as well. Well, i would say that so far, i think the ts performance has been satisfactory. You know, some of this. Sometimes you end up in situations that you cant predict. For example, on friday, the whole series of trees came down on the d line. Most of those trees were actually located on private property. They wouldnt have been trees able to do anything about prior to the weather last friday anyway. When four trees fall on one particular route, that translates into having to come up alternative transportation in between. They ran about 40 buses, my collection is, to move people week. Then they spent several days carving those trees forecast down and taking them out from among a lot of electronic and signaling wiring and because of some of the damage that was done to the signaling, they now have somebody today who is literally standing out and handling the signaling from a manual point of view. Between friday and monday, we couldnt get the part to fix the signal. I mean, there is always going to be stuff going on out there. But i think in the grand scheme of things, people have been far better prepared this winter than last winter. As the secretary said, in the end, we will be judged on our performance over the course of the winter. Frts what do you anticipate for tomorrows commute . I guess that depends a little bit on when the weather stops. If the snow stops by midnight, that will give us another five or six, seven hours between hour starts tomorrow morning to continue to clean up whats left of this storm. For us to make sure that the roads are clean. And the t and the subway and Commuter Rail in working condition tomorrow morning. inaudible we talked about this a half hour ago. The answer is nothing that has required any local folks, either the Lieutenant Governor or the folks at mema have been talking to, to ask us for assistance. I mean, so far, people seem able to deal with closing down roads or dealing with whatever the circumstances or situations are associated with moderate flooding, on a widespread basis is usually something that the locals can from us. We havent been asked to engage either directly or indirectly at this point. Christa Charlie Baker talking about the fact that he is so far, satisfied with the states performance in responding to the storms we have had this winter. Of course, as we take a live look at the waves kicking up there with the high winds in some of these coastal communities where they have seen some flooding already in their community. But of course, as we look here at boston, they are looking ahead to the evening commute. And wanting to make sure it is a safe one. And also keeping a close eye on downed trees and power lines with the high winds that we have been seeing. Sarah obviously, along the coast, flooding a major issue. Victoria warren, we have been seeing these pictures you have been tweeting. There. Reporter yes, they were pretty bad. They are still pretty bad. We are starting to see some improvement. Live behind me, you can see they have some of the roadways shut down. And then what was happening was that the waves were crashing over and flooding this entire area out, high the morning. Worst of it. Even though things are getting better, though, there is still plenty of water crashing over the walls. The wind so strong in scituate, you cant even see the snow falling. 60mileperhour gusts and an astronomical high tide. The water rushed in and the streets around scituate lighthouse were shut down. Utility crews in place for expected Power Outages. Police warning people to avoid the waterfront areas, saying cars can quickly get stuck in floodwaters. Still, the power of these tremendous waves luring some locals out on foot. Bit. Which is great. Reporter bill has lived in scituate long enough to remember storms that prompted evacuations. Today, he says he was impressed. This is pretty bad. This is the place where it floods. If you look over here, it is going up over the wall every time. I have, like, in january,. Tlort road waive here was covered with water 20 or 30 minutes ago. You can see in terms of water covering the roadway, we have some improvement. Once the water cleared out, now the snow is starting to accumulate. It is a mixture of snow and water out here. So a real sloppy situation. But there seems to be some improvement with the streetflooding. Crashing over some of the sea wall. They are still advising folks who dont need to be down near the water to just stay away. Live in scituate, victoria sarah snow starting to accumulate on the cape. State police advising people to stay off the roads. Christa the wind is howling on the cape. Doesnt look like it has let up one bit, nicole. Reporter christa, in fact, it seems the winds are picking up fvrbs as we get into the height of this storm. Even though high tide has passed, if you take a look crashing hard here in sandwich. Miserable but mesmerizing. Conditions on the cape bring out stormwatchers who couldnt stay away. Just curiousiosty. I have lived in sandwich for 5 years now. Just coming down to see what the storms are doing. We are going sandy neck and check that out, see whats going on. Report tt waves crash. The white foam crashing against the shoreline. Threatening but never flooding the streets in sandwich. The whipping winds are causing sideways snow. That is the biggest threat. The intense gusts could take down tree limbs and power the area. Wavewatchers dont mind, though. It is winter. They are prepared. We are going to go home. Hunker in. Generator is all set. Snowblower is all set. Ready to ride it out. I played golf last week. Im not playing golf this week, unfortunately. Reporter it may be a couple of months before on the green. Winds gusting. Per hour. This area remains in the blizzard warning zone. We did check in with emergency officials. They say right now, no reports of any major issues regarding Power Outages. That is the latest live in sandwich, nicole oliverio, 7 news. Christa sit tight if you. Can