Malloy to Connecticut: Brace Yourself

UPDATE: Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signed an emergency order Tuesday night that will allow him to quickly close the state's highways and take other steps if deemed necessary Wednesday as a Nor'easter spreads up to two feet of snow across Connecticut.

"We are declaring a civil preparedness emergency in anticipation of snow fall of 18 to 24 inches," Malloy said, holding his third storm briefing of the day. "I hope all of that doesn't happen. I want to be very clear."  Malloy is asking all non-essential state employees to stay home, and Connecticut residents to stay off the roads.

His original statement was amended in a 5:30 a.m. press conference Wednesday.  

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy gave Connecticut a glimpse of his style as storm-watcher-in-chief today: With a Nor'easter expected tonight and tomorrow, his stance was less warm and fuzzy and more of the don't-be-stupid school.

"Let me say this. We're going to have people stranded, right? Because people are going to do silly things or get surprised by occurrences," Malloy said this afternoon. "Clearly if you could plan to avoid being on our highway system between the hours of 2 a.m. and 2 o'clock tomorrow afternoon, that would be a good thing."

In less than a week as governor, Malloy has his share of time being briefed on approaching coastal storms. Today, for the third time since his inauguration Wednesday, he was on a conference call with municipal officials talking about the weather.

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