Mitchell Reports   |  February 08, 2013

As storm nears, Conn. governor declares state of emergency

NBC's Ron Allen reports live from Hartford, Conn.

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This content comes from Closed Captioning that was broadcast along with this program.

>> in connecticut the governor announced a state of emergency . nbc's ron allen is in hartford where it is snowing. ron, oh, ron. it's already come down so hard. what are you expecting there in terms of what -- how hartford is going to get hit?

>> andrea, here in connecticut we're at the state capitol , hartford , and it's become aing ghost town . you can see traffic out on the roads behind me. the governor has warned people at the highways around the state are going to close down at any moment sometime after noon. they are really trying to get the roads clear for emergency vehicles to get around, and snow plows to get around. you can see the city buses are still running too. that's going to shut down. the airport is closing here at about 1:30, about this time. it's about 12 miles north of here. everybody is trying to hunker down. the governor declared a state of emergency at noon. he expects 30% of the state to have its power knocked out. they've really tried to put the pressure on the utility companies to preposition equipment and get ready for the storm. especially since they know that this one is coming. in this p state they have crew from north carolina , michigan, illinois here already in preparation for what's going to come in the hours to come. it's starting to snow a bit harder now. it's getting more steady. obviously it's just going to pick up as the day goes on. at this moment the best advice to people here in connecticut , i imagriry, massachusetts as well, hunker down, stay in your house. if you don't have anywhere that you have to be, out of safety and concern for just trying to make sure that things go smoothly as possible during this blizzard. andrea, back to you.

>> thank you so much, ron allen in hartford .