She also asked residents to stay off the roads. “If you lose power, call 211 to find the closest warming center,” she said.
In Boston, Mayor Michelle Wu ordered widespread closures for Monday, including City Hall, Boston Public Schools, municipal buildings, libraries, and community centers.
At Boston Logan International Airport, nearly 400 flights were canceled by Sunday evening as airlines braced for the shutdown of both inbound and outbound travel. MassDOT’s highway administrator said 3,000 pieces of snow equipment and plenty of salt were ready to deploy statewide.
Canceled flights ahead of Monday’s nor’easter seen in Terminal A at Logan Airport.Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff
Standing with top emergency leaders Sunday morning, Wu urged Boston residents to prepare for a storm of “historic proportions.”
“Stay inside, stay warm, do not be on the roads,” she said.
Olessa Stepanova, a spokesperson for Eversource, said Sunday night that the utility had hundreds of tree and line crews poised to respond to power outages across the state. If the storm shifts its path, Eversource is prepared to reposition its response crews as necessary, she said.
Given the storm is expected to be a slow-moving, long-duration blizzard that could bring heavy wet snow, high winds, and whiteout conditions, Stepanova said, “Safety and access are going to dictate the pace of restoration.”
Another utility, National Grid, had similar sentiments, saying it has secured “additional crews and personnel as part of the company’s emergency response operations.”
“We encourage customers to prepare in the event of outages and to stay connected with us,” said Christopher Laird, chief operating officer for National Grid New England Electric, in a statement. “If you don’t need to be on the roads, please stay safe and stay home.”
Thousands of students will have at least one extra day off following last week’s school vacations, with more than 150 schools across the state set to close Monday due to the storm.
Nearly two feet of snow is expected overnight from Boston to Worcester County and 12 to 24 inches of snow statewide, but a zone of 24 to 30 inches is possible in the northeast corner of Rhode Island into parts of Southeastern Massachusetts. A blizzard warning stretches from coastal Maine and southern New Hampshire down through Boston to Central and Southeastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and southern Connecticut. Meteorologists at the National Weather Service in Norton say to expect damaging winds, heavy snow, potentially downed power lines, and near-zero visibility.
Forecasters warn the storm could be “destructive,” especially southeast of the Boston-Providence corridor, where wet, heavy snow will combine with northeast wind gusts reaching 60 to 70 miles per hour.
Snowfall rates of 2 to 3 inches per hour are expected at the storm’s peak, overwhelming plows and making roads nearly impossible to keep clear.
The National Weather Service also issued a coastal flood advisory for Monday morning for parts of Eastern Massachusetts, including Boston and swaths of the North Shore.
On the South Shore on Sunday night, Scituate Town Administrator James Boudreau said officials were bracing for coastal flooding, especially around high tide at 3 a.m. and for the roads to be slick from the “splash over” effect of waves crashing over sea walls. Specifically, areas around Lighthouse Road, Cole Parkway, and Central Avenue are expected to flood and be littered with debris from the beach, he said.
“We’re doing the best we can,” he said Sunday night. “Once it gets going, it’s going to ramp up pretty quickly.”
Governor Maura Healey and other officials gathered at the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency in Framingham on Sunday. They discuss plans for dealing with the upcoming storm and advise people to stay off the roads.Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff
The city is still recovering from a late-January weather system that buried Boston in nearly two feet of snow, triggered widespread MBTA delays, and generated 8,000 complaints over snow removal and impassable sidewalks. During the storm, a woman was killed and her husband was hospitalized after being struck by a snowplow in a Norwood MBTA parking lot.
Officials acknowledged frustrations around that cleanup — including space-saving conflicts, frozen-in vehicles, and delayed street clearing — and said the upcoming storm is expected to be significantly worse.
Boston has already logged more than 40 inches of snow this season, and Wu said crews have been working “nonstop” since late January to clear, melt, and remove snow. She urged residents to stay inside: “We need every resident to do your part, too,” Wu said. “Stay inside, stay warm, do not be on the roads.”
The MBTA will operate on reduced, Sunday-level service Monday, with longer wait times expected. The Mattapan Line will be replaced by shuttle buses, all Commuter Rail lines will run on storm schedules, and ferry service will be suspended, MBTA officials said. Officials urged riders to check T-Alerts for updates and allow extra travel time.
Most of Monday’s flights are expected to be canceled, too, officials said. Delta anticipates suspending its operations at Logan into Tuesday.
At Boston Logan Airport, in Terminal C, rows of black seats were mostly empty as stranded passengers milled about, phones held to their ears.
“I’m frustrated,” said Adam Ross, 30, whose JetBlue flight to Orlando was canceled. “I just need to get home.”
JetBlue and Avianca planes sat at Terminal E gates at Boston Logan International Airport on Sunday.Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff
Ross, who travels to Boston regularly for cancer treatment, said he had no place to stay if he couldn’t get home to Florida. He’s been unable to reach JetBlue about possible accommodations and only learned his flight was canceled after checking in. “They didn’t even send me an email,” he said quietly. “I don’t know where I’m going to be tonight.”
Nearby, Eric Andrukaitis bounced a laughing baby on his knee. Brooklyn, 1, seemed unfazed that the JetBlue flight meant to take her family to Vero Beach for a weeklong birthday trip had been canceled.
“I still question why we live here,” said Amanda Howard, Brooklyn’s aunt, as she arranged a ride home to Tewksbury. “No comment,” joked her husband, Joe, when asked how he felt about swapping a beach party for shoveling snow.
State and city officials say conditions will deteriorate rapidly as the storm intensifies overnight.
“If our forecast holds, this storm is going to make you forget about those last ones,” said Jonathan Gulliver, MassDOT’s highway administrator.
Boston will also deploy more than 900 pieces of equipment and 35,000 pounds of salt, according to Nick Gove, the city’s interim chief of streets.
Crews work to load trucks with salt from a diminished salt pile ahead of Monday’s nor’easter at Eastern Salt Company Inc. in Chelsea.Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff
During the snow emergency, parking is prohibited in the library and school parking lots, and cars left in those lots will be towed, Wu said. Parking enforcement during the last storm produced thousands of violations and hundreds of towed vehicles.
She also urged residents to be respectful about space saving, the contentious tradition that allows people to claim shoveled parking spots with items such as medical commodes, satellite dishes, mattresses, and lawn chairs. Space savers are allowed for 48 hours after the end of the snow emergency, but are not permitted at all in the South End or Bay Village.
The city will begin enforcing the removal of space savers sooner than in past storms, Wu said.
Trash and recycling services will be delayed by a day in all city neighborhoods, and nighttime street sweeping on main roads and commercial streets will be canceled until further notice. Property owners must also fully clear snow from their sidewalks.
Danny McDonald of Globe staff contributed to this report.
Sarah Rahal can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on X @SarahRahal_ or Instagram @sarah.rahal. Lila Hempel-Edgers can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on X @hempeledgers and on Instagram @lila_hempel_edgers.
