Monday afternoon projections show Massachusetts will feel the full effects of Hurricane Sandy Monday evening, as Boston University changed the hours of on-campus services throughout the day.
Mass. Gov. Deval Patrick said he had still not reached a decision to close state government tomorrow at a 3:30 p.m. press conference on Monday live-streamed on WHDH’s website.
“We are, as I say an hour and a half into the most serious part of the storm, with many any hours ahead of us,” Patrick said, “and because we have many more hours of forecast high winds I think I am not ready to make the call on whether to close state government tomorrow.”
Patrick said the state is not as far in to the period of high winds as the state expected to be experiencing at this point.
“The number of people without power as the result of the winds being so high in the last hour and a half has gone up considerably,” he said. “The utilities are coordinating I think relatively well. They’re checking with us.”
Patrick said the state is expected to see a 10-degree hike in temperature, which will make winds more volatile.
“Last we saw, it [Hurricane Sandy] was to make landfall this evening at the New Jersey coast,” said Chris Besse, assistant public information officer for the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, in an interview at about 2 p.m. on Monday.
Besse said the storm is fairly close to the New Jersey shoreline and Massachusetts is feeling its outer winds.
He said winds range from 40 to 50 miles per hour, but the gusts can range from nearly 60 to 80 miles per hour, especially later in the evening.
“We are expecting power outages across the state [of Massachusetts],” Besse said. “Wind and coastal flooding are main things we are watching as far as damage.”
Besse said the wind is to pick up this afternoon and into the evening and later hours. He said the south coast is expecting a high tide at midnight, which could bring the worst of the flooding.
“It could be windy and rainy for the early part of tomorrow,” Besse said.
As the storm progresses, Boston University Dining Services plans to offer delivered meals to student residences for students with a university dining plan, said Dining Services Director of Operations David Davenport.
Students are to request a meal to their resident hall advisors or resident hall directors, who will compile a list of meals to be ordered.
Davenport said the meals will be delivered around 5 p.m. Monday. These boxed lunches will include a sandwich, chips, granola bar, cookies, and fruit.
Residences eligible for delivery include Danielsen Hall, Myles Standish Hall, Shelton Hall, The Towers and 518 Park Drive on South Campus, according to an email sent to students from Director of Residence Life David Zamojski.
Zamjoski said an announcement will be made at 8 p.m. Monday about Tuesday’s University schedule, and if classes are in session Tuesday, they will operate on a normal Tuesday schedule.
BU closed Mugar Memorial Library at 12 p.m. and the George Sherman Union at 2 p.m. on Monday.
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority suspended subway, commuter rail and surface transportation as of 2:00 p.m. Monday, MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo confirmed in an email.
Pesaturo said in a subsequent email over two dozen trees have fallen on or near Green Line tracks, and crews will work all night to remove them.
Besse said students and the public should prepare for power outages and be careful of fallen wires.
NSTAR Electric’s website reported 5,563 outages in Boston as of 3:26 p.m., affecting only two percent of NSTAR customers in the area.
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Building have been performing excellent. There still some signs of top engineering in the east coast