Patrick on storm: "The cautions are the usual ones"

BOSTON (WWLP) - At the State House on Thursday morning, Governor Deval Patrick and members of his cabinet briefed members of the media regarding the state’s response to southern New England’s most recent snowstorm.

Secretary of Transportation Richard Davey said that the Commonwealth has deployed 2,800 pieces of highway equipment to deal with snow removal. By the evening commute, most major roads statewide are down to bare pavement, despite about a foot-and-a-half of snow falling in several locations across the state, particularly in south-central Massachusetts.

The concern was more about coastal flooding in eastern portions of Massachusetts. One house on Plum Island collapsed ; dangling over the ocean, while another house in Sandwich is at risk for a similar fate, the Governor said.

At one point, 9,900 Massachusetts utility customers were without power, according to Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs Richard Sullivan. That number has gone down since the early morning hours, and is nowhere near the widespread outages eastern Massachusetts experienced in the February 8 Nor’easter.

“The cautions are the usual ones for those of us who live in this part of the world,” Patrick said, adding that state residents should be patient, check on elderly or shut-in neighbors, and call 2-1-1 for non-emergency information.