The National Weather Service reports:
A cut fiberoptic line belonging to a commercial phone company has disrupted websites serving the Eastern Region. As this issue is being resolved, we are now operating our websites in backup mode.
Among the sites affected are our own NWS office in Taunton.
Boston Public Schools will be open tomorrow, the city announced. In contrast, Newton, Somerville, Chelsea and Revere will be closed.
The MBTA, meanwhile, announced it expects to run normal subway and trolley service tomorrow, except between Reservoir and Riverside, where buses will be swapped in. On commuter rail, downed trees will mean no service on the Providence/Stoughton line past Mansfield. Other lines will run, but likely with delays.
NStar reports 146,628 customers without power, including 6,780 in Boston.
NStar now reports 39,055 customers without power, including 4,882 in Boston, where trees are coming down and transformers exploding across the city. We've heard of outages in Ashmont, Roslindale, West Roxbury and East Boston so far.
Yes, it's bad out there - Ed Harding at Channel 5 just put his glasses on.
NStar reports 23,047 customers without power - including 378 in Boston and 1,046 in Cambridge.
NStar reports 4,852 customers without power - 175 in Boston and 460 in Cambridge.
NStar reports 2,575 customers without power across its service region - including 842 in Cambridge and 315 in Boston.
On Channel 5, Bianca de la Garza just advised people not to go down to the beach to look at the angry sea - right after John Atwater checked in from Scituate, where he stood by a seawall, looking at the angry sea.
Steven Hodges tweeted at 12:39 p.m.:
Was driving back on the Pike from western Mass and saw at least 50 power and tree trucks from out of state coming east!
UPDATE: Boston Schools are closed Monday.
WBZ is posting the list, although we really need Gary LaPierre to be reading it.
Latest GOES photo of Sandy, Sunday morning.
For more, see the French Toast Alert page.
Rob McDougall reports somebody was shot in the arm shortly before 7 p.m. The suspect was described as a black Hispanic male who fled in an older Civic last spotted headed toward Revere.
Andy Dost reports cops were in no mood to explain what was going on to bystanders:
Armed police have set up a tape perimeter at the Orient Heights stop. An officer told me when I asked, "Escaped zombies."
Gov. Patrick declared a state of emergency in advance of Sandy's arrival sometime tomorrow. If something can be tied down, tie it down or bring it inside - including Halloween decorations. Stock up on emergency supplies and first-aid stuff, get cash (in case ATMs go down) and brace and hunker down like nobody's business.
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
