Travel Ban Ri: State of Emergency, Power Outages and Plow Operations Extend Through Tuesday Morning
The Travel Ban Ri and state of emergency will remain in place through Tuesday morning as gusty winds continue to blow snow into the evening and overnight hours, forcing officials to keep roads closed while crews work. The decision matters because limited visibility and stuck vehicles are constraining plow and restoration work, extending outages and keeping state offices closed into Tuesday afternoon.
Travel Ban Ri and reassessment Tuesday morning
Governor Dan McKee said the emergency measures will be reassessed Tuesday morning to give state and local plow crews time to make progress overnight. He warned that crashes and disabled tractor‑trailers are diverting resources from clearing and response operations and reiterated that the majority of residents are complying with the order. The governor said plows will continue to clear roads when visibility allows.
Governor Dan McKee on road safety and public access
At a morning briefing McKee emphasized the need for people to stay off the roads during the height of the storm, explaining that unnecessary travel is endangering others and tying up emergency crews. He noted that state offices will remain closed through Tuesday afternoon because of the blizzard's impact and that crews are concentrating on public safety while severe winds persist.
Rhode Island Energy outlines damage assessment and multi‑day outages
Rhode Island Energy President Greg Cornett said crews would begin damage assessment late Monday afternoon and that full restoration will be a multi‑day effort. Around 50, 000 Rhode Island Energy customers were without power at about 10 a. m., and Cornett said the company expects some customers could be without service for up to 72 hours from the outage peak, meaning restoration may extend into Thursday. He added that crews are staged across the state but cannot safely repair lines while winds are gusting, and the utility is only able to respond to 911 and other immediate public safety issues until conditions improve.
Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency and Marc Pappas on road paralysis
Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency Director Marc Pappas described stretches of the road network as effectively paralyzed, with some routes very hard or impossible to traverse. He said municipal plow crews are getting stuck and are having to assist emergency medical services and police, which reduces the overall capacity to clear roadways and respond to additional incidents. Pappas noted expectations set by forecasts, signaling the current conditions were anticipated but remain difficult to manage in real time.
Rhode Island Department of Transportation mobilizes about 500 plow trucks
Interim Rhode Island Department of Transportation Director Robert Rocchio said roughly 500 plow trucks from the state and contracted vendors are working around the clock. He described crews confronting limited visibility, downed trees, heavy winds and stuck or abandoned vehicles, including tractor‑trailers, all of which impede snow removal. Rocchio repeated the plea to stay off roadways to allow crews to operate more effectively.
Mutual‑aid crews and I‑95 conditions affect timing
Cornett said the utility is expecting a couple dozen additional crews from Pennsylvania to arrive Tuesday morning, but their deployment depends on I‑95 road conditions. That constraint illustrates a direct cause and effect: high winds and snow reduce safe travel, which delays reinforcements and prolongs power restoration efforts.
What makes this notable is how interconnected the problems are: extreme winds feed drifting snow that reduces visibility, which in turn stalls plows and mutual‑aid crews, magnifying outages and keeping critical services focused on emergency responses. Snow conditions were documented in Narragansett on Monday, Feb. 23, 2026, underscoring the statewide impact of the storm.
Officials have laid out a clear timeline for next steps: reassess the Travel Ban Ri and state of emergency Tuesday morning, continue overnight damage assessments and begin broader restoration and clearing operations as soon as conditions permit. In the meantime, residents are being asked to remain off the roads to protect their safety and to allow crews to work more efficiently toward restoring power and reopening the transportation network.
