Politics & Government

Patrick Says State Offices Will Reopen at 10 a.m. Tuesday

Gov. Deval Patrick said Monday night that the MBTA will resume service on Tuesday and state offices will open at 10 a.m.

The Danvers branch of the state Registry of Motor Vehicles will open at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, Gov. Deval Patrick said, in a Monday evening update on Hurricane Sandy from the bunker at the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency headquarters in Framingham.

On his Twitter account, Patrick said that all Class D drivers’ tests on Tuesday, however, were canceled.

Patrick also said non-essential state employees should show up for work at 10 a.m. and he is leaving it up to individual school districts to determine whether they will be open on Tuesday.

Find out what's happening in Peabodywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

By comparison on Sunday night, Patrick urged all school districts to close on Monday and Peabody took his advice. Schools will be closed Tuesday as well in Peabody as city crews continue the arduous process of cleaning up after Sandy.

The worst of the storm was expected to last through 11 p.m. Monday as high tide came in at about midnight.

Find out what's happening in Peabodywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The MBTA said in an alert issued at about 9 p.m. on Monday that it would resume all regular service on Tuesday with the exception of the Providence commuter rail line south of Boston. All other commuter rail lines, subways and buses will run on schedule on Tuesday.

NECN’s Peter Howe reported Patrick also said two people died during the storm but it hadn't been determined whether the deaths were directly connected to the storm.

One of those deaths was a passenger in a car crash on Route 128 Monday afternoon. The SUV was driving on the southbound side of the highway around 4 p.m. when it struck a guardrail and rolled over just before the Lowell Street exit.

Three passengers were thrown from the vehicle and one of them was pronounced dead at the hospital.

As of 8:30 p.m. Monday, there were 385,000 homes without power statewide out of a total of 2.7 million customers. Patrick said he was happy, so far, from the response from utility companies, Howe reported.

Howe also reported there were 108 people in shelters statewide -- state officials said they could house between 10,000 and 15,000 if need be.


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