Update 3:38 p.m. 10/29
Gainesville air travel: Travelers flying out of Gainesville Regional Airport may face difficulties with connections if plans include stops at East Coast further north of South Carolina, said Laura Aguiar, spokeswoman for the airport. So far flights out of Gainesville have not been impacted by the storm, but travelers should not assume they will not have problems elsewhere, Aguiar said.

GRU sending crews to Northeast: Gainesville Regional Utility has sent crews to the Northeast to assist local power companies with repairing damages caused by Hurricane Sandy. The crews were sent in anticipation of massive damage caused by the storm.

“They do expect to be hit rather hard,” said Dan Jessie, spokesman for GRU. “That would result in widespread electrical outages. They are anticipating poles being knocked down, trees going over taking out wires and taking out poles. You can’t really predict what will happen with the storm until it actually happens.”

Jessie said GRU has agreements in place with other utility companies for reciprocal help following severe weather, and cited last year’s Hurricane Irene as an example of when GRU has assisted in the past.

“At this point we just wanted to be up there and be ready to help them as quickly as possible,” Jessie said.

Crews are not able to repair damage until winds are under 40 m.p.h. Once winds have died down, crews are sent out to assess damage and then start repairs.

Updates from NPR:

[nprstory id="163846307"]