BALTIMORE (AP) — Gov. Martin O’Malley has declared liberal leave for state workers on Monday, urging residents not to drive if they don’t have to because of the many traffic signal disabled by Friday’s storms.

O’Malley said during a conference call Sunday afternoon that Monday’s rush hour will be a “very, very big mess” with downed trees blocking roads and inoperative traffic signals.

O’Malley said that public transportation, including the light rail in the Baltimore area and Metro in the D.C. area, was operating. MARC commuter trains were expected to run as scheduled, as were Amtrak trains.

Sen. Barbara Mikulski, who also took part in the call, said the federal government will open as usual on Monday. She said she spent the weekend in Baltimore because of the traffic lights that were out.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)