Emergency Planning - Looking Toward the Future

What's that saying, about March going out like a lamb?

In Harrison last week, the weather defied any question of a gentle spring awakening. Disgruntled citizens even issued complaints to town officials, mostly about problems resulting from the extensive blackout. The traffic lights on Mamaroneck Avenue were out last week and with no electricity in much of the town, people were living without heat and running water. Con Edison worked with town officials to restore power quickly, but with the level of damage, many residents struggled for days.

Mayor Joan Walsh explained that while the blackout has revealed the need to improve preparations for weather-related emergencies, the response to the complaints issued by residents went well.

"The reaction from the police department, the three fire departments and Con Edison was superb," Walsh said. "The coordination between Con Edison and the town forces worked well. The confusion that arose came out in the lines of communication, in terms of who was the ultimate authority."

Reaching the residents presented another issue. 

"We weren't prepared for communication problems with all of the town residents," said Walsh. "We have a robo-call system, but when we lost power, obviously that wasn't possible. So I've set up an e-mail list, combined with mailing lists from the town clerk and the PTA, in order to reach people via e-mail and cell phones. However, these lists primarily include parents, so the residents of Harrison without children should contact us, with their e-mail and/or cell phone information." 

As the robo-call system only reaches homes with landline phones, the town officials are working on developing a stronger presence on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. 

Last month, Harrison was issued a grant of $275,000 from Homeland Security, which will fund the emergency operations system. 

"The process in working with the emergency operations systems has started," said Walsh, "It will better enable us to setup effective lines of communication for emergencies."

Also on the list: a new generator. 

"The specifications for the generator are under way," said Walsh. "Its a public bid process. Plus, with the predictions of a bad hurricane season for our area, we're already talking about our pre-hurricane preparations."