Mayor's Desk: Storm Cleanup, Sanitation Schedule

Details on Hurricane Irene

While we didn’t have the crisis that municipalities farther south endured, there was more than enough going on here in Harrison. For some, it was almost a non-event, as they didn’t suffer any damage, and were only inconvenienced by the wind and rain. For others, it was a major event as their basements flooded with water and/or sewage, streets were closed, and wires came down. 

Our town employees earned the highest praise. The highway crews, the firemen, the police officers, they all worked long hours, did back-breaking work as needed, responded to calls as soon as possible, or patrolled our streets looking for problems. We had a map showing the flooded streets, so emergency vehicle drivers knew in advance where they could or could not go, thus saving time. 

The system that we set up, with an emergency operations center at the , worked out very well. We had two meetings to set it up. As calls came in, they were directed to DPW, fire or EMS immediately, and they responded immediately. With this central record, there wasn’t any confusion or delays. 

Based on the projected course of Irene, we arrived at 8 p.m., but calls did not start coming in until after 11 p.m., and then continued until late Sunday night. By then, people were exhausted. The Police Department alone had more than 158 calls relating solely to the storm, with all fire departments and EMS answering their share of calls, but logging them into the emergency center.  The downtown Department made five rescues by boat, from people in flooded homes to people in flooded cars. 

Statistics

• Trees: 30 downed trees brought wires down with them.  These are a priority for Con Edison, as the town crews cannot work on the trees until the wires are deactivated.  The trees were then removed, and the power restored. That work was completed by noon on Tuesday.
• Power Outages: A number of areas lost power, in the Brentwood area, on Halstead Avenue, on and off Harrison Avenue, on Century Ridge Road, West Street, Franklin Park area, Highland Road and Purchase Street, Flagler Drive and Cottage Avenue, to name a few  areas. Con Ed dedicated one crew here in town, although we asked for a second crew, as they have recruited 400 extra crews. Con Ed has said that in Westchester they had 86,000 outages, which was more than ever before, including .   
• Flooded Streets: Flooding was widespread throughout the town, with a total of 28 streets closed. Some streets, such as West Street, had two sections flooded, with major damage in many areas. Part of the problem was that the storm sewers themselves flooded, as did some of the sanitary sewers, with the overflow water invading people’s basements. One caller today pointed out that he had six feet of water in his basement. It would be of great help to us if we have an accurate listing of homes that flooded, and what happened to you. I have heard from a number of people already, and will speak with as many others as possible. If you go to the Town’s website, there will be a short list of questions asking for details. Please complete and email or regular mail the completed form to us. 
• EMS Calls: There were 18 calls to EMS during the storm, with eight of them being Advanced Life Support emergencies. As always, response time was excellent, but now was coordinated with DPW and fire as well as police. We can only be grateful that Irene weakened before it reached Harrison. We do thank everyone for their good sense in staying in the house and off the roads during the storm, not like those five people who had to be rescued from submerged cars. That good sense undoubtedly cut down on the number of emergency calls for help. 

Storm Cleanup Until Sept. 9

• Branches Leaves and Other Debris - The town will have several trucks out every day going through all the streets, to pick-up the debris: We will NOT pick up logs. The contractor who cuts down or cuts up a tree has to take the logs away. We WILL pick up any branches of four (4) inch diameter, if cut or broken into four (4) foot lengths. We do ask that you tie them in bundles that are not too heavy for the men to pick-up. Keep in mind they will be doing this for 6-8 hours each day, and that is tiring.   
• Furniture, Rugs, Toys and Other Ruined Items - Please call the DPW office, at 670-3103, 670-3128, or the main switchboard at 670-3000, and give your address and the type of “stuff” to be picked up. That will make collection faster as the men will not have to drive down every street, but can go directly to the addresses. 

Labor Day Week Sanitation Schedule

Monday collections will be made on Tuesday, Tuesday collections will be made on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday collections will follow the regular schedule.   

Monday and Tuesday recycling will be done on Tuesday, with any streets not finished on Tuesday to be collected on Wednesday.