The sawdust is beginning to settle on Hurricane Sandy’s impact on our region. We experienced record setting power outages, massive tree damage, massive electrical power infrastructure damage- and not a single injury to life and human limb!
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| typical backyard problem |
There was plenty of drama and some humor. The drama was the
increasing concern about senior citizens in the high rise apartments without
heat and water pressure. Many would not leave without pets, and many places
would not accept pets. The American Red
Cross came to the rescue- literally and figuratively. They set up a terrific
shelter serving over 200 citizens. They also brought food to the senior citizen
high rise apartments. The Red Cross is
truly deserving of our support.
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| Red Cross Food Delivery at LakeShore Towers on the Gold Coast. power restored Friday morning |
Humor showed up when a group of citizens were camped out in
a lobby of a gold coast building. When informed that they could go the Red
Cross Shelter for food and warmth, the politely asked if wine was served. When
informed that no, it was not, they quickly
decided to stay put.
What did we do?
We used Twitter, Facebook, email, web site announcements, fielded hundreds of
calls per day. I conducted interviews with local media including each of the TV
networks. No one strategy was enough. We organized our ability to more quickly
deploy generators to more traffic signals. We walked neighborhoods that were
without power to asses and communicate. We communicated with CEI several times
daily to share and obtain information to pass along.
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| Gold Coast power restoration- 10 trucks needed |
We worked with the Red Cross to open a shelter. This was a
first for Lakewood. It went very well.
What did we learn
from this? Huge storms seem more frequent. Each of us has to improve
our emergency preparedness. Our information sharing strategies and methods have
to be improved. A particular challenge was the fact that the very homes we
desired to reach were unable to use electronic devices (smartphones, TV’s,
internet access from computers). Many citizens are not users of social media.
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| Red Cross Cots in Garfield Gym |
What have we done
as a result?
We have added AM
radio updates to our communication tool chest.
We need to work with CEI to obtain an agreement/protocol to let a
dedicated crew with high bucket capability coordinate with our Fire Chief to
address downed lines, especially those blocking streets. We have arranged to
leverage county resources more effectively such as sheriff Deputies to help
guard down wires and man shelters.
We added a emergency preparedness link on the City’s Web page to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA www.ready.gov) to provide “how to” information. (Right side
of www.onelakewood.com)
What must still be
done?
·
Meet with CEI (scheduled for December 12th)
to identify communication improvements. Identify the actions that had the most and
least effect. Advocate to CEI to perform replacements of very old poles and
wires.
·
Replace some of the back-up folding stop signs
that were removed when new traffic poles were installed.
·
Identify how to use our school system
communication capability more effectively for city use and updates. This
includes robo- calls and signs on school buildings.
·
Create more awareness that we have to work as
community to help communicate and look after one another.
·
We need to support and recruit more CERT
volunteers. Citizens Emergency Response Team consists of citizens who have
received training to support the myriad of tasks that will free our Police and
Fire Safety Forces to focus on more threatening issues.
·
In
general, we need to keep learning from each of these experiences, and not forget the
lessons already learned.