Haddam Preparations for Irene

When asked about the impending hurricane, Haddam’s First Selectman Paul DeStefano said, feeling that we were overdue, "I assembled our emergency management team last week before the hurricane was announced and we set our procedures in place."

Call it paranoia if you like, but I'm glad we got started early. During the week I met with the regional district school folks, the emergency management director, our fire department chiefs, the State Police team, emergency service crews, our public works management, the town building maintenance manager and the auxiliary support team. We updated our emergency operations plan and the notification system contained therein.

In addition, I consulted with the Governor's control team, the nuclear site emergency control team, and our insurance response team. We took early preventative measures by cleaning clogged street drains, charting areas that are more vulnerable to fallen trees for immediate attention if needed, replenishing fuel levels for all generators, clearing debris from outside town buildings, creating a back-up administrative communication system, and updating our web site with instructions to the public.

We set up three shelters which will open at 8:00 a.m. on Sunday morning; they are located at the High School field house, the 154 firehouse, and the Haddam Neck firehouse; all locations will be stocked for five day duration needs. Our biggest problem will be flooding and we are prepared to alert FEMA as quickly as we can as the situations arise.