Well
good morning, everyone. Welcome
to Huntington Town Hall. I'm
town supervisor
Ed Smith. We're here for an
emergency preparedness
conference and, uh, a
uh, introduction of many of the
experts that will
be called upon in the event of
an emergency in
the town. Also some advice to
our residents on what they
can do to prepare for any type
of weather emergency, while
the focus of this today would be
on a warm weather emergency such
as a hurricane or heavy winds or
rain. Much of it applies
to winter storms as well,
whether it's a blizzard or an
ice storm.
Uh, as I a Huntington town
supervisor Ed Smith, and
with me today, I will hold the
applause until the end because I
have
quite a, quite a long list of
experts that we'll be
hearing from many of, starting
with uh Andre Sorrentino
our highway superintendent. A
fire marshal Paul Lotuso.
Emergency preparedness
coordinator Mike Pastore.
Director of
Public Safety Chris Lau. Our
director of it, Dave Genoway.
Our director of Environmental
waste Management, John Clark.
Our director of Maritime
Services, Fred Uvina. Our animal
shelter supervisor, Michael
Costa. Director of Parks and Rec
Todd Jamison Deputy Director of
Parks and Recreation. Rob Conti
Deputy director of
Transportation and traffic
Safety
Scott Spittle. Director of Human
Services Kevin
Thorborn, director of General
Services Bill Musto. And in
addition, we have with
us from the 2nd precinct today,
we have Inspector Kevin Williams
We also
have a warning coordinator,
meteorologist Nelson Vaz from
the National Weather
Service. In addition, we have
Lorraine Mayer from Huntington
Hospital who
is also on the Suffolk County
Emergency operations committee
and Greg MAY and
Lee h Beck from Island Harvest.
And joining
me from out of Huntington, we
have Sal Farrow and
I have everyone's favorite
receiver of taxes, Gillian
Guthman. So
So today, we're here
to discuss weather preparedness.
Uh, we
we just witnessed Hurricane
Aaron grow from a
category 1 to a category 5
hurricane in just 24 hours. Uh
I highlight that just to
illustrate how quickly storms
can
develop and go from a very small
storm to a very big one with
very
little warning. Nelson Vaz, our
expert from the National Weather
Service
will speak a little bit more
about that in a few minutes. The
next major life
disrupting storm is just a
question of when, hopefully not
any time soon,
but it's important that that
your government is prepared for
that eventuality.
The town has a fully functional
and equipped emergency
operations center
or eoc that is functioning and
ready to go In the event of
a hurricane or other weather
emergency, the eoc would be
activated and used
to coordinate first responders
and other government agencies on
a continuing
basis throughout the duration of
the emergency. The Huntington
eoc is equipped
with a fully functional kitchen
and office space with uh
workstations as
well. It's operational 24 hours
a day throughout the
uh emergency. Redundancy of all
town functions takes place
there. It's fully
stocked. With fuel tanks open
communications by and with all
of our law
enforcement and fire services.
It has cloud-based technology
allowing telephone, computer
and and camera services to
ensure full communications and
options for constant
public safety and emergency
response. For the town and the
citizens both, the time to
prepare is now, not when the
storm is days away.
My office has produced an
emergency preparedness handbook
to inform residents
on how they should be prepared
for a hurricane. And
it provides them with resources
for emergency updates before
during, and after a storm. There
will be hard copies available
in town hall. In town senior
center as well as digital
downloads available
on the town's website at
Huntingtonny.Gov and I will tell
you also that there
are very similar guidebooks
available on fema's
website state emergency County
emergency, and practically any
emergency website
will have a similar guide and it
will also, there'll also
be very specific guides online
if
your circumstances in at home
warranted whether you have
somebody
with special needs, whether you
have pets, whether you have
uh boats or you have equipment
in your yard or anything like
that, that
will be very specific emergency
preparedness guidelines
available for you.
So this is a very general one,
but I would encourage you to go
online and,
and find one specific to
whatever circumstances that you
MAY have so that
you are prepared in the event of
an emergency. So without further
ado, I
am going to call on our highway
superintendent, whether he likes
it or not.
Andre Sorrentino, to say a few
words about our roadways. Thank
you. So
the biggest thing I have to say
is being safe
So if you see a tree down and
there's wires in it, leave
it alone. Don't touch it, just
let the guys and girls come and
take care
of it. We will make sure, call
it in, let the emergency people
take care
of what they got to take care of
and try and stay safe. The
biggest thing
I can say is make sure you
generate a batteries. Work,
don't go out there
if we have a storm and go out
there and try and start your
generators and
they don't work because you
haven't tested them. So the
biggest thing I
can say is be safe, call us,
we'll come. I've been through a.
3 or 4 different hurricanes in
my time and the biggest thing I
can say is
just let us do what we have to
do. Let the fire departments do
what they
have to do to first responders.
If you see something and you're
thinking
it might have wires in it, leave
it alone, just be safe, let us
do what
we have to do to make your life
better. Thank you. Thank you
Andre, and uh, and one of the
things even
when it's not a, a full blown
emergency but in, in
during snowstorms, uh, I know
Andre is, is is.
Adamant about this. Please, if
you can get your cars off the
road so that the
highway department can plow curb
to curb, which is what they do
best. And
at this time I would like to
give a scientific perspective on
the issue
from us, from the National
Weather Service with us today,
we have Nelson
Vaz. Nelson. Yeah, good
morning everyone, and uh
pleasure to be here. Uh
um, you know, with, with, uh,
town supervisor, um, and
also all the public safety
officials from the
the Hunting the. This is always,
is really, um, you know
a great time ahead of the, the
peak of
the hurricane season to kind of
just refresh
uh with our community, with each
other, um, you know
what are we, what are we doing?
How are we preparing for the
hurricane
season, and I think this is a
great event anytime we can reach
out to the
public as well to get people
thinking about, all right, am I
prepared for
this hurricane season? And you
know, uh, as a town supervisor
said, we,
we did dodge a Hurricane Aaron,
which was a major hurricane just
uh, you
know, tracking about 350 miles
southeast of Long Island, you
know
last week, and you know, so far
this season's been a little bit
of
a slow start. We've had 6 named
storms, one of
which did become a hurricane,
uh, you know, Aaron, and
a major hurricane. Um, so, you
know
but you know, not to be
complacent
about that because we are
heading to the peak of hurricane
season, which
is in early SEPTEMBER, SEPTEMBER
10th is the climatological peak,
but really,
we can see hurricane activity.
Through SEPTEMBER through
OCTOBER, if you
remember Sandy was at the end of
OCTOBER, even into early
NOVEMBER, we can
see tropical activity. So as
we're going into the peak of
season, this is
an important time for us. If you
haven't prepared already to get
prepared,
and from our partners at the
climate prediction Center and
the National
Hurricane Center, uh, they did
update the hurricane outlook in
early AUGUST,
and so we're still looking for a
13 to 18 named storms
5 to 9 of which potentially
could be hurricanes, and we did
have one hurricane
already. And 2 to 5 major
hurricanes. That's across the
Atlantic hurricane,
uh, the, the Atlantic Basin. Um,
so not necessarily they're going
to make
landfall, but you know, still
looking for that uptick and
almost
3 quarter of the season or 2/3
of the activity to be in the
next few months
So something if you haven't
prepared, we certainly want
everybody to start
thinking about are we fully
prepared? And, and remember,
even if it's gonna,
even if it was uh looking at
something that is not
necessarily
an active season. It only takes
one storm for really for it to
be potentially
life changing, destructive and
deadly. So we need to think
about that. And
and it is a preparedness
challenge for us because most
residents have not
experienced the hurricane. It's
been you know 40 years since we
saw
uh Hurricane Gloria make
landfall in this area. Uh, 1985
i was, you know, at that time I
was 5 years old, or sorry, 10
years old
But if you're in your mid-40s,
uh, you probably haven't, uh, or
or younger, you probably don't
remember Hurricane Gloria. And
then if you
go um in terms of a major and
when we're talking about a
hurricane, we're
talking about 74 mile per hour
sustained winds and even higher
gusts Now
when you talk about a major
hurricane, uh, like Aaron was,
where you're talking
about 111 mile per hour
sustained winds, you know, gusts
maybe 140
150 mph. We haven't seen that
since the 1954
Hurricane Carol, so you're
talking about, um, you know
over 70 years ago, and so most
of our most of our population
does not
have an experience with a major
hurricane, which is really
a destructive catastrophic type
of hurricane
and as town supervisor was
saying, uh, unfortunately for
our area it's not
a question of, you know, is it
gonna happen? It's, it's more
a question of when it's going to
happen. You
just climatologically, we should
be seeing a hurricane in our
area, uh,
you know, based on 150 year
period. Every 15 to 20 years we
do see a hurricane.
And so again, it's been 40
years. Um, and then every 70
years ago or so.
Climatologically a major
hurricane. And so we're kind of
right up on that
time period. Not that it's going
to happen like clockwork, but I
think just
again we need to keep that in
mind. The longer we go without
seeing it, a
landfalling hurricane, the
greater the chances, um, as each
year progresses.
But remember, we don't even need
a hurricane. Excuse me, we don't
even need
a hurricane land falling in the
area for it to be a deadly and
destructive
event. We did have excuse me, we
did have Sandy in 2012, um, it
was a, not
to get too scientific, but it
was a post-tropical hurricane
making landfall
on southern New Jersey, but it's
still brought very strong
high-end tropical
storm force winds, um, which, as
we know, we had 77 fatalities in
the local tri-state
area. Most due to the storm
surge was that that big storm
pushing water
towards our coast and our
coastlines gotten hit very hard.
Destructive storm
surge, deadly storm surge, but
we still had 20 plus fatal ities
due to wind,
and that was not even from a
hurricane level winds in our
area. We of course
had Issaeus in 2020, just a
mid-grade tropical storm, but we
had a
lot of power outages, a lot of
trees down, some, some parts of
the area without
power for 1 week to 10 days. Um,
and then we also had Ida, which
was actually what we call a
remnant low pressure system from
a
tropical system. So this was a
category 3 that made landfall, a
major
hurricane mid landfall on the
Gulf Coast, but it came up here
as a
weakened storm, but inherently
had a lot of moisture inter act
ed with
the instability and the, you
know, some of the lift in the
area, and we
ended up with a deadly rainfall
event, 20 plus fatalities in
the tri-state area. So just to
say that, um, a lot of time we
want to focus
on, you know, uh, what is the
intensity of the uh of the, of
the storm?
What's the track of the storm?
Uh, we're following like maybe
that skinny
black line, that cone. But it's
really important to remember
that the impacts
can be a lot greater than that,
and we don't need just we don't
even need
a hurricane in our area to
really have deadly and
destructive events. So
I think it's important for us to
stay aware through the through
the season.
Um, you know, pay attention to
your official forecast from the
National
Hurricane Center. Pay attention
to our media, uh, partners who
are relaying
those forecasts. Pay attention
to our public safety officials
who are providing
guidance. We're continuously
working with our public safety
officials ahead
of big storms. To provide them
the best information so that
they can make
the best decisions to keep our
community safe, um, and just,
you know, just,
uh, and I like I said, don't
focus on maybe the, the track,
the exact track
or the intensity of the center
of the storm. You want to pay
attention to
these national Weather Service
alerts do we have the potential
for tropical
storm force winds or hurricane
force winds in our area. Pay
attention to
Tropical storm watches and
warnings that were issued.
Hurricane watches
and warnings, that tells you the
wind hazard, but as as I also
said, there's
a storm surge hazard. Pay
attention. Do we have uh storm
surge watches or
warnings for that potential for
deadly storm surge affecting our
area. How
about heavy rainfall, extreme
rainfall, we've seen more of
those type of
events that can be a threat to
anywhere. Do we have flood
watches up? So
pay y y y y y y y ofse type ype of information, the
for r r e cast
information, what are the
hazards and impacts going to be
on our area and
not so much as the center of the
storm going to affect our area?
Just a
couple more things. 80% of
fatalities from tropical storms
and from tropical
systems, excuse me, are due to
the water. So, um, in one of the
things that
we have is to run from the water
and hide from the winds. So when
you're
talking about water, it could be
freshwater flooding, it could be
storm
surge flooding. It could be rip
currents. That could be another
one. It
could be even on the marine, but
80% of fatalities due to
tropical storms
across, you know, uh, the
Atlantic and the eastern United
States coast.
Think about that, are due to
water and not necessarily the
wind hazards.
So, um, you know, we, we think
about storm surge, we especially
have a lot
of susceptibility on our north
shore here. Um, you know,
whether you're
talking about Huntington Harbor,
Cold Spring Harbor, all the way
up to Asherroin.
These are all areas that, you
know, can be affected,
especially we have
that open expanse of the Long
Island Sound. We talk about our
kind of we
have terrain here and especially
in the town of Huntington, kind
of 300
400 ft of uh difference in
terrain, um, that if you get a
lot of heavy rain,
those low lying areas could get
affected and and areas that are
a little
more organized organized. So are
you in an area that potentially
could get
affected by storm surge or by
flooding. You, you're in a low
lying area,
residents need to think about
that as well. And so I think
these are, you
know, as we're going into the
season, um, you know, think
about the following
steps. First, finding out from
your public safety officials, if
you don't
know, are you in a storm surge
flood zone? Are you in an area
that's prone
to freshwater flooding. You can
find that out from your public
safety officials,
and if you are having an
evacuation plan because again,
we work with our
public safety officials to give
them the best information. If
they're making
a decision that you should
evacuate, um, he that with a,
with a lot of um,
you know, with a lot of
intensity because that is
information that they,
they're making those decisions
based on the based on the best
information
and to help protect lives and
property. So if you're told to
evacuate, uh,
it's important to have a plan
where you're gonna go? What are
you gonna
take with you? Uh, who are you
gonna tell? Um, you know, and
remember your
pets as well. Um, if you're not
in a flood zone, then all right,
think about
sheltering, but when you're
sheltering, do you have an
emergency preparedness
kit? A disaster supply kit,
having at least 3 days of food,
water, medicine,
any batteries, kind of anything,
any essentials that basically
you can you
can keep yourself, for those 3
to 5 days, potentially keep
yourself self-sufficient
until first responders can get
to you. And then also this is
the time to
kind of think about, you know,
your home insurance, checking
your home,
the strength, um, you know, is
there anything, any
vulnerabilities around
my house that will affect my
property? Or, or my home that
could, that could
harm somebody ahead of a storm.
So these are all things that we
want to
take into account now before a
storm hits and just you know,
last thing,
even after the storm, I think uh
one of the things we've seen is,
um, over
the last 10 years, there's been
almost as many fatalities after
a storm,
as during the storm. So I think
we want to think about, um, are
we, um,
when we're, when we're cleaning
up and after the storm, are we
susceptible
to electrical elelectrocution. You
know, take things slowly, loss
of power,
proper use of generators as was
discussed before, improper use
of generators,
you know, unfortunately, carbon
monoxide poisoning and then also
just your
exposure without, without the uh
electricity, you don't have air
conditioning.
Uh, check on those who might be
more susceptible to either heat
or even
cold. So with all that, um, you
know, I think really important
again, stay
whether aware heed the advice of
your public safety officials.
Excuse me,
and then we will, um, and rest
assured that we are continuously
working
with your public safety
officials for them, helping them
with the best information
so they can make the best
decisions and to make sure that
we are already
responsive and resilient
community. So thank you for
that. Thank you, Nelson
Vaz from the National Weather
Service. And uh there's a lot of
information
there, but all excellent advice
to follow. Our following now is
from public
safety, uh, excuse me, from the
Suffolk County Police
Department. I would
like to introduce Inspector
Kevin Williams from the 2nd
precinct. Good morning
everybody, and, uh, thank you
for inviting me today. Uh, that
was quite
a lot of good information. That
you just got there. I'm
certainly no, um,
hurricane expert, but, um, I
can't talk about responding to
these types
of emergencies. I've experienced
many of them in my career. Um.
One thing
I would like to say is that uh I
speak with my command staff on a
regular
basis about the relationship we
have with the town officials and
all the
cooperation and, um,
communication we have with them.
And I'm truly fortunate
to be able to work with such
professionals, Ed Andre, Chris,
Public safety.
Anytime we ask for any kind of
resources or help They're always
there to
help us out. So, uh, whether
it's a parade or a festival or
like a serious
storm that's coming up. Uh, we
can always rely on them. So
thank you for
that. I really appreciate that.
Uh, when it comes to the
precinct, we have
a, uh, emergency preparedness
plan. We used to call it a
hurricane plan
We update that on an annual
basis. Um. So in that plan is,
uh, ways that
we can deploy our resources and
personnel. To problem areas that
we've experienced
in the past from past
experience. Um, we also have
many contact numbers for
all the municipalities that we
need to be uh, that we need to
have contact with
all our critical, uh, locations,
hospitals,
medical buildings, things like
that. So
we are certainly up to date on
that, um we will bring an
extra personnel to respond to
all the emergencies. Um.
On the police department side
and headquarters, they operate
what they
call the police operations
center. Uh, and we're in contact
with them probably on an hourly
basis they coordinate between
all the precincts.
They have a lot of contacts for
state and and other um
resources that we MAY need, so
we can go through headquarters,
uh, and
and they have direct contact
with the county people also in
the Fres
uh, headquarters. So that's kind
of how we do it when we get a, a
big storm. I
just talk a little bit about
maybe the public's cooperation
uh, when
Ed or maybe the county exec puts
out a warning that like, you
know, people, please
stay off the roadways. Um,
unless you're like a first
responder or someone in
the medical field that really
needs to be driving around in
these storms.
It would, it would, we, we, uh,
expect that you heed these
warnings because
we tend to have to waste
resources rescuing people,
whether it's in a puddle
or a tree branch falls down. So
I mean, uh, we usually get
overwhelmed with
the amount of calls and, uh a
lot of times we'll have a
backlog So like
if you just take that advice and
stay at home until the storm
passes and maybe
shortly afterwards too. Andre
mentioned why is down. That's a
serious danger.
It's one of the things, uh that
we're always concerned about,
you know,
you never know if the Warriors
alive or not. I worry about my
officers when
they respond to those calls as
well. So, um, you know, if you
could just
take some of those warnings and,
uh, make our job a little bit
easier. That's
great. We are, I am very
confident that we are well
prepared. If we do have
some type of serious storm
coming up in the future. And,
uh, that's about
it ok, thank you Thank you,
Inspector Williams This time,
uh, many people are
are aware or under a false
impression that because you
can't see water from your
back door, that they do not live
in a waterfront community when
in fact,
as I say, every community on
Long Island is a waterfront
community. When
hurricanes and major storms come
through Long Island. Every
community has
to be prepared. The impact of
tides and wind can wreak havoc
on our area.
To share Huntington's plans for
storms from the maritime
perspective and
to help homeowners and boat
owners prepare. I'd like to
welcome our director
of Maritime Services, Fred
Yvina. Thank you very much, uh,
couple things
again, Huntington, we have 60
miles of shore front and one of
the biggest two areas when we
start to prepare and we're
ready to go because we've done
it for years, is we worry
two areas, eat and snack and
Lloyd neck to let everybody know
we are ready to go, uh, in
conjunction with the fire
departments
and the town highway department
if there is
flooding, the volunteer fire
departments do have high
water rescue trucks, if we have
to get people off, but if there
is a breach
in the roadway, if polls come
down, wires, and it's
impassable, our boats are ready
to go. We
will convert, we will meet at
Hobart Beach and
we'll be at Fiddler's Green Dock
if we need
to be, if there's a medical
emergency, you gotta eat
and snack far par and down in
Lloyd Neck we'll always
have Huntington Fire Department,
Huntington Community Ambulance
there. If
we have to for a medical
emergency to evacuate somebody
we will do it with
our boats. Also, if we have to
bring supplies. In saying that
next would be for our mariners
that I know all
their vessels are their pride
and joy.
But you have to understand, in
times like this
you can't replace your life. You
can replace your boat.
So again, very, very to help
yourselves out, to
keep your boats, to make sure
you double up on
your pennant lines, um, make
sure you remove your
anchors off the bow of the boats
because when you double up
on pennant lines or even your
pennant lines, they'll chafe on
the anchor itself, and then the
boat takes off like a sail
Sailboaters, please remove your
sales. You have plenty
of days before a hurricane
should hit or tropical storm
or storm-like Sandy. So you do
have time if you can remove your
boat out
of the water, that's the best
way to do it, but if you can't
for boats that are um a little
smaller
on moorings they call it what
they call scoop and
bail as the waves come, the boat
goes up, it goes down, and it
lifts water up and it fills
their boats with water. Make
sure all you're through
hole fittings are clean what
they call scuppers or the holes
that allow water to come out of
the transoms of the boat. Um
batten down your hatches. Batten
down all your
companionways, remove anything
on top of the decks
such as people at paddle boats,
paddle boards now
small kayaks or anything you
like to put out there.
Everything could become
projectile.
Please again safety first
marinas. If you have a boat in a
marina, go
down, double up your lines.
Always
strength is better. But again
do not, do not go down and check
on your
boat until you get an all-clear
from Suffolk County
Police from highway from the
supervis office
Our supervisor and their staff
will be right on top of it
Please don't leave your house as
you just heard all
the things that can happen to
you. Please be safe and
again we're on call, we'll be
there to protect the waterfront.
Thank you.
Well
as a pet owner, I know firsthand
how important it is. And how
important is
to take care of our animals and
when the forecast calls
for an emergency uh, we need to
remember that there are
steps that we need to take for
our four-legged friends. For
a quick set of tips, I welcome
Mike Costa, supervisor
of the town's animal shelter.
Hi everyone What we're going to
talk about right now is. What
we do for storm prep as far as
our animals
are concerned, and really this
is mostly common sense. Our
pets are parts of our families
and
so very simply, when we make a
plan for. Whether
we're gonna shelter in place or
need to evacuate. We include our
pets in
that plan. Whether you are able
to take your animals with you or
not
will depend on your specific
circumstances, but having a plan
in
place beforehand is essential
Some of the things that are
really vital
will include some of very, very
obvious things to you. But
you'd be surprised on how many
pets we encounter every single
day
They don't meet these very
simple very, very simple and
protective steps
like having collars with clear
and
legible identification on it.
Having animals that we
can quickly decipher who owns
helps the
redemption process, and if
you're in a situation uh where
we are
experiencing some type of storm
or natural disaster. Uh, we want
to identify
who owns what pet as quickly as
possible, and I'm sure you're
interested
in making sure your pet is safe,
and so having clear
identification is vital
One step that we have available
to us as microchipping.
Microchipping is a very simple
process where the implant a
very simple chip into the dog's
subcutaneous skin.
And all your information is
there. We can scan that and
instantly know who owns
this dog. Again, talking about
what we need to do, have
a plan. It's all preparedness.
You might not be aware, but in
New York
State we're required to have
rabies vaccines for our dogs. If
animal controls
you pick up your dog part of the
step for the redemption process
is to ensure
that you have a rabies vaccine
before you can be reunited with
that pet
If we're in a situation where
resources are scarce having the
availability
to get that vaccine MAY slow
down the process of you being
reunited with
your pets. Some other things to
consider Have a recent photo of
your pets
on your phone, I know if you're
like me, you've probably got 100
of them,
but make sure you have something
that you can pull up quickly and
offer
to public safety agent or uh
animal control personnel to say,
hey, this
is my dog, that's gonna be
really helpful. If you are
leaving your pets
behind because you need to. Have
a a pet alert placard somewhere
that's
visible on the front of your
house. Now you can get these,
you can make
it on a piece of paper and it
just says I've got two cats, 1
dog. You can
buy them, uh, you can download
them, but just something that's
in an obvious
location for first responders so
that we know that there are
animals in
the home and so that that could
be monitored. Also, you're gonna
want to
leave some resources behind for
your animals, so consider
several days'
Make sure that your to go plan
includes a bag of necessities
for not only
yourself but for your pet too,
we'll include medications and,
Food and
water and leashes. And if you
have any further questions, you
can always
go on the town of Huntington
website and go to animalservices
and speak
to shelter personnel we're more
than happy to walk you through
additional
steps. Thank you. So on top of
everything that you've heard,
there are a
few more things I just want to
point out that residents should
be aware
of. Uh, one of those is safe is
a safe center or shelter where
residents
can go should they need to
evacuate. Our Flanagan Senior
Center is fully
generated, it has a large
working kitchen, ample space to
shelter people
in the event of an evacuation
from our shorelines Other
emergency shelters
ailable avroughout
Suffolk County. Also, the town
has learned
to rely on the critical support
of the food pantries on Long
Island. We
never know when that need MAY
arise. Our friends from Island
Harvest are
here with us today to help
remind us that their services
are always available,
especially in times of
emergency. The town of
Huntington is also initiating
a new emergency notification
system, Smart 911 through Rave
Smart 911 will
allow residents to determine how
they want to be notified and
under what
circumstances. When it comes to
issuing issues beyond our
control, I would
hope that the residents would
want to be notified. On all
issues You can
sign up online or through a qr
code or available link. You'll
also find
the sign up on the town's social
media websites. Another tip I
got from
John Clark our director of
Environmental Waste Management
is drain your
pool slightly so that when heavy
rains are forecasted, pools will
not overflow
and flood the surrounding
property. Of course there are
standard reminders
when a storm is forecasted, as
we've heard already, please have
a family
kit ready to go. Have some cash
on hand, have fresh water for
every member
of your family and your pets for
7 days. Fill your cars with gas
Use battery
operated candles instead of real
flames for safety, if you do use
real candles,
never leave them unattended, and
you'll find more tips in the
town's emergency
preparedness guide Once again we
urge the public to access one
here at town hall
or on most emergency government
websites will have a similar
guide that
you should take a look at, and I
think the big takeaway is from
today's.
Press conferences, please be, be
prepared, have a plan. Take a
look at
a guide, this one or one
similar, tailor it to you and
your family's needs. During
an emergency, please shelter in
place. Please, as we've heard
several times,
stay off the roads because it's
not just in uh winter weather.
We need to
plow, but also in warm weather
there will be likely heavy
equipment passing
through your neighborhood. So
please, if you can, and it's
available, please
get all of your cars off the
roadway and don't travel unless
it's absolute
necessary. And lastly, don't be
complacent about an oncoming
storm, as we've
heard from the National Weather
Service, we haven't had a
hurricane hit
Long Island and yet we've had
several storms that were
devastating to our
area. They were, they were not
hurricanes. They were wind
storms or tropical