Guilford Closes the Chapter on Irene
With the town back up and running and a majority of the damage from Tropical Storm Irene addressed, the members of the Board of Selectmen shared their final thoughts on the storm's aftermath and commended the town's residents and departments for coming together in this time of need.
"I want to personally thank, first of all, our citizens for coming together and helping one another over the eight days of us being without power," said First Selectman Joseph Mazza. "There was a lot of damage both on the shoreline of our town and inland."
Mazza said that he, along with the police and fire chiefs, filmed a wrap-up for GCTV on Sept. 12 in an effort to inform the public of the town's priorities following the storm and why things happened the way they did.
"First we had to clear the roads-that was the main thing," he said. "Then the next priority was to get our emergency buildings up and the Yale Medical Clinic…Then we strongly pushed to get Route 1 up so people could buy food at least on a daily basis."
Being one of the first buildings with power during the week following the storm, the Community Center was open as a 24-hour emergency shelter and provided meals and limited shower facilities to residents.
The schools were also priority as school was scheduled to start the week following the storm.
"We had to get them up and running and make sure they were safe for children to go back to school," Mazza said.
Mazza also recognized the town's departments for going out in the storm when the state crews wouldn't or couldn't go out.
"We responded to medical emergencies and we responded to fire emergencies during the middle of the storm," he said, stating that a tree fell on one of the town's fire apparatuses that was out answering a fire call during the storm.
The board members emphasized the importance of communication during emergencies and are urging residents with cell phones to register their cell phone numbers with the communications/fire department in order to receive reverse 911 calls. These calls provide updates and important information regarding the state of the town during emergencies.
"We have to improve our communications," said Selectman Charles Havrda. "We have to get our phones registered-that's the new medium apparently because that's the only thing that worked."
Mazza announced that FEMA has opened up two temporary offices in North Haven and Orange and that he is disappointed by their locations.
"I was on the phone for a good part of the morning talking to our congressional delegation and to our state reps and lieutenant governor to see if we can get a temporary FEMA office on the shoreline," he said. "It doesn't necessarily have to be in Guilford-we have space in the Town Hall; I told them we could accommodate them-but somewhere to service the shoreline towns, and they're working on that."
Town response updates can be found at www.ci.guilford.ct.us.