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11/07/2017 11:00 PMThe surprise many felt with the effects of the Oct. 30 storm was on the minds of many Madison residents and officials when they gathered last week to discuss ways the town can better prepare for disaster.
The town is in the process of updating the South Central Region Multi-Jurisdiction Hazard Mitigation Plan, a multi-town plan that follows Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) standards and provides specific suggestions for hazard mitigation.
The plan Madison currently uses and is a part of within the South Central Council of Governments (SCRCOG) was adopted back in 2014 and is now due for an update. At the Planning & Zoning Commission (PZC) meeting on Nov. 2, board members and citizens listened to a presentation from Town Planner Dave Anderson, who reviewed the existing plan, current threats to Madison, and possible mitigation strategies.
“As part of that update process, each of the municipalities are doing some public outreach efforts,” he said. “This is an initial effort to try and solicit some input on the plan and try and make people aware that it is going on. This is the first of a few different public opportunities.”
According to the current plan, Madison is susceptible to hurricanes, tropical storms, severe thunder, winter, and ice storms, coastal erosion, sea level rise, and flooding. Flooding is a main concern, according to Anderson, who said the value of at risk properties due to flooding totals close to $1.5 billion.
Certain areas and assets in town are particularly vulnerable. Circle Beach Road, Middle Beach Road, Hammonasset State Park, Tibbals Bridge Road, and low-lying neighborhoods are likely to be hit hard in a weather disaster. Community assets such as Surf Club, Town Campus (because it is in a special flood area), the Town Archives in the basement of Memorial Town Hall, and the Deacon John Grave House are also a high-risk, particularly when it comes to storm surge and flooding.
To combat some of these risks, the plan and the town have identified 18 mitigation strategies. The strategies vary in price and feasibility and include everything from radio infrastructure improvements (which are already complete), Surf Club dune restoration, using mapping programs to help with the planning effort, and implementing public outreach efforts to ensure residents are adequately prepared for natural hazard events. Anderson said the public outreach part is key.
“I think we will always be needing to do a better job with this,” he said. “This week people felt that they didn’t get adequate notice and everybody seems to get caught off guard so this is probably going to be a mitigation effort that is ongoing. I know the emergency management folks are trying to come up with a better communications strategy to deal with this.”
First Selectman Tom Banisch said this week the town sent out calls, texts, and posted on the website with storm updates. While the Internet was down, people were still able to access some of that information on their cell phones.
“I think we have the pieces, but I think we need to push it out further to get more people involved because the 95-year-old woman who doesn’t have a phone, she is not going to benefit from that,” he said.
Communication and the recent storm that left many residents without power was the focus of discussion, but Energy & Efficiency Committee Chair Woodie Weiss said the town needs to think a little bigger in future.
“All of this is great, but my concern is how the town handles lengthy outages or weather events that impact not only critical town facilities like Town Hall and the Police Department, but also how we take care of our citizens,” he said. “I don’t see anything in any of these plans that keep medical facilities running, keeps sources of food available, allows sources of fuel to be maintained. It is not just electricity—so many other things could happen.”
Weiss said the reality is power outages are getting longer and the systems are more complex, with so many people dependent on power, there needs to be a more robust plan in the event of a lengthy outage.
“I think there has to be a long-range plan put in place on how we protect our citizens and how we make sure everyone is going to be OK and uninjured during lengthy outages,” he said. “…For example, keeping a walk-in medical center and talking with them and saying, ‘Hey can you couple with Stop & Shop’s generator?’ With those kinds of things, then you have a physician on site who can handle a guy who cuts himself or something. I am not suggesting we build a hospital or something like that.”
Residents in the audience agreed with Weiss’s suggestion. Resident Laurie Ruderfer said getting the community involved in this kind of plan is important.
“There are a lot of people who live in the community,” she said. “We live on the Post Road and my husband is a physician and often we get cleared earlier than a lot of other places, so he might be someone who is willing to be on-call to help out as a volunteer in the event there are problems. We may have a volunteer corps of people like the Red Cross does in times like this.”
PZC Chair Ron Clark said that sort of community effort could be successful in Madison.
“I think we are fortunate that we live in a town where that is part of the DNA of the citizenry, coming and pitching in to do things,” he said.
To learn more about the Hazard Mitigation Plan, visit www.madisonct.org.