Emergency Preparedness

Published: 4/9/2003

The topic for this week's column was planned to be a discussion of emergency preparedness. The intent was to discuss the work we have been doing in this community to prepare for any emergency situation. What I didn't know was that we were going to have a challenge of our systems this past weekend.

Over the last several years, I have been meeting with an Emergency Services Committee. Represented on this committee are the Monroe County Sheriff's Office, the Pittsford Fire Department, Pittsford Ambulance, Pittsford Central Schools, and the Town's Fire Marshal. The Brighton and East Rochester Fire Districts are also included since they represent portions of the Pittsford community.

In our quarterly meetings, we discuss issues of community safety. The Committee has been very successful at building the group relationships we need in order to best accomplish our goal of making Pittsford a safe place to live, work and visit.

Recently, the Emergency Services Committee completed a hazard vulnerability analysis that provides a basis to estimate the probability, controllability and potential impact of specific hazard threats. It also provides information and statistics that can be used to determine potential courses of action.

To no one's surprise, the hazard vulnerability analysis indicated that weather-related events provide the greatest potential hazard to our community. Situations such as snow storms, wind storms and yes, ice storms were identified. Given that analysis, on March 27, the Emergency Services Committee completed a joint training exercise in which we talked through responses to an escalating snowstorm.

There is a great difference between theory and reality and our systems were put to the ultimate test this past weekend. I am proud of the response that we made to the storm and would like to share with you the steps we took.

The storm began late Thursday night. Our highway crews had been out salting the roads that evening when close to midnight frozen rain began to accumulate on the trees and wires. At approximately 1:30 Friday morning, I received a call from one of the Highway foremen that the conditions were beginning to deteriorate. At that point it was raining very hard and we were beginning to hear those familiar cracks of tree limbs and to see bursts of blue in the sky as transformers were blowing.

By 3:00 am the rain began to let up which was fortunate since there was already a significant coating of ice on everything. Our highway crew and the fire departments were scrambling to respond to emergency calls and to keep the roads open as trees and branches came down.

During this period, I was in constant communication with Bob Hanratty, Chief of the Pittsford Fire Department, Bill Harvey, Director of Transportation for the Pittsford Schools and Town operations personnel. Around 4:00 am the recommendation was made to close school due to the potential hazards of downed electric lines and tree limbs. Mary Alice Price, School Superintendent, supported that recommendation.

Throughout the day on Friday we stayed in a holding pattern. The trees and electric lines were still coated with ice but we were not experiencing further rain or winds. That afternoon it began to rain again adding additional ice build up and we knew we were in trouble.

As the night went on, the situation worsened very quickly. Trees and limbs began falling all over town and we began to experience widespread power outages. From an emergency response standpoint, the fire department, ambulance and the town were hampered by darkness along with the potential threat of downed or low hanging electric wires. Based on that, Chief Hanratty and I decided that it was best to prioritize emergency calls during the night and that by first light we would complete an inspection of the town to determine the level of damage and to begin crafting a response plan.

What we found Saturday morning was a community that had experienced a tremendous amount of damage. We had a number of roads that were impassible and an estimated 80 - 90% of our community's homes were without power. Additionally, we had a number of sewer pump stations that were down and needed to be either pumped on a regular basis or hooked up to temporary generators. All other work was concentrated on getting roads open and to assure that the fire department and ambulance could respond to emergencies.

At noon on Saturday, I assembled an emergency response meeting with the Pittsford and Brighton fire departments, Monroe County Sheriff's Office, RG&E, Pittsford Ambulance, Pittsford schools, Village of Pittsford and Town of Pittsford personnel. At that time we shared our assessment of the damage throughout the town and identified that we would have all roads open by the end of the day with the exception of locations with downed wires. We agreed to meet again on Sunday morning to assess our progress.

One other thing that came out of the Saturday meeting was the expressed concern for people who were cold and might need some relief at an alternative shelter location. The school district, through the Office of the Superintendent, volunteered the use of Sutherland High School since it had heat and electricity. Thanks to the district's quick efforts along with the American Red Cross, Sutherland was opened Saturday night as a shelter site.

On Sunday, we again surveyed the town to determine the status of the situation. At that point, our assessment was that we had quite a lot of damage to trees and limbs. Some areas were impacted more than others were but none were effected to the extent of the 1991 ice storm. The prime concerns we identified were: the number of homes without power, the need to secure additional equipment to help with the clean up of the town, the need to not have schools open on Monday morning, and the need to assure that fire, ambulance and town personnel began to get some sleep so that we would be able to handle the long term response to the storm.

We did a visual assessment of the Town Sunday night and assessed which neighborhoods were still without power. We remained in constant contact with RG&E to keep them apprised of the situation.

As of Monday morning we were in good shape with the exception of those homes that were still cold and dark. We began the process of picking up storm damage and assigned additional equipment to the clean up. We met with Mary Alice Price, Superintendent of Pittsford Schools, to determine the status of reopening schools.

I can not say enough for all the people who have been involved in this response. I am not going to list names because everyone involved deserves a share of the credit. I can tell you that there was tremendous cooperation in the community, excellent communication and an overall spirit of looking out for the general health and safety of our residents. I will also add that my thanks go out to our residents. You have endured another hard hit to your homes and neighborhoods and you have pitched in to help each other out.

Other Supervisor columns are available here.