Hurricane Irene

Sharon Civil Defense was ready for Hurricane Irene on August 28th, 2011, when it made landfall in western Massachusetts. CD members were briefed throughout the week with emails from HHAN system, Skywarn messages and internal emails from the CD Director.



Members met on August 27th to prepare the Emergency Operations Center for possible use the next day. The following items were done by CD members.



-Gas cans filled

-Batteries checked in flashlights, 1630AM radio station, and batteries charged on generators

-Backup generators at all radio repeater sites were checked including propane gas levels

-EOC generator was temporally connected for possible use if shore power was lost





On Sunday August 28th, members were standing by and were given their deployment status over our UHF radio repeater around 0958 hrs. Director Polimer was in direct contact with Sharon PD and DPW, and their resources became limited by the amount of calls they were receiving at that time.



CD members Vogenberg, Ferrara, Corman and M. Polimer opened the EOC at approx. 1010 hrs. They notified MEMA that Sharon EOC was operational and then received instructions from the Sharon PD to help with road blocks. Two, two member teams responded to multiple blocked roads with trees and power lines down. Vehicles used were the Utility truck and Bucket truck.



Members Traut and B. Polimer were in the EOC at approx. 11am, to man the EOC radios, and collect more road blocks in storage. Operations continued for a few more hours and the EOC was closed at approx. 1500hrs.





CD members M. Polimer, Levine, and Vogenberg were deployed at approx. 1900 hrs. to supply emergency power at an elder living facility to facilitate medical treatments to the residents. Other members were standing by if needed, but were not operational. Bucket truck was used with the on board generator to light up hall ways, stairwells and a meeting area. Residents used our small portable power boxes to power up their medical devices for their treatments. CD members secured operations around 2200 hrs.

Members were debriefed via email and meetings on August 29th and September 5th. Items discussed were how members needed to be called via phone and UHF radio for deployments. EOC must have at least one CD members manning radios and preferably another member for radios and gathering equipment. Members are also preparing a call log sheet for public safety dispatchers to accurately keep track of non emergency calls.