Politics & Government

Manager Shares What Town Officials Learned from Irene

Different things work in snow emergencies than in flooding.

Town Council Chairman Mike Clark thanked the town manager and her staff Tuesday night for the excellent preparation for Tropical Storm Irene, then the Town Manager Kathy Eagen thanked her staff and volunteers for their work. She particularly recognized the firefighters who responded to dozens of calls and went door to door notifying residents of evacuations, and Highway Department employees, who worked to keep the streets passable.

Eagen said town officials had held a meeting to evaluate preparedness and response and from that, two areas for consideration had been identified.

First, officials are looking to change the emergency shelter location away from Farmington High School. While the high school is an ideal location in snow storms, Eagen said, since Route 4 had flooded, the school was difficult to get to and difficult to leave.

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Second, the floodwaters, which covered New Britain Avenue during parts of the storm, came close to the police department, where the emergency operations center was located. Town officials are a formulating backup plan in case emergency operations could not be centered at the police department.

Finally, Eagen said Irene resulted in the second-largest flooding event in Farmington history — the largest being the Flood of 1955.

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