Is Rockville Centre ready for a hurricane?
After a violent storm ripped through Long Island back in March and a fierce late June storm that left many Great Neck residents without power for six days, village officials saw those events as a wake up call. During an April Board of Trustees meeting, which focused on a review of how the village coped with the March nor’easter, village trustees brainstormed and came up with a number of different ideas on how to improve emergency preparedness.
As of early July, many of those ideas were still in the works.
“As much as you don’t want to think about suffering through a disaster or an emergency, we are trying to prepare for one now before something happens,” said Mayor Mary Bossart during the June 29 Board of Trustees meeting. “The Nor’Easter last March and the strong storms that swept through Great Neck and the surrounding communities last week should remind us once again of the need for individual emergency preparedness.”
Bossart warned residents that when dealing with emergencies, power can be out for extended periods of time and it is for those times that residents themselves should be prepared. On the village website, there is a link to the American Red Cross, where residents can find specifics on emergency preparedness — how to set up a family emergency kit, disaster response plan and an evacuation “go bag.”
The village is still looking into using the Recreation Center on N. Oceanside Road as a potential shelter for residents during an emergency. The building would have to be equipped with a generator. According to Rockville Centre spokesman Jeff Kluewer, trustees and village administrators will soon meet to decide on how much to allocate for the generator. As it is a large building, the logistics of arranging for a back up generator may be difficult, and as a result, it may not happen until after Sept. 1.
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