Town Supervisor’s Storm Report
November 8, 2012

The Town of Mamaroneck suffered the worst damage in history from Storm Sandy. Over 70 % of the community lost power and over 70 roads were closed just 8 days ago. Today we have only 1 roads closed and close to 80% of residents have their power restored. We know that it has not been fast enough and we know it’s not complete enough, but we are lucky compared to other many communities in the County who still have over half of their residents without power and many roads closed.

The Town was well prepared and organized for the storm and has operated at a very high level throughout the restoration process. We held daily emergency response preparedness meetings beginning Thursday October 26th. I declared a state of emergency in the Town on Sunday October 28. We lifted overnight parking restrictions in the Town since the start of the storm. Administrator Steve Altieri and I have been on daily conference calls with the County and ConEd since October 30. We opened our Town Emergency Operations Center on Sunday October 29 at the Weaver Street Fire House. We also ran the Town government from the Weaver Street Fire House since the Town Center also lost power. The Fire House was running on generators. Fire Chief Brendan Collins and I gave our State Assemblyman and Congressional Representative tours of the storm damage in the Town to impress upon them the need for quick restoration. The Town government returned to the Town Center with the EOC this past Monday November 5, when power was restored to the Town Center.

We opened a shelter at MHS as soon as the storm hit. The High School was heated and lit with generators because they lost power. We had over 30 people use or stay there the first two days of the storm. Because the weather was somewhat warm in those first few days, and people were not using the shelter after day 2 we closed it. As soon as the weather turned cold we opened up a warming shelter at the VFW at 1288 Boston Post Road. That shelter has remained and will continue to operate as needed. We have had 10 to 12 people use it a day.

Westchester Joint Water Works pumps and stations lost power and have been running on secondary power from a generator. We’ve impressed upon ConEd and the County the importance of this critical infrastructure and the need to restore power to it.

I’m very proud and pleased to report that our Town personnel have performed most impressively during this crisis. Town Administrator Steve Altieri, Highway Superintendent Lou Martirano, Ambulance District Administrator and Emergency Services Coordinator Mike Liverzani, Fire Chiefs Brendan Collins, Joe Russo and Noah Goldberg have worked nonstop since the storm. That is not a figure of speech. They literally have been working without much break or rest the entire time. Police Lt. Paul Creazzo, Detective Matt Melrose and Community Services Director Anna Danoy provided key coordination and outreach to their departments . Lou Maritrano has only been home twice in the past 12 days. The entire Highway Dept. led by Alan Casterella, has gone above and beyond the call of duty, putting themselves on the roads in the height of the storm and continuing to work extra hours every day to open up roads, clear trees and clean up storm debris.

We have worked hard to update residents each day with robocalls, emails blasts and website updates. Please go to www.townofmamaroneck.org to sign up for Town communication if you haven’t already done so. With the help of Councilwoman Abby Katz and Jaine Eney, we have responded to 152 phone calls and over 300 hundred emails from residents.

Storm Sandy was truly a disaster and the Town along with Westchester County has been declared an area of national disaster. The devastation has been severe. The restoration has been too long and slow, but we now have only one street closed and 300 residents without power. We have made progress.

I want to thank all of the residents who have soldiered through this disaster and found time to thank our staff or myself. It is truly appreciated. I want to commend and thank Steve Altieri and the entire Town staff for their outstanding and ongoing work to restore the Town to pre-Sandy conditions. We will continue to fight ConEd every day to restore full service to the entire Town of Mamaroneck.

 

Nancy Seligson
Town Supervisor