As reported last month, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center has forecast an above-normal Atlantic hurricane season, which extends through November. Should NOAA’s prediction prove true, the 2022 hurricane season will be the seventh consecutive year of above-average hurricane activity.
Against that backdrop, Bruce Bates, East Hampton Town’s emergency preparedness coordinator, on Tuesday briefed the town board as to preparations for extreme storms. Late last year, he and Ed Michels, then the town’s senior harbormaster, gathered the heads of departments that assist before, during, and after storms to review procedures and protocols and “to make sure everybody’s up to speed, since we have had changes in personnel, both in leadership and their staff.” There have been four such meetings, he said, with another to happen in the coming weeks.
At the last meeting, “I urged everyone to go through checklists with their staff to make sure everyone is familiar with how things are going to operate before, during, and after any type of event.” The day-to-day operation of some departments will be significantly different during such periods, such as the fire marshal’s office and the Building and Ordinance Enforcement Departments, as they will be in charge of damage assessment.
“Things will change,” Mr. Bates said. “We want everyone to know that well in advance, if they’re not familiar with it already.”
The town is also working with Suffolk County and the county’s other nine townships as its debris management plan is due for a five-year review and revision.
East Hampton remains Long Island’s only town with the National Weather Service’s StormReady designation, he said. The program helps prepare communities with the communication and safety skills to save lives and property before, during, and after extreme weather, according to the National Weather Service website.
“It’s a very dynamic situation,” Mr. Bates said, “because depending on the actual track of the storm it can be incredibly different as to what the impact is going to be on our shoreline or on the bayside of our township, and what we would expect. We monitor that very carefully, and obviously we prepare for the worst case, but things can change on . . . a very short-term notice.”
“You used the word ‘dynamic,’ “ Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc said. “That certainly is the case with many of these storms — we don’t always know what the track is going to be.” Henri, he noted, which vacillated between hurricane and tropical storm status as it moved up the East Coast last August, “made a quick right turn just as it was about to hit us full-on,” he said. “It went around Montauk Point and cut back in and hit Rhode Island. We literally dodged that one.”
The town’s unified command system, which was put in place upon the Covid-19 emergency declaration in March 2020, was “one of the few good things that evolved from the pandemic,” Mr. Bates said, “because it was such a challenging situation for us and we had to develop a lot of different things that we had not dealt with before. It really enhanced the communication between the departments and government, also how we deal with things.”
Residents can sign up to receive emergency notifications via email and text message at the emergency preparedness page on the town’s website. The page also links to documents including emergency telephone numbers, storm surge zones, safety tips, and an emergency supply checklist.
“It’s good to look at them well in advance,” Mr. Bates said. “Stores empty in a hurry.”
