Community Corner
East Host's Red Cross Emergency Drill
High school serves as ground zero for Town of Brookhaven.
In preparation for the upcoming hurricane season, the Suffolk County chapter of the Red Cross hosted emergency drills open to the public on Saturday throughout the Greater New York area, including one at Sachem High School East.
East, said to have one of the largest capacities in the county, according to Red Cross acting shelter manager Jeff O'Neill, could accommodate 1,000 people during an evacuation and a maximum of 1,500 people on shorter terms during an emergency. An overflow of evacuees would be taken in by surrounding shelters, including Seneca Middle School.
"This is ground zero for the Brookhaven area," said Craig Cooper, public affairs lead for the Red Cross's Suffolk County chapter, adding that all coordination with the school is done well in advance to ease any potential transition to use for shelter.
Both the Nassau and Suffolk chapters of the Red Cross plan to open as many as 50 shelters in the event of an emergency, each equipped with a conex box for storage of cots and other supplies. One such box, emblazoned with the Red Cross logo, sits behind the school.
The emergency setup at the school would register evacuees in the lobby adjacent to the auditorium and provide health and mental health services, and food would be served to them using the school's cafeteria. A communications department would coordinate with the Suffolk County Office of Emergency Management and also relay information to and from outside the school, and a media room near the auditorium to issue alerts and updates for local residents. To maintain order, a police unit would also be dispatched to the school by the OEM.
During a hurricane or other weather-related circumstance, evacuees would be instructed to stay in the hall between the gymnasium and the cafeteria, away from windows to protect their safety.
No major hurricanes have endangered Long Island recently - 1985's Hurricane Gloria was a Category 1 upon landfall here, downgraded from a Category 3 when it struck Cape Hatteras in North Carolina - but the preparation serves as a sobering reminder of how susceptible the Island remains to natural disasters. According to the International Hurricane Research Center, the East End of the Island ranks eighth on the top-10 list of the most vulnerable mainland areas of the U.S. to hurricanes.
Expertise notwithstanding, O'Neill stressed that volunteers are expected to remain flexible during an emergency. To that end, volunteers are trained in a variety of functions to ensure as seamless a response as possible.
"I'm trained in all kinds of stuff, but if they need me to direct traffic in the parking lot, that's what I do," said Bill Burns, a volunteer working with the communications department.
"You can't think on your own, you have to follow the procedure," said Lori Polletti, a fellow volunteer.
"When you strip it down, we're giving people a place to stay, as comfortable, as quickly and as safely as we can," added O'Neill.
