County Holds First Weather Review Panel

Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy held the first meeting of an internal panel of department heads to update the county's emergency preparedness plans Monday.

Following a winter/early spring season that included a blizzard, a hurricane-like nor'easter and record rainfall which produced flooding, the meeting included various emergency management figureheads from the county.

"Our emergency preparedness systems were certainly put to the test over the last six months," said Levy. "These real-life events reminded us to 'expect the unexpected' in these situations."

Levy ordered a review to be completed in advance of the 2010 hurricane season. The weather events of the past season presented a number of new scenarios and "what ifs" for the county that Levy asked the panel to discuss, a statement said.

Those situations included:

• the process for closing health and social service centers or suspending public transportation;
• the ability to step-up response in real-time if severe weather dramatically exceeds what was forecast;
• the ability to manage historically high volumes of calls into 911 center, including overflow from other jurisdictions;
• the ability of the infrastructure to handle receding floodwaters;
• the role of public works to help remove floodwaters from public and private properties.

"We laid the groundwork today to be even more efficient during the next big storm," Levy said in a statement. "We do a lot of things right, but there are a few areas that we need to consider that might be able to better streamline. With this team in place though, I'm sure we will be completely ready for whatever Mother Nature throws at us."