Town Was On Top Of It

While much of the town awaits their power to come back on, Hurricane Irene could have been much more damaging had there not been such great coordination and cooperation between all departments.

"First and foremost Matt Odishoo did an incredible job as the Coordinator of the Emergency Operation Center," Mayor Adam Salina said. "We had meetings starting towards the end of the week to try to prepare for the worst. You never really know what you are going to get, but we wanted to be prepared.

"There was a lot of coordination between the departments. This was an all-hands on deck situation and we have had more town employee calling in asking if we need them to volunteer."

Salina and Odishoo said there were several downed wires but the biggest problem was flooding.

"The Meriden reservoirs were really high and they were draining into south Kensington but we heard they were receding so that is good news," Odishoo said at about 5 p.m. Sunday. "We have received calls for pump-outs of basements, I think around 15 or 20, but we are telling them that until they have power the water will go right back into the basement. So the pump-outs won't start until Monday morining. We have a list and we'll go right through it."

Connecticut Light & Power is lending Berlin a bucket truck to get to trees that may be leaning on power lines. Members of the Berlin Highway Dept. will accompany the CL&P crew around town.

"People are already starting to get out and walk around but I would urge them to be very careful," Odishoo said. "Any line you see on the ground, please treat it as a live power wire. You don't want the wire to the be the last one you touched and there are gravestones that could've had that engraved on it. If you don't have to go outside, stay home and let the workers get their job done so we can have the town ready for you on Monday."

Two streets that were hit very hard were in South Kensington, Butler and Park Street. Butler, a circular road off the Chamberlain Hwy. was closed and Park, which is off Butler was literally a stream.

The emergency shelter at McGee School will stay open as long as needed. There were seven people at the most on Saturday night but more were expected as power was not expected to be returned before sometime Monday if not Tuesday.

The volunteers at the shelter not only fed the residents staying there but also fed the Berlin Fire Dept., The Water and Highway Departments and some of the Police Dept.

Antoinette Pajor said that the police also had a prisoner so he was given a tuna sandwich but not a cookie, "because bad behavior should not be rewarded." Pajor said.

Those at the shelter were awakened by a 5:30 a.m. fire alarm but it was a false alarm.

"We have good food, movies, games and we have a new group of volunteers coming in so we're good," Pajor added.