Free Showers, Water Offered by Township

Jefferson Township’s Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) waited at the high school on Tuesday night for residents without power and water to come and use the high school locker rooms to take a hot shower. Outlets were also available for residents to charge electronic devices.

While no residents showed up to take advantage of the free service, it will be available each night between 6 and 8 p.m. until power is fully restored in the township.

While waiting for residents to arrive, Ed Mangold, deputy coordinator of the Office of Emergency Management (OEM), recapped what had happened throughout Hurricane Irene, as well as the steps being taken to get the township back to normal.

“One thing people need to understand is that the power company is working hard to restore services to everyone who is affected,” he said. “The workers are broken into crews: there is the high tension crew, that works on the high voltage wires, then there is the tree crew, who works on removing tree branches. So even if it looks like they are not working in an area, they may be waiting for the other crew to arrive.”

Some of the places around town that are affected by lack of power include part of Cozy Lake and Valencia Isle.

Besides offering showers every night, all four emergency service buildings in town—the Jefferson Rescue Squad, Milton First Aid Squad and Fire Company Nos. 1 and 2—have hoses hooked up, and residents may come and fill up jugs of water for their personal use.

While Mangold has been in touch with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), he said that “there simply isn’t enough manpower to put people on the streets yet. It usually takes four or five days after the event and the cleanup before FEMA comes out to inspect an area.”

Mangold said that FEMA applications will be made available on the township’s web site so residents may apply for aid for their own Irene-related issues.