Hurricane Sandy: Jefferson Officials Prepare Early

Township officials say they are prepared to take on the storm coming our way in the next few days.

Director of Public Works and Township Engineer Jeff Elam said that officials checked all of the drains and inlets that typically get backed up with leaves this time of year to make sure that they're all cleared out for water to flow in.

He also said workers made sure all of the 18 generators at the various facilities around town are ready to go in case of a power outage.

The township has emergency equipment on both sides of town in Lake Hopatcong and Oak Ridge to make sure no one is stranded if the roads are blocked.

Elam said they're especially cautious of Berkshire Valley Road, which is prone to flooding.

Elam said the township is prepping the same way he remembers they did for Hurricane Irene last August.

"With a weather forecast like this we go out and make sure that certain things are cleaned up, and if we have any emergency pumps we make sure that they're all operational and ready to go," he said.

While Jefferson was hit hard during Hurricane Irene, Elam said the township only fully recovered two months ago when they finally were able to remove all of the fallen trees.

He said the first priorty was clearing the roads and getting everything back up and running, but the trees were down all over the place so it took a while to get rid of all of them.

"Hopefully we won't have that much damage this time, but I think were prepared for it," Elam said.