Bristol ready for whatever Sandy delivers

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As the firstwinds of Hurricane Sandy began to blow in Bristol, officials scurried to makesure the city is as ready as possible for the hammering the storm is expectedto deliver during the next 24 hours.

Emergency shelter at Chippens Hill Middle School ready.

“It’s scarythinking about what could happen,” said Cheryl Frearson, who was buying gas onFarmington Avenue. “They make it seem like the end of the world.”Bristolofficials, though, don’t expect anything close. But they do take the warnings seriously.Before noonMonday, power outages had already knocked out hundreds of customers inForestville, including the Manross branch library. Plainville also had about600 residents without power.Officialsanticipate widespread outages as wires come down in the strong winds laterMonday and Tuesday.Flooding islikely, they said, in parts of town that normally wind up inundated when thereare heavy rains, including portions of Frederick Street near Coppermine Brook.An emergencyshelter at Chippens Hill Middle School opened at noon Monday, ready to take inanyone displaced by the storm.Somecompanies, including many small businesses, have closed or scaled back theiroperations as the storm nears Connecticut, including ESPN.It told manyworkers to stay home Monday and shifted some SportsCenter broadcasts to its LosAngeles studio to ease the crunch.CraigBengtson, vice president for SportsCenter said, “The safety of ourBristol-based employees is paramount. It just makes sense to take advantage ofour team in Los Angeles. It’s one of thereasons whyESPN has a facility there.”Afterhearing that state highways would close mid-day to non-essential travel, MayorArt Ward said that city workers who didn’t have a role to play in dealing withthe storm should be sent home early.The publicworks department won’t pick up trash, recycling, yard wastes or leaves onTuesday. Instead, it is pushing collections back one day for the rest of theweek, with Friday routes being done on Saturday.RichardLadisky, the city’s emergency management director, said the city is planningfor a major crisis bt hoping that Sandy brings only “localized flooding adpockets of outages.”He said officials,who conducted a major hurricane planning exercise last month,  are ready statewide and in Bristol to copewith the storm.“There havebeen a lot of changes and a lot of training and a lot of dedication” to makingsure everyone is ready, he said, and “these people have been spot-on” in theirresponses so far.“We’reblessed in Bristol,” Ladisky said, to have such professional police, fire andpublic works personnel and leadership, all of whom recognize they have to worktogether.CityCouncilor Ken Cockayne, who stopped  bythe shelter in late morning to see if he could lend a hand, said that Monday morningwas little more than “a regular rainstorm” but that worse weather was likelycoming.“We can’t beany more prepared than we are right now,” Cockayne said.Southingtonhas banned on-street parking Monday and Tuesday. It also closed its libraryuntil Wednesday. Stay updated on Southington developments with its policeFacebook page at facebook.com/pages/Southington-Police-Department/164075689755.
Copyright 2012. All rights reserved. Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com