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Snow Emergency |
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| February 25, 2010 | ||
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Starting on Thursday, February 25 and continuing through Saturday, February 27, the Garrison Volunteer Fire Company was very busy due to the snow storm that blanketed the northeast. The work started when a standby request was issued by the Town of Philipstown on Thursday to all emergency services organizations. A storm-related state of emergency was then declared from 1:00 PM on Friday and lasted until 6 PM on Saturday February 27.
Several GVFC members slept at Station 2, located on Route 9 north of Route 403, with their families for several nights. This allowed the response time to be greatly reduced during this unusual winter event as well as making it safer for the members since they did not have to navigate to the firehouse from their homes. Despite the storm creating “the single largest number of service interruptions” in the history of the Central Hudson Energy Group, the GVFC remained fully self sufficient for the duration of the storm. At no time did the department go out of service. This was due in large part thanks to our generator and our diligent volunteers. At one point however, power usage had to be cut back because the fuel level was low for the generator. Luckily, Weaver Gas made and emergency delivery that allowed us to remain operational. Many jobs had to be performed such as plowing the parking lot, making sure the generator stayed online, shoveling out the entrances & hydrants, prepping the building in case we were called upon to be a distribution center for dry ice and most important, responding to calls for service. 7 calls were responded to in total. The calls are listed below.
Besides the calls that were dispatched through Putnam 911, several issues were addressed by members. Surveys of the district were performed from Thursday night through Friday afternoon to assess damage to the area. During these assessments, trees were cleared from the roadways on Fraser Road, Old West Point Road, Indian Brook Road, South Mountain Pass and Philips Brook Road that would have prevented plows from clearing the roads. Motorists were also assisted in pulling them out of the snow.
Station 2 also served a base camp for county highway and Central Hudson employees who were working in Garrison. Many of the Central Hudson workers came from as far away as Michigan and needed a place to take a break. A meeting area and bathrooms were available and snacks were put out by the Auxiliary. Several people also came to the fire house to get fresh water to be used at their home since their well pumps were not in operation.
February 25 5:05 PM - Automatic Fire Alarm – St. Christopher’s Inn 5:19 PM – Tree & Wires Down – Route 9 by Indian Brook Road 5:57 PM – Transformer Fire – 13 Avery Road 6:02 PM – Wires Down – Route 9D by Wing and Wing Road 8:20 PM – Tree & Wires Down – Route 9 by Old West Point Road February 26 1:52 PM - Tree on Fire – Snake Hill Road February 27 1:24 PM - Wires On Fire – 372 Old West Point Road |
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