Great Neck....Lessons to be learned!!!!!!!

[tornado joe]

We are screwed. Nassau county is not going to be able to handle and or clean up a major hurricane!

[Unreyougistered]

Buy a rifle you are going to need it, you will be on your own

[Custer]

Why didn't North Hempstead provide fire dept assistance following the windstorm? Why did Valley Stream, Franklin Sq., Elmont, Garden City Park have to respond?

[UnregisteredFDResponse]

I believe that the reason for all of the fire depts that responded (from a distance) was because the area depts were just too overwhelmed. When the incident commander requested assistance from the County, particularly to assist in communications, as additional help was needed, the help was more or less specified by the type of equipment, i.e. engine company (pumper), ladder company, rescue truck or ambulance. The reason for departments like Valley Stream, Hempstead and Elmont was because the County requested departments from less effected or areas that were not effected - to respond to Great Neck and assist them with the overload of alarms.

Not even an ALL career force would have been able to handle such an incident flawless. When departments arrived in Great Neck they were actually handed a "stack" of run sheets and just told to start answering alarms.

Under the circumstances, the Great Neck Alerts and Great Neck Vigilants did a very good job!

[MrAccountability]

If you have natural gas the best investment you can make is a standby generator. A nice 14Kw will run around $5,000 and can power most everything in a small home (around 2,000 sq ft) including CAC.

If you don't have natural gas access you can bury a propane tank. If you get a smaller gasoline generator you have to store and stabilize the gas (they don't power much, but something is better than nothing).

When that's done you'll have more time to concentrate on the weapons, ammo, and MREs.

[Cluster Fu_k]

Once again The County and the Vollies that are running the County have no Clue. You had an isolated incident and everyone was falling over each other. Tons of Idiots and Politicians standing around and no one working. It's all about the show no substance. There are no leaders and no planners. This is 4 days later and they still don't have it right. What are we going to do when something real serious happens and their is loss of life. Come on guys this isn't a play toy exercise for morons it is about peoples lives.

[volliesuk it]

I know they stayed home
So many still live with mom
Pros would be cheaper
wHAT WE HAVE NOE IS NOTHING

[Sedulus]

Maybe there's justice: the Village mayor still doesn't have power! Was so busy messing up an emergency plan devised by the previous mayor who had technical expertise that when this real emergency came, didn't have a clue. The guy just doubled his salary effective June 1.

Kudos, though, to the teams of LIPA/ConEd/Verizon workers who kicked in Friday as well as the FD volunteers from the area who aided locals. Devastation is tremendous.

Now need to plant 5,000 trees.

[Unregistered4356]

what have we learned from all this? Hope Countyis reading this then maybe we will be prepared for next time.

[Unregisteredtreeman]

A five minute storm left almost every street blocked with fallen trees and fallen
electric lines. Electricity was out. Within minutes every street was mobbed by
lines of cars snaking through the village trying to find any street that might be
open. Police and fire had a very hard time entering the old village because of
the situation. People were just walking around in shock. Under the circumstances all emergency services did a great job. Nothing will ever be perfect so I have nothing but disdain for any posts which are critical without suggesting positive alternatives.

Again, there was massive destruction of trees which were lying all over the place. No one died, and that is amazing.

[Sedulus]

Lesson: have an emergency plan ready. The previous mayor, an engineer, developed one but the hacks wouldn't OK it. Incumbent, in for 3 years, never implemented it. There was chaos in the beginning. Every municipality needs a plan and the County ought to coordinate them.

[go home..just say no]

911 calls were backed up for hours. When the call takers who were working in the alarm permit office (collecting big $$$ for the county by fining people for not having permits) were asked to come and and handle some of the backed up calls, they went home.

[Unregistered3456789876]

It doesn't help when local do-gooders flood the EMERGENCY lines with 20 calls per incident of a downed tree or an alarm ringing or some other BS. That's what ties up lines and resources...too many people calling for the same incident.

[Unregistered11024]

So then the lesson is to assume your neighbor called in the problem??? That's a quick way to having no idea what's going on.

[MrAccountability]

It's called "personal responsibility".

Learn to take care of yourself and your loved ones so you don't have to wait in line with all the other government-reliant parasites.

[Unregistered76543446]

No, the lesson is to use emergency lines for emergencies. I'm sorry but calling 911 because there's a tree across your street is NOT an emergency. Get out there and try to move it or just wait and call the town. There are people who have it worse than others and it's selfish and actually snobby to assume your tree down/basement flooding/cable line down across your lawn warrants calling an emergency line.