Politics & Government

North Hempstead Holds Post-Irene Talks with Local Leaders

Mayors and officials ask questions and discuss lessons learned from the storm.

Two weeks ago, North Hempstead residents grappled with downed trees and wires along with power outages after Irene hit Long Island. Now local leaders are engaged in dialog to garner lessons learned from the storm.

Village mayors, along with county, state and federal representatives and a Long Island Power authority representative gathered Friday, Sept. 9, at the clubhouse in Port Washington. They discussed collaborating with municipalities and fire houses to prepare for Irene, assessing damage, and filing claims with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

They also expressed concerns with Doug Shearer, the lead emergency planning engineer from LIPA, who answered questions and also said he would bring questions back to LIPA officials. Many in the audience brought up the need to expedite the communication and processing of information, delays in restoring power, blocked egresses caused by downed trees and more. 

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“We are taking all these questions,” said. “We’re going to try to get these answers and then disseminate them back. We’re going to keep this as a continuous dialog.”

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