Emergency messages mistaken as pranks in Mass.
"There was no organization. No direction from the top. The response was unacceptable."
By Dan Magazu
Sentinel & Enterprise
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LUNENBURG, Mass. — Communicating with residents who were without power proved difficult for Lunenburg officials in the wake of the Dec. 11 ice storm, according to Town Manager Kerry Speidel.
"We really had to rely on the reverse-911 system," Speidel said Tuesday. "But that only works for people with a land line that is in service. It does not contact people's cell phones."
The reverse-911 system sends out emergency messages to the land lines of all the residents in a certain geographical area.
"Many people have told us they thought they were receiving a prank call," Speidel said. "It shows you how suspicious people are of solicitation these days, and how prevalent it is in our society."
While most officials and residents have laid the blame for the prolonged outages squarely on the shoulders of utility provider Unitil, town officials are exploring if and how they could have responded better to the emergency. The town is reviewing its disaster recovery plan to see what worked well and what needs to be improved in the event of another disaster.
"The plan that we have is a fluid document," Speidel said. "It should be reviewed on a regular basis and I don't believe that's been done."
Fire Chief Scott Glenny, who recently took over as the town's Emergency Management director, said he thought the plan worked well for the most part.
"I think the town's response went really well," Glenny said. "The (Emergency Operation Center) operated as it should. Our public safety building proved its worth. Thank God we had it, because we would have never been able to coordinate our relief efforts otherwise."
Glenny said it's difficult to have a perfect plan when you are dealing with a unique disaster.
"The town has never been hit with anything like this before," Glenny said. "As the new EMD it was quite a christening."
Cove Road resident Roberta Jewell said that she spent four days in her home not knowing what was going on or where to turn for help.
"We had no idea where to go," Jewell said during a public hearing last week. "Our phone line was down and I had no cell phone service. It took days before we knew a shelter had been set up at Turkey Hill."
Glenny said he has asked all the department heads to review the town's response to the outages.
"I will be meeting with each of them in the coming weeks as well as the town manager," Glenny said. "Then we will brief the Board of Selectmen on changes that should be made."
Speidel said the disaster recovery plan did not account for changes in technology.
"A lot of people rely on the Internet or their cell phones to receive information," Speidel said. "Of course, when the power is down you lose access to the Internet."
She said selectmen may want to explore a system that would allow the town to send out messages to cell phones.
"That kind of service would cost money," Speidel said. "I expect we will do a cost analysis to get a better idea of if it's worth doing."
The best way residents can stay informed during an emergency is by having an AM radio and batteries in their home, Glenny said.
"When the power is out, the old-fashioned radio is one of the best communication devices you can have," Glenny said. "We worked with the local radio stations throughout the emergency to get information out to people."
Speidel said she expects to hold a meeting to go over the disaster recovery plan in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, residents continue to express their outrage at Unitil's response to the emergency.
Lunenburg resident Cathy Clark organized a petition and collected hundreds of signatures from upset residents in the center of town on Sunday. The petition demands that Unitil be removed as the town's utility provider. Clark plans on holding another protest in the near future and then sending the signatures to Gov. Deval Patrick's office.
Residents have also attended two recent public forums to express their dismay at Unitil's response.
"What will they do to better prepare if this happens again?" Flat Hill Road resident Ben Parker asked selectmen during a hearing last week. "There was no organization. No direction from the top. The response was unacceptable."
Board of Selectmen Chairman Tom Alonzo has called Unitil's response to the emergency "wholly inadequate." Alonzo said Tuesday that the board will investigate any alternative to Unitil in the coming months.
"We are going to use every avenue to explore alternative options for a power provider," Alonzo said.
Clark's petition is on the town's Web site, www.lunenburgonline.com.
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