Above: Hurricane Irene’s position as of this morning (via National Weather Service)
As Hurricane Irene continues to make its way up the coast, Southborough officials are preparing for what could be a major wind and rain event on Sunday.
“All indications are we’re going to take a direct hit from some kind of tropical event,” Fire Chief John Mauro Jr. said in a briefing to town department heads this morning.
While much is still uncertain, Mauro said the current track has the eye of Hurricane Irene passing over Springfield, which could mean high winds and heavy rain for Southborough.
Town officials are participating in twice-daily conference calls with MEMA and the National Weather Service to keep on top of the storm.
Mauro said his biggest concern is downed trees which may take out power lines and block roads, hampering emergency response.
“Damaging winds are a strong possibility,” he said. “We’re still going to have to get to people for medical emergencies.”
Mauro said the town will likely set up an Emergency Operations Center at the Fire Station to manage storm response. They are also prepared to open a public shelter at Woodward School.
Fire, police, and DPW will increase staff during and after the event, but Mauro said there may be more damage than the town can handle. “If the storm results in what they say it’s going to be, there are going to be some angry taxpayers out there,” Mauro said.”We are going to have to make do with what we have.”
While the worst of the storm is not expected to hit our area until Sunday night, Southborough Emergency Management Director of Operations Neal Aspesi said residents should finsih all their preparations for the storm by Saturday morning. (For tips on how to prepare, see this post.)
Mauro said he hopes the storm fizzles out, but he’s not planning on it.
“Plan for the worst case scenario, and hope for the best,” Mauro said. “I would rather be embarrassed by overplanning than embarrassed by not planning enough.”
