(UPDATE 2:20 p.m.)Seymour’s emergency shelter in Seymour Middle School, 211 Mountain Road, will be open until 8 p.m. Tuesday “as a powering and showering facility,” First Selectman Kurt Miller announced in a Code Red message sent out about 2:15 p.m.
The shelter will also be open Wednesday from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., he said, but not overnight.
“Please bring any needed cords to power your equipment and any toiletries you may need,” Miller’s message said. “At this point, we will not be providing any food or overnight accommodations.”
“The Seymour Police Department and Seymour Ambulance Department will still be providing charging facilities as well,” the message concluded. “ The ambulance along with the Great Hill Hose Company are providing water facilities. Should you have any questions or need a ride, please call 203-888-1909. Thank you.”
(Original story follows)
Seymour First Selectman Kurt Miller sent a Code Red message Tuesday morning saying power restoration could take several days and that the town can’t open an emergency shelter at Seymour Middle School until downed trees and wires leading to the school are removed.
The shelter at Seymour Middle School, 211 Mountain Road, will open as soon as it is available, which could be this afternoon.
The first step is to clear roads. Once that’s completed, the power restoration process starts, with Miller warning that it “could take up to several days.”
The First Selectman’s Office issued the following press release at 11:08 a.m. Tuesday:
The worst of Hurricane Sandy has passed Seymour. Now we can begin to focus on assessing damage and the restoration process. Many areas of Seymour are out of power. Please make sure, if you haven’t yet, to report your power outage to CL&P by calling 800-286-2000. That is how they can have accurate counts and ensure a household is not an isolated problem.
There are large and small trees and branches down across town that pulled wires down with them. Our emergency teams were extremely busy last night checking each call that came in. For those of you that have scanners, you know how busy they were last night! Due to the high winds and many road closures we, like other nearby towns, had to make the decision to pull our crews in except for absolute emergency calls around 8:30 p.m. The safety of our responders is very important to us.
Our teams are out again today focusing on opening up roadways, as there are many closed right now. CL&P has provided us our own line and tree crew team that can work with our emergency personnel and public works to achieve this. As of right now, we are still assessing damage and have no estimates for power restoration.
The emergency shelter, which will be at Seymour Middle School, is unable to be opened at this point due to downed trees and wires, and road closures. These areas are a priority, and an update will come out this afternoon. In the meantime, the Seymour Police Department and Ambulance Association are open as charging stations and have water. Both fire departments also have water available.
I encourage residents to stay in and off the roads for their safety and to allow our teams to get their work done more efficiently. Use 911 only for emergency calls. Elderly, persons with special needs, or otherwise needing special assistance due to being without power should call the Fire Chief’s office at 203-888-1909.
Thank you for being patient and supportive during this situation and please join me in thanking all of our volunteers and professionals for the work they did leading up to, during, and moving forward with this storm. They have done an incredible job so far and have worked in very unpleasant conditions. We must remember to be grateful that we were not hit harder as a whole, and work together through the restoration process.”
The Police Department is located at 11 Franklin St.
Seymour EMS is located at 4 Wakely St.
The Citizens Engine company is at 26 DeForest St.
The Great Hill Hose company is at 140 Botsford Road.
