North Whitehall Prepares for Hurricane Sandy

North Whitehall Township officials, fire and police are working together to ready the area for Hurricane Sandy.

Current weather models are predicting the storm will hit sometime Monday and Nelson Fogle, North Whitehall emergency management coordinator, said fire, police and township officials are busy preparing for the worst and hoping for the best.

Local fire fighters are checking equipment, like chainsaws, generators, fuel and pumps. Should the hurricane hit hard, Fogle said the township would set up an Emergency Operations Center. He expects it will probably be at the Schnecksville Fire Company.

Check back here for updates as the storm progresses. Fogle said he would keep Patch posted about the EOC and any emergency contact information residents might need.

Township Engineer Jeff Bartlett said they have been tracking the storm since it was first announced and the township building has full generator capacity.

"Our biggest issue is going to be the wind and leaves blocking up storm drains," Bartlett said. "We’ve done what we can and we will keep monitoring."

He recommend residents secure outside items, put away lawn furniture and have some extra cash on hand because machines might be down.

If possible, have a plan to go to another location if necessary and be a good neighbor. He also advised residents to fill up an extra gas can and stockpile non-perishable food that’s easy to prepare on an outside grill.

"To a certain extent it's kind of wait and see," Bartlett said "How severe it's going to be is still up in the air but we’re doing what we can to prepare here."

If anyone finds themselves in need of shelter - Parkland School District's Troxell Building will be used for emergency shelter.

In Lehigh County, emergency management officials are checking on personnel, equipment and vehicles in preparation and keeping abreast of the storm's track.

"There's so much variable in this storm," Tom Nervine, the director of Lehigh County's Emergency Services.

Nervine is coordinating with municipalities and agencies to figure out such things as: "What are the needs going to be? What are the unmet needs going to be? Where are the holes in the ice?"

Municipal officials will know the trouble spots in their community, such as which streets are prone to flooding, he said. 

Most importantly, he said, "We are concerned that people take this seriously...They have to be ready for it." 

He said residents should take the next few days to prepare, checking to make sure they have batteries in their flashlights, their gutters are cleaned out, and the like.

The state's tips for preparing are on their website.

Parkland School District has mobilized Maintenance, Grounds and Custodial personnel to:

• Check operation of all building sump pumps.
• Clear all drains in parking lots, access roads, walkways.
• Clear all roof drains.
• Check the operation and fuel level in all emergency generators.
• Secure loose items outside, including garbage cans, playground equipment, sports equipment, etc.
• Make sure snow and salt equipment and supplies are ready in case we get snow from this storm.

According to Parkland's website their Food Services Department is also planning ahead for a potential dangerous storm as follows:

• Milk and Bread deliveries will be ordered early in the week to ensure we have product to serve for the rest of the week in case flooding in some areas are a problem for deliveries.
• The Emergency Management Team of Lehigh County has asked if Parkland School District could provide breakfast, lunch, and dinners to shelters in the County if needed. We will do this if we are able.
• Shelf stable products are to arrive on Monday at the High School and Troxell in case of emergency or if we need to provide meals for the county. All of these items can be sold in the school cafeterias if they are not used by the county.
• Cases of bottled water are on hand at Troxell.
• Each school has developed a plan to serve cold meals, if needed, next week.

PPL spokesman, Joe Nixon, released the following information:

We are monitoring the weather reports and making preparations to deal with what forecasters are expecting to be a major storm.

We will bring to bear all available resources to respond to whatever impact Hurricane Sandy has on Pennsylvania and be fully staffed 24/7 beginning Monday.

We have already contacted our sister utilities in Kentucky — Kentucky Utilities and Louisville Gas and Electric — and are making plans for their crews to join us as early as Sunday night. We’ve also called on utilities from other states  for assistance, from locations including Texas, Arkansas and Utah. In addition, we’ve notified all of our contractors who normally assist in storm restoration  to remain local and we're cancelling any time off for our operations personnel next week.

Expanding staffing is the one of the most significant steps we can take in preparing for a major storm. Since a year ago, on the heels of the October snowstorm, Hurricane Irene, and Tropical Storm Lee, PPL Electric Utilities has made many improvements to better respond to major storms  -- in particular, upgrading customer service systems to ensure we can handle increased customer call volume and improving information available for customers.

We're expanding our staffing for round-the-clock operations, and we're doing everything we must do to be ready for whatever Sandy may bring.

Lastly, we remind our customers that we want them to  consider their own safety with severe storm conditions and be sure to notify us if they lose service. The more information we can gather, the better we can assess the storm's damage and prioritize our repairs. Customers can report their outages to PPL by phone  (1-800-342-5775) or online at pplelectric.com, which also is formatted for mobile devices.