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NORWALK, Conn. – Norwalk Mayor Richard Moccia reiterated his call for the city’s coastal residents to begin evacuating Sunday before the arrival of Hurricane Sandy on Monday, but he stopped short of making evacuations mandatory.
Moccia said he has not called for mandatory evacuations because of the difficulty of enforcing such orders, and he is confident that residents of flood-prone areas were preparing for the storm.
“If you’ve ever flooded before, you’re likely going to flood again,” Moccia said during a news conference Sunday afternoon at the city’s temporary fire department administrative offices next to City Hall on East Avenue.
Storm surges are expected to hit 16 feet along Norwalk’s coasts and waterways, and police and fire personnel have been dispatched to the Washington Village housing complex on Water Street to help with potential evacuations there, Moccia said. Parts of the street have already begun to experience flooding.
One area of concern for the city is whether to temporarily shut down the city’s wastewater treatment plant if flooding threatens to overwhelm the system. Moccia said the city will make that decision Monday.
Norwalk public schools will be closed Monday and Tuesday, according to interim Superintendent Tony Daddona.
“We have to look at the safety of our students and staff, and with the magnitude of this storm, we decided to close the schools for Monday and Tuesday,” Daddona said.
A decision has not yet been made about closing schools Wednesday, but Daddona said he will monitor the storm and could make a decision as early as Monday. “We will give parents sufficient notice to make arrangements. We know we have a lot of working parents who need that information as early as possible.”
The district’s school buses, typically parked on Wilson Avenue, will be moved to Norwalk High School, Daddona said, out of flood concerns.
Additionally, custodians will report to their schools Monday to check for leaks and any other facility-related issues.
“The custodians will help us monitor the situation and let me know which schools are without power,” Daddona said.
The temporary shelter at Brien McMahon High School, which has a capacity for 450 residents, will be open Sunday at 5 p.m. National Guard troops have been stationed at the Norwalk Armory on New Canaan Avenue for assistance as needed.
“The state will make a determination on which communities the troops will be deployed in,” Norwalk Fire Chief Denis McCarthy said.
The length of this storm, estimated to be 36 hours, could cause severe damage to the city and the region, Moccia said.
“This is not a game, not a sight-seeing tour. Please take this storm seriously and stay off the roads until flooding has subsided and you get an ‘all clear’ indication,” he said.
Comments (4)
Moccia the fearless leader...HAHAHAHA NOT
Its somewhat dsgusting how ill prepared Norwalk is in storms like this.Moccia knows about water st flooding yet what?Dick its simple the city needs to spend money on Water st plenty of suggestions have been put on the table yet ignored by our Mayor.
Half a million dollar fire boat yet not 1 $200 portable pump to help taxpayers out to lesson damage to homes.The inability of the fire dept to respond and do more than sorry we don't do that can't continue much longer yet this year your top city paychecks will be firefighters why is that?
cases of water in Spanish? Really how tough is it to take a cap of a bottle and drink it in English,your Emergency director hadn't up to this morning returned phone calls from media seeking information what does this woman do all year?
Its a storm folks just like the ones in the 50s and 60s but because Norwalk gives less back to its taxpayers we are all to think the city is going all out to help us all out.
Plan on power outages ina nd around the city looks like Norwalk eletric and others got a load of telephone poles in last time 100s of poles snapped and not more than a few in reserve,guess someone told the power companies to go out and plan ahead this time.
The way the city is leaving your home is worse than drowning in it if you live in the area of the city that has true crime.Maybe after the storm Dick will become more visible those Democrtatic idiots think Harry will be the solution,maybe getting rid of all the Democrats will help us all out.These emergencies need perfect planning but in Norwalks case p@ss poor planning produces poor performances.Look around to other cities these politicians come out before during and after all events election year or not.
Where is Norwalks council in all this?Were they given the storm off like our emergency director who by the way gets big bucks to oversee a fire dept that clearly needs leadership.
I believe there are plans to raise Water Street, but that all is contingent on some work that HUD is planning for Washington Village.
As far as "perfect planning", having attended several emergency planning session for individuals and a few for other municipalities, I can tell you that the best plans can go awry because of weather conditions.
There are no easy answers, but I sincerely believe that the City has made significant progress in dealing with the storms over the last two years.