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This story was updated at 8:55 a.m. Saturday to add school information.
NORWALK, Conn. – As Norwalk residents brace for Hurricane Sandy to hit Monday and Tuesday, Mayor Richard Moccia wants people to know that the city is prepared for what is to come.
Moccia and Norwalk Emergency Management Deputy Director Michele DeLuca called together about 50 city officials and department heads Friday afternoon in Norwalk City Hall to go over contingencies and last-minute preparations for the storm, which is expected to dump several inches of rain on the region and bring strong winds.
“The track of this storm is still a unpredictable,” Moccia said. “But the consensus is that we’ll definitely have a weather event.”
The storm is expected to begin impacting Connecticut weather late Sunday and could last for 36 hours. A decision on whether to close Norwalk schools on Monday or beyond, depending on the severity of the storm, will be made Sunday, according to Norwalk Board of Education member Mike Barbis. Brien McMahon High School will open Monday as an emergency shelter and as a cellphone and device-charging station, Moccia said.
Additionally, the city will serve two hot meals per day at the school for residents, emergency workers and shelterees, with breakfast from 7 to 9 a.m. and dinner from 4 to 7 p.m.
“Providing extended services like meals is a lesson we learned from Hurricane Irene last year,” Norwalk Fire Chief Denis McCarthy said.
The Norwalk Police Department is not pulling its emergency boats out of the water, Chief Thomas Kulhawik said, but the city is trying to find another location for the Island Belle paddle boat that is docked at Veterans Memorial Park.
At Cove Marina in East Norwalk, general manager Steve Babbitz said his phones “have been ringing non-stop” since news broke about the storm. But his staff is not pulling additional boats out of the water, he said. Over the last couple of months, the marina has been scheduling dozens of boats to be removed from the water, and he said he can’t stop that process to attend to last-minute removals.
But he said that the marina’s basin, with a small opening to open water, acts as a protective barrier.
“We’re considered a hurricane hole,” Babbitz said, adding that the marina will have about 385 boats tied to slips in the water during the storm. “We’ll make sure all the boats are properly tied if they haven’t been already.”
The No. 1 thing residents can do is take the reports seriously and prepare for the storm, Moccia said. But he added, if possible, also clean out the leaves from storm drains near your home.
"We have 10,000 storm drains in the city, and we can't get to all of them in two days," he said.
Comments (10)
Rev Burr,
You are correct. This morning, it stated that the schools were closed for monday, then at 8:55 it was revised on pending if we are going to have school or not. All im saying is for norwalk to stop trying to be in the headlines first to say THERE WILL NOT BE SCHOOL FOR MONDAY. Think before you post. Everyone is going crazy what to do or what not to do. Gov. Malloy now stated for us to be in a state of an emergency, are we now going to say Gov Malloy misprinted. I suggest for everyone to make there own decisions, before we all be blown away to Canada on a one way ezee pass
How do you report that school is cancelled, and then update it to say no decisions have been made?
Nothing like having your facts straight before publishing your story. I will now question all information I read on this site.
All I can say is typical Moccia the right hand doesn't know what the left is doing.. This reminds me of the March storm 2 years ago when school was closed for weeks and residents were without power for weeks..Where was Moccia??? out cutting ribbons at the new McDonald's.. Just when you think Moccia can not get any worse with his lack of leadership he proves us wrong.
gardenmom I agree the City needs to be prepared, but they are also confusing people with mixed messages. This morning the City advised people that school would be closed on Monday. It may have been premature and if so, the news statement should include something about reversing an earlier decision.
It's very hard to un-ring this kind of bell. The "facts" for your earlier headline should have been checked. There often seems to be a rush to get "the news" out...why? It's only helpful if it's accurate. The NPS has yet to announce a closing. Further, the "corrected" article still states that BMHS will open as an "emergency shelter". How could it possibly do that (if school was in session)? I can only guess there will be students who miss school due to this article, and that there will be residents who go to the school looking for help, even when school is in session.
6:06am they stated school were closed for monday, and the other days were pending, they should make sure what they are going to do before posting something on here. We do have to make arrangements for our children if there is no school for Monday, not this last minute crap that goes on here in nwlk. I will be making my own decision for my house hold and not Norwalk. Maybe one day norwalk can get there act together.
If the Governor declares a State of Emergency, which he supposedly already did, having the schools open could possibly be illegal. Frankly, I was surprised that Malloy went out on that branch so quickly. We simply don't know which way the storm is going to go.
Last October, we had a similar situation following the October snow storm. Although parts of the city were in "good" shape, other roads were still impassable because of trees being down on them and the buses weren't able to get through. Our road had a large tree down on it for over five days. It got to the point that we had gotten so used to seeing it there when they finally were able to get it cut up and cleared out, it didn't look right.
I think Malloy was way too premature in terms of declaring an emergency this time.
No one has made the decision to close the schools - it is called being prepared. It's so easy for armchair critics to throw stones. How would you like to be The administrator responsible for sending 4, 5, or 600 little children out on buses in the middle of a hurricane, through the heavily treed roads of Silvermine or Cranbury? Or would you want your child or grandchild stuck in the school gymnasium, possibly without power, if there was no way to get them home?
Think about it.
Wow what a joke. I heard we might get another rain storm next Friday. Lets cancel schools.
It seems like norwal has done this before with snow storms and it is always a bust!!
A little early to close schools. This storm can change 3 times and the Mayors message on my machine said he would update Sunday night. There is nothing posted on NPS website either. Is this really accurate? As of now it's suppose to be the worst late Monday into Tuesday.