Yorktown Seeks Community Emergency Response Team Members
When Hurricane Irene touched down last August, the Yorktown Police Department wished that it had its Community Emergency Response Team in place, said public safety officer Larry Eidelman.
According to Con Edison, nearly 188,000 Westchester and New York City residents lost power during the hurricane, many of whom did not get it restored for several days. Yorktown was one of the municipalities in Westchester County that was hit the hardest.
“The biggest thing that we deal with are major storms, especially when the power goes out,” said Eidelman, who became qualified as a CERT trainer in 2006. “Lately, when it goes out, it’s out for a long time. It seems like it stays off longer.”
The Yorktown Police Department is currently in the process of assembling a Community Emergency Response Team that would check on residents’ welfare in cases of weather-related emergencies during winter and summer months.
During these cases, the team could be used to go door to door, attending to the needs of those without electricity or suffering from floods.
“Summer is coming,” Eidelman said. “You get a bad summer storm that takes out a lot of infrastructure, and you could be without power for a while. And these things tend to flare up without a lot of notice.”
As June brought several days of above-90 degree temperatures, the Yorktown Police Department opened cooling stations at the Yorktown Community and Cultural Center to placate those without air-conditioning. Once the Community Emergency Response Team is active, Eidelman envisions members greeting residents and dealing with any unforeseen dilemmas at the cooling center.
In case of power outages in the coming summer months, the police department will open a shelter at the Yorktown Community and Cultural Center. The center is a town-owned building, equipped with plenty of space, emergency power, cots and handicap-accessible facilities.
“People don’t want to come to a shelter,” Eidelman said. “That’s a last resort for most people. Nobody sees the lights flicker and says, ‘Okay, let’s go to the shelter.’ But we’re trying to make the experience for them as comfortable as possible. We realize that nobody wants to leave their homes and their possessions.”
If apartment complexes like Beaver Ridge and Jefferson Village lose power, many residents could frequent the shelter for a more comfortable place to stay, Eidelman said. Members of the Community Emergency Response Team would then visit the complexes and help residents get to the shelter, if needed. Eidelman has noticed an increase of shelter use over the past five years.
“For many years, we never needed them open,” he said. “I can think of a four or five year time when we didn’t have any bad winter storms or major power outages or bad summer storms, and we were fine. Over the last five years, I think we’ve used it every single year, multiple times.”
Con Edison union workers, as of press time, were locked out of their jobs as their contract negotiations stalled. With fewer people handling the day-to-day operations of the company, Eidelman admitted that the Yorktown Police Department could run into some difficulties, and that the Community Emergency Response Team would be needed.
“We don’t ever want to see something like that happen where response times are going to be delayed or extended,” Eidelman said. “It’s something we’ll keep our eye on. I hope that they can resolve their issues. We rely very heavily on the power companies during these storms.”
Ideally, the Yorktown Police Department will not have to use its Community Emergency Response Team; however, Eidelman predicted that the team will be used approximately three times per year.
In the past two months, the program has netted 25 volunteers. Eidelman is looking for approximately another 20 members to round out the team.
“It will be a good thing for us,” Eidelman said. “It’s a big plus for us. It’s a nice community thing to do. These people want to help.”
The program’s training will take place once a month for two hours, with the first session on July 12. The sessions will include training in first aid, shelter operations, incident command, fire suppression and radio communication.
For more information, Eidelman encourages Yorktown residents to contact him at leidelman@yorktownpd.org or 914-962-4141 at extension 163.
By Natalia Baage-Lord
Adam has worked in the local news industry for the past two decades in Westchester County and the broader Hudson Valley. Read more from Adam’s author bio here.
