[CTSARA] Official Request For Deployment Saturday Night

[Jon Perelstein]

I just attended a meeting at Govt Center chaired by the Mayor, with every
major and minor department head present, plus Red Cross, CL&P, and amateur
radio (me).  Just so you understand, it included the Police Chief, the Fire
Chief, the Chiefs of the five volunteer fire departments, Director of
Operations, Director of Technology, Superintendent of Schools, head of
Stamford EMS, head of Stamford Hospital, WPCA (impacts availability of
drinking water), CT Transit, and a bunch others.

This is a BIG storm.  The City is expecting widespread flooding south of
I-95 and is expecting to have to evacuate the entire south end.

As part of their prep, the City is opening shelters at Stamford High and
Rippowam (and possibly one other).  Red Cross in conjunction with Housing is
going to be manning the shelters from about 5pm Saturday onward because they
don't want to be struggling to get staff to the shelters in the height of
the storm.

We have been asked to have someone at Stamford Govt Center starting 5pm
Saturday and to have a radio operator at Stamford High and Ripp by about 7pm
on Saturday.  I'll take Govt Center (actually, Chris Munger told me that *I*
am taking Govt Center -- I wasn't given the choice).  But we'll need one
person at each of the other two sites.  This is it guys.  It's a big one and
it's a serious one.  Who's going to step up to the plate?


They were very clear that if you go out on assignment Saturday night, do not
expect to be able to get home until Monday morning at the earliest.  Between
the extended wind and rain, it is expected that travel will be virtually
impossible by Sunday morning, and the Mayor will probably ban all travel
except in emergencies.   John Sabini, I think it's very unlikely that you
will wind up going to work on Sunday.

BTW, somebody from Legal was at the meeting and he explained that since the
Governor declared an emergency, any volunteer work at the request of the
City comes under the City's Workman's Comp.

73s
Jon
WB2RYV