Township Council Receives Post-Irene Assessment

Lower Saucon Township Emergency Management Coordinator provided Township Council with a report on the emergency management response to at the Sept. 7 meeting.

“As we all know, we’ve had a pretty significant event last week and it’s just not quitting,” Csaszar said. “It taxed the resources of the township significantly.”

He told council that Public Works Director Roger Rasich, along with Hanover Engineering, assessed the initial damage the hurricane caused.

The estimated manpower cost alone was about $7,708, and the public works equipment cost was about $5,070. So far, the total estimated cost of the hurricane to the township has been about $27,178.

On the bright side, Csaszar said that luckily no one in the township was hurt as a result of the storm. There was good planning within the township, a good response by township agencies and good interaction with Hellertown’s emergency management coordinator, he added.

Unfortunately, Csaszar said there was a poor response from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) during the height of the storm, in spite of repeated calls by the county and township agencies.

The lack of responsiveness resulted in delayed road closures of Bingen Road, Friedensville Road at the Water Street Bridge, and Riverside Drive, and allowed cars and a tour bus to drive into flooded areas, where they became disabled, he said. The poor response also delayed the clearing of fallen trees from major roads.

According to Csaszar, PennDOT was not the only organization that responded poorly during and after the storm.

He said the township also received a poor response from PPL’s tree clearing crew, which resulted in the delayed opening of some township roads. Some roads weren’t opened until Sept. 1.

“I’m sure they were busy, but we needed (some) direction,” Csaszar said. “Obviously they have a priority to restore power to the most affected customers.”

"You did a great job. My hat’s off to you," councilwoman Priscilla deLeon said to Csaszar. "I’m so sorry that you had to deal with these other issues."

In the future, Csaszar recommended that he have direct-connect cell phone capability with all department heads.

He also recommended having improved communication with the community via text messaging or an e-mail service. He said a text message service might be best, since the Internet may not be available during a storm.