WTNH’s Mark Davis will be the host for the first public forum on the state’s recent ‘power disaster’.
The forum, sponsored by the Disaster Accountability Project, seeks to find solutions to prevent the next power disaster form occurring.
Details for the event can be found below:
Date: Thursday, November 10, 2011
Time: 7-9PM
Location: Auditorium in the Library Building of the Greater Hartford Uconn Campus, 1800 Asylum Avenue, West Hartford, CT
Parking: Participants will need to park in the UConn Visitor lot located on Trout Brook Drive. The auditorium is located in the library building on Asylum Avenue.
This community forum will generate ideas from the public to build consensus around “lessons learned,” that will be shared with state and local government leaders, emergency responders, and public utilities. A report with public comments will be presented to the Governor’s S.T.O.R.M. Commission.Members of the Governor’s “S.T.O.R.M. Commission,” CL&P, the Governor’s Office, local government and legislative leaders have been invited.
The public is encouraged to focus on RECOMMENDATIONS on the following topics:
• Addressing and strengthening infrastructure in Connecticut
• Rules and regulation related to power utilities
• Tree trimming and other pre-emptive efforts to avoid extended power outages
• Communications: first responders, utilities, government leaders, customers and community members
• Emergency preparedness training
• Social services and vulnerable populations in disasters
• Sheltering and mass care
• Mutual assistance agreements
Why not focus on what has changed? It is not the disasters or weather since we have had them all along for the last 28 years that I have lived in CT. My humble opinion is that FEMA is involved. In my own neighborhood, I have seen the trucks go back and forth and do no work and all of a sudden they are working at night for 3x the rate is my guess. My other concern is that our State emergency point person is out of state and we are importing from other states such as California resources that could have been had from CT. My suggestion is to follow the flow of money! Who is paying for what and what has seriously changed. I talked to local electrical firms who told me that UI and CL&P would hire local contractors to add to their staff and now with FEMA they are not sourcing from local. Is it because they can get more “money”.