Ulster County officials took to their emergency operation center at the county's law enforcement center in Kingston. YNN's Alexandra Weishaupt has more on what preparations leaders are making ahead of Sandy.
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KINGSTON, N.Y. -- “This is the heart of the entire operation. This is what has been significantly different than our response in the past,” said Ulster County Executive Mike Hein.
It’s the first Emergency Operations Center created in Ulster County, and it’s making for a coordinated set of responses amongst a core team of leaders.
The team has been organized to take care of three functions: rescue and life safety, human needs and recovery.
“The human needs is going to be a bigger issue for us in this event, if it is truly a major wind event, we're going to be seeing a lot of power outages,” said Snyder.
The Emergency Management Director says he expects two-thirds of the county to lose power, and some areas for an extended period of time. Because of this expectation, four emergency shelters are opening Monday morning in Ellenville, Kingston, Shandaken and New Paltz.
Snyder says they're also concerned about possible flooding in the mountainous areas of the county as well as Kingston's Rondout District. He adds they won't be closing any roads until there's an actual problem, but says if and when there is, Ulster County crews are ready to respond.
“This emergency center is bringing together all the key players that will help make this response something that will bring the citizens back to some sense of normalcy as quickly as possible,” said Snyder.
“This is all about coordination of effort. About making sure we act as swiftly as possible...there’s been a significant amount of training that’s been going on and we’re prepared to be able to respond to this,” said Hein.
Visit www.co.ulster.ny.us/emergencyservices/index.html for more information.