Freeport to build Emergency Management Center

Posted

Just like the Boy Scouts, the Village of Freeport lives by the motto “be prepared.” On Tuesday, Aug. 25, Freeport Mayor Robert T. Kennedy announced that the village would build a state of the art Emergency Management Center that will provide support to local residents during potential hurricanes and other disasters. The 3,000 square foot center, to be located at 9 North Long Beach Ave., just north of Sunrise Highway in Freeport, is outside the 100-year flood zone.

“The Emergency Management Center will be used by the police, fire department, and OEM to store emergency food rations, generators, blankets, batteries, water, and other provisions that will help our residents in the event of another destructive hurricane or storm,” Kennedy said. He spoke about two other devastating storms – Superstorm Sandy that affected 3,500 Freeport homes and 64 Freeport businesses and the Long Island Express, which barreled through Nassau and Suffolk counties in 1938 and killed some 700 people and carried winds so strong it carved out the Shinnecock Canal. “The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration forecasts a 70 percent probability of six to 10 named storms that could effect the region this year,” Kennedy said.

Salvation Army Major Jose Guzman and Butch Yamli, board member of the American Red Cross, were also on hand to support the village’s efforts to build a new Emergency Management Center.

The building will be located in an open lot behind the Long Island Rail Road on North Long Beach Avenue. Although still in the planning stages, the Village hopes to break ground by December. The cost to taxpayers has “not yet been determined,” said James Bernstein, a Village spokesperson from Todd Shapiro Associates.

Meanwhile, Rick Holdener, Director of Emergency Management for the Village of Freeport, said if a hurricane should occur this season the village “is 100 percent prepared. We’re ready and we have all the equipment we need,” he said. “But when the center is built we’ll have everything in one place and that’s even better.”