Mangano, Office of Emergency Management Prepare For Hurricane Season

Nassau County Executive Edward P. Mangano has announced that the Office of Emergency Management will partner with the Nassau Red Cross for a test drill exercise to open hurricane shelters in the County on Saturday, June 12, 2010.

The drill, which will happen simultaneously throughout the New York region, will simulate an actual disaster response, and will demonstrate each Red Cross chapter’s readiness to shelter and feed local residents should they need to be evacuated from their homes due to power outages and flooding from a hurricane or major weather-related event.  Red Cross volunteers will register shelter residents, set up cots and provide blankets, food, beverages, personal hygiene kits along with health and mental health services

The Nassau County Red Cross will set up an Emergency Operations Center at its Mineola headquarters, located at 195 Willis Avenue, Mineola. Corpus Christi Elementary School, located at 120 Searing Avenue, Mineola, will be used at a registration center for volunteers, beginning at 7:00AM, where they will be assigned to the EOC or a shelter.

 

Nassau Community College (NCC) will serve as a “live shelter”, and the public is encouraged to visit NCC and act as evacuees for the purpose of the drill between 9:00AM and 12:00PM.

Also partnering in the hurricane shelter drill are the Suffolk County Fire, Rescue and Emergency Services; Community Emergency Response Team members, Amateur Radio Emergency Services; Coca Cola Enterprises; and Save the Children.

On Long Island alone, the Nassau and Suffolk Red Cross chapters have plans in place to open up to 50 shelters during a major disaster – all of which already have the cots, blankets and non-perishable medical supplies in place to shelter nearly 60,000 residents.