Politics & Government

Collingswood Endures Hurricane Irene

Borough officials and residents discuss their hurricane tactics during Saturday night's storm.

Collingswood dealt with Hurricane Irene as best it could Saturday night. 

"We have an Emergency Operations Center set up at the fire house," said Mayor James Maley of the center Saturday evening, where 9-1-1 calls will be dispatched to. "All (emergency) personnel are on standby.

"We have extra staff reporting at 6 a.m. (Sunday morning)," said Maley. "Everyone is off the roads, and all is buttoned down right now."

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Inside Saturday night, fire and emergency officials spoke to Patch about impending conditions. 

"We have four people on-shift until midnight, then we'll have eight come in, and then probably another four in the early morning hours," said Fireman Stephen Reustle. "There's lots of planning that's been done; there is a plan for everything—emergency shelter areas, evacuation routes. The borough's been working with Camden County and the state to coordinate these kinds of things.

Find out what's happening in Collingswoodwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"Our Emergency Operations Center is opening at 6 a.m. (Sunday), but the storm may dictate an earlier opening for it," said Reustle. "And once that's in operation, if you were to call 9-1-1, your call would go to the center in Lindenwold, and they'd filter local calls back here. So that we could dispatch the calls ourselves.

"Everyone was worried the Camden County system would become inundated with an abundance of calls on one frequency, so we'll be handling local calls ourselves," said Reustle. 

Around town, people could be seen preparing for the worst. 

At restaurant Saturday night, workers closed early, securing the front and side entrances with tarps, held down by sandbags. 

Borough officials made sure every single parking  on Haddon Avenue was covered with plastic wrap and taped, to avoid potential water damage. 

At the Haddon Avenue , shoppers purchased items outside the realm of regular Saturday night buyers. 

"We're almost all out of water jugs. Whatever we have left we moved out of the water aisle and put them into milk crates near the front of the store," said Kathy, a Walgreen's clerk. "And as of last night (Friday), we sold out of batteries—you know, the big ones used in most flashlights—the C's and D's."

And by around 8:30 p.m., the umbrella-clad residents were all but cleared from Haddon Avenue, finally holed up at home to bear the brunt of Hurricane Irene.


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