M O N T G O M E R Y C O U N T Y
Faster calls sought if dam breaks
System to get needed upgrade
BY EDWARD MUNGER Jr. Gazette Reporter
Montgomery
County emergency management officials are planning an upgrade to
computer software that would speed up calls for evacuations in the
event the Gilboa Dam fails.
The
software upgrade would be paid for by a $25,000 state grant secured by
state Sen. Hugh T. Farley for "emergency response planning, equipment
and supplies" related to the Gilboa Dam.
Montgomery
County Emergency Management Director Gary Nestle on Thursday said the
funding will help pay for an upgrade in the county’s emergency
telephone system, which can phone households with an emergency message.
The system can currently be employed on
a street-by-street basis, and by municipality, but upgrades would make
the process faster.
Russ Bell, vice
president of
Rochester-based
The Asher Group,
which maintains the
county’s Internet-based computerized telephone system, described the
upgrade as a way to streamline calls to more-specific locations.
With
the upgrade, county dispatchers could bring up a file of all households
affected by common springtime flooding and, with the push of a button,
have all those homes contacted with a recorded message, Bell said.
"It would make it more efficient," Bell said.
Emergency managers in Schoharie, Montgomery and Schenectady counties started planning
evacuations following the New York City
Department of Environmental Protection’s announcement in the fall that
the dam doesn’t meet current design standards.
Engineers
believe it would take about 11 1 /2 hours for water from the
20-billion-gallon Schoharie Reservoir to hit Montgomery County, were
the Gilboa Dam to fail.
Though
unlikely, engineers determined the dam could be compromised if water
levels reach about eight feet above the dam’s spillway.
The
water flooded out regions of Schoharie County in 1996 when it rose 6.6
feet above the dam’s spillway, according to the DEP.
Undersheriff
Jeffery Smith said in addition to the telephone technology,
firefighters, police, deputies and volunteers would knock on doors
asking people to evacuate if a dam failure is reported.
Smith
said evacuation routes have been developed for several areas that could
be in the path of flood waters.
"I
think we’ve made a lot of progress. I think we’re as prepared as we can
be at this point," Smith said. "Are you ever prepared for a major
disaster? At this point, who knows? Volunteers and firemen have done a
ton of work to try to make Montgomery County as prepared as can be."
The
grant money may also be used to pay for about 10,000 cards Nestle said
he wants to print for volunteers to leave at doorways of at-risk homes.
Two different cards would be left, one
at the point when volunteers first reach a home and find it unoccupied,
and another that indicates homes have been confirmed as evacuated.
Nestle
said he is planning to hold a 15-minute presentation for the Montgomery
County Office for Aging Inc. to update senior citizens on preparations.
Also in the planning stages are public
hearings that will take place in February and March, Nestle said.
Meetings
are being planned, but are not yet scheduled, for several
municipalities that would take the brunt of flooding in the county were
the dam to fail, Nestle said.
The
public hearings will be held in the towns of Glen, Charleston, Florida
and in Fort Hunter, Fultonville, Fonda and the city of Amsterdam,
Nestle said.