Havertown Prepares For Irene

As Gov. Tom Corbett on Friday, Haverford Township and Delaware County officials are preparing for Hurricane Irene, .

“We are extremely busy and preparing for the worse.  We have started planning for the storm early in the week and meeting with our emergency personnel to ensure the best possible response,” wrote Haverford Township Manager Larry Gentile to the Haverford-Havertown Patch in an email interview.

Gentile wrote that he has ordered scheduled time off for emergency personnel until Monday and that additional emergency personnel has been called into duty starting Saturday evening.

The Public Works Department personnel have been cleaning storm drains for the last two days in preparation for the expected heavy rains that may hit the area, he wrote.

Haverford Township police will have additional information personnel to accept non-emergency calls from residents, such as down trees, minor flooding and general questions, Gentile wrote, adding that emergency calls, such as medical, fire and gas leaks, should be made to 911.

If residents lose power, Gentile advised that they should not call the township, since it has no control over power issues, but to call PECO at 800-841-4141. 

Gentile stated that he scheduled an emergency message to be broadcast throughout the township starting 5 p.m., Friday. The alert will be broadcasted by the emergency notification system.

“We are asking residents to take this storm seriously and be prepared for the potential of flooding, heavy winds, down trees and long power outages,” he wrote. “A storm of this category can cause power outages for days and Haverford Township can provide no assistance relating to power outages.”

Gentile has given safety tips to Patch to share with township residents, which can be found in a PDF below the pictures.

In a press release given to Patch by Delaware County, the Delaware County Council Chairman Jack Whelan “issued a Declaration of Disaster Emergency for Delaware County in response to the threat posed by Hurricane Irene and the potential for extensive damage to roads, bridges, homes and businesses that could result from heavy rain, high winds and possible flooding.”

, the council has authorized resources to help townships and municipalities in response and recovery efforts, the county press release stated. The disaster emergency will remain in effect for seven days, according to the press release.

At the moment, does not have any more D batteries or flashlights as of 8:30 a.m., Friday, said an employee who did not give her name. 

“Today I think (people) are more concern about batteries,” she said in her German accent. “The wholesalers maybe out too. Such as life.”

But despite coming to the U.S. in the 1950s from Germany, she said Hurricane Irene is not her first hurricane. In the mid-1950s, after she came to Havertown, she encountered one.

“I didn’t know what a hurricane was,” she said, adding that her boss at the time explained to her what it was. “A tree broke down in front of my yard.” 

The employee of the West Chester Pike business said she has worked at Jacob Low Hardware store for more than 50 years.

An employee of in the Manoa Shopping Center quickly told Patch that he was too busy to talk as many customers lined up at the cash registers.

Lines of customers were also long at the cash registers at the , where the manager was paged twice to speak to Patch. The manager did not show due to helping out the many customers, store employees explained.

One Super Fresh patron was overheard as saying about the number of customers in the store shopping for supplies, “this is worse than a snow storm.”