First Selectman's Statement on Storm Recovery

From First Selectman Tom Frenaye

Good Morning, I’m Tom Frenaye, the First Selectman of Suffield.

I asked you to be here today to provide our residents with an update on what has been going on over the last week and what will be done moving forward.

This has been an absolute crisis for Suffield and has essentially crippled the town for more than nine days. The storm itself caused significant damage to trees, homes and power lines throughout our town borders. At one point, 100 percent of the town was without power, and as late as Friday night, 45 percent of the town had no power.

We have had at a couple of fatalities that may be storm related. We have had at least 8 carbon monoxide poisonings in town that, thankfully, did not result in further fatalities. Additionally, we have had vehicles crushed by trees and building fires in the days following the storm. These tragedies have strained Town resources and presented unprecedented challenges for the Town Government.

Connecticut Light & Power (CL&P) was slow to react and we received no help in the short term from the Federal Government and little help from the State. Obviously, the power and communications issues have further complicated matters. Despite these challenges, the Suffield community has pulled together and done surprisingly well.

First, one of the things I love about this town is its people and our people have been incredibly resilient over the last week. We had dozens of volunteers working at the emergency shelter, serving food at the senior center and helping neighbors by taking care of one another. From those volunteers to people who came by the shelters to serve food or drop off pizzas, the amount of generosity has been tremendous.

I know that watching all of you has kept all of us working hard all week and I thank all of you. Let me stress that we could not have gotten through this week without the volunteers and the town owes you all a debt of gratitude.

From the Town perspective, given our challenges we did very well because we had a good emergency plan in place and good people who respect each other working hard to get the job done.

Our Emergency Operations Center opened just three hours after the heavy snow started, and the Emergency Shelter at the High School opened two hours later. The EOC provided a focal point for our contact with CL&P, the State of Connecticut and with town residents, with hundreds of calls logged.

Over the course of the week, the shelter provided a place to warm up, shower, eat and sleep for around 750 residents. We served more than 2,500 meals, and provided hot showers and other support to several thousand daytime visitors. Our Senior Center offered supportive care and meals for several hundred residents. We also distributed emergency food and bottled water to at least a thousand residents from five locations in different parts of town.

The most challenging issue has come in assisting those with special medical needs and also many of our older citizens. Police, fire and ambulance crews have done a great job in that area and the town has brought in nurses where we could to further assist in getting help to those in need.

John Woods, our emergency operations director, deserves a huge amount of praise. Town officials manned phone lines day and night to get as much information as possible in so we could communicate to CL&P where the major problems were. A tremendous amount of credit needs to go to the Police and Fire Departments as well as the Suffield Volunteer Ambulance Association, who have selflessly protected the town and responded to so many emergencies over the last week. I’d also like to acknowledge and thank the Highway Department for all of their hard work and school officials who have been so accommodating over the last week.

Personally, let me say this has been one of the most challenging weeks of my life. I’ve literally lived at Town Hall and slept in my office, because there has been so much work to do. On top of working through this disaster we’ve also had to do the regular work of the town as well.

We conducted a mediation session with one town union, met with representatives from a national company looking for a suitable location for a one-million square foot warehouse distribution center in town, and kept the normal functioning of town government running smoothly.  It has been very challenging and once again I’d like to thank all of you who have kept me going this week.

Now, let me tell you what we are doing moving forward. As of right now there are still 300 homes without power. This is significantly down from the Sunday morning total of around 2,000, but it’s not good enough. We need to get every home online ASAP. Let me say that if you are one of those without power, I share your frustration as my home only received power late last night. CL&P says that all but about 60 homes will have power tonight, and 100 pwecet by Wednesday midnight. We are continuing to push CL&P to finish the job and continue to ask for your calls letting us know where power is has not been restored.

The shelter will be closing later today and arrangements are being made for those residents who do not yet have power but still require assistance.

Thanks to State Rep. O’Brien, we have the Connecticut Department of Transportation clearing state roads at this time. The Board of Finance and Board of Selectman will be meeting tonight to authorize more funds for road and debris clean up. I expect these to be approved. Once funding is approved we will be working with a State approved contractors to get the 75 miles of town roads cleaned up and to continue to improve the safety along our roads. The contractor will also be utilizing local small businesses to do a good portion of the work. 

My number one priority is getting Suffield back to business as usual. I think the course of action we are taking will do just that. Schools will likely be opening on Tuesday, and municipal elections will proceed as scheduled at the Middle School from 6 a.m. until 8 p.m. Tuesday as well.

Once again I want to thank all of those that gave so selflessly this week.