By Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz
Our region recently dealt with another major winter weather event as Mother Nature hit Erie County hard last month with some downright brutal conditions. I am proud of the collaboration that took place throughout the county in addressing the lake-effect snowstorm in mid-January. We were able to coordinate a strategic response that eventually grew to include thousands of workers and hundreds of pieces of equipment of all types that assisted hard-hit communities.
The forecast prompted us to open our Emergency Operations Center in Cheektowaga. More commonly referred to by county officials and members of the media as “the EOC,” it once again served as our region-wide nerve center for response during the snowstorm and subsequent cleanup efforts. We summoned storm response personnel from every conceivable field to coordinate our strategic approach to protect and maintain public safety, clear roads as quickly as possible, and support residents who were negatively impacted by the severe winter weather.
Regular communication and continuous coordination was crucial, which is why we held scheduled conference calls open to all local municipalities in an effort to improve overall situational awareness in what was a constantly changing environment.
I thank the town supervisors, city and village mayors and various highway and public works department administrators who participated and embraced the concept of collaboration. The result was a coordinated storm response developed with community leaders who understood the importance of joining forces to address the many issues our region faced.
We were able to assign snowplows, high-lifts, dump trucks, and other specialized equipment to the neighborhoods that were hit the hardest due to the heavy accumulation of snow. In addition to the elected officials who rose to the occasion, I also want to thank all of the municipal employees, emergency responders and other essential personnel who did what needed to be done to keep our community as safe as possible.
I also thank all of the family members and friends of any essential employee who was required to work during the emergency. You understood the important tasks and duties that public safety dispatchers, law enforcement officials, public works employees and various other first responders had to complete to serve and protect the public.
This is also a good time to remind everyone to download the free ReadyErie emergency preparedness app on your cell phone or other mobile device. The app allows anyone to instantly obtain critical weather and emergency alerts to help keep your family safe when a winter storm or any other type of emergency event occurs in the future.