Community Corner

East Hampton Voluntary Evacuation Ordered; Two Shelters Set To Open Saturday

Supervisor encourages people to watch a presentation of the Emergency Operation Management on Saturday morning.

A town-wide voluntary evacuation has been ordered for all of East Hampton, according to Supervisor Bill Wilkinson.

Wilkinson also said that two shelters will open on Saturday morning at an exact time to be determined.

The Red Cross will open a shelter at East Hampton High School, which was moved from its originally planned location of John M. Marshall Elementary School. The Montauk Fire Department Women's Auxillary will staff the Montauk Community Playhouse Shelter, as the Red Cross didn't have the resources to open both, according to Wilkinson.

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The East Hampton Animal Control Department will also open its pet shelter at the playhouse.

"Because of mandatory evacuations further UpIsland, it is going to take an inordinate amount of time to go points west," Wilkinson said. "We encourage you to take as much time as possible to travel."

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Diane Petrizzio at the human services department has already gathered a list of people with special needs and how the human services department may be able to help them. He encourages those people to leave. "If they wait until the power goes out, it's already too late."

Meanwhile, Wilkinson and the town's emergency management team will give a presentation at the normal town board work session on Saturday morning, starting at 10 a.m.

The supervisor encourages residents and visitors to watch the work session live on LTV or attend the meeting at Town Hall.

For those in low-lying areas, like Ditch Plains or Lazy Point, Wilkinson said he hopes "to engage the fire departments to help us go door to door and have them talk about the risk."

The East Hampton and Montauk fire departments have emergency meetings scheduled for their members on Friday night.

Employees with the town highway, recreation, sanitation and human services departments have been put on-call so that they are available to respond as necessary.

Beaches will most likely be closed starting tomorrow morning, Wilkinson added.



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