Dalton Board Approves Draft of Emergency Evacuation Plan
DALTON, Mass. — The Select Board approved the draft of an Emergency Evacuation Plan last week.
The amended plan is designed to relieve road congestion and improve public safety in the event of a natural disaster that would require evacuation.
The plan shifts the evacuation from west to east. It directs residents toward the three outlying roads, High Street, Main Street and East Housatonic Street and Windsor and Hinsdale, Emergency Management Director Glenn Lagerwall said.
This change is based on previous town incidents and training sessions for the area's emergency departments.
During the Craneville Elementary School fire in May, a number of residents came from Pittsfield to pick their children up at the Stationary Factory, which caused a lot of congestion on South Street and Dalton Avenue.
There is no such thing as a perfect plan, Lagerwall said. This is just to give people a general direction in the case of a real emergency. The plan would change based on the circumstances of the situation.
The town's Emergency Operation Center has also been moved to the Senior Center. The primary EOC was at the Police Station and the secondary EOC was at the fire station.
Having done hundreds of these types of situations, Lagerwall did not like having the EOC in the center of town because the area is already congested and the Police Department will be hectic during an emergency.
The one thing that the town has to rectify to move the EOC to the Senior Center is power. Lagerwall is going to be working to get an alternate power source for the location.
Having an EOC at the Fire Department comes with the same issues as the police station, Lagerwall said. The secondary EOC has been moved to the town garage.
"The Fire Department is a better staging area to bring people in and park in the Stationary Factory and have rehabilitation in that Fire Department," Lagerwall said.
Now that the town has a better communication network run through its buildings, moving these EOCs is possible.
Dalton does not, however, have the facilities to meet the requirements for an overnight shelter for citizens. Instead, it can use temporary shelters and emergency evacuation points to transport citizens to a regional shelter.
The Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency is establishing a regional shelter at Berkshire Community College.
Based on the number of people who leave town on their own, emergency evacuation points could include the Stationery Factory, Community Recreation Association, Wahconah Regional High School, Nessacus Middle School and the Dalton American Legion.
Wahconah and Nessacus are lower on the list because of factors that make it a "tough sell," Lagerwall said.
Wahconah has a single road access and is one of the lowest areas in town, which would not help in the case of a flooding emergency, Lagerwall said.
The road is going to be compacted making it difficult for emergency responders and residents, he said.
In cases where there is an emergency in the center of town, they can use Wahconah and Nessacus Regional Middle School.
Lagerwall reiterated multiple times throughout the presentation that there is no such thing as a perfect plan. How the town reacts to an emergency situation is dependent on what is going on.
Although action is situational it is good to have these plans in place because it gets people thinking, Select Board member Marc Strout said.
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