Challenges are one of the true measures of who we are as a community, and the rain/ice/snowstorm on March 23 wasn’t merely a challenge, it was a brutal test. More than 80% of Bethlehem households (13,400 residences) lost power. Branches and trees were down everywhere. Fires started. Roads had to be closed. It truly was a historically difficult storm.
Bethlehem pulled through it by coming together. I was so impressed by the resiliency our community showed in dealing with the storm and, recognizing that, I think it’s important that we all take a moment to thank:
• Our Police Dispatchers for skillfully managing almost 300 calls during the storm, and deploying the right people to the right places to help.
• Our volunteer firefighters for responding to numerous calls about everything from flooded basements to downed wires to fires.
• Our Highway crews for tirelessly clearing downed trees and limbs, plowing and salting roads, and now laboriously cleaning up all the deadfall along hundreds of miles of roadsides.
• Our Police Officers for working in partnership with other emergency responders and our Highway Department to close roads and help community members in need.
• Our Sewer Field Operations team for juggling generators to make sure the 27 sewer pump stations that lost power kept running and kept sewage from backing into homes and businesses.
• Our Building Division for working late into the night to help residents who had trees fall on their homes.
• Our Senior Services team for calling our most vulnerable residents to make sure they were okay.
• Our Emergency Medical Responders for assisting residents who were running out of medical oxygen.
• The National Grid line crews and tree services for working nonstop to get power restored to every household as quickly as possible.
• Our neighbors for showing such grit and patience.
Storms and unexpected events happen, and to me the true test of our community’s character is how we come together to handle them. I couldn’t be more impressed by how well Bethlehem responded to this historic storm. THANK YOU!
David VanLuven
Bethlehem Town Supervisor
