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SALISBURY TOWNSHIP PRESS RELEASE RELEASE ISSUED: 10/31/12 4:20 PM Hurricane Sandy came and went and like many areas, it brought down many trees and power supply lines. Many residents are still without power in the Township. Approximately 5,700 outages were reported. PPL has indicated that for most, power will not be restored until the weekend. The Township Municipal campus is also not immune to this outage. We have been running on power generator since late Monday night. Police, fire and Public Works employees worked around the clock since Monday night and are busy clearing out roads from trees and tree debris. E. Rock Road remains closed due to a downed power supply line. Honeysuckle Road (State Road) is also closed. The aftermath - PPL is dealing with approx. 116,000 customers without power in Lehigh County alone yesterday. There are well over 6,200 customers without power in Salisbury, up from 5,700 reported yesterday by PPL. Residents can follow the progress on https://www.pplelectric.com/my-account/outage-center/outage-map.aspx. PPL expects to stage mobile crews at the Allentown Fairgrounds and Dorney Park by Friday and have hopefully power by the weekend. Power Outages- For those looking for shelters
Pets- http://www.lvcart.com/ Garbage and Recycling Collection: Road Closures/Blocked
Traffic Signals Out - Lehigh Street and 33rd St. Use extreme caution traveling through that intersection. Beginning at 0700 Monday morning (10/29/12) the Salisbury Township Police Department initiated an emergency operation condition and deployed additional patrol units and supervisory personnel. 10/29/12: Throughout the day, our admin staff fielded calls from the public with requests for storm related information along with our normal call volume. We began receiving and responding to storm related incidents at 1250 hrs. 10/29/12 1500 Hrs: The Salisbury Township Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and Township Emergency Management Group was activated. Emergency Management Director Jeffrey Tapler (assisted by STPD Sergeant Ronald Patten and Assistant EMA Director Dennis Tackacs Jr.) assumed responsibility for coordinating Police, Fire and Public Works responses to storm related calls. Eastern Salisbury and Western Salisbury Township Fire Companies had all of their volunteers and units responding to calls. Salisbury Township Public Works Director John Andreas stayed on duty throughout the entire storm event and rotated his personnel so that they had full crews available to respond to blocked storm drains, downed trees and requests for barricades. The Police Department maintained our three (3) zone patrol officers and fielded a Special Operations Group of seven (7) officers led by Sergeant Kevin Soberick and assisted by Sergeant Donald Sabo with the Quick Response Service/Emergency Medical Service Unit during the storm. We coordinated emergency services and received assistance from Lehigh Valley Health Network Emergency Operations. During the next 28 hours, Township Police, Fire and Public Works personnel responded to eighty-three (83) calls. Over forty-five trees were reported down (many discovered by police and fire units responding to other calls) blocking roads across the Township. PPL power poles and lines are down all over the Township (some on roads, on homes and other buildings) and most of the homes and businesses in the Township lost power. At one point, nineteen (19) roads were blocked by trees. Fortunately, the storm did not cause any deaths or significant injuries in Salisbury Township. We passed on all available information to Lehigh County Emergency Management and to PPL throughout the storm. 10/30/12 1500 Hours: The Township EOC officially closed and additional emergency response and public works personnel were released. Police staffing levels returned to normal. EMA Director Tapler and Police Chief Stiles conducted a Township-wide damage assessment and began preparing necessary reports based upon all storm related information. 10/31/12 Hurricane Sandy Aftermath: Most roads are open but Public Works crews continue to remove tree limbs and debris from areas across the Township. Police continue to answer storm-related calls along with the normal daily call volume. Over 6,231 residences remain without power (according to PPL). We have been informed that PPL should have all Township power restored sometime within the next four to five days. Salisbury School District has altered classes due to power outages. Will meet on Thursday Nov 1 to assess further closure.
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