Full Notification

As Hurricane Irene leaves the Westchester County New York area, it has left in its wake a tremendous amount of damage to the area and infrastructure.

While to Town has had crews working since the storm began, conditions were such that the damage could not be prevented or stopped. The Towns pre-planned and prepared response to this event has included personnel from the Department of Public Works, Highway Department, Water & Sewer, Recreation, Office of Emergency Management, The Fire Departments from Armonk, Banksville, & North White Plains, as well as all of our elected officials, many who worked side by side with our respondes throughout the weekend.

Due to extreme winds during and after the storm, a great deal of damage was done to area trees. This damage always leads to interuption of electrical power due to our large overhead power infrastructure. At the current time over 3150 homes in North Castle have no electrical power. This number represents roughly 80 % of all residential homes in town.

The Office of Emergency Management, Police Department and Highway Department have been working diligently with representatives from Con Edison in an effort to survey power line damage, Cut Back wires and open effected roadways, and begin to plan for service restoration. Con Edison has assigned a municipal liasion to work directly from our offices to expidite this process.

While it is impossible at this time to estimate power restoration times, all residents without electrical power should prepare to be without electrical power until Wednesday August 31,2011 in the evening at the earliest. While some power may be restored faster, these are realistic estimates based on the damage and Con Edisons abiltiy to respond and restore.

In order to assist our residents, NC4 our towns 100 % volunteer sheltering group has opened a human needs reception center within the John Hergenhan Recreation Center. This center is open to receive and assist residents from 6 AM until 10 PM daily. Should any resident require assistance outside of the normal hours or requires a place to sleep overnight, please contact the police department after hours at 914-273-9500, they will be able to summon assistance for you. We are making arrangements to have this facility open until Wednesday August 31, 2011. At that time it will be determined whether this assistance is still required based on our recovery timeline.

Based on the number of trees down, roadway closures and downed powerlines, I must ask all residents to remain in their homes while we work to make the area safe. Persons walking in their neighborhoods could suffer serious injury or death from any one of the listed hazards. If you must leave your residence please do so by vehicle only, but please limit your travel to extreme emergencies only. By limiting your use of the roadways, it will leave them clear for our first responders, town work crews and Con Edison crews. We make this request in order to protect you and your family.

I thank you all for your patients and understanding during what will be a long and arduous recovery from this damaging storm. The Town of North Castle is blessed to have a group of dedicated employees and volunteers who will work tirelessly to keep you safe while we recover from this severe weather event.

Additional information regarding our recovery timeline will be broadcast via the nixle system when it becomes available. If you have not signed up for nixle notification you may do so at www.nixle.com.

Thank You