Planning and Preparation Helped Weather the Storm

One of the first things the town administrator saw on his way to work along Lynn Shore Drive Monday morning was two surfers and two wind surfers out in the water.

The sight got him thinking Hurricane Sandy might make for an interesting day.

As it turned out, the day went about as well as it could have, Town Administrator Tom Younger said.

He credited this to preparation, communication and the work of town department heads and public safety and public works employees.

The town has strong and reliable leadership and employees, he said.

A key ingredient in the response was that the preparation started early, late last week, he said.

On Sunday night, the decision was made to close Town Hall and have department heads and police and fire and public works crews come in to work, he said.

Along with the heads of police, fire and public works, Assistant Town Administrator Dave Castellarin, Health Director Jeff Vaughan and Building Inspector Rich Baldacci were at work.

Early on, thanks to efforts of the harbormaster, the boats were all out of Swampscott Harbor, the town administrator said.

That took care of any boat problems.

And the roads were largely free of traffic.

The word went out to the public to stay inside and off the roads, and the public heeded the advice, he said.

"That is the key for emergency management communicate early," he said.

The town administrator only got three emails from residents, two were about when taxes were due and th eother was a question about Humphrey Street flooding.

While police, fire and public works were closing and opening roads, responding to downed wires, downed trees and other emergencies, the town administrator and other local officials made regular rounds every few hours.

Those rounds continued through the night as the fire chief made loops around the town to see what was happening on the ground.