Town Staff is continuing to monitor and respond to the impact of Tropical Storm Isaias. Many parts of town remain without power including much of Main Street and Town Hall. The internet is also down in many areas. Cell phone service and data has been a challenge since Tuesday night with small improvements. As DEMHSRegion 5 noted, "Unfortunately there was significant damage to the communication infrastructure. We are aggressively encouraging the communication networks to restore the service as quickly as possible. The lack of power and backup power also has much to do with it. So we are also aggressively encouraging Eversource to restore power to our communication networks."
The Town Manager, our State Representative, and our Fire Chief have also repeatedly been in contact with Eversource. However as noted in the news and social media, Eversource is catching up by bringing in crews from out of state and Canada.
Our emergency services continue to respond to calls and residents are encouraged to call 911 for medical issues.
The town Recreation Department continues to operate with lifeguards at the beaches. DPW continues to cleanup roads. The senior center director continues to monitor any elderly in need of help as has also been happening through the pandemic as well. Produce from Friendly Hands program was distributed yesterday morning on schedule by volunteers at the college parking lot.
As we have seen in other emergencies in town, community members and businesses have risen to the challenge by helping each other and extending offers of resources needed. We will provide additional details as needed.