Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Emergency Management topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
New Haven officials outline multi‑department response to two back‑to‑back winter storms and warn of budget impacts
Summary
City departments reviewed operations after two consecutive storms: EOC staffing, emergency calls, plow/tow limitations, contractor use, enforcement counts, and an estimated $1.1 million in storm‑related overages. Officials urged better resident compliance with parking bans, improved GPS for plows and formalized EOC triage.
City officials from public works, parks, transportation, emergency management and schools delivered a detailed after‑action briefing on two severe storms that struck the city in close succession. Departments described equipment limits, real‑time tradeoffs, enforcement activity and an early estimate of storm costs approaching $1.1 million over budget.
Chief Administrative Officer Justin McCarthy and Emergency Management Director Caleb Bland explained that both the emergency operations center and department crews were staffed for 24‑hour operations during the events; Bland said the EOC created hundreds of tickets (requests) across the incidents and coordinated police, fire and DPW resources.
Public works and parks staff described field realities: plow trucks frequently operate in complex, tightly parked urban streets, some machines got stuck in hardpack conditions and contractors were used to supplement city crews. "We are over budget in snow related expenses by $1.1 million," Justin McCarthy told the committee, reflecting overtime, contractor and salt costs. Directors said that final accounting remained open and that FEMA/state reimbursement was unlikely for these storms.
Transportation and parking staff outlined enforcement operations: towing runs (574 vehicles towed in one storm period), warnings and citations (hundreds issued across the two events) and the limited number of parking enforcement officers available during prolonged storms. Officials said ticketing capacity is constrained by staffing, tow‑company availability and the time required to clear and process towed vehicles.
School operations staff described contractor performance at schools: most contractors made spaces passable for opening, but staff said roughly 30% of sites needed follow‑up work after initial passes. The schools suspended classes for several days because busability and safety were compromised during deep accumulations.
Officials recommended improvements including better GPS tracking for contractor/plow fleets, clearer EOC triage rules (prioritize PD/FD/EMS requests for plow diversion), expanded resident education on parking bans and enforcement, and a coordinated after‑action review involving DPW, parks, transportation and schools.
