Who Ya Gonna Call About Irene?

The following is a message from Morris Township Police Captain Rich Ferrone, answering several questions posed by Patch:

How do we know who to call for various non-life threatening problems that may occur?

Here are the non-emergency numbers:

Police: 973-326-7437

Fire: 973-326-7438

DPW: 973-326-7472

If people want to report trees down, flooding, clogged drains, call the DPW. If the basement is flooding, call the fire department. If the power goes out, people do not need to call us. JCPL will be aware of their issues as their circuits go down.

What areas might have flood problems?

Our biggest flooding areas in storms like this (and I'm falling back to Floyd) are Washington Valley Road, Lake Road and Lake Valley Road, Bromleigh Way and, believe it or not Woodland Avenue (location of the police station).

What if you can't stay in your house for some reason?

As far as shelters: For immediate relief people can go to any of the firehouses. The Morristown High School is being set up to handle over 400 evacuees from the area. The Mennen Sports Arena is set up to deal with evacuees from outside of the area.

Capt. Ferrone also said that it is important for all of us to be prepared. The state may be so heavily involved in helping those at the shore, if they are the most affected, that they may not have the resources to help other areas of the state