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Health & Fitness

Residents are angry, and I dont blame them

A discussion on East Windsor's response to the October Nor'Easter

The time since October 30 has been long and hard for many residents of East Windsor.  I have been around the town listening and seeing frustrations first hand in the aftermath of the storm we have all grown to know as Alfred.  Residents are mad, and I dont blame them one bit.

Clearly all the blame for the loss of power and lack of restoration in a timely manner is a direct fault of CL+P and their own internal problems.  What many residents now do know though, is that East Windsor was not prepared well enough, if at all.  Town leaders were not quick to get any information out.  Shelters were not open, people were struggling.  The fire, police and ambulance workers were all over run with requests for service, and many were facing questions they had no answers too.  

In the days that followed, things slowly seemed to get organized.  A shelter was finally opened at town hall, residents had a place they could turn too, the emergency services became less burdened and many businesses and churches opened their doors to the victims of the storms anger.  Unfortunately, these places were also scrambling to fill a hole that the town should of been prepared for.

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Some will say this is a "once in a lifetime storm", and maybe it was.  The truth is, we should be prepared for a once in a million year storm.  We should have shelters pre-arranged, the information readily available.  People should know where they can turn, before they have to turn to it.  This was not the case in East Windsor.

Many residents I have come across at various locations Saturday were all talking about a auto-dialer message we all received Saturday.  The auto-dialer was a campaign message, with a brief blurb on emergency information for residents.  First Selectman Denise Menard was on the message, begging for re-election, and mentioning the High School as a shelter.  The shelter was not opened at the high school until Thursday (Maybe Friday), which means, while everyone was still suffering, she was off recording campaign slogans to spam our phones with.

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My question Ms. Menard, where was the auto-dialer messages before the storm?  How about immediately after?  Why the campaigning in the message?  Why could you not have provided information in a timely manner that would of made peoples lives better?  Why the wait?

I am not one to go out and try to convince people of my opinions, or expect you to follow my beliefs.  But just as we all want CL+P CEO Jeff Butler to be responsible for his businesses response to the storm, I want our towns CEO to be responsible as well.

I would like to give a personal thank you to State Representative Christopher Davis for his hard work and updates throughout the ordeal he provided via social media.  I wish East Windsor would take a look at Chris's work ethic and emulate it.

I urge everyone to vote Tuesday November 8.  It is time we as residents bond together and vote for change.  We need leadership more than ever, and the First Selectman posistion is the CEO of our town.  We need to hold the current CEO accountable.  In two months we have had two major storms, and are no more prepared for the next then we were for the last two.

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