| I called the Police Department to find out and they said all they would do is block off intersections so that the traffic could flow into town and then right out the other side. Our strategy, I guess, is to make all these refugees Westwood's problem.
I also asked the officer if he knew where the evacuation points that dumped people into Dedham were. He listed four points and then added "the highways," but said those would be handled by the State Police. I don't know what highway runs from Boston into Dedham except Rt 1 and he had already identified that as one of three evacuation routes he got correct. The other two were Bridge Street and Washington Street, but he missed River Street.
I asked another officer if there was a plan in place for Dedham should there be some major disaster such as a bomb going off. I don't think it is likely to happen but hey, you never know. I was in DC for September 11th, anthrax and the sniper, and no one expected any of those things either. He told me there was a plan but if I wanted to see it I would have to call the Civil Defense Coordinator. He then gave me a number which turned out to be the Town Administrator's office.
I called and the woman who answered the phone gave me yet another number, but that number was out of service. I called back and she gave me another number, this time one that worked. Unfortunately when I called that I didn't get the person I wanted, I got his father. Finally he gave me the correct number and I was able to speak to our Civil Defense Coordinator, Anthony Zollo. I thought to myself that had this been an actual emergency it might not be such a good thing for me to have to make six phone calls before I found out what I was supposed to do.
I asked him where I could see a copy of the emergency plan in case something was to happen. He told me there was a book of about 450 pages but it didn't contain a step by step plan of what to do in an emergency such as Boston has. All we have is a list of phone numbers of who to call in case supplies or services are needed, or to find out how many patients are in a nursing home that may need to be evacuated.
Mr. Zollo told me that should a bomb go off it would be the responsibility of the Police and Fire Departments to handle it and he didn't have anything outlining what was to be done in a situation like that. That wasn't to comforting since it was the Police Department who told me to call him to read what they would do.
The Health Department's left hand seems to know what their right hand is doing though. They have a Volunteer Medical Corps of over 100 members who are ready to assist in an emergency response. Health Director Cathy Cardinale told me that they recently ran though a drill in Needham where anthrax was released in a Costco-like setting. All the shoppers had to be evaluated and 150 of them had to be treated. I was glad to hear that the drill went very well. She also said that during a phone tree drill they were able to get in touch with more of the Corps Members than they thought they would, though she didn't have the data right at hand.
Some people count their breaths, some people volunteer their time to help out in public health crises. Everyone needs a hobby. |
