Politics & Government

Bucks County to Activate EOC for Irene

The county's emergency services team will monitor Irene's impact and coordinate response.

Bucks County will activate its central emergency command center Saturday night in advance of Hurricane Irene's anticipated arrival.

The county's Emergency Operations Center will go online at 8 p.m. Saturday, Bucks officials said Friday.

"We expect to be there for at least 12 hours," county spokesman Chris Edwards said Friday afternoon.

Find out what's happening in Lower Southamptonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

From the headquarters on Freedom Way in Ivyland, the county's emergency services management team can monitor everything from news station feeds to weather data in real time.

It also can coordinate the county's response to any flooding, power outages or other emergencies caused the storm.

Find out what's happening in Lower Southamptonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Edwards said the team manning the center will be composed of 10 to 15 people from hazardous materials, emergency services, the Red Cross, and the Bucks County Animal Response Team, volunteers who care for animals during emergencies.

On their most recent conference call Friday morning, Edwards said Bucks officials were told to anticipate six to 10 inches of rain and winds of 40 to 50 miles an hour, with even stronger gusts.

"The biggest things we're worried about right now, clearly, are power outages and the sheer amount of rain," Edwards said. "That presents problems since the ground is already so soft. It's something that everyone should take seriously."

Everyone from national to regional meteorologists is predicting widespread tree damage and power outages.

Bucks County activates the operations center during large-scale emergencies, such as the flood of the Delaware River in June 2006.

Many Bucks County residents are among those whose shore vacations have been cut short or delayed as vacation destinations from the Outer Banks, NC, up through Ocean City, MD, the Delaware beaches and New Jersey shore towns began evacuating ahead of the storm.

Emergency services officials have .

Edwards repeated one point:

"We're really asking people not to call 911 for things that aren't life-threatening," he pleaded Friday. "That just ties up telephone lines that are needed for real life emergencies."


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here