She was Town of Hempstead Supervisor for a day

Michelle Hauser, 17, can recall driving through the Hurricane Sandy –ravaged areas of her hometown of Oceanside more than one year ago. She explained that she remembers asking her father why construction workers from California and Arkansas were repairing utility poles in the neighborhood, but he didn’t know the answer.

But on Thursday, May 22, she finally learned who helped arranged for them to be there: Town of Hempstead officials. The Oceanside High School junior gained insight as to how the town responds to emergencies like Hurricane Sandy when she was asked to hypothetically do so herself at Students in Government Day 2014.

“I realize now that local government does a lot more than anyone thinks,” she said. “Everybody has a lot on their plate, but they are all happy to be here and devoted to making this a good place to live.”

Hauser took Supervisor Kate Murray’s role during the annual daylong program, along with 11 other local high school students who were “sworn in” as department heads on May 22. The commissioners of sorts were tasked with preparing for an emergency during what officials described as a mock hurricane drill.

Murray explained that Students in Government Day is an annual event that town officials sponsor in conjunction with local high schools. Several of the students who participated this year said a social studies teachers recommended they apply because they have shown interest in politics; then, they wrote essays about local government.

The students shadowed commissioners of various departments in the Town of Hempstead, learning about what they do and their responsibilities in preparing for an emergency. Murray said the mock hurricane drill is an ideal structure for Students in Government Day for two reasons: an emergency weather situation requires all of the faux-commissioners to communicate and work together, and the effects of Hurricane Sandy are still lingering in their communities.

“With Hurricane Sandy fresh on their minds, every student in the room can grasp the severity of this situation very intimately,” she said. “The students are often surprised by all of the complicating factors and they things they would have to think about. It gives them a quick insight as to what it takes to run a governmental department in the face of an emergency.”

The scenario that the students played out involved a hurricane headed straight for Long Island.