Rockville Centre completes storm preparations

With a state of emergency in effect, Rockville Centre Mayor Francis Murray declared that all businesses, including restaurants and bars, must close by 10 p.m. on Saturday night. He also ordered a village-wide curfew to begin at 11 p.m — a few hours before the worst of Hurricane Irene is expected to hit the village. No one, he said, should be outdoors after that time except for authorized emergency workers.

At a 10 a.m. meeting in Village Hall on Saturday, the mayor, Deputy Mayor Nancy Howard and trustees Ed Oppenheimer and Michael Sepe met with department heads, emergency managers and representatives from the fire and police departments and the school district to finalize contingency plans. They were joined later by Trustee Kevin Glynn. At the meeting it was learned that two Fire Department companies in the evacuation zone, south of Merrick Road, are being relocated to the Reliance Company and Molloy College.

Also discussed were plans for village electric and public works crews to report for duty during the storm on Saturday night and for workers from upstate New York to join them soon after the storm ends to help with the restoration of electricity as necessary.

Recreation Department and Senior Center personnel will also be on hand to drive buses should evacuations become necessary. Two portable back-up generators were expected to be delivered to the village Saturday morning and public works crews were tying down or removing public trash cans around the village. They were also planning to deploy sandbags at two known flood zones — N. Village Avenue at Roxen Road and Hempstead Avenue at Beverly Road. Water Department personnel also reported to the trustees that Rockville Centre's water towers had been topped off in advance of the hurricane.