Are we prepared for the next big storm?

Little more than a month after a storm that ranked among the largest in Long Island’s history, some local legislators gathered at Adelphi University on April 15 to ask, Are we prepared for the next big storm?

The answer, which will come as no surprise to those who sat in the dark for days after last month’s “superstorm,” seems to be no. But there is hope for the Island’s storm preparedness. State Sen. Kemp Hannon, who organized the roundtable, said that one of the goals of the event was to find out just how far the area is from being ready, and what organizations like the Long Island Power Authority could do to mitigate storm-related problems in the future.

Just days after the roundtable, the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced that New York state will be granted access to federal disaster aid funds to help with the cleanup in the wake of last month’s storm.

The funds are to be channeled through state and local governments, as well as a handful of nonprofit organizations, to help ease the cost of repairs to emergency response equipment and facilities that may still need to be brought back online.

Hannon, along with state Sen. Charles Fuschillo, said the meeting was successful simply because it illustrated the importance of communication with homeowners in affected areas — something many residents felt was lacking during and after the March storm.

“The roundtable was enormously successful, just as a way to learn what’s out there and that the efforts are coordinated — the police and LIPA and emergency services,” Fuschillo said. “Communication is the key to success in preparedness for an emergency situation, whether it’s a hurricane or any other situation, and I believe we may have to think about how certain agencies get their message out to the public. That has to be coordinated to one central agency.”