MILLTOWN — Last year, the borough was one of the communities hit hardest by Tropical Storm Irene.
This year Milltown fared far better, compared to some neighboring towns more devastated by Hurricane Sandy.
The principle issue in August 2011 was floodwaters that shut down the borough’s electric substation, resulting in a power outage of more than a week.
Fortunately, although Sandy’s powerful winds downed trees and inflicted other damage, flooding did not occur at the substation. However, officials were prepared for such an eventuality.
“Tremendous steps were taken to prevent any kind of water from getting in there,” Mayor Eric Steeber said. “All the hatches were battened down. We actually sealed up the electrical substation.
“Our Office of Emergency Management (OEM) kicked in early and did a tremendous, tremendous job, as … did our public works department,” Steeber added. “We were well prepared. We were actually sitting, waiting for the storm. I think that was a first in Milltown.”
In addition, the borough yard and municipal garage were both emptied in anticipation of the storm.
Though Milltown experienced similar outages as neighboring communities, they were out of power for only three days, he said.
In the aftermath of the storm, officials independently contracted a firm from Tennessee, which saw to it that a majority of the community’s power was restored well before other neighboring towns.
“They worked tremendously with our guys. They were great with the residents,” Steeber said. “They were fast and thorough in their work. We had a lot of primary and secondary lines down in town; we had quite a few number of house services that were tore off homes.”
The firm did not restore homes with services torn off, because they had to be fixed by licensed electricians, he said.
In addition, officials contracted three firms for tree removal.
In advance of the storm, officials authorized tree trimming near power lines, as well as efforts to remove $20,000 worth of trees throughout the borough.
“Under my administration we recognized the shortfall and began to act on it,” he said. “I think that saved us in a lot of neighborhoods.”
Now that Sandy has passed, Steeber said the borough OEM was already preparing for a nor’easter scheduled to bring more nasty weather to the region Wednesday, Nov. 7, into Thursday.
In light of the devastation experienced by other communities and, given the fact that Milltown was relatively unscathed, the mayor’s daughter, Emily, wanted to help and initiated a drop-off drive for residents to donate clothing, nonperishable food, toiletries, medical goods and baby items.
Most of the goods were donated to residents of storm-battered Perth Amboy, while clothing also was going to be distributed through the county.
“We opened up the Milltown Senior Center at 11 a.m. [Nov. 5],” he said. “By 5 p.m. the whole building was literally packed with goods.”
Steeber said he was touched by the generosity displayed by the community.
“I was humbled and surprised,” he said. “This is what I’ve been saying to the county and the state leaders I’ve met over my first years as mayor — the people of Milltown are terrific. They’re hard-working people, and they are very, very generous. It was a very beautiful thing.”