We all know this storm was a bad one. It caused us all some inconvenience and for many, a healthy dose of anxiety. But this woman's experience, shared with others in her four-plex, is downright scary and inexcusable.
This is what happens when Farmington Woods uses funds that should be available for the safety and security of residents to shore up two losing operations at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. It's really a sad, scary tale.
I am
very grateful to our grounds crews and road crews for working long, hard hours
with insufficient equipment and too small a staff. I am grateful to staff
members who took calls from residents and worked hard to keep residents
informed and to coordinate snow removal.
I am grateful for their efforts to free doctors, nurses, first
responders, and residents who had important medical appointments.
Let’s
thank them as soon as we can and, then, start to honestly look at the risks we
faced during the February 8-9 snowstorm.
Although this was record-breaking storm, we were warned of it several
days in advance. While weather reports forecast 30 or more inches of snow and
hurricane force winds, which they warned would cause serious problems with
drifting snow, governors and mayors all around New England
put their emergency plans into action.
We
should have been prepared. We should not have had at least 2 snow blowers
broken and one truck out of commission. Rather than plowing a parking area
around an empty Club House, we should have been clearing the walkways to the
homes of people. Instead of subsidizing
the golf course, and continuing to make plans to re-design/re-decorate the Club
House, we should be fixing equipment when it breaks down and purchasing or
leasing whatever is needed to keep residents safe.
I live
in a 4-plex, and those of us who were at home on the night of the storm were
literally trapped inside our building.
The two doors to the building were blocked by more than 30 inches of
snow and could not be opened more than two inches. Had there been a fire, or
had one of us suffered a medical emergency, we could not have gotten out of the
building, and any emergency response crew would probably have taken 30 - 60
minutes to get into our building. Those are precious minutes in the event of a
stroke, a heart attack, a fall which breaks a major bone.
In my
courtyard there are two 4-plexes, and two buildings with 2 side by side units
in each. Not all units are occupied at
this time, but I know that 4 of the 11 occupied units are home to people who
are physically compromised and who might require considerable assistance in an
evacuation. In any case, our homes were
firetraps --- deathtraps.
On the
second night of our confinement, using a Loctite penetrating oil and some
tools, I was able to detach the screen window on the building’s front door,
move the Plexiglas windows, and stick my hand through the door to scoop away
enough snow that I could push the door about 7 inches and squeeze through. Once outside, I was able to shovel off our
front doorstep, so that in case of an emergency, we could escape the building,
or open the door to a rescue crew. On
the third day of being so confined, my neighbor dug a 60 foot path away from
the building and another path to a neighbor’s home, while I dug the path to a
second neighbor’s home. On the third
night, working well into the dark of night, our road crew came to dig out our
garages. We can return to work now. Hopefully the rest of our community will be
freed soon.
Now it
is time to ask, “What can we learn from this experience? Do we prefer subsidizing an expensive
irrigation system, cart paths, and other golf course improvements to keeping
ourselves and our neighbors safe? Do we
prefer a fancy Clubhouse entrance or even an elevator, or would we rather feel
we have provided for the safety of everyone? What are the prudent decisions we
need to make to protect our community?”
Lucinda
Hannon
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