Ward 4 Didn't Fare As Well As Others in Storm

Ward 4 City Councilor Jonathan Weydt submitted the following to Attleboro Patch after the Tuesday council meeting. Go here to see a video of what Weydt said during the meeting.

We had several issues in Ward 4 during and in the aftermath of the snowstorm. We didn't fare as well as others.

There was a National Grid power outage from Friday at 9 p.m. to Sunday at 6 p.m. (70 hours). An evacuation of a senior couple took over 10 hours to coordinate. Streets remained unplowed into Saturday night. Among them were Chartley Brook Lane, Beverly Circle, Thayer Farm Road and Pocahontas Lane.

My concern is that not enough assets were sent to Ward 4. We needed more help than other parts of the city due to the power outage. I think we should have been a top priority and on the front burner. If you have an area without power, it certainly leads to major problems.

There was a switch in the shelter locations from La Salette to Attleboro High School, moving it farther from Ward 4 and the main affected area. This happened after the power outage and made it difficult for me to get this information to residents in the ward. I forwarded updates electronically to constituents, but they couldn't receive them unless they had a smartphone.

Reverse 911 calls did not go out to everyone. A longtime resident in Ward 5 with a long-standing telephone number told me she didn't receive a call. On the other hand, another resident told me the household received three calls to the same number with the same message.

I have some very unhappy constituents. I would like to be involved in any debriefings or meetings that take place regarding this storm so we can improve our services, be proactive and ensure issues like these don't arise next time.

And there will be a next time.