Lower Township Emergency Services Team Up for Storm

ERMA — Lower Township Police, Fire and Rescue and road crews worked together as a team to assist township residents during and in the aftermath of the Feb. 6 blizzard.
“With department heads and employees working 16 hour plus shifts, I can’t say enough about our police officers, fire fighters, EMT’s, OEM Officials and Township Road Crews who pooled their efforts for this storm,” said Lower Township Police Chief Ed Donohue.
During the height of the storm, emergency officials in Lower Township were dealing with:
• Large trees across roadways forcing police to shut down Fulling Mill Road and Shunpike Road to all traffic. As of the afternoon of Feb. 8, a large tree was still down across Shunpike road in Erma.
• Multiple wires down and arcing with transformers exploding which led to numerous calls to police for responses from Villas, Town Bank and Erma Fire Departments.
• Utility poles with height tensions snapping on Ocean Drive which forced police to close down Ocean Drive for several hours.
• One structure fire reported in Shawcrest on Old Rio Grande Boulevard. Lower Township and Wildwood fire departments responded to the blaze and were on scene for several hours fighting the fire during high winds and heavy snow.
• At the height of the storm, visibility was reduced to about a block in blowing snow.
• Plow crews had difficulty keeping up with the accumulating snow on the many side streets with some plows getting stuck.
• Township plow crews assisted police officers in four-wheel drive vehicles to reach several residents who were stranded without electricity and heat.
• Villas Fire Department opened as a shelter for residents with medical needs or who may be on oxygen.
•Town Bank Fire Department opened as a shelter after power went out in a large portion of North Cape May including the entire Channels Apartments complex.
• Police officers and firefighters made numerous trips to transport residents to shelters.
• Shelters quickly ran out of blankets and residents were told to bring their own blankets and medication to shelters.
•In some instances, police officers had to use snow shovels to dig out elderly resident’s homes before they could be transported to shelters.
• Lower Township Police Officer Kenneth McGurk cut his hand while removing a downed sign from the roadway and had to receive stitches at Cape Regional Medical Center.
• At one point, over 100 residents were sheltered at Villas or Town Bank fire halls.
• As of the morning of Monday Feb. 8, power and cable was still out to a large portion of Lower Township and up to 50 residents remained at the Town Bank Fire Department shelter.
• As the storm began to subside, Lower Township Mayor Michael Beck toured the Township with Donohue and Captain Lou Russo in a police four-wheel drive vehicle to assess damage to the Township.
The Chief and Mayor then stopped at the townships two shelters to check on fire fighters and residents. Donohue stated that he had received word that the electric company has put its disaster plan into effect. Approximately 100 trucks from the Tri-State area with repair equipment and new utility poles will be staging at the Cape May County airport Complex in Lower Township, where they will be deployed throughout the county for repair assignments. The crews will even be bringing their own plows with them to reach snow-covered areas.
All schools were closed in Lower Township on Monday. Lower Township Police Department has been advised by school officials that all schools in the Township will be closed on Tuesday as well.
“Hopefully we can get all power restored to the Township and all of our side streets cleared as another major winter storm is forecast to hit our area on Wednesday,” Donohue noted.