Middletown Participating in Statewide Storm Drill on Thursday

It’s never too early to start preparing for a winter storm. 

That’s the stance that the state and Middletown officials are taking as they prepare for a statewide storm drill expected to take place on Thursday, June 20, and ending on Friday, June 21.

Each day’s drill is designed to test a specific, unique set of protocols dealing with various responses.

According to The Middletown Press, Middletown officials are participating in the drill, which will simulate an emergency response to a hypothetical major ice storm in the western part of Connecticut.

Through this simulation, the city’s Emergency Operations Center will stock up with food and be prepared to provide shelter, and Middlesex Hospital will simulate it’s part in the preparations, The Press reported. 

Coordinated by the state’s Division of Emergency Management and Homeland Security, the exercise is designed, among other things, to improve communication between the state’s utility companies and state and local governments during emergencies and to test the state’s mutual aid system, according to a press release from Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s office.

“We must always look to improve the way we respond to an emergency so that when disaster strikes, the state’s utility companies and every level of government have a clear mission and goal,” Malloy said. 

According to The Press, Emergency Management Director Bruce Driska said the simulated impact of the drill to the city itself will be minimal and, rather, the city will be assisting other parts of the state hit by a hypothetical storm.

The federal government has declared states of emergency in Connecticut five times since 2011, including after Tropical Storm Irene in 2011 and a snowstorm that hit the state in October of 2011. Both storms left hundreds of thousands of utility customers in the dark for days. 

Last year the state also was hit by Hurricane Sandy, which devastated portions of the shoreline, and then a huge blizzard this past February.