A Lesson Learned: Mount Kisco One Year After Hurricane Irene

MOUNT KISCO, N.Y. – Mount Kisco officials are deeply engaged in developing a multi-hazard mitigation plan as Tuesday marks the one year anniversary of Hurricane Irene’s devastation to the village, causing major flooding and massive power outages for homes and businesses, road blockages and fallen trees. 

Mount Kisco received a $100,000 grant for the plan from FEMA in November, to which the village will contribute a $25,000 match.

The village hazard plan committee had its first meeting Thursday to work on the assessment for HAZNY, a questionnaire from the NYS Department of Emergency Management that identifies and rates the risks from hazards Mount Kisco could experience, storm-related and otherwise. 

Village manager Jim Palmer said the committee definitely placed large emphasis on hazards caused by storms like Irene and October’s freak snowstorm. “During our discussions yesterday as we developed this plan, those two events were very much on everyone’s mind,” he said.

Nineteen rebuilding and cleanup projects were undertaken in the Irene relief effort, all of which are now completed using $197,360 in FEMA money.

And later in October, the catastrophic and long-reaching effects of such a storm could not have been foreseen. “Here we have an early snowstorm where all the leaves were still on the trees and it was just devastating to the infrastructure,” he said.

Technological threats were also discussed in the meeting: Palmer said that if there was an explosion at the Halstead-Quinn propane storage facility on Hubbels Drive, or at one of the multiple propane facilities on Kensico Drive, “it would represent a serious threat to the public.”

Palmer said the four team members of Environmental Technology Group, the company the village chose to implement its plan, are being given all the data they need to address each of Mount Kisco’s vulnerabilities – a tour of the infrastructure, army corps of engineer reports, the village master plan and GIS maps.

The committee is a coalition of influential and savvy members of the community that include longtime business owners like Anthony Chiappinelli, the building inspector, the village engineer as well as a landscape architect who worked on the Shoppers Park redevelopment plan.

But before they are finished, Palmer said, “We have an awful lot to do in this amount of time, I’ll tell you that much.”

The first public meeting to discuss the plan is expected to take place between Sept. 17 and Oct. 5. A draft of the plan is due to the New York State Office of Emergency Management by April 10, 2013.

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