Macungie Council Learns From "Snowtober" Event

Macungie Council recently chewed over the lessons learned from the rare October snow storm.

Citizens and council members showered accolades on the police and fire departments for keeping roads open and water flowing.

More praise was went out to the borough staff for keeping open the Macungie Institute as a warming station during the days after the storm when it served as a daytime-only warming station for borough residents.

"It was a very rough week," according to Emergency Management Director and council member Dave Boyko.

"Here we are in the 'tech age' and phones were out and cell phones didn't work. We were hours away from having no water pumping," Boyko said.

"Now you see our need for emergency management," he said.

Had the power been out any longer, he said, there would have been a need for emergency distributions of water.

"Thank God we didn't have below-zero temperatures," he said.

Further discussions among council members identified the need for a shelter that could be used overnight.

Both the building at Macungie Memorial Park and the Macungie Fire Company have generators that could be used in an emergency.

Beyond that, Boyko suggested using either Shoemaker Elementary or Eyer Middle schools. He was authorized by council to begin to pursue permissions for all the locations.