The City Manager’s Desk – Thomas Sheridan

On Aug. 25, we experienced a storm and tornado warning which resulted in trees down and power outages throughout the city. Our city crews responded to more than 11 trees across roads in the city, two trees on houses that our crews assisted with, more than 500 Hudson Public Power customers without power for several hours, and thousands of First Energy customers who lost power that night. Some properties experienced no power throughout the weekend. Our public work crews cleared brush and debris for over a two-week period following the storm.

Our trained safety forces and Hudson Public Power staff were able to respond to the damage and restore power to most of our Hudson Public Power customers the first four hours. Hudson city staff routinely trains for handling various types of emergency situations, and we have communications in place to alert residents with our recently installed tornado siren system and our new system to detect power outages in Hudson Public Power.

The city of Hudson has five tornado sirens located throughout the city that are activated when a tornado warning is issued by the national weather service. When the tornado sirens sound, you should immediately seek shelter in a basement or a middle room of the lowest level of your home, preferably a room without windows. During an extreme weather event, it might not be possible to hear the sirens very well, so it is important you also sign-up for other communications the city of Hudson offers during emergencies.

The city of Hudson has an Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) in place that provides a guide for handling various emergency situations from flooding, tornadoes, snowstorms, hazardous chemical spills and train derailments. The plan is updated every few years, and the city just updated our EOP following the East Palestine, Ohio, train derailment earlier this year.

Communications is critical during a storm similar to what we had in August. It is a good reminder to make sure you sign up for all our emergency communications.

During an emergency, the City is able to use Code Red to call residents who are registered with our system. This is a vital way to receive information and instructions during an emergency. Enroll your cell phone number in Code Red by texting “HUDSON” to 99411. You can also sign up online at hudson.oh.us/codered.

In addition to Code Red, there are other ways to receive emergency information:

• Social media: Follow the city of Hudson on Facebook (facebook.com/cityofhudsonoh) and Twitter (now X) (twitter.com/CityofHudsonOH).

• E-News: Sign up for the City’s email notification system at hudson.oh.us/Enews.
• City website: Visit hudson.oh.us for emergency updates.

The public should also make sure to keep mobile phones charged and take them with you at all times during an emergency.

Thank you for your help in keeping our community safe. ∞