Dedham Has Hurricane Shelter Plans on Hold

Dedham town officials announced Saturday night that they would hold off opening a shelter as Hurricane Irene makes its way up the East Coast.

Town Administrator William Keegan told Dedham Patch that food provisions and cots were placed in , which would serve as a shelter.

“If we need it, we’ll certainly will have it available for residents, but as of now we have not opened it. We are ready to open it on a moment’s notice,” he said.

The town will open the DMS shelter if residents lose power for a sustained period of time, the town administrator said in a phone interview.

Keegan and others on the emergency management team are keeping a close eye on a number of “frail” senior citizens in Dedham. Council on Aging Director Laura Leventhal compiled the list and had said Friday that she would be making calls to the seniors.

Keegan urged residents to stay indoors on Sunday as the storm intensifies.

“We expect that will cause a fair amount of wind damage, trees down and power outages, things of that nature,” Keegan said.

The National Weather Service predicted Saturday night that Hurricane Irene would be downgraded to a tropical storm by the time it hits the Bay State, but still pack winds up to 60 mph and wind gusts up to 80 mph.

“We could see a fair number of trees toppled, and cause a fair number of lines to be effected,” Keegan said.

Dedham could see up to 6 inches of rainfall, the NWS stated, which means there could be flooding on some streets in Dedham.

Keegan said town crews have worked the past few days clearing catch basins to allow the drainage system to handle as much rain as possible, however if leaves or other objects block catch basins during Sunday’s storm, it might take time to fix it.

“There’s not a lot we can do to address that, frankly. We just have to wait for it to stop,” Keegan said.