The following is from the Town of Charlestown website:
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The Town has ordered a voluntary evacuation of the Town from Route 1A south. The evacuation is mandatory for residences located on the beach and pond waterfronts. This evacuation will take place between 5:00pm Friday evening and 5:00pm Saturday evening. It will be in effect at least through Monday 12 noon.
Charlestown Emergency Management is informing everyone that the Westerly Senior Center located at 39 State Street will serve as the regional shelter. It will be open at 4:00 pm Saturday afternoon.
The Charlestown Animal Shelter and the Friends of Westerly Animals will be providing shelter for pets. Along with your pet please provide a record of vaccinations, food and their transportation carriers.
Please contact the Charlestown Police Department information line 213-6920 if you have any storm related questions.
Charlestown residents will continue to be notified by the emergency notification system known as ONE CALL NOW (reverse 911). Residents can still register on the ONE CALL NOW system on this webpage.
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There are lots of events at our Community Bulletin Board but depending on the strength of Irene some of those may be cancelled or rescheduled. Check with the group sponsoring the event to find out about cancellations.
Rhode Island National Wildlife Refuges are closed now due to Hurricane Irene
Stay safe everybody!
Thanks for sending us your neighbors’, friends’, relatives’ emails-our CCA list continues to grow. Know of anyone else to add to our list-send us an email with their email address.
Charlestown Citizens Alliance Steering Committee
Hi there, Thanks for the updates. A favor, maybe its just me, but could you elaborate on the one call program. Is it safe to register online, and what exactly will going on it do? would I get a recording regarding conditions, or public service announcements (where to go for….). evacuation, dry ice availability, etc… Also, do you know if landlines served by Cox will be operational without electricity?
Thanks so much
You receive whatever message the town government sends out. The most recent one was about the same as the text message we sent on to the e-mail list. After the storm they might tell you about a road closed by down trees, where to get water, that sort of thing.
The registration is on a secure server, so it is safe. You might be able to register by calling the police department.
We asked Cox and they say that their land lines will not work without electricity.
Hope that helps.
Thank you for this email. The print version reinforces what was said on the automated phone call and is very helpful for clarification and reference.
Good Morming, as always thanks for the updates on Irene and all other business, but my question is WHY DOESN’T CHARLESTOWN have its own shelter??? Why do we have to travel to Westerly to be secure?:-(
It was explained to us as a decision of the Red Cross. We’ll try to find out why they made that decision.
More on the shelter. We were scheduled to open the Chariho Middle School for Richmond, Hopkinton, and Charlestown, but the Red Cross is sending all its resources to Westerly as the regional shelter, as a result all of Charlestown’s shelter volunteers were sent to Westerly to assist there.
Thanks so much, great info & helpful answers. Do you know if cell phones work and laptops with a power failure. Sorry to bother you, but new at cellphones etc.
Cell phones will work as long as cell towers are still standing. They have emergency generators and batteries at each tower to power the antenna. Make sure your cell phone is charged before the power goes out. Laptops that depend on Cox will not work. An iPad might if you have one that is able to use cell phone networks. A laptop can run off of a cell phone. But if your electricity is out the computer network in your house will be down too.
Lets hope we don’t lose power for too long!
How about meeting to discuss implementing “GreyWater” Systems in peoples homes?
No one should be flushing perfectly clean water down their toilets…
Many Thanks for all you do!
Thanks again-you’ve been so informative, and I appreciate it.
I’m … working from home … so not getting your updates … wondering how Route 2 is faring in the storm. Do you have any info?
We have our e-mails online too at http://charlestowncitizens.org/cca/mailbox/ so you can look there if you have internet access. We haven’t sent out an update since yesterday afternoon. Should we add your home e-mail to our list?
We have heard that people near Charlestown Beach Rd are without power. Northern Charlestown has power. Rt. 2 should be fine as the winds have not been great, but the place to get that information would be the police. The info number for the police in Charlestown is 213-6920