Press release from Town Manager Julian Suso:

Issued at 3:30 p.m. 

With the imminent arrival of Hurricane Irene, the town of Framingham is implementing our in-place emergency preparedness and response procedures. This routinely involves all major town public service divisions, including police, fire, public works, parks and recreation, health, schools and building services.

At present, the primary force of the storm is anticipated to arrive in the Framingham area during the daytime on Sunday and from the winds and rain will likely result in some flooding, loss of trees and potential electricity interruptions, among other major storm impacts.  

The town’s Emergency Operations will continue to monitor the progress of the storm throughout the weekend. Our primary response, given the current predictions, is a shelter-in-place approach in which persons should make adequate and reasonable preparations to weather this relatively fast moving storm within their homes.  

If conditions create the need due to specific flooding or related emergency conditions, the Town is fully prepared to rapidly open up pre-designated storm shelters for the public. This notification will be given to residents as needed through one or more of the following: contact through the town “reverse-911” calling system; contact through the town website; contact on a door-to-door basis if emergency needs so dictate.  

In the meantime, residents are encouraged to secure/store all loose items on your property in advance of the storm. You are also encouraged to have one or more flashlights on hand, a first aid kit, adequate fresh drinking water, and any other supplies you deem necessary for such a storm event. 

At approximately 10 a.m. on Sunday, we will be activating Framingham’s Emergency Operations Center to centrally direct town operations in response to this storm.  

As storm-related emergency needs may dictate, contact with this Center may be made by calling 508-532-5800 after the center is activated.  

At all times prior to this, all town emergencies should continue to contact the police or fire departments through the normal 911 emergency calling system. We thank all residents and businesses for their cooperation and assistance during this anticipated, very challenging storm event.