WESTFIELD – Superstorm Juno passed through Westfield with relatively little fanfare yesterday but forecasters are predicting cold temperatures tonight dropping close to zero if not slightly below, and the chance for more snow late Thursday night into Friday.
Being prepared for cold weather is the business of Bruce Bussiere, manager of emergency management and security operations for Noble Hospital, and knowing the symptoms of conditions such as hypothermia is critical.
“Hypothermia can set on quick if you have any exposed skin, so make sure you stay covered up,” said Bussiere, adding that victims will feel numbing in their extremities. “Keep gloves on for a couple minutes at a time and if you find you have no gloves, one of the remedies is to put your hands in your armpits or crotch area to keep warm.”
Bussiere said that during extremely cold winter storms when power outages occur people will sometimes call 911 just to be taken to a warm place.
“One of the things the state has done since 2011 is to grant waivers through Emergency Management that, if you get picked up by an ambulance, you can get taken to a shelter,” he said, which saves the hospital’s resources for those requiring other ER services.
Bussiere advises anyone who thinks they have symptoms of hypothermia to call 911.
“If someone needs to be here and they’re in trouble somewhere, we want make sure to do everything we can to help protect them and firefighters, police and paramedics all do the same,” he said.
Noble Hospital employs the use of numerous generators during widespread power outages.
“We’re kind of like the beacon in the night,” he said. “We have a dietary system and a state-of-the-art kitchen here and part of our emergency planning and staffing plan is to have staff to run the kitchen.”
Bussiere stated that, as of 4 p.m. Monday afternoon, Noble’s Command Center had opened with three dietary staffers on call during the night and that it had stocked up on food and fuel for its boilers and generators to prepare for the storm.
“All Monday morning was spent running around making sure all of those pieces were tied up and to go from there,” he said.
