Wednesday, September 14, 2011
If you couldn't work due to Irene of Lee, you can collect benefits.
- NEWS
-
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Lehigh County residents who couldn't work due to Hurricane Irene or last week's flooding following Hurricane Lee are eligible for federal unemployment benefits. According to the Morning Call, benefits are available to anyone who became unemployed between Aug. 26 and 30 or since Sept. 3, provided they live in a county that was approved for disaster aid. The benefit is available to anyone who lost their job because of the storms, or couldn't get to work, or was injured. The deadline to file is Oct. 14. To file, call 877-FILE DUA (877-345-3382).
Friday, September 2, 2011
Citizens Fire Co. handled 73 calls during 41 hours, amounting to five months' worth of calls in two days.
Upper Milford Supervisors Chairman Steven Ackerman provided the perfect segue at Thursday night's Board of Supervisor's meeting for a report from the Citizens Fire Co. in the wake of Hurricane Irene. Ackerman thanked all township emergency and public works personnel for their work during the hurricane. “Thank you very much for your dedication,” Ackerman said, just moments before George DeVault, acting fire chief for the Citizens Fire Co. told the supervisors about the department’s extraordinary efforts to respond to calls on Aug. 28 and 29. “With Hurricane Irene, we crammed about five months’ worth of calls into two days,” DeVault said, adding that reflective address signs on houses are “priceless.” DeVault said the Citizens Fire Co. …
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Quake, tropical storm bring out recessive worry gene.
What a week. In the middle of interviewing someone by phone last week, I feel the house start to shake. I’m ready to light into my teenage sons for jumping in the living room and they say, “Really mom, it wasn’t us, it was an earthquake.” They turn on CNN to prove it. Three days later, on the eve of Tropical Storm Irene, the Giant supermarket on Emaus Avenue in Allentown looks like a plague of locusts had hit the produce section. The only bananas left were a couple of black spotted ones. The red seedless grapes were decimated and the handful of Gala apples were looking like escapees. I used to make fun of people who rushed out for milk and bread at the first whiff of a snowstorm. Yet there I was – one of the locusts – unable to pass a …
Baby pool remains closed until next year due to damage from Hurricane Irene, but everything else is cleaned up and prepped for the holiday.
It will be business as usual at the Emmaus Borough Pool for the three-day holiday weekend – with one exception – the baby pool is closed for the season due to damage caused by Hurricane Irene. There was some post-Irene cleanup that had to be done to get the main pool ready for Labor Day weekend, according to Emmaus Borough Manager Craig Neely. But, he says, that’s all been taken care of and residents will still be able to enjoy the pool during the final weekend of summer. The Emmaus Pool will be open Saturday, Sept. 3 through Monday, Sept. 5, from noon to 8 p.m. Day passes for adults 18 and over can be purchased at a cost of $7 per day for residents and $8 per day for non-residents. Passes for children ages 6-17 cost $6 for residents and…
40.522061
-75.50789
Emmaus Community Park
1401 Shimerville Rd, Emmaus, PA
/articles/emmaus-pool-is-ready-for-labor-day-weekend
875419
/locations/5244828
An Upper Milford man was ready to fix the problem himself.
For three and a half days Terry and Betsey Schmeltzle were “inconvenienced” by Hurricane Irene. They and the other five homes on Fox Lane in Upper Milford Township survived without power for 86 hours. It began Saturday at midnight—when the power went out. Schmeltzle was prepared with a generator. He had seven extension cords strewn throughout the house to keep their refrigerator, freezer and other items working. Sometime Sunday evening, said Schmeltzle, the power came back on for five to ten minutes and went out again—this time until 1 p.m. Wednesday. “It was not only an inconvenience, but it was very stressful,” he said. Monday morning Schmeltzle said he checked the area, looking for a downed tree or something to indicate the problem, …
40.4996
-75.48515
/articles/tree-branch-causes-86-hours-without-power
/locations/5244254
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Lack of technology can bring out everyone’s true colors.
I’m all about livin’ it up “Little House” style, or at least I thought I was, but when the power clicked off at midnight Sunday morning, fear spread over me. I thought I was ahead of the game – laptop charged, iPhone ready to go, four pitchers of water in the fridge, and a few headlamps if needed. I was especially excited about my secret stash of strawberry wafer cookies. What hadn’t occurred to me was the lack of Wi-Fi. My laptop doesn’t do a whole lot of good without that lifeline to the rest of the world. All of a sudden I had no idea what was happening to my friends and family. I had no Facebook to follow. My phone began to do strange things … no signal, no Safari connection. I went to bed with the assumption that all would be fixed by…
Systems keep stores open and food safe during storms, power outages.
It’s not just the postman who isn’t thwarted by rain, sleet, snow or dark of night. Fortunately for Emmaus residents, Weis Supermarkets is also similarly equipped to handle bad weather. The Sunbury, Pa.-based chain, which has 163 stores in five states, has an inclement weather plan that kicks in as predications of severe weather mount, according to Dennis Curtin, director of public relations. “With you hear the weather reports you know the kinds of things that people are going to be looking for – water, ice, batteries, milk – and we make sure that the stores are stocked with those things and when the supplies start to run low we have the ability to replenish them and make sure the stores get more,” Curtin says. The chain is also ready …
Sometimes anticipation and worry can be more stressful than the storm itself.
The skies turn grayer and grayer. Humidity thickens. It’s “the calm before the storm.” And it’s a little eerie. There are no birds chirping. The deer didn’t come for their usual breakfast of apples and leaves. There is no breeze. The road is quiet—a car now and then. Everything is quiet—a strange quiet. No one is mowing grass or riding bike or walking along the street. Not even a barking dog. Nothing. Very few residents have driven into the Upper Milford Yard Waste Site—very rare on a Saturday. It’s common to see cars waiting bumper-to-bumper in order to unload grass clippings and leaves. But not on this Saturday. There have been no planes or helicopters flying over our house all day. Unusual, since we are in the flight path of both …
Distribution will continue as planned, workers say, as they begin the post-Irene clean-up.
Hurricane Irene left her mark at a local food pantry this past weekend. But, according to Linda Fosbenner, a volunteer at the Zionsville Area Food Pantry, operations will continue without interruption. “This is a manageable inconvenience,” she said. The pantry will stay on its normal schedule. A plan has already been worked out to keep things running smoothly so that people can get the food they need. Currently, the 85 families—290 people—the pantry serves each month are from Upper Milford Township, Hereford, Alburtis, Macungie and Emmaus. Monday afternoon church members came out to help with the clean up as word got out of the damage. Fosbenner’s husband, Roger, arrived with a generator, since the power at their home had been restored. …
40.486687
-75.5205
Zion's Evangelical Lutheran Church
5901 Kings Highway South, Old Zionsville, PA
/articles/zionsville-food-pantry-suffers-storm-damage
1784796
/locations/5244341
Monday, August 29, 2011
Traub's Doggies one of many shops in the borough looked at by Health Inspector following power outages caused by Hurricane Irene.
The owner of Traub’s Doggies had a surprise waiting for him when he went to work this morning compliments of Hurricane of Irene. “There was a note on the door from the health inspector saying we were closed for business until further notice,” says Kirby Traub, who has run the popular Emmaus eatery for the past 15 years. Traub typically opens to customers at 11 a.m. on Monday and heads to work for about 9 a.m. to get ready for the lunch crowd. The notice from the health inspector was there when he arrived. About 15 minutes later, the health inspector returned and made a thorough check of Traub’s supplies, telling him to throw away between $400 and $500 worth of inventory, including things like potato and macaroni salad, chocolate milk, BBQ …
Craig Neely
4:00 pm on Thursday, September 1, 2011
Yes, Jennifer is correct. The Borough of Emmaus apologizes for any inconvenience caused by the closing of the pool. Neverhteless, it is unavoidable, as the system component that failed is a special order part that we could not obtain before the weekend. We wish everyone a happy and safe holiday weekend. Craig Neely Emmaus Borough Manager more ›