It’s been a year since Hurricane Sandy battered the Eastern seaboard, narrowly missing Delaware at the last minute.
The Delaware Emergency Management Agency and other emergency response crews around the state stood ready for a predicted direct hit that never came.
While DEMA didn’t have as much work to do as forecasters expected, it still spent days directing state resources to areas most in need of help.
And in the aftermath of the storm, DEMA spokesman Gary Laing says the agency found its policies and procedures didn’t need much of an overhaul.
“We did not have the kind of devastation that they did further to the north of us in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut so there was no need to turn over the system and look for major system and look for major changes in it when what we did worked for that particular storm,” said Laing.
Still, Laing adds officials did find some tweaks worth making to improve their approach to emergency situations.
“They might be adjustments in communications between agencies. They may be adjustments in how an organization like the Delaware Emergency Management Agency reaches out and puts out information to people.”
Hurricane season typically runs from June 1st through November 30th.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s latest hurricane outlook from August downgraded the potential for extreme activity, but still predicted above-average levels for stormy weather.