Disaster plans lacking in Hudson Valley area

Greg Bruno of the Times Herald-Record in Middletown, N.Y., looked into disaster plans for communities of the Catskills and Hudson Valley, finding that three-quarters of them would be unprepared. "Of the 75 communities that provided their plans for review, only 25 percent are updated or specific enough to be useful in a catastrophe, according to state emergency planning standards." The paper found some plans don't include basic information, such as shelter locations and phone numbers for first responders; others are generic or fill-in-the-blank documents; and some planners have not studied possible disaster scenarios. "Only 16 communities are in the process of reviewing and revising their plans." The story includes a chart detailing the results for each town and information about how the story was researched and reported.