MEMA officials ready to help in Earl's aftermath

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. -- Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) officials said damage from tropical storm Earl appeared minimal Saturday morning.

MEMA officials spent days preparing for Earl’s arrival in the Bay State.

At the headquarters for MEMA 25 feet underground in a bunker, officials went into 24-hour mode while tracking Earl’s every move, and determining what it meant for Massachusetts.

Gov. Deval Patrick detailed all of the advance work that had been done.

“We are well-prepared,” said Gov. Patrick. “Water and other commodities have been prepositioned on the Cape and the Islands if they should be needed. The utilities have over 1,000 repair crews that have been prepositioned with their equipment and materials. To respond to downed power lines and outages, debris-clearance teams have been mobilized.”

Gov. Patrick said the National Guard was deployed, State Police added troopers and search-and-rescue teams were activated.

MEMA spokesperson Peter Judge said the extension preparations were needed despite the weakening of the storm.

“Even as the national weather forecasts made it sound like potentially this storm was going to weaken and was not going to veer to the west and be a great damage, we still have to continue to ramp up for that potential Cat 2 hurricane making landfall,” Judge said. “It’s a cliché, but we have to prepare for the worst and hope for the best. Fortunately, I think this event was like that.”

Officials are keeping close communication with every community in jeopardy. If a problem exceeds a certain area’s capabilities, MEMA will work to solve the issue.

“Whether whether it’s debris removal, whether it’s evacuation because of some flooding [and] they need some high wheel vehicles, whether they need people to help fill sandbags -- whatever the need is, there’s going to be somebody in this room who works with an agency or organization that’s going to be able to help the communities out there,” Judge said.

The state of emergency in Massachusetts was officially lifted Friday night.

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