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The Millbury Firemen’s Hall on Oak Street is open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. today to offer servicce and information to those affected by Saturday's tornado.
The Wood County Health Department will be giving tetanus shots. All State insurance has sent a representative there and several of the public service agencies, including the Red Cross and the United Way will be on had to get people the information they need to recover.
Anyone who needs long-term shelter or assistance is encouraged to call 2-1-1, which is staffed by the United Way. "Anyone who needs anything – clothing, furniture, supplies, that 2-1-1 number is like our 9-1-1 number right now for those needing assistance, and if they call that number, assistance will be brought to them," Lake Townshp Police Chief Mark Hummer said at a press conference this morning.
Hummer added that FEMA representatives will be in the area. "They're going to be directed to all the high-impact areas and that’s going to be under the coordination of the county EMA director and the state EMA," he said. "We do know that the Governor is coming back today and he’s going to be touring the area and assessing the situation. He’s probably going to meet with FEMA while he’s here."
Hummer also said that cleanup will be conducted in local farm fields. It's not an aesthetic issue. These are farm fields," he said. "These are where our residents make their living and we’ve got to get that debris out of there. It’s been such a wet spring, they haven’t event been in a position to plant yet.
"That’s an economic issue that we need to get taken care of," he said.
ODOT will be coming in today with front-end loaders and container trucks to remove debris from Main Street in Millbury. "Trash and garbage is a concern," Hummer said. "People lost their food and things are starting to spoil, so we want to get that out of there as fast as we can so we don’t have ancillary issues with the refuse and debris that’s there."
Hummer said that crews will be working to clear ditches to prevent potential flooding in the event of rain. "There are so many things we have to deal with in the cleanup phase."
He added that tonight would likely be the last night that a curfew would be imposed. "It's my belief and understanding from talking with the residents that those valuables that they could find have been picked up," he said.
Hummer added that there was an "unfortunate incident" regarding two chainsaws stolen from a county truck, which was helping in cleanup operations. "That's a little disheartening in this," he said.
"All in all, with the magnitude of this damage, I'm going to say that I'm pleased our community has worked with us and our incidents have been very few and for the most part minor," he said.
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