Darien bands together after storm

Town officials are pleased with the way members of the Darien community have banded together in the wake of Saturday's storm, which cut off power to roughly half of town and caused significant property and road damage.

"I have been very impressed with patience," said Acting First Selectman David Bayne. "I know everybody is frustrated. We're all getting very tired of it very quickly, but there's been a real spirit of cooperation and helping neighbors out."

Bayne knows first hand. As of Wednesday, he was still without power at his home, and was relying on neighbors and friends for simple pleasures like hot water for a shower.

"People are extending their homes to people without power to have a hot meal, sit and watch television and bring the kids over," he said. "It's been a good bonding experience for the community in a lot of ways. We're seeing the best of Darien in the toughest of circumstances."

While many Darienites can thank neighbors for reaching out, several businesses and town entities stepped up to the plate this week.

The YMCA, located at 2420 Post Road, offered free showers to all Darienites early in the week, regardless of whether they are members or not.

"The YMCA has been great," said Selectman Jayme Stevenson. "And Uncle's Deli has also offered to store people's perishables in their walk-in freezer."

The Parks and Recreation Department also opened up the Town Hall gymnasium on Wednesday to offer a safe place for children to play when the town's schools were closed.

"We're open from noon to 2 p.m. for open gym and indoor soccer, and from 2 to 4 for open gym and basketball," said Susan Swiatek, the department's director. "If folks want to find something for their children to do, they can bring them by."

The Town also opened up Tokeneke School as an emergency shelter on Monday night, but it was closed on Tuesday, due to a low level of demand.

But there's one town facility that has been in incredibly high demand over the past few days: the library.

On Sunday afternoon, during its four hours of operation, the library served slightly less than 1,000 people; the library usually sees between 600 and 800 people on a "busy" Sunday, according to Director Louise Berry.

"I've never seen the library so full as it was Sunday," Berry said. "We had just under 1,000 people, and they were here for the entire four hours we were open, so every seat was full. We actually opened the auditorium to have more seating for people."

The library operated from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday, its typical schedule for that day of the week, but extended its hours on Monday and Tuesday to help accommodate the need.

"Mostly people, I think, are interested in getting online. We had people waiting for the library's computer on Sunday, and lots of people on their own laptops with their wireless connections. A lot of people wanted to ether get access to the Internet to see what was happening, or check their e-mail and other communication.

"We're like this giant charging station," Berry said. "Every outlet, even in the hallways, had laptops and cell phones in them."

So many people made their way to the library on Monday and Tuesday that the library had to refer patrons to park elsewhere, with its own lot overflowing.

"Even though we normally don't refer to Thorndale Circle during the business day, we're sending people way back there for overflow parking," Berry said on Monday afternoon.

With schools closed on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, there has been an influx in the number of children at the library. Last Monday saw 531 children visit the Children's Library, a figure that the library's assistant director for innovation, John Blyberg said is "typical." This Monday there were 2,181 visits to the children library.

In addition, the library itself saw 2,109 visitors, as compared with 1,287 the previous Monday.

"It's pretty much a snapshot of Darien," Berry said. "It's all ages. It's families and couples. Half the town doesn't have power so we're seeing a lot of people come beyond our normal traffic."

The new library building, which was opened to the public last January, does a pretty good job of housing large numbers of people, Berry said.

"Walking around the building Sunday, I just couldn't believe how full it was. We can absorb a lot of people in this building and have it not look full, and it looked full yesterday, because people were camped out," she said.

While the library is normally open until 9 p.m. on Mondays and Tuesdays, it kept its doors open until 11 p.m. both days this week in an effort to provide an extra level of comfort to Darienites.

During Monday's extra hours, 79 visitors stopped in, and Berry said she felt there would have been more if people knew the building was open.

"Everybody's coming up with ideas to help out," said First Selectman Dave Campbell over the phone on Tuesday. "It's been really great."