Announcements & Highlights
Ban on Open Burning thru Nov 24th
The Chester County Commissioners declared a ban on open burning on October 27, 2024.
The burn ban includes: open burning of any combustible material outdoors in burn barrels (with or without a screen), fire rings, fire pits, or on the ground. It also includes burning of leaves, grass, twigs, garbage, litter, paper, and vegetation from land which has been cleared.
Chester County Department of Emergency Services Director Bill Messerschmidt said,
“Wildfire potential is currently very high throughout the county because of the drought, winds, dry fuels and fluctuating temperatures. This temporary open burn ban will significantly help to alleviate pressure on our fire services, and we are asking all residents and businesses to honor and adhere to it, especially when it comes to the seasonal burning of leaves and yard waste.”
“The lack of rainfall, low humidity, and sunny and windy days have increased the chances of forest and brush fires, and our emergency responders have seen an increase in brush fires over the past few weeks. Current weather forecasts show that a high fire danger will continue across Chester County and the southeast region.”
All county first responder leaders have been informed of the open burn ban including the County Fire Chief and Police Chief associations, municipal fire marshals, municipal emergency management coordinators, and the PA State Police Troop J.
Chester County Vaccine Clinic Information
The Chester County Health Department has flu and covid vaccines available directly from the Health Department in West Chester. Appointments and registration are required.
Check the Chester County Health Department website for dates and times, the required forms, and for additional related information.
Other alternative locations are your local health provider's office, or at one of the clinics inside an area pharmacy like CVS and Walgreens. Check directly with your health provider or your area pharmacies for vaccine availability and any registration/appointment requirements.
Properly Maintain and Test your Smoke Detectors
Smoke Detectors are Life-Savers:
- Install at least one on every floor, outside sleeping areas, and inside bedrooms.
- Change the batteries twice a year during the Spring/Fall daylight-savings time change. Consider installing sealed 10-year batteries.
- Test your detectors regularly. Replace detectors if they do not operate properly. Also replace them after 10 years since their manufactured date.
- Install (or replace existing) smoke detectors with the latest "dual-detector" devices.
Smoke Detector Information from the Consumer Product Safety Commission
Recommendation:
Use your monthly smoke detector checks as practice fire drill with your family. Make sure everyone knows where to gather outside the home. Remind everyone to NEVER re-enter the home until it is determined safe.
If your smoke alarm was installed or manufactured in or before 2014, it should be replaced with a newer device.
Fall -- Seasonal Driving Hazards
Fall is the time of year when leaves change colors and various animals (both large and small) are more active than usual.
The beauty of fall colors turns hazardous when leaves are on the road. Leave extra following distance between your vehicle and the vehicle ahead and slow down. Leaves, even on a dry roadway, may increase your stopping/braking distances. The hazard is greatly increased when the roads or leaves are wet.
Deer and other animals are more active and pay less attention to cars and trucks on the roads. They are especially active during the early morning and early to late evening hours. Remember: if you see one deer, there may be several more nearby. Slow down and don't drive faster than the stopping distance visible with your headlights.
CWA will be flushing fire hydrants in New London Township between September 1st and September 6th. To minimize impact to customers, the work will be done overnight from 9pm to 5am the next morning Sunday night thru Friday morning.
During this work there could be brief periods when household water may be discolored and water water pressure reduced. Both of these will be temporary.
If you live in an area prone to flooding (i.e. near a major creek or stream) increase your awareness of the latest water flow volume and water levels using the AGREM page: Local Stream Water Levels and Flow
For more information on Floods and Flood Safety, visit Ready.Gov Flood Information or National Weather Service Flood Safety Information.
High / Excessive Temperatures Expected
The National Weather Service has issued an excessive heat advisory, warning, or alert for our area. High temperatures plus humidity can cause the outdoor temperatures to feel like 100 degrees or more.
Take measures to stay cool, remain hydrated and to keep informed. Getting too hot can make you sick. You can become ill from the heat if your body can't compensate for it and properly cool you off.
Those who are at highest risk include people 65 and older, children younger than two, and people with chronic diseases or mental illness. Closely monitor people who depend on you for their care:
- Are they drinking enough water?
- Do they have access to air conditioning?
- Do they need help keeping cool?
People at greatest risk for heat-related illness can take the following protective actions to prevent illness or death:
- Stay in air-conditioned buildings as much as possible. Contact your local health department or locate an air-conditioned shelter in your area. Air-conditioning is the number one protective factor against heat-related illness and death. If a home is not air-conditioned, people can reduce their risk for heat-related illness by spending time in public facilities that are air-conditioned, and using air conditioning in vehicles.
- Do not rely on a fan as your primary cooling device during an extreme heat event.
- Drink more water than usual and don't wait until you're thirsty to drink.
- Check on a friend or neighbor and have someone do the same for you.
- Don't use the stove or oven to cook—it will make you and your house hotter.
Even young and healthy people can get sick from the heat if they participate in strenuous physical activities during hot weather:
- Limit outdoor activity, especially midday when the sun is hottest.
- Wear and reapply sunscreen as indicated on the package.
- Pace activity. Start activities slow and pick up the pace gradually. Drink more water than usual and don’t wait until you’re thirsty to drink more. Muscle cramping may be an early sign of heat-related illness.
- Wear loose, lightweight, light-colored clothing.
Poor or Dangerous Air Quality Expected
An Air Quality advisory, warning, or alert has been issued for our area.
An air quality alert means that air pollution concentrations within the region may become or is already unhealthy for sensitive groups. Sensitive groups include ♦ children ♦ people suffering from asthma, heart disease, or other lung diseases ♦ the elderly. The effects of air pollution can be minimized by avoiding strenuous activity or exercise outdoors.
Driving in Fog or Rain
If it is foggy or raining, turn on your headlights to help other drivers to more easily see you. On newer cars, do not rely on the automatic sensor to turn your lights on -- turn them on manually instead.
Remember: whenever you turn your windshield wipers on, you should turn on your headlights too!
Heavy Rains Expected
Heavy rains are expected to come across our area and nearby locations over the next several days. Remember it only takes 6 inches of moving water to cause a person to fall, 1 foot of water to lose control of your vehicle, and 2 feet to carry a vehicle away. DO NOT drive across a flooded roadway! The water is often deeper or moving faster than it may appear. Many drivers have become trapped and their vehicles swept away with the flow. "Turn Around, Don't Drown®" -- nothing is so important that you should risk your life or the lives of the Emergency Responders who may be sent to rescue you.
Flood Warning / Flood Watch
Driving in Fog or Rain
If it is foggy or raining, turn on your headlights to help other drivers to more easily see you. On newer cars, do not rely on the automatic sensor to turn your lights on -- turn them on manually instead.
Remember: whenever you turn your windshield wipers on, you should turn on your headlights too!
West Nile Virus and Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE) are viruses carried by mosquitos. Occurences of both have been reported in the Northeastern US. West Nile virus cases have been reported in New Jersey.
Information on the signs and symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment of West Nile Virus and EEE is available from the US CDC (Centers for Disease Control) website using the webpage links provided below.
Information on preventing mosquito bites is available from the Chester County Health Department and the US Environmental Protection Agency websites using their respective webpage links provided below.
Welcome!
This is the website for AGREM, Incorporated, also known as Avon Grove Regional Emergency Management. We are an emergency management organization located in Chester County, Pennsylvania. We provide support to the boroughs of Avondale and West Grove, and the townships of Penn, New London, Franklin, and London Britain.
We encourage you to learn more about our organization and what we do for the municipalities we support. If you have questions, would like to volunteer, or attend a meeting to see what we're all about, we welcome you to do so.
Our web site is about keeping the community informed regarding emergency management and preparedness for both natural and man-made disasters, along with relevant local information that we feel is important to share. Our resource pages contain references that are meaningful for businesses, families, and individuals.
If you want to learn more about AGREM, click here or on the About US link found at the bottom of our webpages.
NOTE: We are a non-profit organization. Our website content and structure are managed by volunteers. In order to provide the most up-to-date information to our site visitors, changes to page content and organization may occur without advance notice. When appropriate, we will post specific announcements that identify significant changes or that mention changes planned for a future release date.
Change Log for 14-November-2024
-
October/November Changes
Chester County Open Burning Ban highlighted on the main page.
Additional "seasonal" content added -- Vaccine Clinics, Driving Hazards, smoke detector maintenance (batteries and replacement tips).
Roadwork section updated to support additional Agency sources. In particular Elk Township and PennDOT. Updates to the formatting of the information, and detour, location, and work hours are shown when available from the source agency.
-
September Changes
Hospital Information was updated with reference to Christiana Care West Grove Campus, and link added for latest project status.
An automatic page refresh was added to all weather-related pages to improve access to latest updates if you leave your browser open to those pages. The refresh interval is 7 minutes.
As weather alerts are issued or cancelled, page content related to one or more alerts will automatically appear or be removed. This is our attempt to provide helpful information related to certain types of alerts as soon as possible after an alert has been issued. The information will be removed whenever the related alert has been cancelled or has expired.
-
August Changes
Added information to the resource pages related to West Nile Virus and Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE).
Updated presentation of road closure information. In addition to the AGREM municipalities, significant PennDOT roadwork that could impact area residents has been added.
Updated presentation of air quality and excessive temperature information.
Stream gauge chart presentation has been improved with larger chart sizes depending on the device and it's viewing orientation (landscape always works best).
Stream gauge hydrograph links have been updated. We're now linking to a different (i.e. newer) website: https://water.noaa.gov to get the latest hydrograph. A new browser window is opened for each gauge to allow you to keep multiple windows open with graphs that are updated live.
The newer hydrographs include additional detail about the impact of flooding at different gauge levels. This detail improves situational awareness, especially if you must travel to, or through, the area near the gauge location.
AGREM 1670 dedication slideshow was updated with captions. Recent articles regarding the AGREM-1670 grant were added.
-
July Changes
The local weather forecast supports use of on-device geolocation data. This dynamically identifies the closest NWS forecast office and a relevent 2.5km square gridpoint for improved accuracy of the forecast information presented.
The NWS forecast and NWS Alerts logic was updated to reflect changes in the National Weather Service's forecast data retrieval system.
-
June Changes
Improved performance, additional error handling, and other changes required to support our use of Google Analytics.
The stream gauge data retrieval logic was improved and an updated selection form using radio-buttons and switches for making choices was deployed.
Charting functionality was improved with updated error handling, and changes related to support the newest release of the charting software itself.
The stream gauge ALL option was removed. Switches were added to enable/disable the display of gauge flow rates. This simplifies visual comparison of gauge data between multiple gauges.
1670 AM - AGREM Information Radio
Listen to AM 1670 while in your car or on a portable emergency radio. Emergency and other community information for the Avon Grove and surrounding areas is broadcast 24x7 on 1670 AM.
AGREM 1670 broadcasts are automatically interrupted whenever a weather alert is issued by the National Weather Service for the Avon Grove and surrounding area.
Area Transportation Information
- Chester County Bus Services -- "ChesCoBus"
- Chester County Rail Services -- ChesCo Rail
- Pennsylvania DOT -- PA511 System, Mobile App
- Maryland DOT -- MD511 System
- Delaware DOT -- Traffic Management Center
Road Closures and Scheduled Work
During or shortly after severe weather events, listen to AGREM AM 1670 for area road closures and related information. Updates are posted frequently to inform travelers and residents who may not have access to Internet services.
NOTE: Utility work is often weather and contractor resource dependent. Actual work may happen intermittently during any specified time periods. Contractors may finish earlier than the listed end dates, but they do not notify AGREM. AGREM provides these notifications as a courtesy based on what is given to us by PennDOT, the municipalities, or the contractors themselves.
Text to 911 Service
In situations when calling 9-1-1 in an emergency is not possible, you can send a text message to 9-1-1 instead.
"In a situation where voice communication is not an option, texting to 9-1-1 may help to prevent a crime from being committed and may even save a life."
Text to 9-1-1 calls do take longer to process than voice calls, and the location accuracy is not as precise as voice calls from a wireless phone.
If Text to 9-1-1 is your only option:
- Your device must have a service plan that allows text messaging.
- Do not use abbreviations in your texts to 9-1-1.
- Answer the questions as quickly and briefly as possible
- If the situation changes, and you can make a voice call, let the tele-communicator know, then dial 9-1-1
Are you and your family Ready?
Have you signed up for ReadyCheso yet? If not, you can register to receive important messages from the Chester County Department of Emergency Services and your municipality's Emergency Management Coordinator through this system.
You decide what you want to get notified about, and how you want to be notified. The system supports use of text/SMS, email, or voice alerts. You decide what you prefer and the notification sequence the system uses.
The recommended alert choices are: your local municipality, weather, and Public Health alerts. You can add other choices and can change the entire setup at any time.
SMART 911 in Chester County
Chester County offers a free service to keep you and your family safer. Smart911 lets you create a private and secure safety profile for your family, including any information you want 9-1-1 or first responders to have in an emergency.
You can include details like a list of family members, photos, medical notes, pets, and emergency contacts. In an emergency seconds can save lives. Take a few seconds now to plan ahead at www.smart911.com
Your SMART-911 profile is available in other states or areas that support the SMART 911 system. This is a great safety feature when traveling or visiting outside of Chester County.
Events around us are a constant reminder that being prepared is relatively simple:
- Being aware of your surroundings.
- Reporting to authorities anything that appears to be out of the ordinary.
- Reporting anything which raises a concern about your safety or the safety of others.
Health Services (Hospitals, Urgent Care, Human, and Mental Health)
If you have an emergency, please call 9-1-1 immediately!
Hospital Services
Click an item below to get a Google Map
Anticipated in Spring of 2025
Christiana Care purchased the Jennersville Regional Hospital (JRH) property in Penn Township in June of 2022. Work is currently underway to reopen the site in 2025.
Click below to get the latest updates on the project.
Christiana Care Hospital, West Grove (PA)Urgent Care Services
Click an item below to get a Google Map
Mental Health Services
If you, or someone you know, needs support now:
- Call 988
- Send a text to 988
- Chat using 988lifeline.org
Contact Local Power Utilities
If you smell gas, or see a power-line sparking, please CALL 9-1-1 immediately!
Report power outages to your utility provider -- DO NOT CALL 9-1-1
-
Report an Outage: 800-841-4141
Current Outage Map -
Report an Outage: 800-342-5775
Current Outage Map -
Report an Outage: 888-544-4877
Current Outage Map
Utility Power Issues and Outages
If you see a power-line sparking or on fire, CALL 9-1-1 immediately!
Always report power outages to your utility provider -- DO NOT CALL 9-1-1
Power Problems
If your power is out unexpectedly ...
- Wait at least 15 minutes to see if it comes back on and stays on. Power is often automatically restored, but this can result in power cycling on and off for a few seconds over several minutes.
- Contact your utility provider to report the outage.
- Tell your utility provider if you have life-supporting medical equipment (e.g. breathing, suction, IV pumps, or other life-support machines) that depend on utility power .
- Turn off all un-necessary lights that were on before the power went out.
- If you require power for life-supporting or related medical equipment at home, you should create a SMART-911 profile. The information will be made available to dispatchers and first-responders whenever you call 9-1-1 to report an emergency.
Properly Using a Generator (Infographic)
Always Operate Safely:
- DO NOT: Run a generator in an enclosed space, even if a door or window is open.
- DO NOT: Plug a power cord from a generator into an existing household outlet! This is called "back-feeding" and is dangerous for you and utility workers.
- DO NOT: Refill a generator while it is hot or running!
- DO NOT: Store gasoline in, or use it from, unapproved containers!
- DO NOT: Overload your generator power cords. Refrigerators and freezers need their own generator cords properly sized for the current required.
You SHOULD do all of the following:
- DO: Read -and- Follow all safety rules provided with your generator.
- DO: Locate the generator OUTSIDE at least 20ft away from ANY windows and doors.
- DO: Use only approved power cords between the generator and your devices.
- CONSIDER: Run your generator at brief intervals to conserve fuel -- except if constant operation is required for life-supporting or similar medical equipment.
- CONSIDER: Conserve inside temperatures in your refrigerator and freezer by avoiding opening their doors.