WEST HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) — United Illuminating gave West Haven city leaders a behind-the-scenes tour Friday of its emergency response headquarters in Orange.

The tour ranged from seeing 911 dispatcher centers and control rooms to reviewing protective equipment and workforce safety protocols.

“We want [West Haven leaders] to understand what it takes to execute a storm,” said Chuck Eves, vice president of United Illuminating’s (UI) electric operations. “When a storm hits our company, we will get about 40,000 or 50,000 hours of work deposited on us overnight.”

Eves said the company serves 340,000 customers across 17 Connecticut municipalities – and more than 25,000 of those customers are in West Haven alone.

The city’s new mayor, Dorinda Borer, got an inside look at the UI headquarters for the first time Friday.    

“It’s really important, when we’re not in the middle of an incident, to take time to understand what is the storm preparation, what is the response procedures, how do we power the region,” Borer said.

UI officials said that during storm coverage, five conference rooms are packed with emergency crew members, where they track outages by area and work to restore power.

Eves said they have hundreds of crew members on standby.

“We’re always in a mode of preparation,” Eves said. “So, I mean, just one night ago, we had 50-mile-an-hour winds through our territory. So, preparation is a religion here.”

West Haven’s new emergency management director, Rick Fontana, said UI has had a great relationship with first responders throughout the region.

“They have been great on their responses,” Fontana said. “We call them, they’re there in a moment’s notice. I think the important thing [today] was to continue and build on the relationship.”