Freeholders Told: Storm Response Was Strong

Hurricane Irene was so fierce, rainwater leaked through the walls of the county's Schuyler Place building, delaying the opening of new County College of Morris classrooms.

Hurricane force winds knocked down nine trees along .

Raging water through a 1920s culvert on Kinnelon Road in Kinnelon swallowed a car whose driver escaped, and washed away the road, .

The Morris County freeholders Wednesday got an extensive overview of the damage and response from department heads.

The response to "the most severe natural disaster in 25 years" showed that the county managers and employees responded in an exceptional way, said county administrator John Bonnani.

Emergency management director Scott DiGiralomo, engineer Stephen Hammond and human service director Frank Pinto provided the report.

In most cases the county's planning paid off, they said—but the storm also exposed some issue with equipment and communication. DiGerolomo said many of those issues are going to be addressed through the construction of the new communications and emergency management center in Parsippany.

All said the storm showed that county, local and state employees, local hospitals, and volunteers would step up to help their neighbors in need.

Morris County was the only county in the state that had utility company representatives in the room while the storm raged on, DiGerolomo said.

Hammand that workers from the county Shade Tree Commission and Mosquito Control Commission had to be pulled off the tree clearing in Jefferson for their own safety after operating chain saws for hours.

And Pinto said the Office of Temporary Assistance had employees at recovery centers to help the people there apply for food stamps under an emergency state order. Morris was the only county to set up that service during the storm, he said. More than 338 applications were filed, for 547 residents, he said.

Others who stepped up were the behavioral health professionals who provided counseling, and the drivers of the county's transportation system, MAPS, who provided bus service and ensured that the thousands of seniors in the county's nutrition program were contacted and provided with food and items like flashlights, the officials said.

DiGiralomo said the county's technology department employees worked hours to maintain telephone links and computer links to the communications center in the face of power outages.

One of the first challenges the county faced, DiGiralomo said, , including 98 children, 30 diabetics, 20 Methadone users, overdue dialysis patients, those with dementia, many without medication, and numerous evacuees with wheelchairs and in need of a constant oxygen supply.

These people had spend 10 hours in various shelters, then 12 to 18 hours on bleachers in a sports arena before they arrived at Mennen , he said.

Thanks to federal Homeland Security funds, the county has cots available, which needed to be delivered to the arena. DiGiralomo said the county's Municipal Utilities Authority provided the machinery to get the cots to the arena.

He said the Park Commission, which operates the arena, provided staff who coordinated with the Red Cross to operate the facility while the evacuees were there. For the first two days, he said, ice hockey teams that had scheduled practices were allowed to enter the facility, but eventually park executive director David Helmer shut down the facility.

Feeding the evacuees was an issue, but Capt. Jeff Paul of the county prosecutor's office bought $800 worth of food, DiGiralomo said [Note: The amount was actually more than $1,000].

More pressing were the medical needs of the evacuees, DiGerolomo said. The chief executive officers of Atlantic Health (which operates , St. Clare's Health Services (which saw its Denville hospital cut of by flood water), and Chilton Memorial Hospital provided 11 nurses, two emergency doctors, nine paramedics, 30 emergency medical technicians, eight ambulances, and pharmacy staffers who filled 22 prescriptions. More than 100 patients were treated, DiGiralomo said.

The county's volunteer medical reserve corps of doctors and nurses had 28 volunteers working 12-hour shifts, he said.

Law enforcement from the park commission, Morris Township, the Morris County Sheriff's office and New Jersey State Police provided security and assistance, and Atlantic Ambulance and the Morris Minutemen provided transport services.

But Digerolomo said generators failed at the current communications center, and officials learned that in a big emergency there are too few seats for all the dispatchers. Also the telephone system can not be adapted to meet the needs for more personnel or open lines, and the county's Internet/email system had a single portal, he said.

Those are issues that were raised during the planning of the new communications facility, he said. The new center will have "double redundancies" for electronic and communications systems he said.

The storm response, he said, was a time when under duress, "government worked."

Morris County response to Hurricane Irene by the numbers (as provided by county officials)

Communications:                   
Non-emergency police calls: 8,752
Reverse 911 calls: 170,000
County radio system calls: 112,000
911 calls: 2,430 in 24 hours
Fire calls: 1,146               
Hazardous material calls: 170           

Tree damage: 75 fallen, 100 or more damaged           

Roads and bridges:
Overtime hours: 857                   
Standard hours: 432                   
Road shoulders repaired: 18,000 linear feet       
Used: 200 tons of 12- to 18-inch riprap (stone), 100 tons of asphalt,  
150 barrels, 50 barricades, 100 safety cones, more than 50 "water over road" or "road closed" signs