Storms Stretched, Tested Morris Twp.

Stretched, tested, weary. But in the end, responsive and unified.

That was the general assessment of township public safety and emergency management personnel earlier this month as they had time to review their response to the two large and different storms that hit New Jersey in August and October.

Deputy Mayor Bruce Sisler said these storms provided him with the first opportunity to closely observe the township’s emergency response.

What he saw, he said, “was the leadership of these individuals, professionals and volunteers in many dangerous situations and circumstances.”

The response, the officials said,  was the result of planning and training at the township level, where an emergency management committee is at the center of planning, and the coordination with Morris County, state and federal agencies.

Both , which battered the region on Aug. 27 and 28, and that dumped between 10 and 19 inches of wet, heavy snow across North and Central Jersey on Oct. 29 and 30, presented emergency responders and residents with dangerous, often life-threatening conditions.

Irene left widespread flooding, in some spots combined with downed, live electric power lines. It damaged roads and isolated neighborhoods.

Over the weekend of Irene, the Morris County emergency management center recorded 2,430 calls to 911; 112,000 total calls to the center; and 170,000 non-emergency calls. The county’s social media system used to spread emergency announcements recorded 450,337 visits, more than eight times the normal volume.

The snowstorm changed the recipe and added the specter of thousands of downed trees and branches that ripped down power lines, leaving at its peak 700,000 New Jersey residents without power for days, and in some cases, weeks.

The snowstorm produced more than 20,000 cubic yards of debris, said township administrator Timothy Quinn. The cleanup effort lasted until the end of the first week of January, he said, when the last loads of debris were delivered to the Central Park of Morris County, where the county park commission had allowed towns to dump the debris.

“Need mulch?” Quinn joked.

Harvey Klein, the township’s office of emergency management coordinator, said as the weather alerts became weather warnings, the township moved to open its operations center.

The center was staffed through both events with , , emergency medical staff and emergency management officials to speed communication and decision making.

Both police and fire departments were on recall, said Police Chief Dennis Reilly and Fire Chief Scott Lovenberg.

“We planned for two, 12-hour shifts,” Lovenberg said. “We had to adjust, supplementing volunteer staff with the paid staff.”

In both events, fatigue of the responders was a concern, especially as the response entered a second full day, and with the snow storm, stretched into the next week as power remained out across the township.

Lovenberg said he had 30 firefighters on  duty per shift and three to four members at the emergency command center.

Dave Schulz of the , the regional emergency medical response  organization, said they planned in each event for a four-day operation, with 10 to 12 members on each 12-hour shift.

The duration of the events became an issue for patrols, especially after the snow storm, Reilly said, because as the weather cleared and the sun came back out, residents treated the Sunday like another other weekend, and did what they usually do.

“They wanted to get out of the house,” he said.

But the scene that greeted them was anything but normal.

Streets were flooded all across the township, and some of the floods hid downed, possibly live, power lines. Traffic signals were out and in many cases familiar routes  were blocked, and drivers searched out new, perhaps unfamiliar ways around town. After the snow storm, the streets were filled with downed trees and limbs, some wrapped in live wires, Reilly said.

Many times during both  events, he said, police officers at barricades were asked by residents if they could re-enter their homes. More often than not, faced with water-filled streets, tree limbs and possibly live wires, the answer was no.

He said township police officers performed theses duties willingly and professionally despite the high water, snow, live  wires and “trees falling nearby.”

Safety, and the eventual clean up depended on how quickly . could repair the power lines, Reilly said.

Councilman Peter Mancuso said one email message that raised some concern was from a mother who noted that her children were out playing in the street near downed, live power lines.

Sisler said one effort that exemplified the way efforts were prioritized and cooperation between towns and the county were arranged, was the effort to get key east-west roads like Hanover Avenue and Sussex Turnpike cleared of tree  debris.

On Hanover, all four lanes were blocked, he said, but combined crews managed to open two lanes. Since the township wraps around Morristown, the ability of emergency crews to quickly travel east to west and back is vital, he said.

During both events, officials said, they were aware of a number of residents who had special medical conditions.

Schulz said the medical service relied on “known histories” to create a list of homes that needed checking for those, for examples, who relied on oxygen systems that required electricity.

During the event, neighbors, volunteers, police, fire and rescue personnel were used to check on those vulnerable residents, he said.

In the middle of it all, fire alarms were sounding all over the township, many tripped by the loss of power, Lovenberg said. After the floods, he said, cellars  needed to be pumped out, and in some cases, homes' grinder pumps in  sewer lines had to be cleared. Quinn said with the power out, those pumps that help direct sewerage to the main sewer lines had shut down. Homes could have been flooded with raw sewerage without the help, he said.

Quinn said in both storms, was opened as a emergency shelter, but most residents forced to leave their homes made other arrangements.

Klein said in both events Morris County’s was opened as a shelter.

In the hurricane, it took on added importance, he said, as .

Because the arena is in the township, local responders and law enforcement personnel were involved.

Scott DiGerolomo, the county’s emergency management director, told the freeholders in December that the Atlantic City evacuees included 98 children, 30 diabetics, 20 methadone users, overdue dialysis patients, those with dementia, many without medications, and numerous evacuees with wheelchairs and in need of a constant oxygen supply.

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

Morris County hospitals provided 11 nurses, two emergency doctors, nine paramedics, 32 emergency medical technicians, eight ambulances, and pharmacy staffers who filled 22 prescriptions. More than 100 patients were treated, DiGerolomo 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.

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