By Charles Austin, The Record (Bergen County, N.J.)
FAIR LAWN, N.J. -- The room could be a computer training lab or high-tech classroom. But the signs over the desks signal a different story. They bear the words, “Fire/Police,” “EMS/Health,” “Rescue/ Hazmat,” and “Communications.”
Fair Lawn’s new Emergency Operations Center is on full-time alert this week, partly because of the Republican National Convention and partly as a training exercise for emergency workers who would be mobilized in case of a natural disaster or a terror attack.
The sophisticated communications and computer technology displays digital maps of New York and New Jersey on a large screen, including flood plains for the Passaic and Saddle rivers, inventories of emergency equipment and supplies, evacuation plans, and information on potential danger spots such as chemical storage facilities in the borough.
Tom Metzler, Fair Lawn’s emergency management director, said the center also has access to confidential data supplied by state and federal emergency management agencies.
Should a flood, a hurricane, a dangerous chemical spill, or a terror attack hit the region, specially trained borough staff and volunteers would take 12-hour shifts at the room in the basement of the municipal building, coordinating police, fire, and ambulance response.
The room can be set up in less than 30 minutes and is powered by its own generator. Calls to police and rescue squads would be forwarded to the center, where computer software tracks each related incident and which emergency workers respond.
“We would know what is needed, what assets we have, and exactly where they are deployed,” Metzler said. If the disaster is regional, the borough’s center links to state and federal agencies and Fair Lawn equipment might be sent “up the line” as needed, he said.
“The key is in managing all our resources,” Metzler said, drawing on experiences with Tropical Storm Floyd, which swept through Fair Lawn in 1999, and in response to the World Trade Center attacks. Having an emergency operations center and a detailed emergency plan “keeps the public informed, protects our first responders, and makes sure we don’t over-commit and send all our assets out of town,” Metzler said.
Fair Lawn’s center, which took two years to design and install, is part of a cooperative agreement with Paramus and Ridgewood, which use the same computer software. It is believed to be one of the most extensive operations in northern New Jersey.
About half of the $50,000 cost of the center was covered with a federal Homeland Security Grant, with the borough supplying the rest.
Because the center’s software records all the responses, it will also be easier for the borough to document the costs of dealing with an emergency such as a hurricane if federal disaster funds become available.
This week the room is being used for training exercises, Metzler said, and some of the equipment, such as “interactive white boards” that display computer screens, can be used for other activities in the borough when not needed in the emergency center.
There are plans to expand the center’s capability to network with other emergency agencies, Metzler said. “We want to make things as safe as possible for our first-responders, and be able to protect our citizens.”