NJ Crews Bosltered by Experience Bailing Out Flood Victims

First came the forecast, then the rain. And as the drops intensified, so did the efforts of emergency personnel who poured into Somerset County's hardest-hit areas during last week's nor'easter.

From local police and volunteer fire and rescue squads to state troopers and National Guard soldiers, hundreds of rescue workers were deployed to Manville and Bound Brook starting last Sunday afternoon.

In the ensuing days, rescue workers logged thousands of hours and performed hundreds of rescues, the largest effort since Hurricane Floyd in 1999, when rising rivers caught many off guard.

This time, they were prepared.

"The lessons that we learned in 1999 as far as emergency management operations have helped tremendously in the initial planning of what could potentially happen and how to respond," said acting Bound Brook Police Chief Thomas White. "Everything has run smoothly as far as getting in assistance from all the federal and state agencies, as well as county agencies."

History has taught them, said LeRoy Gunzelman III, director of the county Office of Emergency Management. Anytime the Raritan River has the potential to flood, "we know it's going to affect Bound Brook, Manville, Bridgewater and Somerville, which it did do."

The state's emergency operations center started buzzing at 6 p.m. Saturday, said State Police Capt. Jerome Hatfield of the state Office of Emergency Management. By Sunday, a representative was in Somerset County, and two more followed on Monday. They coordinated requests for State Police, National Guard and state Emergency Medical Services Task Force.

Members of Bound Brook's police, fire, rescue squad, public works and administrators started planning at 2 p.m. Sunday, police Lt. Steven Cozza said.

By 6 p.m. Sunday, the county activated its emergency operations center. "At that time, we knew what we were dealing with," Gunzelman said.

Manville officials gathered by 8 p.m. and decided to start calling in extra personnel. And before 10 p.m., they had already toured the Lost Valley section of town several times, said Police Chief Mark Peltack.

Their work was just beginning. Eventually dozens of agencies would become involved, Gunzelman said

As of Wednesday, Bound Brook police had put in 300 hours of overtime for an additional cost of about $23,000, used a 5-ton military vehicle, two boats and their entire fleet of 13 SUVs and cars, Cozza said.

Manville had worked 273 hours of overtime by Thursday - for a total of $16,450 - and used the department's two boats, plus one a retired police officer provided and one from the Somerset County Dive-Rescue Team, Peltack said.

Reinforcements were provided by the state emergency management office, which sent a swift-water rescue team with 13 volunteers to Bound Brook Monday afternoon, Hatfield said. They were replaced Tuesday morning with the urban search-and-rescue team, 25 volunteers to conduct search and evacuation missions through dusk.

At the same time, 20 state troopers, divided into 12-hour shifts have been working in Bound Brook since Monday, and those numbers were increased to groups of 20, pulling 12-hour shifts, with staffing levels expected to remain in place until last night, Hatfield said.

The state also deployed the National Guard to Manville and Bound Brook, said spokesman Lt. Col. James Garcia, adding soldiers were sent from the Somerset Armory, a dozen at a time, in 12-hour shifts, he said. Eventually, the Guard rolled back its Manville mission and focused on Bound Brook.

Locally, the county prosecutor's and sheriff's offices kicked into action.

When Manville was trapped by the Raritan and Millstone rivers, Peltack called in extra local officers, and supplemented them with five sheriff's officers who worked 12-hour shifts, said Peltack.

"They (sheriff's officers) were sent in before we became an island, and then I had several other officers that came in on the morning hours," he said.