for future terror incidents
Response teams trained
for radiation, biological
and chemical weapons
County agencies preparing
for future terror incidents
Response teams trained
for radiation, biological
and chemical weapons
By alison granito
Staff Writer
For local county officials it is not a question of if, but when, their resources will be tested by another terrorist attack in the region.
The tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001, brought home the need for all officials from the national level down to the local level to accelerate their ability to respond to events that many had considered unlikely, if not almost impossible.
In response to the new challenges facing the nation, officials on the county level say that although they have made great strides in improving capabilities to deal with every type of terrorist scenario imaginable — from dirty bombs to smallpox — no amount of preparation may be enough in the event of a large-scale terrorist attack in the region.
"Our basic function is to respond, and we have absolutely accelerated that response over the past year," said Pat LaRocca, coordinator of the Office of Emergency Management in Middlesex County.
"We have set procedures in place to deal with a variety of issues from bioterror like last year’s anthrax incident, to dealing with chemicals, to scenarios involving bombs and weapons of mass destruction. It’s big subject matter, but as new issues arise, we address them. We want our people to be prepared for whatever may come our way," he said, noting that county agencies have placed a major focus on training for the possibility of bioterror in the area.
"In a county of 800,000 people a contagious disease, something like smallpox, could be devastating," LaRocca said, adding that county agencies have run coordinated drills with health officials and five local hospitals to test the response to a staged smallpox outbreak.
In the federal rating system, Middlesex County, along with much of northern New Jersey and New York City, is rated a 1, meaning that it is considered to have a higher potential to be the target of an attack. Monmouth County is designated a 2, meaning there is some possibility for an incident, while Ocean County is rated a 3, meaning there is a low likelihood of a major incident.
Monmouth County Health Officer Lester Jargowsky said that although the local area is technically placed in a secondary level of risk, a major incident in New York City has the potential to have a tremendous local impact.
"They used to call me Dr. Doom before 9/11 last year. I don’t hear that so much anymore," Jargowsky said, noting that he urged county officials to increase preparedness before Sept. 11.
"Pre 9/11 we already had a very good full-time hazmat team in place, which had been trained to deal with very dangerous situations," he said.
The Monmouth County Hazardous Materials team was put to the test on 9/11, responding to the municipal harbors in Atlantic Highlands and Highlands to decontaminate a large contingent of dust- and debris-covered people who had been evacuated from lower Manhattan via commuter ferries.
"I think that in this new world we live in, we have to realize that anything could be dealt our way, and we have to be ready for it. But, no matter how prepared we are, we have to realize that some of these things may be beyond our resources," the health officer said.
According to Jargowsky, in the event of a large-scale attack in the region, federal authorities have informed the state and counties that they may need to "hang in there for a couple of days and try to minimize damages until backup resources are able come in to help."
Jargowsky said the addition of new staff members such as trained epidemiologists to monitor hospital and emergency room admissions to facilitate the early recognition of a potential bioterror attack; significant training of existing emergency response teams in how to deal with incidents involving chemicals, explosives and radiation; and investment in new radio-based communications systems that would function in the event that phone and computer systems are knocked out represent some of the steps Monmouth County has taken to prepare for whatever may come.
LaRocca said Middlesex County has taken similar steps — by training hazardous materials response teams, by improving coordination with hospitals, and by updating technology in its 20 emergency management annexes.
However, officials from both counties said they will continue to expand programs and send staff for specialized training as necessary.
"We continue to have a strong sense of urgency to build systems and be as good as we can be. But time is of the essence here," Jargowsky said, noting that efforts to combat most major incidents most likely will need to be coordinated on the national level.