Office of Emergency Management Makes Plans to Counter Irene

Bloomfield’s Hurricane Irene emergency management plans are well underway as the township’s office of emergency management held a meeting with all department heads this morning to discuss how to best protect residents and homeowners from the storm’s wrath and keep people safe.

According to Deputy Coordinator for Emergency Management Tom Pelaia, Mayor Raymond McCarthy and Office of Emergency Management Administrator Fred Menzel reviewed the storm situation this morning and will meet again tomorrow morning to “tweak the plan” and figure out an action plan.

Pelaia said the weather models call for Irene to begin in earnest in Bloomfield late Saturday night, continue through Sunday into Sunday night before leaving our area Monday morning.

The township’s plans call for the department of public works to figure how many staff members they will need to call in during the day, as well as having extra police and firefighters on hand for first responders and for extra manpower to handle flooding, respectively.

The township has no plans to open shelters right now. Should the need arise, Pelaia said, the civic center and one of the township’s schools would be used. Pelaia could not say which school would be involved because it would depend on flooding in the township.

If the area around the middle school is flooded, we will have the board of education open up the high school if the situation warrants it, he said. If another area floods, we might open up the middle school, he added. Either way, maintenance teams are on standby at the township schools.

Pelaia said the township is urging residents to keep informed by checking online sites like Patch, as well as watching Comcast Channel 35 and Verizon FiOS Channel 30.

The township is also asking people to call the operations center at (973) 680-4177 for any storm-related issues and leave the 9-1-1 calls for emergencies only. The operations center will be staffed by representatives from every township department for a majority of the day. In the event of an off-hours storm-related issue, Pelaia said calls to the operations center will go to the police department. Police will then dispatch the issue to representatives to the proper department.