NJ county moves on emergency alert system
Emergency broadcasts still new territory for area emergency managers
Jersey Journal 
Emergency messages mistaken as pranks in Mass. CodeRED keeps N.C. citizens in the loop
HUDSON COUNTY, N.J. — Toxic chlorine gas begins leaking from a Kearny factory.
 The potential for a chemical plant fire, like the one seen here at the Chemcentral plant in Kansas City, Mo., Feb. 7, 2007, is one scenario that prompted Hudson County, N.J. officals to move on a new emergency siren and radio broadcast alert system. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel) |
A hurricane strikes New York Harbor, knocking out power lines and leaving a path of destruction in much of Hudson County.
A bomb blast at a Bayonne petrochemical plant ignites a fire and a plume smoke wafts over the region.
In the next several weeks, these and other possible disasters would prompt the activation of a new emergency siren and radio broadcast alert system in Hudson County by the county's Office of Emergency Management.
It's all part of ongoing precautionary measures mandated by the U.S. Homeland Security Department to help protect the region in the wake of a natural or man-made catastrophe, Hudson OEM Coordinator Jack Burns said.
Burns' office is also continuing to work with a team of Rutgers University consultants to plot out an emergency evacuation route for the Hudson and metropolitan area that must be completed by January 2010.
"We're looking at things like demographics and behavior analysis," said Burns. The goal is to predict how different elements of the population react during a disaster - how many people, for example, would rely on mass transit versus fleeing the area in their cars.
But there's a most pressing deadline: The federal Homeland Security grant of $792,000 financing the emergency alert package stipulates that the system must be up and running by Feb. 1.
To comply, OEM has hired Kevco Electric, of Riverside, to install 31 strategically placed sirens atop 55-foot poles throughout the county. The cone-shaped 70-decibel sirens are made by Acoustical Technologies, Inc., of Boston, and powered by solar panels and batteries.
"It will sound like a loud car horn," Burns said of the alert blast.
When the sirens sound, residents are supposed to tune in to a not-yet-operational AM radio station to listen for instructions to be broadcast from a transmitter at the OEM office in Secaucus and possibly several other sites. After a couple of false starts, the Federal Communications Commission signed off on the county's 5-watt emergency station "about five or six weeks ago," Burns said.
Over the next few weeks, Burns said his office plans to "blanket the area with educational materials" explaining how the emergency communications network will operate and, eventually, disclosing where to go on the AM radio dial to get the county's emergency broadcasts.
Whether the broadcasts will be live or taped hasn't been worked out yet, Burns said. "This is still virgin territory for us."
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