Hopatcong Reacts: What if 9/11 Happened Again?

Imagine: An attack similar to Sept. 11, 2001, happens again. Except it’s 10 years later, and we know now what we didn’t know then.

Here's how various groups in Hopatcong said they would probably react if something like 9/11 happened again:

POLICE
Police Chief John Swanson said not much would change from a physical standpoint if a similar event happened. But now that every emergency response service operates under the county umbrella, Swanson said, there would be better coordination between different squads—such as fire, ambulance and Community Emergency Response Teams—within the borough and between municipalities. Swanson posed an example: if the Sussex County Office of Emergency Management called Hopatcong asking for a certain number of ambulances, the department would contact the squad, which would decide how many could leave the borough while still feeling comfortable that Hopatcong's needs are in check. "[The county] would just pull a little bit from everybody to meet he goal for whatever that particular need was," Swanson said. "Coordination is the biggest lesson that we've all learned and that would be the difference today." Swanson also said the department would utilize the county's Outbound 9-1-1 system—also referred to as reverse 9-1-1—to inform Hopatcong residents of road closures and other emergencies or security measures. Swanson said the borough's Hurricane Irene response served as a good example of the department in response-mode. "The flooding was another good example," he said. "There was a regional need for the response to serve communities and that was coordinated and that made everything go much smoother."

FIRE
Hopatcong Fire Chief Mike Rahill echoed Swanson's sentiment. Rahill said it would mobilize available volunteers and wait for word from the police department. "Your knee-jerk reaction is to respond in," Rahill said. "But sometimes the hardest thing for someone in charge" is to decide who's needed when it's time to help. "We all want to rush in and do what's right," he said. "But if everyone goes running and abandons the town, now you've got no trucks and no manpower in town to handle a house fire, which should be your first duty."

AMBULANCE
Swanson said it would mobilize its volunteers if necessary and await word from Hopatcong authorities.

SCHOOLS
School Superintendent Dr. Charles Maranzano said Hopatcong's 9/11 response—locking down schools—probably wouldn't change. He also said it's difficult to forecast the district's response to another attack since it would be almost impossible to predict how it would affect the borough. "It really depends on how local the event is, and it's affect on Hopatcong or the county," Maranzano said. "And then we'd follow the lead of civil authorities and what the emergency operation centers said. We'd fall in line and be good soldiers and do what we had to do to offer our facilities to protect our students and alter our school day in response to the threat."

BOROUGH HALL
Mayor Sylvia Petillo said Hopatcong has an emergency plan set in place that would snap into effect. Then borough officials would meet and begin communications with Sussex County and Trenton.