9/11 changed emergency management dramatically

1 Continued from page A1the county s buildings weresecure. He remembers visit-ing the American Red CrossinCape May Court House andfinding it teeming with volun-teers busy with blood dona-tions. It was packed. People thatwere down on vacation thatwere Red Cross volunteersfrom throughout the countrycame in and they were man-ning the phones. It was agreat sight to see people wereengaged to try to help, Plousis said around 2 day, the New York PoliceDepartment and PortAuthority requested assis-tance from outside May County Sheriff sOffice sent 10 officers to NewYork to assist.

2 He said theofficers went to a staging areaat Liberty State Park, whichwas inundated with volun-teers. Once they put out thatbroadcast, people literallyfrom around the countrywere coming in to help some people innorthern New Jersey gotthere faster than we did, Plousis said 9/11 altered theway law enforcement agen-cies communicated with eachother. He said since theattacks, law enforcement atthefederal, state and locallevels now interact frequentlyand with greater effective-ness than in the past. All law enforcement atevery level changed dramati-cally after 9/11.

3 I think any-body traveling or downinganything today realize wehave taken extra s not only at the airport butlocal and federal courthousesand other vulnerable possibletargets. Everybody has seenthe ramping up of physicalsecurity in all of those facili-ties, Plousis said. Plus,there s passive security in allthose facilities that the publicdoesn t see. According to Plousis, thebroken communicationbetween agencies before 9/11made it difficult for agenciesonseveral levels to shareinformation. He said improv-ing communication graduallyimproved in county, state andfederal levels.

4 After 9/11 the parochial-ness between the differentlaw enforcement agencieshas changed . There s defi-nitely positive informationsharing all the way down. Plousis said he attended ameeting in Washington, days after 9/11 with then-attorney general Ashcroft andvarious sheriffs and policechiefs. He said Ashcroftpledged to improve communi-cation between law enforce-ment partners. One of these improvementsis the Joint Terrorism TaskForce, present in 94 federaldistricts throughout the coun-try. Plouis said the task forceis comprised of local, county,state and federal law enforce-ment who meet and exchangeinformation on possible ter-rorist activity.

5 We have the mechanism toget that information from thelocal policeman up to the FBIand vice versa, he United StatesDepartment of HomelandSecurity, created in 2002 as aresponse to 9/11, responds todomestic emergenciesincluding terrorism and otherdisasters. Homeland Securityalso works with local lawenforcement agencies toshare information and issuealerts on various said following 9/11,law enforcement has taken amore pro-active instead ofreactive response Prior to 9/11 it was veryodd we would get alerts orinformation from HomelandSecurity or FBI or other fed-eral entities.

6 Now there songoing communications,both electronically and per-sonal contact. Ten years outwe have a more seamless sys-tem of law enforcement in theUnited States, Plousis serving as Cape MayCounty Sheriff, Plousis wasappointed as United StatesMarshal for the State of NewJersey. As a marshal, he saidone noteworthy terrorismcase was the Fort Dix 2007, a group of six radi-cal Muslim men plotted toattack military personnel atFort Dix, gaining access tothe base in the guise of pizzadelivery men. The men, whowere based in Cherry Hill,videotaped their weaponstraining in the Poconos andtook the tapes to a CircuitCity to have them transferredinto DVDs.

7 The store clerk transferringthe tapes notified local police,who called the JointTerrorism Task Force. Theinvestigation resulted in thetrial and conviction of fivemen who conspired to attackFort Dix. It was a good example ofcitizen involvement and locallaw enforcement feeding theinformation to the properauthority resulting in anarrest and conviction, Plousis from page A1 LPG would be suitable fornatural gas. Regarding an existing sup-ply of LPG in the homeown-er s tank, residents wereadvised they could continueto use LPG until their supplyand/or contract ran to Andrews, theycan have dual fuel supplies intheir homes, running sepa-rate appliances off propane,while using natural gas forothers.

8 He said it mightrequire separate lines, how-ever. Gordon said South JerseyGas would like to have cus-tomers hook up with naturalgas service within threemonths after applying, how-ever, they would be able toextend the time for peoplewho have contracts with LPGsuppliers. As long as you pay the(SJGas) customer charge youwill be OK, Gordon said. Asked about where mainswould be installed first,Gordon said the particularsequence has not beenworked out, yet. There is anoverall design, but the streetswould be determined after allthe applications are in, sothey can see where the high-est demand is.

9 However, hesaid construction wouldbegin in October and all themains would be laid within ayear. Customers would beupdated on the progress ofthe construction and toldwhen they could expect gasservice as the project asked what kindof lead time they needed togive a contractor, but the gascompany representativescould only say they wouldnotify customers when themains would be coming downtheir customer asked about thespotting of gas meters, sincemany homeowners leave thePoint in the winter. Gordonsaid the location could beidentified in advance of con-struction.

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