Command Center Keeps Busy During Storm

The mood in the mobile command center at Claremont Place and Central Avenue was a mixture of relief and being on edge early Sunday morning, as emergency officials began to see the clearing in the flood, but continued to monitor the river in case of a sudden turn for the worse.

Traditionally set up on Claremont around Normandie Place or Central Avenue, the command center is staffed by police and department of public works personnel, with assistance from the county's emergency management office. Working out of a mobile command headquarters supplied by the county, officers monitor weather and flood conditions on computers with the water rescue team on stand-by for potential evacuations.

Police Lt. Joseph Van Bergen said the police department uses several systems to monitor flood conditions. Working with emergency officials upriver in Springfield, several electronic data machines transmit water levels and alert Cranford officials to activity upstream. In Cranford, officials monitor several large rulers near the footbridge on Riverside Drive in order to keep track of river levels.

Van Bergen said members of the water rescue team head out with DPW staffers on front end loaders multiple times during a flood to collect data, along with review conditions in the neighborhood near the footbridge. Data collected shortly after midnight showed Cranford would likely bite the bullet and miss serious flooding during the storm.

The police maintain a roughly 10 person water rescue team, which handles flood evacuations, along with routine canoe and river related emergencies. In the case of a flooding situation, all members of the water rescue team are called in for the event.