By Chris Rotolo
LITTLE SILVER – A decade later and Mayor Robert Neff can still smell the wet wood of the downed shade trees strewn about town. Simply peering out at a particular portion of sidewalk can flip a switch on the reel-to-reel projector in his mind, replaying scenes of borough residents trudging out of their homes to dispose of belongings lost to floodwaters from the nearby Shrewsbury River.
Though these troubling images may be ingrained in his memory, it was what he found at his own home in the wake of Super Storm Sandy that will touch his heart forever.
“My home was just outside the evacuation area, but we had water coming through our front door pretty quickly and had to leave,” Neff said. “But in the aftermath of the storm, there are processes that need to be planned and implemented. So you sort of lose track of what’s going on in your own house.
“When I finally got back home, I found members of the (Red Bank Regional) football team and neighbors and people from all over town helping my wife clean out the house,” Neff said. “They allowed us to lean on them during a very tough moment. That’s what community is about.”
Considering Little Silver’s geographic location, the impact of Super Storm Sandy and intensifying weather-related events looming large, the borough is taking steps to expand protections and services to borough residents – and those in neighboring municipalities – with the development of its new Swiftwater Rescue Unit.
This marine emergency response team is an interagency operation currently consisting of 12 members of the Little Silver Fire Department and Little Silver Emergency Medical Services unit. Each member is a certified water rescue technician with 50 to 60 hours of specialized response training. These individuals are now qualified to complete response operations in urban flooding and swift moving water – similar conditions to what was observed during Super Storm Sandy – basic river response and support for drowning victims or capsized vessels, and flooded vehicle rescue services.
“I was in town as a first responder to support the rescue efforts during (Sandy), and saw firsthand how our fire department and EMS members worked so well together,” said Little Silver EMS Chief Chris Faherty. “That sort of collaboration between these departments has only increased over time, and we saw this as another opportunity to strengthen our services to the community through a joint capability.”
The development of this mutual aid service was made possible by the donation of dry suits, emergency rescue flotation devices and a 14-foot INMAR Search and Rescue inflatable boat, the versatility of which allows the vessel to perform in flooded municipal roadways and local river systems.
“I supported this venture, as did (Little Silver Fire Chief) Tom Smith and the governing body, but what’s really cool about it is that it’s the community that supports it,” Faherty said. “It was a local family who observed a need for additional rescue services and donated the equipment. It’s our volunteer firefighters and EMS members who have generated the momentum for this to get trained and certified, not just for activities in the immediate future, but in perpetuity.”
“There was a need to have a baseline capability to save lives and create a safety net for our residents and patrons of nearby waterways, and the community got behind it,” Neff said. “We’re happy to see the vision come to fruition and excited to see how it continues to develop in the future, because the future is uncertain,” he said, adding that weather-related incidents don’t appear to be diminishing.
“You learn some hard lessons from a storm like Sandy. And looking back, our town is certainly safer now because of what happened,” Neff said.
According to Faherty, Little Silver’s marine unit is already growing, with additional members expected to begin their training over the course of the next few months.
“We’ve taken some important steps, but we haven’t finished this process by any means. We’re continuing to seek opportunities to advance it through new certification and training programs, and efforts to grow our volunteer membership,” Faherty said. “We don’t know what will happen in the future, so we need to keep adding tools to our belt. These are tools you hope to never have to use, but we want to have them available just in case.”
The article originally appeared in the October 27 – November 2, 2022 print edition of The Two River Times.
