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Person on phone. Photo By Metro Creative Service<\/p>\n
WOODLAND\u2014An \u201cinternet outage that we had last month (July)\u201d in Woodland Township previously raised by Deputy Mayor Mark Herndon, had posed a \u201cpretty dangerous situation\u201d for township residents, according to the municipality\u2019s new emergency management coordinator, Christopher Stopero, in expanded comments on the matter during an Aug. 27 governing body meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously inconvenient, but also extremely dangerous,\u201d is how he further put it.<\/p>\n
According to Stopero, also the assistant chief of the Woodland Volunteer Fire and EMS Company, the \u201cinternet phones\u201d ultimately turned on \u201cfor at least one resident\u201d about \u201can hour before they had to call 911 for their husband.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, it really could have been a much-worse situation,\u201d declared Stopero of the circumstances in a rural town with already limited cellular phone service.<\/p>\n
Stopero later told this newspaper, when asked for more details about the incident\u2019s timeframe, that, \u201cWe believe the outage started overnight between July 4 and 5,\u201d based on resident reports, and \u201cWoodland Fire and EMS was notified of the outage around 5 a.m. on the 5th, but it likely started overnight.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe outage ended at different times for different parts of town, and cell and home internet came back on at different times, but our best guess of total town-wide restoration was on July 6 around noon,\u201d Stopero added. \u201cFrom the reports we received, this outage affected all cellular providers, as well as home internet services provided by Verizon.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also noted there was a \u201csecond cellular outage\u201d on July 10 that lasted approximately four to five hours, which started around 3 a.m.\u201d but \u201cwe have not been told if this was at all related to the first outage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stopero, who took over Aug. 1 as municipal emergency management coordinator for Michael Huber, described that he has since been in touch with Verizon (and AT&T), \u201cbut did not get too far\u201d with respect to \u201cwhat their official stance was\u201d on the incident that had occurred, \u201cother than that a \u201cnetwork outage\u201d had been experienced.<\/p>\n
Stopero said he is now working with county emergency management officials to \u201cdig a little deeper into that.\u201d<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for Verizon told this newspaper they would check into this matter and get back in touch, but did not as of press time.<\/p>\n
The state Office of Emergency Management, which is part of the New Jersey State Police, has Verizon and AT&T representatives as part of its emergency response structure. Stopero reported that he has since spoken to representatives of all three agencies, and \u201cif something like that were to happen again, they do have deployable mobile cell phone towers that they can get out here.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, he noted, there is a \u201cresponse time\u201d of 24 to 72 hours.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, depending on how fast they want to be (with deployment), it may help, may not,\u201d declared Stopero, noting that he now has their contact information on file, and adding he hopes the \u201cstate police version of that would be the fastest one to deploy.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the new emergency management coordinator, \u201cif something like that happens again,\u201d the township fire department will also \u201cdeploy our mobile command center over at the firehouse that has satellite internet.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, at least residents can use the internet if they just need to for whatever reason,\u201d Huber said. \u201cThey can stop by the firehouse and do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Additionally, Stopero said that in moving forward, \u201cI will make sure that the firehouse remains staffed\u201d during an outage.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, if you can\u2019t call 911, maybe you can at least drive to the firehouse and initiate some sort of response,\u201d Stopero declared.<\/p>\n
Stopero also announced that the township emergency management now has a dedicated Facebook page that residents can follow for updates: https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/WoodlandTownshipOEM<\/a> .<\/p>\n Herndon asked about the local emergency management office\u2019s budget, to which Township Administrator and Clerk Maryalice Brown responded, \u201cWe can\u2019t really do anything about it now because our budgets are already in place for the year,\u201d but that budget discussions for 2026 will commence in December or January.<\/p>\n Brown and Township Chief Financial Officer Kathy Rosmando then confirmed \u201che does have $1,000,\u201d with Rosmando adding, \u201cWe can always transfer money if there is something that he needs.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Our journalism needs your support. Please donate today to PineBarrensTribune.com<\/p>\n
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