Why Was The New Jersey City Medical Center Put in Flood Zone?

Here's is another good question Hurricane Sandy brought to light. Why Was The New Jersey City Medical Center Put in Flood Zone? The New Jersey City Medical Center opened up a few years ago after the old hospital was deemed a hazard. The good thing about the old location was that it sat on top of one of the highest points in Jersey City, on the corner of Baldwin Ave, and Montgomery St. This also placed it in the heart of the city. The importance of the Jersey Medical Center is essential to the county as well being that it is a Level 2 Trauma center, and the nearest Level 1 Trauma center is in Newark. So being that the JCMC is so important why would they put it in an area that is surely prone to flooding in a natural catastrophe. Anyone that knows the city could see this coming a mile away. Poor planning by the city and developers on this one. During the storm and weeks after the hospital had to divert patients to other area hospitals that can't really handle the emergencies the JCMC can. So basically Christ Hospital became the main hub of all medical emergencies in the county. All the other hospitals in the county are unfortunately in flood zones as well. Palisades General Hospital, Meadowlands Hospital, and Hoboken Medical Center are all near masses of water. Hopefully this was a lesson learned and we don't have to go through another crisis like this for a very long time. But or local governments need to do better disaster planing. I know that it cost $115,000,000 to build, but something needs to be done to avoid this from happening again.

Temporary ER at the NEW JCMC

FEMA and City of Hoboken, NJ Neglect Volunteer EMS After Sandy

As many of you know already I spent several years as an EMT for the state of New Jersey. Today I heard some sad news as to the conditions of the state of Hoboken's Emergency Medical Services. I was speaking to someone I know that volunteers for the City of Hoboken's EMS service, this person wishes to be anonymous but the conversation we had about funding for new ambulances that were destroyed by the wrath of Hurricane Sandy was devastating to my ears. I ask this person was FEMA or the City of Hoboken going to replace the damaged ambulances, the answer I got was no. The volunteers do not qualify for emergency funding by FEMA, and the city of Hoboken is too cheap help fund it's own ambulance service. Now keep in mind that the Hoboken police and fire department are paid services and fully funded by the city. Now the Emergency Medical Service for Hoboken has remained volunteer and is left to fend themselves using fund raisers to help supply the ambulance service. My question is, how does a city such as Hoboken that makes millions of dollars off of police and parking fines, taxes of local establishments, etc, leave their first line of  medical defense so helpless? How can the Mayor of Hoboken Dawn Zimmer be so negligent as to not even have a budget for the city's EMS. The mayor makes over $100,000 a year, and the people that put their lives on the line on a daily basis get nothing. I don't see any fairness in this at all. Although the city of Hoboken is only one square mile, the city generates enough money to fund the mayor, police, fire department, and even parking authority. So parking authority in Hoboken is more important than their own emergency medical services. How sad is that? If anyone else thinks this is wrong please pass this message on, let's see if we can correct this horrible situation in the City of Hoboken! No more fund raisers for Hoboken EMS, create a budget!

Dj Tecnine's Reflection as a 9/11 WTC Rescuer - 10 Years Later

Besides the music. My passion is helping people. This is what I was doing 10 yrs ago on 9/11 and the 6 days to follow. I lost a good friend/family, not to mention the hundreds of my fellow first responders that paid the ultimate sacrifice that was supposed to be all in a days work. Never take life for granted. RIP to all that lost their lives on this tragic day. We will never forget!

I am Carlos Negron, a life long Jersey City resident and retired EMT that served on the Plainfield Rescue Squad and Tour Chief for West New York EMS at the time. On September 11, 2001 I was on duty as an EMT working in Plainfield, NJ at the Plainfield Rescue Squad when the attacks took place. When the first plane struck we had just walked in the emergency room of Muhlenberg Hospistal in the city. At that point no one knew what was going on except that a plane hit one of the towers. We went on another call and when arrived back at the E.R. we encountered news footage of the second plane barreling into the second tower. After the second plane hit we were immediately activated by CENCOM to respond to the Staten Island side of the Ferry terminal to aid in the rescue efforts. As we overstocked our ambulances we heard news that first tower had collapsed, we left immediately after that. En route we heard that the second tower had collapsed also. As we race down Interstate 278 towards the Narrows Bridge we encountered heavy traffic up to a certain point, then the police bottle-necked the road into one exit and we had a clear run from then on. After that we only encountered a few dozen deserted cars. It felt like an apocalypse was happening. Our 3 ambulance convoy kept in touch via short wave radio, we were all hoping what we heard on the radio wasn't true. I was the first in the convoy to get on the Narrows Bridge along with my Captain Tyshaun Hawkins, as we looked to our North our worst fears were confirmed. It was surreal, all we saw was a cloud of smoke. The towers we gone. We arrived at the terminal at around 11am and my team was there for the arrival of the last ferry from Manhattan that had mostly walking wounded. My team only treated and released one person. When we were released from the terminal around 3pm our convoy was asked to report to Liberty State Park back here in Jersey City. From there we would head over to Exchange Place to wait for more wounded, only one arrived by boat and we rushed him on to the waiting stretcher of the next in-line ambulance. Later on that night we went over on a tug boat to deliver supplies and assist. That was the start of a grueling 6 day search and rescue on my part. The worst news came on the morning of September 12 when the news was broken to me that a lifelong family friend and Jersey City Fire dispatcher Joseph Lovero was killed from a massive heart-attacked after being struck with a piece of the first falling tower. It's still hard to imagine. Their is so much I remember and would like to forget about those 6 days I was there and everything that took place. All I could say is rest in peace Joe! We will never forget all our fallen brothers and sisters lost on September 11, 2001.

  NJ Emergency Medical Technicians Carlos Negron aka Dj Tecnine and Edward Sikaffy

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