Nassau, Suffolk OEMs keep tabs on Irene

A sleeping bag in his arms, one of the officials manning Suffolk County's emergency-command center in Yaphank walked down the staircase early Saturday toward the basement bunker where dozens of his colleagues were preparing for Hurricane Irene.

Another official came to work with a pillow under her arm.

Suffolk County's commissioner of fire, rescue and emergency services, Joseph F. Williams, apparently wasn't exaggerating when he said they'd be there a while.

"We're in a tough position, but we're prepared," Williams said as he moved between impromptu meetings with emergency personnel.

Officially called the Emergency Operations Center, the heart of the bunker is a windowless room containing dozens of computer terminals and officials from a variety of town, county, state and federal agencies busily tapping away.

In Nassau County, some 50 people staffed its Office of Emergency Management, at the Morrelly Homeland Security Center, a 90,000-square-foot building in Bethpage.

In both counties, officials coordinate evacuations and rescues, hold period conference calls with meteorologists, direct rescuers and first-responders out in the field, and check on the elderly and other vulnerable populations.

Saturday morning in Suffolk, a Department of Public Works manager brainstormed with a Suffolk Bus dispatcher on how best to smoothly evacuate the low-lying coastal areas that meteorologists fear Irene will hit the worst. As they talked, they unfurled huge color-coded maps of Long Island outlining the evacuation routes.

In another room, Suffolk officials moved tables and chairs around to find overflow room for their counterparts from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. A liaison from the governor's office went from room to room in the bunker.

Fried chicken, coffee and doughnuts well-stocked in the break room fueled their work, with a similar menu in Nassau.

Nassau County said the Bethpage office would swell by the dozens as the storm closes in on Long Island. The office will not only coordinate the official response among agencies at all levels, but it'll field phone calls from concerned residents who need help.

Charles Roberts, an area coordinator for the Salvation Army, was in uniform. He said the organization was prepared to keep the 1,400 or so people they care for in venues like group homes, and in lodgings for disabled veterans and the developmentally disabled.

"Our primary job now is to make sure those folks are safe," he said.

Williams, the Suffolk official, said the county was as prepared as it can be for Irene.

"I'll be here until Monday," Williams said.

He wasn't kidding.