The Record du lieu suivant : Hackensack, New Jersey • 7

WEDNESDAY. SEPTEMBER 12. 2001 THE RECORD A-7 rgsgB- i i i i i.i 1 1 i in tma.gmggpt'rg-aglgmg'- I Ji wnM-ii-ii I iiim i -ii iim Tin- i An escape route on foot bottlenecks at GWB New York workers walk miles pTT fl TT IB .11 UU to find they must ride across Jf, I yWiinl; Peter Lowry was trying to find his way back toward his sister's house in Franklin Lakes so she could take him to his car in Allendale. mi mm r-' w. iMl! By VIRGINIA ROHAN Staff Writer FORT LEE The refugees came up the stairways in throngs Tuesday, spilling onto Lemoine Avenue, perplexed about how to begin the next legs of their long journeys.

Some had walked nearly half the length of Manhattan to the George Washington Bridge, only to discover that they could cross only in buses or in cars driven by good Samaritans. You could teD which of them had been dose to the World Trade Center by the soot on their shoes. David Pasquali of Parsippany walked from his Broadway office 2Vi blocks from the Twin Towers to 99th Street before hopping a northbound subway. "I saw the entire first building go down," said Pasquali, who was able to see the Trade Center from his office window. When he went out into the street, he said, it was so "pitch black" i from smoke that he could barely see.

"It hasn't sunk in yet," said Pasquali Tve never experienced anything like it in my life." Around him, people continued to stream up to Lemoine Avenue, seek- ing transportation. Anyone who looked as if he might know some-; thing about Fort Lee was ap-; preached was asked Others were seeking passage to Paterson, Mahwah, Rockland County, N.Y. Answers were hard to find. But in the absence of any information offi-; cere, unofficial helpers tried to fill the breach. Mitchell Greenblatt of Fort Lee and his dad, Howard, did their best to help.

The Greenblatts, who had been at their Manhattan office at 35th Street and Broadway at 7:30 a.m., got off the island moments before officials closed the George Washington Bridge. Late in the afternoon, they were giving directions to commuters, and trying to point them in the direction of buses. "Basically now, we've just been here for the past couple of hours helping people," the younger Greenblatt said. At one point, a man approached asking whether anyone needed a ride and then announced that it would cost any takers at least $20 incensing Howard Greenblatt Nearby, on the stretch of Lemoine Avenue that passes over the bridge plaza, Kiki Marmarinosand her daughter, Michelle, handed out cups of water to the weary travelers who streamed up the stairway. The mother said they intended to shuttle people around but kept getting detoured all over Fort Lee, so they decided to help in another way.

"I said, We gotta go out there and do something for other people'," Kiki Marmarinos said. "We saw how many people there were, and we said, 'Let's go get Among those who gratefully accepted the offer were Georges and Anne Marie Brisset and their dog, Lorenzo. They live just above Chambers Street, five blocks from the Twin Towers, and saw the second plane hit "It was unreal Ten stories blew at once, and it was like a big orange ball of fire," Georges Brisset said. "We are so used to seeing action movies, things blowing up. All I can say is, the movies are very well-made." After seeing the crash, Anne Marie Brisset said, "We just took the dog Washington Bridge to itself Tuesday.

Traffic was allowed to exit Manhattan, "I will not be coming back tomorrow," he said. David Persky of Tenafly was at work at 9 a.m. five blocks from the World Trade Center when someone told him you could see flames coming from the Twin Towers. Then he heard the boom and ran outside. "When the dust started to come around my building, it was like night," Persky said "The entire downtown area, it's like it snowed I saw things come down.

It was horrendous. People didn't know what to do. People were reluctant to On his way home, Persky met two other New Jerseyans Jim Gilchrist of Tenafly and Yolanda Corsino of Harrington Park. "I thought they were allowing people to walk across the bridge but not drive, but it's just the other way around," Persky said "A good Samaritan gave us a lift across the bridge." Others waited on the Fort Lee side of the bridge for loved ones. Josie Carmomaof Bergenfield was waiting for her son, Peter, who works at the Con Edison plant at 14th New Jersey gives a neighbor in dire Emergency personnel fulfill mutual aid pact with N.Y.

We should all be vigilant, we should all be very calm. These are trying times. Now is the time for us to be good neighbors, to lend assistance as we are able Acting Gov. Donald T. DiFrancesco MEL EVANSSTAFF PHOTOGRAPHER but eastbound lanes were closed.

Street He had started home at 1 p.m., but four hours later was still at 184th Street "It's a nightmare," Carmoma said Jerry Duitz looked exasperated as he climbed the steps. He left his job on 42nd Street and tried to take the ferry, to no avail Eventually, he found his way to the 181st Street bus station and finally, across to Fort Lee. He was waiting for his wife to pick him up. "Compared to what happened to the other people," Duitz said "it's a minor inconvenience." need "Many of our people are volunteers in EMS and other community response units, so we want to give them a chance to report to duty," Ammirato said "Many have friends and relatives who commute to New York City, so we want them to be available if they get reports of tragedy." While security was tightened at state buildings throughout New Jer-j sey, only state offices in Newark were closed at the request of the Newark Police Department. State Attorney General John Farmer said that since the state did not receive any threats to its facilities, officials did not want to "encourage panic" by ordering all services closed across the state, a move that would have compounded congestion on major arteries.

The Superior Court in Hackensaclt was also shut down by late morningi The move postponed the start of jury selection in the year's most high-profile murder trial, that of Agustin Gar-; cia, who is charged with shooting his ex-girlfriend Gladys Ricart to death in the living room of her Ridgefield home in 1999. "We're going to play it on a day-byi day basis and see whether we cart proceed tomorrow," said First Assist) ant Prosecutor Fred Schwanwede, who is prosecuting the case. Bergen County's Mental Health Task Force also sprung into action Tuesday. A team of mental health counselors went to the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, where they will help deal with grief-stricken victims and their families, Ammirato said The task force is a coalition of hospitals and mental health providers organized under the auspices of the county health department The counselors are prepared to help Bergen County residents if and when they receive news of a loved one's death. "When the reports of casualties start coming in, they'll be ready to be dispatched as needed," Ammirato said Staff Writers Douglass Crouse, Rich Cowen, Wendy Ruderman, and Justo Bau-tista contributed to this report.

A military vehicle has the George and the cat and said, Let's "We've been walking since 9 a.m." She was still shell-shocked. "We saw people jumping out of their windows. What a desperate thing to see this person waving his shirt," she said. "When you see it on TV, it doesn't have the same impact" Many commuters had no idea how they would get home. Peter Lowry was trying to find his way back toward his sister's house in Franklin Lakes so she could take him to his car in Allendale so he could then get back to his home in Cornwall, N.Y.

its all to GEORGE PATAKI Long relief effort firefighters listed as missing staggered into the triage area there. "We called Brooklyn and told them they were safe and being triaged" Pellegrino said The parking lot at Giants Stadium became the staging area for the rescue operation run by the. New Jersey State Police. Just hours after the attack, a caravan of ambulances began arriving at Giants Stadium from as far away as Cape May and Pennsylvania. By 2 p.m.

there were more than 100 ambulances and fire trucks in the parking lot of Giants Stadium. At 2:30 more than two-dozen ambulances took off from Giants Stadium headed for Weehawken, where the first casualties were due to arrive by ferry boat. A triage unit was set up in the parking lot of Giants Stadium to handle any overflow of casualties. But state police expected that practically all the wounded would go to Weehawken and then on to hospitals. By midaftemoon, truckloads of oxygen, water, and medical supplies had arrived Lt Gary Cimorelli of the state police said the operation would likely last for days.

"The parking lot is primarily an area for us to assemble our resources, which gives us the ability to react quickly," Cimorelli said The 300 EMTs in the Giants Stadium parking lot ranged from teenagers to senior citizens some had extensive experience in trauma; others were practically brand new on the job. None could have been prepared for the grim task ahead if they were needed in New York. 9 I 9t I mmJ "(l miiiim By PAULO LIMA and CHARLES STILE Staff Writers The tragedy across the river turned life upside down Tuesday for emergency personnel from New Jersey who were pressed into service or kept in reserve to relieve their beleaguered colleagues in Manhattan. Acting Gov. Donald T.

Di-Francesco declared a state of emergency about 3:30 p.m., giving state officials the power to deploy National Guard and state police personnel, free up hospital beds, dispatch emergency medical helicopters, and shut down the New Jersey Turnpike north of Exit 11 in Middlesex County. "We should all be vigilant, we should all be very calm. These are trying times. Now is the time for us to be good neighbors, to lend assistance as we are able to," DiFrancesco told reporters assembled at the state police headquarters in Ewing. DiFrancesco's order authorized him to put New Jersey's police, rescue, and medical personnel at the disposal of New York officials, as called for in a mutual aid pact established with New York State in 1956.

National Guard officials dispatched the first squads of Guard members at 11:19 a.m. from the Division Support Command in Somerset, which brought the first wave of water trailers, medical personnel, tents, and electrical generators to a rescue area at Liberty State Park in Jersey City, said Ray Martyniuk, a spokesman of the New Jersey National Guard Among those dispatched were doctors, nurses, and physician assistants from the 50th Main Support Battalion, whose members are attached to the Teaneck and Jersey City armories, Martyniuk said Just how many were activated was not readily available Tuesday night Most of the Guard members put on alert some 1,200 people are full-time Guard employees stationed at the state's 32 armories. Guard members may be asked to take on a wide range of duties in the coming days, including shipping supplies from McGuire Air Force Base in Burlington County. It was the largest deployment of National Guard volunteers since Hurricane Floyd devastated New Jersey two years ago and hundreds of guardsmen aided victims forced from flood-ravaged homes. DiFrancesco can call upon roughly 10,000 National Guard members, saying he will mobilize as many as nerded to assist World Trade Center victims and New York rescue workers.

"Well do everything we can to help," DiFrancesco said The guardsmen joined dozens of state troopers and other police, medical, and fire workers from across New Jersey to treat victims and evacuate the most seriously harmed to hospitals as they arrived from New York, some via ferry, DiFrancesco said National Guard members were prepared if necessary, to transport any medical supplies and rescue equipment provided by the federal government from McGuire Air Force Base in Burlington County to the northern part of the state and New York, said Maj. Gen. Paul J. Glazar. They also stood ready to take over for exhausted New York rescue teams.

"Governor George Pataki of New York knows that at some point, his people have to be relieved" DiFrancesco said "We may be providing a great deal of that relief. This is going to be ongoing for days." State police also dispatched 20 police boats to Jersey City, where they became ambulance ferries, shuttling wounded victims to emergency triage teams at Liberty State Park. The boats also transported several specialized state police units, including crime scene detectives, forensic scientists, and members of its major crimes unit to assist with the investigation. State police Capt. Kevin J.

Hay-den, the state police's emergency management coordinator, said a volunteer search-and-rescue unit, trained to find victims during catastrophic events, was also sent to low- er Manhattan. The unit, created three years ago, is equipped with hydraulic lifting equipment, search dogs, and audio equipment The Paterson Fire Department contributed more than 30 firefighters as well as EMTs, ambulances, and its mass casualty bus to the triage effort at Liberty State Park, said Deputy Fire Chief Joseph Pellegrino. Many of them were ferried to Manhattan, where they helped fight a 40-story building fire, said Pellegrino. Later in the afternoon, Pellegrino said, his department was sending more firefighters and a pumper truck into the city amid reports that New York firefighters were running short on hoses. The Paterson contingent at Liberty State Park also was able to deliver some good news to their New York counterparts when several New York fore it was allowed to reopen about 2 p.m.

for westbound travelers, said County Police Chief John Schmidig. Schmidig said his bomb squad also helped Port Authority officers to scour the Holland and Lincoln tunnels before they reopened to Jersey-bound traffic later in the afternoon. "If there's a bomb tech that works for the Port Authority, they're probably at the World Trade Center," Schmidig said To tap extra manpower, Bergen County police chiefs mobilized all 120 members of the countywide Rapifl Deployment Force, an emergency unit of officers from departments across the county. The squad which was created to handle large-scale disasters has been deployed only a handful of times. RDF members joined the county police bomb squad as they checked the bridge and tunnels for bombs.

Most of the RDF contingent was used to help ease traffic snarls around the George Washington Bridge and to provide security at Teterboro Airport, Schmidig said By midaftemoon, several military helicopters had been flown into Teterboro Airport. The idea was that they could be used to ferry critically injured victims out of Manhattan to New Jersey hospitals, Schmidig said The helicopters were on standby but had not been used by late afternoon, Schmidig said Police also increased their presence at government buildings and "sensitive" areas such as utilities and communications hubs, said Sgt Dwane Razzetti, deputy coordinator of the county's Emergency Management Office. Citing security concerns, Razzetti declined to discuss specific targets where security had been beefed up. In East Rutherford, police evacuated the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's check processing plant There had been no direct threat, and borough police called the step a precaution. Around 10:30 a.m., Bergen County officials ordered all non-essential county employees sent home early, said Thorn Ammirato, a spokesman for Bergen County Executive William "Pat" Schuber.

DONALD T. DIFRANCESCO "We'll do everything we can" Because of the risks to their health, the EMTs were advised to take tetracycline, an antibiotic that should ward off infection from airborne dust and toxins in the rubble. The triage was set up and the EMTs began laying down stretchers and blankets waiting for the wounded They got ready to place colored tags on the casualties should they arrive: red for critical condition, yellow for serious, green for good and black for dead "The only thing that I can do is stay calm and stay professional," said Jennifer Silvester, 25, an EMT from Spotswood "And try not to let my feeling get in the way." At about 5 p.m., a convoy of about 40 ambulances from North Jersey was dispatched from Fort Lee High School into the city to an ambulance staging area at the Chelsea Piers. The emergency team left behind at a makeshift triage center at the high school continued the vigil. "We don't know who is going to end up here," said Ira Haas, a juvenile detective with the Fort Lee police.

Many panicked commuters flooded across the George Washington Bridge because it was the first river crossing to open. They then faced the problem of how to get home from the unfamiliar setting. "We are experiencing thousands of pedestrians crossing streets in the borough," Fort Lee Police Chief Tom Tessaro said "They're being dropped off by buses and trying to make their way to other points." The Bergen County Police bomb squad was called into service early Tuesday, searching the George Washington Bridge for explosives be.