Fifteen individuals and seven organizations recently received the Union County Human Relations Commission’s prestigious Unity Award for Achievement, an honor given to role models who dedicate their time and efforts to activities and programs that raise and honor the human spirit.
The 2018 awards marked the 17th year in which the Commission has named honorees
The Union County Emergency Response Team (UCERT)/ USAI NJ PRIDE was honored for aid deployment to Puerto Rico.
Below is preprinted from the event’s program.
The team included UCERT/SWAT/USAI Commander Martin Mogensen; Patrolman Alexander Ruiz, Clark Police Department; Officer Elliot Bernard, Fanwood Police Department; Patrolman Sean Kaverik, Kenilworth Police Department; Detective Edward Nortrup, Roselle Park Police Department; Officer Dragan Ristovski, Township of Union Police Department; Detective Daniel Fay, Union County Prosecutor’s Office; Officer Sean Holcomb, Union County Prosecutor’s Office; Lieutenant James Guerrant, Union County Sheriff’s Office; Sergeant Manuel Cruz, Union County Sheriff’s Office.
This Unity Award was given in recognition for emergency response to help residents of Puerto Rico by assisting local law enforcement in the wake of hurricane devastation.
On Wednesday, September 6, 2017, Hurricane Irma – a Category 5 storm with 175 mph winds – carved a merciless path of destruction through the Caribbean, killing at least 44 people, leaving thousands of others homeless, and plunging more than 1 million residents of Puerto Rico into darkness.
Two weeks later, on Wednesday, September 20, 2017, Hurricane Maria – which, despite weakening to a Category 4 hurricane by the time it stuck Puerto Rico – devastated the island, decimated buildings, crippled communication, drenched it with intense flooding, and left hundreds of recipients dead or missing. Its previously damaged electrical grid was also compromised.
The Catastrophic damage, coupled with the devastation of other islands in the area, compounded relief efforts. Maria was the tenth-most intense Atlantic hurricane, and the worst natural disaster on record in Puerto Rico. For weeks, in MAria’s wake, most of the island’s population suffered from flooding and lack of resources, compounded by the slow relief process.
Union County stepped up to help. Nine Union County law enforcement officers who are members of the Union County Emergency Response Team (UCERT) traveled to Puerto Rico in the wake of the hurricane to help keep law and order there.
The officers, under the command of Union County Police Department Captain Martin Mogensen, who commands UCERT, Union County’s SWAT team, and the Federal Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI), went in two deployments in October and November 2017 to provide relief. Coordinating with the New Jersey State Police, Puerto Rican State Police, and San Juan Police, they provided community outreach assistance, infrastructure protection, and traffic control points.
The Union County officers relieved local officers who had been working long shifts daily and wearing regular clothes because they couldn’t wash their uniforms. Their radios didn’t work either. They communicated by waving each other down, or by cell phones when they were able.
Two months after the storm, the officers had to struggle on a daily basis for the necessities: food, water, fuel for their generators.
The officers agreed that the images seen on TV and online di not capture the enormity of the damage: Roads with giant fissures, downed utility poles, epic food and water shortages, no traffic lights, gridlock, cars disabled or struck sitting on the side of seven-lane highways, and lack of power. Crime and violence were also a dangerous byproduct of the hurricane aftermath. Day-to-day life was exhausting.
We salute the members of the UCERT team who put their comfortable lives here at home on hold while they reached out to help fellow officers and the residents of Puerto Rico in the aftermath of the tragedy.
