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Improved communications a legacy of 9/11 attacks

Improved communications has been one of the major changes in Gloucester and Mathews counties since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, emergency coordinators in both counties said.

In Gloucester, a new communications system is in use, said Garrey Curry, interim emergency management coordinator. A new Emergency Operations Center is under construction in the village and should be ready for the high-tech communications equipment—now temporarily housed nearby—to be moved in next summer.

The new system provides better interoperability, Curry said, and keeps law enforcement, fire and rescue personnel in the field in much better touch with the dispatch center and with each other. This system ties Gloucester to several Peninsula localities and provides good back-up in case a locality’s regular emergency communications is lost.

Curry and Marty Schlesinger, Gloucester’s public utilities director, both said that improvements to security have been made to the c...

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