By Carol Eisenberg
Newsday Washington Bureau
 
WASHINGTON — New York City and its suburbs, including Nassau and Suffolk, received passing but not top grades on a federal report card rating emergency agencies' ability to communicate during a disaster.

A draft of the report by the Department of Homeland Security, to be released today, gives the highest ratings to Washington; San Diego; Minneapolis-St. Paul; Columbus, Ohio; Sioux Falls, S.D.; and Laramie County, Wyo.

The lowest scores went to Chicago; Cleveland; Baton Rouge, La.; Mandan, N.D.; and American Samoa.

The major shortfall for New York, which received three out of a possible four points, was a lack of regional coordination.

While first responders have "well-established systems to communicate," according to the report, a copy of which was obtained by Newsday, emergency plans need "broader involvement by senior government leadership from across the area."

The report card also cited regional training and drilling that "need to be more robust."

The report comes five years after the Sept. 11 attacks, when lack of communication among first responders to the World Trade Center towers, and poor-functioning fire radios were deemed contributing causes in scores of firefighters' deaths.

Inadequate communication also slowed rescue and recovery after Hurricane Katrina.

New York City emergency officials said they believed they had made vast strides in communications since Sept. 11, and speculated that the city and surrounding areas were denied a higher score to protect the flow of federal grant money.

"Obviously there can be improvements," said state Sen. Michael Balboni (R-East Williston), who is poised to become state homeland security director. "But given the challenges of aging infrastructure in New York, and the diversity of jurisdictions in the region, this is pretty good."

Balboni said the stumbling blocks are often political. When working with Nassau police on a microwave-based emergency communications system, for instance, "I was amazed that the obstacles were not the funding or the technology, but the parochial concerns of certain water districts, which flatly rejected requests to mount microwaves on their towers," he said.

Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford), outgoing chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said that the bigger regions had more difficulties.

"Just taking Nassau and Suffolk, you have almost 150 fire departments and 20 to 25 police departments," he said. "How much interoperability do you need to have in Laramie, Wyoming?"