Updated: South Orange Survives "Historic Rise in Water Level"

From John Gross, Village Administrator and Office of Emergency Management

At approximately 1:00 am this morning, the pre-hurricane storm caused an historic rise in water level of the east branch of the Rahway River, just 4 inches from the all-time high water mark, set on September 17, 1999 during Hurricane Floyd.  This rise caused the flooding of the river from Clark street to Chyzowitz field in Maplewood.  Of particular note was the area along Meadowbrook Lane where the river widened onto Floods Hill to the west and completely enveloping the ball fields to the east.  Although difficult to identify the spot from the picture was taken, I have attached a photo taken this morning from the northern batting cages looking across the ball fields to the Baird tennis courts whose lights shined brightly over the temporary lake created by Hurricane Irene.

Only the bridge at South Orange Avenue remained passable though the night.  However, only by inches, as the waters lapped the top of the bridge for over an hour, before receding by about a foot when a band of the northern edge of the hurricane created a rain free 1 1/2 hour period.

The fiercest winds of the hurricane arrived later this morning, when over 25 trees almost immediately fell.  DPW has been working throughout the night and early morning to keep the roads open for accessibility by emergency services personnel if necessary. 

Four families were evacuated from their homes at that time from a tree impacting two home and flooding.  Two of those families were relocated to the Village's shelter set up at the library and the other two found accommodations elsewhere.

PSE&G reports that they have over 330,000 customers without power, 1,500 of which are in South Orange in a few major pockets and also others dispersed throughout the community.  They have advised that they have already dispatched repair crews to two major pockets serving over 1,100 South Orange customers.

Lastly, East Orange Water Commission (EOWC), who delivers water to South Orange customers, states they have experienced power outages at its facilities but have been able to maintain water quality and water pressure by use of its generators.  They further state that they have not experienced any water quality issues and have not issued any warnings, such as has happened in neighboring communities served by NJ American's Canoe Brook facility.  There, water run off concerns have triggered a water boil condition which has not impacted the water provided by EOWC to South Orange customers.

I applaud the entire South Orange Village Emergency Response Team for working diligently through the night to minimize the threats from Hurricane Irene to Villager's health and property.   This team includes, in no particular order,  the South Orange Police Department, Fire Departments, Rescue Squad, Health Department, Library, Recreation Department, Code/Construction Department,  Office of Emergency Management, CERT members, Department of Public Works, Seton Hall University, Board of Education, , Engineering and Administration and other community volunteers who helped make this response as success.  I also want to pay a special thanks to Village residents who seriously prepared for this storm, unlike I have seen in the past, which minimized loss and allowed all to focus on helping each other through this difficult event.

Village President Alex Torpey concurred. He said: I think John said it best! I was out until 4 am and since 7am, as were all of the people that John mentioned, working through the entire night, and will be working through the entire night tonight to clear trees from the roads and make sure residents' homes are inhabitable and roads traversable.

I second the sentiments that South Orange residents were extremely well prepared and their diligence contributed in large part to damage being minimized. I spoke with many residents this morning who were cleaning out storm drains, and taking other helpful steps. Many village employees and volunteers are doing a lot of work to keep things safe and people should continue to contact the SOPD about downed trees and wires and PSEG about repair updates for power.