Goodbye Irene

Over the river and through the woods, through your backyard the river flows... 

That should be Irene's catch phrase..

I'm happy to say we didn't get too much damage.  Our apartment is fine, despite my worries of the trees coming tumbling down.  A few branches here and there strewn about.  Only one tree fell on my block that I know of, which was quickly removed.

The one major problem is flooding.  I'm surrounded by flood zones.  I have never seen anything like this is my entire life where houses are submerged into water.  My in-laws live in a flood zone.  Thankfully they prepared well and put all their downstairs furniture and belongings into a truck and moved it to a storage unit.  Other residents weren't so lucky.





We checked their block about 10am the following day and it was fine - there was no water on their yard, but we couldn't get to it because of the flooding around it.  Unfortunately when we went back around 4pm the water had risen to not only their home, but almost fully up the street.  The cars in this picture obviously didn't expect it to get worse.  The picture was taken in the AM hours and then we saw the SUV pull out.  When they got out of the car water just poured out.



The above picture was taken at 4pm.  I spoke to the shop owner the following morning and he told me by 10pm the water had reached at least another 10' and his store was flooded as well.  It was so sad to see many of the neighbors reactions.  One man said "How do I tell a 4 year old her room is completely gone? Her toys, bed, just everything - gone!"

This was a block behind and it was completely under water.



Yesterday the water finally went down and we were able to get into the house.  All the hard work my father in law put into the floors was destroyed in just a few short hours.  Walls we need to be gutted, electrical will need to be rewired, and floors all redone.




NJ Transit was even unable to transport during the aftermath.  Over 50+ Buses parked in our Mall Parking Lot



When we buy a house first things first, I'm making sure that it's not in a flood zone!

Posted in: life