Torrential rains and gusty winds put several areas along Bordentown City’s waterfront under a few feet of water.
By: William Wichert
BORDENTOWN CITY When Betty Lockwood’s one-story home started to look like a houseboat in the middle of a river on Monday morning, the city police knew they had to get her out.
The flooding of this 85-year-old resident’s Lime Kiln Alley neighborhood was one part of the destruction left by the torrential rains and gusty winds that put several areas along the city’s waterfront under a few feet of water.
Aside from the torn-up trees and floating shopping carts around Ms. Lockwood’s home, rising waters from the Delaware River filled an above-ground pool on Burlington Street and performed a vanishing act with the parking lot of the Yapewi Aquatic Club.
"The ducks seem to be enjoying it," said Police Chief Matt Simmons on Monday afternoon at the Bordentown RiverLine Station, where a crowd of people gathered to survey the damage at the Aquatic Club.
The birds waddled where the pavement of the club’s parking lot once was visible, and men wearing waders in motorized rowboats drove over brown water and to the club’s boathouse.
Several boats inside the fenced-off parking area were still standing upright under protective covers and debris surrounded the lot, while a pickup truck was partially submerged underwater.
"It’s gonna be a lot of cleanup," said Chief Simmons, who said the city’s Department of Public Works will oversee the work. "We’ve got to pull the (club’s) docks back out again and re-secure them."
After city police officials witnessed the damage at the Yapewi Aquatic Club, they headed down Lime Kiln Alley, at the end of Federal Street, to check on Ms. Lockwood at about 10 a.m., the chief said.
Once their initial efforts failed, they retrieved a rowboat from the Mission Fire Co. and an officer went out to her house to get her, he said. The house, which sits about 4 feet off the ground, suffered partial flooding in the kitchen area, he said.
Chief Simmons said the other properties surrounding the house are abandoned. No other properties in the city were damaged and no one else had to be evacuated, he said.
Ms. Lockwood is currently staying with a family member in the city, but, as for when she can go back home, the chief said: "It’s one of them play-it-by-ear things."

