Although there is damage to their homes, those affected by the flooding are glad to be alive.
By: Linda Seida
Martha DeBlieu sat outdoors on the steps of her house on Mill Street in Stockton, wearing a white Tyvek jumpsuit, black boots and blue gloves.
The Tyvek protected her clothing as she went about the business of cleaning up after the flooding that occurred last week. The Delaware River had overflowed its banks after heavy rains, saturated soil and snow melting in the mountains combined to cause dangerous conditions for towns down river such as Lambertville, Stockton and New Hope.
"They’re great," she said of the Tyvek suit. "One size fits all."
A few other people around town, cleaning up their yards and houses, also sported the suit.
Behind Mrs. DeBlieu on the porch sat large bottles of bleach, plastic buckets and other cleaning supplies. Down on the lawn sat black plastic bags that were waiting, first for the insurance adjuster and, later, for the garbage man.
"We can’t get rid of anything until the insurance adjuster comes," Mrs. DeBlieu said.
The house that belongs to Mrs. DeBlieu and her husband, Ken, sits on a street where some of the worst flood damage occurred. Large holes gaped in the foundations of five houses on Mill Street.
Bob Scarboro, deputy coordinator of the town’s Office of Emergency Management, pointed to a house that sits diagonally across the street from the DeBlieu home.
"See that hole?" he asked. "There’s supposed to be a wall there."
Bright red stickers had been slapped on doors, declaring them unsafe for habitation, and most of the residents are staying with friends or relatives. The houses are condemned, at least for now, according to Greg Cook, the town’s Office of Emergency Management coordinator. Inspections still need to be made and, if homeowners are lucky, a plan devised for repair.
The DeBlieu house isn’t one of them. Their foundation is all right, yet they’ve lost much.
"We were lucky," Mrs. DeBlieu said. "It was only our basement."
The couple’s furnace and hot water heater were ruined in the floodwaters. The garage flooded, too, ruining a lawn mower, a snowblower, a washer and a dryer.
Mrs. DeBlieu estimated her collection of stuffed Beanie Babies, which was lost in the flood, was worth about $5,000.
"It’s a Beanie Baby cemetery down in my basement," she said.
Amazingly, delicate terra cotta flowerpots stood undamaged at the base of the outdoor steps. The blooms and soil that had been inside the pots were uprooted and washed away.
In the garden, a mass of bright yellow daffodils stood upright on their stems, unharmed by the soaking. Mrs. DeBlieu’s flowers, and those in other yards, made a striking contrast to the piles of trash bags waiting to be hauled away.
Sitting at curbs were children’s toys, including a large chalkboard framed in red plastic, as well as fans, computers, chairs and wood doors with beautiful but ruined old-fashioned hinges and knobs.
Elsewhere in the borough, the flood destroyed a portion of a barrier wall along the Delaware and Raritan Canal, leaving the borough at risk for the possibility of more flooding in the future until it is repaired. Because of the destruction, the borough’s park was "destroyed," according to Mayor Gregg Rackin.
Last Thursday, Mill Street was blocked to traffic as large trucks rumbled to the firehouse there, carrying large boulders and rocks intended to try to dam the hole in the wall. Smaller trucks ferried them back out of Mill Street, then along Bridge Street and over to the narrow towpath; one truck after another after another.
A JCP&L crewman, in town to restore electricity, said he watched as a volunteer at the breach in the canal wall stuck a 12-foot pole into the water. Volunteers already had been filling the hole with rocks for hours, but the pole still disappeared to the 10-foot mark.
Mayor Rackin was reluctant to give a dollar estimate of the total damage incurred by the town. However, one published report placed an estimate at $10 million. The mayor called the damage "substantial."
"Some people were upset," Mrs. DeBlieu said. "But you can’t do anything about Mother Nature."
After two floods in less then seven months, are she and her husband considering a move to another town?
"Absolutely not," Mrs. DeBlieu said. "The house has been through five floods that we know of. This house is pretty solid."
While the flood was raging, Mrs. DeBlieu was among the volunteers at Borough Hall manning phones. After it was over, friends and co-workers from the New Jersey Education Association in Trenton brought her cleaning supplies, flashlights and heavy-duty gloves. The American Red Cross also donated supplies as did Niece Lumber from Lambertville.
Help was not limited to cleaning supplies and trash bags. Homeowners, cleanup crews and other volunteers had to eat. ShopRite of Flemington sent food. Verducci’s Specialty Market supplied London broil.
"I’ve never eaten so well," Mr. Scarboro said with a laugh.
During the flood, fire companies sent manpower from throughout Hunterdon County, according to Mr. Scarboro.
"We had about everybody in the county here," he said.
In New Hope, Maria Nicastro was flooded out of her first-floor apartment on Main Street. She’s now staying with her son in his third-floor apartment.
The flood was the second major act of devastation the 63-year-old woman experienced this year. The first, Feb. 7, was an explosion that occurred when a construction crew hit a high-pressure natural gas line while working on the borough’s project to bring pubic water to the town. Mrs. Nicastro, her son and grandson and the other two people inside made it out alive, but they lost everything they owned.
Not long after the flood last weekend, a television crew from Philadelphia went to New Hope to interview Mrs. Nicastro. With the devastation fresh in her mind, she admitted to being a mess of tears.
"Here I’m bawling, and the fellow that was interviewing me, didn’t he hand me $20," Mrs. Nicastro said. "And I refused, but he made me take it. It’s funny because I guess I was crying like a crazy lady. He hugged me."
How is Mrs. Nicastro holding up?
"Don’t ask," she said. "I’m getting a complex, truly. I can’t go through another. I just can’t."
Mrs. Nicastro added, "I think both of us (she and her son) really need to see a psychologist."
She said her faith sustains her.
"What came to me is material things mean nothing," Mrs. Nicastro said. "We have to love one another and take care of one another. That’s the most important thing in the world. It really is."

