Top: Poplar Village senior housing complex in Ocean Township experienced significant flooding due to the hurricane, requiring the evacuation of residents. Bottom: Furnishings were ruined by heavy rainfall on Aug. 20 and 21 that caused extensive damage. PHOTO BY NICOLE ANTONUCCI Residents at Poplar Village have once again been uprooted and forced from their homes due to last weekend’s hurricane and the recent heavy rainfall that caused flooding at the senior complex in Ocean Township.
Hurricane Irene forced the evacuation of all residents of the complex, Ocean Township Emergency Management Officer Lt. Steve Peters said Monday.
The storm followed severe thunderstorms on Aug. 20 and 21 when some residents found themselves being evacuated from their homes as 2.5 feet of water flooded in.
“Everything was ruined,” Matilda Dickson said onAug. 24 as friends helped her move any belongings salvageable from her home.
Furnishings were removed from units at Poplar Village after flooding from heavy rainfall on Aug 21. NICOLE ANTONUCCI Dickson is just one of many residents of Poplar Village who have to rely on neighbors and friends, because she has no family to help.
“I don’t know where I’m going to go,” Dickson said. “Management said they are trying to find us an apartment, but I don’t know.”
Pam Morley, manager at Poplar Village, which is located at 67 Skinner Drive in Oakhurst, said an effort is under way to help residents displaced by the flooding find temporary housing.
“We are working as fast as we can to find them places to stay,” Morley said as she stood amid boxes of papers and furnishings from her office that were damaged by the flooding.
“We want our residents to be safe and we are doing everything we can.”
The township also reached out, after the rain storms setting up a shelter at the West Park Recreation building and trying to find temporary housing for displaced residents, according to Andrew Brannen, township administrator.
Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-6th District), accompanied by township officials, visited Poplar Village on Aug. 25.
“I’m very concerned this is an ongoing problem that is forcing seniors and other residents out of their homes and costing thousands of dollars in damages,” said Pallone, who was instrumental in securing Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funds to address the flooding problem.
“For the first time, high water levels impacted a second set of buildings on higher ground that have not been impacted before.” Morley said onAug. 24 the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency provided a list of senior housing that is available in the area.
“We have reached out to Leisure Village in Lakewood which has some available apartments,” Morley said. “We are still waiting to hear back from others.”
Of 93 units that make up the complex, 50 units took on some water during the rain storms, she said. “Eighteen units can still be used, but 32 units are completely unsalvageable,” Morley said last week.
Some residents said they are hoping the recurring flooding will motivate the township to use the $4.4 million federal grant received in July for reconstruction at Poplar Village.
The township will use the funding provided by FEMAto purchase 32 units.
“We will buy the units from Poplar Village, and with the money they receive, {Poplar Village] will build new buildings at a site adjacent to the current location,” Brannen, said last week.
Brannen said previously that the goal is to have the new units built before the existing building is torn down.
“We’d like to have the new units ready before the existing units are demolished, so those people have a place to go,” he said in July when the FEMAfunding was announced.
Brannen said at that time that the 32 units the township will purchase would be demolished and, according to the stipulations of the grant, no building could be constructed on the land, which would revert to open space.
According to Brannen, construction of the new units will be undertaken by Poplar Village.
Morley could not say when construction would begin on the site, just that it was going to take time.
The complex, which is within the Poplar Brook flood plain, has flooded five times since it was built in 1970, a major source of frustration for the residents and the township.
The heavy rains on Aug. 20 and 21 caused flooding throughout the area after water crested a 4-foot berm along the brook.
The last major flood at Poplar Village occurred in 2005 when after eight consecutive days of rainfall, the nearby brook crested over its banks. The flood devastated the senior housing complex, sending more than 3 feet of water into residents’ apartments, destroying personal belongings and furniture.
“These people have been living out of plastic boxes since that flood, out of fear,” said Jennifer Policastro, daughter of 86-year-old Violet Policastro. “Everyone thought these people were crazy. Now my mother has to stay with me until they find her a new apartment.”