IRENE: One year later, Hightstown, East Windsor locals reflect on historic storm

By Christina Whittington, Special Writer
   Monday will mark one year since Hurricane Irene struck Hightstown and East Windsor — one of the most severe storms to hit the area in more than a century.
   It brought with it torrential rain, high winds — though not as intense as predicted — power outages and immense flooding.
   Marking the first anniversary of the storm, East Windsor and Hightstown residents shared their experiences from Hurricane Irene, the first hurricane to make landfall in New Jersey since 1904.
   East Windsor resident Seret Ryan started making preparations for Irene after hearing so much coverage about the impending storm.
   ”I found it both interesting and terrifying the atmospheres at local stores as well as they were running low on water,” Ms. Ryan said. “It seemed to be that water was the most important thing to have so I bought a 24 pack. I had a gas stove that will run if the power goes off so I figured I could cook and boil water if I had to.”
   Ms. Ryan also said she made a list of things on the ground floor that would need to be taken upstairs or put up on blocks in case of flooding and also made sure her house was well stocked with essentials.
   ”The night of the storm, I put flashlights in every room and placed shoes within easy reach in case we had to leave for some reason,” she said. “I also put all important papers on the kitchen table should we have needed them. Luckily, we never lost power or anything. The next day my family went to Main Street in Hightstown and saw all the flooding.”
   East Windsor resident Krystal Bernard was working as a cashier at the East Windsor ShopRite in the early part of the storm Aug 27.
   ”It was crazy that day at work,” she said. “ShopRite closed early at 6 p.m. After I left work, I went to the East Windsor Walmart, and they were kicking people out because they ran out of money. Our area was not prepared for this storm at all.”
   She added, “When I woke up the next morning, I looked out the front door, and there was a tree down in front of it. We had no power for a week, but we stayed in our house anyway.”
   Ms. Bernard said PSEG had made arrangements with ShopRite to provide free ice and water to residents without power.
   ”That was a good thing,” she said. “We had down wires in front yards and on top of cars for a week, almost two weeks, in my neighborhood.”
   Hightstown resident John Sochacki was working at the East Windsor CVS on Route 130 in the evening of the storm Aug 27.
   ”I started my shift around 7 p.m.,” he said. “I don’t recall how busy it was, however, we did have people coming out to purchase things such as food, water and batteries. There were young people out as well. I was able to step out every now and then. It was crazy.
   ”I went online during my lunch break and saw things like the firehouse (in Hightstown) and other things in the area. I left work at 4:30 a.m., and Stockton Street was a mess — branches fallen, and it was slightly flooded. Though nowhere near as bad as downtown. When I got home, I still had power, which was a pleasant surprise. Irene was something else.”
   Julie Cargille, of East Windsor, said she was lucky not to have any damage to her house. However, some in her neighborhood did feel the impact.
   ”One of my neighbors had the Millstone River behind their house rise up higher than it has ever been in 60 years,” she said. “It came up so high that it covered their pool. They and other neighbors had their sheds flooded.”
   Mary Manning, a Hightstown resident, had a bird’s eye view of the damage to downtown Hightstown from her home on Main Street.
   ”I saw all the devastation happening,” she said. “I saw the water coming over the wall. I saw everything getting flooded.”
   For Ms. Manning, the worst part of the storm came around 10 p.m. Aug 27 when her front door broke from the impact of the flooding water from Peddie Lake.
   ”Someone drove down the street, and the wake of the water crashed against the door, breaking it,” she said. “By 12:45 a.m., I had 2 to 3 feet of water in my hallway.”
   Ms. Manning, who said she stayed awake most of the night watching the devastation in the downtown area, said when she first looked at downtown in the daylight, her first thought was, “‘What are they going to do?’ I was stocked up with supplies, but no one thought it was going to be as bad as it was.”
   John Cruser, a 34-year Hightstown resident, had very little damage to his home.
   ”Our basement was flooded, but we didn’t get much else,” he said. “We were very lucky. The electric blinked once or twice, but that was it.”
   He added, “We came downtown the next day, and it was unbelievable what we saw.”
   Lidija Kulick, an East Windsor resident, was living on Broad Street in Hightstown last year when Hurricane Irene touched down in the area.
   ”My son woke me up at 1 a.m., and I walked downtown with him,” she said. “We couldn’t believe how much water was down there. I have lived in Hightstown my whole life, and I have never seen anything like that before.”
   Hightstown resident Michael Bollentin recalled the flooding in his own backyard.
   ”Fortunately, we just got rain,” he said. “Lots of rain. Yeah, we lost power, for a minute or two, but, overall, it was not nearly as bad as I had prepared for. I would periodically look out my windows around my house to look for downed trees and such.
   ”I took note that my back yard was retaining more water than I had ever seen in my eight years living here. Mild concern started to creep into the back of my mind, knowing there was plenty more rain expected. As I watched, the puddle grew into a small pond, then into a little lake. I was praying that it didn’t crest over the highest point of my backyard and bring a deluge into my basement via the Bilco doors.”
   According to Mr. Bollentin, the damage he received from Hurricane Irene did not come directly from the storm itself, but by what he called the “misguided” efforts of the New Jersey Department of Transportation to remove flood water from Franklin Street, also known as Route 33.
   (Editor’s note: The Herald has published pictures over the past year of DOT trucks plowing floodwaters from Route 33 into the direction of people’s homes along the roadway.)
   ”I became really curious when the sound of trucks repeatedly drove by my house,” he said. “To my utter amazement, I watched the same four heavy-duty NJDOT trucks with snowplows going back and forth about 25 (to) 30 minutes. They were plowing the standing water on Route 33. I thought to myself, ‘what is the purpose of plowing through standing water?’ There is nowhere for the water to go, and it is not as if they are clearing the drains.”
   Mr. Bollentin said that with each passing of the trucks, he watched 2- to 3- foot waves come crashing toward his house.
   ”The genius mind that thought plowing standing water was a fantastic idea did nothing but cause more damage than allowing things to subside on their own,” he said. “The end result for me was a substantial amount of damage to my property. My fence was ripped out of the ground and destroyed. My shed was pushed off its foundation. My backyard was an overall wreck.”
   Mr. Bollentin also said some of his neighbors would have made it through the storm with little or no damage, but the plowing pushed the water around their homes and caused damage.
   ”After the storm, I was left to replace my fence out of my own pocket,” he said. “My homeowners insurance would not cover the loss because I was deemed to be in a ‘flood zone,’ which was news to me. If I had flood insurance, it would not have covered my fence and shed. FEMA rejected my application. I’m still waiting for answers, and I am still a little bitter towards the state DOT as I totally blame them for the damage to my property. Such is life. I’m moving on.”