SAYREVILLE — The Filannino family called it “the compound” where they lived on Weber Avenue in Sayreville.
“My in-laws were next to us on MacArthur Avenue and my brother-in-law lived up the street on Weber Avenue,” Sal Filannino, a lieutenant with the Edison Police Department, said.
Five years after superstorm Sandy, the compound is no more.
“Holidays are not the same,” Filannino said. “There’s no going out back through the gate. We are still in the area, but not next to each other.”
Prior to Sandy, Filannino, who had lived on Weber Avenue for 20 years, said there were two storms that the neighborhoods along the Raritan River dealt with — Hurricane Ivan in 2004 and Hurricane Irene in 2011.
He said his home was built three feet above the base flood elevation.
During Ivan, Filannino said water got into the garage, but not into the house.
“We had lost two of our cars that were in the driveway,” he said.
During Irene, Filannino said the cars were moved to higher ground and items were moved out of the garage. Again water got into the garage, but not into the house.
To prepare for Sandy, cars were moved to higher ground, items were moved from the garage into the house and like during the other two storms the Filannino family hunkered down to wait out the storm that hit the tri-state area on Oct. 29, 2012.
What the neighbors along the Raritan River did not expect was the 15 foot surge of water that wiped out many of their homes.
“We soon watched the water come into the crawl space into the family room picking up the carpet,” Filannino recalled, adding that they had lost power at 6:30 p.m. that night. “We started taking the entertainment center, television and everything up the stairs.”
Filannino said throughout the night, the family heard the water from the Raritan Bay, which was in the back of their home, rushing through the first floor.
“We heard the refrigerator topple over,” he said.
The next morning, Filannino and his family woke up to devastation.
“Everything that I had moved from the garage into the house was gone,” he said. “We lost a lot … the only thing that was saved was our cars, which we moved to the other side of town.”
Filannino said his home and his in-laws’ home sustained substantial damage. His brother-in-law’s home up the street had only sustained inches of water.
And to make matters worse, Filannino said when he was clearing out the house with a friend, he tore his bicep tendon. However, on a brighter note during the time, he said volunteers from the Baptist church from the south were in the area helping people clear out their homes.
“We moved out into an apartment complex in Piscataway and were there for two years,” he said.
During that time, Filannino said his family decided to enter the state’s buyout plan through the Blue Acres Program, all the while trying to find another home.
Five years later, the buyout process is done and after looking at three homes, the Filannino family has settled into a home where they will have resided for three years this Halloween.
“Things will never be the same – that we have to accept and move on from, but it was devastating … especially for my kids,” he said.
Filannino said his older daughter was in college at the time and was devastated that she was not with the family to help them.
“My other two were in high school and middle school,” he said. “My younger child, her whole world turned upside down … never thought it would have that effect on the kids the way it did.”