Cranbury received an historic amount of rainfall as Tropical Storm Henri sat over the township on Aug. 22.
Mayor Michael Ferrante reported that 8.91 inches fell in two hours.
“We watched North Main Street fill up, and then saw Brainerd Lake breech two hours later when the upstream water overtook the road,” he said in a prepared statement.
The dam and spillway worked as designed and carried a large volume of water over the road and back into the river and traveling downstream, he said in the statement.
“Unfortunately, many homes took on water in their basements and first floors. Affected residents should work with their insurance companies; if you need a dumpster, please proceed with procuring one and the township will waive pre-approval dumpster permitting for the next 30 days,” he said in the statement.
As of Aug. 23, there were still local roads that were closed or blocked due to flooding or traffic signal outages: Old Trenton Road, John White Road, Petty Road, Old Cranbury Road and Dey Road.
Do not cross barriers or defy detours.
Ferrante thanked the volunteer members of the fire company, who used their rafts to rescue stranded pedestrians and motorists; police officers, who managed all the road closures and sheltered stranded motorists at the station, as well as handling other emerging issues; the DPW crew, who lowered the lake level the night before the storm, and again in the early morning, postponing the lake breeching the dam by several minutes; and all the residents who offered sump pumps, hoses and other tools to their fellow neighbors, Ferrante said in the statement.