Some residents still struggling in aftermath of Nor’easter
By: Lacey Korevec
Over a month after a nor’easter dumped 7 inches of rain on Cranbury, flooding Brainerd Lake, Main Street and other areas of town, some residents are still struggling to recover from the April 16 storm.
Bobbie Marlow, a North Main Street resident whose home was hit bad, said her family is just now beginning to get the house back in shape, but there’s still a little ways to go.
"We’re getting there," she sighed. "The house is livable. There’s still some things to do, but mainly the kitchen is going to be torn apart because the insulation got wet between the walls. But we’re just trying to catch our breath before we do that."
Ms. Marlow said the second floor and parts of the third floor were not flooded, but a section of the first floor that sits low was hit. Aside from redoing the kitchen walls and cabinets, the other parts of the house that were flooded just needed to be cleaned, she said, a process that took a few weeks.
"It was three weeks of just working at it," she said. "You have to clean up the mud. There’s just a lot of mud in your house. And leaves."
Residents who are used to traveling the Petty Road Bridge are still being forced to take alternate routes because of damage done to the bridge during the storm.
Township Administrator Tom Witt said the bridge, which is half in Cranbury and half in Plainsboro, has been closed since floodwaters eroded the structure, making it unfit for travel.
Mr. Witt said the damage is worse on the Cranbury side of the bridge and repairs will cost approximately $58,000.
"We’re working on it," Mr. Witt said Tuesday. "It’s a joint responsibility between Plainsboro and Cranbury. We contacted the (Middlesex County) freeholders to see if we can get any help from them in fixing the bridge and hopefully we will be proceeding very quickly."
Mr. Witt said the township is also waiting to find out if it is eligible to receive money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help foot the bill.
"There’s a good chance we could get FEMA money for it," he said. "We applied for aid for the bridge, so hopefully that comes in and we should know pretty soon on that I hope."
Things have gotten back on track at the Cranbury Methodist Church, which had its basement flooded the night of the storm. Church office manager Cheryl Kramer said Thursday that much of the carpeting in the offices and in the Sunday school rooms was destroyed, but the church was able to clean and replace most of it within a week and a half.
"It could have been a lot worse," she said. "Everything is back to normal."
McKnight Court resident Mona Bhatia said her house, which sits low next to a creek, had extensive damage when the basement flooded, ruining the floor and a number of irreplaceable items such as old photographs and quilts. She said she estimates the damage to be about $20,000, but insurance is covering most of the cost.
"All the linens were gone and the floors were gone too," she said, while describing what it was like waking up to her basement filled with 9 inches of water. "The two weeks after were stressful, but now we’re kind of getting back in good shape."
Ms. Bhatia said she expects the basement floor to cost between $10,000 and $12,000 to replace, but her family isn’t going to worry about it until the fall, when they were already planning on renovating the house. She said she and her husband have already replaced their sump pump.
Now, Ms. Bhatia is still trying to salvage some of her personal items that were stored in cardboard boxes in the basement of the house, which they only moved into about five months ago.
"I’m trying to put a positive spin on it," she said. "It helped me clear out a lot of junk, all the linens and things that have been sitting in my closets for years and years. The pictures were the toughest part for me. So, that’s what I’ve been busy with, buying new albums and drying pictures and putting them back."