Hurricane Irene’s rain and winds toppled trees throughout the region. Here, a fallen tree hangs over a downed power line on Lake Avenue in Metuchen. PHOTOS COURTESY OF PETER ANTONIO Many residents of Edison and Metuchen were still without power on Monday, and some were seeing continued flooding and downed trees and power lines in the wake of Hurricane Irene.
“There was not a town that escaped,” said Rob Sklans, public information officer for Middlesex County Emergency Management. “No one was spared.”
Edison Mayor Antonia Ricigliano and Metuchen Mayor Thomas Vahalla said that emergency crews were working hard to clean up, restore power and control traffic, but both officials also took notice of the work of average residents who came together during and after the storm.
Vahalla noted that many people were sharing generators, and Ricigliano said she has found many people just “helping each other out.”
Residents walk down a flooded street near Lake Papaianni in Edison on Sunday. The Edison mayor declared a state of emergency on Saturday and required a mandatory evacuation of the Greenfield Gardens Apartments on North Evergreen Road and the Marina Gardens Apartments, located near the Raritan River.
“The residents were sent to the Edison Senior Center [on Woodbridge Avenue],” she said. “The power went out at the center; however, we had a generator.” The mayor said her home was among the many that were still without power on Monday.
Ricigliano said there was at least one fatality related to the storm on Sunday morning in Edison. The man, a friend of the mayor’s, suffered a heart attack while he and his wife were in the basement of their residence working on their sump pump.
“I had tried to get to the hospital [JFK Medical Center]; however, the street in front of the hospital was flooded and a police car got stuck in the road,” she said.
A large tree and downed power lines straddle the street near the YMCA in Metuchen. PETER ANTONIO Despite flooding in the roadway leading to the hospital, there were no storm-related problems at the hospital, according to Steven Weiss, director of public relations and marketing at Solaris Health System/JFK Medical Center.
Ricigliano said Gov. Chris Christie held four phone conferences with mayors, including her, during the storm.
“I sat in my car for one of the conferences with the phone in the charger,” she said. “He provided us with resources and assistance.”
“Metuchen got hit incredibly hard,” Middlesex County public information officer Rob Sklans said.
Many residents were without power Monday, and it was unclear how many days it would take to be restored.
“That includes me,” Vahalla said. “We have a number of trees that fell, and wires are down, lights are out and there is flooding in spots.”
Vahalla said the Metuchen First Aid Squad building on Route 27 was evacuated due to flooding, and its members began using one of the bays at the Metuchen Fire House on Middlesex Avenue.
“They are currently back to their building,” he said. “The street lights are back on.”
Vahalla said garbage pickup stayed the same, and there would be debris pickup as well as a bulk pickup on Thursday and Friday for items ruined by the storm.
The mayor said he was grateful for the hard work of the emergency personnel in the borough.
“They are getting us back to normal. … We will get through it, as some of us, like myself, continue pumping out our basements,” he said.
Sklans said Middlesex County officials were surveying damage around the county and that it was too early Monday to predict the damage total for the storm. But he said it would be enough to qualify for a disaster declaration.
“There will definitely be some large numbers,” he said.
While Sklans said the Office of Emergency Management has the resources, training and planning to handle the storm, the variable is how people will respond. In this case, he said, things went very well, with people listening to the no-travel and evacuation orders.
“We are incredibly thankful that the public heeded advice and heeded warnings and did what they needed to do,” he said. “The folks in the county should really be commended because they did a fantastic job.”
Hurricane Floyd, in 1999, served as a good blueprint for county emergency management, helping officials prepare for the storm, lower dams and water levels, and prepare municipalities, Sklans noted.
Staff writer Chris Zawistowski contributed to this story.