Month: April 2007

My basement is drying as many of my nieghbors begin their cleanup efforts in earnest. Manville remains under a 9 pm curfew, and the police checkpoint at the entrance to my neighborhood will remain for at least a few days.

Nonetheless, I’m off for a long weekend, pre-planned even before the floods, to Arizona. The sunny weather and relaxing pace should provide a welcome boost.

Residents throughout Manville who had to leave their homes began returning to the remains today as flood waters receded. As I walked around this morning I saw debris scattered wherever the water had left it, including upturned dumpsters and port-a-potties, among many other items scattered about. Still, the roads were slowly being cleared and the streets were reopening bit by bit throughout the town.

My father and I spent about six hours working on the basement, taking on the two to four inches that had accumulated across the entire floor. We were able to pump out the water and toss out the huge pile of rubbish that resulted from the water exposure.

It will be intertested, in the coming days, to find out more about the full extent of the damages to many of the hours in th neighborhood. Even as I write this the Fire Department is going house to house, pumping out water wherever necessary. And the piles of debris that once were people’s possessions are now piling up on curbs throughout the town.

And, of course, it is always somewhat strange and disconcerting to have to clear a police checkpoint every time you want to return to your house. Better than the alternatives, I suppose, but the feeling is still unusual, to say the least.

The situation may be improving, but plenty of closures can still be found in Central NJ. Both the Manville Public Schools as well as Rutgers – New Brunswick will both be closed tomorrow. I imagine Bound Brook, Piscataway, and several other of the “Brunswickses” may also be closed.

I just heard a car drive by, which leads me to believe that I may finally be connected by road to the rest of the world again. While I can’t be sure, this would be an exciting development.

I haven’t been out since around 9 pm, which was good timing on my part since Manville instituted a 9 pm curfew tonight to try to keep people off the roads and probably from attempting to do any looting/theft as the waters recede. And by 9 pm, the water was already well on its way down from the heights reached earlier in the day. I’m excited at the thought that when I wake up in the morning, the roads may finally be passable.

Although that leads to the next phase, which includes pumping the water out of the basement and tossing out a huge pile of junk down there that is now waterlogged.

You can see more photos here.

Well, this has been one for the record books. The Raritan and Millstone have crested and started the slow slide down. In terms of river heights it’s definitely #2/#3 around the area, only being beaten handidly by Floyd. In all honesty, that makes Floyd more impressive by comparison. When you consider how Floyd had about a foot of water in the Manville movie theatre, I would have been in several feet of water.

Still, that doesn’t take away from this storm. Large parts of Manville are inaccessible to car traffic, including all the sections of Main Street by the Walmart/Police Station, Dunkin Donuts & church, the entire Weston Canal section (except for an emergency use only overpass over the rail line), and my neighborhood in the Lost Valley.

It certainly hurts the town, and reopens all the memories of Floyd.