New Jersey residents recover from flooding and storm destruction
LODI, N.J. (PIX11) -- Ambrosia stands at the backdoor of her home in Lodi, New Jersey, staring down at her longtime nemesis - the adjacent Saddle River.
At her feet, a pair of sump pump discharge tubes, just barely keeping pace Wednesday afternoon with the rising flood water in her basement.
Ambrosia has lost track of how many times she has had to deal with flooding.
Tuesday night’s rainstorm was so bad and so forceful. Flooding dislodged a sea shipping container in a parking lot upriver and sent it crashing into the bridge next to her home.
Ambrosia is fed up.
“Oh yes. they can keep the house. Yeah. Because this is too much for me,” said Ambrosia.
There are similar scenes, and sentiments, across the Garden State as dozens of towns try to dry out from several inches of rain that fell in a matter of hours on Tuesday causing rivers to rush over their banks.
Bergen County Executive Jim Tedesco says nearly 4 inches of rain in such a short time caused flooding across the county.
“We had probably a few hundred people who were displaced,” said Tedesco.
It also caused a big headache for crews who temporarily stabilized the shipping container until a larger crane could pull it up from the Terrace Avenue Bridge.
“If it gets stuck underneath the bridge, or would start to move, there’s a 16-inch gas main and a 12-inch water main under here, and they could be seriously compromised,” said Tedesco.
Elsewhere in town, John, who lives on the third floor of his apartment building…says he is once again taken in two of his neighbors who live in now-flooded ground-floor apartments.
"It is frustrating, but it is nature. It is mother nature. You cannot control Mother Nature. If the river is gonna overflow, it is gonna overflow,” said John.
A large crane was eventually brought to the scene at the bridge to begin the arduous process of retrieving the shipping container from the Saddle River.
Governor Phil Murphy also chose this location to hold a press availability later Wednesday evening, which did not take place in time for this report.