Pequannock manager asks state to lower reservoirs before Irene

SUNDAY, AUGUST 28, 2011  

BY STEVE JANOSKI

STAFF WRITER

As Hurricane Irene comes hurtling up the eastern seaboard, the threat of up to 10 inches of rain has many in the flood-prone township cringing and preparing for the worst yet again.

In a Wednesday interview in his office, Township Manager Dave Hollberg said that although he knew it was too early to make predictions, he knew how "the worst" could come about: a massive overflow from North Jersey's reservoirs, which, according to the NJ Department of Environmental Protection's (DEP) website, are already almost full.

Hollberg has been keeping a keen eye on the weather forecasts over the past few days, and he's well aware that a 50-mile swing in the hurricane's eye could be the difference between four and eight inches of rain.

In a place like Pequannock, that's the difference between the typical closing of Alexander Avenue and a catastrophic flood that would inundate the township's roads for the fifth time in 18 months.

He has good reason to worry, said Dave Robinson, the state climatologist at Rutgers University; when Hurricane Floyd struck back in 1999, part of the reason the Passaic River Basin was not damaged as badly as it could have been was that there was a drought, and water levels at the reservoirs were low.

The situation today is reversed, though, and the fact that the land is wet and water levels are high "means that the reservoirs aren't a great help," he said.

"They'll buy a little bit of space, but if we get 10 inches of rain.... we're going to have major flooding," Robinson said.

And the reservoirs are certainly pretty high – those belonging to the City of Newark (such as the Charlotteburg Reservoir in West Milford) directly affect the flow of the Pequannock River, and they're sitting at nearly 100 percent capacity.

Meanwhile, the Monksville and Wanaque Reservoirs, which directly affect the Wanaque River's water levels and are owned by the North Jersey District Water Supply, are about 90 percent full.

Typically at this point in August, these bodies of water are sitting at 75 to 80 percent full, and Hollberg said it will only take a few inches of rain (which Irene nearly guarantees to drop) to top them out as well – and that's when "the worst" starts.

Comparing the situation to a sink with three faucets, he said that the Ramapo and the Pequannock are always flowing strong, but the Wanaque only sees a significant volume of water when the reservoirs feeding it are inundated.

"You turn on two spigots full blast, and it starts to back up," he said. "You turn three of them on full blast... and it's very bad."

Hollberg said that township officials have seen such things occur in the past, and said that river heights skyrocket, sometimes at the rate of a foot an hour, once the reservoirs hit capacity.

He sent a letter off on Tuesday, Aug. 23 to the governor's office that asked Governor Christie to take the "unprecedented action" of ordering as much water as possible be pre-released from the already choked-up reservoirs.

"A prerelease at this time will increase their capacity to absorb rainfall from the approaching storm and allow sufficient time for waters to drain through and out of the river systems before the heavy rains begin later this weekend," the letter stated while pleading its case.

Hollberg knows that even if the state actually acted on the recommendation, it wouldn't solve the problem...but it might help.

"It wouldn't be huge, but for every hundred million gallons that you can get down the river now, today, that's a hundred million capacity that the reservoir has to hold before it starts overflowing in the middle of a heavy rain," he said.

On Friday, township officials found out that the Pompton Lakes Dam was to be opened in order to lower the lake by three feet in order to provide some flood storage, but there was still no word about the reservoirs.

Hollberg's letter had asked for this as well, citing that opening the dam would provide "much needed control data" that could be used to assess the real impacts of the structure on flooding.

Progress has been made in at least one aspect, he said — the Passaic County Office of Emergency Management now notifies township's police desk when the gates are activating, as opposed to past practice that featured no warnings.

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Pequannock braces for the worst

SUNDAY, AUGUST 28, 2011  

BY STEVE JANOSKI

STAFF WRITER

When Mayor Rich Phelan took office on the afternoon of Jan. 1, there was no way for him to predict that within eight months, the township would see three major floods, one noticeable earthquake, and possibly a massive hurricane that could lead to even more flooding.

Tall cranes rose up near the Pompton Lake Dam on Friday, Aug. 26, as work to clean and clear the dam progressed ahead of the pending storm.

Now, somehow, what was once the extraordinary is becoming the routine, and Phelan said on Thursday afternoon that he's "seen this movie three times" and he's getting tired of it.

The script could take a dark turn, however, if Hurricane Irene slams into New Jersey at Category 3 strength, and brings the temperamental Pompton River back into the streets of Pequannock.

A native of Bound Brook, Phelan is no stranger to flooding, and he's anticipating that Irene will dwarf 1999's Hurricane Floyd, and be the worst storm to hit the area since 1984...or maybe even further back.

"If we get 11 inches of rain, you're looking at a hundred-year plus flood," he said.

The township will be employing all sorts of measures to keep citizens alert as the storm intensifies, from updating the website to reverse 911 calls to firemen and police knocking on doors, and officials stress that when authorities tell them to leave, that means it's time to go.

"We believe that the waters are going to rise very quickly once the heavy rains start to come," he said. "Some people want to ride these things out, but this could be different; it could be very ugly....we may not be able to get back in later."

Phelan said on Friday afternoon that on Governor Christie's order, the Pompton Lakes Dam was opened at 12 p.m. in order to drain the lake's water level by three feet and provide some storage, an unprecedented move that many municipalities below the dam have been calling for over the last two years.

Christie had a conference call with Phelan and three other area mayors - Katie Cole of Pompton Lakes, Chris Vergano of Wayne, and Mike DeFrancisci of Little Falls - where he said that he would "take a leap of faith" with them and open the gates.

"At least they're trying to do something," Phelan said. "It took us writing letters and going on TV to get him to react, but he did react."

When asked if he thought opening the gates would truly help, Phelan replied that "anything would help at this moment...anything."

1903...or 1821...all over again?

Dave Robinson, the NJ Climatologist at Rutgers University, said that preparing for the worst might not be a bad idea.

"The potential is there for one of the more destructive storms on record for this state - but we're talking about potential," he said.

Although the storm has been vacillating between a Category 2 and Category 3, Robinson said that it's likely that it will be Category 1 by the time it hits New Jersey, although it might be possible for the storm to maintain it's power until it hits the Jersey Shore if it stays over the Atlantic long enough.

Robinson said that gusts may reach the 75 mph range on the ridge tops, but it would be unlikely for hurricane force winds to be sustained in the North Jersey area.

Unfortunately, it's the rains that will bring the troubles, and Robinson said that with the full reservoirs and a foot of rain, it would be possible to conceive of a scenario that mirrors the 1903 floods, which had the wettest storm on record and caused floods two feet above even the 1984 levels.

There are still many scenarios that could occur that end with Pequannock not getting pummeled, but if the storm continues on its course and the eye comes close to the Jersey Shore it would be a climatological anomaly.

If Irene comes ashore and moves inland as a hurricane, it would be just the third time that's happened, Robinson said, with the others occurring in 1821 and 1903.

This storm would mirror 1821 more, he said, because the 1903 storm came inland at Atlantic City and moved westward towards Trenton; the 1821 version "kind of came up the parkway."

"It's rare, but it's happened before," he said.

A new set of hazards

Regardless of what historical storm Irene ends up resembling, local officials are taking no chances.

Township Manager Dave Hollberg said that Irene's winds may lead to more problems than normal because of its potential for knocking down trees and destroying power lines.

"The combination of flooding with the potential for wind damage, power outages, and perhaps live electrical lines in flooded roads can be deadly if people are not paying attention," he said.

The township has been posting a "Weather Advisory Statement" on the Pequannock website, Peqtwp.org, that is being updated every three to six hours.

Evacuations may come early, and Hollberg said that if it looks like flooding is imminent, the town will be moving people out of the way while the roads are still dry.

"Be prepared," he advised residents. "Have a plan, have a kit, pay attention the weather reports, and if advised to evacuate, evacuate - don't wait."

Bobbi Jo Murphy, the Director of the township's Office of Emergency Management, said that the emergency shelter is in place, and will likely be at Pequannock Valley Middle School on the Newark-Pompton Turnpike.

A state of emergency has been declared by Governor Christie, and Murphy said that the First Aid Squad, Department of Public Works, Police Department and fire companies are on standby.

"The good thing is that we've been through so many floods that residents know what to expect, but I think this is going to be a whole new ballgame," she said.

Murphy expects more citizens at the emergency shelters as extended power outages occur, and people who don't normally see water end up flooded.

Greg Renna, chief of the Pequannock First Aid and Rescue Squad, said that this will be an "all hands on deck" situation for his 50 member crew, which will be ready to respond to medical emergencies that occur during the evacuation process.

The FAS will be mobilized from 7 p.m. Friday night to 7 p.m. Tuesday night, he said, but he's hoping that the storm weakening as it comes up the coast.

"A significant amount of rain could be quite devastating to this township...and its residents," he said.

David James, Chief of Engine Co. No. 1, said that the fire company is storing enough food for about four days in order to feed the 56-man crew while they're standing by or responding.

He reiterated the need for residents to leave when they're told, and was greatly concerned about the potential for downed power lines in the water, which could cut evacuation efforts off if severe enough.

"It adds a whole new danger to our job," he said. "We don't want to say no, but at some point during the storm we're going to have to say no; I can't jeopardize my men's safety because people didn't want to listen to the warnings and get out."

The biggest difference between this storm and previous floods, James said, is that this time, Pequannockis on its own.

The chief had conversations with Morris County's fire officials, and they informed him that there will be no mutual aid coming, no cavalry from Whippany or Boonton riding in to ease the burden on the township's weary firemen.

"They're having the same problems this time as we do," he said. "We're like John Wayne this time, we'll do what we have to do."

On top of this, many state resources that were previously available in March will be pushed further south towards the Shore areas in order to help those communities cope.

James is also concerned that if a major evacuation of New York City occurs, people will be coming this way looking for shelter in hotels that also might have to be eventually evacuated, such as the Best Western/Regency House on Route 23 north.

Bill Pereira, head of the Pequannock Department of Public Works, said that the storm drains are all clear, and the DPW is preparing for trees to come down and barricades to be put up.

"The guys have been through this drill before, so we try to move a little bit ahead of things by putting up barricades where we know they're going to be necessary," he said.

The township's wellhouses and sewer pump stations have also been checked and secured, but Periera said that the possibility of them failing due is "remote."

"That type of thing is not very likely unless we get something that's way off the charts...but the pumps do have to keep running throughout the storm, and it's something that we keep an eye on," he said.

Email: janoski@northjersey.com

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Irene's winds meet Hemingway's wisdom

BY STEVE JANOSKI

'Il faut (d’abord) durer.’

Supposedly it was Ernest Hemingway’s favorite saying, and, roughly translated from French, it means "One must (first) endure."

I would be lying if I said this wasn’t a phrase I had liberated for my own use after reading it some years ago, because if my limited experiences have taught me nothing else, it’s that often there comes a time when one must simply put their head down and move forward — as Churchill said, "If you’re going through hell, keep going."

As I write this on Friday afternoon, Hurricane Irene is bearing down on the North Carolina coast, and over the past week, the warnings for this area have vacillated from somewhere between "There’s going to be a lot of rain" to "Repent, for the end is nigh."

It’s yet unknown how hideous the storm will be when it strikes New Jersey, and its strength and the magnitude of the damage it causes may make these words seem entirely foolish by Wednesday, or at least defang them if the city streets remain dry due to a tragedy narrowly averted.

But one lesson that we can take from this storm, or even the threat of this storm, is the same one that we must carry away from all natural disasters: nothing, absolutely nothing, is guaranteed, and things in life can and will change in monumental ways without hesitation.

We all hear, of course, that there is a "reason" for every misfortune, but I’ve never thought that to be true.

I am no fatalist and a particularly weak believer in God, and I cast about between being some sort of bastardized deist to an agnostic depending what time of day you ask, so the idea that there is a "reason for everything" seems a naïve, foolish way to justify the curveballs (and sometimes the artillery shells) that life hurls at us.

Whether an event happened for a reason is simply irrelevant, and putting it in cosmic terms, such as suggesting that a space god deemed it necessary that this thing happen for such and such a purpose, is a waste of time.

What is no waste of time — what is completely necessary, in fact — is to simply determine to continue.

It goes without saying that this weekend will be hard on somebody, regardless if that somebody is in North Carolina, Maryland, or New Jersey, and that even if we don’t have to bear Irene’s hammering might, we will inevitably have to do so again when some disaster, be it public or private, befalls us.

If it does happen to be this weekend, though, it will be a frigid reminder that no matter how comfortable we get, how safe and secure in our happy little lives are, we are but a few powerless days away from being thrown into an unimaginable upheaval that would have been totally foreign to us but a week before.

Hopefully, we will take away lessons from this, because aside from proving the strength of our spines, learning is the only thing that these calamities are useful for.

Maybe we will learn to not build in flood basins and go toe-to-toe with nature, and dismiss the silly ideas of building 10-foot wide flood tunnels to Nutley as exactly what they are: silly ideas.

Maybe we will learn to live with and around the land a little bit better, because we know that when Nature rises up in her full fervor we can be swept from the table like so many plastic pawns.

This is my own conjecture, of course, and it’s more than likely that things will never change because of property tax rolls and political battles.

But for the regular people, the ones in Pequannock and Pompton Lakes and Lincoln Park, who will go through this storm and be worse off for it, there is nothing left to do but keep going.

Endure, once again.

E-mail: janoski@northjersey.com

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