The Rains Came Down & the Flood Came Up

And then the Elders quorum came to dry them out.

We were recently hit with a suprise, April Nor'easter storm, dumping a hefty amount of water onto New Jersey and causing the river to overflow. And boy did it overflow! I believe it peaked somewhere around 39' above regular level, over the banks and into downtown Bound Brook. It hit pretty hard, sending a thick, brown water into people's basements and first floors. Following the floodwater receding back into the river, it left quite a mess of disinegrating cardboard, swollen clothes, papers, diapers, who-knows-what-else floating in people's dark, dank basements.

Organized as a small group from Church, we headed deeper into town to clean out basements. Armed with shovels, rakes, garbage bags, etc. we worked on it, trying our best to help out and dry them out. I must say it felt good to lend a helping hand here and there. The devastation was pretty bad, you could see the individual impacts in the piles of water-soaked refuse in front of each building. The large earth-movers pushed it along and into dump trucks to take it away. You could see both a resiliency and sadness in people's faces as you passed. With kids playing on the sidewalks, you'd almost think nothing was different, until you again notice the cops patrolling the street and catch a small scent of decaying lives.

The last house still contained 8 or 9 inches of sick, brown water, and as those with rubber boots began to push out heavy, soggy bags, we tried to start a pump up. It took the water engineer to get it going, but after the 2nd stop I tried to reprime the pump. This time it caught us off guard and Scott & I got a face full of water. I hope I don't get sick! But it feels good to be a part of a solution.

HRP