Forecasters are warning residents of New Jersey that Hurricane Irene could cause flooding that the area has not seen in 100 years. Such a strong foreboding is not phasing many residents who see this “gloom and doom” warning as an overreaction.
The forecasters may be right. The state has had record rainfall for the month of August and even without another drop of rain we still have made the record books with the rainfall.
Governor Christie was quick to advise people to not head down the Jersey shore this weekend and to leave by Friday if you are vacationing there. It isn’t just the shore towns that are vulnerable to this storm however. The size of Hurricane Irene and its projected track cover the entire state of New Jersey.
There is no place to hide from Irene.
As a frequent visitor to the south Jersey towns of Cape May and Wildwood, I have experienced many a summer vacation that had the threat of an impending hurricane but fortunately we only saw some rough seas and some rain. The storm always went out to sea before directly hitting the area.
Although New Jersey is not immune to hurricanes, we haven’t had one that has devastated the entire state since the 1800s. In 1999, remnants of Hurricane Floyd flooded vulnerable towns around the Raritan River but the damage was not statewide.
Living in Central New Jersey I can remember bad flooding and damage from a hurricane in the 70s. I don’t really remember much about the storm because the brunt of it happened while I slept. I do not imagine I will be sleeping much this Saturday night when the storm is beginning to hit my area.
I will be on basement watch, hoping that the electric pump can keep up with the forecasted rains that we are expecting.
My family is prepared to lose power, although we hope we don’t. We have a plan if the pump cannot keep up and we need to evacuate the dozens of storage boxes in basement. I hope it doesn’t come to that because if our basement floods, we will be without hot water and our washer and dryer could be damaged beyond repair.
The past winter New Jersey had record snowfall and at times, there was no place to put the mountains of snow. We thought that was a problem but with 10 to 15″ of rain forecasted, two feet of snow is more desirable.
My camera is ready for after the storm and hopefully all the warnings about this storm will turn out to be just hype and it will go out to sea. As I listen to the national news call Hurricane Irene a “historic” storm before it has even made landfill, I keep telling myself that they just have nothing else to focus on. They are just making a big deal out of nothing, right?
I am prepared-just in case.