Higher ground: A river runs through it

That river was LOUD. It just tore along, bloated beyond recognition, sounding like a freight train. And the craziest things rushed by in it: trees, docks, barrels, a fully-erected 5-man tent (?!), propane tanks (!!!). Because of the propane tanks, the authorities closed all the bridges between NJ and Penn, in case something banged together just so and sparked an explosion. At one point an entire house was on its way downriver from Philipsburg, NJ, but it got stuck at the Frenchtown Bridge and broke into pieces. That must have been quite the Oz moment.

You can just see the river in the background of this picture behind the trees, where it normally confines itself. The water came up up up and into the houses--this shot is still well below crest even--but it stopped short of the predicted height, which would have put it at about 5 feet up the living room wall—catastrophe averted. The basements however were a different story. Most everybody came home to a basement that had taken on water, some were filled to the brim with muddy river water, and some had muddy river water plus sewage—very nasty—while some had just clear water—go figure! I’m on a slight rise, so I was incredibly lucky. My brother .rz on the left and neighbor Lori on the right didn’t do as well. They each had maybe 5 feet of muddy water.

The Trenton F!re Department spent the first few days pumping out the basements, only to be frustrated to see the water seep right back in again from below in some homes. Once the water was out for good over at .rz’s, we cleared out all the ruined basement stuff—boxes, boxes, and more boxes; washing machine, dryer, fridge, hot-water heater; books; painting materials, etc etc. Quite a heap of stuff. The garbage men, doing their part, came through the neighborhood twice a day some days and carted away all the trash. The private trash-picker guys came through too and collected all the broken washer-dryers and fridges and whatnot in advance of the municipal trucks. These guys have to do their pick-ups at 5:00 am, on the sly, and hefting those things up onto their battered old trucks makes a helluva lot of noise too!

Comments

[lou lou]

omg
omg
hun
hope all is well now must have been dreadful

[em]

hey thanks lou lou--we're just fine now--lived to blog the tale, as they say!

[Jamie]

Holy shit...I leave blogland for a few days and look what has happened! I'm so glad everyone's OK and that the damage wasn't worse than it was. And I hope Jeanne isn't headed for you!

[em]

9 inches of rain last night Jamie. more basement bailing but we're good at it now. ;-)

[Elsie]

Fec!