Storm brought E.B. problems

BY VINCENT TODARO
Staff Writer

EAST BRUNSWICK — Though not as hard hit as some of its neighbors, the township saw a considerable amount of damage from Sunday’s storm.

Houses and cars were flooded and several roads closed due to the storm, which dumped up to 10 inches of rain on the township in a relatively short period of time. Not all of the township was affected, but sections closer to Spotswood and low-lying areas saw problems.

“It was too much rain in too little time,” said Wayne Lyons, chief of East Brunswick Fire District No. 2. His district, which goes from the New Jersey Turnpike to Racetrack Road, did not see as much damage as other areas.

Lyons noted that all the development in the township has made it harder to keep up with drainage.

“We’re running out of places to drain water to,” he said.

A number of roads including Route 18 between Cranbury and Milltown roads; New Brunswick Avenue at its intersection with Old Stage Road; Civic Center Drive between police headquarters and Cranbury Road; and Rues Lane by the Brunswick Square Mall, all had to be closed for hours, police said.

Like in nearby towns, some homes did lose power for awhile.

Though the township saw some flooding, it was generally not as bad as in towns such as Jamesburg and Spotswood, where many people had to be evacuated. Some homes near the Spotswood border were hit harder than the rest of the township, Lyons said.

Among the locations that saw the worst damage were New Brunswick Avenue, Old Stage Road and neighborhoods near Main Street and Summerhill Road.

The flooding even hit Mayor William Neary’s Grove Street home, where the downstairs was flooded.

“There was thousands of dollars worth of damage to my house,” he said.

Neary also was stuck on the road for two hours just trying to get from Cranbury Road to his house, near Summerhill Road, he said.

Members of the fire department handled the road closings.

“We had fire trucks and all the cops we could get out,” Neary said.

The mayor’s staff told him the lakes where the stormwater, as well as the pipes that carry that water, simply could not deal with so much water in so little time.

“There was water coming out of the storm drains, and water flying out of the middle of the street,” said Neary, who was in constant contact with Police Director Barry Roberson.

No evacuations were necessary, the mayor said.