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| Aftermath of Brainerd Lake overflow |
Last Sunday, on August 22nd, the remnants of Hurricane Henri sat over the little town of Cranbury, NJ and dropped 9″ of rain in about 3 hours. From 5 am to 8 am, an ocean formed in the town’s back yards and water poured into basements. Some homes had water up to their first floors. One of my neighbors, further from the lake than me, had to have the fire department pump out their basement.
Normally, this type of event doesn’t happen, and when it does, only those closest to the lake and creek are affected by the resulting deluge. The last time the lake suffered a breach of this magnitude was during Hurricane Irene. The dam was updated and upgraded, and all of Cranbury felt confident that the lake had wreaked havoc upon us for the last time. (What is the saying? Man plans and God laughs?)
Thankfully, one of our neighbors woke us up because of the river that was running down Main Street – he was concerned our cars would be carried away in the current. It really was a raging river and I was a little worried, too. Not nearly as worried as I was when my son called me to see the water pouring into our basement from the bulkhead. The next several hours consisted of us removing everything electronic from the water’s path and praying that the deluge would stop before reaching the hot water heater and furnace’s igniters – and then the clean up, of course. I think I am still traumatized.
This week, the weather center is predicting heavy rain in our area with the possibility of flash flooding, along with pockets where 6″ or more rain could fall.
I’ll be honest: I am terrified.
Unless the township lowers the lake levels today, we will have a repeat performance should we receive the 6″+ that is being predicted. Water from the street drains into the lake. Last Sunday, the water was flowing back up the drains instead of down into the lake. I have two sump pumps – one in each opposing corner of the basement. They were functioning – but everything that pumped out just came right back in. There was nowhere for the water to go. Once the water levels receded and we didn’t have an ocean pouring in from the back yard, they could finally pump out the water that covered the floors. Another half day of me and the shop vac doing our thing, it was as if the flood never happened.
But now I am getting alerts for flash flooding expected in the area tomorrow night and I am extremely concerned. I can handle one flood in the house. But another one so close to the last? I hope not.
I will likely be spending the evening lifting anything on the floor, off the floor. Very worrisome.
It’s likely I will be visiting Home Depot after work to get a tarp and sand bags to secure the bulkhead, just in case.
My eldest said to me, “It’s pretty clear that Mother Nature is really, really pissed off – between the drought and fires out West and the hurricanes and flooding here – she is sending her message to us humans.”
He is not wrong.