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Hurricane Irene's damage in Gloucester County could have been much worse |
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Published: Monday, August 29, 2011, 4:00 AM
By John Barna/Gloucester County Times
Hurricane Irene breached a dam, forced at least 65 people out of their homes due to flooding, snapped trees onto several homes, and closed portions of 85 roads — including the main north-south thoroughfare through Woodbury — as it passed through Gloucester County late Saturday and early Sunday.
But the damage — and cleanup job — could have been much worse, officials offered Sunday.
Much worse.
Without suggesting that the region dodged a bullet — the mounting cleanup costs prevent that — Freeholder Director Robert Damminger and others were noting what did not happen as Irene churned north — dumping what the National Weather Service said was between 5 and 8 inches of rain in a 12-hour period across Gloucester and Camden counties.
The sluice gates along the Delaware River — which prevent flooding to some 10,000 Gloucester countians living in low-lying areas — stayed closed “as they are supposed to at high tide,” Damminger observed.
The county was able to repair a breached earthen dam along U.S. Route 322 in the Mullica Hill section of Harrison Township by dropping “load after load of stone,” said Robert DiLella, spokesman for the county office of Emergency Management.
At Rowan University, the American Red Cross hosted some 1,100 people who had been evacuated Friday from Atlantic County and sent to the university gym in Glassboro. As they were boarding buses Sunday afternoon to return home, “They were saying thank-yous for taking such good care” of them, said Laura Steinmetz, executive director of the Red Cross chapter in Gloucester County.
Steinmetz was especially touched by the dozens of individuals who stopped by Saturday — many in the midst of driving rain — to drop off games, baby supplies and toys for the children being housed in the gym.
“We had fantastic cooperation from Rowan” and several other agencies, she said.
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