Costs could loom large in flood aftermath
New Hope Gazette
By Joe D'Aquila, Assistant Editor
09/30/2004

 The flooding Delaware River last week wreaked havoc in communities up and down its banks in both Bucks County and in New Jersey. In New Hope and Solebury, two of the hardest hit communities, officials are still trying to tally the resulting damage.
According to figures from the Bucks County Emergency Management Agency, of the 294 residences throughout the county with major damage from the flood, New Hope and Solebury accounted for 42 of the homes.

The county agency considers buildings with flooded basements to be in the minor damage category, while those with water on first floor living areas as having major damage. Of those with minor flood damage, New Hope and Solebury homes made up an even larger percentage, with 89 of the 142 reported damaged buildings.
Businesses too in New Hope were hardest hit with 22 reporting damages -- 15 minor and 7 major.

A spokesperson for emergency management said however that the full impact of the financial loss to these buildings has not yet been calculated, as it is being handled at the federal level. In New Hope, borough manager John Burke said the total cost to the borough government is also still not known, but he said damage to the newly created riverfront "Pocket Parks" on Ferry and Randolph Streets could cost as much as $30,000 alone to clean away the river's deposits, re-mulch the areas and replant in the spring.

Dumpsters, placed throughout the borough for residents to remove damaged belongings, Burke said, would cost the borough roughly another $5,000, though the final cost would not be known until the last of the refuse is removed and fees charged for dumping.

Burke said that the New Hope Chamber of Commerce has offered to make a donation to help defer the costs of the waste removal.
Perhaps the largest single cost to the borough came from the overtime pay needed to keep the police force and public works crews working long hours through the flood and its clean-up, and for related materials and supplies.
Burke said the cost in additional materials and labor was around $13,000, but said that figure could have doubled or tripled if not for the volunteer efforts of groups like the Lambertville-New Hope Rescue Squad and the Eagle Fire Company.
"The New Hope Eagle Fire Company did an absolutely fantastic job," he said.
In Solebury, police chief Richard Mangan faced similar difficulties and expenses in dealing with the flood's effects as it poured through the township's riverfront areas, both north and south of New Hope.

The township declared a state of emergency by Saturday afternoon, and the alert wasn't lifted until Wednesday morning.
Mangan said the entire department was moved to 12-hour shifts on Saturday, and that 10 officers from outside police departments were brought in to help out by Sunday. The township's police was largely involved in closing off roadways and keeping curious onlookers and potential looters from entering the affected areas.
He said police began contacting residents around noon on Saturday to warn of what was coming and to suggest evacuation.

Mangan said his squad didn't have to perform any rescues throughout the ordeal, but officers did help to evacuate two elderly residents ahead of the flood.
The hardest hit area in the township, he said was in the Lumberville area near Fleecy Dale Road. "Some of the residents up there had three to five feet of water in the first floor of their homes," he said. Mangan, too, said that overall costs to both private property owners and to Solebury's government were still unknown, but said he estimated township costs would be between $20,000 and $50,000.

Solebury honors community spirit
New Hope Gazette
By Eve Gelman, Staff Writer
10/14/2004

The true spirit of a community can be found in the way it pulls together during a crisis. Solebury officials recently recognized the efforts of the many community members, township staff and volunteer firefighters who they said "went above and beyond the call of duty" in their work during a pair of torrential September storms.
The Delaware River and local creeks ran over their banks during the storms of Sept. 18 and 19 and again Sept. 28 and 29, threatening homes, businesses, and even lives.

As soon as the storms began, both professionals and average citizens went to work to give residents advance notice of the pending flood problems and to put safety measures in place. After they ended, they spent many hours working with residents affected by the flooding to get their homes back into livable conditions, said supervisors chair John Eichert."I would like to acknowledge those folks and personally thank them and thank them on behalf of the community for the efforts they put forth to help out in this community," Eichert said.

At last week's supervisors meeting, Solebury Township Police Chief Richard Mangan presented plaques commending those efforts to 26 individuals, starting with John Butler of the Bucks County Water & Sewer Authority.
"John made arrangements to have drinking water brought into Solebury Township for all the affected areas early Sunday afternoon and that was a great help to us and the residents," Mangan said.

He next recognized the township's secretary/treasurer, Gretchen Rice, and the two police department secretaries, Esther Goss and Mary Grady, who worked long hours behind the scenes calling all the residents along the rivers and creeks to warn them of the flooding and to answer questions from worried residents.
Eagle Fire Company chief Tom Markey and D.J. Kling of the Point Pleasant Fire Company in Point Pleasant accepted commendations on behalf of their respective fire companies. Mangan said that the two companies spent many hours pumping water from basements and washing mud off residents' homes.
Mangan presented a commendation to James Kuhn, the Emergency Management coordinator for Solebury Township.

"The next two people I want to call up were affected a great deal by the flood in Lumberville," he said. "They ran a business, they lost property and, even in the midst of all that, they spent endless hours helping the residents clean their homes out. I'd like to call up Thomas and Bill Tinsman."

Mangan also recognized the township road department -- Robin Glenn, Paul Anderson, D.J. Kling and Charles Kunkel -- for its work in closing roads, clearing the fallen trees, pumping basements, clearing mud from the roads and items from the creek. "Although I don't think that elected officials should be given commendations, I am happy to accept this so my son has a challenge to look forward to," William Tinsman said.

Finally, Mangan lauded the outstanding efforts of his own department.
The police worked round the clock for many days, first contacting residents along the rivers to advise them what to do when it rises and then closing roads to ensure people did not enter the dangerous areas. The officers also aided residents with providing the necessary paperwork to apply for the federal relief funds.
The Solebury Police department is comprised of: Sergeant Stephen Meredith, Corporal Larry Grawe, Corporal John Kenderdine, Officer Mark Chaikin, Officer Kevin Edwards, Officer Jon Koretzky, Officer Phil Varcoe, Officer Marc Mansour, Officer Gary Forester, Officer Keith Fennell, Officer Keith Golder, Officer Arron Soldavin and Officer Daniel Marascio.

Flood Ravaged
New Hope Gazette
By Joe D'Aquila, Assistant Editor
09/30/2004

By Friday night, Mayor Larry Keller took the reports of what was coming down river and declared a state of emergency for his tiny borough. With water levels already rising rapidly, police and firefighters went door to door in New Hope's lowest lying areas asking that residents there vacate their homes. At its highest point, the floodwaters took over parts of New Hope's streets, and Keller said that you could have traveled by canoe along North Main Street, from the PNC Bank to the police station just down the street.

Keller said police and firefighters went door-to-door suggesting residents should leave their homes and wait out the high waters on higher ground. Residents further from the flooding river took in those who had been put out by the flood. "The amount of volunteerism is what makes New Hope such a special place to live," he said. "The volunteer effort in this town was just incredible."
Keller said that he himself had helped out with relocating some of the hardest hit residents, taking one Waterloo Street family in to his own home while they waited for the river to recede and the power to be restored.

The efforts of the police and fire department were to be commended as well, Keller said, as no major problems of looting or injuries were reported, and emergency personnel worked 16- to 18-hour days to keep the borough as safe as possible. "I think everyone's exhausted," he said Tuesday morning. "I'm sure they're glad to see the waters recede now and things returning to normal."
Damage to property, Keller said, was still being assessed as of Tuesday, but he estimated that about 250 homes and businesses in New Hope had experienced varying levels of water damage from the flood. By 4 p.m. Monday, the New Hope-Lambertville free bridge was reopened to traffic, after an inspection, and Tuesday saw the reopening of all roads in the borough.

By 2 a.m. on Tuesday, Keller said, most of the town had electric service back up, with those still without power mainly along Waterloo Street. Keller figured there will be at least a week or two of clean-up ahead, and said plans are underway to deal with town wide clean-up and pick-up residents' damaged belongings. "It could have been a lot of worse," he said. Keller said that from his first priority, the safety of the borough and it's residents, the handling of the flood went about as well as could be expected.

Throughout the days of the flood, there were no injuries, and only one incident of a resident who had to be rescued from his home. Fred Williamson, borough fire marshall and president of the New Hope Eagle Fire Company, attributed the lack of rescues to the cooperation of most residents.
In the one incident, an elderly woman decided not to leave her home in the Waterview condominiums along River Road when she was asked to late Friday night, Williamson said.
The woman soon found her home filling up quickly with water early Saturday morning, he said., and she called 9-1-1.

"The water was coming up at a very rapid rate at that point, about a foot per hour," he said.
A rescue worker, tethered to a lifeline, waded into the woman's home and carried her out on his back. Williamson said that the level of communication by all involved in the flood relief efforts was what made their operations go so smoothly throughout the ordeal. "I've seen my share of disasters, but I've never seen communication like this," he said. "It was key."

He said police and firefighters had handed out flyers and pamphlets informing residents of what they should and shouldn't do and where they could go as the flood waters neared, and that the coordination of the entire effort was nearly flawless. Like Keller, Williamson too praised the contribution of volunteers, from his all-volunteer fire company to the members of the Lambertville, N.J.-New Hope Ambulance and Rescue Squad, down to the volunteers who came in and helped man the phones. "If there's a silver lining to any of this, it's got to be the volunteers," he said. "It's how the community pulls together in times of crisis that never seems to fail to amaze me."

Arduous task of returning life to normal begins
New Hope Gazette
By Joe D'Aquila, Assistant Editor
09/30/2004
 
As the waters of the Delaware began the return to their rightful place and power was gradually returned to the buildings along its banks, New Hope's residents and business owners made their way back to their homes and shops to see what was left for them to clean up.

On Monday and Tuesday, parts of Main Street showed the signs of where the water had crept along, leaving watermarks and mud trails. Shop owners left their doors and windows open, though their stores remained closed, trying to let their belongings dry out as they worked inside, assessing the damage.
The streets remained largely empty and a low din of generators and gas-powered sum-pumps could be heard throughout the borough.

Members of the New Hope Eagle Fire Company assisted the effort, helping to pump out basements.
"We lucked out big time," said Bob Gerenser, owner of Gerenser's Exotic Ice Cream on South Main Street.
Gerenser said his business managed to avoid serious damage when the rising water stopped about 30 feet from the back door of his building "We seriously dodged a bullet here," he said. He said though that he lost a lower wall at the back of his property along the river and had some damage to a railing.
Inside, generators kept the power on to keep his exotic ice cream frozen, but he said he still lost about 30 to 40 boxes of his product.

The majority of problems faced in the borough seemed to be minor ones, as alert residents moved valuables to higher ground ahead of time, and little major property damage was experienced.
Jim Alterman, owner of the building that formerly housed Zadar's nightclub, and was, until recently, slated to become the New Hope Museum of Art, spent the day Monday shoveling up the deposited river mud from around his property, mud he referred to as "chocolate pudding."

The mud covered the grounds around his building, and the basement floor, where watermarks could still be seen a few feet off the ground. But the flood left the building largely unscathed, where even the newly affixed stone face on the outer walls, wasn't bothered. Alterman said his buildings in Lambertville, N.J. had flooded much worse, but even there he managed to move valuables to higher ground. In New Hope, at least, Alterman and just about everyone else, have to now just deal with the inconvenience of a clean-up. "It really hasn't been that much of a problem here," he said of the flood's effects. "It's just the sludge factor."