New Jersey Forest Fire Service Ops during and after Irene

The New Jersey Forest Fire Service (NJFFS) does more than fight wildfires. The aftermath of Hurricane Irene provided but one example of non-fire related emergencies that the NJFFS are involved with. The following list may not include all the assistance provided by the NJFFS in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene. And it does not reflect any NJFFS assistance provided in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Lee and other heavy rain events in September.

Assisted in rescuing approximately 30 senior citizens and their pets from mobile homes in Buena Vista.

Deployed 6x6 high wheeled trucks to various Counties around the State at various time after Irene including but not limited to Morris, Passaic, Cape May and Salem Counties. The crew in these trucks assisted with various emergency duties including but not limited to evacuations from flooded residential areas.

Deployed a saw team to Egg Harbor Twsp to assist in tree removal from roads.

Water buffalos (a kind of water tank on wheels) were deployed to West Milford in northern Passaic County.

Bull dozers and backhoes crewed by the NJFFS assisted with road repair in Stokes State Forest (Sussex County).

NJFFFS saw crews along with crews in bull dozers and back hoes repaired roads and removed trees and debris in Alliare State Park and Monmouth Battlefield (Monmouth County)

Saw crews assisted with tree removal in Delaware and Raritan Canal State Park (Hunterdon, Mercer counties).

For more information see this thread on the wildland fire hotlist.

Kudos to the NJFFS! Thank-you.

Vermont is open for business

Those of you who may have been following my blog recently regarding the devastating flash flooding to portions of central and southern Vermont may be discouraged from visiting Vermont. To the contrary, many areas previously inaccessible are now accessible, many roads that were closed are now re-opened, and businesses have worked hard to reopen. So, if you have been thinking about taking a trip to Vermont this fall, I hope that follow through and go to Vermont. Some roads are still closed, but you should be able to get around the central and southern areas of the state.

Vermont resources:

google map of Vermont closures and openings from Irene and other flooding
Vermont Transit Irene Response on Twitter
Vermont Transit Irene Response on Facebook
Vermont Agency of Transportation Irene Response webpage
VT Ski Resorts Use Social Media to Stress They'll Open (report from Vermont Public Radio

updated on July 18, 2013: video that I had embedded here is no longer available. :-(

Reflections after Irene and Lee

I admit that my thoughts have been with New Jersey and Vermont in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee, I am very mindful that both of these storms impacted many States in the south and east.

You see, as I was reflecting on what has been happening here in NJ with yet more flooding some of it at historic levels, I thought about the residents in other states that are dealing with the aftermath of Irene. So, while I will be focusing here on NJ, I am thinking about all those affected by Irene and Lee.

Power was back on here in NJ anywhere from 1 to 8 days after Irene passed. For the most part, major arteries that saw washouts after Irene or Lee are now open in NJ. There remains some bridge washouts and road closures, but you can get around, perhaps with delays due to detours. Schools are open. One might think that things are returning to normal. But for many residents as well as business owners and their employees, things are anything but normal. Flood waters may have gone down, but the clean-up is only beginning.

My heart goes out to the many residents and business owners in New Jersey affected by flooding, some of whom have seen two or more floods over the last two to six years. Many are weary of the flooding, of having to clean out their flood damaged homes, leaving their water logged belongings on the curb for pickup by their town. They have to start over again, yet again. Some will be wondering where the money will come from. For those who have flood insurance, what will the insurance pay for. Will FEMA be able to help, and if the FEMA help is in the form of a low-interest loan, can they afford the debt? What happens when costs are not covered by flood insurance, or FEMA grants or loans?

Words are inadequate

Then there is the emotional costs. How do you compensate for that. Some residents are hoping that FEMA will provide money to buy their homes so they can move somewhere else. But if there is money available for these buy outs, it often does not come close to covering what they may have put into their homes.

Words are inadequate

If anything, I am stunned by the magnitude of the floods both here in NJ and elsewhere in the east. I am also stunned to know that many were impacted by floods who live in what are (or were) low flood risk areas. What of them? Some may have chosen not to get flood insurance for whatever reason.

Words are inadequate.

Video and related article dated September 8, 2011. 80791. Lincoln Park is on the Rockaway River (a tributary of the Passaic River).

updated on July 18, 2013: video that I had embedded here is no longer available. :-(

2011 Vermont flooding: update #2

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Having just returned home yesterday after spending three days in northeastern VT where I spent much time listening to Vermont Public Radio's coverage of the aftermath of the Hurricane Irene. I was especially interested in the progress that they are making with repairing road washouts and bridge damage. As you can see in the video clip that I embedded above from Rachel Maddow's Sept 15 show on MSNBC, progress is being made. Reopening U.S. Rte. 4 from Rutland to Bridgewater (see image below) is huge.

There is still a lot more work that needs to be done. The Vermont Agency of Transportation has devoted their "511.vt.com" page to Hurricane Irene related resources.  Those of you who like to play around with interactive google maps, might like to check out this interactive map of current road closures and openings from Irene. I used the kml file that I downloaded from this interactive map to show you the above image. The road colored purple is only opened to authorized vehicles. The roads in yellow (including one stretch of U.S. Rte. 4) is open with limited access with delays. Limited access with delays is a lot better than no access or authorized (emergency) vehicles only.

Maine National Guard helping to rebuild VT roads

Thank-you Maine National Guard!

Guard Ships Supplies To Isolated Communities - Video - WPTZ Plattsburgh

I've been on the hunt looking for videos of National Guard Helos bringing supplies to the towns in Vermont that were cut off from the outside as a result of Irene. As I write this, all of these town have some sort of access over what may be no more than goat paths through the mountains. And most are powered. But earlier in the week before these isolated communities had emergency vehicle access by land, the National Guard airlifted supplies. Here is a link to some footage, you will see Blackhawks and a Chinook.

Guard Ships Supplies To Isolated Communities - Video - WPTZ Plattsburgh

Get well Vermont

I've owned seasonal property in northeastern Vermont for 30 years, and my family for 70 years before that. I am very saddened knowing what these wonderful people in the Green Mountain State have endured with the recent floods. Yet, I know that the people of the Green Mountain State are pulling together and helping each other out with the help of many from away.

updated on July 18, 2013: video that I had embedded here is no longer available. :-(

Flooding in Vermont

Residents in thirteen Vermont towns are isolated when flood waters from Irene damaged the roads leading to these towns so badly that vehicles can not get in or out.

Vermont Public Radio has been covering these events:

A list of the thirteen towns,
Aug 30 report on efforts to rebuild US Rte 4 into Mendon and Killington VT
text
VT DOT efforts to restore communications to the thirteen towns (8/30/11)

This just in, dated today, from VPR:

One isolated VT town to be reached today, Wed.

Reports on Wilmington, VT another town isolated by Irene
National Guard Moving Supplies into Wilmington
CBS News video from helo over Wilmington VT.

The Burlington Free Press (BFP). Links from the Burlington Free Press may only be freely available for seven days, I'm not sure. For an article with a photo gallery in today's BFP today's efforts to reach these isolated communities in VT go here.

Flooding in NJ from Irene: Denville

More years ago than I care to admit, I commuted to NYC by bus from Morris County through the town of Denville. I'd expect that this video was shot either yesterday or today.

updated on July 18, 2013: video that I had embedded here showing flooding in Denville NJ during Irene is no longer available. :-(

A first look at flooding in NJ from Irene

This video focuses on Manville, a town whose residents are all too familiar with flooding.

And a link to a google map, courtesy of the Star Ledger may be found here, data is from 5:30 Pm on August 28.

Good night Irene

Good night Irene, and good riddance. I never loved you.

But I grew up with Pete Seeger, heard him in concert once with Arlo Guthrie some, oh never mind. It was a long time ago. It somehow feels fitting to embed this video here.

NJ is not the only State impacted by Irene. But at the moment, I can only think about NJ. So bear with me. We will be experiencing major flooding in NJ over the next couple of days. Some 800,000 people without power here, most of them on the shore. My county in northwest New Jersey has about 31,000 people without power as I write this, not bad all things considering.

I waited to post this until the NWS lifted the tropical storm warning for my county. Which they just did. Hardly any rain to speak of after about 7 AM, but the wind started the kick in on the back side of Irene. So, I sat in my house listening to sometimes 35 mph winds gusting.

I'll be looking for some videos tomorrow to show you. I have written about prior floods in NJ, so I'll follow suit for the next couple of posts at least.

Irene: Incident Management Teams and Hurricane Hunter Aircraft

Still here. Outer band of Irene starting to impact very southern NJ as I write this, We are due to see brunt of Irene starting late tonight into tomorrow (Sunday) early afternoon. Two things just came across my electronic desk that I want to share with you.

Many of you may have heard various weather media talk about the hurricane hunting aircraft that fly into (or over?) the hurricanes to make readings. These are two specially equipped P-# Orion aircraft, named Miss Piggy and Kermit. NOAA has a webpage where you can and find out more about Miss Piggy and Kermit, here.

Last but in no means least, I understand from Bill Gabbert's article on wildfiretoday that two national incident management teams have been activated to help us out in the northeast with Irene. One may go to New York, and the other may go to Boston. Grew up in the Boston burbs and experienced Hurricane Donna when I was six. I remember that one cause Donna cancelled my first day of first grade. And I lived in New York City many moons ago. Currently live in NJ. Thank-you to all the crew of these two incident management teams from the bottom of my heart. And the northeast thanks you.

Bill's article on the activation of these incident management teams may be found here.

Irene is coming

By now, many of you know that Hurricane Irene is due to impact much of the east coast of the U.S. in the coming days. I myself will be impacted on Sunday afternoon. I'm not quite sure what will happen. We are prepared and safe, being inland. But power outages and internet disruptions may happen. I have prepared a post for Monday, August 29 that should post automatically.

So, if you don't hear from me reporting on my experiences with Irene on Monday (8/29) or Tuesday (8/30), you will know the reason.

NJ Floods - Rivers below flood levels

I wrote here and here about the recent floods affecting northern NJ. The good news is that the last of the Rivers, the Passaic River, that flooded last week have receded below flood levels today. For those living near Passaic River and her tributaries, this was the first time in almost two week that the River was not under a flood warning. See this article from NJ dot com for more information, and note the photo gallery.

FEMA Surveying NJ Flood Damage: My9TV.com

For businesses and residents in flood stricken areas, some of whom have seen flooding multiple times in the last few years, the clean-up is just begining. FEMA visited northern NJ communities affected by the floods a couple of days ago assessing damages.

NJ Floods - update - March 14

Yesterday I focused on flood levels reported by gauges along the Passaic River, what I did not say is that major flooding continues along the Passaic River and her tributaries and is not confined to areas where the two gauges are located. While the flooding is not as bad as officials feared, it is still bad enough. Waters continue to recede, but it may at least a couple of days before homeowners and business owners can return to their homes or businesses. As reported by the Star Ledger yesterday, the NJ State Climatologist (Dave Robinson) reports that the recent Passaic River basin flooding ranks as the fifth worse on record. A report in today's Star Ledger may be found here. And here is a report from The Record (North Jersey).

I found a few videos to show the extent of the flooding. The first video was shot at the Great Falls in Paterson NJ on March 12.



The next two videos are from NY television stations. I believe that this video was shot this morning.

Water Slowly Recedes In N.J.: MyFoxNY.com

I'm not sure when this report was shot, the scenes are around Paterson, NJ.

View more videos at: http://www.nbcnewyork.com.

Finally, I found this video on youtube, uploaded on March 12 from a homeowner in Wayne, NJ.

NJ Flooding - Rivers crested - update 1

To the best of my knowledge, all the rivers in New Jersey where some level of flooding was a concern (after two significant rain storms in the last week) have crested. However, in some cases rivers will continue to be at moderate or major flooding levels for at least the next couple of days. I obtained the images that I am posting here from the National Weather Service's Midatlantic River Forcasting Center on Sunday afternoon, March 13. Note that some of the information on this site reflects current information. So, if you go there in two weeks, you may not see any of the data that I am referring to here. This is why I am posting these images.

Here is an image showing current flooding observations (3/13/2011). You will see that there are two locations - noted in purple experiencing major flooding. Both involve the Passaic River, the two locations are referring to flooding recorded by gauges, one in Little Falls and the second in Pine Brook. I have noted each location with a placemarker. You will also see a placemarker for Pompton Plains, which I wrote about the other day.

First an update on the location in Pompton Plains, specifically the Pompton River. You will see from the hydrograph copied below that the Pompton River crested sometime during the late afternoon or evening of March 11, 2011. As I write this, the Pompton River has currently receded to the action stage and is forecast to go to levels below the action stage sometime late in the day on March 14 before receding to the action stage this Wednesday, March 16. I'll try to see if I can get some information for you about how folk in Pompton Plains are making out.

Things are not quite so rosy for the Passaic River at Little Falls and Pine Brook. You can see from the two hydrographs (below) that while the gauges at both locations show that the River crested sometime late last night, flooding is forecast to continue for awhile longer. In the case of Little Falls, the River is forecast to fall below the major flooding stage later today or in the wee hours of March 13 before receding to the action level sometime on Wed. March 16.

In the case of the Passaic River at Pine Brook, it is forecast to remain at major flooding levels until sometime tomorrow afternoon March 13, but is forecast to remain at or near moderate flooding levels on Wed. March 16.

I suspect that what this means for the folk in areas of Little Falls and Pine Brook is that it may be awhile before they can begin to assess the damages caused by yet more flooding. I'll report back in a day or so with an update. I don't have any videos taken today to show you, that may have to wait until tomorrow. But I did find an article on The Record (North Jersey) with more information. Please note that I'm uncertain how long this article will be available to the public.

Flooding in NJ

Tristate Rivers Flood: MyFoxNY.com

I heard about flooding in New Jersey earlier this week from a different storm while I was in Florida. When I got back to town late Wednesday night, I heard about yet more floods in New Jersey for Friday into Saturday. Yesterday I gave some thought to what I'd write about today I thought I'd write about the floods as I have written about flooding in NJ and PA on previous occasions.

When I woke up today, I heard the news about the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan. When I saw those pictures of the Tsunami  I had second thoughts. Then I found out that a buddy of mine is in Toyko, thank goodness he is all right but rather shaken up. My buddy knows of the work that I do on this blog. I know exactly, what he would tell me to do if I could talk to him, he would tell me to write about the floods in NJ. Hugh this is for you.

The purple and red markers in the image below show rivers with major and moderate flooding respectively as of 11 PM (obtained from the NWS at about 11 PM on March 12):

A hydrograph from the NWS for the Pompton River at Pompton Plains NJ (referred to in the video) is shown below:

Historical Crests of the Pompton River at Pompton Plains
(1) 24.47 ft on 04/06/1984
(2) 22.78 ft on 03/14/2010
(3) 22.18 ft on 05/30/1968
(4) 21.72 ft on 04/16/2007
(5) 21.00 ft on 09/17/1999

A map of Pompton Plains showing the river gauge where data shown in the hydrograph is shown below:

The worse of the flooding for other rivers in northern New Jersey may not hit until tomorrow and I'll make a follow up post tomorrow.

And let us not forget about all those affected by the Tsunami and the earthquake in Japan.