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A little after 5 p.m. Tuesday, Razzetti told a conference call of local officials from throughout the county: “We’re ahead of this. The worst is over.”
Still, some didn’t believe him. Wallington, for instance, began carrying out evacuation plans — then quickly stopped, despite county assurances that the floodwaters wouldn’t go any higher.
“No real trouble at all,” an emergency service worker from Fair Lawn, which was flooded severely the night before, told CLIFFVIEW PILOT at 4 a.m. today. “Pretty quiet all around. Nothing major at all.”
County Executive Kathleen Donovan said media reports about perilous conditions were “pure sensationalism” meant to sell newspapers and to get people to tune in to TV news shows.
One was that Wallington was being completed evacuated. “That is absolutely not true,” an angry Donovan said. Indeed, municipal officials had posted a crawl on the Wallington web site that the Passaic River would crest at 9 p.m. It remained there until at least 10:30 — even though the river had crested around 3 in the afternoon. It was later removed.
There’s no question that parts of Passaic and Essex counties were hit hard. Little Falls nearly resembles Prague after its infamous flood, the streets tranformed into rivers. The Willowbrook Mall remained closed. Don’t even bother trying to get in or out of Paterson by car. Wayne and Pompton Lakes were rife with trouble, as well.
But there no cause whatsover for concern about additional flooding in Bergen County — an assurance Razzetti delivered three times during his less than five-minute presentation, which was attended by members of other media who nonetheless produced apocalyptic reports, some of which carried dated material.
As reported by CLIFFVIEW PILOT nearly an hour before the late Tuesday afternoon emergency session, the Passaic River had already crested at more than 14 feet — rather than at 9 p.m., as officials first feared — according to the National Weather Service, which uses both instruments and paid “flood watchers” to inform citizens of potential hazards.
The total nonetheless is the second-highest ever in the river’s recorded history, following the 17.5-foot flood on Oct. 10, 1903.
Now it’s a matter of it slowly inching to below flood stage — 7 feet — possibly by the end of the week but more probably Saturday morning, government forecasts show.
“The Passaic River is not going to be going up any farther,” Razzetti said at 5:15 Tuesday afternoon. “It will continue to recede. The only thing that will happen when the tide rises is that the rate of receding will slow down. We are certain it will not continue to flood.”
Throughout the day and into the night, official federal government readings — accessible to anyone with an Internet browser — charted the exact course that he described (SEE CHART, ABOVE).
“The tide’s going to be coming up, but the only thing it will do is slow the receding of the [river],” said Razzetti, a former ranking Bergen County Police officer. What’s more, he said: “We are not going to see the flooding on the Saddle River that we’ve seen” — even more welcome news.
That said, county and local officials were prepared to pursue evacuations or other voluntary measures as a precaution, Razzetti said.
Then, as early as this afternoon, he said, it will be time to move forward.
“We’re ahead of it now,” Razzetti repeated. “Instead of looking ahead in hours, we have to think in terms of days.”
No one mentioned it, but it was the second time Razzetti he had been dead-on accurate — and the second time not everyone believed him — in the past few days.
On Sunday, Razzetti warned that massive power outages and flooding would likely continue past midnight tonight, with New York runoff expected to swell the already overflowing Hackensack River, Pascack Brook and area reservoirs, as well as the Passaic, Ramapo and Pompton Rivers, making an already bad situation much worse.
Rochelle Park (CLIFFVIEW PILOT photo)No matter how beautiful Monday’s weather seemed, in contrast to the weekend storm, “this is still an active disaster,” he warned. Instead of power outages dropping, they might spike if more substations were washed out, Razzetti added.
Some residents were emboldened by initially receding waters in some areas. However, several municipalities took the county warnings seriously and were prepared. Others didn’t — and got socked.
Glen Rock, for one, issued a curfew on driving that began at 7 Sunday night and lasted until till 5 a.m. Monday. In Dumont, Mayor Matthew McHale posted updates on Facebook.
“The current estimate is that sometime around midnight the runoff from New York is going to be affecting the Hackensack River,” Razzetti said late Sunday afternoon. “The municipalities have been notified.”
“None of us has a complete picture of what happened today,” he told the group. “I think we fared better than some of the catastrophic media reports and weather reports said we would. But it was bad. And it’s not over.”
The entire organization of Bergen County emergency management response got high grades from, among others, Lyndhurst Police Chief James O’Connor.
“They were the utmost professionals,” O’Connor said Tuesday of the response teams that rushed to their neighborhoods during what initially was a tense night before. “Even the residents commented how professional they were and on their show of sincerity.”
What’s more, the chief said, “everybody up [at the OEM command center in Mahwah] has been a great resource.
“We got a little nerouvs [Monday] night about 8:45. We heard that people were afraid that the Dundee Dam was breached,” O’Connor said. But a a quick call to Razzetti, he said, set things straight.
The borough has already moved sixty 40-yard containers of debris from its flooded neighborhoods, according to O’Connor.
“We’re getting great cooperation from our residents,” the chief said. “We’re already in semi-recovery stage.”
MORE (CLICK ON HEADLINES TO READ):
Tens of millions in flood damage, but worst is over for Bergen
CLIFFVIEW PILOT HAS IT FIRST: Bergen County sustained tens of millions of dollars in flood damage that will be covered by federal disaster funds, county officials said today. “We’re ahead of this. The worst is over,” County Emergency Management Coordinator Dwane Razzetti reassured a countywide conference call of local officials anxious about more Passaic River flooding. Executive Kathleen Donovan also corrected “pure sensationalism” media reports.
More woes ahead for Bergen’s worst-hit area
Tuesday, 30 August 2011 07:37 Jerry DeMarco
CLIFFVIEW PILOT HAS IT FIRST: The good news in North Jersey is that both the Hackensack and Ramapo rivers are continuing to recede. The bad news: We’re in for a mini heat wave, with temperatures rising today and hitting the mid- to upper-80s tomorrow — which spells even more grief for an area of Bergen County that is already both flooded and without power.
Look out, Bergen: Flooding, outages will get worse
Sunday, 28 August 2011 20:57 Jerry DeMarco
CLIFFVIEW PILOT EXCLUSIVE REPORT: Massive power outages and flooding will likely continue past midnight tonight, as New York runoff swells the already overflowing Hackensack River, Pascack Brook and area reservoirs, making an already bad situation much worse, Bergen County leaders told mayors and other government officials during a 15-minute emergency conference call this afternoon.
Bergen towns without power, church flooded, Irene bolts
Sunday, 28 August 2011 13:23 Jerry DeMarco
CLIFFVIEW PILOT STORM COVERAGE: Tropical Storm Irene staggered toward Boston after leaving several North Jersey towns without power into the mid-afternoon, streets flooded with water up to five feet high and a torrent literally pouring up the aisle of St. John’s Church in Hillsdale. Bergen County police are setting up in Washington Township, where a CO leak sent two people to the hospital. Meanwhile, investigators are examing why a Hillsdale gas station nearly went up in flames, injuring two firefighters.
Washington Township officer, dispatcher hospitalized after CO release at HQ
Sunday, 28 August 2011 18:18 Jerry DeMarco
CLIFFVIEW PILOT HAS IT FIRST: Bergen County Police are establishing a command post at the Washington Township firehouse after a police sergeant and a firefighter working as a dispatcher were hospitalized following a buildup of carbon monoxide in a pooly ventilated room, CLIFFVIEW PILOT has learned.
Storm nearly kills cop
Sunday, 28 August 2011 13:48 Jerry DeMarco
ONLY ON CLIFFVIEW PILOT: A police officer headed down a dark street in his radio car cheated death — by an instant.
Hoboken after the flood: A picture show
Sunday, 28 August 2011 16:41 Jerry DeMarco
CLIFFVIEW PILOT has an amazing array of photos from FDU grad Jayme Lisiewski, who has been on top of the storm out of Hoboken since the first clouds rolled in. These include shots from Hoboken Terminal, Waterfront Park and several streets in town.
Arson squad at scene of Hillsdale gas station fire
Sunday, 28 August 2011 09:05 Jerry DeMarco
CLIFFVIEW PILOT HAS IT FIRST: Arson investigators were at the Valero gas station on Broadway in Hillsdale, where two local firefighters suffered minor injuries extinguishing a pre-dawn blaze while being pounded with rain and wind.
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