TRENTON, N.J. — When Hurricane Irene moves out of New Jersey Sunday, residents and officials will be able to start assessing the damage wrought by a storm that brought perhaps the most elaborate preparation for a weather event the state has ever seen.
By late Saturday night, power outages were widespread as falling branches and trees took down power lines. But some of the worst of the storm’s effects may come later in the form of flooding.
Forecasters and emergency management officials worried about flooding in coastal areas and on numerous inland waterways already running higher than normal after an unusually wet month of August. By early Sunday, Irene had dumped more than 5 inches of rain on many parts of the state, and flood warnings were in effect for every major river in the state.
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State Police said they expected the Raritan River to start flooding in the pre-dawn hours, followed by the Passaic River later in the morning and the Delaware River above Trenton on Sunday night.
“The water has nowhere to go, and you start to get the runoff,” said State Police Sgt. Julian Castellanos.
The Raritan Basin waterways are especially vulnerable because storm surge in the Raritan Bay was predicted to push the water 3 to 6 feet above what was expected to be an unusually high tide around dawn. At the same time, heavy rain was expected to be filling up upstream rivers and creeks with water. It’s the combination of circumstances that put officials on edge.
“It’s going to be a punch … that’ll hit us so hard,” State Police Maj. Edward Centnar said.
Water started flowing early Sunday over the top of a dam operated by United Water Lambertville in Hunterdon County. The company notified the state Department of Environmental Protection about the situation. The DEP said there was no immediate risk of collapse.
Highway flooding was a major problem late Saturday night and early Sunday. Numerous motorists had to be rescued when their cars stalled on roads covered by water.
State police urged residents to stay home and off the roads. Several counties and municipalities restricted travel to emergency vehicles only.
More than 407,000 homes and businesses were without power early Sunday. Utility companies said it might take several days to restore service to everyone.
The state’s Emergency Operations Center reported that more than 9,600 people spent the night in dozens of shelters across the state — a small fraction of the more than 1 million that officials said vacated the shore ahead of Irene.
Gov. Chris Christie was pleased with how many people complied with pleas to leave and how smooth the process was. But he was concerned about senior citizens in Atlantic City who were choosing to stay in their high-rises.
“Please allow us to help protect you,” he beseeched some 600 hangers-on during an afternoon news conference that was televised nationally.
The state dispatched NJ Transit buses to their buildings to skirt them to shelters. Some left, but it was unclear just how many gave in to the pleadings of the police officers who knocked on their doors.
By late afternoon Saturday, there were at least 200 holdouts. At a building called Best of Life Park, tenant-manager Dorothea Arlotta said many of the 80 residents who were staying had wine and cheese around 7 p.m. They called their gathering a “Goodnight Irene” party.
Arlotta said it was the sense of community that was keeping all the residents together in a 13-story building by the Boardwalk.
“We’re all accustomed to being here, so why should we go on a bus away from our home and end up in some college or high school gymnasium on a cot?” she asked. “It would be traumatic for us to leave here and even more traumatic if something happens in unfamiliar surroundings.”