Hoboken: Hurricane Laura May Cause Flash Floods in NJ On Saturday

HOBOKEN, NJ — The National Hurricane Center is predicting that after category 4 Hurricane Laura spins over the central United States in the next two days, it could drench New Jersey and surrounding states Saturday or Sunday, with the potential for flash floods.

Low-lying Hoboken has been particularly prone to flooding, and suffered from two "50-year-storms" (photos and video here) in July, including Tropical Storm Fay, which resulted in flash floods that stranded cars. The situation in Hoboken often gets worse near high tide.

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Theoretically, the designation of "50-year storm" means the storm has a 2 percent chance of happening in a given year.

Here are links to two National Hurricane Center pages, one showing potential flash flooding from Hurricane Laura and a page to track the storm. The storm made landfall on the Louisiana coast on Thursday morning.

City alerts

During another recent tropical storm, the city sent an alert that said, "Due to the likelihood of flooding in some areas, the Office of Emergency Management is taking precautions by putting no parking signs and barricades near flood prone intersections. No Parking Signs in these areas should be taken as advisories, cars will not be towed. Please do not drive around barricades."

These intersections included:

• 1st and Marshall
• 1st and Harrison
• 1st and Clinton
• 1st and Garden
• 2nd and Harrison
• 2nd and Willow
• 3rd and Grand
• 3rd and Harrison
• 3rd and Jackson
• 4th and Harrison
• 4th and Monroe
• 4th and Jackson
• 9th and Monroe
• 9th and Madison
• 10th and Madison
• Newark St and Bloomfield St
• Observer Hwy and Park Ave
• Henderson and Newark
• Grove and Newark

At the time, the city also reiterated what it has done to combat flooding (see links below), but said that even with the recent addition of flood pumps, it's difficult to stop flooding during the harshest storms.

"To reiterate several points we communicated about in relation to combating flooding, please see communication sent on July 11 after Tropical Storm Fay," Mayor Ravi Bhalla wrote (click here to read that letter), "it's unlikely Hoboken will completely solve what are currently 50-year storms or worse anytime soon without $3 billion."

He added, "To be completely straightforward – given Hoboken's low-lying typography and location right next to the Hudson River, even with unlimited funding, we are unlikely to solve the most severe of storms (50-year flooding event or worse), like we experienced yesterday. Most of Hoboken, especially the western part of the City, was developed on land that was previously tidal wetlands from the Hudson River. NHSA estimates that to prevent the most severe of flooding events, like the storm we saw yesterday, we would need to replace our entire sewer system, which would cost an estimated $3 billion. Needless to say, this is an impractical solution."

• Learn how Hoboken and NHSA prepare for, respond to, and recover from intense rainfall storms: https://cityofhoboken.maps.arcgis.com/apps/Cascade/index.html?appid=8a8c57a8b4d1403299fce4d8c5d0af54
• Learn about Hoboken's efforts to mitigate rainfall flooding: https://cityofhoboken.maps.arcgis.com/apps/Cascade/index.html?appid=65c107f7e6984c4ca988c84ae406d27f

Patch Video: Watch NJ Transit Bus Head Through Hoboken Flood During Tropical Storm Fay

To read other local news in Hoboken, click here.

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