Flooding problems identified now, use this as an opportunity to prepare for the winter melt!

Hopatcong has some unique topography and some homes whose construction and various additions over the years that make some homeowners very succeptible to flooding basements, garages, and yards.

When the winter melt and the summer rains overwhelm certain built in and borough installed drainage systems many of these homeowners find their possessions, stored items, and boilers and electrical systems under water.  Often times during these natural occurences the fire department presses into service helping those homeowners who could not forsee this because they are new to the area, because their systems failed, or some other unforseen cause of flooding.

This recent storm saw the Fire Department respond to nearly 100 cases of flooding.

Irene was a curse and a blessing. On one hand, she caused a large amount of damage to some of our borough's residences. On the other hand she also helped identify some potential flooding issues to homeowner's who may not have known the condition existed in their home.  So how is this fortunate you may ask?  Well, Irene happened during relatively warm weather, she passed through farely quickly, and many of our emergency service providers were able to quickly and efficeintly deal with any issues that arose.  For those with homes that now know their home may flood, now during the warm weather is a great time to install additional sump pumps, water proof basements and crawl spaces, install backup generators, and maybe look at and improve your yards drainage through the installation of french drains where possible.

These things all cost money and that is understandable but it is a small price to pay compared to when you lose irreplaceable items to flood damage that may or may not be covered.