Looking Back: Hurricane Irene In Maplewood

MAPLEWOOD, NJ - As Hurricane Dorian barrels its way toward Florida heading into the Labor Day weekend it is hard for New Jersey residents not to be reminded of the Labor Day weekend storm that ravaged the region back in 2011.

Hurricane Irene was the first of several superstorms that plagued New Jersey causing widespread flooding and massive power outages. Hurricane Irene would have been the first hurricane to make landfall in New Jersey in more than a century, had it actually been packing hurricane-strength winds at the time.

But by the time Irene rolled ashore at Little Egg Inlet in southern Ocean County, its wind speed had already decreased to 69 m.p.h. – a full 5 m.p.h. short of hurricane strength – meaning it was actually just a tropical storm.

Eight years ago the storm knocked out power and running water to thousands of households, caused sewers to back up, sent trees and limbs crashing down, flooded roads and basements and destroyed property.

The Maplewood Fire Department pumped out between 300 and 400 basements. The Department of Public Works removed over 60 trees or major limbs and 13,000 yards of brush and logs, picked up more than 200 yards of bulk from flood discards and had to replace more than 2,000 square feet of sidewalk.

"For the first four days we were working 16-hour shifts (and) we had to shut down at night due to safety issues," DPW director Eric Burbank told Patch seven years ago. "We couldn't have the guys working in then dark with wires down, operating chainsaws and machines and after working (those) shifts. The biggest issues we had were roads being closed due to trees down on electrical wires."

This post contains reporting by Carolyn Maynard-Parisi.

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