Pine Brook Evacuations Came as Water Topped Dam

On a normal day, 162 million gallons of water pass over the Boonton dam of the Jersey City Reservoir.

After Hurricane Irene pounded the area Saturday night into Sunday morning, water was passing over the dam at a rate nearly 36 times that—5.8 billion gallons a day, said Deb Rizzi, director of communications for United Water, which operates the reservoir.

At 8 p.m. on Sunday, the water was starting to go over the dam. As per operating procedures, United Water notified local Offices of Emergency Management—including Parsippany's—about the "unusual situation at the dam," Rizzi said.

Parsippany contacted Montville, and Montville, which already was alarmed by rapid flooding, started urging residents to evacuate—not because they feared the dam would break, but because they knew it was likely the water would continue to rise to levels they had never seen before, said Lt. Rudy Appelmann, the town's Office of Emergency Management coordinator.

The notification prompted the Montville Township Police Department to quickly print fliers for residents of low-lying streets in the Pine Brook section of the town alerting them to the situation and urging them to leave in 20 minutes. Police officers and Pine Brook firefighters distributed the fliers and helped some residents evacuate.

The next morning, police and firefighters returned to help with additional evacuations. A total of about 20 households were evacuated, police said.

The concerns about the dam were never realized. About an hour after United Water issued the alert on Sunday night, the water slowed down and the company rescinded the notification. Appelmann said he called United Water and learned the dam was under control around 10:30 p.m.

Some residents said they thought United Water had released water into the Rockaway River on Sunday, causing the sudden flooding that day, but Rizzi said that never happened. She said the dam handled the water and a subsequent check showed the dam still met all safety standards.

A flood wall at the Rockaway River failed around 5 p.m. Sunday evening, prompting evacuations in the Lake Hiawatha section of Parsippany, but Appelmann said it's difficult to gauge how that affected Montville.

He said officials monitored the flood levels and predictions all day, and were monitoring the rapidly rising water around 7 p.m. Sunday when they started to get concerned.

"This was deep," Appelmann said. "The water came up faster than we thought it would. I've never seen it that high."

Montville Police Capt. Wayne Guarino said police started evacuating residents around 9 p.m. with a town dump truck instead of police vehicles because the water already was so deep. The following morning, Pine Brook firefighters came with a Towaco Fire Department boat and pulled residents to Manchester Park, he said. The National Guard assisted with some of the evacuations.

"It was very orderly, no one got hurt and they weren't forced to leave," Guarino said.

Guarino said the affected area surrounds Hatfield Creek and is prone to flooding.

"The isn't the first time it (flooding) happened," he said. "Now, add a hurricane."

Rich Henning, senior vice president of United Water, said the state urged all water companies in the state to release dam waters in advance of Hurricane Irene.

According to Henning, some water was released from the Boonton dam Friday night, and then rain began to fall.

"Nobody wanted to add to potential flooding, so we stopped the release," he said. "Then Mother Nature took over, and we all know Mother Nature is a real force to be reckoned with."

He said there were no more releases after that.