Day After Irene, Residents Adjust and Move on

On Monday residents around town were figuring out just how much damage had been done by Hurricane Irene and what it meant for them going forward. For some, there was the inconvenience of having lost power for a few days. For others it was losing their houses for an indefinite period of time. 

In the Moors Landing community, residents on Mariners Cove were once again clearing out from the force of a powerful rain storm. Last week a portion of the cul-de-sac was badly by the rain, knowing full well that the hurricane was on its way. When Irene finally did arrive there was more damage done to those houses and even more houses on the street. 

Monday morning people throughout the street could be seen cleaning out their houses from debris and checking on neighbors to see just how much work needed to be done. 

One of the residents, Jim Sanborn said last week's storm left the first floor of his house with 11 inches of water. That depth was more than quadrupled with the hurricane after they had already done the clean up work from a week earlier. "We were working our way through that," he said of the first storm. "Everything that was in there before was taken out, but everything that was in there now is destroyed."

If there was something good to be taken from the storm, Sanborn said they had kept most of their valuable items on the second floor which was spared from any water this time around. "We do have some things that we can salvage," he said.

The Sanborns also find themselves with another problem beyond what to do with their house. Next week their children are scheduled to return to school at Freehold Township High School and Griebling Elementary School. Because of that, they will look for a rental property in the area until they figure out what their next step will be.

Having lived in the house for eight years, Sanborn said even if the house can be repaired they will likely not be moving back. He also said it was not the way they expected to be leaving the house they had lived in for so many years. "This is the second time ever that it ever actually flooded here," he said. "We lost a lot of things that are very personal to us. If we do decide to look we probably will stay in Howell but just not this location. The Howell area is a great area to live in and I don't see us moving out of this area, just not this location.

Just down Route 9 at the Pointe O'Woods development, there were already clear signs of improvement as the flooding on Bergerville Road had receded. For the residents living there, the exterior may have looked as it did before the storm but the interior was still without power. 

The power outage started late on Saturday night, but there were crews in the area working to restore power to the area as quickly as possible. Ron Sanasac, the director of the township's Office of Emergency Management said similar crews will be working around the clock to get power back to all the residents. As far as Pointe O'Woods, Sanasac said he hoped power would be restored by the end of Monday. As of 5:15 at least some residents reported having their power back already.

One resident who was without power on Monday afternoon was Nathalie Zammit. Having left to be with family in Holmdel on Saturday, Zammit was enjoying the nice summer weather before heading to work. She said based on previous storms where the development had lost power she decided it was better to find somewhere else t go. "I just wanted to be with family and not be home alone," she said. 

The work in the township figured to continue for a while, but already there were signs of progress just 24 hours after the last rain drops fell on the township.