Moorestown 'Dodged a Bullet'

While Hurricane Irene caused sporadic flooding, downed trees and knocked out power to hundreds of homes, it appears the township emerged relatively unscathed from the storm, according to Sgt. Lee Lieber.

“I don’t want to count our chickens, but it seems like we dodged a bullet,” he said Sunday morning.

The sergeant, who acts as the township’s emergency management coordinator, said a couple roads flooded: New Albany Road between Church Street and Ironpost Road, when the Pompeston Creek overran its banks, and Stanwick Road near Pondview Drive. Both roads have since been reopened.

There was also minor flooding along parts of Route 38, he said, but that also dissipated fairly quickly.

Cindy Pierson, president of the Pompeston Creek Watershed Association, to the homes of nearby residents in Moorestown and Cinnaminson.

Moorestown resident Cathi Laughlin said as of 4 a.m. Sunday, at high tide, the section of the Pompeston near her home, looked “merely like after a thunderstorm.” She said at the next high tide though there could be more.

Lieber said Irene felled about six or seven trees across town, and township public works employees were waiting for PSE&G to cut the power to some of the downed lines so they could go out and remove the trees.

Trees were still down blocking roadways in the following areas as of Sunday morning:

• East Maple Avenue near Golfview Road
• Grant Avenue near South Lincoln Avenue
• Maple Court between Maple Avenue and Walnut Avenue
• Glen Avenue at Flynn Avenue
• Garwood Road at the bridge

According to PSE&G, between 500 to 2,000 people in Moorestown were without power Sunday morning. Spokeswoman Deanne Muzikar said they were unable to provide more exact numbers because crews were still out assessing the damage.

She said approximately 273,000 PSE&G customers statewide experienced power outages, many due to power lines downed by trees.

It could take crews between five to seven days to restore power, Muzikar warned. “Hopefully it’ll be less.”

PSE&G had about 6,000 workers at its disposal to begin restoring power, along with crews being brought in from outside the state, she said.

Reports put the total number of people without power statewide at around 600,000.

Irene made landfall in New Jersey around 5:30 a.m. Sunday. By that time, it had weakened to a Category 1 hurricane, the lowest level of strength classification, but was still packing 75-mph winds. As it moved up the coast toward New York City Sunday morning, Irene was downgraded to a tropical storm.

While Irene may not have been as bad as feared, she left her mark on the Garden State. There was extensive flooding across the state, widespread power outages, evacuations, public transportation was shut down, and at least one death.

According to reports, the body of a woman believed missing in Salem County was found dead earlier this morning. Gov. Chris Christie’s office indicated the woman was reported missing after being swept up by flood waters. She has yet to be identified.

The Red Cross opened shelters yesterday at the Charles Street Elementary School in Palmyra and the Chairville Elementary School in Medford. As of Sunday, the populations of those shelters were 10 and 15 respectively, according to the Red Cross.

Though the worst appears to have passed, Lieber urged Moorestown residents to stay inside unless it’s an emergency “or close to it.”

“I would recommend people wait a couple hours as we’re still concerned about the winds from the back end of the storm,” he said. “We don’t want to jump ahead of ourselves.”