Hurricane Sandy

'Floodtown' Victims March on Woodbridge Town Hall

The group of Hurricane Sandy homeowners got attention and recognition from Town Hall Tuesday night.

Tired of being ignored, the Woodbridge Flood Zone group marched to Town Hall and to a council meeting Tuesday night, and the entire thing went off without a hitch. The group met at the Reo Diner to coordinate and strategize before the council meeting. From there, they walked around the corner to Main Street, and holding up signs and chanting, "We are your neighbors" and "We won't be forgotten", they made their way to the municipal building at the other end of the street. About 40 protesters joined in the march. There were no incidents during the peaceful protests. Vincenzo, part of the group, held up a sign that said, "Woodbridge Township has a Flood Problem." "My basement flooded, I lost everything," he said. "We're trying to see what …

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Hurricane Sandy

Flood Victims to Protest Tonight

Residents who experienced Hurricane Sandy's storm surge will be marching on Town Hall in time for tonight's council meeting

Homeowners who live in the flood-prone areas of Woodbridge aren't taking what they believe to be neglect from elected officials lying down. About sixty showed up at a meeting at the First Presbyterian Church last week to talk about their homes, devastated by the storm surge from Hurricane Sandy. They're forming action committes around issues that contribute to the flooding, they want flood mitigation, both short and long term, and they're creating Facebook pages to add to Woodbridge Flood Zone, the new website leader Monique Coleman created. And they aren't just talking about it. They're meeting at the Reo Diner before next Tuesday's council meeting, and they'll be marching down Main Street to Town Hall, with protest signs and teeshirts …

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floodvictim2

4:55 pm on Monday, March 25, 2013

What exactly did Lance do? Was he in town? Did he get us money for relief? Did he get any projects approved? Seems to me that Lance and Ferguson were our Congressmen for the last 16 years and nothing was done. Pallone has been in for maybe three months and you suddenly want him to have accomplished something? Do us a favor. Stay out of our issue. All you do is make things political. I don't care …   more ›

NWS Update: Flooding Expected Along With High Tides

Recent warnings from the National Weather Service indicate high tides and potential for flooding.

The National Weather Service is predicting that a nor'easter impacting New Jersey could cause minor to moderate flooding along coastal areas with the possibility of dune breaches and property damage to already vulnerable structures. According to a recent update from the NWS, the winter storm, which will bring heavy sustained winds and wind gusts and rain and snow through Thursday and into early Friday morning, will close roads, cause beach erosion, and present a particularly significant threat to beaches and shore communities already compromised following Hurricane Sandy.  The storm's target areas include much of the coast, including Eastern Monmouth County, Ocean County, Coastal Ocean County, Coastal Atlantic County, Middlesex County, as …

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NJarhead

8:46 am on Thursday, March 7, 2013

yea, likewise.   more ›

Hurricane Sandy

Sandy-Devastated Homeowners in Woodbridge Got Small Comfort from FEMA Meeting

Residents in sections of the township who experienced major losses and destruction from October's hurricane found little to allay their frustration at the first local meeting on the destruction.

Maybe it's becaue it's been so long since Hurricane Sandy, or maybe it was just the frustration of dealing with monolithic federal bureaucracies. Woodbridge homeowners who have been suffering since last October's gigantic hurricane had little good to say about a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) meeting held on Monday. It was the first public meeting held for township residents to deal with the effects of Hurricane Sandy since it devastated parts of Woodbridge four months ago. "[It was a] total waste of time. Nothing was presented that I didn't find out on my own 3 months ago," posted Debbie Wherrity Smith on Woodbridge Patch's Facebook page. "No new info! And no one could answer any of our questions!" declared Christina O'Leary…

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Hurricane Sandy

State Budget: Feds on Hook for Sandy Recovery

The governor's proposed budget includes about $40 million in Sandy-related supplemental aid.

New Jersey’s recovery following Hurricane Sandy will come, officials and legislators at Tuesday’s budget introduction at the Statehouse in Trenton said, just don’t expect the state to pay for it. In Gov. Chris Christie’s proposed $32.9 billion budget, only about $40 million has been set aside for Sandy-related recovery, all of it coming in the form of supplemental aid. Its intended use will only be as a stopgap during the process of the state’s securing aid for various recovery efforts. The negligible sum will have little impact on the state’s budget, according to New Jersey Treasurer Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff. Instead, the state will lean on the federal government to cover the costs of New Jersey’s recovery, which is expected to reach tens …

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Utilities Looking to Recover Costs of Post-Sandy Recovery

Price to restore essential services may top $1 billion, state agency weighs costs appropriate to pass on to customers.

The state is expected to initiate a proceeding to decide how utilities in New Jersey recover the enormous costs imposed by restoring essential services like electricity, gas, and water in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. The New Jersey Board of Utilities yesterday said it sought to establish an appropriate cost-recovery mechanism for expenses incurred by the utilities in responding to the superstorm. How it would work is uncertain, but the costs imposed by the storms are huge. Public Service & Electric Gas executives said they could run between $250 million and $300 million. Other utilities spent more than the state’s largest electric utility. Jersey Central Power & Light, the state’s second-biggest electric company with 1 million customers, …

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Sandy Just a Harbinger of Worse Storms to Come, According to New Report

'Climate change, once considered an issue for a distant future, has moved firmly into the present,’ reads open letter to American people.

It is no secret that Hurricane Sandy wreaked havoc on New Jersey power's grid, leaving millions of customers without electricity -- many for a week or longer. Get used to it, warns a new report. Extreme weather is likely to increase not only in frequency but intensity, and the nation’s energy facilities will continue to suffer major disruptions, particularly those located in coastal regions, according to a draft National Climate Assessment report. The likely consequences of those storms and of a warmer planet will be to ramp up peak electricity demand in regions like the Northeast, requiring additional generation and distribution facilities to be built, the report said. For consumers, that could mean as much as an 11 percent jump in bills…

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Hurricane Sandy

Finally - Woodbridge's Hurricane Sandy Residents Get a Public Meeting

Have you had problems with flooding, destruction, flood map changes, and sky high insurance hikes because of Hurricane Sandy? Go to Woodbridge High School this Thursday for some answers.

Woodbridge residents who were hard-hit by Hurricane Sandy have been wondering why there haven't been any open public meetings to address the problems with which they are still contending. Their prayers are finally being answered. There will be a meeting this Thursday, February 21, at Woodbridge High School from 7 pm to 9 pm. Representatives from the Small Business Administration (SBA) and the Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA) are expected. But probably one of the most urgently questioned organizations will the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). That's because the flood zone maps in Woodbridge have been drastically changed in flood-prone areas, and some homeowners have already seen their flood insurance bills rise …

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