Area Residents Seek Shelter from the Storm as Hurricane Irene Pays a Visit

The final days of the 2011 summer season, just before Labor Day, went out in dramatic fashion, as Hurricane Irene, arriving shortly after the area was rattled by unusual earthquake tremors just days earlier, blew through the area and made her presence felt.

Residents throughout the region had been warned well in advance to get ready and batten down the hatches as the strong storm barreled up the eastern coastline, ultimately fulfilling its promise to be the first hurricane to make landfall in New Jersey in recent history. The brunt of the powerful wind and relentless rain hit on Sunday, August 28, but the effects began sooner than that, as many residents began losing electric, telephone, and cable service on Saturday evening. Homeowners with wells on their properties had no water, either. Some communities, including neighborhoods in Holmdel, remained without power for an entire week, with the lights finally coming back on the following Saturday.

Altogether, tens of thousands of customers, mainly those with JCP&L, were left in the dark for varying amounts of time and with varying degrees of frustration. Among those frustrated was Mayor Patrick Impreveduto, who issued several Code Red telephone, email, and text messages as the week went on with updates about the ongoing reassurances from JCP&L that they were “doing the best that they could.”

While flooding became a serious concern in towns throughout Monmouth and Ocean Counties and far beyond, Holmdel officials were primarily worried about trees coming down in the forested community and potentially blocking roads, pulling down wires, and damaging homes. For weeks afterwards, residents, township workers, and a small army of landscape companies and tree services descended upon the landscape, cutting broken tree limbs and gathering branches from properties and streets. The Holmdel Department of Public Works crew worked round the clock to answer calls related to the storm damage and even pumped out some flooded basements. For many, the eery silence that came with a total loss of power was followed by the hum of generators at the homes fortunate enough to have them, then the steady buzz of chainsaws as the cleanup efforts began. 

The township committee, already faced with a municipal budget that had been stretched to its limits at the start of the year due to last winter’s snowstorms, were forced to authorize an additional emergency brush collection throughout the township for the beginning of September and to contract up to $250,000 for engineering services to make emergency road repairs, including three huge sinkholes that collapsed parts of Timberdale Drive, Brentwood, and South Beers Streets, plus other flooded or crumpled roadways. It was hoped, once Governor Chris Christie announced that federal disaster aid had been approved throughout all of New Jersey, that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will reimburse Holmdel Township for storm damage and labor expenses related to fallen trees on streets and power lines.

The storm caused communication issues throughout the township, as well, with the schools and town hall each losing power for a time, along with email and website access. The power loss, coupled with the cleaning and prepwork that was necessary for the opening day of school, caused the new school year to begin a day later than scheduled. Homeowners seeking to pay their quarterly real estate taxes online in time for the August 30 due date were out of luck, as the township website went offline, making those taxpayers wonder if they would still be penalized with fines for late payments that were beyond their control.

Evacuated Residents Find Temporary Home in Holmdel

While Holmdel residents may have been inconvenienced and frustrated by the effects of Hurricane Irene, residents from some surrounding municipalities had it far worse and were forced to evacuate their homes, fleeing for shelter at Holmdel High School. The school is a contracted American Red Cross emergency shelter for Monmouth County and, by mid-afternoon on Friday, August 26, evacuees from Keansburg were already beginning to arrive – some in their own cars, others by bus from area pickup points.

There were solitary individuals and families with young children, senior citizens and young adults, mental health patients and those with physical disabilities or health issues accompanied by caregivers. All were warmly welcomed by teams of volunteers from the Holmdel community, medical teams, religious congregations, school administrators, government officials, the Salvation Army, and the Red Cross. They brought with them whatever personal belongings they could carry. Some arrived with their pets by their side, on leashes or in crates, and part of the school was turned into an animal shelter, as well.

The Red Cross supplied the building with hundreds of cots, blankets, and “comfort kits” with basic toiletry items, which were hurriedly set up by volunteers in each of the two gymnasiums and the lower commons area. Televisions and DVD players showed family-friendly programs to keep the bewildered youngsters distracted. Until the Salvation Army showed up to serve hundreds of meals over the course of the weekend, township officials helped feed the hungry on Friday by ordering in dozens of hamburgers and pizza pies.

Officers from the Holmdel Police Department and the Monmouth County Sheriff’s Office were on hand the whole time to provide a secure presence. School custodial staff remained diligently busy, helping to organize and clean whatever areas were necessary. Holmdel’s Office of Emergency Management Coordinator, Mike Simpson, coordinated and negotiated nonstop via cell phone with numerous agencies and organizations, making sure that all the needed arrangements were taken care of. 

In all, more than 500 displaced area residents took shelter at Holmdel High School, which also lost power during the storm and had to turn to a backup generator for electricity, as well as warding off some flooding that crept up from the athletic fields. By Monday, the day after the storm passed through, the last shelter residents had been moved out and the school was thoroughly cleaned, sanitized, and brought back to its usual state of readiness for the arrival of students beginning the 2011-2012 school year.