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Tropical storm floyd: september 1999
Westwood firefighters Joe Malley, left, and
Chris Nobile using a boat to rescue two young girls from their flooded
home on
Nugent Street in that borough Thursday.
Photo: Thomas E. Franklin
The Bergen Record
Wednesday, September 22, 1999
By Pia Sarkar
WESTWOOD - A private contractor worked until
midnight Tuesday, using cranes to yank toppled trees from the Pascack
Brook, while volunteers and residents labored to piece their homes and
businesses back together.
"This is going to be a long cleanup," Westwood
Mayor Bernard "Skip" Kelley said Tuesday afternoon.
Tropical Storm Floyd's toll on Westwood, in
dollars, had not yet been assessed, he said. But it appears substantial.
"We had hundreds of homes that suffered
damages," Kelley said, adding that several have been temporarily
condemned.
Most of the 200 families that were moved
Thursday to a shelter set up at Waldwick High School had returned to their
homes, the mayor said.
The borough has hired a structural engineer
through its inter-local building department to survey property damages. A
private electrician was also making rounds throughout town.
The storm severely damaged the temporary
firehouse and Department of Public Works building on Harrington Avenue.
Kelley said trucks from both sites were moved before the storm could get
to them. But communication gear, portable radios, and computer equipment
were all lost in flood waters that crested at 8 feet.
The Fire Department is working out of its
headquarters but using a temporary communications system. The DPW is
parking its trucks at the municipal complex, and employees have been
working out of Borough Hall.
Kelley said the borough should
be able to recoup its losses through the Bergen County Municipal Joint
Insurance Fund and Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The mayor requested Sunday that
Hillsdale open its transfer station so that Westwood could dump debris
there.
The borough has pulled together
in the flood's aftermath, Kelley said.
"What I saw these last days has
been incredible," he said, describing countless volunteers pitching in to
help residents, and neighbors helping neighbors by passing pumps from
house to house.
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