FEMA Chief to Tour Flood-Ravaged NJ

Towns around New Jersey resembled large, soggy yard sales Wednesday as residents dragged flood-damaged belongings out onto lawns and into streets still muddied with floodwaters left behind by Hurricane Irene.
      
Three days after the storm blasted through New Jersey and up the East Coast, there was little respite for many northern New Jersey communities facing a lengthy cleanup and a sobering tally of damage.
      
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Craig Fugate planned to visit flood-damaged Lincoln Park, in Morris County, late Wednesday afternoon.
      
In Wallington, a heart-shaped, one-square-mile town of about 12,000 residents, large sections remained inundated with floodwaters from the Passaic River, which winds around the small hamlet and hits it from several angles.

"Sunday morning the water was only up to here,'' said resident Kevin O'Reilly, gesturing to where his front lawn used to meet the sidewalk. "My daughter and I took a walk around the block, we figured everything would be fine. Sunday afternoon, the waves were bouncing off the house, and that's when it blew out the basement windows. It sounded like Niagara Falls, it just filled up immediately, and this is what we've been dealing with since then.''
      
O'Reilly, 58, has lived in Wallington for 26 years and said he's never seen flooding this severe.
      
Neighbors had started mucking out flooded basements and piling water-logged furniture and destroyed possessions on the sidewalks in front of their homes when the river rose again Tuesday. The town rushed to place large trash bins on higher ground, and neighbors pitched in to keep the streets clear.

"Everyone was out with wheelbarrows, some guy pulled up with a skateboard and a bucket on it _ just improvising. The whole thing's been a mess,'' said resident Matthew Keenan.
      
Lincoln Park, historically one of the state's most flood-prone areas, offered a similar tableau as residents moved belongings outside to dry as they mopped up inside.
      
Paul Postma watched as more than two feet of rain filled the bottom level of his home over the weekend. On Wednesday he was busy pulling furniture onto his lawn and using bleach to wipe down the house's mud-soaked walls.
      
His lawn looked like he was hosting a yard sale, with one big caveat: "None of this has value. At least not anymore,'' he said.
      
Flooding continued to besiege Paterson, Little Falls and Montville Township even after the state's rain-swollen rivers crested and slowly receded. The Passaic River crested Tuesday, bringing a new round of evacuations and more misery.
      
Amtrak resumed Northeast Corridor service Wednesday through Trenton, where the tracks had been overrun by floodwaters. State transportation officials said crews were able to patch and reopen a lane of northbound Interstate 287 in Morris County, where floodwaters had undermined the pavement.
      
NJ Transit resumed most of its commuter rail service Tuesday. Service was restored on the Northeast Corridor line from Trenton to New York's Penn Station for the Wednesday morning commute, with delays due to ongoing signal problems caused by flooding in Trenton.
      
Closures on Route 46, which parallels Interstate 80 through much of the flood area, and Route 287 left traffic at a standstill in some places and created lengthy delays on I-80.
      
Some of the congestion was eased by Wednesday morning's commute after road crews reopened northbound I-287 in Morris County, which had been closed after the Rockaway River washed out soil supporting part of the roadbed near Boonton.
      
More than 170,000 homes and businesses remained without electricity early Wednesday, with utilities predicting restoration by the weekend or early next week.
      
With cleanup efforts under way in earnest, Christie and state consumer officials warned residents not to be victimized by unscrupulous contractors and others seeking to take advantage of people left vulnerable in the storm's wake.

"We're very concerned about two things in the fraud area, both price-gouging and home repair scams,'' Christie said. He urged residents to report anything suspicious to the state Division of Consumer Affairs.
      
Daniel Jovic, a spokesman for Allstate New Jersey Insurance, told of one senior citizen who had been charged $6,500 by two men she hired to pump water out of her basement.