Flash Flooding and Heavy Rain in New Jersey, July 24 to 25, 1997

As a strong warm front moved slowly north toward the area, a long period of heavy rain occurred over the area. In addition, the area was impacted by the fringe effects from Tropical Storm Danny. Rain bands circulating around the northwest side of "Danny" provided the area with additional significant rainfall overnight.Heavy rainfall (from 4 to 7 inches with isolated higher amounts) caused widespread serious flooding of homes, streets, rivers, streams, and poor drainage areas in Essex, Union, and Bergen Counties. In other areas, heavy rain caused localized and less serious flooding of streets, rivers, streams, and poor drainage areas.In Essex County, Millburn was the hardest hit area. Property damage estimates were at least $3 million. A State of Emergency was declared at 4 am on Friday, July 25th. South Mountain and Wyoming were the sections hardest hit. More than 75 homes received major damage with flood waters rising to the second floors and at least 18 cars were classified as total losses. Basements and first floors, yards, and parked autos were inundated by water as were businesses along Millburn Ave. between Cypress Street and Vaux Hall Road. Areas hard hit were on Greenwood Drive, Millburn Ave. and Ridgewood Road.In Union County, the river gage in Springfield on the Rahway River rose to 9.6 feet, 4.1 feet above its' flood stage of 5.5 feet. Flooding closed many roads, including Routes 1, 9, 27, 35, 22 West, 78 (both directions), Route 124 (Springfield Ave. in both directions), Riverside Drive, and Meisel Avenue. In Rahway, up to 5 feet of water covered parts of Allen and Union Streets as well as West Grand Avenue. In Union, up to 4 feet of water covered a stretch of Rte. 78 at the Springfield-Union Border. Many homes were flooded in Union Township.In Bergen County, many roads were forced to close including Rtes. 1 and 9 from 61st to 69th Streets in Northern Bergen County, parts of Rte. 17 in Hasbrouck Hgts and Rutherford, River Road in Bogota, and Lodi and South Streets in Hackensack. In Hackensack, a new 3foot-deep lake submerged at least 15 businesses on South Newman Street. One business, Liberty Contracting Corp., estimated $20 thousand in damages.Here are selected total rainfall amounts for:Union County: from 5.40 inches at Plainfield to 6.14 inches at Canoe Brook.Passaic County: from 1.34 inches at Greenwood Lake to 3.31 inches at Little Falls.Bergen County: from 1.90 inches at Saddle River to 6.97 inches at Carlstadt. (At Lodi, 5.50 inches was measured.)Essex County: from 2.48 inches at Essex Falls to 5.23 inches at West Orange. (At Newark Airport, 4.94 inches was measured.) An isolated report of 9 inches was received at Millburn.Hudson County: from 5.52 inches at Harrison to 5.82 inches at Jersey City.