Lawrence Residents, Rescuers 'Battled' Irene at Creek

The Shabakunk Creek in Lawrence Township was the location of a .

This past weekend the Shabakunk – also known locally as Jackie’s Creek – was the site of another battle, except this time the enemy was Hurricane Irene, and the creek was a ready and willing accomplice instead of a passive bystander.

Already swollen from other recent rainstorms, the Shabakunk overflowed its banks during the hurricane and caused severe flooding to homes in the 2100 block of Princeton Pike and to the adjacent Westgate apartment complex early Sunday (Aug. 28).

Between about 4:15 and 6:30 a.m., before the sun rose than morning, volunteer firefighters from Lawrence Township’s three fire companies – Slackwood, Lawrence Road and Lawrenceville – with the assistance of West Windsor Volunteer Fire Co. used boats to rescue 29 residents of Princeton Pike and another 88 or so occupants of the Westgate Apartments.

The fencing surrounding the Westgate complex did not stand a chance when Irene’s heavy rains propelled creek waters up and out of the surrounding woods and into the basements of the homes and apartment buildings.

Residents and business owners throughout Lawrence Township spent Monday cleaning up from Irene and reflecting on what they had experienced during the previous 24 to 36 hours.

At Westgate, the apartment complex’s grounds supervisor, Daniel Franc, was busy pumping water from basements. He was also working on retrieving valuable equipment and power tools from the lower level of one of the flooded buildings.  

“I must have had three or four thousand dollars’ worth of tools down there,” he lamented.

But he did take some comfort in knowing that his ingenuity had saved the complex’s rental office from significant damage. Franc had employed plywood and sandbags to create a barricade in advance of the storm that successfully kept the flood waters out.  

Chancey Succi, Westgate’s rental office manager, indicated the highest water level at one building by how many steps it reached. She pointed out “about a foot and a half” above the basement in one place.

While there was some damage, the situation could have been far worse had steps not been taken to prepare for the storm, Succi said. Last Thursday, while Hurricane Irene was still working its way up the Atlantic coast, her staff sent out notices advising Westgate residents to move their vehicles to higher ground, she said.

Township officials said it was necessary to evacuate residents from the Princeton Pike homes and the Westgate apartments because flood waters spilling into the basements threatened to cover the buildings’ electrical panels and natural gas-powered appliances like water heaters, thus posing significant safety hazards. Evacuees were bused from the scene to Rider University. Those who were unable to relocate with relatives were moved to an overnight shelter that the American Red Cross had set up at the firehouse in Ewing.  

Kathy, a resident of Westgate Building 6, was among the evacuees and was willing to share her experience.

“They came between 4 and 5 in the morning. When we were at the shelter, there were already people settled in and sleeping. They took us to the West Trenton firehouse [in Ewing Township] and gave us breakfast and lunch.”

Luckily, she said, she returned on Monday to find that her own living space had not been damaged.

Flooding in the 2100 block of Princeton Pike, adjacent to the creek, is nothing new. The road there is generally under water every time there is a strong rain. In fact, township public works personnel pre-deployed road barricades to that area Friday.

But with the creek already running high from all the precipitation that fell earlier this month, the rain that Hurricane Irene brought on Saturday and early Sunday resulted in some of the worst flooding to that area of town in recent memory. Police officers event reported that the water was so high and flowing so fast at one point that the road barricades were floating away even though they were weighted down with sandbags.

Neighborhood residents noted that the boat evacuation process was complicated for rescue workers because several of the flooded homes are occupied by elderly and handicapped residents who required extra assistance.

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