Homes Near Ryerson Completely Destroyed

Lee Hubinger stands outside her home off Boulevard Drive surrounded by piles of discarded appliances and personal possessions.

“I think this flood put me over the top,” Hubinger said. “The river was out of control this time. There's so much destruction." 

There was 4 feet of water in Hubinger’s home of 64 years, the most ever.

Hubinger lost most of her possessions. She and her son placed items on anything they could to get them two feet off the ground. It didn’t do much good.

“Pots and pans and clothes can be washed, but everything else is garbage,” Hubinger said.

Hubinger's flood insurance will cover $30,000 worth of damage to house and appliances. This may sound like a lot but Hubinger recently purchased nearly $5,000 in new kitchen appliances that are now garbage. And she still has to purchase new hardwood floors, furniture and repair the house. An insurance adjustor is scheduled to view the house Monday.

The outside of Hubinger’s house was a common scene in the neighborhood Friday afternoon. Mounds of garbage and discarded items lined the streets. More items seemed to be on the street here than in the Riverview section of Wayne.

Hubinger said she received 3 feet of water during the 1984 flood and that was because a nearby dam broke. She has been flooded three times in the past 18 months. She attributes this to two things: the Pompton River dam and floodgates and not dredging the Pequannock River. Hubinger is one of dozens of area residents to attribute the almost annual increase in the severity and frequency of floods to the dam and the floodgates.

“We never had it this bad until that dam went up,” Hubinger said. “And why don’t they dredge the river? I see large trees down the street that have fallen in the lake and more that are ready to go at anytime.”

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Col. John Boule II said at a press conference Thursday that the same amount of flooding would occur downstream if the Pompton River dam didn’t exist.

“What our agency is saying, and we’ve studied it over and over again, is what would happen if the dam wasn’t there compared to what would happen with the dam there,” Boule said. “With the gates open, you get the same level of flooding downstream.”

Hubinger said dredging the Pequannock River is a “no-brainer.”

“It’s a common sense thing to dredge it,” Hubinger said. “All these politicans want to know a way they can alleviate flooding in the area; well that’s one very simple thing that can be done to help us down here. It shouldn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that dredging that river makes sense.”