The
past couple of weeks have been a little rough.
Last
week my town got nailed by Hurricane Irene.
My
house is on a hill so the worst we had to deal with were trees falling and no
power for several days. We were also very lucky that no trees fell on our house.
My neighbors were not so lucky. Fortunately the damage to their houses was not
as bad as it could have been.
The
town I live in did not fair so well. Areas were so badly flooded that several
houses were condemned. People that never got flooded before had to deal with
several feet of water in their homes. Almost every business in town has had to
do damage control.
Denville NJ flooding from Irene
(this video link shows the main street in Denville)
Having
no power for days I didn’t know what was happening in the rest of town. When we
could finally drive through parts of town it was devastating.
Streets
were still closed off due to the flooding and people trying to get back to
their houses and trying to salvage what they could.
It
was an awful feeling to drive down some of these streets and see piles and
piles of possessions that were now garbage just waiting to be hauled away.
I
cannot even begin to fathom what so many of our Denville families are dealing
with and how they even begin to cope with it all. I suppose you do what you
have to do at the time.
As
in many devastating situations there are sometimes little bright spots.
Our
Animal Control Officer had in place an animal rescue plan and had volunteers
and people willing to take care of the poor animals stranded or left behind.
Some families had to leave their animals in the shelter as they could not go
back to their homes. She was also working on arranging foster care for some of
these pets until their owners could return to their homes or find another place
to stay.
They
even rescued a goldfish that was found swimming in a puddle.
Our
public workers and Town Hall have worked and are still working 24/7 taking care
of the people of Denville. As hard as all of this is, it is a good feeling to
know that I live in a town where people do care what happens to their neighbors
and lend a helping hand when they can.
(jj)
