Irene Aftermath: Flooded Houses Condemned as Unsafe

Sodden piles of furniture, appliances, kids’ toys, even food lined the block on Kimberly Drive Tuesday evening, as residents sorted through possessions damaged when the river rose past the first floor of their homes.

“No point,” MaryAnn Jones said as a friend picked up an infant’s play mat. “It’s too wet. I can’t let my granddaughter crawl on Tinkerbell anymore.”

Like many residents on Kimberly Drive, water from the nearby river flooded Jones’ home during Hurricane Irene—and means the Hillsborough Township Building Department has condemned the house as an unsafe structure.

“The previous owner told us that the only time she took water was in Hurricane Floyd,” Jones said. “We were not prepared for this.”
Now, Jones, her husband and her family friend are in the process of gutting appliances, sorting through damaged belongings, and pulling damaged furniture from their Kimberly Road home. Like many on their street, they’ve called their flood insurance company and are waiting on a return call.

According to Township Fire Marshal Dave Foelsch, the Hillsborough Township Building Department issued notices to 45 homes on Dukes Parkway East, Kimberly Drive, Millstone River Road and River Road.

Jones, her husband, children and grandchild, evacuated before the waters rose to their house’s second floor, splitting themselves between friends’ houses. Since they’re unable to return to their house, they’re staying at those friends’ houses for now.

“We were devastated,” Jones said about returning home. “We had an idea (about the damage) but until you see it .  .  . The things we moved from the lower level up have been destroyed.”

Though they tried to prepare for the rains and water, moving lawn furniture wasn’t enough for the onslaught.

“I expected the whole downstairs, but I didn’t expect it to reach the next level” Jones said. “I hadn’t lived through this before.”

Jones’ flood insurance requires the family to leave its damaged property outside their house, and the family says they’ve heard about looters in the neighborhood. That puts their insurance claim in jeopardy, since they can’t claim an item that isn’t there.

“It’s horrible because it’s all material things,” Jones said. “We don’t know how long we are going to be homeless. We don’t know how long it is going to take to return to our home.”

Across the street, Jon and Danielle Sciarrino relied on a weather forecast that said the hurricane would not be as bad as it was. Though Danielle and the couple’s two-year-old son left for a neighbor’s house before the block flooded, Jon and their other son weathered the storm at home.

“We made the best of it,” Jon Sciarrino said. “We played Gameboy and quizzed each other on superheroes.”

Since their house had taken water during a 2007 nor’easter, Jon Sciarrino stacked sandbags about three feet high in preparation for the storm. The last time the house flooded, they needed to sanitize their walls, rip out and replace insulation and replace the sheetrock.

“We thought that if we had the sandbags, we would not get any water,” he said.

Irene blew through the sandbags, flooding to the second floor of the house they are trying to sell.

“We were actually going to move to another place in Hillsborough, so the house was on the market,” Danielle Sciarrino said. “We had two people who were interested but I don’t think they are interested now.

“But if anyone is interested, I can say it will have a new kitchen and new bedrooms and new everything,” she joked.

The sandbags were the clue that this was no ordinary storm, and much worse than the predictions they heard.

“I don’t think (the weather reports) knew,” Danielle Sciarrino said. “We knew (there would be flooding) when the sandbags he put out were not enough to hold.”

“You could see no land,” she added. “Everything was water.”

They’ll be staying at a hotel for a while, and their sons are with Danielle Sciarrino’s parents. The next steps include contacting their flood insurance company and figuring out how to handle school starting—the family will need to rebuild the house.

“The contractors say it will take about two months to rebuild the house,” Jon Sciarrino said. “It’s about $90,000 of damage.”

Luckily, the Sciarrinos said they’ve had good experiences with their flood insurance company during the 2007 flood, Jon Sciarrino said.

“When we moved here, we were told the only time it flooded was Floyd,” Danielle Sciarrino said. “And it would never happen again.”

Editor's Note: This article has been updated to include the number of houses that were condemned yesterday.