Rains cause little damage in WLB and Eatontown

BY SUE MORGAN
Staff Writer

WEST LONG BRANCH — Last week’s continuous rainfall over eight consecutive days caused the Whalepond Brook in the borough’s southern end to overflow, according to Fred Migliaccio, the town’s emergency management coordinator.

Though some borough streets, particularly Whalepond Road and Norwood Avenue leading toward the brook, and neighboring Ocean Township flooded, no evacuations were necessary due to rising waters, Migliaccio said.

Scattered power outages occurred throughout the borough, including one that blacked out most of Monmouth University, on Friday as well, he noted

A Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L) utility pole that fell across Norwood Avenue close to the university campus and a second pole dragged down with it on Friday were removed later that day by the company’s crews, Migliaccio confirmed.

Though traffic on Norwood Avenue was tied up as crews removed the poles, there were no injuries reported due to the incident, he said.

Throughout last week, the number of motor vehicle accidents in town was “about normal” for rainy, wet conditions, Migliaccio said.

“West Long Branch fared fairly well compared to some other towns,” Migliaccio said.

As of Monday, Migliaccio was unsure if the borough might apply for the emergency funding requested by Assemblymen Steven J. Corodemus and Sean T. Kean (both R-11), who represent West Long Branch in Trenton.

Corodemus and Kean asked for the funding to help constituents affected by the storms and floods via correspondence sent to acting Gov. Richard Codey earlier this week.

If the borough’s police department or public works department requests the overtime pay related to the storms, the borough government could ask for the funding, Migliaccio acknowledged. However, he stated that he has not received reports from either department indicating that overtime was needed.

At Monmouth University, classes and regular business was canceled on Friday after a power outage struck the campus at about 2 a.m. that morning, according to spokeswoman Petra Ludwig.

Students and employees were notified via e-mail not to come to school or to work before the start of regular business hours, Ludwig said.

Power returned to the campus the same day in stages — first to the north campus’ residence halls in the late afternoon, to the main campus at 6:30 p.m. and to the library at 7 p.m., Ludwig said.

Three campus buildings, the facilities center, the gymnasium, and the athletic center did not lose power, she added.

In Eatontown, the water rose in the Eatoncrest Apartments, but that is often the case in heavy storms, according to Rudy Trask, that borough’s emergency management coordinator.

None of the Eatoncrest tenants were evacuated from the Pine Brook Road complex, and no injuries were reported there, he said.

While certain areas, such the intersection of Clinton Avenue West and Route 35, had pools of water at various times over the course of days of rainfall, no homes or businesses in the vicinity were evacuated, Trask said.

Flooding did occur at the site of the borough’s Department of Public Works garage off Lewis Street, he noted. However, most of those floods had receded by Friday night.