Hoboken preparing for potential flooding from Monday night's storm
HOBOKEN, N.J. -- The city of Hoboken is bracing for potential flooding from a storm expected to hit the area on Monday night into Tuesday.
As CBS2's Jessica Moore reported, the city is implementing lessons learned from past storms to protect the people.
The sun was shining earlier Monday in Hoboken, but residents were bracing for impact.
"A large swath of Hoboken is below sea level, so anytime it rains, we're prone to flooding," Hoboken Business Administrator Jason Freeman said.
Hoboken has taken the brunt of Mother Nature's wrath many times before, like flooding from 2014 and again last year when the remnants of Hurricane Ida slammed the area with 6 inches of rain, nearly leaving Megan Donovan stranded.
"Last year, I saw that whole intersection completely flooded, so I had to go around the whole block to get as close as possible to my front door," Donovan said. "I couldn't get all the way to my apartment, so I had to be brave and walk through ankle-deep water, and when we opened the door, a lot of water from the street flooded into the lobby."
Freeman said the city has spent millions of dollars on flood mitigation and preparation.
"We're talking about a variety of things, from resiliency tanks that hold millions of gallons of water to blocking off flood-prone streets so we don't have cars flooding," Freeman said.
Other preps include sand bags like the ones you see behind me, strategically placed around the city to protect businesses.
"We have opened up garages for $5 discount parking. Get your cars off the streets," Freeman said. "We know we aren't going to be able to prevent all flooding, but we're doing best we can to protect ourselves from it."
The city says it will start putting up barricades as soon as the first raindrops fall.
