Dry Summer? Some Struggle In Flood’s Wake

COURT HOUSE — Residents of a flood-ravaged community off Shunpike Road presented a petition to freeholders on Tue., July 27 seeking a joint study of the problem by county and Middle Township engineers.
Rebecca Kostyuchemko, representing the 21 homeowners of Secluded Hollow Road, addressed the governing body.
She said her group went to Middle Township Committee, and also sought help there for woes on flooding and drainage earlier in the year.
Heavy snow followed by days of rain in March created problems on several portions of Shunpike Road, and throughout the county-operated road system.
The county, in May, approved payment for work that put a new drain pipe under the intersection of Shunpike and Oyster Road, about a mile south of Secluded Hollow Road.
“Essentially, the township wanted to assist us,” Kostyuchemko told freeholders. “Almost every home suffered from flooding,” she said. “Some owners could not access their homes for up to two months. One family is still out (of their home). There has been well contamination and septic problems,” she added.
Unbelievable as it may seem, Kostyuchemko said, “We still have flood water that has not receded.”
She said township officials advised residents that Shunpike Road is county owned, and that is why she went to the freeholders.
“They (township) asked us to show neighborhood support,” she added, and presented a copy of a recently adopted Middle Township resolution asking the county to lend whatever aid possible.
She said the neighborhood is seeking drainage improvements to the street and Shunpike Road.
“Please, as quickly as possible, help us with the drainage situation, because we are definitely looking at a repeat flooding situation,” she said.
If the high water table does not recede, she was told, and there is normal rainfall in fall and winter, it is likely that flooding will once again saturate the neighborhood.
“I’m not sure what the causes are,” she said. There is a newer development north of her community on Shunpike, which also sustained flooding in March.
It was her hope that the county and township could “work together and work with the neighborhood, sooner rather than later we can address this situation,” Kostyuchemko said.
Vice Director Ralph Sheets, who chaired the July 27 meeting in Director Daniel Beyel’s absence, said, “I am sure (County Engineer) Dale Foster is aware of it. We will talk to him about the situation.”
“I tell you, they had major problems on Shunpike Road,” said Freeholder Gerald Thornton. “I saw it over and over. I’m surprised you still have water.”
Kostyuchemko explained what her community looked like at the peak of the flooding.
A pond and wetlands became one lake, she added.
“There was an island in the middle of the lake, I was on an island, but we did not lose our first floor,” she said.
The drainage pipe at the end of Secluded Hollow Road beneath the electric lines, near where the new bicycle path is being constructed, is clogged, but, due to the water, township crews have not been able to access it.
“We are really concerned about the fall and winter, and a long-term situation,” Kostyuchemko said.
One resident on the street, she said, had to access their home with a boat.
“The problem was, it was one of those 100-year storms,” said Thornton. “I know first hand on Shunpike, I was amazed to see the amount of water around those homes.”
Contacted the next morning about the situation, Kostyuchemko said she would prefer engineers from the county and township view the problem together so they might talk over ways to address the problem.
The “lake” behind her home is now like a pond, she said.
“The water table is so high, there is still no where to drain. We are concerned there will be a lot of water in the fall and winter, that it will fill and flood again, she added.
“We all understand there is more than our street, there is a drainage issue in the area. We want to make sure in the short term it is done. Also, that we are on the agenda for the long term,” she said.
“We don’t know what the causes are, and people are wondering,” she added. “Are there proper catch basins?”
She was told that the developer may be “on the hook” for damage to the houses.
The issue of flooding was not unique to Secluded Hollow Road, according to County Engineer Dale Foster.
“We are not just dealing with Shunpike, but also Shunpike and Fishing Creek Road in Lower Township, Bayshore Road in Lower Township and West Cape May,” said Foster.
Additionally, there were flooding conditions on Woodbine-Ocean View Road, and in Dennis Township, and Woodbine.
“The water table is relatively high for this time of year,” said Foster.
Also at the meeting, freeholders passed a resolution to pay F.W. Shawl and Sons, Inc. for pumping of floodwaters on Woodbine-Ocean View Road (CR 550).
A portion of Woodbine-Ocean View Road (CR 550) from Corson Tavern Road (CR 628) to Baywood Drive in Dennis Township and adjacent properties were flooded “due to abnormally high water due to the excessive rainfall over the past 12 months and the intense rainfall over a short duration beginning with the March 12 storm,” the resolution states.
The flooded highway was deemed a “hazard to motorists, especially at night when visibility is low and “flooding caused septic systems to back up and caused private drinking wells to become contaminated on the properties adjacent to Woodbine-Ocean View Road.”
It notes, too, that the March 12 storm “was not limited to Woodbine-Ocean View Road, but was county-wide in nature, thus stretching the resources of the county public works department beyond their abilities to address.
It was not known how long pumping operations were going to be required, nor was the pumping operations anticipated to be required for as long as it took to pump down the water due to the additional storms that occurred shortly after the March 12 storm, the resolution stated.
Because the situation was deemed “an emergency,” the award of the contract was exempt from standard bidding and advertising requirements, it continued.
Had the county following Local Public Contract Laws for bidding, the project, about four weeks or more would have passed before pumping activity could have started, it added.
Thus, the resolution approved payment to F.W. Shawl and Sons, Inc. for $22,344.50.
In Foster’s certification, is stated, “At the time that the initial flooding from the March 12, 2010 storm occurred there was no way of knowing that the pumping of water would continue for 23 days, not all consecutively.
It also added that the count Public Works Department “reached out to a few firms to determine how quickly they could initiate pumping and whether they had equipment on hand. F.W. Shawl and Sons, Inc., Marmora had equipment readily available and was able to start immediately with the pumping of water.
Because of the scope of the problem county wide, the county Road Department was “busy pumping flooded areas at numerous locations throughout the county and county not spare the labor nor find the equipment necessary to address the flooding along Woodbine-Ocean View Road.
Foster said that, at the height of flooding, the county Emergency Management reached out to Gloucester County’s firemen’s association for pumps, since all available in this county were pressed into use.Contact Campbell at (609) 886-8600 Ext 28 or at: al.c@cmcherald.com