Berkeley Heights: Irene's Worst is Over, but Work Still Remains

The condition of Berkeley Heights in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene is improving, but there is still work to be done, according to Lieutenant Frank Fortunato of the Berkeley Heights Police Department.

Fortunato indicated that, although the Passaic River has begun to recede since the overnight hours, the water level still remains very high. For that reason, roads that run along the river—including Snyder Avenue and Bridge Street, which lead to Chatham Township—remain closed for the time being.

“At this point, we’re just waiting for it to recede, and it has receded somewhat,” said Fortunato.

For the time being, Springfield Avenue remains closed at Robbins Avenue, stopping traffic traveling to and from New Providence. In addition, several streets that contain neighborhoods nearby to the Passaic River remain closed. Those include Riverbend Road, Shadow Lane, Chaucer Drive, and Cromwell Court.

Electrical power is slowly being restored all over the state of New Jersey as storm clean-up continues. According to Fortunato, outages remain sporadic throughout Berkeley Heights.

“As far as particular neighborhoods (dealing with outages), it’s just various neighborhoods and is sporadic,” said Fortunato. “The power could be on one block, but on the next block, there’s not power.”

Fallen trees and poles from the storm are also still being cleaned up. On Mercier Place, crews are working to remove a fallen tree, while additional manpower is required at Deep Dale Drive at Mountain Avenue to remove both a tree and a utility pole that fell victim to the storm.

According to Fortunato, any families that may have been evacuated by their homes near the Passiac River have returned, which is an encouraging sign that the worst of the storm’s damage is behind the township.

Stay tuned to Patch for further updates on the clean-up and aftermath of Hurricane Irene.