Blizzard blasts Bayshore
Area braces for flooding as rain, rising temps
expected to melt snow

FARRAH MAFFAI The hill at Holmdel Park was a place for children of all ages after the blizzard. Kate Plagema, Shrewsbury, and Jim Coleman, Freehold, enjoyed their ride down the hill on Tuesday.

By maura dowgin, josh davidson &

elaine van develde

Staff Writers

The snow may have stopped falling, but the weather problems may not be over for some Bayshore communities.

As residents dig out from under the Presidents Day snowstorm that dumped more than a foot of snow on the Bayshore, predictions of warming temperatures and weekend rain may result in flooding problems for the area.

Monmouth County was hit with between 20 and 22 inches of snow, said Dave Robinson, New Jersey state climatologist at Rutgers University, New Brunswick.

Last year the county only saw a total of 5 inches of snow, Robinson said. This year, the total snowfall is 45 inches. An average amount of snow for a winter in Monmouth County is 25 inches, he said.

Hazlet had 22 inches of snow by 3:40 p.m. on Monday, according to the National Weather Service’s Web site.

While this amount of snow is quite unusual for the area, there were no records broken with this snowfall, Robinson said.

"I know the December 1947 storm dumped more snow on Monmouth County," he said.

The 1996 snowstorm brought more snowfall as well, he said.

"The major concern right now is that it’s going to warm up and rain at the end of the week," he added.

There may be flooding problems near the end of the week. In 1996, "a week and a half later, there was major flooding all over the state of New Jersey," Robinson said.

The temperatures will be rising this week, said Art Kraus, meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

"It looks like it’s going to rain this weekend," Kraus said. This rain "could lead to flooding problems."

Whether it will flood in the area depends on how warm the temperatures get, how much rain falls this weekend, and how fast the rain falls. The faster and heavier the rain, the more chance there is of flooding, Kraus said.

The snow packs may suck up some water and prevent flooding, Kraus said.

"Basically, all of the roads are clear. The roads department has been working straight through (from 4 p.m. on Sunday to 8 a.m. Tuesday)," said R. Bruce Phillips, chief of the Holmdel Police Department.

There were only about 15 minor motor vehicle accidents and no major problems during the storm, Phillips said.

All of the roads in Keyport have been cleared as well, said Mayor John Merla.

"We’re closing West Front Street (Tuesday night) to clear up the snow," he said.

The road has been continuously plowed, like all of the other roads in the borough, Merla said.

There were no problems with emergency vehicles in Keyport either, said Robert Hyer, councilman and head of the Public Works Department.

Every other hour the plows would check on the first aid and fire department buildings to make sure the emergency vehicles could get in and out of the buildings, Hyer said.

The nine Public Works employees worked from Sunday afternoon until midnight Monday, Hyer said. A total of nine trucks were used: six plows and three backhoes. The cost for the snow cleanup has not yet been determined, he said.

"Cost is not a factor when you’re dealing with an emergency," Merla said. "We had very little overtime in every department except for Public Works."

Keyport is working on this year’s budget, and the cost of the snow removal will be factored in, Merla said.

Holmdel and Keyport Public Schools were closed Tuesday. St. Benedict’s School in Holmdel, St. Joseph’s School in Keyport, and St. John Vianney High School in Holmdel were all closed Tuesday as well.

In Middletown, Township Administrator Robert Czech said he didn’t have figures on snow cleanup costs yet, but he’d be "shocked if it’s not over $100,000. The numbers just aren’t in yet, though I’m sure that with the work on Sunday and the holiday (President’s Day), we exasperated the overtime budget."

Middletown also uses private contractors for snow removal, he said.

The township’s 2003-04 budget was introduced and it allocates $255,000 for non-overtime expenses for the entire year, plus $70,000 for a snow reserve account, which was leftover from last year.

"We’re going to have to try to beef those numbers up before we adopt the budget, obviously. We didn’t count on this. There’s nothing you can do, though," Czech said. "We’ll try to get reimbursed through the county and apply for aid, but there are no guarantees yet."

There are about 300 miles of road to plow in the 43-square-mile township. The biggest budget buster is the overtime pay, he said. Czech said that in addition to snow removal, the township must account for added police and parks department overtime, not to mention supply costs for salt and sand.

"Financially, it’s bound to be a burden, but what can you do? These things cost money. A storm’s a storm. That’s it. You pray it stops, everything is cleared and people are safe," Czech said.

Middletown Police Sgt. Frederick Henry said that while things were busier than usual in the department during the two-day storm, there weren’t any major accidents.

"There were just typical, snow-related problems today (Tuesday)," Henry said. "One of the biggest problems is that there is so much snow to clear away, the piles that result at business exits and entrances off routes 35 and 36 block visibility. People just have to be extra careful driving.

"We ask that people remain cautious even though the snow has mostly melted on the main roads and driving conditions are better. In addition to the snow banks built up at entrances and exits to businesses, some roads have been narrowed to one lane because of excess snow."

In Hazlet, Mayor Steve Piech said emergency crews worked around the clock for the first 48 hours.

As for the snow removal budget, he said the town had planned to allocate about $100,000 but was "probably way past that amount. Though we haven’t even begun to calculate everything. You have to figure we had 25 to 28 inches of snow to clear, and the Public Works and Emergency Management crews were working not only on a Sunday, but a holiday. That’s serious overtime. You can’t avoid it. There were guys working 30 straight hours."

While town hall was closed Monday for the holiday, it was also closed Tuesday for the snow.

The township’s public schools were closed Monday through Wednesday, with a delayed opening of 10 a.m. planned for Thursday, Piech said.

"We’re working with the schools to share services for clearing the snow. It’s working out well," he added. "That will at least save some money somewhere."

As far as casualties or accidents, Piech said there was one report of a roof collapse in town.

"We don’t have a big town with big plows. One of the biggest problems is keeping the vehicles off the streets. Residents have to keep them off so we can clear the streets," Piech said.

The holiday benefited Aberdeen during the storm.

"Fortunately, with the holiday and schools being closed, there wasn’t much traffic and we made it through OK," Aberdeen police Lt. John Powers said.

The police department’s job was to make sure residents cooperated with township employees, he said.

"Some residents didn’t want the plows to come through because they were getting [snow] plowed back in the driveway," he said.

The police also helped transport residents to area hospitals, but only found a few stranded on the roadside in need of help, he said.

"We did quite a few escorts for nurses and dialysis patients," he said.

Eight first aid calls were reported and, as of press time, many roads still needed to be cleared in the township’s Cliffwood Beach section, Powers said.

The area has an odd/even day system for parking in the street during a snowstorm, he said.

During a snowstorm, vehicles can’t park anywhere in the Strathmore section and on some other township streets, he said.

Illegally parked cars were either removed by the road department or police personnel, he said.

Three minor car accidents were reported during the storm, he said. A pedestrian was hit by a car on Cliffwood Avenue, but not injured, he said.

"We’re trying to help the road department as much as we can to try and get people to be as patient as possible so they (the road department) can clear the roads," he said.

Aberdeen’s snow removal budget this year is $73,410.

Last year it was $72,500, and $71,300 in 2001, Township Manager Mark Coren said.

Those figures only include overtime and salt and sand costs without regular township employee salaries.

"In the past six years we haven’t used a lot of our snow budget, but this year we’ll probably use a lot of it," Coren said.

In Matawan, all roads have been cleared with 80 percent showing blacktop, said Anthony Bucco, Public Works superintendent.

"[It went] very easily. It was smooth — no big problems," he said.

The crew began work clearing the roads Sunday at 6 p.m. and finished the bulk of the work by midnight Monday, he said.

"Most of our residents stayed inside which was nice," Bucco said.

This year’s sixth-month temporary budget includes about $11,000 for snow removal, Borough Administrator Joseph P. Leo said.

Costs are still being calculated, but Leo said he is sure the temporary funds were exhausted. More will be appropriated when the council adopts its 2003-04 budget in the next few weeks, he said.

About $22,000 in total was budgeted for snow cleanup last year, Leo said.