Icy Seawater Floods Highlands In Nor'easter Snowstorm

HIGHLANDS, NJ — With the 11 a.m. high tide Monday, Highlands residents watched as what looked like one to two feet of icy water poured through their streets, particularly those near the marina and along the waterfront.

"In reality, it wasn't more than six to eight inches," said Fred Rosiak, a longtime Highlands resident. "The water comes up through the drains; the streets are two and a half feet below the bulkhead."

"We've had much, much worse high tides than this," he said. "In fact, if the wind keeps blowing out of the Northeast like this, we'll probably flood again. Tonight's high tide will probably be even worse."

A storm like the New York metropolitan area is experiencing Monday is called a "nor'easter" for that very reason: That's the direction the wind blows from. They are known to cause intense precipitation (rain in the warmer months; ice and snow in the winter) and coastal flooding. The high tide Monday night in Highlands will be at 11 p.m.

Most Highlands residents know to move their cars to higher ground along Rt. 36 in storms. Rosiak lost his "beloved" sports car to flooding in the December snowstorm earlier this winter; it was parked on the street near his house.

So far in Monday's nor'easter snowstorm, New Jersey State Police have responded to 340 car crashes and 295 calls for help from stranded drivers, in a time period from 6:00 p.m. Sunday to 10 a.m. Monday. These include anything from flat tires, mechanical breakdowns, spin outs, etc.

"We are about to enter the worst of this storm. It is going to be very bad for the next 12 hours," said Gov. Murphy at 12 noon Monday. "Please, please, please stay home."

"Let me be as forceful on that point as I possibly can. If you don't need to be out, go back to your house immediately," said Murphy at his daily press conference. "If you're in your house, don't leave your house. You're jeopardizing either one or both of the following: yourself or secondly the crews … trying to clear the roads, or (State Police Col.) Pat [Callahan]'s folks trying to aid folks who need to be on the road."

The Monmouth County Prosecutor's office shared this photo of a car that flipped on Rt. 18 in Colts Neck Monday:

But another Highlands resident said a lack of maintenance to local bulkheads, coupled with climate change and global warming, has made the flooding progressively worse in town.

"My family has owned a home in Highlands since 1970 and it never started flooding this bad until Sandy," she said. "When the water comes up, there's nothing people can do. Just hope it doesn't flood bad enough to get in their homes. This is a nor'easter, but what if we get a hurricane?"

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