Dramatic Photos Of Secaucus Flooding Tuesday

SECAUCUS, NJ — These incredibly dramatic photos show just how bad the flooding was today throughout low-lying Secaucus.

Several people had to be rescued from their cars on Meadowlands Parkway and Secaucus Road, police told Patch. Many roads, including those two, are shut down as the flood waters now recede throughout town.

Also, the intense rain caused a leak in Clarendon School and the students there had to be evacuated and taken to Huber Street elementary.

"It was really, really terrible," said an exhausted-sounding Mayor Mike Gonnelli Tuesday afternoon. "The flooding hasn't been this bad here since Irene. We had 5 and a half inches of rain come down in two hours. And it was dead high tide. There was just nowhere for the water to go."

Secaucus is already a very low-lying town and the town's waste water plant can pump about 3 million gallons of water per day. Today, it had 17.8 million gallons to handle, and the sewage water backed up into some peoples' homes.

Not only did people have to be evacuated from their cars, but several homes actually had to be evacuated today as well, after the sewers overflowed and sewage water backed up into homes, Gonnelli said.

Homes on Humboldt, Golden and Gail Place experienced flooding and the town is putting at least one family in a hotel tonight, as their home was flooded out, the mayor said. Secaucus OEM is meeting with affected homeowners Tuesday afternoon.

"All the low-lying areas were affected," he said.

Photos provided to Patch, and used with permission. If you have a photo of Secaucus flooding and you want it published in Patch, you can email it to Carly.baldwin@patch.com