Flooding Persists In Housing Authority; City Delivers Water and Food

Mayor Dawn Zimmer, together with other city officials, delivered extra food, water and ice to residents of the Hoboken Housing Authority in an amphibious truck on Sunday afternoon, where residents were stranded because of flooding and loss of power.

City officials said it will take a couple of days—multiple tide cycles—until the water fully recedes.

Members of the National Guard drove the truck through the city, splashing through the most flooded parts of town as the only vehicle fully equiped to drive through five feet-deep water, and stocked it up with supplies. 

The water in the southwestern part of town was not supposed to recede before the end of the day on Sunday. Although certain buildings were back up and running late afternoon, others were still without electricity.

Power was lost in the Hoboken Housing Authority around 4 a.m. on Sunday, multiple residents said.

The lack of power and mobility brought a lot of residents out to the streets, courtyards and knee-deep into water all through the day. Back-up generators only powered lights in the hallway and exit signs as food in the many fridges was going bad during the worst of the storm. The elevators were not working in the buildings.

The vast majority of Housing Authority residents in the southwestern part of town did not evacuate their homes.

Zimmer urged all Hoboken residents to , and again on Saturday. Later on that day, the mayor ordered a

The mayor said she walked around the city on Saturday, together with police officers, to explain the severity of the situation and urge people to leave town or go to the shelter at the Wallace School.

Executive Director of the Housing Authority Carmelo Garcia said in a phone call on Sunday he did not tell people to evacuate their apartments. For ground floor apartments, he said, drains were unpluged to try and prevent flooding.

Early on in the day, resident Shonteesha Johnson, 38, said she was in need of water and ice, "to save our food."

Some senior citizens in the HHA buildings were transported to a shelter or a hospital before Hurricane Irene hit, but most decided to stay put. Seniors in Columbian Towers on Bloomfield and Newark Streets also lost power, which lasted well into the afternoon on Sunday.

Before the storm hit,

For most HHA residents—who experience severe flooding often in the southwestern part of town—a flood was not enough reason to leave.

Besides, said Anthony Braxton, 27, "no one really had any place to go." Looking at the flooding on Sunday afternoon, Braxton said he had never seen it this bad. Water was as deep as five feet in some parts of the housing authority. Mama Johnson Field was completely flooded.

"I think it's a mess," Braxton said.

The water also brought some other unpleasant circumstances to the housing authority. Maria Classen, 46, said that rain from the storm had seeped through her daughter's sixth floor apartment, causing a leak.

At 501 Marshall Drive, resident Kelly Smith said water had flooded some hallways, causing mice to run amok.

What prevailed mostly on early Sunday afternoon was a sense of being isolated in an area of town nobody can get to, residents said. Locked inside an area with streets that they were unable to cross, without power, most residents said they weren't sure what to do. 

HHA resident Dynasty Steed, 24, said she would have liked to have a shelter in one of the common rooms of the Housing Authority. Steed's 8-year-old daughter Alyssa, said she was scared when the lights went out around 4 a.m. on Sunday, which woke her up.

Buses were provided to take residents to the state-run Izod center—to which evacuees in the Hoboken shelter were transported late Saturday night by city officials—but HHA residents said they were never clearly notified of when they buses would be there.

"Let's just be honest," said Braxton, "we're like the last people to take care of." Braxton said he only would have evacuated if Irene ended up being a category 3 or category 4 storm. 

The area of the Housing Auhtority is notorious for its flooding problem. Many residents attributed the problem—and the lack of improvement up till now—on current and previous administrations.

Councilman Tim Occhipinti, who represents the area in and around the Housing Authority, made the flooding problem one of his main campaign issues.

On Sunday afternoon, agitated because of the situation, longtime HHA resident Margie Biart wondered where the councilman was during the storm. "I haven't heard from him," Biart said. "He should have been here with us."

Occhipinti did not respond to multiple attempts for comment.

But, down in the Housing Authority area, only one thing was stronger than the smell of raw sewage flowing through the streets: a sense of community.

"When it gets bad," said Frances Gilyard, 51, "the neighborhood sticks together. Because we don't have anybody else."