Piscataway Prepares To Evacuate Apartment Complex On Raritan River

PISCATAWAY, NJ — Update, 5 p.m.: The town did not have to evacuate Birchview Gardens Tuesday.

Piscataway Police say they may evacuate Birchview Gardens, an apartment complex where Matthew Weber, 40, died in September 2021 during tropical storm Ida.

Weber was believed to have been swept away in flash flooding that occurred there two years ago.

As of midday Wednesday, the Raritan River is still rising, and has not yet crested (reached its peak). At 12 p.m., the Raritan reached 33 feet near Bound Brook. That water level always results in "major" flooding, the National Weather Service just tweeted.

That's why Piscataway Township officials say they are now preparing to evacuate Birchview Gardens apartments, located on River Road. The complex historically floods very badly after heavy rain.

Driver Rescued From Car In Piscataway Tuesday Night

Piscataway Police are telling all residents to move their cars to higher ground immediately — and prepare for possible evacuation.

"The Raritan River has crested at the Birchview Gardens Apts. Further cresting may affect other apartments & homes. @PiscatawayNJPD is advising those with vehicles close to the river to move them to higher ground and prepare for possible evacuation as the situation is monitored," wrote Piscataway Twp. on X, formerly Twitter.

Weber died in the flooding from Ida, which hit New Jersey on Sept. 1, 2021, just before Labor Day weekend. After that storm, Birchview Gardens was so badly flooded that Piscataway Police and firefighters had to enter the complex in life rafts. There were dramatic videos on social media of police rescuing people stranded in their flooded homes.

Weber was one of 30 New Jersey residents who died in the unprecedented flash flooding from Ida. Many Birchview Gardens residents said they were still asleep when the Raritan River and surrounding creeks and streams rose rapidly within minutes, bringing brown flood water waist-deep into their homes.

Resident Mimi Arias-Caraga awoke that morning to find her back stairs under water. “The flood was already here at my waist,” she told CBS at the time.

“To watch my car float away before my eyes, it just was very traumatizing. It’s over there in the woods,” said another Piscataway resident, Yasmin Hernandez.

Birchview Gardens apartments are located in a quiet, wooded section of Piscataway, and is home to mostly young families and Rutgers graduate students. Weber had recently moved there, as he had just taken a new job as a mental health specialist at Rutgers University Behavioral Health Care, which is located close by.