Local History: New Jersey is Deluged

Last week? Last century? The story begins, “The wind and rain caused considerable damage and trouble along the Jersey coast, and throughout the State there were reports of damage.” A heavy rainstorm swept through New Jersey in February of 1896, bringing flood waters across South Orange Avenue.

 A “hurricane,” explains The New York Times, brought three inches of rain to Newark, with winds that measured between 38 and 49 miles per hour.  Trees went down and Newark’s brand-new sewers weren’t enough; not only did the streets flood, but the newly-repaved streets above the sewers caved in.

In South Orange, “a small brook which passes under the railroad,” – and which still eddies through Meadowland Park and through the center of town – was overwhelmed. “The water rushed so fast that the culvert under South Orange Avenue was not large enough, and the mass backed up for hundreds of yards on either side of the rail road track.” Five feet of water flooded the train tracks.

A dam, privately owned, on the west side of the tracks “caused much of the trouble,” as the water caused debris to “pile on the roads.” The Superintendent of the railroad asked the dam owner to allow it to be destroyed, letting water and the debris flow away. The owner, whose name is not recorded, said no.

Undaunted, railroad workers destroyed the dam, allowing water to flow – and then flood – the South Orange Field Club (now Baird) and the athletic fields with two feet of water.

South Orange Avenue buildings flooded, and the Bridge Committee of the Board of Chosen Freeholders had a group waiting “to take drastic measures if the flood became too great.” The measures, unfortunately, are lost to history.

The “lowlands” between Mountain Station, all the way to Maplewood, saw five feet of rain water. Part of that area is what we now call New Waterlands Field. And, of course, the commuters were out of luck. Four feet of water flooded the tracks, and the South Orange and Maplewood trains “ceased running.”

Some things never change.