Woodbridge Woman Was Electrocuted Walking Home During Ida

WOODBRIDGE, NJ — New details have emerged in the death of Sunanda Upadhye, the 56-year-old Woodbridge woman who died in Hurricane Ida.

While Woodbridge Police initially thought she was swept away by flooding, she was actually fatally electrocuted as she tried to walk back to her home on Gill Lane in the early morning hours of Sept. 2, her husband Sunil Upadhye said.

She died in an instant, said her husband on this GoFundMe page he launched this week to help bury her. A co-worker dropped her off and she had a one-minute walk to get home. She stepped into flood water that contained electric current and died instantly.

It is unknown how deep the water was.

A similar phenomenon happened in Piscataway, where Mayor Brian Wahler was out on a megaphone Thursday after the storm, warning residents not to enter flood water as it contained live electric wires.

"In Hurricane Ida I lost my wife in (a) flood that had electric current," wrote her husband. "Her friend from Walmart dropped her near my house that was one minute walk. When she came near bridge walking, in water there was electric current. I lost my wife within fraction of second that I never imagined or thought or expected."

"Suddenly within less than a minute I lost my hardest, hard-working lovely wife when she said to her friend she can make to my home in a minute and never made (it) home."

A total of 30 New Jersey residents died in Ida on Sept. 1/2, 28 of those deaths were drownings in flash flooding and two from electrocution.

Upadhye said his wife had worked at the Woodbridge Walmart for the past seven years, and that she enjoyed her job there, working "incredibly hard."

As the rain lashed down that night, he said her fellow Walmart co-workers warned her not to leave the store, and instead stay there and ride out the storm.

However, she thought she could make it home, he said.

"Her Walmart colleagues who attended (her) funeral also told not go out of Walmart, but my wife thought she can made it and never made it," he wrote. "No idea if God loved her more than myself or she paid price of not listening and lost her life."

"The moment she put down her feet in water that had electric current instantly she lost," he continued. "There is no way to save human life if there is electric current in water."

Upadhye said he and and his wife had been married for for 32 years and described themselves as hard-working Indian immigrants chasing the American dream. They lived in the Iselin section of Woodbridge and have one son, who is back in India.

"We both started from zero and it took us 18 years and 10 months to become American," he said. "We fought our battle from India from nothing to become American for decades and decades. My wife loved America too much."

He also said Woodbridge Mayor John McCormac came to his home and gave him a $2,000 check to her pay for her funeral expenses. He also said the Red Cross and his employer, Deloitte, have helped him financially.

He also has a warning to everyone when the next storm hits: Never walk through deep puddles or badly flooded areas. You never know if the water can contain electric current from downed electric wires.

"Be careful and mindful in flood and walking in flood because it is not only flood but heavy wind that broke trees, houses, businesses, buildings and electric poles. My kind request is to strictly follow advisories from news and set up alert on your phone."

"I pray God no man in the world should go through this loss," he said.

Related: Here Are The 3 Middlesex County Residents Who Died In Ida Floods

Ida Caused More Immediate Deaths Than Sandy

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