Mid April 2007 Storm Pounds Northern/Central New Jersey

New Jersey really is a beautiful state, but when a strong storm blows through or tends to stay quite a while, it can get fairly nasty. The Noreaster brought with it, heavy rain and high winds, and that is just the beginning. Basically, if you lived anywhere in the Mid-Atlantic or the Northeast, you got pounded with this storm, but certain areas got hit a bit harder than others. I live in Northern\Central New Jersey, and we had plenty of rain, enough to fill whole buckets with actually. Governors all around the area issued State of Emergencies, basically telling everyone to stay indoors until further notice.

The saying "April Showers bring May Flowers" is certainly something that all of us should giggle about because it is now May and the warmth is definitely on top of us now. I can officially say that I have seen plenty of flowers blooming, especially after the 80 + degree day we had today. The estimated rainfall amount in my area was around eight or nine inches, with other areas receiving a lot more than that. New Jersey had an estimated $180 million dollars in property damage, all from this nasty storm. Acting Governor Codey released this information to the public and I can honestly say that I was in total shock.

Surely there were plenty of deaths to go along with this storm. Flooding waters just kept rising and people's homes were just in disarray. I can say that my house wasn't affected that much, especially compared to other people, but I also live in a mountainous area which helped a bit. My basement did receive a bit of water though, but I will definitely take that over someone elses house being carried away by the strength of flowing water. If you lived closer to the shore, you definitely got hit very hard, mainly because of the ocean waves reaching unimaginable heights. All of NJ's shores had to evacuate further inland so that they could avoid being shipped away with their belongings, but some were actually lucky. If you were of the few that got to keep all of their "stuff" than god bless you.

The spring storm of 2007 will be remembered for a long time, but there was also a touch of winter involved with it also. If you were higher north towards Pennsylvania or New York, you saw a mix of snow and sleet at times during the day and mostly snow at night. This added to the problems as once it became light out once again, you saw any snow or sleet that stuck, melt. One major hassle with this is that the pile up would lead to more water and that would equal more flooding, even in higher elevations.

While the spring storm pounded most areas with very heavy and soaking rains, high winds, snow & sleet, tornados, and a load more worth of disastrous weather, everything seems to be doing just fine right now. With everyone helping each other out, we should be in pretty good condition come this summer. Most beach houses down the Jersey Shore should be alright, and people are already starting to open them up.