Community Corner

Update (2:00 p.m.): Lawns and Basements Flooded Over Town, Trees Fall on Shadowlawn and North Avenue Homes, Leaks at Fire Stations

Heavy rains and strong winds impact Westfield

Westfield is drying out Sunday morning after Saturday's heavy rains and strong winds caused basement and yard flooding across town, with trees falling on homes on the 800 blocks of Shadowlawn Drive and North Avenue, causing structural damage to three residences.

The town is not totally in the clear, as forecasts call for on and off rain on Sunday. Hail the size of ping pong balls was falling shortly before 9 a.m. near St. Helen's Church.

The rain, combined with the rain fall from Friday, has saturated lawns, causing yards to turn into lakes. Flooding was reported in basements on multiple streets across town, with six inches of water being reported in one Boynton Avenue home. Several basements in the Gardens are reported to be flooded. Leaks are being reported both at fire headquarters on North Avenue and at fire station two on Central Avenue.

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The roof at fire headquarters has been leaking in the radio room. At station two, the roof has been leaking on to the apparatus floor and in the kitchen. Flooding has occurred in the basement of the Municipal Building, impacting the Police Department which has offices on that level.

Fire Chief Dan Kelly reported that the department, as of 10:20 p.m., had responded to 41 flooded basements, four down utility wires, four electrical fires, two carbon monoxide alarms, two hazardous material spills as a result of the flooding, two fire alarm activations, a medical call and a cooking fire.

Find out what's happening in Westfieldwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Kelly said that in the overnight hours, the department responded to the fallen trees on North Avenue, along with 35 basement flooding calls. The department is continuing to respond to basement flooding requests during the course of Sunday.

The fallen trees are the second and third fallen trees on houses this year. During the second February snow storm, a tree fell on a house on Embree Crescent, causing damage to the siding and the roof. The damage to the Embree Crescent house was not as extensive as being reported to the Shadowlawn and North Avenue houses.

The Shadowlawn house was draped in blue tarps Sunday morning to prevent rain from entering the damaged areas of the house. Large parts of the tree, from the next door neighbor's front yard, were spread on both lawns. The base of the tree was attached to a large patch of ground which was uprooted when it fell.

Street flooding started in the afternoon with several intersections turning into ponds.The intersection of St. Marks Avenue and South Euclid Avenue was hard hit. Flooding was reported along Lamberts Mill Road on the south side of town during the early evening hours. The Rahway Avenue railroad crossing on the town line with Clark, across from St. Helen's, was blocked off for part of Saturday evening due to flooding.

The storm has particularly hit Union County hard, with several neighboring communities reporting street flooding. Part of Route 22 in Scotch Plains has been closed and in Cranford, flooding is occurring in several neighborhoods. Cranford residents were advised in the afternoon to move their cars to higher ground.

Cranford instituted a voluntary evacuation around midnight, with residents going to an evacuation center and an area hotel. Cranford reported street flooding, including several disabled cars in a neighborhood adjacent to the Washington School neighborhood.

Editor's Note: Chris Salemme and Josh Solomon contributed to this report.


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