Not accurate at all. It's just the FEMA zone A flood zone map, with reports of building damage overlayed on it. It doesn't show actual flooding or comprehensive water damage incidents. The reports they collected are basically confined to Hoboken. Jersey City looks like it escaped damage entirely, which is not at all the case.

How accurate is the New York Times's Sandy flood map?

http://f.cl.ly/items/2s2n3E452T3U070m ... e%20%20%20NYTimes.com.png


Link to full map:

http://www.nytimes.com/newsgraphics/2 ... -after-the-hurricane.html

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Wind knocked down my backyard fence and blew off the tarp on my shed. Only than that, no other issues.

Looks like the storm will be a lot of wind and some rain for us. No Sandy like surge (thankfully).


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Have there been any issues so far from the storm ?

HUDSON COUNTY -- The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is in the process of revising flood maps and construction recommendations for the Jersey City-Hoboken region. Some city planners are concerned.

The maps and guidelines have yet to be finalized and adopted by the agency, but if they are approved in their current draft, city planners and local officials say they will radically change the urban landscape.

Older flood maps for Jersey City and Hoboken allowed for ground floor commercial and residential space. It appears the new maps will advise against such architectural designs and will recommend that buildings be elevated seven or eight feet to avoid flooding from future hurricanes.

?If you?re selling a sweater or a pair of shoes, you have to be at [ground] level. The customer has to be able to see the store, look at the merchandise through a glass window, and walk in. Psychologically, customers won?t take the trip up a flight of stairs," said Jersey City Planner Robert Cotter.

The new recommendations ? which FEMA spokesman Darrel Habisch emphasized are not requirements ? wouldn?t affect any development that has already been completed, any development that has already broken ground, or any project that has already received its building permits. But the recommendations will likely impact projects that are currently in their planning stages. And projects that don't comply may not be able to get flood insurance.

Read much more about this story in this weekend's Jersey City Reporter and Hoboken Reporter, available on your doorstep this weekend or on the bottom half of hudsonreporter.com starting Sunday.


Read more: Hudson Reporter - BREAKING New developments in Hoboken Jersey City region may have to be elevated

Not sure, but I have the original surveyor's map from when my house was built in the early 80's. The survey was for the whole row of houses, not just mine, but it shows 16.5 at the lowest (west) end, and 18.5 at the highest (east) end. I don't live far from 7th between Coles & Erie.

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According to GE now, 7th picks up 7 ft of elevation between Coles and Erie, and Jersey rises 4 from 6th to 8th. Which they certainly do not, that would be quite a hill. Worse is Monmouth rising 3' in 1 block from 7th to 8th! I guess it's just messed up in my hood.

I wonder how even a surveyor actually determines your altitude? Do they use tops of known buildings for their datums?

my elevation hasn't changed. Checked Hoboken.. still what it was when I checked it out during Sandy.

Has Downtown sunk 4 feet? Google earth said my elevation was 11 ft before Sandy, now it says 7 ft. WTF? Since the Sandy surge was 11 ft over sea level, I'd have had water in the street if the new number was correct. Anybody else been using Google earth for elevation?

Maybe it was all the used condoms in the pipes.

I think it was a full moon this weekend, so the lunar high tide was probably higher than normal

Strange thing. Running early this morning on the walkway between Newport and Hoboken I noticed sea wrack, bits of broken reeds and a few small chunks of driftwood up on the walkway. The 9:00 am high tide yesterday must have been unusually high, and the wind must have really been blowing, to wash junk up over the bulkhead. Higher than normal tides plus heavy rain almost always causes basement flooding around here.

saw a place on York near Grove pumping their basement. Not sure if that was sewer backup as that area tends to flood.

All this new construction on deck will absolutely compound the sewer flooding. Gonna be a mess as the city will not address the issue until a catastrophic failure occurs at which point they'll cry for federal assistance.

Thanks JCListers - good to know I wasn't alone. (Well, actually I'm sorry that I wasn't alone or that any of us have to deal with this.) But like many of you - I don't worry when it's only an inch or so - so was pretty shocked when we got so wet on this one.

Looks like one ground floor unit flooded on 4th street and lots others pumping out water.

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But what matters to many of us is the state of the sewer, rather than currently falling rain. My sewer was overcharged up until noon or so, making my slab squirt.

Weather.com reported 0.68 inches for Jersey City over the last 24 hours. I think the rate matters more than the total. A lot must have fallen very quickly overnight. By morning it was steady but not torrential.

I wondered the same thing. My husband and I never even bat an eye if we get less than an inch, which is what they predicted. However, this morning I noticed that they had a flood advisory because of high tide and the warning did mention basements possibly being affected. Sure enough, our shower was backed up. I can't believe this little rain would do that.

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Hoboken and Jersey City got some flooding...




http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... _jams_i.html#incart_river

By Charles Hack/The Jersey Journal
on February 27, 2013 at 10:51 AM, updated February 27, 2013 at 11:07 AM Print

HOBOKEN ? Flooding under bridges between 18th Street in Jersey City and Observer Highway in Hoboken -- caused the heavy overnight rain -- has created traffic chaos during the commute this morning.
Jersey City police closed off traffic entering Hoboken from 18th Street in Jersey City via Marin Boulevard and Grove Street because of flooding under both bridges at around 9:15 a.m.

Some drivers attempted to try to drive through Jersey City from Hoboken along Marin Boulevard. Cars could be seen stranded on Grove Street.

Traffic has been bumper to bumper on the westbound lane of 18th Street as cars head to the only remaining entrance to Hoboken on the southern-most side of the city via Jersey Avenue.

There was flooding at Harrison Street and Jersey Avenue under the bridge, but the road remained open to traffic.

Flooding was also seen at Coles Street and 17th Street, where a car was also stranded in water. Cars were also reported stranded at Coles and 13th streets.

A few cars have already been towed from Route 7 near Fishhouse Road in Kearny and there was an accident between a car and a truck on Central Avenue near Route 1&9 in Kearny, witnesses at the scene have reported.

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Oh yeah. I don't get it, the reported rain was only .37", did we get a special chunk of storm that didn't hit NWK?

Anybody else get flooded last night / this morning? Per the forecast it looked like it wasn't going to be so bad this time, but we got slammed again. Anybody know how much rain we actually got?

5PM January 30, 2013

PSE&G is closely monitoring the track of the approaching storm and making emergency preparations should it bring high winds and heavy rain to our service territory. At this time, the storm is expected to begin impacting New Jersey late Wednesday and continue through early Thursday morning.

As part of our ongoing efforts to keep customers informed during severe weather events, we are providing the following information in anticipation of the storm:
PSE&G is scheduling additional personnel overnight to be ready to respond to outages as soon as the strong winds subside and it is safe to work in bucket trucks and other equipment. We work closely with towns and counties to clear roads so that we can respond to outages in a timely manner.
High winds might cause trees to brush up against power lines, and lightning could strike and damage trees or pole-top equipment. Outages may be caused by falling trees and limbs, which bring down power lines. Downed wires should always be considered ?live.? STAY AWAY FROM ALL DOWNED LINES. Do not approach or drive over a downed line and do not touch anything that it might be in contact with.
To report downed wires or power outages, customers should call PSE&G's Customer Service line at 1-800-436-PSEG. PSE&G uses an automated system to handle customer calls as efficiently as possible. Customers who get an automated response when calling PSE&G are encouraged to use it, as it is designed to route their calls to the right destination quickly. The system also provides the option to speak directly to a customer service representative. If you have specific information regarding damage to wires, transformers or poles, we ask that you speak with a representative to provide that information.
Customers with a handheld device, or who are at an alternate location with power, can also report power outages and view the status of their outage by logging in to My Account at pseg.com. General outage activity information, as well as safety tips, can be found at pseg.com/outageinfo.

Anyone renting should look carefully at the basement for signs of prior flooding and obviously ask around.

Houses can vary significantly even right next to one another. Some have check valves to prevent sewage from backing up from the street. Some have nothing or ancient check valves that are no longer working - ask about regular maintenance and how basement fared in Irene and Sandy. I'd also look to see if the pipes are old cast iron or have they been updated to PVC. Those cast iron ones do not last forever.

Some places have problems due to foundation leaks. Those do poorly in the heavy rains typically.

i'm all in favor of green roofs but i doubt these will make a difference when its an event like Irene or Sandy. A strong storm perhaps.

Not necessarily every property. But, I saw a lot of water being pumped out of places while walking my dog along 6th from roughly Erie over to Coles.

But you really have to look at it house by house. On my block, neither myself nor my neighbors to the left or right had problems. But the brownstones across the street have basements below their garden units which had anywhere from 3 inches to 3 ft of water. And St. Mary's School behind us had tons of water in the basement.

Starting this post so people looking for rental apartments (particularly basement units) can find out what areas of the city were flooded by Hurricane Sandy. *** Does anyone know if 6th Street at Jersey Ave was flooded at all?

FYI - the consent decree has been updated on Councilman Fulop's website:

http://stevenfulop.com/news/consent-decree

I have seen a few green roofs. All I can think of is a maintenance nightmare when it comes to the roof.

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I believe the high rise neighborhoods have separated sewers, which obviates the problem, and the many of the brownstones roofs aren't up to taking the weight.

Candice: interesting intel about projects moving forward. I guess I've fallen off the mailing list for this stuff. Good for the south end of Downtown, now we need some help for north of Montgomery.