By Mike Deak, MyCentralJersey.com
MANVILLE – Mayor Richard Onderko grew up on North Second Avenue and a half-century ago, he had to be rescued by boat from the floodwaters from Tropical Storm Doria.
On Wednesday he stood on the same street a block from the Raritan River before a house ruined by a natural gas explosion during the flooding from the remnants of Hurricane Ida a year ago and implored Gov. Phil Murphy to approve the state Department of Environmental Protection’s proposed rules to upgrade and update the state’s flood hazard and stormwater management regulations.
“We need a sense of urgency to help our residents get out of harm’s way,” he said. “Our residents deserve better.”
And the mayor repeated the plea he has been making on the first anniversary of the flood that inundated the borough last year, just as the floods from Hurricane Irene in 2011, Hurricane Floyd in 1999, and Doria in 1971 brought the town to the brink of survival
“Please help Manville,” Onderko said, adding the borough, bordered by the Raritan and Millstone rivers, is “ground zero” for floods caused not only by excessive rains but runoff from communities as far away as Mercer County.
The state has ignored the warnings from the previous floods, said Jim Waltman, executive director of The Watershed Institute.
He likened it to someone hitting the snooze button after the wake-up alarm sounds.
“It’s time to stop hitting the snooze button,” he said.
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