Paterson mayor renews call for federal help after flooding slams city again
Flooding reached knee-high levels at the intersection of 21st and Summer streets, submerging cars halfway up their doors along the block. Some drivers even attempted to push through the water and became stuck.
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Heavy rain sent flash floodwaters surging through Paterson early Sunday, trapping drivers and prompting more than a dozen rescues as Mayor Andre Sayegh renewed calls for federal help to fix the city's chronic flooding problem.
Flooding reached knee-high levels at the intersection of 21st and Summer streets, submerging cars halfway up their doors along the block. Some drivers even attempted to push through the water and became stuck.
A similar scene played out at 25th Street and 11th Avenue, where crews worked to pull a car from the flooded roadway.
Sayegh said the Paterson Fire Department rescued 15 people before the hours-long rain finally let up.
This is far from the first time the city has flooded and Sayegh said it likely won't be the last unless more is done at the federal level.
"We're trying to manage the best we can," Sayegh said. "Any funding that we receive, whether it's federal, whether it's state and now, like I say before, it has to become a federal priority to focus on infrastructure improvement or we're just going to keep having the same conversations."
Sayegh said he supports legislation to penalize pollution, which he said often clogs storm drains and worsens flooding. He said upgrading the city's aging sewer system should be a top priority, with support from both federal and state governments.
He pointed to ongoing sewer repairs beneath River Street as a model for the kind of investment needed citywide.
"Paterson has doubled down. We are repairing the sewer underneath River Street for many years," Sayegh said. "That was a problematic area. In fact, when it rained, River Street was more river than street. And now we are repairing the sewer, realigning the sewer and we're not having flooding issues there. So that type of investment needs to be made across the board."
