‘It was pretty intense.’ Dunellen couple recounts heavy flooding during Monday’s storm
Over the 39 years of living in their home along Mountain View Terrace, the Frabizzios have cleaned up from flooding eight times.
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The recovery and cleanup from Monday’s storm are still consuming the lives of those who reside in a section of Dunellen along North Washington Street.
News 12 New Jersey spoke with a family who says they have finally had enough of the floodwater and the destruction.
Over the 39 years of living in their home along Mountain View Terrace, the Frabizzios have cleaned up from flooding eight times. They were rescued by boat on three of those occasions.
To get to their house, one has to pass by the mounds of furniture and belongings on the sidewalks, sitting on Washington Street and Mountain View Terrace. All of it was pulled from inside homes flooded on Monday night, including one home that had its foundation washed away.
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“It was pretty intense, it looked like white water rapids coming through. From the street up to where we were about 11 feet of water here. “I was in the house we got taken out by boat,” said Paul Frabizzio.
Frabizzio was with his wife Donna as the rescue boat floated up to their front door.
News 12 met Donna as she was on the phone buying a new water heater. The couple says all of the appliances were ruined in their basement.
The first floor, spare bedroom and the bins they had packed in anticipation of moving someday were soaked. The flooding was caused by 6 inches of rain over an hour and half of time, which caused the Green Brook to flood. The brook sits right alongside their home.
But it’s not just the brook - Frabizzio says it’s also the runoff from the nearby Watchung Mountains, which has developed and left no place for the water to go, except for their neighborhood.
After flooding from Ida, the couple decided to take the Blue Acres buyout. The couple will be moving out for good as soon as they find a new home.
“My husband is getting older, I’m getting older. I have MS. It’s very difficult to go through this cleanup again. We can’t do it anymore,” said Donna Frabizzio.
