New video of first responders putting their lives on the line to rescue people from this week's deadly flooding was released on Wednesday.
Monday night's storm was destructive in more ways than one. Just days ago, the Watchung Traffic Circle was under water. As floodwaters rose, so did the need for rescue and evacuations.
Watchung police shared police bodycam video of a water rescue at the Watchung Traffic Circle during the storm. In the video, one can see a line going out to a stranded pickup truck, as water rushed through the area and rose quickly.
Council President Christine Ead said the borough got almost 7 inches of rain.
"We had abandoned cars, with people also in other cars. Twelve rescues took place with people having to be removed from cars,” Ead said. “At the end of the day, safety comes first and we’re so glad to report that nobody was hurt or injured.”
The borough was still reeling from the storm days later. On Elsinore Drive, crews wrapped up repairs to the road that buckled under floodwaters. A video shared by S.E. Rose Excavating shows a gaping hole left behind after the water receded.
"We have quite a number of issues that we have to deal with around the borough that we’re going one by one to assess, have our engineer look at and evaluate and take them one by one and get them done," Ead said.
Some 15 cars that were stranded and damaged by the flooding were towed to FranMotors auto repair on Somerset Street. But they, too, are cleaning up after the storm.
"Monday was a disaster,” FranMotors mechanic Kennedy Salazar said. "All the water that came out from the river, from the lake, it came inside of the shop. Thanks God the water stopped like around 10 p.m., so we started working to get all the water out from the shop," Salazar said.
They worked through the night and the shop was open by Tuesday.