Community Corner

Flooded Basement: One Scotch Plains Family's Story

Many locals fought rainwater coming into their homes on Saturday evening.

This past weekend was certainly an exhausting one for Scotch Plains-Fanwood residents, as many struggled to keep their basements from flooding during the height of the heavy rain storm.

Sump pumps were working overtime and in some cases just couldn't handle the demand, forcing residents to clear their belongings and attempt to drain the water out themselves, using pool pumps, hoola hoops and whatever else they could find. Some called for help. The Scotch Plains Fire Department responded to about 80 calls for flooded basements this past weekend, while Fanwood firefighters helped out with between 15 and 20.

While residents' experiences varied depending on their location in the two towns, those who spoke to Patch all agreed that it was no fun dealing with the mess.

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Here's one story.

Staci Gialanella, a resident of the 1100 block of Raritan Road, told Patch that the problem set in at her home after the power went out about 7:30 p.m. Saturday.

Find out what's happening in Scotch Plains-Fanwoodwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"It was a nightmare," she said.

Gialanella noted that her family has rarely had to deal with power outages at their home before, and when they have they were relatively short. But when the power went out Saturday, it didn't come back until 3 or 4 in the morning. As a result, the family's sump pump that was already overloaded by the rain water stopped working altogether when they lost electricity.

"It didn't have time to rescind, it wasn't going anywhere," Gialanella said. "We just kind of did it the old-fashioned way. We bailed out the water with buckets."

Luckily, the family got down there and started working on the problem as soon as possible, allowing them to stay on top of the incoming water. Gialanella's husband is a volunteer firefighter. Unlike some neighboring residents who had to turn to the fire department for assistance, she said they were lucky that their basement flooding wasn't bad enough to have to make that call. Still, the family was up all night trying to stay ahead of the problem.

"If we were away or we were out and had just neglected it, it would have definitely flooded," Gialanella said.

While power outages were spotty throughout the area, they predominantly affected the south side of Scotch Plains, Fire Chief Jonathan Ellis told Patch. That's also where some of the heaviest flooding occurred, with some basements completely filling with water, he said.

While Gialanella's basement was spared any significant damage, others weren't so lucky. Garbage bags filled with ruined items were spotted at the end of several of Scotch Plains and Fanwood driveways on Monday. This morning, the Scotch Plains Fire Department was still out helping a few families resolve their flooding issues.

Do you have a storm story? Share it with us at lindsay@patch.com.


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