WAYNE, N.J. (PIX11) -- Residents of thousands of homes in North Jersey are still cleaning up after fast-rising waters left them flooded out of their homes last week.
Now, more rain overnight Wednesday and into Thursday evening have the same rivers that had inundated so many homes last week rising again. It has residents concerned that the problems that they had last week will be repeated.
Irene Delrusso is one of the residents concerned.
She lives in a bungalow on Fayette Avenue in Wayne, which had flooded once before in the six years she has lived here, but last week's waters were the highest yet, she said.
Now, she is watching the Pompton River, which is across the street from her home in normal times. Last week, it was inside her home.
She gave PIX11 News a tour, in which most of her furniture was stacked up on top of surfaces well above the floor.
Her bedroom showed signs of the flooding from last week.
"You can see the water line on the mattress at the bottom,” she said, pointing at a water line stain about half a foot above the floor, “and there was water over here, and there's still water coming out.”
Rain overnight on Dec. 17 and 18, fell so heavily that rescue boats had to evacuate Delrusso's street. There were similar scenes in at least a half dozen other towns along the Pompton, Passaic, and Hackensack Rivers, which rose eight feet above flood stage.
One home, on Riveredge Road in Lincoln Park, burned to the ground because the water rose so high, so fast, that firefighters could not reach it.
Now, that home is barely more than a field of rubble. Neighbors who know the 84-year-old woman who lived there said that she had gotten out okay, for which they are thankful.
They said they are less appreciative, though, of the prospect that the cleanup they are doing now may have to be repeated as waters rise again, Thursday night into Friday.
Valerie Simpson lives a few doors down from the home that had burned down.
“We've just got to take it one day at a time, and do the best we can,” she said.
She also called on the mayor of her town, David Runfeldt of Lincoln Park, to come to Riveredge Road, and check on residents, as they clean up, and as they face the prospect of having to do it all over again.
Simpson said that Mayor Runfeldt had yet to appear in the aftermath of last week’s floods.
PIX11 News contacted the mayor and has not yet heard back from him, or his office.
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