My North Jersey, UnderWater

My dear Anna over at the Voice wrote to me about the flooding in New Jersey. I had heard something this morning about flooding in New Jersey, but it hadn’t occurred to me that it was taking place in the area I love deeply… the Passaic River/Paterson, NJ.

I flipped through the pictures of flooded parts around the river, areas that I lived so near to and so often visited. Kept thinking of the subject heading of her email “when did New Jersey become New Orleans?” Then I thought about the Army Corps of Engineers, who not too long ago warned that New York, along with Miami and NEw Orleans, are the areas at the highest risk in the country for damage from extreme weather. I also remembered an article Wayne had in the Village Voice a few weeks ago on how under prepared NYC is. Clearly so is New Jersey, just across the river.

Besides extreme storms, such as the one that caused much of this flooding, over-development (they build houses anywhere and everywhere) and the destruction of the wetlands have already been cited as contributing factors to this disaster.

In so many places in the world, they just ignore all the warning signs and all the knowledge, and keep on destroying natural buffers and barriers… keep selling off land to developers.. anyone who will pay a good price for a plot of land.

How are my North Jerseyan readers faring today?