Hurricane Irene Leaves Widespread Flooding in Princeton

Flooding and downed trees and power lines made it very difficult to drive in or out of Princeton Sunday.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Irene, Princeton's many waterways, small and large, overflowed their banks, flooding bridges and low-lying areas.

One hapless driver had to abandon a car right in the middle of a flooded Harrison Street, just beyond the Lake Carnegie bridge.  Another truck driver stopped for moment to contemplate the orange traffic cones that barred his way to Kingston on Route 27... then drove right through the cones and the police tape to the other side.

The disruption was so widespread that Washington Road became one of the few viable routes in or out of Princeton.  Routes 1 and 206 were closed in several places; NJ Transit decided to shut down entirely on Monday;  Mercer County and Princeton government offices will be closed;  Princeton University will be closed for all but essential personnel. 

There were pockets of power outage around the town.  PSE&G repair crews were so busy that a recorded message promised that any reported outages would be investigated sometime before September 4!

While the damage from Hurricane Irene was in many ways not as bad as predicted, it is not over.  There was so much water that Lake Carnegie and the D&R Canal merged into a single muddy body of water.  Officials predict the Delaware River will crest tomorrow at 24 feet above normal levels, since rainwaters from upstream have yet to reach New Jersey.

About the Author

Donna Liu

Founder, AllPrinceton

Donna Liu is a digital journalist who has lived in Princeton with her family since 2002.  She founded AllPrinceton in 2010 as an online hub for community news and information.  At Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, she built UChannel - an online archive of public affairs lectures in academia.  Before that she established and managed CNN International's Asia Production Center in Hong Kong.