Superstorm Sandy’s winds knocked plenty of trees down around Hamilton, including at Veterans Park. (Staff photo by Rob Anthes.)
Superstorm Sandy blew into town Oct. 29 and was gone in less than a day, leaving power outages and downed trees, but no injuries, in its wake.
Acting Mayor John Ricci said about half the township—20,000 houses—lost power during the height of the storm and that it took more than a week to restore power to about 1,000 locations scattered throughout the township.
Residents ventured out in the days following the storm to find empty shelves at food stores and long lines at gas stations. But things returned to normal in a matter of weeks.
Most of the public buildings lost power during the storm and the police station ran on backup generators.
Remarkably, about five township employees stayed on duty all night to man the Hamstat lines, although few people called the municipal help line during the storm.
Ricci said no public properties were severely damaged, but that a lot of trees, utility poles and wires came crashing down.
Township workers drove huge dump trucks through the streets clearing debris, and PSEG crews rushed to restore power. Even in late November, public works crews still were working into evenings to remove the mounds of brush lining residential streets. Ricci said the fallen branches and trees are being taken to the ecological center to form the biggest pile of wood chips and mulch the township has ever seen.
“It’s just a monumental amount,” Ricci said.
Many major roads were closed for days after the storm. Route 33 was closed due to fallen power lines for two days.
The Broad Street Park area was hit particularly hard, with many very old trees falling down.
Schools were re-opened a week after Sandy, despite part of the roof having been torn off Alexander Elementary School.
One disaster that did not materialize was flooding. In anticipation of the storm, the township reduced the water level at Martin’s Lake in Veterans Park, and they monitored the Delaware River and Assunpink Creek, as well. But neither waterway overspilled its banks and no one had to get their basement pumped out.
Instead, all the damage came from the wind. The strongest gust was measured at 68 miles an hour. The high winds forced the township to pull work crews back during the height of the storm. Only police officers remained on duty, patrolling the streets, with firefighters and ambulances on standby.
Although the township did not open a shelter, Colonial Fire opened a firehouse for anyone to come in and run medical equipment that needed power as well as warm up and recharge phones and equipment. About 40 people took advantage of the power station, Ricci said.
In the days following the storm, health inspectors paid visits to local restaurants to make sure the establishments that lost power got rid of all their spoiled food. Big grocery stores like Acme and Shoprite had generators and were not forced to throw anything away, but smaller shops had to get rid of tons of food.
There was at least one more far-reaching effect of the storm: Mayoral aide Dominic DeGregory said the annual Winter Wonderland at Kuser Mansion is being scaled back. Because township workers are still clearing debris, they have no time to set up Santa’s village, the Holiday Express train or the “living Christmas tree” that normally decorate Kuser Park.
The celebration will take place Dec. 14 from 6 to 8 p.m. and Dec. 15 and 16 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Santa will greet children inside the mansion, and visitors will have to bring their own cameras to take pictures with Santa. The model railroad display in the basement of the mansion will be open as usual.
