The National Weather Service has placed northern New Jersey under a flash flood watch beginning Sunday evening and running into Monday — and this time, the storm is not arriving at a functioning landscape. It is arriving at roads with asphalt in pieces, drainage culverts already proven too small, and a ground that has absorbed 3 to 5 inches of rain in parts of Hunterdon, Morris, Sussex, and Warren counties within the past 48 hours. The watch follows two back-to-back storm waves that struck Bergen and Passaic counties on July 27 and 29, producing 17 water rescues in Hawthorne alone, the evacuation of 75 people — including toddlers in two daycare centers — in neighboring Woodland Park, and the physical collapse of a pavement section on Wagaraw Road whose culvert simply ran out of room. Meteorologists say the setup for Sunday night mirrors the same warm, humid air colliding with an incoming cold front that generated this week’s destruction.
For residents still pumping out basements and waiting for road crews, that is not a repeat of a threat. It is an amplification of one.
Monday Night in Bergen County: Route 208 Underwater, 17 Rescues in a Single Borough
The first wave arrived July 27. Fast-moving storms swept through Bergen County during the evening commute, flooding the northbound lanes of Route 208 at Goffle Road in Hawthorne and trapping multiple vehicles in standing water — including one car that was nearly halfway submerged. Video from the scene showed drivers wading away from cars that were not going anywhere.
The Hawthorne Fire Department responded to more than 20 calls for service that night. Firefighters carried out 17 water rescues, many of them concentrated in and around the Goffle Brook, which had overflowed its banks and routed through streets, parking lots, and road surfaces. The department required assistance from the Wyckoff Fire Department’s high-water rescue vehicle to reach some locations…