Renata Silberblatt (left) and JP Liban of the Dewberry Engineering Project team helped residents from towns along the Route 130 corridor point out places with flooding problems during storms as part of a public workshop on April 24.
Through the early morning hours of Jan. 10 last year, it just kept raining, forcing evacuations of residents in flood-prone areas of Delran, Cinnaminson, Palmyra, Riverton and Riverside as the tides of the Delaware River and Rancocas and Pennsauken creeks crested higher than Superstorm Sandy in 2012 and Hurricane Ida in 2021.
“There was 20 inches of water in my basement and backyard, and the Delran fire department spent all night pumping out water for me and my neighbors,” recalled Bob Gilbert – a Stewart Avenue resident in the Riverside Park section of town – the following day.
The severe rainstorm also flooded the Extension Park neighborhood on the border of Cinnaminson and Palmyra and in the East Riverton section of Cinnaminson, while in Riverside Park, several homes were left uninhabitable and first responders had to conduct three water rescues.
Residents from the riverfront towns had an opportunity to help prevent future flooding problems during a public workshop at the Delran municipal building on April 24. Hosted by Burlington County and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), the session enabled attendees to point out particular areas on maps with severe flooding during storms.
The workshop was part of the Resilient NJ program designed to address climate change-related hazards, including increasing temperatures, drought, flooding, hurricanes and sea-level rise.
“We will use the information you give us to make land use decisions in your community,” explained Keyana Aghamirzadeh, of the Dewberry Engineering team, at the workshop. The team was contracted by the DEP to lead the Route 130 Corridor Resiliency Project, in partnership with the county’s Engineering and Planning Office.
Once the report is completed, it will need “to be incorporated into the master plans of the municipalities,” Aghamirzadeh told the more than 60 concerned residents at the workshop, one of three held in the county. The first one was on April 10, for the towns of Burlington City, Burlington Township and Florence, and the second was on April 22, to focus on the communities of Willingboro, Beverly and Edgewater Park.
“This hits home for me,” said county Commissioner Tyler Burrell, who was president of Delran council for four years. “In 2022, we petitioned the state for money to study the region.”
He told the Riverside Park residents at the workshop that “this is not going to solve the river problem in Delran,” referring to where the Rancocas Creek flows into the Delaware River and floods out that neighborhood during storms. He added that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is studying that area.
“Your feedback will inform the vulnerability analysis, allow us to gain a deeper understanding of community assets, and assist us in understanding what kind of resilience projects are important to you,” Aghamirzadeh told the crowd. Attendees were then invited to a side room with tables so they could point out problem areas and provide information.
As part of the NJ Resilient project, the county is partnering with the state DEP and 11 county municipalities to assess climate change-related hazards in towns within the Route 130 Corridor and make plans for improved resiliency to future floods and severe storms, spokesperson David Levinsky said.
“This is the start to important conversations about climate change threats facing our communities and residents,” offered county Commissioner Deputy Director Allison Eckel, liaison to the Department of Resource Conservation. “This planning initiative is designed to identify potential hazards, along with science-based solutions to make our Route 130 communities more resilient and ready for future storms, floods and other extreme weather events.
“This is an issue that requires multiple levels of government to work together to develop regional plans, and we are pleased to report that is happening in Burlington County.”
The project is the first undertaken by the DEP’s Office of Climate Resilience that involves contiguous communities not directly on the Atlantic Coast.
“This planning initiative is focused on Delaware River communities along the Route 130 corridor,” Eckel said, “but we know the impacts of climate change and extreme weather are broad and can create multiple threats, including tornados, wildfires and flash floods.”
