Can you believe it’s been a decade since that frightning Monday evening in July 2004, when torrential downpours hit this area, causing major floods, a host of dam failures and millions of dollars in property damage?
That evening, July 12, 2004, stunned residents watched in horror as the deluge just wouldn’t stop; more than a foot of rain dropped in some areas. The National Weather Service said that the waters of the southwest branch of the Rancocas Creek in Medford peaked at an all-time high, (surpassing even the flood of 1939, which devastated the area).
People watched helplessly as cars, canoes and all manner of personal property washed away before their eyes. During the height of the storm, many unlucky travelers were stranded as raging floodwaters from area streams and lakes rushed down streets in towns like Medford, Medford Lakes, Southampton and Tabernacle.
(My own son, Matt, 19 at the time, was scheduled to drive from our Medford home to Tabernacle – about 10 miles away – to teach a music lesson that evening. He was all set to go and was less-than-thrilled when I suggested (actually insisted) that he cancel the lesson and stay home instead. And that was before I knew how bad conditions were! Thank goodness he listened to me.)
At one point during the storm, my husband and I ventured out in the car to check out the neighborhood. We barely made it around the corner – we had never seen anything like the rising waters, and we quickly returned to the safety of our home.
Later, we were scared out of our wits when the doorbell rang in the middle of the night and we were greeted by a Medford police officer with a flashlight, telling us that we might have to evacuate the premises. (We ended up being allowed to stay.)
The Central Record that week (July 15, 2004 edition) had the story of a man who had been driving along New Freedom Road in Medford, when his car was washed off the flooded road and he ended up spending that night on the roof of a building until he was rescued on Tuesday morning by people passing in a canoe.
Another front page story in that edition told about a brother and sister who had a harrowing experience at the intersection of Stokes Road and Lenape Trail in Medford Lakes. A torrent of rising water forced the siblings to climb on the roof of their SUV, where they waited two hours before rescuers could reach them.
The next morning, our photographer captured images of washed up canoes and kayaks that littered the bridge at Jackson Road in Medford. He took pictures of vehicles that had been washed away in the storm and ended up in a heap at the corner of Stokes Road in Medford Lakes.
Lakefront homes were left in disrepair, docks had simply disappeared, treasured personal belongings were in ruins, valuable dams had been washed away, vital sewer systems had been compromised, power outages were rampant and giant sinkholes blocked passage on many major roads.
Amazingly, no one lost their lives. But it was a mess, for sure.
In the ensuing months and years, there was FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) involvement, lawsuits over dam failures, massive clean-up projects and major reconstruction of beaches, dams and roads.
And now, 10 years later, you’d be hard-pressed to find many signs of that long-ago storm.
But a powerful reminder of that awful night did survive: A canoe wrapped around a tree in Medford Lakes stands today (at Jackson Park) as a symbol of the destructive nature of that awful storm that became known as the 1,000-Year flood. I like to think maybe that bent canoe stands as a reminder of the resilience of the residents of our towns. When stormwaters sent that metal boat crashing into that tree with such force, it bent but it didn’t break.
Yes, it was changed forever, but there it still stands, high up in a tree – a fitting bit of wreckage from a storm survived.
