Hoboken Wakes Up to Flooding, Destruction and Power Outages After Sandy Ravages the City

Hobokenites awoke to widespread flooding, power outages and severe damage to cars and property on Tuesday morning, in the wake of Sandy.

Flooding was reported throughout the city, with the Hudson River still flowing freely through many streets, up to four feet in some places. The flood waters—a combination of sewage and rain—was receding as of Monday afternoon, after high tide.

The city extended the mandatory curfew around town until 6 p.m. on Tuesday, because live wires were down, branches and debris were still falling and some traffic signals remained hanging by a thread.

The Hoboken Volunteer Ambulance Corps received an unusually high amount of calls, said HVAC President Tommy Molta. The ambulance corps lost one of its vehicles to the flood water—with a patient inside who had to be evacuated by boat—and had to transport all patients out of town, after Hoboken University Medical Center was evacuated Sunday night.

"It went as well as expected," Molta said. The ambulance corps was unable to respond to calls as they came, because many streets in town weren't passable.

"The challenge is," said Molta, "you can't ask anybody else for help because everybody is going through the same thing. It's like 'tag, you're it.'"

The Hoboken University Medical Center sustained heavy flooding, with water as high as five feet. This could have devestating effects for the hospital's emergency room.

The municipal garage sustained flooding on Monday night as well.

Mayor Dawn Zimmer, who surveyed the damage with city officials on Tuesday morning, called the National Guard on Monday night. As of Tuesday morning, they were still expected to bring vehicles to town, but hadn't arrived yet.

Widespread power outages were still reported in Hoboken, for roughly 15,000 residents. As of Tuesday morning, it was still unclear when power would be restored.

Roughly 150 people were at the Wallace shelter on Tuesday morning. The shelter lost power on Sunday night after the back up aggregator stopped working. City Hall lost power as well, but the Office of Emergency Management as well as the Community Emergency Response Team ran operations all night—into Tuesday morning—with help from a back up aggregator.