'The Town was Spared' but Fallen Trees, Downed Power Lines Remain Nuisance

Hurricane Irene bowled through Glen Rock early Sunday morning with high wind and heavy rains causing flooding and knocking down trees that took out power and shut down roads.

A massive tree fell, reportedly in the early morning hours of Sunday, one resident said, shutting down maple and Ackerman avenues.

"There are lots of branches down, and some big trees," Mayor John van Keuren said, noting that in one particular nasty case a tree in the backyard of a Central Avenue home fell, causing extensive damage to the home.

The mayor said flooding was particularly bad in the areas around Dunham Place and Chatham Place, as well as Prospect Street in the area of Grove Street and Locust Avenue.

Flooding hadn't caused any streets to become impassable, but was "bad enough that you drive very cautiously," van Keuren said.

Thought trees across the borough compromised power lines, no fires resulted, said Glen Rock Volunteer Firefighter Perry DeGregorio.

Firefighters were called to the firehouse last night around 11 p.m. and spent the night there.

When Glen Rock patch spoke to DeGregorio he had just been allowed to leave the firehouse after about 14 hours of duty.

"Thank God there were no structure fires," he said. "The ground was so saturated that a lot of these trees were just toppling over... A lot of big oak trees fell, which is strange."

DeGregorio, a Rock Road resident, said that Glen Rock was lucky for the most part.

"The town was spared," he said.

Gary Stevens, with the Glen Rock Volunteer Ambulance Corps, also thought the borough, which was prepared for the worst, had mostly gotten lucky.

"[The ambulance corps] got no calls last night, and no calls all morning," Stevens said. "We're all on alert and ready to go, but nothing came up."

Most businesses were closed in the borough this morning, but some notable exceptions were  and , which were both serving customers at the height of the storm Sunday.

Employee John Scott said the store opened at about 8 a.m. — a little later than usual — but had served a dozen or so customers by about 9 a.m. 

PSE&G is reporting that more than 10,000 customers were without power in Bergen County, and it would be working on restoring electricity to areas with the largest number of customers in the dark, as well as hospitals, and police and fire stations. 

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