Hours of heavy rain led to flooding at Columbia High School in Maplewood, a power outage at a West Orange middle school and a nightmare commute Monday with roads flooded and NJ Transit experiencing hour long delays.
A flood warning was issued for much of northern New Jersey and floods were reported in many areas, which traditionally have flooded during heavy rainfall events.
Power outages were reported in East Orange, Irvington, Maplewood and West Orange, where power was lost at Liberty Middle School. Students were brought to the cafeteria and gym for the duration.
The South Orange Maplewood School District opted for a half day after the Columbia High School cafeteria, which provides lunches for a number of district schools, was flooded.
Schools with grades kindergarten through 12th grade had a four-hour day while pre-Ks had a three-hour day. All afterschool activities including athletic activities were canceled.
Columbia Principal Frank Sanchez said the district’s custodians and maintenance team worked for hours to fix leaks and deal with the problems in the cafeteria.
Superintendent of Schools Kevin Gilbert, in a note to district families and staff, said the CHS Food Services Team will temporarily relocate to South Orange Middle School and Maplewood Middle School so that all elementary school students will receive their lunches for the remainder of this week.
CHS students will not be able to eat in the high school cafeteria this week so two alternative sites within the building will be arranged, one for breakfast and one for lunch, Gilbert said.
“I realize that disruptions such as flooding in a building and their impact on the school day can create challenges for families as well as our staff. Please know that I greatly appreciate your cooperation and understanding,” Gilbert said.
More than 3 inches of rain fell on Essex County in a 24 hour period with some areas seeing more than 4 inches with gusts of wind reportedly reaching 40 mph were also recorded, according to the National Weather Service
A downed tree in the overhead wires in Maplewood caused 60 minute delays in both directions on the Morris and Essex line.
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