New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill climbed onto an emergency water vehicle in Camden on Tuesday with Camden Fire Chief Jesse Flax. That vehicle, called the High Water One, was used by local emergency responders on Monday to rescue 14 people from the flooded streets of Camden, Flax said.
The vehicle had arrived in the city one week earlier, just in time for what officials said was the worst flooding they had ever seen in the city, including from Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
“I’ve never seen this in my whole career,” said Flax, who has worked in the city for three decades. “I’ve seen bad fires, I’ve seen a lot of different things. But I’ve never seen it flood in this capacity.”
No one was reported injured among 1,000 calls to emergency services.
Sherrill thanked emergency responders and comforted Maria Perez, a Camden resident recovering from surgery who worked with her neighbors to fight the flooding by “telling them what to do and keeping them calm.”
“I wanted them to keep plastic bags on their feet, too, because you don’t know what’s in that water. … I’m so glad that we had such a great team,” Perez, a member of the Camden schools advisory board, said in an interview.
The governor’s visit came just a little more than an hour after she signed legislation in Salem County aimed at data centers. She said that very work can help prevent strain on the power grid during future storms and that the electrical grid is “top of mind” for her.
“We are seeing these extreme weather events more and more and more frequently,” said Sherrill, who was dealt a historic snowstorm just weeks into her term and has recently seen a deadly heat wave. After her stop in Camden, she went to a BJ’s Wholesale Club store in Monmouth County where a roof fell in from Monday’s flooding.
One of the bills Sherrill signed into law on Tuesday creates a new ratepayer class and rate structure for data centers that is meant to ensure they pay for their own energy. Another creates more oversight for utility companies’ grid upgrades to try to save money.
“We’ve set them aside in a separate class of utility users, so that if we have storms like this, they will be first impacted, not normal rate payers,” Sherrill said.
Data centers have caused concern on both sides of the aisle in South Jersey, with towns including Medford taking steps to block their development locally. But according to county spokesperson Dan Keashen, Camden did not have widespread power outages during the storm, just a handful that were rectified the same day.
So what about the damage in Camden?
Sherrill said residents should report damage through the New Jersey Office of Emergency Management so the state can calculate how much federal assistance to request.
“There are technical things we need to meet,” she said. “I think we probably will, but we’re collecting that now.”
American Red Cross workers in Camden on Tuesday were providing cleaning supplies like mops, bleach cleaners, gloves, and tarps — as well as snacks and water, said Diane Concannon, the organization’s communications director for the New Jersey region.
“Flooding is horrible for any family … because everyone wants to be able to save everything,” she said.
While the rain was intense, it cleared up quickly because the city has maintained its sewers so well, Sherrill said.
“They have done a really good job here in Camden with some of these resiliency efforts,” she said. “It’s why this wasn’t worse.”
