Shrewsbury River Flood Warning System to be Installed

Written by MC Public Information Office Monday, 08 February 2010 17:40

Newsbrief - Monmouth County

County partners with towns, Monmouth University and Stevens Institute

FREEHOLD, NJ – The Monmouth County Office of Emergency Management is gearing up for the installation of an automated flood warning system in eastern Monmouth County.

Placing five automated flood gauge units at key locations along the Shrewsbury and Navesink rivers will provide the project’s partner communities of Fair Haven, Highlands, Long Branch, Little Silver, Middletown, Monmouth Beach, Oceanport, Rumson, Red Bank and Sea Bright with critical information during severe weather events.

“We are getting ready to put a Shrewsbury River Flood Warning System that will provide advance notice of changes in water levels along two major waterways,” said Freeholder John P. Curley, liaison to the county’s Office of Emergency Management.. “The information provided by the gauges will allow county and municipal emergency managers to have better knowledge of conditions prior to making decisions about potential flooding. They can decide when it is best to divert traffic or evacuate neighborhoods if conditions warrant such action.”

The first gauge is scheduled to be installed in late February on the Gooseneck Bridge, between the boroughs of Little Silver and Oceanport.

Once installed, each unit will provide real-time tide levels and weather data to a central monitoring station via radio. Monmouth University and Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, also partners in the project, will work to receive, decode and make the data available to local municipal emergency managers for review.

“It is common to see monitoring projects started after a disaster occurs – as a ‘lesson learned’ when losses are catastrophic,” said Monmouth County Emergency Management Coordinator Glenn Mason. “It is important to recognize that Monmouth County and the participating communities are being proactive to help avoid catastrophic losses.”

The 10 communities along the two rivers have a residential population of 60,000 residents and an estimated $1.8 billion of insured private properties.

Since 1992, 12 storms have been declared federal disasters. All but one of those storms was flood-related.

The project is being funded by a $90,000 Emergency Management Performance Grant from FEMA to the New Jersey State Police. The grant requires an in-kind match that is being met by the county’s Office of Emergency Management and the community partners. After the first year of the monitoring effort, the municipal partners and the county will each be responsible for a $1,500 annual contribution toward the maintenance of the system.

“Data collected from the Shrewsbury River Flood Warning System will ultimately contribute to improved information to better understand the river’s hydrology and flood forecasting,” said Mariana Leckner, Ph.D., Certified Floodplain Manager, Leckner Consulting, LLC.