Reconstructing Floyd

Here's an excerpt from the Lit. Journalism piece.


“I’d like a coffee with cream and two sugars.”

That sounds odd to me, not that I’m ordering coffee. It’s odd that I’m ordering coffee here in the new Dunkin Donuts in the town of Bound Brook, New Jersey. A year ago, the ground had not been broken for building. Instead dreams were broken six years prior by Hurricane Floyd.

This particular spot had a cinderblock skeleton and some rubble next it after the floodwaters receded. During the flood, this area had upwards of 20 feet of water surrounding the structures. Yet that was only the beginning. A short time after a fire broke out and left only that skeleton.

Now, I’m ordering coffee at this same spot. Has the town resurged? Councilman Carey Pilato believes the answer is a resounding yes. “The significance here is a national chain is willing to invest in Bound Brook,” she says. I leave Dunkin Donuts and walk east on Main St.

I can still spot the watermark on certain buildings, over fifteen feet high in some cases. It is hard to imagine but this area resembled an Americanized Venice, Italy seven years ago. St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Chuch roughly equated to St. Marks Basilica. Police rescue boats acted as gondolas transporting people through the sunken town. For nearly a week the borough slumbered beneath flood waters.

The storm hit businesses the hardest in Bound Brook. According to the Bound Brook Business Improvement District, the flood waters contributed to an estimated nine million dollars of damage to local merchats. Government aid trickled in at a pace much slower than the flood waters. The Federal Emergency Management Agency granted thirteen million dollars in aid to households affected by Hurricane Floyd; businesses had to apply for loans through the Small Business Adminstration.

Pyllis Pournaras , former chair of the Bound Brook Business Improvement District, shared concerns over the lack of financial assistance provided to local businesses. “This town really took it on the chin,” Pournaras said about the flood of lack of funding six years ago. Yet the town has changed drasticaly since she made these remarks.

The parking lot for the NJ Transit rail station is on my right, almost directly across from the Dunkin Donuts. In this commuter lot, the borough has redevelopment plans. In the future this lot will house condominiums and a parking garage.