Parts of New Jersey frozen under floodwaters with more snow in store
WAYNE, N.J. -- New Jersey is preparing for more snow Monday night, as many already flood-ravaged communities fear they could be dealing with even more problems.
CBS New York's Christine Sloan reports from Wayne near the Willowbrook Mall, where the floodwaters now look like a sheet of ice.
Elsewhere in the Garden State, Marco Chavez was salting the walkway in front of the Fairfield home he shares with his grandmother. Their neighborhood flooded after last Tuesday's storm, and now it looks like an ice skating rink in the making.
"Very scary, so when you leave for work, you have to go very slowly just out of this street," he told Sloan.
There's a deluge of water on some streets around his home, much of it from the Pompton River that flooded homes on River Edge Drive. On other roadways, crunchy ice surrounds flooded streets.
"The river is literately right there and it rises up big time and goes in the backyard," Chavez said. "Basically, in the basement we took everything and put it upstairs."
Police in Fairfield warn residents to be extra cautious on flooded roads now turned into icy, slushy roadways.
"We're a little concerned, because we do have some roads in town that are still not passable. So it they're not passable by car, then they're not going to be plowable by truck," said Fairfield Officer Stacy Chiarolanza.
Back in Wayne, residents can't get in or out of their homes near Fayette and Fairfield, where the roadway is still under water. Police there said they've made 21 rescues.
Diana Congleton and her sister, a person with a disability, stayed behind.
"No power and with no power, there's no heat," Congleton said. "If they don't get it back on today, we're still in the car. We slept in the car last night."
Wayne police have set up a command center on Newark Pompton Turnpike, and they've been working nonstop to keep people safe. They're warning residents, may of them renting and new to the area, to heed the warnings.
"Please do not drive through our barricades, whether the road is flooded or it's been iced over and DPW hasn't been able to hit it with the salt yet. You may see roads that look passable, but they're not," said Chief Jack McNiff.
With nightfall, it's even more dangerous because salt and plow trucks are going to have a difficult time getting around -- with some expecting up to 4 inches of snow.
The Wayne Department of Public Works said crews will be out on the roads right before the snow starts falling.
Stick with our First Alert Weather team for the latest storm timeline and snow totals.
