Massive hole in Mullica Hill causes flooding, home evacuations: officials
MULLICA HILL, N.J. - Authorities are investigating what caused a massive hole to open up and swallow a rural roadway in Gloucester County.
SkyFOX flew over the hole in Mullica Hill that caused part of North Main Street to cave in on Friday morning.
The collapse, according to authorities, caused water from Racoon Creek to flood parts of Old Mill.
"I was saying to my husband we’ve been looking for riverfront property. I said we might not have to get it," resident Deb Russo joked and then turned serious. "Usually, it’s just a trickle, it was like a river running through there and I couldn’t believe there was that much water."
Officials from Gloucester County Emergency Management said a small number of homes had power disruptions.
SkyFOX flew over the hole in Mullica Hill that caused part of North Main Street to cave in on Friday morning.
Three homes have been evacuated and no injuries have been reported, according to officials. By late Friday afternoon, officials deemed it was safe for the homeowners to return, if they chose to.
Water levels remain "extremely high" in areas surrounding Racoon Creek, including western neighborhoods.
Harrison Township Mayor Louis Manzo has declared a state of emergency to make funding available if needed for clean up and possible environmental concerns. He said the pipes in the embankment that are supposed to allow the water to reduce naturally into the stream began to clog up.
"A very small private road, that has an area with embankments 40 or 50 feet on either side - that on the upstream side of this, water was beginning to accumulate into this ravine, which is a natural process. Because of the geography of where these pipes are and the inability to get machinery down there and the natural workmanship has to occur, it's something that is an ongoing process," Mayor Manzo explained.
With the combination of major rain, especially over the last few months, the breach occurred.
"That water level had reached a point where clearly it had disintegrated the embankment to the point where it basically blew that portion of the roadway out," Manzo continued.