Residents can return to Hoboken and Jersey City; Meadowlands Hospital in Secaucus takes in patients from other towns; Reader photos

HUDSON COUNTY — How is your neighborhood doing? Residents and our reporters took photos of the storm damage around Hudson County, so click to view them.
See your city’s website for updates including lists of flooded streets and updated information about shelters.
In Hoboken and Jersey City, the mayors said that residents can return. In Hoboken, Mayor Zimmer suggested residents wait until after 6 p.m.
On Sunday, Hoboken residents were out surveying the damage. The line at 7/11, one of the only stores open for residents to buy coffee, was jam-packed.
The southwest portion of the city received large amounts of flooding, with some of the water damage on Newark Street reaching as far east as Garden Street.
The area surrounding the New Jersey Transit terminal near Pier A Park was flooded at approximately 10 a.m. However, that appeared to be the only area of the city where the Hudson River posed a serious threat.
“I expected the Hudson River water to come over the wall,” said resident Mark Bratman. “We’re lucky it didn’t.”
Officials feared that the city would receive flooding from both sides of Hoboken, with water piling up in the west and water surging from the Hudson River in the east. The downtown portion of Sinatra Drive was dry on Sunday morning.
Washington Street is returning to normal (except now, there’s parking available), and bars without flooding are permitted to open.
“It’s business as usual in at least half of Hoboken,” Zimmer said in a release.
Streets were still barricaded throughout the city Sunday afternoon, and residents were advised not to walk in flooded areas because of the potential of downed, live wires hitting the water.
Meanwhile, Meadowlands Hospital in Secaucus treated a number of patients with their mobile triage center at Huber Street School, which served as a shelter. Patients from all parts of Hudson County including North Bergen, Weehawken, and West New York were taken to the Hospital in a SWAT truck due to flooding on the Meadowlands Parkway where the hospital is located.
The hospital was working off of generators but has enough power for seven days.
“We did have a patient come in labor that went to the remote site first as well as a couple of chest pain patients and routine treat and release patients.,” said Tom Gregorio.
Keep reading HudsonReporter.com and follow us on Twitter @HobokenReporter for constant updates. – By Ray Smith, Adriana Fernandez & Caren Matzner

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