Storm damage leaves South Jersey properties 'unrecognizable'

As the storm slammed into Clarksboro, Pam Kafka took shelter in her Kings Highway basement.

"I heard the wind blowing and things cracking and breaking," the retired teacher recalls. "It sounded like a hurricane."

Emerging from the house about 10 minutes later, Kafka, 64, discovered that most of the landscape she loved was gone.

Hundreds of trees on her family's property were uprooted, twisted, and broken - nearly four acres of dense woods so splintered and stripped that the property barely looks like home.

Three of the four houses owned by family members on the property are damaged; the one Pam's husband, Rob, grew up in lost much of its roof, sustained water damage, and may be beyond repair.

The landscape "is unrecognizable," says Rob Kafka, 63, a retired Gloucester County probation officer who has been married to Pam for 38 years. The couple have five grown children and 11 grandchildren.

"Everything," adds Kafka, "looks unfamiliar."

More than two weeks after the June 23 storm - which generated straight-line winds of up to 85 m.p.h. - the cleanup continues for the Kafkas and other Clarksboro residents, as well as for people in other South Jersey communities.

Damage was localized but occurred throughout the region. Particularly hard hit was Clarksboro, the venerable village where Cohawkin Road meets Kings Highway in East Greenwich Township, Gloucester County.

"Like Godzilla walked through," says resident Nancy Carter, whose church, Evangelical United Methodist, lost its steeple in the storm.

"You can try to describe it to people, but until they see it, they don't know," says Jason Jones, owner of New Life Landscaping, in nearby Mantua Township. "It's insane."

I saw what Jones meant when I visited Clarksboro last Thursday. Bright blue tarps topped roof after damaged roof, and private contractors and public works crews were busy on seemingly every street.

The air whined with power tools and the beep-beep-beep of heavy equipment. Leaves on uprooted trees were turning yellow; numerous lawns and curbs held piles of debris.

Although the power was back on, the main roads were open and busy, and repairs were underway all over the place, it was clear that something bad had happened in Clarksboro.

"This storm was unprecedented," says township Mayor Dale Archer, noting that 18,000 cubic yards of debris have been removed so far.

Archer, who lost 14 trees at his home in the township's Mickleton section, outlined the impacts throughout East Greenwich: 3,000 trees lost; 100 utility poles toppled; more than 500 homes damaged; and 16 homes and three businesses rendered uninhabitable or unusable.

"We had zero fatalities, and we're very thankful there were no serious injuries," he says, adding that the emergency and follow-up response by professionals as well as the community has been "inspirational."

But damage to township property (including police cruisers and public works equipment), as well as labor and other costs associated with the storm and the cleanup, so far totals $1.1 million.

Archer also points out that the $20.2 million total damage estimate for Gloucester, Camden, Burlington, and Atlantic Counties exceeds the $12.4 million qualification threshold for federal disaster assistance. (Rep. Donald Norcross said state officials are expected to send a disaster declaration to President Obama some time this week.)

"We need emergency help," says Pam Kafka, who, like her husband, worries that it could take years to restore the landscape around them.

"I played in the woods back here when I was a little kid," says Rob, who with his wife is a member of the Providence Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Mantua.

Faith - as well as family, friends, and caring neighbors - has helped them cope with the storm's brutal aftermath, the Kafkas say.

"Our first reaction was just to run, to mow it all down and get out of here, because it's just so painful," Pam says.

"But all things being equal," adds Rob, "we want to stay."