New Jersey slammed after two straight days of torrential rain
NEW JERSEY (WABC) -- New Jersey was hit hard Monday and Tuesday night after severe thunderstorms.
Hawthorne, New Jersey was devoured by flooding on both nights.
Mark Sokol filmed video from his business that looked like a running river.
Brown water gushed right outside his window.
"The brook goes underneath this building complex, which was a bomb factory during WWII. And they built it in a hurry so they built it on top of the brook. And there's like a tunnel pipe where the brook goes under and when that gets full of water it backs up," Sokol said.
After the water receded, the parking lot was completely destroyed. People who own businesses nearby say there was serious water damage.
"You're just fighting nature here because the water pressure gets underneath the asphalt," one business owner said.
It looks like it was torn up by a jackhammer.
"The storms are getting worse I mean I've never seen nothing like the sheer power and force that was ripping through here with the water," Hawthorne resident Tim Fierro said.
Two straight days of torrential rain caused the Goffle Brook to overflow and shut down roads.
In Paterson, it was a similar ordeal with at least 20 people needing to be rescued from a storm that broke the road.
"Fact if you go to 21st Avenue and Plum, the manhole cover had just risen up as a result of water pressure. It was intense - really intense," Andre Sayegh said.
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