Strange name for a town, isn't it? Manville. It was originally named after the owners of "Johns-Manville" the asbestos kings. The town should consider changing its name. Johns-Manville is not a proud heritage. Johns-Manville filled this country with lung-destroying asbestos and made plenty of money doing it. I don't think the plant is operating anymore. But, as a girl growing up in Manville I remember how every year there was a father of a senior high school student that died of lung cancer. Just one. Every year. I think Princeton University grad students did a study of it. I remember them sitting in the living room speaking with my parents. My father worked for Union Carbide. He was lucky. He lived to be 80 before lung cancer took him.
But, as to Ida.
I think the year was 1971. I worked as a dental assistant for a local dentist. Back then dentists trained their own assistants. I didn't do what dental assistants do today, but, it was a good job for a high school student. It was a normal Saturday when I got up and readied myself for work. I hopped in my 1960 Chevy Impala with a straight six-cylinder and set out to drive to work like every other Saturday. I came done Kennedy Blvd., but, when I got to Main Street there was a river running there rather than a street to drive on. I didn't have work that day.
Hurricane Doria came through the day before and when I arrived home, my mother said, I don't think you are going to have work today and pointed to the television. To make a long story short, the government went to work immediately with an ongoing clean-up. The homes in a section of town called "Lost Valley" where the Selody Sod Farm grew just a foot or so above the Raritan River Canal were all flooded. Some people waded through the water to safety and contracted dysentery. They were treated at the local hospital because they had no homes that were safe.
The Army Corp. came in within a week or so and dredged the Raritan River and its canal to make them deeper. Then the county and state kicked in some money and a new railroad bridge was built with an underpass for cars, but, this time it had a pump house to remove water that might accumulate there. All those changes to the landscape held beautifully until Ida.
Fifty years.
There was something like nearly 11 inches that fell on Manville in just a couple of hours. There was no place to run. The Raritan River once again assaulted the small Middle-Class town where people work hard for a living and had at one time risked their lives to bring home a paycheck to their family by working in an asbestos plant.
The Climate Crisis is upon us in a very big way. This little town is suffering for the sins of society in not heeding the warning of scientists for nearly as long as this return to flooding for Manville. The 1960s was the year everyone thought the climate crisis would be respected and change would take place. But, the petroleum industry had designs on profits at any cost. Today, the country is paying for those excesses.
It warmed my heart to see President Biden on the streets of Manville talking to the citizens. They are good people. Hardworking people that love their children and embrace the family as the center of their daily lives. I am confident that the presidential visit meant a great deal to them.
Seeing my old hometown once again assaulted by a once tamed river, only drove home the point to me that this is a national emergency and the change MUST COME.
September 7, 2021
Manville - The clean-up from Ida (click here) in the hard-hit town of Manville is far from over.
On Wednesday, a day after President Joe Biden toured the destruction, the Federal Emergency Management Agency was assisting residents who lost everything.
CBS2’s Meg Baker was on Alice Street, which dead ends to the Raritan River. She saw a mini van that was completely submerged and spoke to the owner about his horrifying experience trying to save his relatives and pets.
“We lost everything. Our cars are under water. What we are wearing right now is what we have. We lost our animals, which drowned, and you just can’t imagine the loss,” Kurt Jelenek said.
Jelenek said the flood water went from his ankles to his shoulders in a matter of minutes.
“Have you ever been hit by a wave in the ocean? It’s your worst nightmare when you see a wall of grey at night and you realize you’re going to get hit and you grab on to what you can,” Jelenek said.
Baker met Jelenek at the Manville Library, where FEMA representatives are assisting locals. He said the website wasn’t working and he didn’t get a clear answer on what assistance will be given.
“There going to try to help with the after-expenses, what insurance doesn’t pay, and that’s where the real problem is. Insurance won’t pay anything,” Jelenek said. “Here in Manville, most people are listed not in a flood zone, but somebody forgot to tell the water.”...
