Star-Ledger Staff
All that was missing was a house smacking the bridge.
The gawkers with their camcorders were back, a governor was again inspecting the town's damage and the residents of Phillipsburg were wondering how they could have the worst flood in a half- century -- again.
In September, when a wayward cottage struck the bottom of the Phillipsburg Free Bridge and then- Gov. James McGreevey toured the decimated riverfront town, parents turned to their children and told them they might never again see a flood like that in their lifetime.
Yesterday they returned, vowing never to say never again.
The flood in September was the worst the town had seen since 1955. The flooding last night was even worse than September.
A reading of 35.8 feet at the free bridge was higher than the 33.45 feet recorded in September, but not as high as the 43.7 feet seen in 1955, said Phillipsburg Emergency Management Coordinator Richard Hay.
"It's getting to be an every-couple-months ordeal," said Bill Wright, owner of Jimmy's on the Delaware, a popular hot dog joint near the free bridge, as he tended to a wet basement.
"Thank God a house didn't come down," added Gene Connell, a laborer at SMB Construction, which has on office along the Delaware.
A riverfront youth center for boys to learn job skills remained mostly submerged yesterday. And emergency workers trotted out the same Road Closed and Ramp Flooded signs as before.
No injuries were reported, but there were a few arrests of people who police said disobeyed their orders to stay away from the still-rippling waters. Police even arrested Santa Claus -- well, a man with a white beard who was wearing a Santa hat, anyway.
Huddled alongside Wright's business was a scared and drenched groundhog that escaped the flood. Wright fed the critter hot dog rolls.
"He's our mascot," Wright said.
Next door, The Wardell took on boatloads of water.
The weekend's flooding was just the latest in a series of disasters to befall the business, a former hotel that reopened as a steakhouse and raw bar in November 2003.
There was the 1955 flood, of course, and the time in 1967 that the building was struck by a train -- only to burn to the ground in a fire two weeks later.
"We've seen fires, floods and train wrecks," owner Mary Ann Kobble said. "Sometimes, I think we're staying around just to see what is happening next."
Although the waters were higher than in September, there was less debris in the water to pound the bottom of the free bridge yesterday.
That's because much of the river debris had already washed down in the September flood, said Philip Mugavero, a Phillipsburg resident who chairs the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission.
Still, there was the occasional piece of dock or tree or barrel zooming past, or into, the bridge.
Mugavero was a scared 5-year-old boy when he saw the damage from the 1955 flood. Last year's flooding, which required $500,000 in emergency repairs to Delaware River bridges, brought back those anxious memories of 1955.
Phillipsburg residents Darren Buskirk, April Drake and her 4-year-old daughter Renee stood on a hill and looked down on the flooding that left brown water seemingly everywhere, and saw only the red roof of the submerged McDonald's just across the river in Easton, Pa.
Buskirk said they brought Renee, "so she can remember a little bit about it someday."
They did the same thing in September, thinking that Renee might never see a flood of that magnitude until she was at least in her 50s, but certainly not thinking she would see something worse less than seven months later.
Mike Frassinelli covers Warren County. He can be reached at mfras sinelli@starledger.com or (908) 475-1218.
© 2005 The Star-Ledger.