Schools

Threat of Hurricane Sandy Closes Fair Lawn, Saddle Brook Schools on Monday, Tuesday

The superintendents in each district have cancelled school on Monday and Tuesday due to the threat of Hurricane Sandy.

By Zak Koeske
Email the author
October 28, 2012

8 Comments

‹ Back to Article

new

Embed | Share

7/18 Flood waters being pumped out from Memorial Middle School in Fair Lawn following Hurricane Irene which hit the east coast on Sunday, photographed on 09/01/2011.

Photos (1)

Photos

7/18 Flood waters being pumped out from Memorial Middle School in Fair Lawn following Hurricane Irene which hit the east coast on Sunday, photographed on 09/01/2011.

Credit Mitsu Yasukawa

Upload Photos and Videos

With Hurricane Sandy closing in on the area, Fair Lawn superintendent Bruce Watson and Saddle Brook superintendent Kathryn Fedina have chosen to close all schools in their respective communities on Monday and Tuesday.

Fair Lawn sent out a SwiftReach alert to all parents and posted the information on its website around 3 p.m. Saddle Brook followed suit a few hours later.

Fair Lawn emergency management coordinator Ira Marks said that extra precautions have been taken this year at Memorial Middle School, which suffered flood damage in Hurricane Irene and remained closed for a month following the storm.

In addition to sandbagging all entrances to the building, which was largely successful last year, the district's buildings and grounds crew has also sealed the school's vents.

Marks said water that rose above three feet and entered the building's vents caused the bulk of the damage suffered at Memorial last year.

"They’re doing their best to cover it and protect it," he said. "Will water still get in? I’m sure. But will it be as bad as last year? I hope not."

Rosenberg said the district is still in the process of preparing contingency plans should Memorial flood again and its students be forced to relocate elsewhere in the borough for classes.

Follow Fair Lawn-Saddle Brook Patch on Facebook and Twitter, and subscribe to receive our daily newsletter in your inbox each morning

Thanks. We'll email you the next time we update this story.

Go Figure

7:20 pm on Sunday, October 28, 2012

Fair Lawn seems to be well prepared for this storm. Kudos to all involved in the preparations and prayers for all those who will have to work in it.

*

7:28 pm on Sunday, October 28, 2012

Once again memorial pool will become a holding :pool of neighborhood fecal matter

Cornell Christianson

8:08 pm on Sunday, October 28, 2012

The Weather Channel says rain will start in Fair Lawn on Monday morning and the key event starts at 1pm when we will have "squalls" which are a sudden increase in wind speed, in our case suddenly rising from 25mph to 40mph. Looks like Monday afternoon is our worst moment of the storm. Looks like rain will taper off by Tuesday night and end by Wednesday so we can have Halloween.

Wayne Robbins

8:15 pm on Sunday, October 28, 2012

I hope so too Cornell - yet, there may be a problem if we don't have any power - of course, that would make it very spooky...just what Halloween needs.

Be Safe All!!

Deleted because of harassment

8:14 pm on Sunday, October 28, 2012

Currently, the rain totals are predicted to be between 2 and 6 inches. The river is low at the moment, so the chances of an extreme flood event does not seem to be bad. However, another period of extreme rain, as we had last year, could bring it back up.

John Jones

9:15 pm on Sunday, October 28, 2012

They already have the flood gates wide open on the Pompton Dam in Wayne. I expect Memorial School to flood again. The Board of Ed better start planning a new wing at TJ.