Newsletter Updates

» saved from another flood

Thursday, May 03, 2007 - After the Nor’easter came through on April 15th, one of the church members drove his big truck to the campus to survey the damage to the campus of Zarephath. The road to Zarephath, Canal Rd, was still closed, covered with a layer of mud. The campus was covered with water so that most of the roads were impassable. He said that the only road that was clear was the road to the college and the Zarephath Health Center. The parking lot behind the gym and its road were covered with water, most of it just coming up from the ground, as the water table was so high.

The basement of the church and all the other buildings were filled with brown muddy water. However, after the last flood, men poured a cement floor into the building that is now the Zarephath Health Center, so there was no basement to fill up. It was dry.

Zarephath is surrounded by the Raritan River on one side and the canal on the other. The levee is 24 feet, and eyewitnesses say that the water came within 4 inches of the top, where it would have spilled over and completely inundated the campus as it did in 1999 with Hurricane Floyd. The Zarephath Health Center was spared. Thanks be to God.

There is still a big cleanup job for the campus, but as of April 18th, the clinic was back in operation. We were able to deliver some medicines to patients staying at the shelter in Bound Brook and tetanus shots to the workers who will be involved in clean-up.