Flooding in Ridgefield? (Jersey City: insurance, houses, live)

[86Sebring]

We are looking at a couple of houses in Ridgefield and were told that there is some flooding from the area. Can someone local elaborate on the situation. There is a little harmless looking creek that runs trough the town, its hard to imagine it would overflow, but hopefully someone here has more info.
cheers

[EEEPNJ]

Originally Posted by 86Sebring

We are looking at a couple of houses in Ridgefield and were told that there is some flooding from the area. Can someone local elaborate on the situation. There is a little harmless looking creek that runs trough the town, its hard to imagine it would overflow, but hopefully someone here has more info.
cheers

You know I am not that familiar w/ the town, but when I was younger I lived in North Bergen/Jersey City and remember there used to be some flooding at the circle on 440 in Ridgefield, but I think they've fixed that. I wish I had more info for you - but they do have to let you know if it's a flood plane. I don't recall it being an area where we hear of a lot of flooding.

[86Sebring]

thanks for the reply. There are quite a few houses on the market in that area, all require flood insurance, but owners/ realtors are not exactly forthcoming with answers, vaguely stating no floods for 5 years...
I'd rather hear from a 3rd party

[EEEPNJ]

NE Nj has had a few serious storms within the past decade... places that never flood flooded... how close are you to any body of water there? Have you searched the Bergen Record? They may have info on past flooding.

[pbergen]

much of ridgefield is a located on a very steep hill, meaning that a lot of the borough's residents live at high elevations. i'd venture to guess that flooding is not a problem for most people, but you never know. ridgefield has seen a lot of teardowns over the past decade in which small homes on modest lots have been replaced by large, boxy two-family houses on bigger footprints with smaller yards. this means that there's less vegetation and soil to absorb all of the rainwater going down the hill, which theoretically results in greater stormwater runoff in general.

but again, these homes are at higher altitudes, so they don't have the same issues as towns like bound brook, lodi, or parts of wayne that were built on top of flood plains. it's possible that stormwater runoff in ridgefield (esp. at lower elevations) has increased over the past few years, but i can't say for sure if this is true.

the only areas of ridgefield that would qualify as a flood plain are the flat, marshy areas near overpeck creek. this means anything along and to the west of grand ave (rt. 93) and the section of broad ave (rt 1-9) south of the grand ave/broad ave intersection. the latter area includes the traffic circle mentioned by eeepnj (who presumably meant "rt. 1-9" rather "rt. 440"), which lies at the intersection of broad ave (rt. 1-9), edgewater ave, and hendricks causeway. it's an industrial/commercial area for the most part, with very few residents. basically, as long as you don't live at the bottom of the hill near the creek, you'll be fine.

[86Sebring]

appreciate the input