Why Overpeck Creek floods: Englewood, Teaneck, Leonia, Palisades Park and Ridgefield Park
Overpeck Creek is short, slow and mostly hidden behind a county park, which is why few people think of it as a flood river. Its lower end is controlled by tide gates, and its upper end runs in concrete walls through Englewood and Teaneck.
Overpeck Creek runs south from Englewood past Teaneck, Leonia and Palisades Park and joins the tidal Hackensack River at Ridgefield, beside Ridgefield Park. FEMA gives it a drainage area of 17.3 square miles at the mouth. Two things shape its flooding: rain falling on small, built-up side streams, and the tide pushing up from Newark Bay, which tide gates near the New Jersey Turnpike are there to manage. This guide sets out what FEMA, the Meadowlands tide gate inspection, the county hazard plan and the flood insurance record say about each town.
The short version
- FEMA gives Overpeck Creek a drainage area of 17.3 square miles where it meets the tidal Hackensack River.
- FEMA names the tide from Newark Bay, carried up the Hackensack, as the principal cause of flooding on the lower creek.
- Automated tide gates between the New Jersey Turnpike roadways, rehabilitated in 1995–1996, control the lower creek.
- The concrete channel from Route 4 to West Forest Avenue in Englewood and Teaneck is not credited by FEMA with protecting against the 1 per cent annual chance flood.
- The county plan lists 392 FEMA flood losses in Englewood, 246 in Ridgefield Park and 109 in Teaneck, as of October 2024.
A small creek between two ridges
The FEMA Flood Insurance Study for Bergen County describes the land the creek runs through. To the east is the Palisades, an igneous ridge that rises from about 150 feet at Cliffside Park to 550 feet at Closter. To the west is the Hackensack valley. South of Englewood, the study says, the plain drops toward sea level and large areas are covered by the tidal marshes of the Meadowlands. Overpeck Creek runs down the trough between those two features. FEMA gives its drainage area as 8.4 square miles above the confluence with Flat Rock Brook, 12.0 square miles above Teaneck Creek and 17.3 square miles where it meets the Hackensack. Along the way it collects Metzlers Creek, Flat Rock Brook, Teaneck Creek and smaller tributaries, all small streams running through built-up neighbourhoods. The US Geological Survey has kept monitoring sites on the creek at Englewood and at Bergen Turnpike in Ridgefield, but the National Weather Service has no forecast point on Overpeck Creek itself. The nearest is the tidal Hackensack River at Hackensack.
Two kinds of flood
The FEMA study names the principal cause of flooding in southern Bergen County plainly: the tidal stages of Newark Bay, which affect the Hackensack and Passaic rivers, and in turn Bellman’s Creek, Overpeck Creek and Wolf Creek. That is the first kind of Overpeck flood, the one that reaches Ridgefield Park and the low ground of Leonia and Palisades Park from downstream. The Bergen County hazard plan adds that while a Category 1 hurricane would mainly affect the Meadowlands and Hackensack River communities, the communities around the Overpeck are also likely to be affected by surge. The second kind comes from upstream: heavy rain on the small tributaries through Englewood and Teaneck, which can fill the channel faster than it drains. The two can arrive together. When a high tide holds water in the lower creek, local runoff has less room to go. FEMA estimates the 1 per cent annual chance peak flow at the mouth at 2,665 cubic feet per second, rising to 4,000 in the 0.2 per cent event.
The tide gates
The lower creek is controlled by the Overpeck Creek tide gates, which the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission inspected in January 2006, together with Bergen County engineering staff, for the National Flood Insurance Program’s Community Rating System. Its report places the structure between the northbound and southbound roadways of the New Jersey Turnpike. It records a rehabilitation of the Overpeck Creek tidal dam in 1995 and 1996 that added a new control building and a generator building, refurbished the gate building and piers, and installed new radial gates, new bascule gates with hydraulic operators, heating to keep the gate walls free of ice, new computerised controls and a cut-off wall to reduce seepage under the dam. Gate operation, the report says, is fully automated, and the inspectors rated the system in excellent condition. A tide gate of this kind keeps high tide from pushing up the creek; it cannot make rain disappear. While the gates are shut against a high tide, water coming down the creek has to wait behind them until the tide falls. The report is from 2006, so it describes the gates as they were then, not their condition today.
Englewood and Teaneck: the walled channel
In the upper creek the main flood work is a channel. The FEMA study records that in the City of Englewood and the Township of Teaneck a flood control project exists on Overpeck Creek from State Route 4 to West Forest Avenue, consisting of channelisation and concrete retaining walls originally designed to contain the 1 per cent annual chance flood. It then qualifies that in two ways. The project now provides only limited protection from frequent flood events, and it is not shown on the flood maps as protecting against the 1 per cent annual chance flood. Potential flooding along Route 4 has been reduced, the study says, but flooding along West Forest Avenue can still be a problem. That matters for anyone who assumes concrete walls mean the neighbourhood behind them is out of the flood zone. The county hazard plan puts 10.80 per cent of Englewood’s land in the 1 per cent annual chance floodplain and 16.44 per cent in either the 1 or 0.2 per cent zone. Teaneck’s share is 9.80 per cent. Both figures cover every flood source in town, including the Hackensack along Teaneck’s western edge.
Leonia, Palisades Park and the county park
Much of the creek’s floodplain through Leonia, Palisades Park, Ridgefield Park and Teaneck is not housing at all but Overpeck County Park. The Bergen County parks department says that more than 50 years ago Englewood, Leonia, Palisades Park, Ridgefield Park and Teaneck donated hundreds of acres around the creek to the county for a park, including land that was serving as a landfill, and that the park now covers more than 805 acres with a canoe and kayak launch on the creek. Parkland beside a creek has little to damage when it floods, and the flood insurance record in Leonia and Palisades Park is modest. The county plan puts 16.22 per cent of Leonia in the 1 per cent annual chance floodplain and 7.43 per cent of Palisades Park. Leonia’s own entry in the county mitigation strategy calls stormwater its most critical and urgent issue. The borough has formed a flood committee, engaged NJIT for a hydraulic analysis to locate and size stormwater retention basins, and set up a stormwater resilience page for homeowners. Palisades Park reports adding storm drains and improving drainage.
Ridgefield Park and Ridgefield at the mouth
At the bottom of the creek the numbers change sharply. The county plan puts 24.03 per cent of Ridgefield Park’s land in the 1 per cent annual chance floodplain and 48.84 per cent of neighbouring Ridgefield’s. These are the towns where the creek, the Hackensack and the tide meet. The county plan reports that Ridgefield Park has begun separating its storm and sewer systems to reduce the amount of stormwater that floods the village; a combined system carries stormwater and sewage in the same pipe. The insurance record follows the map. FEMA losses listed in the county plan, as of October 2024, total 246 in Ridgefield Park, with 47 repetitive or severe repetitive-loss properties, and 126 in Ridgefield, with 13. Both towns also face the Hackensack directly, so not every one of those losses comes from the Overpeck.
The insurance record, town by town
The Bergen County hazard plan reproduces FEMA flood insurance data as of October 17, 2024, covering losses on insured properties since 1978. Englewood has the largest total on the creek: 392 losses, 495 active policies and 44 repetitive or severe repetitive-loss properties. Ridgefield Park follows with 246 losses, 210 policies and 47 repetitive-loss properties. Ridgefield has 126 losses and 13, Teaneck 109 losses, 98 policies and 11, Palisades Park 23 losses and 2, and Leonia 20 losses and 1. Two cautions apply. These are whole-town counts from every flood source, so Teaneck’s include the Hackensack, and they count only insured losses, so they say nothing about the many basements that flood without a flood policy in force. And the mapping rests on older work: the FEMA study’s flows for Overpeck Creek in Leonia, Palisades Park, Ridgefield Park and Teaneck come from a 1998 Army Corps model, and the town studies it builds on date back to analyses completed in 1979.
What this means if you own or rent here
With no forecast point on the creek, the useful signals are the rain forecast and the tide. A heavy storm timed with a high tide is the combination the FEMA study describes, so check both when a storm is coming, and use the weather service page for the Hackensack at Hackensack as a guide to how high the tidal water is running. If you are on low ground near the creek or one of its tributaries, move cars and valuables early, never walk or drive into moving water, and treat water indoors as an electrical hazard until power is off. Do not assume the concrete channel between Route 4 and West Forest Avenue protects you; FEMA says it does not against a 1 per cent flood. Flood cover is a separate policy from homeowners or renters insurance, and FEMA states that a new policy normally takes effect 30 days after purchase. Water that comes up through a floor drain is handled differently by different policies, and whether a loss is paid is decided by your insurer and policy. Check the zone for your address at the FEMA Flood Map Service Center.
Common questions
Why does Overpeck Creek flood?
FEMA’s flood study for Bergen County identifies the tide from Newark Bay, carried up the Hackensack River into Overpeck Creek, as the principal cause of flooding in southern Bergen. Upstream, heavy rain on short, built-up tributaries such as Metzlers Creek, Flat Rock Brook and Teaneck Creek can fill the channel quickly, and the two can coincide.
Does the Overpeck Creek tide gate stop flooding?
It stops high tides pushing up the creek, but it cannot remove rainwater. A 2006 Meadowlands Commission inspection described the gates, between the New Jersey Turnpike roadways, as fully automated and in excellent condition after a 1995–1996 rehabilitation. While the gates are closed against the tide, water coming down the creek is held behind them until the tide falls.
Is Teaneck in a flood zone?
The Bergen County hazard plan puts 9.80 per cent of Teaneck’s land in the FEMA 1 per cent annual chance floodplain, from all sources including the Hackensack River and Overpeck Creek. Whether a particular property is mapped in the zone is a question for the FEMA Flood Map Service Center.
Is there a river gauge for Overpeck Creek?
The US Geological Survey has monitoring sites on the creek in Englewood and Ridgefield, but the National Weather Service does not issue flood forecasts for the creek itself. The nearest forecast point is the tidal Hackensack River at Hackensack.
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