Water damage help in East Rutherford, New Jersey
The borough has published why this keeps happening. It is worth reading before you assume the problem is your foundation.
Find out who to call in East Rutherford
Answer a few questions about what happened. You get the safety steps and the right trade whether or not you leave contact details.
Two referral lines cover this area. We have not vetted an individual company in East Rutherford, and we will not route you to one whose coverage and registration we have not checked.
A pipe, water heater, sump pump or drain
Something inside the building failed and the water needs stopping.
Storm water, flooding or a soaked building
Water came in from outside, or the structure is wet and needs drying.
Not sure which you have? Answer a few questions and we will tell you. These are referral lines: they connect you to a company in the network, not to one this site operates or has inspected.
We are a free matching service, not a restoration contractor. Calls and requests are connected to independent providers.
Overview
About 65.7 per cent of East Rutherford's land area sits inside the FEMA 1 per cent annual chance flood zone — two thirds of the borough — with Berry's Creek running through it and both the Hackensack and Passaic tidal at this latitude. What makes East Rutherford unusual is that the borough has documented the cause itself. Its Municipal Stormwater Management Plan describes severe water quantity problems including flooding and stream bank erosion, and identifies undersized culverts at road and railroad crossings that create backwater effects and flood the areas upstream of them, noting that those crossings were designed for a town with far less impervious surface than exists today. That is a capacity problem in a fully built-out municipality, and it has a direct practical consequence for property owners: a meaningful share of flooding here is not the river overtopping its banks but ordinary stormwater with nowhere to go, backing up behind a crossing that cannot pass it. Water arriving that way can reach a property that is nowhere near the creek and is not in anyone's mental picture of a flood zone. One further local fact changes how the aftermath is handled rather than the cause. Berry's Creek is an EPA Superfund site with a cleanup valued at $332 million, and the creek is documented as impaired for arsenic, copper, lead, mercury and PCBs. Where flood water has come from or through that system, the sediment it leaves is not ordinary mud, and treating it as though it were — drying materials in place, handling silt without protection — is not appropriate.
What comes up most here
- Backwater flooding away from the creek
- The borough’s own stormwater plan identifies undersized culverts at road and rail crossings that cause backwater and flood upstream areas. Water can therefore reach property that is not near a watercourse, arriving from the street drainage rather than the creek.
- Sediment from an impaired watercourse
- Berry’s Creek is a Superfund site documented as impaired for arsenic, copper, lead, mercury and PCBs. Sediment left by water from that system warrants proper protective handling and disposal rather than being swept out and hosed down.
- Tidal influence on both boundaries
- The Hackensack on the east and the Passaic on the west are both tidal here, so flood water can be driven by tide and wind as well as by rainfall, and can persist across successive high tides after the rain has stopped.
- Rented units where the tenant finds it first
- Roughly two thirds of occupied units in the borough are rented. The person who discovers the water usually cannot authorise the repair, which makes a prompt written report to the landlord or agent the first practical step rather than a call to a contractor.
Local context
East Rutherford has roughly 4,454 housing units at a median build year of 1967, about 65 per cent of occupied units rented, and around 65.7 per cent of its land area inside the FEMA 1 per cent annual chance flood zone — two thirds of the borough. Berry's Creek is the major watercourse through it, and both the Hackensack on the eastern boundary and the Passaic on the western are tidal at this latitude. The borough's own Municipal Stormwater Management Plan (February 2005) is unusually direct about the cause: it describes severe water quantity problems including flooding and stream bank erosion, and identifies undersized culverts at road and railroad crossings that create backwater effects and flood upstream areas, noting they were designed for much less impervious area than presently exists. In other words a meaningful share of flooding here is a drainage-capacity problem in a fully built-out town, not only a river problem. One further local fact matters for how flood-contaminated material is handled: Berry's Creek is an EPA Superfund site with a cleanup valued at $332 million, and the creek is documented as impaired for arsenic, copper, lead, mercury and PCBs.
Source: Bergen County 2026 Multi-Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan, Table 4.6-1; US Census ACS 2020-2024 5-Year Estimates; East Rutherford Municipal Stormwater Management Plan, February 2005, page C-10 (eastrutherfordnj.net/DocumentCenter/View/379); US EPA, Berry’s Creek Superfund; FEMA OpenFEMA NFIP claims and Individual Assistance datasets
Common questions
Why did my property flood when I am not near Berry’s Creek?
Possibly because of drainage capacity rather than the creek. East Rutherford’s Municipal Stormwater Management Plan identifies undersized culverts at road and railroad crossings that cause backwater effects and flood upstream areas — meaning stormwater can back up and spread well away from any watercourse.
Do I need to treat flood sediment here differently?
Take it seriously. Berry’s Creek is an EPA Superfund site documented as impaired for arsenic, copper, lead, mercury and PCBs. Where water has come from or through that system, use proper protective equipment, do not dry-sweep dried sediment, and ask any contractor how they intend to handle and dispose of it.
What is the first thing to do before help arrives?
Make the area safe — treat standing water near outlets, a panel, a furnace or a water heater as live until power to that area is off. If the source is inside the building and you can safely reach the valve, stop the water. Then photograph everything before anything moves.