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Tonight on NJ Spotlight News, state of emergency, flash flooding throughout New Jersey last night turned deadly and left many residents stranded and needing rescue.

You know, of course, there's absolutely nothing you can do.

You stand there and you just you pray for everybody.

Plus, no criminal charges.

A grand jury has decided not to charge the police officer involved in the fatal shooting of Victoria Lee last year in Fort Lee.

Also, real rules reactions.

The new development guidelines for coastal flood zones are not sitting well with environmentalists and business groups, though for very different reasons.

I absolutely think it's motivated by politics.

I think that Governor Murphy has bent to the will of developers calling for a weakening of the regulations and slashing funding.

The Senate votes today on whether to pull support for public media stations like ours because ultimately in an emergency like we saw recently in Texas, like we saw last night in New Jersey, uh radios are this link of safety for the public.

NJ Spotlight News begins right now.

From NJPBS studios, this is NJ Spotlight News with Briana Venoszi.

Hello and thanks for joining us tonight.

I'm Joanna Gagas in for Briana Venoszi.

We begin with today's top story.

The deadly thunderstorm that blasted New Jersey last night, drenching major portions of central Jersey.

The burrow of Waang saw the heaviest rain totals.

Up to 6 and a half inches of rain fell in just a few hours with other towns seeing similar levels that turned streets into rivers and neighborhoods into lakes.

Union, Somerset, and Middle Sex counties experienced the worst of it.

And Planefield Township is reeling today after the devastating deaths of two women who were trapped in a car that became submerged by floodwaters and then swept into Cedarbrook.

According to township officials, it's the second fatal storm in just two weeks, taking the lives of five people in total from the area.

First responders carried out rescue operations across several towns as people were stranded in cars and buses in the rapidly rising flood waters.

The governor declared a state of emergency for all 21 counties last night.

Routes 22 and 28 saw some of the worst flooding and both roads were closed this morning so officials could clear debris and damage.

Several thousand homes were without power with PSEG customers hit the hardest.

As the water receded, city and state officials and residents took stock of the devastation and began their cleanup efforts.

Ted Goldberg went to some of the hardest hit areas.

Ted, what did you see and hear today?

Joanna, the aftermath from last night's storm is equal parts scary and also eye-catching.

For much of the day here in North Planefield, folks have been getting out of their cars and taking pictures of what used to be a sidewalk.

Folks I've spoken to in North Planefield and in surrounding areas have been spending today trying to get their lives back together after all the rain that came down last night.

This is an ongoing thing and it's getting tiring after 25 years.

Irene Cactus and her husband are once again fixing up their house after Stony Brook swelled and surged onto their street.

She says it's happened three times since moving in.

I was like, "Here we go again."

You know, my my husband was going crazy.

Um you know, he was yelling, "Look at these people, blah blah."

You know, that's his nature.

He's always young.

But I mean, but he's a good man anyway.

And um what can you do?

You know, you just ride it out.

North Planefield is one of several communities drying out after getting around 6 ines of rain within a few hours last night.

Less than two weeks after dramatic windstorms caused damage, you could see car wreckage and damaged power lines throughout central Jersey, Kacas' fence, built two years ago, was torn to shreds.

This is a great town.

It's a a small community.

It's very diverse, and this that's how I like it.

I like different people, things like that.

But, you know, it's it gets to the point where it's tiresome.

I don't have money every time, you know, to be fixing stuff.

you know, I'm I'm on a fixed income.

These two weeks have been um little stressful.

Yeah, insurance has been very busy with this area.

For this to come on the heels of a devastating storm only 11 days ago is something that is extremely difficult.

At least two people died in Planefield from last night's storm as confirmed by the city's mayor.

These individuals were traveling in a vehicle which was caught in the flood and as a result of obviously the swiftness of the water they were swept away.

Leaders tell me their priorities over the next few days and few weeks are cleaning up the debris that's been left behind like disabled cars in the roadway and also everything that washes up on places like the playground behind me.

Our priority is to make sure that our infrastructure is restored to a state of normaly and that we provide a level of support to our residents that they need.

Flood damage was widespread and this home in North Planefield exploded at around 11:00 last night.

Dai Pouncy lives down the block after the torrential downpour of rain.

We were a little bit shaken about to go to sleep.

Um, end the evening and then the next thing we heard was just loud boom.

I didn't know if it was like a tree falling.

We didn't go any further down the block um just because we didn't wasn't sure if it was safe.

But standing on the corner, it looked like the whole block was on fire.

Videos of flooding were all over social media.

Planefield resident Florence Harper watched from her property as Leland Avenue practically turned into a river.

You know, of course, there's absolutely nothing you can do.

You stand there and you just you pray for everybody.

She says her house didn't sustain heavy damage, but she's worried about her neighbors.

Those houses are on slabs.

So, when that water starts rushing like that, you you know, they're my neighbors, so I get concerned about their property as well.

Multiple cars got caught up in the flooding.

And Harper says she got frustrated watching drivers think their cars could handle the water.

Don't drive through it.

Look, there's a perfect example of trying to drive through it.

Why would you do that?

And especially in the dark.

In the dark.

Does that make any sense?

Governor Phil Murphy declared a state of emergency in all 21 counties last night.

We'll be working with counties and communities to assess level of damage.

We're always trying to figure out whether or not we meet certain federal thresholds.

It's far too early to tell.

He spoke at Berkeley Heights today, another community affected by flooding.

Murphy says that because of climate change, we should expect storms to be more frequent and more intense.

That's the new reality and we're getting dragged by this.

We're getting dragged by climate.

Um our our preferred position would be to get out ahead of it, which we've done a lot over the years to, you know, fortify infrastructure.

Water rose by as much as three feet in parts of Planefield, which will host a relief benefit concert at its high school Sunday to raise money for victims.

One step towards getting these communities a little closer to normal after a disastrous storm in North Planefield.

I'm Ted Goldberg, NJ Spotlight News.

As we just heard Governor Murphy say, these storms are becoming our new reality.

So, what actually happened here?

And is it all part of a larger trend of more severe storms?

I'm joined right now by New Jersey state climatologist Dave Robinson to help us understand the science behind yesterday's deadly storm that didn't just impact New Jersey, but also parts of New York and eastern Pennsylvania.

Dave, great to have you with us tonight.

Help us understand what happened with this storm yesterday.

Describe the weather pattern that came through New Jersey.

We had an incredibly moist atmosphere.

I think that's the first take-home.

Uh, and there was a lot of instability with daytime heating.

Um, we're in the midst of summer when atmospheric flow patterns are slow.

So, we had absolutely prime conditions for thunderstorms to erupt, slowm moving, saturated with moisture.

And with that, these storms just kept dumping inch after inch after inch of rain in some areas where miles away, considerably less may have fallen.

The thing about yesterday was how widespread um the accumulating storms were compared to what we've seen in recent weeks where they've been more hit or miss.

There were some early warning signs that this could be intense, that there could be flash floods.

Did we know enough about how severe this storm was actually going to be?

This was very well forecast.

There were um outlooks of three to five inches of rain possible.

We had a few areas that went to the five to slightly over 6 in total in very local areas.

But in general, it was an excellent forecast.

When you say five to six, what does that equal in terms of the amount of rainfall we experienced those folks experienced in those areas?

Yeah, it's great.

To put that in perspective, we get about 4 and a half inches of rain in the month of July.

May surprise people, but it's New Jersey's wetest month of the year.

And most of that rain tends to come in these storm systems, not all day rains.

So, we're talking when you get six inches of rain, well over a month's worth of rain in just a few hours.

was New Jersey, I know we've experienced drought conditions over the last several years during the summer months.

How was the state uh in terms of its ability to absorb that water?

I mean, clearly we saw extreme runoff that turned into, you know, streets turned into rivers in many towns.

Was that in any part connected to drought conditions that we've experienced?

No.

None.

None whatsoever.

Um, some of the areas that got the heaviest rain yesterday have been on the dry earth side in July compared to areas in the southern part of the state.

But when you get that much rain in such a short a period of time, it doesn't matter if it's over grasslands or if it's over pavement, most of it is going to run off and run off quite quickly.

We we see this flooding as really part of a pattern of floods that we've seen across the country just in the last two weeks from the deadly flooding in Texas to Illinois to North Carolina.

What is driving these intense storms right now?

Is this part of a pattern?

Well, in part it's it's a summer pattern again with a warm atmosphere holds a lot more moisture than a cooler atmosphere.

And with the summer heat, you can erupt these major uh thunderstorms.

And with the lack of steering currents in the atmosphere, as we mentioned, they can park over an area for a considerable point in time.

So, it's not incredibly unusual to have these storms around the country.

But what is making bad storms worse is our warming atmosphere.

Because, as I mentioned, a warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture.

For about every degree Celsius of warming, about 7% more moisture is possible.

So, what we're seeing is more of our rain is falling in major events.

And with that, I like to say when it rains, it pours these days.

I'm not saying that storm wouldn't have occurred without, you know, climate change, but the climate change that's indicative of the warming is what's making a bad situation worse.

So, is it fair to say that we should expect more storms like this as we go?

If not necessarily more storms, but those storms that do arrive, wetter storms.

Yeah.

All right, Dave Robinson, New Jersey State climatologist at Ruckers University.

Thank you as always.

Thank you.

Some other big headlines we're following tonight.

A state grand jury has voted not to bring criminal charges against the officer involved in the fatal shooting of Fort Le resident Victoria Lee.

The shooting occurred nearly a year ago on July 28th after Lee's family called 911 asking that she be taken to the hospital because she was having a mental health crisis.

As police arrived, her mother begged them not to come inside because her daughter was clearly distraught and her brother tried to call off the police response altogether to no avail.

Evidence reviewed in the case includes body camera footage, audio from the 911 call and more in which Lee could be heard making threats toward officers through a closed door.

Officers then kicked down the door and could be heard shouting, "Drop the knife!"

before Lee threw a jug of water at them.

A moment later, gunshots were fired.

Lee's family and advocates from the community have criticized the police response, calling for crisis response teams to answer these calls rather than armed police officers.

In response to the grand jury decision not to indict officer Tony Pickkins Jr., they're calling for a full review of Fort Lee's use of force practices and for the municipality and county to conduct their own disciplinary process of officer pickins.

In our spotlight on business report tonight, the Newark community is furious over the Payic Valley Sewage Commission's decision to move forward with a new power plant in the Ironbound section.

Despite years of opposition from community leaders, environmental advocates, and several legislative leaders in the state, the PVSC board voted a month ago to approve the new power plant.

Well, one organization responded swiftly.

Earth Justice on behalf of the Ironbound Community Corporation filed a lawsuit yesterday.

their claim that the power plant will only further pollute an area of Newark already overburdened with pollution from nearby smoke stacks, diesel truck traffic, and existing power plants.

They charged that PBSC never considered community feedback from countless public hearings.

That it failed to consider alternatives to the power plant and failed to engage in reasoned decisionmaking.

The filing also references the state's environmental justice law passed several years ago that was written to protect overburdened communities from additional environmental hazards.

The case was filed in superior court in Essex County.

Support for the business report is provided by the Newark Alliance presents the 2025 Hollyfest featuring the vibrancy of Newark's arts and education district and Hollyy Street.

Hollyy, a neighborhood built on hustle and heart.

The 2025 Hollyfest schedule is available at hoynwk.com.

As we reported to you yesterday, the Murphy administration announced new rules for development in coastal flood zones.

As the state prepares for future sea level rise, called the real rules, which stands for resilient environments and landscapes reforms.

They create zones that are expected to be underwater by the end of the century.

But as senior correspondent Brenda Flanigan explains, it's brought backlash from business leaders and environmentalists who have opposing views of the new rules.

At the end of the day, we've got to ensure we're being responsive to all.

DP officials explained their 11th hour decision to ease controversial rules aimed at protecting towns from destructive floods and sea level rise is based on both hard science and sensitivity to opposition from mayors and business groups.

The irony, like last night's flash flood waters hit hard, now nobody's happy with the proposal.

New Jersey business leaders call it a non-starter.

You know, this just makes life in New Jersey more expensive and ultimately going to drive businesses and people to more affordable states.

Disappointed environmental advocates call it reprehensible.

I absolutely think it's motivated by politics.

I think that Governor Murphy has bent to the will of developers calling for a weakening of the regulations.

We've got to be guided by the best available science and acknowledge that science is not static.

It does in fact change.

Amongst major changes to the proposed real rules, the D lowered controversial building elevation requirements, noting climate models now forecast sea levels will rise 4.4 feet by the year 2100.

That's almost a foot lower than its initial estimate.

A Ruter scientist whose research guided these rules explains the DP's rationale.

global carbon emissions don't seem to be as on as high a trajectory as they seemed a decade ago um while keeping the same policy preferences with respect to how far in the future to look and how risk averse to be.

When I say communities are are more comfortable uh with a a higher level of risk, it does come out of me, you know, direct conversations with with mayors, many of whom have who have um written into us or who have passed uh resolutions in their communities uh uh that uh indicate, you know, their belief that that 5T is too much.

But higher risk levels could come with a higher post flood price tag.

What a lot of people may not be paying attention to is that with FEMA, the federal government is taking a big step back from bailing out these kind of disasters, which means more and more of it is going to fall on the New Jersey taxpayers.

Meanwhile, for the business community, even the new 4-foot standard is too high.

Really, it's should be a twoft sea level rise level.

That's what all the science is showing.

So, they are still an outlier nationally.

They're an outlier internationally and that's still going to cause significant problems not only in complying with the rule but in bringing so many more people into flood zones who don't belong in flood zones.

Proposed revisions would redraw the D's so-called inundation risk zone and permit possible exemptions for affordable housing located there as long as builders provide proper health and safety protections.

But advocates were appalled with one noting after tragically losing lives due to the flash flooding last night, allowing affordable housing to be built in floodprone areas without stronger safeguards is unconscionable.

The changes seem to say it's okay to put poor people in hazardous areas.

You would hope that we would be wise enough to be trying to protect people from being located in those places where their lives might be in danger.

Revisions also grant a six-month grace period for projects already in development when the new rules were adopted.

But the Builder Association president told NJ Spotlight News this proposal's monumental impact on the long-term future of New Jersey deserves more robust public engagement, better coordination among state agencies and priorities, and at this point should be left to the next administration.

Nobody seems to be happy and I would say that you know what we're least happy about is that it's delayed.

The D will introduce the revised rules on Monday, July 21st with a virtual public hearing on September 3rd and final adoption rescheduled for early January.

I'm Brenda Flanigan, NJ Spotlight News.

The US Senate is considering a recisions package that would put an immediate stop to funding already allocated by Congress for foreign assistance programs and for the funding of public media, including our PBS network.

There could be a vote this week on the measure, which is another attempt by President Trump to cut federal support of various programs.

But will the bill move through the US Senate as easily as it did the House of Representatives?

Our Washington DC correspondent, Ben Hulac, joins us from the Capitol building with some insight.

Ben, great to talk to you.

Uh, we saw Republicans come together to pass the one big beautiful bill.

This is really the next big one for the president.

Talk to us about what's in this recisions bill.

Right.

This is uh sort of the second step um along with the broader federal budget process that Republicans have laid out for themselves to get done this year.

What's in this is $9.4 billion that Congress had already appropriated.

Um, uh, it's largely for foreign aid.

So that's things like UN peacekeeping, money for the children's charity UNICEF, uh, spending about $400 million for PEPAR, which is this very successful HIV AIDS prevention program that former Republican President George W. Bush started in the mid 2000s.

That's the bulk of it.

That's about 8.3 billion.

And then the remainder is for uh the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds public media, television stations, and radio stations.

That's 1.1 billion.

And in the grand, these are really um minute slivers of the broader federal budget.

Yeah.

9.4 billion seems like a lot.

like you said, it's it's such a small amount in the bigger picture, but uh what can you tell us about where lawmakers stand on this bill?

Because we know it passed through the House, but it's before the Senate right now, and it doesn't seem that it's moving as quickly.

What do you know?

Right.

It it cleared the House last month um on party lines.

Uh New Jersey Republicans voting for it, Democrats against it.

In the Senate, Cy Booker and Andy Kim will be nos almost certainly.

Uh but the Republican leadership in the White House have problems at this point getting enough votes uh to to get this thing through.

Largely uh over concerns for two reasons.

One from Republicans from agriculture states, states in the Great Plains because these are places that grow wheat and crops that then are sold um distributed rather overseas.

So that's a financial lifeline for a lot of farmers.

has programs that would lose out on on federal dollars.

And then the second reason is uh there's a lot of worry especially from Lisa Marowski of Alaska, Susan Collins in Maine uh and other people who represent really rural states of uh cuts to radio and TV because ultimately in an emergency like we saw recently in Texas, like we saw last night in New Jersey, uh radios are this link of safety for the public.

where do they get their information when the internet goes down when phones can't work often is through radio.

So those are the main worries uh a as I mentioned and then and then this uh safety net for folks in a crisis.

We've seen the president come out very strongly saying you know he's he's really looking at anyone who votes no on this bill.

Um what impact do you think that has and do you see any world in which revisions are made to this bill?

the revisions really could happen.

Uh there's a condensed timeline that comes into effect this for it to become law.

Uh for this recision process to work, it has to become law by the end of the week.

And if the Senate amends what the House already passed, that amendment, that legislation has to then come back over to the House.

So that's a real possibility.

Um the House will not like that.

But this is not compared to the large tax and spending cut bill that became law on the 4th of July.

This is uh not nearly as big a Republican priority or a focus for the White House.

This is something as you mentioned that the president wants done, but in the grand scheme of things much less significant.

How much do you believe his impact will have on those holdouts?

You mentioned Mowski as one example.

Well, uh, who really knows?

Ultimately, it's the senators in the chamber who cast their votes, yay or nay.

Um, and Marowski did, uh, did, of course, vote for the large tax package that is now law.

Um, she does have an independent streak.

In particular, uh, she voted to convict Donald Trump in his second impeachment trial back in 20 21, I believe that was.

And then is up for reelection next year.

So there are remains to be seen.

Yes.

Yeah.

All right.

Ben Huag, sorry we are out of time, but great to talk to you.

And if you'd like to see more of Ben's reporting, you can check out our website, njspotlightenews.org.

We will be following this every step of the way.

Ben, thank you.

Awesome.

That's going to do it for us tonight, but a reminder, you can download our podcast wherever you listen and watch us anytime by subscribing to the NJ Spotlight News YouTube channel.

I'm Joanna Gagas for the entire team at NJ Spotlight News.

Thanks for being with us.

Have a great night.

Stay safe and we'll see you right back here tomorrow.

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