Good morning everyone. I hope that you enjoyed the video that I posted on YouTube on the four days after the April Nor’easter of 2007. I’m going to add it to my DVD on the storm. Meanwhile, I followed the storm on television, and radio here in New Jersey, and even dealt with some of its problems, or inconveniences first hand. Being that I work near the flooding that took place in Bound Brook and Manville, I had to find inventive ways to get to work to avoid some of the traffic build up that occurred as a result of many of the street closings in Bound Brook. A few days ago, I saw an article in the Star-Ledger that had information for helping the victims of the flooding in these two locations in Somerset County.

Here was what I found:

• The Food Bank Network of Somerset County–Donations can be made to the Food Bank Network Building 9E, Easy Street in Bound Brook, which is off Chimney Rock Road. Contact Marie Scannell at (732)-560-1813 for more information and hours. Things to donate to the Food Bank Network: Similac baby formula (liquid) with iron; juice boxes; canned spaghetti products like SpaghettiOs; underwear and socks for men, women and children of all ages; large size diapers for children, size 4-6; twin and full sheets; towels; hand sanitizer; household clean agents; Lysol deodorizer; heavy-duty, 30-gallon trash bags.
• American Red Cross–Checks can be made payable to the American Red Cross, and sent to the Greater Somerset Chapter, 14 W. Cliff Street, Somerville, NJ 08876. Donations should be earmarked to flood victims in the state by putting New Jersey Flood in the memo field. To submit donations online, go to the Greater Somerset Chapter web site at: http://chapters.redcross.org/nj/gscc, or submit it by phone by calling 1-800-RED-CROSS. To contact the Somerset Chapter directly, call (908)-725-2217.
• Somerset County United Way–The Somerset County Chapter of the United Way has put together a fund for the victims. Donations can be made online by going to http://www.scuw.org, or by sending a check payable to the Somerset County United Way Flood Fund, P.O. Box 6835, Bridgewater, NJ 08807. You can contact them by phone at (908)-725-6640.
• Salvation Army–Donations can be made online at http://www.salvationarmynewjersey.org, or checks can be payable to The Salvation Army, and mailed to P.O. Box 3170, Union, NJ 07083. As with previous flood funds, please put New Jersey Flood in the memo field. For further information, contact Tricia Pellegrini at (908)-851-8227. Somerset County Chapter is located on Hamilton Street in Bound Brook, and can be reached at (732)-748-1146.
• If you’d like to volunteer–To help out with the clean up, and the victims of the flooding in Bound Brook and Manville, you can register online at http://www.volunteersolutions.org/somerset/volunteer.

For the record, I’ve already donated to two of these charities.