Pemberton Residents Evacuated

Some 100 residents of a South Jersey community may be able to return home soon after they were evacuated during last night's storms.

Emergency management officials ordered nearly three dozen homes evacuated in Pemberton Township while they released about a foot of water from a storm-battered dam on Rancocas Creek last night.

They were concerned additional rain could breach Lebanon Forest Dam Number One at Presidential Lake.

On Thursday morning , that rain had stopped, and Pemberton Mayor Bob McCullough said the situation is greatly improved.

While the mayor wasn't sure residents will be allowed to return to their homes today, he says the three-day evacuation may be shortened.

Meanwhile, residents of Burlington County await word from inspectors about when they can return to their flood-damaged homes.

Hundreds of homes and businesses were damaged by storms Monday and Tuesday.

State officials were awaiting word on federal aid to pay for a cleanup effort that also involves replacing highway bridges and broken dams.

A decision on federal aid had not been made by late in the day.

State environmental commissioner Bradley Campbell disputed claims that the state is at fault for not requiring dams to be fixed. Campbell said the level of rainfall likely would have exceeded the design capacity of most of the dams

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