The New Jersey National Guard arrived in Hoboken last night to help residents of the heavily flooded city across the Hudson River from New York. Officials say Guard members will use high-wheeled vehicles to help evacuate residents and deliver supplies to flooded areas. Hoboken was hard hit by superstorm Sandy, which flooded roughly half the city of 50,000 people.
Mayor Dawn Zimmer asked for the Guard's help, saying thousands of residents were stuck in their homes. "We have two payloaders and we're trying to go in where we can to help people, but we have small city streets and payloaders cannot fit down" them, she said yesterday. "We've got live wires in the waters, and the waters are completely contaminated and getting more contaminated," she said. "It's rain water mixed with sewage water; it's becoming more sewage water." (More Hurricane Sandy stories.)