I witnessed firsthand the Hurricane Floyd disaster in Bound Brook, New Jersey a few years back and in that instance, the worst flooding came hours after the Hurricane had passed. As water from the Hurricane drained into the Raritan & Millstone watersheds and travelled downstream, it started to back up near Bound Brook. It took hours to slowly but surely get to the breaking point and finally coupled with a high tide a few miles downstream at New Brunswick, it overflowed the floodplains and inundated a good portion of the area.
I was preparing to take my boat to Bound Brook to work for S&R but was unable to get to a launch point. I went to work 2 days later to find porta-potties, bottled water, limited phone service and limited accessibility around the area.