Last winter, the state Department of Transportation repaved 13 miles as far as Landing Lane Bridge at the New Brunswick border. But the floodwaters swamped the clay, breaking it up like shattered pieces of glass. As one re-enters Franklin from South Bound Brook, the lowering sun lends an eerie cast to the scene. The towpath is strewn with rocks. In places, the floodwaters chomped off huge chunks of earth, uncovering long-forgotten concrete foundations.
Trees are down and pieces of roof from unseen structures dot the landscape.
Torn pieces of plastic litter the dead tree branches like mutant spider webs. Sonia Torres and her boyfriend, Juan Vargas of Perth Amboy, are silently fishing up-canal from the Demott Lane pedestrian bridge. It doesn't matter, she laughs. Instead of going out and getting in trouble, we just come over. Loud cheers drift through the air from across the canal.