Hundreds Of Diners Trapped As Quick-Rising Flood Waters Inundate Restaurant

A severe storm left around 300 diners stranded inside a restaurant in northern New Jersey on Thursday (April 7) night. The storm dumped three inches of rain and caused the Passiac River to flood the area around Bottagra Restaurant in Hawthorne.

Patrons were ordered to shelter in place as water rushed inside.

"You are talking about two feet high of water," Gino Baglieri, a worker at the restaurant, told WABC. "It's very scary. People slipping, sliding. People get hurt."

Firefighters began evacuating people from the restaurant just after 9 p.m. and didn't finish until 1 a.m. Authorities said that one woman passed out and had to be taken to hospital. Her condition was not immediately known. There were no other injuries reported.

Firefighters also had to rescue workers from a factory across the street. Hawthorne Fire Chief Joseph Speranza said he hasn't seen flooding this bad since Tropical Storm Ida.

"Water came up really quick, and it did a tremendous amount of damage," he said. "The road surface at the factory, which is just across from the Bottagra restaurant, looks like it has a partial collapse. The water damage was pretty intense, and I'm a little taken aback by it."