Heavy rainfall led police to cancel National Night Out festivities in several South Jersey towns on Tuesday, but some departments have scheduled rain dates.
The intense storm also surprised hundreds of participants in Cherry Hill's National Night Out event.
Many were still arriving when a deluge began shortly after 6 p.m.
The storm, which eventually dropped about four inches of rain on the township, sent many people scrambling for the shelter of exhibitors' tents behind the Mercer Street municipal building.
But it didn't dampen the spirit of the celebration.
A few youngsters — like sisters Sofia Santiago, 7, and Isabela Santiago, 4 — couldn't pass up the chance to splash around in the downpour.
"I like deep puddles," a drenched Isabel explained afterwards.
"It wasn't raining when I left our house," lamented the girls' mother, Suehail Perez of Cherry Hill.
And about a dozen township officers, squeezed under a relatively small tent, demonstrated their coping skills.
As the downpour continued, they simply picked up the tent by its poles like an umbrella and marched beneath it to a much larger tent.
Cherry Hill police did take some precautions against the bad weather, deciding in advance to put the event's free food and several vendors inside the nearby community center.
"We had an incredible turnout for a rainy day," the department reported on its Facebook page Wednesday.
Other police departments played it safer.
Deptford police, for instance, moved their celebration indoors.
"We had to pivot a bit," the department acknowledged at its Facebook page.
"But what a time we had with our residents and vendors!"
Festivities were canceled with no rain date in Burlington Township, Millville, Palmyra, Pennsauken and Vineland.
Two police departments, Barrington and Lindenwold, said they're looking for a new date.
And these South Jersey towns rescheduled National Night Out to these dates:
● Burlington City — Aug. 12. 6-9 p.m. on the riverfront promenade
● Bordentown City/Township — Aug. 14, 6-9 p.m. at Joseph Lawrence Park, 316 Ward Ave.
● Brooklawn — Aug. 13, 5-9 p.m. at 301 Christiana St.
● Cinnaminson — Aug. 29, 6-8 p.m. behind the police station, 900 Manor Road
● Delran — Aug. 13, 6-10 p.m. Delran Community Park, 12 Hartford Road
● Haddon Heights — Aug. 27, 5-7 p.m. at McLaughlin-Norcross Memorial Dell
● Mansfield — Aug. 13, 6-9 p.m. at Mansfield Township Community Park, East Main Street, Columbus
● Medford — Aug. 27, 6-9 p.m. at Freedom Park
● Riverside — Oct. 26, paired with the town's Halloween event
Two towns hit hard by the storm managed to hold their events without scuba gear.
Willingboro and Edgewater Park, which both saw about four inches of rain on Tuesday, had the good luck to schedule their festivities on Monday.
And Gloucester Township police cancelled just three of 24 locations for its sprawling celebration on Tuesday.
"We were blessed to have the majority of the storm pass us by," the department said in a Facebook post.
It noted light rain fell for only about five minutes in the Glendora section.
"And the turnout at the other 21 locations (was) excellent," it said.
Jim Walsh is a senior reporter with the Courier-Post, Burlington County Times and The Daily Journal. Email Jwalsh@cpsj.com.
This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Flooding swamps National Night Out events. Here are the rain dates
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