New England flooding

[mmcirvin]

In case you've seen the news and you're wondering about us, we're all right. It's been raining heavily for a long, long time and several towns around here are having some pretty bad flooding; some people living close to rivers and streams are in for a rough night. We're on the top of a hill, though, so the main concern for us is going anywhere else. Some of the worst flooding is in Melrose, the next town over. There are a lot of flooded basements and stalled-out cars stranded in three feet of water, but NOLA it's not.

We were foolhardy enough to visit Sam's mother for Mother's Day today, not realizing how bad an idea that was until we were already on the road. We had a bit of an adventure getting there while avoiding the areas in Melrose and Peabody that were completely flooded out, but Sam's excellent wet-weather driving skills saw us through. After we got there, through the magic of the Internet we were able to figure out where the worst flooding was and plot a route back home that went around it. But by now, it's possible that even that route is not usable. I'm going to be watching the net carefully tomorrow and won't go out until I'm confident I can; I don't want a repeat of the Bagel Island Incident.

Comments

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

...Sounds like they're going to have to evacuate a lot of people around Lowell and Lawrence.

[asienieizi.livejournal.com]

"There are a lot of flooded basements and stalled-out cars stranded in three feet of water, but NOLA it's not."

To a lesser degree than your area Boise & areas in Idaho have been doing some worrying about flooding in homes along the river lately. Higher than normal spring snow pack melt and the subsequent release of dam waters have the cfs higher than it's been in over 10 years though there are no cars stranded in water of course. I suppose this isn't a good time to mention that today we're supposed to get around 92F with gorgeous sunshine? :)

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

We saw the Merrimack River yesterday from the safe altitude of I-495; it was already way over its banks. The band of heavy rain has moved to the north, but it's still raining over parts of the Merrimack watershed; the big problem now is that river. They're saying now that it's going to crest sometime today at something like twelve feet over flood stage at Lawrence. Some people are going to get their homes flooded out (and a lot of people in Lawrence are struggling in the first place).

I was thinking it might be hard to get out of this town today, but it sounds like that's not going to be so bad provided I avoid Melrose, and the big trouble will actually be not that far from my office. The immediate area of the office is probably OK, though. Sam's mother had better watch out if she tries to go to work.

[asienieizi.livejournal.com]

Yesterday they announced the Boise river would not overflow its banks after all. How's it looking there now?

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

A fair number of people near the Merrimack and Spicket rivers had their homes destroyed or badly damaged, but the floods mostly subsided over the past week; my morning commute was back to normal after a couple of days. I think one or two people died in related accidents. The dams that were in danger of breaking largely held, and there were a couple of nice clear days.

There was intermittent heavy rain again on Friday, and right now there are scattered thunderstorms about, but it's nothing likely to produce major flooding.