Flash Flooding Hits one Boston Area Hard
July 13, 2010
The aftermath of Massachusett’s weekend flash flooding is still being felt Monday and it could be several days before the city of Somerville gets back to normal. On Sunday, environmental cleaning crews spent the day pumping out over four feet of water in the Somerville public safety building. The team was concerned about gas and other agents that may have spilled into the water. On top of the extensive water damage, there is no electricity so the police are now calling a nearby sub-station home.
Over a dozen Somerville police vehicles were damaged extensively by the flash flooding. Somerville got three to four inches of rain in just one hour’s time on Saturday, which led to the flash floods that no one was prepared for. The area had been going through a dry spell prior to the storm and the hard, dry ground simply could not absorb all of the heavy rain. Two state troopers and one off-duty firefighter helped to rescue a woman who was trapped on the top of her car as the water rose to eighteen feet under a local underpass. She was screaming for help and waving her arms when thankfully, the off-duty firefighter spotted her and quickly rushed to her aide.
Five cars were trapped under the Assembly Square Underpass in Somerville due to the dangerous flash flooding. The underpass filled with water very quickly which prompted state police to send their marine units and dive teams in to help search for people who may have been trapped in the rising flood waters. No victims were found thankfully, but their vehicles are totaled. At least five families had to be rescued from their vehicles. No injuries were reported but raw sewage in the water prompted many residents and police officers to go to a local hospital so that they could be decontaminated.
Even though the storm was brief, it was intense. Two inches fell on the metro Boston area and neighboring Cambridge got 3 ½ inches of the wet stuff. The torrential rains also disrupted the mass transit system and forced at least two area bridges closed. One of the main reasons the flash flooding happened is the fact that the rain fell in a metro area that consists of a lot of concrete which means that it has very few places to go. If this particular rainfall had hit a more rural area, that area would not have seen such flooding.
