Rain Floods Northeast

Rain Floods Northeast

March 19, 2010

A torrential rainstorm brought havoc to the northeast states early last week. The storm lasted threes days including heavy winds, fallen trees, flooded roadways, and power outages. It took many New England communities about a week to get cleaned up and regain power.

“Southern New Hampshire experience road closures because of flooding and fallen trees.” Says a New Hampshire state police officer. Manchester airport also experienced flight delays and cancellations because of high winds.

In the northeastern part of Maine some towns saw as little as eight inches of rain after the storm settled on Wednesday. High winds were also the initial cause to fallen trees that fell on power lines and caused outages. Utility officials say “ There were at least five different utility companies running through each state in the beginning of the week.” New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire all worked together to get power back in each state as fast as possible.

In Boston government officials claim “ the storm threatened to overwhelm the wastewater system, forcing officials to begin a controlled release of untreated water waster into Boston Harbor.” Fenway Park also experience muddy river flooding as well as many cancellations and delays at Logan International Airport.

The storm carried wind gusts as high as 75 mph. Coincidentally the storm came about two weeks after heavy snow and hurricane-force winds left more than 1 million customers in the Northeast in the dark, many of them in New Hampshire.

The storm has killed at least nine people across New England, including several who were hit by falling trees.