Amid a nearly record-breaking wet July and after a weekend of heavy downpours, town officials and residents are assessing and responding to damaged roads, homes and buildings across Hampshire County.
Although the National Weather Service does not record rainfall levels specifically for Hampshire County, based on measurements in Central and Eastern Massachusetts, the state is headed toward breaking the record for the wettest July since 1905, when the Weather Service first began keeping track. Worcester has seen more rainfall than ever recorded for July, and both Boston and Springfield are ranked as having their third wettest July.
Towns in Hampshire have seen roads collapse, lightning strike a building, and severe flash floods.
A nearly 20-foot-long section of East Street collapsed early Sunday morning due to flooding from the heavy rain coupled with water released when a beaver dam broke over the weekend. The flash flood washed out the road, leaving a nearly 15-foot-deep crater in the ground. The flooding was so powerful that it destroyed a nearby resident’s driveway and affected nearly half a dozen residents on the street.
Belchertown police warned residents on the street to evacuate their homes on Sunday morning, and two people were transported to Town Hall. Nobody was injured in the flood. The Department of Public Works was on the scene Sunday clearing up the damage on the road.
“The road is impassable for now,” Fire Chief John Ingram said Monday. “The DPW is coming up with a plan to repair the section that was washed out. Until the weather changes and depending on the flow coming from that area, it will determine how fast we can get it repaired. It could be weeks, it could be months, who knows at this point?”
Residents on the street are dealing with basements that have flooded and the resident whose driveway was washed out is relying on going through his neighbor’s property to access Route 9 on the opposite side, according to Ingram.
Most of the damage from the weekend rainfall was on East Street, although there was a section on Pine Street where the edges of the road were washed out as well, Ingram said. There were also reports of flooded basements from other residents.
“It’s definitely an unusual July,” Ingram said. “News stations are reporting that we are already having a record amount of rain, and in such a short time, it’s saturating the ground, ponds, brooks and you name it. It’s a big concern.”
Ingram recommended residents with flooded basements to keep valuables on surfaces away from the ground and to keep an eye out for electrical outlets and oil burners. “If it starts to get close, get a pump and someone to assist you to pump out the water,” he said.
A bolt of lighting struck a residential building on Mount Holyoke College’s campus on Saturday evening, causing the building to shortly catch fire. Nobody was reported injured and the building was empty at the time.
“While the damage from the fire appears to be limited to a relatively small section of the roof space, there is extensive water damage to a significant part of the building,” wrote President Sonya Stephens of Mount Holyoke in a public statement.
The lightning struck Mead Hall, a residence hall, at around 5 p.m., and a fire ensued in the attic area. The sprinkler system and South Hadley District No. 2, with mutual aid from surrounding towns, responded to the fire. Some areas of campus experienced a brief outage while power was shut off to Mead Hall.
“Regrettably, Mead Hall will be closed for some time,” Stephens wrote. “The emergency response team will provide further updates to the campus community as we gain greater clarity about the damage sustained and the repairs to be undertaken.”
Stephens wrote that it is very likely that Mead Hall will remain unoccupied for the fall semester and alternative housing for the more than 140 students who were assigned to live there will be identified.
Amherst appeared to be spared significant damage to its roads and bridges from the heavy rains.
“Overall, we were pretty fortunate,” said Assistant Town Manager David Ziomek. “There was some local flooding and some streets were temporarily closed.”
Water overtopping occurred in the expected places, including on Station Road, Meadow Street near Russellville Road, Pomeroy Court and West Pomeroy Lane.
But the only issue that Department of Public Works crews had to fix on Monday was on Greenleaves Drive, where portions of a bank eroded and had to be stabilized.
The parking lot for Rise Dispensaries on Meadow Street was underwater on Sunday due to the confluence of the Eastman and Swamp brooks near the Mill River and the flat landscape, Ziomek said.
Rise was closed with the parking lot and entrances under nearly a foot of water, said spokeswoman Grace Bondy. But with the water receding, normal business hours returned on Monday.
In Hadley, Mill Valley Road between Route 9 and South Maple Street was closed to traffic due to flooding and possible undermining of the road.
Ziomek said the bigger concern is the force of water in the rivers and streams and the dangers to people and their pets.
“People need to use extreme caution around rivers, and dam structures,” Ziomek said. “Flows are unusually high and people should appreciate the power of some of these rivers.”
While Puffer’s Pond is not closed, the high water and muddy conditions make it dangerous for swimming.
Much of the former Hickory Ridge Golf Course was also underwater. Ziomek attributed this to the Connecticut River being so high that it backs up water in the Fort River as a traffic jam of sorts.
Easthampton and Southampton both experienced some flooding in susceptible areas, though officials say that the communities were spared the more significant damage some towns experienced.
River Street, situated between the Manhan River and the Oxbow Section of the Connecticut River, flooded due to high river levels, said Greg Nuttelman, director of the Easthampton Department of Public Works.
While River Street has flooded in the past, this usually occurs in the spring, when snow melt and seasonal rainfall cause river levels to rise. A July flooding event is less typical, according to Nuttelman, who said that this year’s rainfall stands out as unusual.
“Hopefully the weather turns here — that’s all I keep saying,” Nuttelman said. “July is not supposed to be like this.”
In Southampton, some dirt and gravel roads have washed out and developed rutting due to erosion, said Highway Superintendent Randall Kemp. Among tem, Mountain Road, alongside Broad Brook, had the most significant flooding.
“After we get rain of this volume, we’ll have to be out on all of them,” Kemp said of local dirt roads.
Two paved roads also flooded: Gilbert Road, which intersects with the Manhan River, experienced the worst flooding, according to Kemp, and Fomer Road flooded due to high water levels in Red Brook. Flooding did not cause additional damages to the roads, according to Kemp.
Additionally, Highway Department crews have been actively responding to reports of downed trees and clogged culverts, Kemp said.
Summer weather has been intense in recent years, Kemp said, due to either too much rain or not enough.
“I think it seems like this has been a particularly wet summer,” Kemp said. “It’s kind of hard to compare, because I think the last two summers we’ve either been in or in threat of a drought, so your memory gets fuzzy.”
Westhampton didn’t experience any road flooding, said Highway Department Superintendent William Jablonski, but crews have been busy clearing runoff from hillside washouts off roads over the weekend and the past couple weeks.
“We have to keep hauling gravel to patch them back up so nobody drives in it,” Jablonski said of the washouts.
“We’re just trying to keep up with keeping them repaired so traffic can flow normally,” he said.
Additionally, the department has responded to reports of clogged culverts.
Highway Superintendent David Desrosiers said besides a few trees down and some local flooding, “there was not too much serious damage” after the weekend’s downpours. No injuries were reported in Granby as a result of the storms.
Some residents had flooded basements, which appeared to be the extent of property damage, he said. The Highway Department was clearing up trees that fell on McDonald Avenue and Brown-Ellison Park on Monday.
“Compared to surrounding towns, we’ve been lucky so far,” Desrosiers said. “But hopefully this rain will end shortly.”
Northampton DPW Director Donna LaScaleia said the city was spared from storm damage, but there was some minor street flooding over the weekend, particularly in the area of Ryan Road. There are no road closures in place.
