Flash flooding traps vehicles
By late morning the waters receded, and sunny fall weather was forecast for Sunday into the middle part of the week, according to the National Weather Service. But some area residents will be dealing with the damage done by Saturday's rains for months and possibly even years to come.
In East Boston, Nicolas Miranda returned to his Ashley Street home Saturday morning to find a nearby drain blocked and his driveway strewn with debris that apparently had flowed downhill from Orient Heights.
"I have a lot of damage in my house," said Miranda, 46, who estimated he had 8 to 9 feet of water in the basement of the three-family home, covering the steps down from the first floor.
It was far more than Miranda had seen in the 11 years he has lived in the house, which he shares with his wife, three young children, and a cousin, he said.
In Lynn, Ellen Burke, 38, was part of the crew opening Toomey's Cleaners on Boston Street when the storm hit, just past dawn.
"About 6:30, it just started pouring buckets," Burke said. "We got some hail or sleet [that] covered the ground, almost looked like a light snow covering. And then the water just started kind of rushing down the street, filled up Boston Street."
"Boston Street floods a little bit every once in a while, at the corner of Boston and Ford," she continued, "but this came back probably another couple hundred feet up Boston Street. . . . Cars were trying to go through, about three feet deep."
In Winthrop, damaged cars had to be towed, and six intersections were closed due to flooding but reopened by early afternoon, according to Lieutenant Paul DeLeo of the Winthrop police.
There were no injuries, no trees or power lines downed, and no structural damage, DeLeo said.
"It was nothing we couldn't handle, let's put it that way," he said. "There were a couple of people who thought they could drive through. They couldn't, and then their cars stalled."
The heavy rains also affected the MBTA, briefly flooding the Red Line's Wollaston station in Quincy. The water dissipated by afternoon and did not affect service, according to Joe Pesaturo, an MBTA spokesman. An upcoming $30 million renovation project for Wollaston is set to include improved drainage systems, Pesaturo said.
The storms caused some residents to lose electricity.
National Grid experienced outages in Lynn that affected more than 800 customers at one point and smaller, "scattered outages" around the region, according to Dana
Simone, a National Grid spokeswoman.
District Chief Stephen Archer, of the Lynn Fire Department, said that firefighters and City Hall employees were going door to door Saturday afternoon in some areas of the city to ensure that basements were drying out and it was safe to restore electricity.
By that time, the waters had largely receded and streets were again passable, in contrast to the scene earlier in the day.
"We had quite a crazy morning," Archer said. "A lot of roads were flooded out, cars trapped in flooding situations on roads. We actually had to use small, inflatable boats to take people out of cars in a number of situations. . . . It was just complete chaos for a while, while the heavy rain was coming down."
Archer said there were no reports of injuries, but the water had damaged "dozens of cars, easily."
"We had some intersections where you would see five, six, seven, eight cars swamped . . . with water up to their windows," he said.
© John Tlumacki/GlobeCars slowly drove along Commercial Street in Lynn.
"In circumstances like this, we find that people do not have flood insurance," he said. "A lot of them are going to be on the hook for these damages."
In East Boston, water in Nicolas Miranda's basement submerged his heating system and water heater, he said, as well as a window air conditioner, clothing, and other items stored in the basement. He had two sump pumps working to drain the water, he said, and it was too soon to tell how much damage had been done.
"I can see nothing right now, because everything is down in the water," he said.
Miranda said repairs and replacement of damaged heating and plumbing equipment will likely cost thousands of dollars, and he is unsure if any will be covered by his homeowner's insurance, because he does not have flood coverage.
"We're trying to take care of the basement right now. That's all I'm thinking about," he said. "But we'll have to prepare for the future. The winter is coming soon."
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