In Stormy New England, One for the Books

As rain fell steadily on Monday, the bad news for waterlogged New Englanders was that still more precipitation was on the way.

The good news was, it wasn’t snow.

A merciless rainstorm clobbered the region all weekend, dumping up to 17 inches along the coast north of Boston. With more heavy rain and possible thunderstorms gathering Monday in Connecticut, forecasters said the tempest probably would claim a spot in area weather records -- this, in a part of the country famous for dreadful weather.

“This is a serious, dangerous weather event that probably in more than 100 years of recorded weather will enter into the top five of serious, dangerous events in terms of precipitation,” said meteorologist Charlie Foley of the National Weather Service in Taunton, Mass.

More succinctly, Foley said, “what we have here is too much water in too short a time.”

Governors in Massachusetts, Maine and New Hampshire declared states of emergency to activate National Guard troops as the worst downpour in a decade sent hundreds of rivers and streams in all three states cresting to their limits. The Merrimack River, which flows from New Hampshire to Massachusetts, alone gorged more than 8 feet above flood stage.

Flooding caused sewage to back up into sinks, basements and in at least once case, the halls of an apartment building. Hundreds were forced to evacuate in New Hampshire and the hardest-hit towns north of Boston. Hugh Drummond of the American Red Cross in Boston said his agency had set up more than 30 shelters in schools throughout the region.

More than a dozen elderly people spent Sunday night at a shelter hastily set up in Gloucester’s Fuller School, Red Cross spokeswoman Elizabeth Macomber said. Macomber predicted the numbers would increase Monday, along with confusion as the shelter itself sprung a leak and evacuees were sent to a new destination.

With bridges washed out and hundreds of roads and highways underwater, many people who had gone out for Mother’s Day meals were unable to return to their homes, Macomber said. She added that as floodwaters rose Monday and as the storm gained force, new areas were being evacuated.

On Monday, she said, “a whole section of Ipswich ... about 80 families,” was being evacuated. Ipswich is on the coast, about a half an hour north of Boston.

In Peabody, also north of Boston, about 300 residents of a high-rise apartment complex were evacuated when their building’s sewage system backed up.

School in Peabody and elsewhere was canceled Monday because school buses could not get through. Some people used canoes to traverse the city’s downtown.

Kayaks were a popular form of transportation Monday in York County, Maine, south of Portland.

“It seems to be the best way to get around, but it’s not the safest,” said Ginnie A. Ricker, assistant to the director of the Maine’s Emergency Management Agency. “We are recommending that people stay away from the water, especially if they are near a dam. Those dams are holding back a lot of water right now.”

New Hampshire Bureau of Emergency Management spokesman Jim Van Dongen said Monday that no dams had broken in his state, although at least a dozen were under observation. The storm put more than 600 New Hampshire roads, bridges and culverts out of commission, Van Dongen said, and caused about 3,000 people to leave their homes.

“And we’re not done yet,” Van Dongen said. Of the deluge expected late Monday night, he said: “I hope it stays in Massachusetts.”

Around the region, playgrounds and parking lots transformed into lakes. Sporting events -- from Little League to the Red Sox -- were abruptly canceled. Home-supply stores reported record sales Sunday of sump pumps, the 2006 Mother’s Day gift of necessity.

All the rain came on the heels of a prolonged and dangerous dry spell, said Foley of the National Weather Service.

“Just last month there was a high potential for brush fires,” with outdoor fires banned in many areas, Foley said. “So much for that. We certainly have seen a wide swing of the weather pendulum.”

Though blizzards in May are virtually unheard of, weather-weary New Englanders found it difficult to complain too hard about liquid precipitation. The rain-to-snow conversion ratio is 10 to 1, according to Foley -- which not so many weeks ago might have meant a snowfall of 170 inches.