A Massachusetts city deluged by 'catastrophic' flooding faces more danger as homes near a precarious dam get evacuated
Pouring rain caused scenes of flooding from New York through Massachusetts on the evening of Sept. 11, 2023.
(CNN) — The mammoth flood engulfing a Massachusetts city – both from epic rainfall and from water gushing downhill – could get more disastrous as officials evacuate homes near a “very sensitive” dam.
Already, some basements in Leominster “probably have feet of water inside of them,” and “we have several homes where the water washed out … you can see the foundation of the home,” Mayor Dean Mazzarella said Tuesday morning.
“We had to evacuate people last night … with hovercrafts and boats to get people out to safety,” the mayor said.
“Hospitals went down with no power last night, several nursing homes, several areas of town,” he said. “Downtown was completely flooded.”
Vehicles plow through a flooded street during heavy rain in Leominster, Massachusetts, on September 11. (Rick Cinclair/Worcester Telegram & Gazette/AP)
The calamity unfolding in Leominster – a city of about 44,000 people northwest of Boston – started when roughly 11 inches of rain pummeled the city in just six to seven hours late Monday, the mayor said.
And the topography made the disaster even worse.
“Leominster is about 26 square miles. We have 12 hills, and obviously from those hills comes the water,” the mayor said. “And with 11 inches of rain, it just adds to the … water (going) downhill.”
Realizing the situation was turning “catastrophic,” Mazzarella said, “we declared a state of emergency here in the city and called in all police, fire, emergency management.”
The Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency is urging some residents to evacuate due to “a potential issue at the Barrett Park Pond Dam,” MEMA said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“This particular dam is one that we’re actually about to replace,” Mazzarella said. “It is very sensitive. It’s water saturated. And we’re worried about that downstream. So, we’ve put out a code red and notified everyone along that stream bank, along that river base … to evacuate.”
And it’s not clear when children will be able to go back to school.
“Today, our schools are closed,” the mayor said. “We have a couple of schools that experienced severe damage and flooding. And the other schools are open for shelters.”
The deluge has also washed away roads and created a large sinkhole, Mazzarella said.
“That was the road … it’s gone,” the mayor said in a Facebook video showing the massive sinkhole.
Videos posted on social media showed vehicles submerged by dark floodwater covering a highway. Other footage shows emergency vehicles trying to navigate a street overtaken by rapidly moving water as rain keeps falling. Another video shows water filling a gaping sinkhole in the middle of a street lined with houses.
The torrent was so intense that a packed, 8-foot by 8-foot dumpster traveled down a local river and ended up in the middle of a riverwalk trail, Mazzarella said. Officials have no idea where the dumpster came from.
While the rain has largely subsided in Leominster, “it’s going to take a while for the rivers to reach their peak,” Mazzarella said Tuesday morning.
The area will get a reprieve from heavy rain Tuesday, but another round of storms could move through Wednesday.
Most of the Northeast – including central Massachusetts – faces a slight risk of excessive rainfall Wednesday into Thursday morning, according to the Weather Prediction Center.
And more rain could thrash Massachusetts and eastern New England this weekend, depending on the track of Hurricane Lee.
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