{"id":8386,"date":"2023-09-13T13:50:19","date_gmt":"2023-09-13T13:50:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2023\/09\/13\/catastrophic-flooding-damages-hundreds-of-homes-as-a-massachusetts-city-engulfed-in-water-is-now-at-risk-of-dam-failure\/"},"modified":"2023-09-13T13:50:19","modified_gmt":"2023-09-13T13:50:19","slug":"catastrophic-flooding-damages-hundreds-of-homes-as-a-massachusetts-city-engulfed-in-water-is-now-at-risk-of-dam-failure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2023\/09\/13\/catastrophic-flooding-damages-hundreds-of-homes-as-a-massachusetts-city-engulfed-in-water-is-now-at-risk-of-dam-failure\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Catastrophic flooding\u2019 damages hundreds of homes as a Massachusetts city engulfed in water is now at risk of dam failure"},"content":{"rendered":"

Massachusetts cities devastated by floodwater could face new perils as more rain is on the way and officials wonder whether a \u201cvery sensitive\u201d dam in will hold up. <\/strong> <\/p>\n

Gov. Maura Healey has declared a state of emergency across Massachusetts on Tuesday due to \u201ccatastrophic flooding\u201d that began Monday and inflicted damage to homes, businesses and infrastructure, including bridges, dams and railways. <\/p>\n

About a dozen homes in the town of North Attleborough were completely under water Tuesday, said Chris Coleman, the town\u2019s fire and emergency management chief. <\/p>\n

And about 200 homes were damaged in and around North Attleborough after a storm Monday quickly dumped about 5 inches of rain on ground already saturated from a weekend storm, officials said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really scary, the amount of water that fell in just a short amount of time and the incredible devastation that it caused,\u201d the governor said. <\/p>\n

No civilian injuries have been reported from the North Attleborough flooding, but a firefighter was injured overnight and was in stable condition, Coleman said Tuesday. <\/p>\n

She also said the massive flooding that hit various regions of Massachusetts \u201cseverely impacted\u201d two dams, damaged railroad tracks and forced a number of seniors to be evacuated by boats in the middle of the night. <\/p>\n

\u201cOne of those dams has been shored up already and the other will be shored up by the end of the day,\u201d said Healey, who toured the damage on Tuesday. <\/p>\n

Leominster was another city in Massachusetts to face a torrential downpour this week. The city got pummeled by roughly 11 inches of rain in just six to seven hours, Mayor Dean Mazzarella said Tuesday. <\/p>\n

Some basements in Leominster \u201cprobably have feet of water inside of them,\u201d Mazzarella said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have several homes where the water washed out \u2026 you can see the foundation of the home.\u201d <\/p>\n

While no serious injuries have been reported, the mayor said, \u201cWe had to evacuate people last night \u2026 with hovercrafts and boats to get people out to safety.\u201d <\/p>\n

Leominster was quickly inundated not just by torrential downpours, but also from water gushing downhill. <\/p>\n

\u201cLeominster is about 26 square miles. We have 12 hills, and obviously from those hills comes the water,\u201d the mayor said. \u201cAnd with 11 inches of rain, it just adds to the \u2026 water (going) downhill.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency has urged some residents to evacuate due to \u201ca potential issue at the Barrett Park Pond Dam,\u201d MEMA said on X, formerly known as Twitter. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis particular dam is one that we\u2019re actually about to replace,\u201d Mazzarella said. \u201cIt is very sensitive. It\u2019s water saturated. And we\u2019re worried about that downstream. So, we\u2019ve put out a code red and notified everyone along that stream bank, along that river base \u2026 to evacuate.\u201d <\/p>\n

And it\u2019s not clear when children in Leominster will be able to go back to school. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur schools are closed\u201d Tuesday, the mayor said. \u201cWe have a couple of schools that experienced severe damage and flooding. And the other schools are open for shelters.\u201d <\/p>\n

The deluge has also washed away roads and created a large sinkhole, Mazzarella said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the road \u2026 it\u2019s gone,\u201d the mayor said in a Facebook video showing the massive sinkhole. <\/p>\n

MEMA staff have been on-scene in #Leominster since last night supporting the local flood response & coordinating requests for assistance, including 3,000 sandbags, additional shelter staff, traffic sign boards & shelter equipment to support residents with disabilities. #ThisIsEM pic.twitter.com\/uQbmYQhlUQ<\/p>\n

\u2014 MEMA (@MassEMA) September 12, 2023 <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

While the rain has largely subsided in Leominster, \u201cit\u2019s going to take a while for the rivers to reach their peak,\u201d Mazzarella said Tuesday morning. <\/p>\n

While the impacted regions get a reprieve from heavy rain Tuesday, but another round of storms could move through Wednesday. <\/p>\n

Most of the Northeast \u2013 including central Massachusetts \u2013 faces a slight risk of excessive rainfall late Wednesday and early Thursday, according to the Weather Prediction Center. <\/p>\n

And more rain could thrash Massachusetts and eastern New England this weekend, depending on the track of Hurricane Lee. <\/p>\n

The governor said local and state agencies are working to address damages in zones impacted by the storms and that her office is preparing an emergency declaration that will be issued later Tuesday. <\/p>\n\n

This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Massachusetts cities devastated by floodwater could face new perils as more rain is on the way and officials wonder whether a \u201cvery sensitive\u201d dam in will hold up. Gov. Maura Healey has declared a state of emergency across Massachusetts on Tuesday due to \u201ccatastrophic flooding\u201d that began Monday and inflicted damage to homes, businesses and <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":8387,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8386","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}