2007 Flood in my backyard

McDenny's · Apr 17, 2007

Well, it all started at about 6 am when my Dad called and asked about the brook. The brook, "Great Brook", runs between our property and he is a truck driver and was on the road. I walked down to check on my implements to see if they were close to the water yet. I have to leave them outside until I can find the time and money to put up a garage. The brook usually is about 220' from out basement door, and the top of the brook shore is 6' below our basement floor. The brook is about 16-20' wide. The water wasn't to bad, about 4 feet away. My implements are at least 120' away from the brook. I said to myself it wont go much higher, it didn't at last years "100 year flood". I left for work. I got a few miles away and just had a gut feeling. I called the boss and told him what was happening, he said "do what you gotta do, take care of your house", so I headed home. I walked in the door and the wife says "changed your mind huh?"

I started the tractor and unhooked my front mount blower and headed down to move attachments, I had 9 of them there, by the time I got to my last one, my logging winch, I had changed my clothes 4 times, had my second snowmobile suit on (left my rain gear at work) and the water was well over my knees. I ended up taking some gravel I was piling to build a rock wall to use for a barrier to hold the water back, it ended up about 5 - 10' from the door, saved it, so I thought. The water started going down and we had been with out power since about 8 am. Power came back on, but lets say it surged, I ended up losing 1 TV, cordless phones, Microwave / Range hood, surge protector for computer, and some nice expensive electronic controls for my heating system (Tekmar Control, Taco Control, 110v to 24v transformer) Lets just say I went to bed last night cold and tired. I got up today, a new day, and started fresh. Heat is on, cordless phones are charging, and the wife went down to the basement and brought up our old 19" TV. I always try to remember, it can always be worse. The last few are today after most of the water is gone and what it usually looks like.

Rich P · Apr 17, 2007

Luckily didn't get hit too hard at all here (Eastern LI, NY). Last time was the nor'easter late 91 or 92 that put about 4.5 feet of water into my mother's basement (2 well pumps, solar hot water system, BIG mess) and floated a 28' sailboat into her back yard. On ly pics of that are film that I havn't scanned yet. Glad to hear you made it out OK though.

plowking · Apr 17, 2007

Ya, we had same problems in Nottingham. My house is on hill,but my friend on Gerrish Drive is on river and his water is up to the windows. The dam breached on Mill Pond [ behind Lee Speedway] and damaged the new bridge. My wife is hauling materials, riprap, with other trucks to fill damaged roads in town. The road agent has his hands full dealing with everything, but he's done it for years. Wendy's in Lee, NH is closed, they have a huge sinkhole from retention pond at Market Basket, backing up into a 36 inch pipe going under Wendy's parking lot. There should be a lot of work rebuilding all the damage in surrounding areas. plowking

jinman · Apr 18, 2007

That is quite the flood. My lake flooded a couple of weeks ago, but my house is at least 40' about the lake level and there was never a danger of any flooding there. Even so, I will look at things differently in the future. We had 10" of rain in one week with 7.5" of that coming on two consecutive days. How many inches of rain did it take to produce your flood?

Thomas · Apr 18, 2007

Yup,always go w/your gut feelings...better be safe than sorrow,and indeed your right for it could have been worse...some of those folks in southern New England have there hands full.

Looks to be real nice weekend coming for you folks up there,sooo enjoy and hope you dry out.

EddieWalker · Apr 18, 2007

Glad to hear it worked out for you and you made the right call. All that water is sure scarry!!!!

Thanks for posting all those pictures. Reading about it just doesn't come close to seeing pictures of it!!!

Eddie

rox · Apr 18, 2007

Did you get all the equipment out? Might you be considering some regrading int he future?

McDenny's · Apr 18, 2007

I ended up getting everything out and onto high ground. I am not sure how many inches of rain we got. I know last years flood wasn't as bad as this, it never made it past my telephone pole. I think there must have been some frost in the ground near the brook not letting the water soak in. It is sad to say that actually 2 people died because of the flood in town, a grandmother and her granddaughter. I went by Wendy's and Market Basket today and there are working on repairing the roads. I did end up buying a portable shelter to store my things in until I can put up a garage, hopefully I will go get it this weekend. Insurance called today and they wont replace any lumber that washed down because I do not have flood insurance, but they do want me to hire someone to come in and check all my appliances, if any are not up to spec, they said they will pay to replace them. They said they have had situations when people have lost other appliances that appeared to be working OK a few weeks to months down the road because of the power surge. I purchased a new micro hood tonight and installed that, you never realize how much you use a microwave until you don't have one

The one thing my wife said as the water was going down was " Thank God you bought that tractor"

So, hopefully warm weather will come soon, dry things out, and now I have a few more projects to do. I don't think I could do too much more for grading, as it is now, my basement floor is about 6' about the top of the brook shore, its a nice grade, I am not really sure if there is anything I could do to prevent it from happening again.

Dennis

art · Apr 19, 2007

We're pretty lucky here but I don't have to go to far to see a lot of damage, some from last summers floods and some from this spring. It's amazing to look at the damage of some of the flooding and the thoughts of amount of rain that it took to raise a river to crest at the height and width to do it! It's something you don't wish on anyone as I know we've lost some good people do to the flooding when bridges and culverts under roads were taken out from them.

gboudreau · Apr 23, 2007

McDenny I am right over the border in rochester and we got it bad. I work for the city and I was driving all over all day closing roads due to the roads washing out. It was worse than last years May flood and there was less rain. However due to the already saturated ground the water we did get had no where to go. We had many areas that were harder hit than in May and in some areas the water has gone down 5-6 feet and it is still high.