By Rod Hansen
Staff Writer

Knee-deep floodwaters in Goffstown didn’t stop drivers from trying to cross from North Mast Road onto Main Street on Sunday, May 14, at the height of the flood. Emergency volunteers diverted motorists away from Main Street because water from an overwhelmed culvert had rendered the roadway impassable. (The Goffstown News/Rod Hansen)

Listening to weather reports May 11, Goffstown police Capt. Glenn DuBois said he expected a rainy weekend.

It turned out to be a rain for the history books. It came down in torrents. Nearly a foot of it over the course of two days, swelling the Piscataquog River into a raging monster, rendering more than a dozen roads impassable and chewing up roadways at will.

By weekend’s end, Gov. John Lynch had declared a state of emergency, and 69 members of the New Hampshire National Guard were stationed in Goffstown.

“This one’s a whopper,” DuBois said. “Especially with the amount of roads we had damaged and families who have had to leave their homes.”

Areas especially hard hit by the flooding included the Lynchville/Danis Park neighborhood on the banks of the Piscataquog, where DuBois estimated approximately 40 families were evacuated from their homes. Eight families in the area of Henry Bridge Road also had to abandon their homes, he said.

Old Francestown Road in Weare became impassible after flood waters washed a large chunk of road away May 15.

Most of the evacuated families were able to stay with friends or family, although some of them stayed at emergency Red Cross shelters at Bartlett School and Southern New Hampshire University.

“The damage from a flood can be worse than a fire,” said Loren Caruso, a volunteer on the Disaster Assistance Team of the American Red Cross. “And there’s so much uncertainty to it. No one knows when it’s going to stop.”

Main Street itself had to be shut down on Sunday night, when the overwhelmed culvert that runs under the town hall parking lot on Church Street overflowed, causing flood damage to several buildings on Main Street.

Buildings hardest hit by the overflow included 12 and 14 Main St. and 3 Church St., DuBois said.

The rains forced district schools to close on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, a measure DuBois said town and school officials agreed on because of the damages some families have suffered and for the safety of bus travel.

The foul weather also caused a run on sump pumps, with one local business reporting a brisk business.

Larry Brown, owner of Goffstown True Value Hardware, said said the store had sold as many as 200 sump pumps, as well as hydraulic cement used to patch cracks or holes in concrete foundation, rain gear and wet/dry vacuums.

“Our biggest challenge has been keeping up with the demand for sump pumps,” Brown said.

For police, the biggest challenge has been keeping motorists from driving through signs declaring local roads closed, DuBois said.

“We’ve got the National Guard here. It’s a wonderful resource. We’re using them to man the closed roads,” DuBois said. “People think barricades are just for irritation – sometimes it doesn’t click that they’re there for a reason. There were times we needed to put a live body in to keep people out.”

At the height of the storm, DuBois said the police department had 20 sworn officers on duty, three communications specialists and a secretary.

Volunteer personnel included about eight members of the Goffstown Police Explorers, a youth group affiliated with the department, and members of the Community Emergency Response Team, or CERT, who assisted with duties including traffic control.

Volunteers helped officers to attend to other matters that didn’t involve the fire, DuBois said.

“When you have something like this come up, domestics don’t stop, accidents don’t stop, so you have to deal with things you’d ordinarily have to deal with on top of the flood-related problems,” DuBois said.

Lt. Mike Sullivan served as appointed incident commander, during the flood crisis DuBois said. He also remarked on the work of Department of Public Works Director Carl Quiram handling road repairs and Fire Chief Frank Carpentino for that department’s response to calls.

“It’s a big job,” DuBois said. “There’s always a bump in the road; it’s just how you handle the bumps.”

A list of troubled roads in Goffstown included the following: Roads either partially or completely closed:

• Henry Bridge
• Montelona
• East Dunbarton
• Elm Street
• Pollard Road
• Snook and Walnut Hill
• Mooseclub, Lynchville and Danis Park roads
• Addison
Restricted roads:
• Tirrell Hill Road
• East Dunbarton – Near Lisa and Jenny
• Back Road
• Black Brook
• Shirley Hill Road
• Gorham Pond
Areas to watch:
• Danis
• Elm Street
• Shirley Hill
• Mountain Base
• First Avenue
• Landfill slope and access
• Rosemont

Weare’s emergency response Like DuBois, Weare Police Chief Gregory Begin said the town’s main safety problem involved drivers ignoring signs warning them of closed roads.

“The one area of concern – there were some who broke through barriers that had been marked closed, essentially putting others who came after them in danger,” Begin said, noting that drivers will not know a road is closed after the barrier has been destroyed.

“We were continuously going back and re-signing the roads. You just could not man any location with a live body to turn things around. We were at our limits manpower-wise, and it was just making it more difficult because we had to just go around checking.”

The town’s police, fire and highway departments were on around-the-clock duty from Saturday night to Monday, Begin said, at the public safety complex on North Stark Highway.

“I was very happy and encouraged by the teamwork displayed by teamwork displayed by police fire DPW,” Begin said.

He also noted that several residents offered use of their sump pumps for others who had flooded basements.

Severely damaged roads:
• Peacock Hill Road
• Old Francestown Road near Low Road
• Peaslee Road
• Mount Dearborne Road through Maplewood Road
• Martin Road at Brownridge
• Duck Pond Road
• Lower Craney Hill

New Boston
The storm marked Police Chief Chris Krajenka’s first major storm as head of the town’s police department. Although the town suffered serious damage to local roads, Krajenka said he was pleased with the outcome.

“This is my very first large storm. I was very impressed with highway and town agencies worked well together,” Krajenka said.

There were three officers and an auxiliary officer during the height of the storm, and a records clerk and part-time firefighter were working in a makeshift dispatch center at the New Boston Police Department.

Roads closed:

• Tucker Mill Road at 328 to Weare town line
• Bog Brook at 180 through Christy Road
• Dougherty Road at Middle Branch, to be worked on as of Tuesday, May 16
• Bunker Hill at 191, washed out/impassible – needs to be assessed
• Bunker Hill Road at 203, needed to be assessed
• Thornton Road at Pine Road was impassible.