Allenstown News : flood

$4 million earmark to expand Route 3

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 18:27:00 GMT

BY LAUREN SAUSSER

If there were any doubts about the suggestion that Route 3 in Hooksett -- between Benton Road and Martins Ferry Road -- needs repairing, the weekend’s storm cleared those up.

The many stores flooded in the Kmart plaza prove something underground isn’t working right.

That’s why state officials addressed the Hooksett Planning Board on Monday, Sept. 8, about ways to improve the highway.

“(The road improvements and the drainage concerns) go hand in hand,” said Michael Dugas, the New Hampshire Department of Transportation’s chief of preliminary design. State officials have secured a $4 million federal earmark to address the traffic and drainage issues, and yet that sum will not be enough to cover the full scope of the project. With the chance of receiving any additional funding for road work being slim, the state Department of Transportation and local Hooksett officials are in the process of determining which problems need urgent attention.

Dugas said no matter what type of improvement project they decide to pursue, installing two box culverts under Route 3, to replace two small pipes, is on the ticket.

“The culverts will have a much greater capacity,” he said. In this latest flash flood at the Kmart plaza, sections of the road had to be shut down, something that is happening more often as the weather changes.

Because floodwater was so deep from the storm, power had to be cut for the entire strip mall and only certain businesses had re-opened even as late Monday, Sept. 8.

David Katz of R.K. Associates, which owns the Kmart plaza in Hooksett, said the need for drainage improvement is dire. “We have been very actively involved in the process with the town, with the NHDOT and with some of our abutters to create some long-term drainage solutions,” Katz said. “We also need the DOT to execute the drainage improvement on Route 3. We’re extremely concerned about it.”

That state and local officials are in the midst of moving forward with improvement plans is a good sign, Katz said. “It’s all very timely, and we’re hoping to see some progress as a result,” Katz said.

On Aug. 27, state officials brought a plan to widen Route 3 to the Hooksett Town Council. The plan to ease traffic and drainage problems, if approved, would cost nearly $7 million, but the federal government has approved a $4 million earmark. Local and state officials are having a tough time trying to figure out the best way to spend that money.

There are several alternative options to consider, including narrowing the scope of the project or attempting to secure more funds. State officials said at the Aug. 27 meeting that their plan was meant more to address traffic than drainage issues.

Hooksett Town Planner JoAnn Duffy said it is important for everyone to understand the issues at stake.

“I think that the Planning Board has decided they would like to open up the lines of communication with the DOT so there are more cooperative efforts,” Duffy said. “I thought it would be beneficial for the planning board to be aware of some of the options.”

At that meeting, state Sen. Ted Gatsas said a decision regarding the road repairs should be made. Unless the federal money is spent in a timely manner, the earmark will disappear, he said. “(The money) will go away in a few years if it’s not spent,” Gatsas said. “I think it’s important that we move as quickly as we can with the project because floods will come and then the traffic really stops.”

Allenstown homes flooded in 2006 get aid

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 18:24:00 GMT

BY JENN McDOWELL

For many families whose homes were ravaged by the flooding of the past two years, there is finally a ray of hope. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has awarded $2.1 million in grants to the town for the purpose of buying out 14 homes along the Suncook River affected by the floods.

The town now has to secure the rest of the funding through state or other sources, as the grants will cover 75 percent of the total costs.

Most of those homes are not inhabited at this time and some are condemned, said Allenstown Police Chief Shaun Mulholland, also the deputy emergency management director for the town.

Mulholland sent letters out to the owners of the 14 worst properties, 11 of them on Riverside Drive, two on Alban Avenue, and one on JillErik Road. There are other properties considered in the grant, but those properties did not make the cut after a cost/benefit analysis for the buyout project.

Some owners of the properties approved may not want to have their homes bought out at this time, Mulholland said in the letter. He is looking into whether other properties can be added to replace those not being bought out.

“We are presently working with our legislators to draft a supplemental appropriations bill to receive the matching funds from the state of New Hampshire that will be necessary to complete the project.

The grant provides $2.1 million in federal funds. The state portion is approximately $650,000. The town’s portion is already accounted for,” said Mulholland in the letter.

Hazard Mitigation Officer for the State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management Richard Verville said the grants will cover 75 percent of the total cost to buy out the homes.

“Approval of these flood mitigation assistance grants is a significant step forward for these projects,” Verville said in a press release. “All of these properties have been flooded several times. The only way to protect the residents is to help them move out of harm’s way.”

A public meeting on the buyout is scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 11, at 7 p.m., in the Allenstown Elementary School gym.

Second flood in a year worse than first

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 21:29:00 GMT

BY NICHOLAS BROWN

Ken Rowe bought a shiny new Mercury Comet in 1965.

Forty-one years later, in May 2006, floodwaters ripping through his low-lying neighborhood off Riverside Park Drive got as high as the Comet’s roof.

Still, Rowe, a former teacher with no flood insurance for his home of nearly three decades, pledged to get the Comet running again.

But 11 months later, there was more flooding and more damage.

“It took a log through the windshield this time,” said Rowe, who was more concerned with removing the feet of mud and contaminated water from his home than he was with his ‘65 Comet swamped in sludge in his side yard.

Rowe was just one of hundreds of Allenstown residents forced to evacuate their homes during the recent deluge, which peaked on Monday, April 16, and Tuesday, April 17.

What many people encountered upon their homecoming was even more ruin, wreckage and destruction than last year when Mother’s Day rains flooded the area.

Gov. John Lynch has said early estimates of statewide infrastructure damage due to the floods exceed $36 million, and he’s asked the federal government for a declaration of disaster, which could give the state some federal aid.

But what Lynch saw when he toured parts of Allenstown on Thursday, April 19, were intimate stories of damaged property and depreciated morale.

Not only were furniture and appliances destroyed, he said, “but (also) pictures, memories.”

Anasa Mpingo’s modest yellow home on the banks of the Suncook River was condemned after last year’s floods. For 11 months she’d worked to move back in, spending thousands of dollars to make her home safe and habitable.

After the most recent floods, Allenstown’s code enforcement officer, Cliff Jones, had to again break the news to Mpingo that she couldn’t return home. Hers was one of at least seven Allenstown homes that had been condemned by press time.

“She’s been a real sweetheart,” said Jones. “She hasn’t been able to live here since last year.”

Said Mpingo, who was preparing to leave with her sister, “I’ll just grab what I need and go.”

Allenstown’s Claire Audet said she spent most of her 401K savings to fix up about $35,000 worth of damage to her Riverside Park Drive home and family property after last year’s floods. “This is brutal,” said Audet’s son, Thomas, who lives in the family home. “I can’t take this no more.”

Audet and her family just returned to their home last fall, and, like many people in Allenstown, Pembroke and Epsom, again are displaced.

Thomas Audet said the replay of last year’s floods is psychologically taxing as residents again embark on months worth of repairs.

“When you lay down to sleep, you think of all the work you need to be doing,” he said. “You can’t sleep.”

Keith Donovan and Nancy Garceau, Riverside Park Drive residents who are expecting twin babies this summer, said there was $25,000 worth of damage to their home and property last year, and this year’s damage is equally devastating.

The couple was skeptical of the federal emergency help they could be getting.

“I hope FEMA gets here a little faster this time,” said Donovan, who got a check for less than $200 from the federal organization last year.

Allenstown Police Chief Shaun Mulholland told Lynch he estimates about $700,000 to $1 million in damage to Allenstown public infrastructure alone as a result of the recent floods.

That estimate doesn’t include the home and property damage to people in neighborhoods like Riverside Park Drive, where septic systems are floating in people’s yards and pools of standing water are mixed with contaminants like fuel, he said.

“It’s going to take a long time to get these back up to code, where they’ll be habitable,” he said of many Allenstown homes.

“We’ve got a lot of people that will be out (of their homes) for a very long time.”

Storm wreaks havoc … again - 5 arrested in Allenstown

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 20:31:00 GMT

BY NICHOLAS BROWN

Roads closed, bridges washed away and hundreds of residents were forced to abandon their homes to find safer ground once again as a spring nor’easter ravaged the state.

And in Allenstown, in a low-lying neighborhood that’s been perpetually abused by flooding, five people were arrested by press time for disorderly conduct.

For many people in southern New Hampshire, the recent floods – which peaked on Monday, April 16 and Tuesday, April 17 – were eerily similar to last May’s Mother’s Day floods.

“It’s an instant replay of last year,” said Auburn fire Lt. Linda Wilking.

Wildlife biologist Eric Orff, who lives on the banks of the Suncook River in Epsom, said, “It’s another 100- year flood. It’s probably the fourth 100-year flood we’ve had in a year-and-a-half.”

Just like last year, one of the hardest-hit communities in the state was Allenstown, where more than 60 homes, mainly in low-lying areas near the Suncook, were subjected to mandatory evacuations. People in 40 other apartments and homes also heeded a voluntary evacuation.

Several residents in the Riverside Park Drive area, which was largely submerged by the Suncook River, defied orders to evacuate, police said.

First arrested was Evelyn Bernard, who police said refused to abandon her home.

“She was asked to leave numerous times and refused,” said Police Chief Shaun Mulholland.

Around 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, April 17, police arrested Arthur Gelinas and David Leach, who, with a dog, were surrounded in their car by rushing floodwaters.

Safety officials spent several hours rescuing the pair and the pup, and crews from Hooksett and Pembroke were called in after the motor on Allenstown’s water rescue boat burned out while fighting the current, said Town Administrator Kelley Collins.

Edward Faye was arrested after he was rescued from his family’s home, which he got to on Tuesday afternoon launching a canoe from upriver, said Collins.

The canoe was lost in the currents, and a rescue boat was again summoned.

As of press time, Noreen Lockwood, who police contend drove around an Army National Guard barrier in the Riverside Park Drive area, represented the last flood-related arrest.

All five of those arrested will go to Hooksett District Court, Mulholland said.

Collins said many people had tried to pass through barricaded roadways including Mount Delight Road, Jasper Drive and Riverside Park Drive.

Town officials condemned a home on Hillside Drive after a 12-foot section of a tree cut through the home, Collins said.

In Hooksett, a town-wide emergency was declared on Monday, and 20 Army National Guard troops assisted by keeping traffic out of flooded areas.

“We had, at one time, 13 roads closed,” said Murray.

“That’s 26 barriers.”

Two roadways, including Pleasant Street, where surging waters from a brook washed out a section of a bridge, were still closed at press time.

“There’s some major damage down there,” Murray said. “That’s going to be closed for a while.”

Hooksett Highway Department head Dale Hemeon summed up the damage to the town’s roadways.

“A lot of the roads we had problems with last year are some of the same roads we’re having problems with now,” he said.

The Route 3 RK Plaza, anchored by a 94,500-squarefoot Kmart store, was one of the first areas to flood in town.

The plaza’s owners, RK Associates of Dedham, Massachusetts, are putting up the money to temporarily fix a Benton Road drainage problem that has perpetually caused flooding to the Route 3 commercial plaza for decades. Construction was underway at press time.

Auburn’s Wilking said virtually all the roads that closed last year were submerged by floodwaters again this year. Adding to the trouble is that 566 homes lost power on the first day of the flooding.

Hooksett Road, Raymond Road, Manchester Road and Spofford Road all closed for a time, she said. And bridges on Tower Hill Road and Depot Road that were either shored up or rebuilt after last year’s flooding were again washed away by powerful floodwaters, said Wilking.

“Basically all of our low-lying areas are underwater,” Wilking said during the worst of the deluge.

Candia Fire Chief Rudy Cartier said the town was hit hard by the floods after faring well compared to surrounding towns last year.

“In Candia, it was absolutely worse than last year,” he said.

“We’ve had a lot more damage.” Sporadic losses of power and phone services only augmented problems caused by closed roadways and bridges.

A large tree fell on a power line, knocking out power to residents in spots near North Road.

A Raymond switching station, which provides phone service to hundreds of Candia, was at one point submerged in four feet of water, Cartier said.

“There’s still little to no phone service in parts of Candia, even right now,” Cartier said late Tuesday morning.

For some safety officials, late-season snow and pounding rain are making for a long spring season.

“The only thing I like about ice and snow is that I can eventually put my boat in it,” said Murray.