LEOMINSTER (AP) – Heavy rain fell as expected in the forecast yesterday in New England, United States where residents were cleaning up after downpours dropped nearly 25 centimetres (cm) of rain in six hours and flooded parts of Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
“The rainfall was a 200-year event,” said meteorologist Matthew Belk with the National Weather Service in Boston.
Two communities declared a state of emergency and officials ordered evacuations out of concern for a dam listed in poor condition.
Rain from Hurricane Lee didn’t contribute to Monday’s flooding but could inundate parts of the coastal Northeast during the weekend, forecasters said. Up to 300 people were evacuated by Tuesday morning in Leominster, about 64 kilometres northwest of Boston, Mayor Dean Mazzarella said. That included residents of a high-rise apartment building and a nursing home. Schools closed and shelters were opened.
Mazzarella said the city has not seen such widespread damage since a 1936 hurricane. He said most buildings downtown flooded and some collapsed. Rail service into Boston also was disrupted.
