Brooks Pond dam in Leominster collapsed during the flash flooding Monday. (Courtesy Photo/Facebook profile of Laura and'Chet Carlton)
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LEOMINSTER – The National Weather Service has extended a flood warning for the City of Leominster until 11 a.m. Tuesday morning. This comes after flash floods from torrential downpours that began late Monday afternoon turned roadways to waterways, collapsed the asphalt of new streets, and tore through dams.
At about 7:31 a.m., Mayor Dean Mazzarella went live on Facebook from behind TD Bank (near where the old Friendly’s used to be) at the stream along the Monoosnoc Ridge Trail. Trash from people’s houses was strewed along the railing on the trail at least a dozen feet above where the water level is now. The water level was so high last night that it reached the Central Street bridge.
“The water got so high that it literally came over the banking and it washed out the actual trail here,” Mazzarella said as he walked along the trail. Later adding, “This is all brand new; this is the new trail we just built. The trash came from…I don’t even know where, but I want to show you something really remarkable, to give you a little sense of how things are.”
Further along the Monoosnoc Ridge Trail, Mazzarella pointed out a large storage container that was pushed to the area as well as a dumpster.
“That dumpster is full. It came from somewhere else and we do not know where it came from,” Mazzarella said.
Route 2 was closed in both directions for several hours Monday with sections of the highway covered with up to four feet of water. The highway has since reopened, but Mazzarella said around 7 a.m. Tuesday that the traffic heading east toward Boston was moving slow.
At 5:42 a.m. the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency announced on social media that “Due to a potential issue at the Barrett Park Pond Dam, persons in low-lying areas of the Fall Brook tributary to Fall Brook along Central St, Fall Brook & the North Nashua River, should evacuate & safely leave the area. Shelter is available at Skyview Middle School.”
Monday evening, resident of the Meadowbrook Acres mobile home park on Central Street were evacuated and taken to a shelter set up at Frances Drake Elementary School.
A large swath of Pleasant Street (near where it intersects with Colburn Street) was washed out completely by the high-pressure flooding, as were feet of soil from the front yard of a nearby home, which left the residence standing only on its foundation.
In North Leominster, heavy flooding on Route 13 at the railroad underpass forced the Fitchburg commuter rail trains that generally use that bridge to stop, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority announced.
Due to flash floods in the Leominster area, the MBTA has replaced regular train service on the Fitchburg Line train with buses from Wachusett to Shirley until the end of service on Sept. 12. There are delays of up to over 30 minutes expected on the Fitchburg Line as well.
“We’re going to be at this for quite a while before we can get everything back to normal,” Mazzarella said in a news conference Tuesday morning.
Schools and the district court in Leominster are also closed Tuesday.
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