Municipalities Find Ways to
Cope With a 100 Year Storm
In late October, excessive rains caused flooding in most of New Hampshire. The rainfall was classified as the 100 year storm with accumulation of more than twelve inches. Only Cheshire and Sullivan counties did not receive extreme rains. Hillsborough, Rockingham, and Strafford were the hardest hit. According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) a State of emergency was declared on 1630 on Monday, October 21, 1996.
The town of Newmarket received about 14 inches of rain. David Walker, the Public Works Director, reported five partial washouts. Some washouts occurred in areas where there had never been high water before. In other areas waters were much higher than during spring time conditions. Dave said, it is important to block roads off. When he ran out of signs he had to buy more. The DPW coordinated their efforts with the state highway district, local police officers and DPWs from surrounding towns because “sometimes you can’t get there from here” because of a washout.
Dave managed the towns resources by carrying a town road map and keeping a log of areas with high water to develop a list of problems. This was specially helpful when the FEMA representative arrived. David was able to give the representative a comprehensive list of problems with very short notice. Dave would suggest that others follow this plan.
All in all, it took the Newmarket DPW three weeks to clean up the mess caused by the storm. Dave said they were lucky because they never lost electricity during the storm. He also said it is important to go back and increase the size of any culverts that failed.