Wild Weather Leads to Flooding, Road Closures

Massachusetts State Police has warned drivers to slow down

Icy roads caused crashes and school closings in parts of New England on Tuesday morning, and now heavy rains are causing flooding in some areas.

Flood warnings are in effect for parts of Massachusetts and Connecticut this afternoon, with the potential for significant flooding in urban areas, including streets and underpasses. Police are urging motorists to drive carefully on the way home today due to the potential for standing water.

The MBTA suspended service on the Green Line between Fenway and Kenmore Stations in both directions as workers build a sandbag barricade in front of the Green Line tunnel opening just east of Fenway Station because the Muddy River was rising. Buses were used to replace the street cars.

The Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency also confirmed flooding in Natick was causing delays on the Framingham-Worcester Line.

Wind gusts measured about 40-55 mph on Massachusetts' South Shore, according to MEMA. Along NECN's travels to Scituate, there were broken street signs and power lines whipping in the heavy winds. A wind advisory was also in place for Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket.

Drivers were trapped on Walnut Street in Peabody, Massachusetts, late Tuesday afternoon after several of them drove through blocked-off roads and got stuck in the water, including two taxi drivers. Police closed down Peabody Square due to rising water; the city, which is often impacted by flooding, got 2 inches of rain.

Power outages are also being reported around New England. In Vermont, Green Mountain Power has more than 18,000 power outages, and crews will be working through the night. In Maine, CMP reported more than 800 without power.

Drivers in New Hampshire, meanwhile, faced everything from rain, to ice, to snow during the nor'easter. Accidents shut down some of the major highways as crews worked to keep up with the storm.

The rain came down steadily for most of the day. Conditions deteriorated quickly when the freezing rain started at about 8 a.m. and turned roads into ice skating rinks.

For the ninth time in just two weeks, a state trooper helping a disabled vehicle was hit by another car. At about 5:30 Tuesday morning, police say a driver going too fast spun out and hit the trooper in Newington. She was inside her car at the time and only suffered minor injuries.

"If a trooper happens to be out of their car and they get struck out of their vehicle with no protection, it could easily be a fatality," said Major Chris AuCoin.

A crash on I-293 forced police to block an on-ramp in Manchester, but AuCoin says the worst of it was on I-93 at the I-89 junction in bow, where the highway was shut down for about an hour.

"That was because of multiple accidents and conditions at which troopers couldn't even stand and neither could fire personnel to attend to the accidents," he said.

Massachusetts State Police said responded to multiple crashes and spinouts in the morning, including several cruiser crashes. A multiple vehicle accident was also reported early Tuesday morning on Interstate 94 in the Attleborough area. Massachusetts State Police were also working several crashes, a rollover and numerous spinouts.

Particularly bad areas included northeastern Massachusetts, especially Cape Ann and the Merrimack Valley, and central Massachusetts, including routes 495, 290 and 146.

Massachusetts State Police reported flooding on Route 99 in Saugus, with the road closed in both directions in the area of Osprey Road. And earlier today, the ramp to Exit 8 in Fall River, Massachusetts, off Route 24 was experiencing flooding.

Around 6 p.m., the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency listed some roads in the commonwealth that were strongly impacted by flooding:

  • The Arborway, in Boston's Jamaica Plain neighborhood, was impassible.
  • Milton's Truman Highway was shut down at Brush Hill Road.
  • A lane of Quincy Shore Drive in Quincy was closed off.
  • Vehicles were stuck in flood waters on Route 16 in Revere, near Chelsea. Both sides of the road are closed. Water was also reported to be rising from manhole covers on Mystic Parkway.
  • Both sides of Route 16 are closed in Chelsea at U.S. Route 1.
  • Route 133 in Rowley was closed between I-95 and U.S. Route 1.
  • U.S. Route 1 southbound is also closed at Route 62 in Danvers and at Lake Street in Peabody.
  • A flood warning was in effect at the Sudbury River in the Saxonville area of Framingham. MEMA believes parts of Wayland near the river will be impacted.

Tuesday's rainfall of 1.53 inches broke the previous record of 1.29 inches, which was set in 1956.

Vermont State Police in Middlesex temporarily took one lane down on Interstate 89 south for a truck off the road. Many roads in Vermont were reportedly slick with black ice, especially on I-89 between exits 8 and 10.

There were also spinouts on Interstate 84 east in Tolland, Connecticut, due to the slippery conditions, causing the highway to temporarily shut down until the DOT was able to treat the highway.

A rollover crash in Hooksett, New Hampshire, on the Everett Turnpike has closed the right lane, and a crash was reported earlier Tuesday morning on Interstate 95 south in Hampton. Speeds on the Maine Turnpike from Kittery to Exit 53 were temporarily reduced to 45 mph due to the snow and rain.

Still fresh in Granite Staters' minds is the Thanksgiving week storm that knocked out power for more than 200,000 customers. For most of the day Tuesday, New Hampshire only experienced isolated outages. But as the temperature drops overnight that could change.

If it does, Public Service of New Hampshire spokesperson Lauren Collins says, the utility company has 160 linemen plus an additional one hundred contractors and 200 tree workers on the clock to deal with it.

"We just went through a large scale outage so our muscle memory, if you will, of handling this is very, very fresh," Collins said.

When storms happen, stay with necn anytime to be prepared:

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