It's a Waiting Game for Many New Hampshire Residents

(NECN: Lauren Collins, Pembroke, NH) - People living along the Suncook River in New Hampshire are anxiously watching rising floodwaters. Residents are preparing their homes, but for the most part, they know what to do when rains like this move in.

This silt-covered lawn in Pembroke, New Hampshire serves a constant reminder that the Suncook River is never more than one storm away from flooding.

  "It's a losing battle," says Allen Lundstead who is getting ready for the fourth time in as many years by "moving everything out, getting everything up above water." 

  He'll evacuate if need be.  So will Tony Lorina who watches the Suncook from his backyard in Allenstown.  Even though he'd rather stay home, he knows when to give up the fight.

  "Once it starts cresting and gets to that point there's nothing you can do," he says.

  Next door, Jan Mosseau is the latest Riverside Drive homeowner to sell out to FEMA as the Suncook eats away at the neighborhood, one flood at a time.

  She figures over the last four years, she's lost "15, 20 feet," of her lawn.  "It's still falling in.  In fact we've probably lost a couple more feet in the last month. "

  Voluntary evacuations are also underway in Goffstown where the Piscatacuag threatens the same homes reinforced and rebuilt after the 2006 and 2007 floods. 

  George Trahan is "just tying everything down, getting everything up high." 

  He plans to stay put, for now.  "By 8 o'clock it's gonna be way up over you know, the same as mother's day but right now it's looking good."

  Back in Allenstown, Tony Lorina looks at the Suncook and hopes *it* stays put so he can spend another summer in his beloved backyard.  But he admits this dance with the river, "it's getting old." 

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