The Rain Has Stopped, But Water Worries Linger on

(NECN: Alysha Palumbo - Topsfield, MA) - The Ipswich River couldn't handle the unrelenting rain over the past three days.
It spilled over onto several roads in Topsfield and Boxford making travel treacherous.

This car tried unsuccessfully to make it over Endicott Road in Boxford.

The driver ended up leaving the car in the rushing waters and walking the rest of the way.

Flooding here in Essex County wasn't contained to the roadways, but seeped into several homes near the many rivers and brooks here.

Joe Yutkins of Topsfield, Massachusetts said, "When it started getting close to the house we had a pump, we put it in the middle and started pumping into the sewer, but then we couldn't keep up and next thing you know a couple of hours later it was two to three inches in the basement."

Yutkins says he and his wife haven't even been able to clean up yet from when the wind storm knocked a dozen pine trees down on their shed and porch.

And this weekend they had to get a professional strength pump just to compete with the rising water in their basement and garage.

"It was coming out like a fire hose, even with that it probably took about three hours just to get enough so it was starting to come out of the house," said Yutkins.

Other homeowners in the area saw their backyards turned into pools.

Dean Tzortzis said, "We're out of the water park right now but the backyard is definitely swimmable."

This is what Dean Tzortzis and his family had to deal with after cleaning up their flooded rental home.

"We had to go in there with water vacuums, fans, pump it out, mop it up, so it was kind of a three day ordeal," said Tzortzis.
School was cancelled here at Masconomet Regional High School - not that anyone could have played sports here anyway.

The district's chief financial officer Susan Givens said, "Not only is our football field underneath but there's a track that goes around the outside and our tennis courts are also underneath water."

But the students made the best of the conditions bringing out their boats and kayaks as Robert's Field became Robert's Lake.

Senior Scott Bermudez said, "We don't typically go kayaking in the middle of March, especially not on our football field, but since it's here we'll just enjoy the moment."

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