Flood — Worcester, Massachusetts

2010-03-14 to 2010-03-18 · near North Leominster, Worcester, Massachusetts

Event narrative

The Nashua River at Clinton rose to flood stage after three to six inches of rain fell across Worcester County. Two factories in Clinton were closed after ten feet of water flooded the basements. In addition, two to three hundred feet of railroad tracks were washed out. Several cars were submerged in flood waters throughout Clinton. Two sections of Clinton were flooded: the Main and Church Streets area, where Coachlace Pond overflowed a culvert and the Water Street section near the Nashua River. Many streets were closed and several businesses along Main Street were damaged by floodwaters. The U-Haul storage facility on High Street was flooded. Several apartments throughout town were evacuated, but no concrete numbers were reported. The overflow from Coachlace Pond washed out a rail bed, dislodging the tracks and halting trains.

Several smaller brooks and streams also overflowed their banks resulting in basements, parking lots, and yards flooding in Leominster, Clinton, and Westminster. Near the Mall at Whitney Field in Leominster, two vehicles were submerged and their drivers rescued when the Monoosnock Brook overflowed its banks, one was an armored car. Several roads in Leominster, Lancaster, Fitchburg, Sterling, and Westminster were closed due to flooding.

Wider weather episode

A stacked low pressure system (surface low and upper level low on top of each other) moved southeast of Nantucket, spreading rain across Southern New England. This resulted in widespread rainfall totals of three to six inches. In eastern Massachusetts, a strong southeasterly low level jet pumped ample moisture into the area, resulting in rainfall totals on the order of six to ten inches. This resulted in major flooding across eastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island, including small stream, urban, and poor drainage flooding. In addition, the Concord River at Lowell, the Shawsheen River at Wilimington, and the Pawtuxet River at Cranston reached record flood stages within two to four days of the rain. The Governor of Massachusetts declared a state of emergency and this was followed by a federal disaster declaration for seven Massachusetts counties.

Strong winds associated with the low pressure system and the low level jet affected both the east and south coasts, resulting in numerous downed trees and wires and some minor structural damage to a few buildings.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (42.5612, -71.6954)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 215810. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.