Flood — Norfolk, Massachusetts

2010-03-14 to 2010-03-18 · near Wellesley Fells, Norfolk, Massachusetts

Event narrative

The Charles River at Dover and the Neponset River at Norwood both went into flood. The Neponset River rose to major flood stage, inundating the Norwood Memorial Airport with three and a half feet of water. This resulted in the power being shut off to the airport and the closure of the airport for several days. The combination of the water and the lack of power kept the Automated Surface Observing System at Norwood (KOWD) out of service for nearly five weeks.

Many roads flooded in Wellesley, Holbrook, Milton, Walpole, Norfolk, Foxborough, Quincy, Braintree, and Dover, including Furnace Brook Parkway in Quincy and two lanes of Interstate 93 at Furnace Brook Parkway. Baseball fields at O'Rourke Playground in Quincy were flooded and two nearby schools were also closed due to flooding. Several homes were flooded in Braintree. Several cars were stuck in floodwaters on Plymouth Street in Holbrook.

Roughly 100 tenants of an apartment building along Furnace Brook Parkway were evacuated. In West Quincy, two dozen people were evacuated from their homes after floodwaters reached the first floor. At least 40 people were evacuated from their homes in Braintree.

MBTA commuter rail service between Braintree and Holbrook/Randolph was temporarily suspended after a portion of the rail bed was washed out.

A water treatment plant in Quincy that normally handles 360 million gallons of flow became overburdened with 1.3 billion gallons of flow, resulting in the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority to empty about 15 million gallons of untreated waste into Quincy Bay.

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 → (42.3119, -71.3026)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 217619. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.