Flood in Essex County, Massachusetts

Three to seven inches of rain fell across Essex County resulting in several rivers going into minor flood, including the Spicket River at Methuen and the Merrimack River at Lawrence and at Haverhill. In addition, several small streams rose above flood stage across Essex County, including the Parker River at Byfield and the Ipswich River at Ipswich and South Middleton.

Several streets were closed due to flooding in Peabody, Methuen, Andover, Danvers, Saugus, Gloucester, and Topsfield. Many basements were also flooded. The Mayor of Gloucester reported water pouring in the windows of the police station, as well as water coming into City Hall, some of the schools, and the Rose Baker Senior Center. Minor flooding occurred at the Danvers Electric Division and the Peabody Institute Library.

Two people were injured when a 28 year old woman's car became stranded in a deep puddle on the shoulder of Interstate 95. A Massachusetts state trooper rescued her from her car, cutting his arm on broken glass from the window. Thirteen people in Peabody were hospitalized with carbon monoxide poisoning after an unvented, gasoline powered pump was set up in a basement, emitting noxious fumes to the rest of the building.

A low pressure system sat just south of Long Island for two days, bringing heavy rain to much of Southern New England during that time. A persistent southerly low level jet brought very moist air into the area, which resulted in high rainfall rates. A coastal front along the I-95 corridor enhanced rainfall in that area. This event followed a heavy rainfall and record flooding event in mid-March as well as a second lesser rain event about a week prior. Rivers across much of Massachusetts and Rhode Island were still high from those events and warm temperatures in northern Vermont and New Hampshire resulted in a period of snowmelt, that resulted in rises on both the mainstem Connecticut and Merrimack Rivers. All of these factors led to a second record rainfall and flooding event.

Two day rainfall totals across Southern New England ranged from an inch to ten inches. Though concentrated in Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts, all of Southern New England was affected by the flooding. In Massachusetts, two day rainfall totals ranged from one and a half inches on Cape Cod to nearly eight inches in Bristol County. Providence, Boston, and Blue Hill Observatory in Milton, MA set record monthly precipitation totals during the month of March. Providence also set the record for the wettest month ever in the period of record. Both the Pawtuxet River in Rhode Island and the Sudbury River in Massachusetts set floods of record. Nearly 1000 Massachusetts National Guardsmen were activated to aid in sandbagging and evacuations. President Obama issued federal disaster declarations for seven counties in Massachusetts following the mid-March flooding. After this second round of flooding, residents of the seven counties (Bristol, Essex, Middlesex, Norfolk, Plymouth, Suffolk, and Worcester) received an automatic extension for filing their state and federal taxes.