Flood — Plymouth, Massachusetts

2010-03-29 to 2010-03-31 · near Stanley, Plymouth, Massachusetts

Event narrative

Three to eight inches of rain fell across Plymouth County resulting in several small streams rising above flood stage, including the Taunton River at Bridgewater which set a record, the Indian Head River at Hanover, and the Jones River at Kingston.

Several ponds in Lakeville rose out of their banks. At least 35 families were evacuated because of the pond flooding. Schools in Lakeville closed early Tuesday, March 30 and closed for the day Wednesday, March 31 because of the flooding. Two buildings in the Ashley Place condominium complex in Middleborough were evacuated due to flooding. A day care center on Route 28 was also evacuated. A handful of people were evacuated from a multi-family dwelling on Ames Street in Brockton.

Many streets flooded (and most were eventually closed) in Wareham, Mattapoisett, Scituate, Bridgewater, Brockton, East Bridgewater, Middleborough, Kingston, and Lakeville, including Route 105 in Middleborough where it passes under Interstate 495 at exit 4. This intersection was eventually closed. Portions of Route 44 in Middleborough were closed due to flooding. Route 18 in Whitman was closed between Routes 27 and 14. A few basements flooded in Marion and some in Norwell were flooded with several feet of water. West Bridgewater High Schol was closed early Tuesday, March 30 due to flooding that threatened the electrical system at the school.

Several sewage treatment plants flooded resulting in raw sewage being discharged into rivers and other bodies of water.

Wider weather episode

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.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (41.9904, -70.9750)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 220249. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.