Epsom Deals with Flooding Again

I’m Amy Quinton…..
In Epsom, some residents are saying this week’s floods are worse than those during Mother’s Day last year.
That was when the Suncook River jumped its banks and changed course.
1219 (sound of stream)
Swollen streams and brooks in the town washed away roads and bridges.
Sergeant First Class Ken McMullen and a crew from the 3643rd National Guard Company spent the day putting up road blocks.
1218 :16 it’s a mess, one of the bridges is washed out, the town crews are repairing it as we speak, we’ve had dump trucks going out with loads of dirt and sand and blocks of cement trying to make the repairs.

Along Center Hill Road, Epsom Town Selectmen John Klose has been putting in long hours helping repair a washed out bridge that trapped access for about 50 residents.
He says it’s been rough, with some crews working round the clock since Monday morning.
:26 we got steel plates just came in and we’re going to gravel it and steel plate it and hope we can get all the citizens out off that hill.

Klose says the rushing water has knocked out culverts and roads all over town, unlike anything he’s seen before.
Klose 2:04 it gets high water, but never like this, we had the regular river coming right down the road, it didn’t even go in the brook, it just went right down the road.

Nearby resident Tammy Beaudoin (Bowdwin) and her two kids watched the water rise….and took pictures on a cell phone.
Beaudoin :20 this road is out, echo valley, on the other side was washed out so we couldn’t leave from that way, over near us near the campground, there’s probably 20 feet by 10 feet down that’s completely gone

Beaudoin says given the conditions, she’s thankful her family and most of her neighbors still have power.
She spent most of the day using a sump pump to get water out of her flooded living room.
Her neighbors also have flooded homes.
But right now all they can do is wait.
“Just hanging out…kind of nervous about how long.. it’s little anxiety between all of us knowing that we’re stuck and we can’t go anywhere and I have no cat food for my cats, and I have a small amount of toilet paper and a small amount of water.”

Epsom town crews were quick to rebuild the part of Center Hill Road that turned into a river.
Town selectmen hope most residents will have some access to highways by Wednesday.
For NHPR news, I’m Amy Quinton.