New Hampshire communities avoided major flooding this weekend.
But as the state’s near-record snowfall begins to melt, emergency management officials are keeping a close watch on the weather and the rising rivers.
As New Hampshire Public Radio’s Amy Quinton reports, officials in one flood-prone community hope they’re better prepared this spring.
1114 (nat sound) shoveling
Goffstown resident Walter Crooker shovels a path of slushy snow in front of his house.
With towering snow banks surrounding his driveway, his task seems a bit futile.
But he keeps at it.
1113 2:15 I’m just playing around trying to drain a little water out of my driveway.
Crooker says he’s lived in this neighborhood, which lies along the Piscataquog River, for four years.
He describes living here as disheartening.
Since May of ’06, his two-story home has been hit twice by floods.
1113 1:36 “If we get flooded this year, the bank is going to have my house I’ll just give it to them. I won’t put up with it anymore cause you know I’ve spent pretty much every dime I had in savings fixing the place up twice.”
Crooker is one of nearly one hundred Goffstown residents hit hard by past spring floods.
State emergency officials hope no New Hampshire town has to experience that again.
But Department of Environmental Services Chief Engineer Jim Gallagher, says six to 14 inches of water lies in that snow pack and it’s just beginning to melt.
1092 :52 to put that into context here, we get about three and a half inches of rainfall a month on average in New Hampshire, so we have three to up to four months worth of rainfall sitting in that snowpack so if it were to release all of a sudden, we could have flooding. //
1110 1:43 “yesterday the water on this road here was probably three feet deep..”
That’s Goffstown Police Sergeant Keith Shauvette.
He drove me to one of the town’s flood prone neighborhoods in the department’s four wheel drive .
That’s about the only way to get here this time of year.
1110 1:51 this is just the regular street flooding just the runoff from the road and the snow melting, and it’s just a low area and as you can see it’s almost like a pond 2:02
(nat sound door opening)
I carefully opened the truck’s door to get a closer look …. about a foot and a half to two feet of water rises near the top of the tires.
(nat sound - water)
(door close) Sergeant Shauvette then points out how most of the homes have changed since the flooding.
1111 these that you’re looking at now along the river, they actually lifted the house up, built the foundation, and put the house back on it.
It’s a strange sight; the concrete foundation is about eight feet high.
Shauvette says flood channels or shoots are built into the foundation.
1110 3:05 When the water rushes in it’s going to open up and on the other side there will be another channel that opens up to allow the water to flow through 3:11 as opposed to just pooling up inside 3:14
Besides the changes in the homes, Goffstown emergency officials say they’ve prepared for flooding this spring in several other ways.
Road agents have pushed snow banks away from the road, cut holes in them to improve drainage, and cleared storm drains.
The town now has a 39-member trained citizen emergency response team that can help police, fire and emergency officials if flooding occurs.
Goffstown Police Chief Mike French says dam management has improved as well.
Now police and residents will be notified sooner if river levels start to climb.
1099 we have the ability to monitor the river levels and are in contact with the dam operator at Gregg Falls to get flow updates, especially if it starts raining or we get heavy snows again.
With 80-percent of the 31-hundred dams in the state privately owned, DES’s Jim Gallagher says communication with owners is crucial in preventing flood damage.
1093 1:27 we have required these dam owners to develop communications plans, identify who the folks are downstream, what their telephone numbers are, who are the local emergency response folks that need to know what’s going on downstream so they can prepare for it.
But as much as emergency officials prepare for flooding, there’s still no way to predict it.
Back in Walter Crooker’s neighborhood, many of those new eight foot high foundations under the homes are almost buried in snow.
Many residents will have to rely on those foundations and the chance that flooding won’t happen again.
Crooker remains hopeful.
“1:22 for some reason I think twice was enough for the time being they’ll probably give us a break for a year or two I hope”
In the meantime, residents are hoping for a slow snow melt, with warm days and cool nights.
For NHPR news, I’m Amy Quinton.
