New Hampshire's emergency management officials are predicting that the western part of the state should escape further damage as long as the new rainfall stays below three inches over the next few days.
Anything over that could pose a threat.
But while residents in that part of the state keep their eyes on the sky for rain, recovery efforts are continuing on several fronts.
The Keene Sentinel's Donna Moxley reports.
Dump trucks used the last bits of pavement left on Route 123 Wednesday to take loads of fill to the edge of new riverbanks in Alstead.
They were trying to rebuild some connections to town roads and driveways that were wiped out in Sunday's flood.
(trucking noise with chat) 3:35 -
Brian Green was last in Alstead on Monday. His house remains an island in the devastation, though much of his property is now in the riverbed.
He said by Wednesday the progress was striking.
1:30: now they're taking dump trucks over there so they must of - you couldn't even get a car over there before now they're taking dump trucks through so they've been on the ball, because it's only been two days Believe it or not what you see? They've actually made a lot of progress. 1:54
Some five miles of Route 123 and between 6 and 12 homes were obliterated by flood waters overnight Saturday and Sunday.
On Wednesday, Some who survived picked their way across ? along?? the rumbled roadway that towered over a brand-new gorge.
Local homeowners tried to collect valuables and get a look at what they had left - if anything.
A couple walked holding muddy documents, others just looked at a neighborhood they no longer recognize.
A disaster assessment team from the Red Cross joined them in avoiding the heavy equipment to check out each property in this section of the flood zone.
Patty Farmer of Jaffrey is a new Red Cross volunteer and a member of the team.
6:30 it's a methodical process by which you take a visual assessment of the house, we used the tax maps to be able to determine where houses were, if they're not their now and what condition the houses are in"
this'll help the American red cross provide resources and services ... it will provide FEMA with the appropriate information they need to get the resources here and hopefully that will be done as quickly as possible 7:07
Farmer said the devastation she sees in Alstead is indescribable - and so is the help that's been provided.
7:11it's astonishing the amount of people from state police from forestry they're all here and it's extraordinary the kind of level they're trying to put the infrastructure back into place. It's - this -this is probably the worst anyone's ever seen in New Hampshire." 7:26
Construction vehicles from companies in Vermont and New Hampshire, phone company officials and state engineers, public safety agencies and area police departments are working alongside the National Guard cleaning up the mess and still searching for survivors.
The main bridge in the village has been repaired for one-way car traffic.
And dumpsters are lined up along the ruined police station.
Debris including twisted cars and tree parts were pushed into piles on the village green.
By all accounts, workers are making huge progress.
Meanwhile, the Salvation Army, headed by Captain Josh Lyle of Derry, has been feeding them.
Lyle: 12:21 "we haven't even begun to do the tally but it's about anywhere from 3 to 400 per meal ... we just finished and we went through about 500 grilled cheese sandwiches"
Three shelters originally were set up to serve the three isolated parts of town, but now only two are operational, according to Janet Kingsbury Warren of the Red Cross.
She says since the Salvation Army is taking care of the food, her organization can focus on other survivor needs.
10:28 "The next step for these folks is to really look at their long-term recovery so we're really helping them look forward to their long-term recovery
many of the families have nothing, they got out of their home almost in the middle of the night and evacuated, they carried very little with them and some of them carried nothing left their homes in the middle of the night
right now they do need everything, they don't have a house they don't have land, their land washed down the river and they're really at their wits end trying to figure out what to do" 11:15
For NHPR News, I'm Donna Moxley
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