Cleaning Up the Cold River

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Eastern Logging is based in Merrimack.

They typically do construction clean-up, clear cutting, and timber harvesting.

But they took on the job of cleaning up in Alstead.

And Company owner Mario Pelletier says the job they found is unlike anything they could have ever imagined.

“This is all new ballgame to us, but we seem to be doing alright, we got many excavators sorting out the stuff, putting them in containers, dumpsters, its moving”.

Armed with excavators, skidders, logging equipment, and rock trucks, teams of workers are spread out over approximately 12 miles along the Cold River.

They're creating massive piles out of the debris last month's flood waters left.

Matt Saxton, a selectman in Alstead, has been watching the progress.

“Its hard to relate in words how much stuff, mostly trees, but trees with roots and all and everything tangled in and among, its cars, its bathtubs, its tvs, its snowblowers, its anything in a house, garage, or barn, and there were something like 30 of those houses and their outbuildings, either washed completely or partially away and that’s what they’re cleaning up.”

Still, despite the extent of the job, Saxton's satisfied with how the clean-up effort is coming along.

“The town is starting to look a little more like itself, I mean we are along way from that, I can see we are going to see a lot more of the river than we used to.”

One area that selectman Saxton would like to see return to normal as soon as possible is what he has labeled “debris central”.

It's located behind Alstead’s town hall.

It's where much of what’s being removed from the river is brought.

Once a playing field, it was completely washed away when the Cold River overflowed its banks on the 9th of October.

Now as ground zero for the refuse, excavators ply the muddy field, separating the trees from the mud, from the metal.

Collected logs are pulverized by a stump grinder, to be sent off to a plant that converts wood to energy.

Another pile is a mangled mound of scrap metal.

It will ultimately be sent off to be recycled.

One can pick out pipes and wires, an old tool box….and even an hydrolic lift from a service station.

Across the way is a heap of smashed cars. ….not far from the pile of tires.

Far beyond repair, their only purpose now is for insurance claims.

Estimates vary on just how many cars were lost during the flood.

But since a car lot was washed away, Many in town put the loss at anywhere from 100 to 150 vehicles.

“They’re removing fuels out of the automobiles…see how they cut a hole in the storage tank there, and then they flush it out”

Richard Keegan is with New Hampshire’s department of transportation and is overseeing the clean-up.

To handle and safely dispose of contaminants like gasoline from cars, oil from home heating tanks, or batteries, workers in hazmat suits have also set up shop behind town hall.

Selectman Matt Saxton says the number one environmental concern following the flood is pollution.

“Other than that there’s been concern from parents sending kids to school, is it safe to let our kids walk through green, well now it isn’t because the green is covered with debris, after the debris is gone, it was all under flood water, just how safe is the soil and I guess we’ll look into that”

(driving sound) “That’s one that was thrown down the river, a camper.”

George Cilley with Eastern Logging is the foreman on the clean-up.

We're driving out of town on a muddy route 123, as construction workers continue to restore the washed out road.

“This was a full of trees, stumps, gas tanks, oil tanks, and debris, now its pretty well cleaned up…it took trees two feet through on the stump and just ripped it right out of the ground”

Along the banks he points out a canoe sliced in half, home heating barrels, and a smashed tractor.

‘There’s a house up there all smashed up, with all their personal belongings.”

According to the Red Cross, 45 homes in Alstead were damaged or destroyed.

Cilley says looking out for valuable items has become part of the clean-up.

“You just look for pictures, something they have that’s personal, if ain’t worth saving, throw it in the truck, but if you can save it bring it down to the fire department, we’ve found guns, safes, pictures, pocketbooks.”

Cilley says the crew is also aware that as they sort through debris they may be faced with a grim reality of the floods: discovering the missing.

Recently workers found two Alstead residents who had been unaccounted for.

Cilley says one of the workers was so disturbed when they found the body, he had to temporarily leave the job.

“They knew it coming in but didn’t realize it when it did happen but we are glad when we do find them for the family sake, it’s just something you’re gonna have to live with rest of your life, looking at it.”

One problem contractors are running into is the lack of paid help.

They say they are in desperate need of 30 laborers. So far, they’ve have around 2.

They also are keeping a close eye on the weather.

Last week when Alstead was hit with rain and snow, the river quickly rose, sending workers running to higher ground.

Foreman George Cilley.

“We were working down stream of the river and it started rising and rising and rising, we were working our rock truck across the river and the escavators and it was getting so deep it was going over the windshields of the rock trucks, the water started to push the rock trucks down stream so we had to pull everyone out.”

It’s more unwelcome weather that the crew would like to avoid.

DOT’s Richard Keegan says it’s important to complete the job before the river freezes over.

“Everybody knows how important it is to get it done before weather sets in, get it out before it ices up, then you have the double problem, ice thaws in the spring, ice and debris moving down river again, take out more personal property, you got all these big clumps of trees, get moving with ice.”

At least this week, they might have a little luck.

After record rainfall in October, the forecast for the first week in November is sunny and mild.

For NHPR news, I’m RK.