This story was originally produced by The Keene Sentinel. NHPR is republishing it in partnership with the Granite State News Collaborative.
City officials are working to improve their ability to notify residents of emergencies in Keene, an area that has seen a number of significant floods.
Throughout the nation, attention has been focused on improving public warning systems after July 4 flooding killed at least 135 people in Texas, many caught unawares of the danger they were facing.
Keene City Manager Elizabeth Ferland said Monday city employees are training to use a state notification system to directly provide key information to residents in times of emergencies via recorded messages to phones and electronic messaging.
That system, called NH Alerts, was used to advise local residents of a boil-water notice after a July 9 water main break in Keene. The city asked the state to issue the notice for users of city water. The city will eventually be able to issue such orders on its own, Ferland said.
“We’re in the process of going through the training that’s required for our emergency management team to be able to use the system ourselves,” she said.
“Once we have completed that, and we plan to have that done by September, then we can send our own messages using that system and we will begin a big educational campaign to get people signed up.”
She recommends that people sign up at readynh.gov to receive information through the system.
Kürt Blomquist, the city’s emergency management administrator, said NH Alerts can send recorded messages to landlines and cellphones. It can also communicate through texts, mobile apps and emails.
People can also sign up to receive emergency notifications through the city’s website at keenenh.gov/subscribe/. The city also communicates emergency information through its website and its Facebook page.
Ferland noted that the City Council recently adopted a 2025 Hazard Mitigation Plan, which was drafted with the assistance of the Southwest Region Planning Commission.
The front page of that plan shows local homes surrounded by water in an October 2005 flood that killed four people and forced hundreds of residents to be evacuated from their homes.
Smaller but still significant flooding also occurred in 2021 and 2023.
Keene was inundated by a huge flood in 1927. Photos at the city library show deep water on Lower Main Street on Nov. 4 of that year.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built the Surry Mountain Dam on the Ashuelot River in 1941 and the Otter Brook Dam in 1958 to help with flood control.
Keene is on what used to be the bottom of a lake formed when glaciers melted about 13,000 years ago. A high clay content in the ancient lake bed tends to prevent water from draining into the ground in the event of a flood, geologists say.
Also, the Ashuelot River, which runs through Keene, drains a wide, hilly area and creates a valley that can flood if there is enough rain.
The 2025 Hazard Mitigation Plan mentions this geography.
“The land of Keene is flat with surrounding hilly terrain with the most populated areas located at the bottom of the valley floor and has been referred to as a ‘bathtub.’ ”
One priority mentioned in the plan is assessing flood risks and other hazards for the 80 manufactured homes in Tanglewood Estates, which are in the 100-year floodplain of the Ashuelot River.
Others priorities include:
Obtaining alternative energy back-up systems for critical facilities and infrastructure.
Replacing bridges that have been red-listed, or identified as structurally deficient.
Repairing or replacing culverts and bridges associated with road flooding as identified by the city’s public works department.
