What a day yesterday was! I wasn’t prepared to start my blog this quickly, but yesterday’s storm was such a devastating event is some nearby places, this blog really needs to start today!
I work in a four story building with three levels of parking under, on Montvale Ave. in Stoneham, right over the line from Woburn and just a stone’s throw from Route 93. There is a stream that runs down Montvale Ave. and crosses under the street just a few buildings up from me. After the storm on Sunday, the ground was already so saturated that most of the water just ran off and that stream rose incredibly fast. In a matter of minutes, even with the redesign of the parking garage entrance a few years ago to prevent any more flooding, the water started pouring in and the bottom level (which is below the street level) was soon under four feet of water! Both directions on Montvale Ave were flooded and blocked off as was Maple Street where the entrance to the parking garage is. The parking areas of the buildings behind us on both sides of Maple Street were under water also. The only two fellows in my office that were in had to rush down and move their cars to an upper level so I had to stay in the office to man the phones. So, I didn’t get photos until the water had started to recede. They brought in two huge pumps to start draining the garage and they were still pumping when I left work at 5:00pm. A young man on the summer crew said there was still a foot of water down there. One of my workmates lives in Revere so he went home, hoping that he still had a house to go to! Luckily the devastation from the tornado was one street over from him. All he lost was a line of shingles off of his roof.
I go home the back way through Winchester (traffic on Montvale Ave is horrid on a GOOD day!) so I drive down Arlington Road by the Pond every day. When I came around the corner from Lake Ave, the sky at the north-west end of the Pond was black and the air had a funny look to it as if it was raining just over the water. When I got to the Clapp School I pulled into the parking lot, grabbed my handy little point and shoot camera that I always have with me and dashed across the street to try and capture some of the amazing and spooky clouds that were flying across the sky, two layers going in opposite directions! Here is some of what I saw!
I hope everyone reading this fared OK in the storm.
I work in a four story building with three levels of parking under, on Montvale Ave. in Stoneham, right over the line from Woburn and just a stone’s throw from Route 93. There is a stream that runs down Montvale Ave. and crosses under the street just a few buildings up from me. After the storm on Sunday, the ground was already so saturated that most of the water just ran off and that stream rose incredibly fast. In a matter of minutes, even with the redesign of the parking garage entrance a few years ago to prevent any more flooding, the water started pouring in and the bottom level (which is below the street level) was soon under four feet of water! Both directions on Montvale Ave were flooded and blocked off as was Maple Street where the entrance to the parking garage is. The parking areas of the buildings behind us on both sides of Maple Street were under water also. The only two fellows in my office that were in had to rush down and move their cars to an upper level so I had to stay in the office to man the phones. So, I didn’t get photos until the water had started to recede. They brought in two huge pumps to start draining the garage and they were still pumping when I left work at 5:00pm. A young man on the summer crew said there was still a foot of water down there. One of my workmates lives in Revere so he went home, hoping that he still had a house to go to! Luckily the devastation from the tornado was one street over from him. All he lost was a line of shingles off of his roof.
I go home the back way through Winchester (traffic on Montvale Ave is horrid on a GOOD day!) so I drive down Arlington Road by the Pond every day. When I came around the corner from Lake Ave, the sky at the north-west end of the Pond was black and the air had a funny look to it as if it was raining just over the water. When I got to the Clapp School I pulled into the parking lot, grabbed my handy little point and shoot camera that I always have with me and dashed across the street to try and capture some of the amazing and spooky clouds that were flying across the sky, two layers going in opposite directions! Here is some of what I saw!
I hope everyone reading this fared OK in the storm.