nor'easter

It's official: We're a disaster

adamg — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 00:38:19 +0000

MassBeacon.com reports President Obama has declared Massachusetts a flood-ravaged disaster area, which means people who have suffered damage should be eligible for federal help.

More details from FEMA, including a list of designated counties (eastern Mass., basically) and what the designation means.

ICA closed some galleries Thursday to repair nor'easter damage

adamg — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 14:54:25 +0000

Greg Cook reports the waterfront museum had to fix roof damage caused by the recent aguageddon.

Nor'easter-smashed lobster traps

adamg — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 13:35:29 +0000

Good Morning Gloucester shows us what a nor'easter can do to lobster traps in shallow waters.

Aguageddon kept fire crews busy

adamg — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 14:22:02 +0000

Local 718 provides the tally for the Boston Fire Department between 8 a.m. on March 13 and 8 a.m. on March 16: 1,218 calls, including 8 fires (two of them multiple alarms).

That's no seaplane

adamg — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 17:36:18 +0000

Norwood Airport remains closed to airplanes today as workers clean up after the mighty Neponset flooded the field. The scene on Tuesday.

They've been working on the railroad

adamg — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:47:33 +0000

MassDOT provided this photo of workers busy repairing the flooded-out Riverside track bed yesterday. Compare to the photos from the height of the nor'easter. The state expects to have service restored by Monday.

Before and after

adamg — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 05:00:41 +0000

Laura Scannell watched a raging stream at the Arnold Arboretum yesterday. Later, David Schachner took in the view from East Boston. Look at that sky.

Copyright Laura Scannell and David Schachner, respectively. Both posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

City sends out crews to fill craters left by aguageddon

adamg — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 21:22:33 +0000

The mayor's office announced today:

The Department of Public Works has inspectors out across the city identifying potholes for crews to fill. Today, the DPW has 5 crews patrolling the streets and there will be 10 crews tomorrow through Saturday – one in each city district, filling potholes they have identified. The DPW's increased patrol effort aims to fill as many potholes as possible in the next week.

It wasn't all gray today

adamg — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 03:17:28 +0000

Jeff Tamagini managed to find quite a bit of color downtown during the storm today.

Copyright Jeff Tamagini.

Where's Huckleberry Finn?

adamg — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 03:09:59 +0000

Jo photographed what appears to be a bobbing raft but is actually a picnic table being submerged by a rising Charles River at Norumbega Park in Newton today.

William Ricker stopped to watch an impromptu fountain formed by an overflowing sewer on Coffey Street in Dorchester on Sunday:

Meanwhile, Penny Cherubino provides photographic proof that not even Copley Place was immune from the power of a nor'easter.

Photos opyright Jo and William Decker, respectively.

Former railbed turns into riverbed in East Boston

adamg — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:10:47 +0000

Fabulously Out There snapped the Greenway, a former rail line turned recreational path, in East Boston today.

Compare to this photo of an actual flooded stream at the Arnold Arboretum.

Harried commuters slowly get home

adamg — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 22:14:23 +0000

South Station is packed at this hour with commuters trying to get home on Franklin, Needham, Stoughton and Providence trains that are going way slower than usual because of what the state is calling "high water" between South Station and Ruggles. The Worcester Line, meanwhile, has delays of up to 40 minutes due to weather-related speed restrictions imposed by CSX.

"South Station has Fall of Saigon feeling right now," Steve Poftak reports, adding, "MBCR folks are communicating problems at least."

North Station commuters are faring marginally better. TC Cheever tweets from a Haverhill train that it left late and is now just sitting outside North Station. Lowell trains, meanwhile, are up to 20 minutes late because of flooding in Wilmington and Lowell, MassDOT reports.

One of the smartest things the Army Corps of Engineers ever did

adamg — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 20:11:40 +0000

Needham Line train: Passing between the Charles (foreground) and Cutler Park this afternoon.

In the 1970s, the Corps abandoned plans for a massive series of levees and flood-control dams along the Charles River and instead bought up or acquired easements to 8,100 acres of land along the river from Millis to Boston. The land acts like a sponge - absorbing large amounts of water during heavy rains and the releasing it slowly afterward, reducing the amount of flooding in built up areas - such as Cambridge and the Back Bay. Not only does it work (in conjuction with giant pumps installed at the New Charles River Dam at the river's mouth), it cost 10% of the levee/dam plan.

You can get a good view of the plan in action from the top of Millennium Park in West Roxbury (Ed. note: Only an idiot, or a Universal Hub editor, will go to the top in the middle of a nor'easter), built into a curve on the Charles. There's flood-control land on either side, including Cutler Park, which, while marshy, does not usually look like a lake.

It's official: This is an emergency

adamg — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 18:35:37 +0000

Gov. Patrick just declared a state of emergency for Massachusetts. So, H2OMG? Aguageddon? The Spring-Ahead Storm?

Your noontime roundup of everything that's wrong in Massachusetts because of the rain

adamg — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 16:10:52 +0000

The state runs down road closings, train problems and other weather-related issues.