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Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on March 31, 2010

Floods in West Warwick, Rhode Island - Pawtuxet River overflows

Record drenching rainfall and flooding is hitting Rhode Island with a vengeance and other Northeastern US states may also be affected. Here are reports from a number of news sources about the floods, as a new round of rain heads toward Southern New England. Flood warnings have been issued and schools have been closed, sewage plants are overwhelmed — and the Warwick Mall in Rhode Island is under water. Authorities are warning that the worst of this flooding is NOT yet here.

Stay safe, Rhode Island. Our prayers are with you.

From New York Times, Rhode Island Swamped by Record Rain:

The rain tapered off in Rhode Island by Wednesday morning, leaving a state partly submerged by unprecedented floods and disrupting travel in the Northeast.

The Pawtuxet River crested to historic levels at 9:45 a.m. — at 20.79 feet, more than 11 feet above flood stage — and flooded onto Interstate 95. The highway was closed both ways around Warwick, and smaller state roads were also inundated. Gov. Donald L. Carcieri told nonessential employees to stay home and various school districts to close.

Train travel was also affected by the flooding. Amtrak announced Wednesday that it had suspended Northeast Regional service from New York to Boston because of high water along the tracks east of Providence. Earlier on Wednesday, it had suspended Acela Express service between New Haven and Boston.

Governor Carcieri surveyed the flooded-ravaged communities by helicopter Wednesday morning. Rhode Island, as well as Massachusetts, had just been granted federal relief on Tuesday for the storm that brought flooding only two weeks ago. But this latest storm was worse, especially in Rhode Island, pushing river levels to yet another record.

“None of us alive have seen the flooding that we are experiencing now or going to experience,” Governor Carcieri said, according to The Associated Press. “This is unprecedented in our state’s history.”

The Buzz: More flooding in Rhode Island

WPRI News: West Warwick residents deal with more heavy rain

From CNN, Flooding ‘none of us alive have seen’:

(CNN) — The water-weary Northeast, particularly Rhode Island, braced for more misery Wednesday as it battled flooded roads and basements.

“We’re just all ready to throw the keys on the counter and walk out of the houses,” one Cranston, Rhode Island, resident said. “It’s at that point now, you know?”

The rain eased Wednesday after a storm soaked the area, exacerbating remaining effects of another major storm two weeks ago.

Rhode Island appeared to fare the worst. The storm dumped 8.75 inches of rain in East Providence, 7.6 inches in downtown Providence and 5 inches in Cranston, said Tom Econopouly of the Northeast River Forecast Center in Taunton, Massachusetts.

[...]

All eyes were on the Pawtuxet River, which runs through Cranston. The river reached 20.7 feet by 8 a.m. ET Wednesday — a level nearly 12 feet above flood stage, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“We have some historic flooding going on in places we’ve never had flooding before,” said Cranston police Lt. Stephen Antonucci. “We have numerous streets that are closed, and they’re telling us the worst is still yet to come.”

Cranston Mayor Allan Fung said his city was facing “dire circumstances,” even though the weather was now cooperating.

“One of my sewer pump stations just failed, so it’s some bad news for many of the residents,” Fung told ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

He said the city was asking people to conserve water.

About 130 homes have been evacuated, many voluntarily, Fung said.

Schools were closed, as were some roads. “It’s some very dangerous conditions,” he told ABC.

The state shut down parts of Interstate 95 in both directions. President Obama on Monday extended a state of emergency for all of Rhode Island — freeing up federal dollars to help with relief efforts.

A spokesman for National Grid Energy Services said 12,000 to 14,000 customers were without electricity in the Cranston area, where a substation was underwater.

From Projo.com, Sewage plants overwhelmed; residents, retailers left reeling:

The worst arrived in the early hours of Wednesday, an indomitable force of water creeping ever higher through the darkness. Thousands of tired homeowners watched their basement steps incrementally vanish beneath it. Soaked National Guardsmen along Route 95 in Warwick saw it spill over the sandbags they had worked for hours to stack.

By dawn, the unparalleled flood had transformed the Rhode Island landscape into islands of isolation, the region’s web of roadways broken, whole sections of neighborhoods stranded and without power.

Gridlock greeted thousands of commuters weaving like mice through a maze of alternate routes around Route 95, the state’s most vital transportation artery, closed in Warwick by the flooding Pawtuxet River.

And with a half-dozen sewage treatment plants compromised or overwhelmed by the most destructive flood in the state’s recorded history, officials braced for an environmental disaster with huge public health and financial ramifications.

Governor Carcieri shut down state government and urged people to stay home. In the epicenter of grief –– the Pawtuxet River basin where hundreds of homes were already submerged –– the water continued to rise to levels never before seen.

From NewsTimes.com, Homes and dreams drown as waters rise in Northeast:

CRANSTON, R.I. (AP) — Flooding on a scale rarely seen in New England forced hundreds of residents from their homes and businesses Wednesday, overwhelmed sewage systems and isolated communities as it washed out bridges and rippled across thoroughfares from Maine to Connecticut.

As three days of record-breaking rains tapered to a drizzle, forecasters warned the worst of widespread flooding was still ahead as rivers and streams had yet to crest — for the second time in a month.

In Rhode Island, which bore the brunt of the storm, residents were experiencing the worst flooding in more than 100 years. Stretches of Interstate 95, the main route linking Boston to New York, were closed and could remain so for days. Amtrak suspended some trains on its busy routes in the area because of water over the tracks.

Every resident of Rhode Island, a state of about 1 million, was asked to conserve water and electricity because of flooded sewage systems and electrical substations. Rising waters either stranded hundreds of people or sent them to shelters. Many of those who stayed behind appeared shell-shocked, still recovering from floods two weeks ago caused by as much as 10 inches of rain.

Angelo Padula Jr.’s auto restoration shop in West Warwick, Padula and Son Used Auto, stood in 10 feet of water from the Pawtuxet River — after 100 years in business, its likely death knell, Padula said.

From Examiner:

The Pawtuxet River spilled over its banks and flooded Old Navy, Warwick Mall. The RI DOT is working nonstop. A state of emergency was declared in Warwick, residents in Cranston are being evacuated, schools are canceled, and people were told not to flush their toilets.

From WHDH-TV, Crews free trapped Warwick mall security guard:

WARWICK, R.I. — Crews rescued a Warwick Mall employee stranded inside the shopping center on Wednesday.

Firefighters were able to use a boat to get the mall security guard out.

Water had completely flooded out the parking lot right up to the mall doors.

In Rhode Island, where a state of emergency is in effect, several people had to be rescued from their cars and homes in Warwick.

Gov. Don Carcieri has ordered the continuation of the state of emergency in effect from the storm two weeks ago.

Pawtuxet River, which is expected to reach an all-time high of 20 feet, flooded homes and backyards in Warwick on Tuesday. Some local emergency crews evacuated residents and responded to those in need via wave runners.

“We don’t want anybody to be caught in a situation where there is a flash flood or where it rises so quickly that they’re trapped in their property. It puts not only those families but the responders at risk to get them out of there,” said J. David Smith of Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency

Evacuations have been issued in the Warwick area, and many schools are closed.

Warwick Mall in Rhode Island is under water

Flooded... Warwick Mall in Rhode Island

Flooded parking lot of Warwick Mall

From Examiner, Weather update: Rhode Island flooding will get worse before it gets better:

Total rainfall amounts in North and South Kingstown were just under 10 inches of rain each during the Flood of 2010. Warwick got 8.79 inches, and East Providence 8.75 inches. Even though the rain has stopped for now, the Pawtuxet River in Cranston, West Warwick and Warwick will continue to rise. At 4:00am EST, the Pawtuxet River stage was 20.2 feet. Flood stage is 9.0 feet. In less than two days, the river rose to unprecedented levels not seen in over 100 years. However, the river is expected to continue rising to near 20.7 feet by Tuesday morning before it starts falling back.

From Bloomberg Business Week: Northeast States Declare Emergency on Record Rainfall:

Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut declared emergencies, closing roads and sandbagging low-lying areas as storms pounded the U.S. Northeast for a second day today.

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick mobilized about 1,000 National Guard troops. The storm, which set a daily rainfall record in Boston, is expected to bring “beach erosion, major flooding and widespread road closures,” he said on his Web site yesterday.

Connecticut Governor M. Jodi Rell said in a statement the weather had created “extremely dangerous situations” in the eastern part of the state. In Rhode Island, where officials warned of “historic flooding,” Governor Donald Carcieri urged residents to leave work early and head home, said a spokeswoman, Amy Kempe.

“In some cases there has been two months of rain in the matter of a few days,” Tom Kines, a senior meteorologist for AccuWeather Inc., said in a telephone interview. “When you get that much rain over a few-day period, that spells trouble.”

A group of people float through backyards of a neighborhood in West Warwick, RI, March 31, 2010. Rhode Island rivers overflowed their banks, causing flooding and road closures after 3 days of record-breaking rains. | AP Photo/Charles Krupa

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