Torrential flooding on east coast leaves a path of property damage
April 9, 2010
Flood Closes off Train Tracks and More Interstate 95 is the main route that connects Boston with New York. A stretch of it was closed off in Rhode Island for quite a while recently due to heavy flooding in the area, the likes of which have never seen there before. Amtrak suspended several of their trains within that area due to the water that covered up their train tracks. The flooded area covered an area from New Haven, Connecticut all the way to Boston. The regional service from New York to Boston was suspended, as well.
After the damage from the flood, an aerial state tour was undertaken to see how bad things actually were. Water torrents had surrounded Warwick Mall, and rapids were coming close to Macy’s doors, while an entire movie theatre was submerged in water. Cars were also submerged to their roofs and oil slicks could be seen floating atop muddy waters throughout the neighborhood. Although there were a lot of parts still unaffected around the state, there were a lot of broken up roads, submerged ball fields and flooded up businesses and homes in many places. This heavy rain was just another setback that Rhode Island had to go through after struggling with a rather high unemployment rate of 13% for months. Several hard-hit areas included the business districts and the main shopping area of the state, Warwick Mall. Even West Warwick was threatened, the town that the state refers to as a distressed community due to the heavy tax burdens and the amount of low income residents living there. During the very last rounds of the flood, businesses in West Warwick lost around $730,000 in revenue alone. There are around a million residents in the state of Rhode Island and all of them were asked to conserve their electricity and drinking water after the electrical substations and sewage systems all got flooded. In fact, after a sewage and water treatment plant in Warwick failed, the officials began to ask the residents not to flush toilets or wash clothes, either.
Rescues due to the flooding went on for three days in Rhode Island along the river of Pawtuxet and beyond. At one point, the river crested at 21 feet – almost 6 feet more than the record it held before, which was only set two weeks before. This was 12 feet more than its regular 9-feet level. The river is finally back to its banks now, though. And hopefully the state will be back on its feet soon, too.
