PIKE — Haverhill Town Clerk Carole Brooks-Broer was about to leave her office early Wednesday evening when she realized she forgot her umbrella.
When Brooks-Broer had checked the weather forecast earlier that day, she wasn’t too worried about the reports of incoming rain, but looking outside from her office, she knew something was off.
“They said showers … they didn’t say deluge,” said Brooks-Broer, who waited out the rain for another 10 minutes before running to her car. “I’d say we all got caught off guard.”
Over roughly six hours Wednesday night, more than 4 inches of rain fell on Haverhill, Piermont, Orford and the surrounding area, said John Cannon, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Gray, Maine-based branch, which covers western Maine and New Hampshire.
“That is very significant,” Cannon said.
The rain washed out parts of multiple roads in Haverhill, Piermont and Orford. Residents of Pike, a village in Haverhill, were among the most affected. Flat Iron Road, Lime Kiln Road and Route 25 were damaged, said Brooks-Broer, who lives in Pike on Gherardi Road across the street from the North Branch Oliverian Brook. She listened to the rain coming down all Wednesday evening.
“It reminded you a bit of Niagara Falls,” Brooks-Broer said. “Not quite that loud, but close enough.”
Some residents had water in their basem*nts and other structures.
Article continues after...
Your Daily Puzzles
The National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning for the area at 4:45 p.m. Wednesday — the 23rd flash flood warning the Gray, Maine, branch of the weather service had issued so far this year, said Cannon. While he did not have data to share from past years, Cannon noted that Portland, Maine, experienced its second hottest July this year.
“When you have that type of heat and humidity, humid air can hold a lot more water than other types of air masses so it does lend itself to the potential for flash flooding,” he said.
Towns with steeper terrain tend to be more susceptible to powerful rainfalls, Cannon said.
The rainfall was primarily located in what Cannon described as a triangle that stretched from Piermont, then east to Benton, N.H., and south to Wentworth, N.H.
By comparison, Hanover accumulated .29 inches of rain during the same time period and Littleton, N.H., had .33 inches.
The flooding in New Hampshire Wednesday comes on the heels of another storm that caused extensive damage in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom.
Some town officials considered themselves fortunate that Wednesday’s damage was not more extensive.
“We were very lucky for the amount of rain that fell,” said Orford Emergency Management Director Kevin Follensbee, who also serves on the town’s Selectboard.
Town Road 89 and Indian Pond Road, which are dirt roads, got the worst of it. Road crews responded Wednesday night and made temporary fixes, then returned Thursday to make the repairs permanent.
Indian Pond Road connects Orford to the eastern part of Piermont. Cross Road, Rodimon Lane and Piermont Heights Road, which are all town-maintained dirt roads, were damaged, Piermont Police Chief Brandon Alling said.
Portions of Route 25C, a paved state road, washed out. Road crews got to work Wednesday night and resumed their work in the morning so that one-lane of the two-lane road reopened.
“We got lucky with 25C that it didn’t completely wash out,” Alling said midday Thursday. “Nobody’s cut off. All the roads are passable at this point.”
Besides some water in her front yard, Brooks-Broer said her home remained relatively unscathed. Still, she put on her rubber boots Thursday morning before making her way to her car.
“I wasn’t sure what I was going to find when I got to the road,” Brooks-Broer said.
It was wet, but she drove to the town office building without any issues.
“I was surprised because once I got past that, it was like another planet,” Brooks-Broer said. “I took my rubber boots off. I did not need them to get to the office.”
Liz Sauchelli can be reached at esauchelli@vnews.com or 603-727-3221.
