Storm brings flooding, knocks out power; National Guard called out

Heavy winds and torrential rain pounded New Hampshire today, flooding streets, smashing windows and leaving roughly 60,000 homes and businesses without power. Gov. John Lynch declared a state of emergency and dispatched 200 National Guard members to the worst-hit towns.

“This is a very serious event and I would really urge people to use extreme caution,” Lynch said.

A Monitor photo gallery from the storm

Guard members were helping with flooding, road closures and evacuations in Hampton, Rochester, Farmington and Greenville.

A landslide near the Wilton-Milford line early this morning blocked part of Route 101, the state’s major east-west route, and most of the road was closed between Manchester and Keene, said Department of Transportation spokesman Bill Boynton.

“We had to pull our people out because the water was rising too fast,” he said.

With scattered flooding elsewhere in the state, officials warned drivers to not try to make it through water-covered streets. Dozens of roads were closed, including Route 4 in Nottingham, where rushing water left a 30-yard gash across the road. Small dams in Hollis and Milford failed, but authorities said the breaks posed no public safety concerns.

At Hampton Beach, winds ripped off the boards covering the windows of an oceanfront convenience store, blowing out the windows and scattering merchandise in the street. At high tide, waves crashed over the sea wall, flinging foam and rocks onto the street. Residents reported four to five feet of water gushing into their front doors.

“We went to look, but the wind was so strong that you couldn’t walk… . The wind just turned you back,” said Linda Pepin of Bristol, Conn., who owns a second-floor condominium less than 50 feet from the shore. She and her husband were checking on their property on their way back from a trip to Canada. They still had electricity as of late morning, but power companies reported widespread outages elsewhere.

Public Service Company of New Hampshire said some of its 44,000 customers who lost power could be without it for several days as washed out roads were making access difficult for repair crews. Late this morning, Unitil reported 9,000 customers without power in and around Concord, and an additional 1,000 in the Seacoast area, down substantially from earlier. National Grid reported 5,200 outages in the Hanover and Salem areas.

The National Weather Service issued flood warnings for rivers and small streams in Cheshire and Hillsborough Counties, saying up to 5 inches of rain was expected before it tapered off this afternoon. Parts of downtown Newmarket were evacuated when several feet of water covered the street.

“It’s really the whole state,” said Jim Van Dongen of the state bureau of emergency management. “This is literally in flux. It’s going to change from hour to hour.”

Emergency shelters were open in Dover, Newmarket and Greenville. Van Dongen said another probably would open in Goffstown, which was hit hard.

In Dover, about 40 people sought help at a shelter set up in a church but all soon found temporary housing with friends or family. Assistant Fire Chief Richard Driscoll said residents of a Dover apartment building had been evacuated, and one man was rescued from his car as water came in the windows.

Driscoll said if the rain lasted into the evening, he believed the flooding would be worse than in May, when floods destroyed 25 homes and damaged thousands more.

“It’s actually not as much water, but it seems it rose quicker,” he said. He said catch basins and culverts were clogged with tree branches and other debris from a snowstorm last week, contributing to the flooding.

Early this morning, Bob Eastman and his wife were on Route 3 north of Franconia Notch when fierce winds blew trees and parts of trees onto the highway. Eastman said highway crews had to use chainsaws and snowplows to clear the highway.

“It was a wonder it didn’t blow you off the road,” he said of the wind.