By Tom Dalton
Staff writer
—
SALEM — Two weeks after floodwater from an Oct. 4 downpour heavily damaged homes and businesses across the city, flooding was back in the news yesterday.
Yesterday morning, the U.S. Small Business Administration opened a disaster loan center at 120 Washington St. to assist residents and businesses in the area that suffered losses in the floods. The office is scheduled to remain open until Oct. 29.
Last night, the City Council met with consultants and the city engineer to discuss ongoing work and long-term plans to improve the city's flood-control system. The meeting was scheduled long before the floods, officials said.
The bad news is there is no quick fix that could prevent anything as severe as the Oct. 4 storm, which dumped 41/2 inches of rain on the city in a couple of hours, resulting in water estimated at 4 feet on some streets, flooded basements and hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage across the city.
"We had flooding in areas we never had flooding before," City Engineer David Knowlton told councilors last night.
There was a glimmer of hope for residents of Forrester and Emmerton streets, low-lying roadways near Salem Harbor that were among the hardest hit. The water was so deep that some residents lost cars and furnaces.
There are plans to install a tide gate at the nearby intersection of Webb and Derby streets, which would block ocean water from backfilling storm pipes when a heavy rainfall and high tide occur at the same time, which is what happened on Oct. 4. When the pipes fill with seawater, the storm water can't follow its normal path out to the harbor and back up into streets.
"We're going to start that (work) this week," Knowlton said.
Asked if the new tide gate would have prevented, or even lessened the Oct. 4 damage on Forrester, Knowlton did not sound optimistic.
"I don't think it would," he said. "That was just too much water."
Another project slated for the spring also should help: the construction of a new storm drain to take rainwater from Essex Street down to Becket Street.
There are other plans being studied to remove more storm water from the large geographic area that feeds through Forrester Street, engineers said.
Engineers reviewed work that has been done all over the city in the past few years to improve the current storm drainage system, including clearing pipes of debris, repairing leaks and eliminating "illicit" sewage pipes that flow into the drainage system.
Engineers also presented potential long-term solutions to chronic flooding problems on Canal Street and in the Jefferson Avenue/Rosie's Pond area. In this past storm, part of Canal Street was closed and Salem State University had to shut down for the day when its parking lots along Canal Street flooded.
Those long-range plans involve new storm-water systems and pump stations, higher earthen berms, retaining walls and underground storage tanks.
There was a discussion about a possible tank going under the parking lot at Salem State University's O'Keefe Sports Complex on Canal Street.
In addition to permitting and engineering challenges, the cost of the projects was substantial and the funding sources uncertain. Repairs in the Canal Street area were estimated between $12 million and $16 million, while Jefferson Avenue work was pegged around $3 million.
Councilors also called on residents to help out.
"All I'm saying is if there's a (storm drain) in front of your house, go out and clean it," said Ward 3 Councilor Jean Pelletier.
