FEMA assessing damage, recovery after devastating floods in Leominster
LEOMINSTER - It has been one month since heavy rains hit Leominster causing tremendous flooding. On Thursday, the Mayor of Leominster walked through the city to assess the damage and recovery efforts with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
"We are all over the city, broken up into three different groups, checking areas impacted," said Leominster Mayor Dean Mazzarella. "We have about 1,100 forms people have filled out in damage of all kinds. My business got flooded. I fully understand how people feel. I can see where people would lose patience waiting for something to happen."
The walk through with FEMA is an assessment phase. FEMA will then take their findings to the state. Governor Maura Healey can take that information and choose to ask President Joe Biden to call for a disaster declaration.
"We are conducting preliminary damage assessments. This is the process that is undertaken after state and local officials request that we look at the damage caused by the storm," said David Mace, FEMA spokesperson. "There was damage to public infrastructure places. There was damage to private homes."
We spoke with one homeowner, Ethan Rawson, who just got the ability to do laundry again in his own home. The water poured into his basement and reached halfway up the fences outside of his house. Rawson tried to keep the storm drains clear, but it was a difficult task.
"Your wedding photos, your baby photos, the things your parents give you, you see all of your things underwater," said Rawson.
He was told by his insurance company that he wouldn't need flood insurance because he isn't in a flood zone, so repairs will come out of his pocket. Thanks in part to donations from friends and family, he was able to get some repairs going.
"I can't begin to thank those people enough. My wife and I are proud people, so it was difficult to put out that type of message to someone," said Rawson. "It is really shameful sometimes to ask someone to help you do your laundry."
He says heavy flooding also damaged homes in his neighborhood on Blanchard Street back in 2018. Rawson says the flooding occurs in his neighborhood because it sits in a gulley, and a nearby country club has runoff problems. He would like to see the city take action.
"If this a continuous occurrence, then I feel like something can be done," said Rawson. "You get to a point, every time it rains is it going to happen again?"
When we asked Mayor Mazzarella about any issues on Blanchard Street, he said, "We spent millions in drainage systems around the city. You have storm like this system? You couldn't build a drainage system big enough. There were places designed for a 500-year flood with no problem from the engineers, and it just blew right out."
