Storms bring flooding rain, damaging winds to parts of Massachusetts

While rain was the problem in most of Massachusetts on Monday, isolated areas suffered heavy wind damage. Several trees were knocked down in Shirley.

Susan Baxter says she awoke to a loud bang against her window. "This big piece that's down here was lying on the power lines," Baxter said, pointing at a large tree branch.

Baxter said it reminded her of a microburst. "It was micro and it was big," Baxter said. "Very large limbs and they broke in such a way that I'm going to lose two enormous, very fine trees."

In Plymouth, a woman sitting on her porch was killed by a falling tree. 

Monday morning's heavy rain led to flash flooding on Route 2 in Fitchburg. Some cars got stuck in under several inches of rain bringing traffic to a standstill in the westbound lane. In Leominster, it came down in buckets. The storm was so strong it reminded residents of the floods that caused massive damage back in 2023.

Parts of Granite and Helena streets buckled, shutting down the road, forcing drivers to seek alternate routes. "I was coming out here to bring my daughter to work. You could see the water coming down the road. We reversed course," Leominster resident Paul Constatino said.

Several basements on Helena Street sustained some minor flooding. Sue George says these heavy rains are all too common and believes the city needs more catch basins to deal with it.  

"That catch basin it comes across the road, it comes down in front of my house, which is the only catch basin on this side of the road, and it comes over and down my backyard and it has blown out all of my landscaping and into my pool area and the erosion is unbelievable," George said.

Work crews spent the afternoon clearing storm basins as the rain continued to pour.

Leominster Mayor Dean Mazzarella said the city being surrounded by 12 hills makes heavy rainstorms very challenging. "Any system can only handle so much water and when it comes off the hills and the way it does, it's twice the challenge because it's not soaking in on the hills, it's flowing down and becomes a problem almost immediately," Mayor Mazzarella said. "But we clocked in about 5 or 6 inches of rain."