New England Flash Flooding Leads to Home Rescues, Washed Out Roads

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Heavy, continuous rain in parts of northern New England led to flash flooding, washed out roads and a few home rescues, authorities said.

The latest rains come as what has been a soggy July in some parts of the region comes to an end.

Police in Marlow, in southwestern New Hampshire, said four people and two animals were rescued from a home off Route 10 that had water rushing into the basement, WMUR-TV reported. About 15 miles north, a fire department ladder truck helped with a home rescue in Goshen.

“I’ve never seen it rain that hard in that short of time before,” said Kevin Bevilacqua, a road agent in Goshen. “We’ve got about five roads washed out and a bunch of people out of their houses.”

New Hampshire State Police responded to a number of flash-flooding calls in Goshen and Newport about 5 miles away.

In Bellows, Falls, Vermont, there was waste-deep water in some neighborhoods. Firefighters pumped water from the basements of half a dozen homes. In Putney, a number of local roads were closed by flooding.

With the latest rainfall, Concord, New Hampshire, had recorded 13.04 inches of rain, further solidifying the dubious distinction of wettest July on record. The old record was 10.29 inches in 1915, said meteorologist Hunter Tubbs from the National Weather Service.

It was the second-wettest July on record in Portland, Maine.

The National Weather Service in Burlington says that in northern Vermont, rainfall this July has been about normal, but it has been rainier in Rutland, Windsor, Bennington and Windham.

Meteorologist Robert Haynes said Friday the Springfield airport has seen record rainfall, of 9.13 inches, but the records only go back to the late 1990s.