April 3, 2010

Dear friends,

Most of my coworkers in northern Rhode Island and mid state hit hard by floods.  East side of Pawtucket seemed decent with water levels.

Quick question:  Why does the Blackstone River not flood as does the Pawtuxet River?  Was the Blackstone rebuilt many years ago?

It is the mighty river.....

It was helped ny flow going into the Moshassuck and the canal as well as higher banks along the river...plus the Blackstone River Watershed Council has been very active in cleanups along the river and protecting and advocating for it...

http://www.disasterassistance.gov/daip_en.portal for FEMA link and check pages and links section on NAP website for the FEMA guide as well

Historical Crests For the Blackstone
(1) 21.80 ft on 08/19/1955
(2) 15.34 ft on 10/16/2005
(3) 15.09 ft on 01/25/1979
(4) 14.64 ft on 03/19/1968
(5) 14.50 ft on 03/31/2010
(6) 14.43 ft on 07/24/1938
(7) 14.40 ft on 03/19/1936
(8) 13.92 ft on 03/13/1936
(9) 13.16 ft on 06/07/1982
(10) 11.65 ft on 03/23/2001

  I also believe in 1987, there was a flood which equalled #10.  NOAA had predicted a flood stage of 18 ft., however, Worcester did not receive the forecasted rains.  Thus the river crested at 14.5. Instead, the highest rain totals fell in the Pawtuxet River valley.

As one understand this phenomena, a few things played out differently.  1) the Pawtuxet area (Cranston, warwick, coventry) etc. got the lions share of the rains in this particular storm, 2) the Pawtuxet Valley was already surcharged with water from the past events and 3) the Pawtuxet is not a large river system or complex.  It takes a huge amount of stormwater and people have encroached incredibly.  Take the Mall--it was built in the floodplain. The Blackstone is a a much larger basin.  It literally takes more to get it out of its banks.  The reports for major flooding was translated to the Worcester storm waters and everything between. Well, in the last half of the storm it remained more coastal, Worcester didnt get the rains predicted.  The model then adjusted quickly from 18 feet to 14.5.  If the model was right, then the 18 feetfor the Blackstone would have made the two rivers behave equally.
Meaning--the flooding in the blackstone would have been more equal to the perils on the Pawtuxet, filling the valley to a greater extent. We still have a few homes flooded out in Cumberland nearly as bad as those in warwick. 

At the base of Marshall Ave to Stop n shop at Mendon Road, there is a series of roads that dead end into the wetlands. Wildwood was hit the hardest as at least one home was flooded to the nearly the second floor. Hope global took some water too, as did businesses in Lonsdale. We lost the bikepath in one or two spots too.