LEOMINSTER, MASS. (WHDH) - Ponds overflowed, basements were flooded, and the local Market Basket parking lot was turned into a lake as torrential rain pummeled Leominster Tuesday.
Many homeowners on Blanchard Street could be seen pumping up to three feet of water out of their basements after a nearby pond overflowed, creating a river in the street.
Resident Donna Berry says the water came down fast. She and her brother took this video just after today’s rainstorm.
The flooding cutting off power while their father was hooked up to a respirator.
“They didn’t want us to fire up the generator and run an extension cord in the house. I ain’t listening. My dad needs it and he needs it now,” said Berry’s brother, Leo Brettschneider.
Tuesday’s storms turned parking lots into ponds and roads into rivers.
Mayor Dean Mazzarella said the worst of the damage was concentrated around a golf course near Berry’s home. A series of valves was supposed to drain water from the course’s ponds.
“It’s supposed to slowly release it, and we’re not sure if that system worked or not,” Mazzarella said.
Berry and her brother say this isn’t the first time they’ve seen this system fail.
“Four times in 15 years,” Brettschneider said. “We’ve lost three cars, we’ve re-done the basement three, four times. I mean, we’re in this $60-70 thousand already.”
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