Despite being on the banks of both the Connecticut River and a major tributary, Springfield and Rockingham appeared to be conducting business as usual a week and a half after historic flooding.
The nearby towns of Chester and Ludlow did not fare as well.
“We’re actually feeling a little guilty because our neighbors are hurting so much,” said Scott Pickup, municipal manager of Rockingham. “Knock on wood, but we’re doing just fine.”
Springfield received minor damage, including a culvert washout in its southwestern corner and a sewer break in the north, on July 11, the day after flood waters receded. But both were resolved within a day, town officials said. The public works department has since been deploying spot crews to Ludlow, Chester and Cavendish and expects to continue helping nearby towns into next week.
Springfield largely has the Black River’s North Springfield Dam and Reservoir to thank for avoiding the heavy rain’s most catastrophic effects, according to Brian Benoit, administrative assistant to the town manager of Springfield. Built in the late 1950s, the dam provides flood protection to Springfield and to other communities that sit downstream of where the Black River empties into the Connecticut River, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The impetus for building the dam came when Springfield’s downtown was inundated by floodwaters in the historic 1927 storm, Benoit said. It also performed well during Tropical Storm Irene, he said, when the town also remained largely unaffected.
The dam’s pool has sat at around 15 feet for much of 2023, but its depth ballooned to a peak of just over 78 feet on July 12, two days after the onset of flooding. Since then, it has steadily been releasing water, and the pool currently sits at roughly 18 feet, according to data from the U.S Army Corps of Engineers.
“We’re extremely grateful to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the North Springfield flood control dam,” Benoit said.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency set up a mobile registration center outside the Springfield Police Department on Wednesday that is expected to run through Saturday, and maybe longer, depending on need, Benoit said. Workers there will help assist Windsor County residents in their FEMA relief applications.
A relic spared
Rockingham and its incorporated village, Bellows Falls, did endure major flooding last week, but it was contained to a smaller area along the Williams River, which rose to over 15 feet high late on July 10.
The Worrall Covered Bridge, the town’s last 19th-century covered bridge, sits above the river, and town officials initially feared it had been moved off its foundation by floodwaters. But state inspectors approved its use this week and this reporter was able to drive over it four times without issue.
Public works crews still need to do minor road repairs on both sides of the bridge and on surrounding washouts, said Pickup. A crew was also working Thursday afternoon on repairing a nearby railroad line, where no trains have run since the onset of the flooding.
However, Jake Stark, a rail crew worker with EIC Rail Constructors, anticipated that train service would resume as soon as Monday. Since the onset of the storm, he and his fellow rail workers, some from as far away as Tennessee, have been working at least 16 hours a day on repair work, he said.
Stark lives in Barre, where his own house was flooded. As the immediate railroad emergency eases, he expects the work schedule to drop to 10-hour days, with weekends off.
But on the rail line, and at his house, a lot of work lies ahead. “We’ll have stuff to do throughout the rest of the year, if not beyond that,” he said.
