Cleanup begins: Many still without power as Cape Ann recovers from storm

March 05--The sun was shining through through a cloudy sky Sunday as a Gloucester public works crew deployed a backhoe to clear rocks and other debris from a part of Rockport Road and a steady stream of sightseers made their way along Atlantic Road on the city's Back Shore.

But while storm cleanups were well underway Sunday across Cape Ann, the winter rain and windstorm that roared through the region beginning on Friday left a few last vestiges of storm surge flooding along the Cape Ann coast, shutting down a portion of Gloucester's Western Avenue and Back Beach, Penzance Road and T-Wharf in Rockport.

The storm's three-day toll included extensive damage to many coastal properties, and downed trees and wires. There were no reports of injuries on Cape Ann, but at least nine people died as the storm ravaged the coast from Maine to Virginia.

The area was plagued by power outages Friday through Sunday. More than 250 Cape Ann residents were without power as of 3 p.m. Sunday, with another 505 customers still powerless in an outage that extended from western Essex and into Hamilton along the Route 22 corridor above Chebacco Lake.

Gloucester authorities closed the ocean side of Western Avenue for the fifth time in three days as Sunday's mid-day high tide splashed water over Stacy Boulevard seawall. The high tide continued to pound its way onto Good Harbor and Long Beach.

"Everything's still pretty wild out here," exclaimed employee Michelle Sassone at the Cape Ann Motor Inn on Rockport Road, which saw its exterior stairs, an outdoor platform and part of a piling on the west end of the building washed out by waves and the high winds over the battering weekend.

A number of Gloucester homes between Long Beach and Good Harbor sustained flood damage as the waves -- fueled by a storm tide of more than 12 1/2 feet, according to the National Weather Service -- pounded the shoreline.

In Rockport, the storm completely washed away a portion of Penzance Road, which will remain partially closed indefinitely, said Rockport police dispatcher Ryan Trickett.

"It's just gone," Trickett said of the stretch of roadway near Henry's Pond. He added that the washout should not affect any residences, and that the road remains accessible from both sides, via Penzance or off South Street via Ruthern Way.

Magnolia, Manchester hard hit

The most severe damage, however, came on the storm's first and second waves, with an early Saturday morning high tide slamming especially hard into Magnolia and a portion of Manchester just over the Gloucester line.

Roaring waves took out a portion of the oceanfront side of the Manchester Bath & Tennis Club on Raymond Street in Manchester. Added concerns were sparked as the storm overturned three propane tanks and left them floating in the water, according to Manchester police.

Manchester police and fire crews responded at 12:36 a.m. Saturday after fielding calls reporting a smell of gas from the club and pool area, and police dispatcher Sarah Hunt said crews moved quickly to retrieve and cap the propane tanks. The building sustained heavy damage on the ocean side, as waves crashed directly into the structure.

Whitey Baun, a club board member, said the ocean side of the club, which was closed for the winter, had been equipped with "breakaway panels" a few years ago, so that, in the event of a major storm, they could break off without damaging the building's structure. But this weekend's storm surge overpowered the panels and more.

"Those things will just basically blow in and can be easily replaced," Baun said of the panels, "but this (storm) rushed inside, it tore apart lockers, it sent water running through the pool area out to the tennis courts. It looks like a junkyard (from debris) underneath our deck.

"We've had substantial, substantial damage," Baun said, adding that no cost estimates will be known until an insurance adjuster inspects the property. "What the power of water can do is just incredible."

The overnight storm surge early Saturday morning also damaged the seawall at Manchester's Black Beach, and collapsed a portion of the seawall along Manchester's Harbor and Boardman streets in the Tuck's Point area.

At least two homes along Shore Road in Magnolia had to be evacuated when the surf began pounding at their doorsteps in the overnight hours leading into Saturday.

"That's unusual for Magnolia," said Gloucester Fire Chief Eric Smith, who doubles as the city's emergency management director. "That doesn't usually get hit as hard as this".

He and other area officials noted that a Friday night shift in the wind direction from out of the northeast to more directly out of the north also brought a shift in the course of the wave action that came as part of a storm surge fueled by an astronomical high tide. That proved a benefit in some areas, including in Essex.

Other damage

Essex police Chief and Harbormaster Peter Silva said that while the Main Street Causeway was shut down overnight Friday and again during the storm's third high tide cycle early Saturday afternoon, the flooding was less severe than it had been when the storm's most intense rain and winds hit during the first high tide Friday afternoon.

"It seemed to me that (the wind) wasn't forcing the water directly toward the Causeway," Silva said, "but it was more moving it around, and that seemed to bring less water infiltration. We had heard the (overnight) tide would be worse than (the midday Friday) one, but it really wasn't."

By Sunday, the Causeway remained open. The owner used a crane to safely remove a boat, still attached to its trailer, and a large metal container from where they had been tied off at the causeway seawall after floating away Friday from the Essex Marina on Dodge Street. Silva said the Essex and Perkins marinas also pitched into help free all three items.

In Gloucester, the wind shift couldn't save the Good Harbor Beach footbridge, which was ravaged by the winds and storm surge that hit overnight Friday into Saturday and was breaking apart Saturday afternoon. That proved part of the attraction for Back Shore sightseers, who crowded Nautilus and Atlantic Roads on Sunday, gingerly making their way past popples and other debris churned up by the storm.

Two Air National Guard high-water vehicles and their two-man crews providing assistance for Gloucester's emergency personnel along a flooded Beach Court and in other areas. But Smith said that, while a number of residents in low-lying areas evacuated their homes voluntarily, there were no calls for emergency rescues, as had been the case when a storm surge driven by a virtual blizzard socked the city and other parts of Cape Ann on Jan. 4

"People have been cooperating," Smith said.

Many without power

Gov. Charlie Baker declared a state of emergency Saturday, joining Maryland and Virginia governors who made the declarations Friday. Declaring a state of emergency allows states to deploy federal resources and request aid.

Power outages and downed trees and wires continued to abound across all four Cape Ann communities into Sunday, with National Grid reporting a total of 85,908 customers still without power due to 1,784 different outages across eastern Massachusetts and other parts of New England as of 3 p.m.

Many of those outages were along the South Shore; National Grid said it continued to deploy more than 500 work crews across the region.

Ray Lamont can be reached at 978-675-2705, or rlamont@gloucestertimes.com.

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