Storm recovery underway in Weymouth , 3,378 still in dark

March 04--Parker Road resident Joe Egan said ocean flooding from the nor'easter left four-feet of water in his front yard at high tide Friday and the storm was the worst he has seen in 20 years.

"My fence is not looking so good right now," said Egan, an ironworker with Local 7 Union Ironworkers as he walked his dog near Wessagusset Beach, Saturday. "I lost my boiler and hot water heater. Another six inches, the water would have been in my home."

The powerful ocean surf flooded Wessagusset Road, River Street and portions of Fort Point Road at midday Friday.

Wessagusset Road remained impassible Saturday afternoon and drivers on River Street had to proceed through a municipal parking lot on Lane Beach to access or leave Weymouth Neck.

Department of Public Works crew chief Ed Amrock said the midnight high tide on Friday that state and town officials feared would be damaging was much tamer than expected.

"Emergency management and police stayed at Weymouth Port with the National Guard and an ambulance," he said.

Firefighters deployed a fire truck with a rescue boat to evacuate residents from flood waters before high tide arrived, according to Ted Langill, acting mayor and chief of staff for Mayor Robert Hedlund.

Several residents were rescued from flooded homes near Wessagusset Road and Poamet Street, Friday as the ocean surf pounded the North Weymouth shoreline, according to department of public works director Kenan Connell.

Connell said a team effort by a Weymouth Emergency Management Association employees, two police officers and a front-end loader operated by three Classic Tractor Services employees evacuated occupants from three homes during the height of the storm's fury..

"The police got into the bucket of the front-end loader and they escorted the residents into the loader to be safely brought out," he said.

Classic Tractor Services president Bill Lyons said it was an 'awesome' feeling to see the rescue efforts.

"It is a good feeling when you can help someone that is in trouble," he said. "That was a tough scene."

Egan said the flooding in his neighborhood was the worst he has seen during the 20 year period he has lived there.

"A friend of mine who lives on Prospect Hill lost her roof," he said. "She got hit pretty bad. There are people out there today putting a tarp on it."

Egan said he has flood insurance and will be able to manage until his boiler and hot water heater are replaced.

"I have a wood burning stove and a ton of wood," he said.

Amrock said floodwaters entered the basements of some homes on Fort Point Road and storm winds knocked out power in portions of the neighborhood and elsewhere in the town.

"Some yards had four-feet of water," he said.

National Grid reported approximately 185,000 customers were without power at midday on Saturday throughout the state because of the storm.

Of that amount, there were 3,378 customers in Weymouth without power late Saturday afternoon, according to a National Grid outage map https://www.nationalgridus.com/MA-Home/Storms-Outages/Outage-Map

Langill said the power outages in Weymouth reached approximately 9,200 subscribers or 36 percent of the town late Friday night.

"We are still working on restoring power," he said.

Langill said repair crews had to wait for the winds to diminish before they could replace fallen wires.

"National Grid said it could be up to 72 hours before the power is fully restored," he said. "We hope that won't be the case."

A regional shelter operated by the Red Cross opened at Weymouth High School Friday, to assist residents from around the South Shore who suffered storm damage to their home or were without heat because of a power loss.

Langill said four people stayed at the shelter overnight Friday. .

"There is the possibility of a group of people from Hull that might be coming tonight, he said.

Langill said the shelter would likely remain open until Sunday afternoon.

Gov. Charlie Baker declared a state of emergency, Saturday which will allow the deployment of federal and interstate resources to provide communities with assistance during the recovery from the storm.

Langill said Hedlund will follow Baker's lead by declaring a state of the town emergency to speed up the process for getting assistance with the storm cleanup and reimbursement for the cleanup.

"We will have several days of cleanup," Langill said. "We will work with our trash and recycling company to have an extra pickup day for storm debris. We will announce that day."

The cleanup from the storm by the DPW was underway near Lane Beach early Saturday afternoon as front end loaders piled debris washed up on the shoreline into a dumpster in a municipal parking lot.

Amrock said the debris included yard fencing and various items from people's properties that was carried out to sea from receding tides.

"It came from everywhere including Germantown," he said. "We had a huge piece of timber wash ashore. We don't know where that came from. We even had a Christmas tree come ashore. That could have come from somebody's backyard."

News media partner WCVB contributed to this report.

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