Hampton Beach: Fire displaces family, flooded homes, floating cars as storm surge hits

HAMPTON — High tide, a storm surge, strong winds, multiple fires and thrill seekers brought nasty problems to Hampton Beach Friday. Huge waves crashed over the seawall, bombarding Ocean Boulevard with rocks and bringing high water inland to Brown Avenue and beyond all the way to Route 1.

A fire at 16-1/2 I Street displaced a family two days before Christmas, a car fire on Hobson Avenue off Ashworth Avenue came close to a home too, and a “smoke situation” at one of the beach motels had firefighters battling as gusty winds howled around them.

“The Fire Department’s been out straight,” said Hampton Police Chief Alex Reno. “They’ve just been going from call to call to call.”

Home on I Street destroyed in one of multiple fires

Two adults and a child were not home when the fire struck shortly before noon at 16-1/2 I Street, according to Hampton Fire Chief Michael McMahon. He said at least two cats died in the fire, which had flames showing on the first floor when firefighters arrived. He said the fire extended into the second floor and attic. The cause was not immediately known and was being investigated, he said. It is one of two homes on the property. The other home was not damaged.

Hampton firefighters and departments from other towns responded to multiple other fires and incidents, largely within a span of about two hours at mid-day.

At 29 Jones Ave., another residence, a refrigerator was the source of a fire, the chief said. There was smoke but no fire throughout the first floor at the Blue Jay Motel at 186 Ashworth Ave., according to McMahon.

He said the flooding at high tide was the likely cause of the smoke incident at the Blue Jay Motel and some of the other fires.

"Motors and heating systems, compressors on refrigerators and electrical wiring can be operating correctly, but sea water is not good with this stuff," McMahon said.

The car fire at 48 Hobson Ave. was next to a residence and was handled by the Portsmouth Fire Department.

McMahon said firefighters responded to 10 medical calls during the daytime hours.

The chief thanked fire departments from East Kingston, Exeter, Greenland, North Hampton, Hampton Falls, Rye and Seabrook, as well as Amesbury, Massachusetts, for their help.

"It was a very busy day ... getting access is the biggest problem causing delayed response. If you have to walk through 2-3 feet of water, even when you arrive on scene, it's challenging," McMahon said. "We're fortunate for the terrific response from our neighbors (from other fire departments). We appreciate the hard work by them and all our own folks."

Route 1A and parts of Route 101 were temporarily closed

According to Reno, the flooding began around 10 a.m., before high tide was to hit. And when the storm tide coupled with an astronomical high tide hit at 10:35 things got worse. Route 1A was closed from Rye south, and he ordered closed all routes down to the beach, including portions of Route 101, Winnacunnet Road and High Street. Plus, a portion of Route 1 by the Hampton/Hampton Falls town line was closed when the marsh overflowed the major north/south Seacoast roadway.

“And when the tide was supposed to recede, it didn’t,” Reno said. “The high winds and storm surge held it in and the flooding intensified. We had vehicles just floating down the roads. Some where parked cars that floated when the water lifted them off their tires, and some were from people trying to drive through flooded roads.”

More from Friday's storm:Hurricane force winds off Seacoast, followed by 'flash freeze' in pre-Christmas storm

Both of the Hampton Department of Public Works' front-end loaders and private towing services were utilized to pull those vehicles to safety, preventing them from crashing.

"Be cautious tonight," McMahon said, noting it will take crews time to remove sand and stones tossed onto the roadway at high tide. "It's going to make travel hazardous."

People rescued from Hampton Beach homes, visitors drive to beach despite warnings

Even as flood waters inundated roadways and despite public pleas to stay away, Reno said, people came to Hampton Beach anyway and attempted to drive across deep standing water. This resulted in multiple private vehicles stalled out, requiring towing, he said.

“We had one woman who got very angry with us because we couldn’t save her car, after she chose to drive through flood waters to the beach,” Reno said.

Hampton Beach:Meet the Playland Arcade brothers behind 50 years of fun

Although most locals have seen Ocean Boulevard under water and even Ashworth Avenue, Reno said, this time flood waters moved inland, making Route 101 impassable as the marsh waters rose over the highway between Landing Road and the water tower.

Thanks to good pre-planning, Reno said, police and fire vehicles were pre-positioned at strategic sites around town so they could get out to emergencies.

“At one time, you couldn’t drive between the police station (on Brown Avenue) and the (beach) fire station,” Reno said.

Town emergency workers rescued a number of residents when flood waters breached their beach area homes, Reno said.

Hampton bracing for more challenges at next high tides

As bad as things were during Friday morning’s high tide, Reno and others are worried about Friday night and Saturday. By the time the next high tide hits at about 10:30 p.m., the temperature is expected to drop drastically, he said, creating dangerous situations as roadways freeze, as well as anything else that’s wet, including water-saturated homes.

Reno thanked the New Hampshire State Police for their help, as well as mutual aid provided from agencies from other communities.

Power outages reported in Seacoast, around region

Eversource and Unitil reported thousands of power outages in New Hampshire Friday, with Unitil stating there were about 4,200 without power in its Seacoast service towns, including Hampton, at mid-day.

New Hampshire power outage map:Check for outages in your area

Maine power outage map:Check for outages in your area

“Crews have been making progress in some areas, but the conditions are challenging as downed trees and wires and broken utility poles can require significant resources and repair time,” Unitil spokesperson Alec O’Meara said in a prepared statement. “We realize that this is a difficult time for a storm like this as many people are planning to be together with their families as we head into the holiday weekend, but we anticipate that restoration efforts will likely continue into Saturday. Our crews will be working around the clock to bring all customers back online as quickly as possible.”

Glenn Sabalewski contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Hampton Beach NH: Fires, flooding, rescues at high tide in storm