Two-day rainstorm soaks Worcester, but nothing compared to Douglas

WORCESTER – Sharon Baird has seen it all when it comes to flooding underneath the Cambridge Street bridge whenever there’s a steady, heavy rain in Worcester.

“It’s not coming down as heavy today,” said Baird Tuesday on the second consecutive day of a rain front in the city and region.

Baird stood in a doorway at Lutco Inc. at 677 Cambridge St., where she has worked 33 years, during her lunch break to keep dry, a spot within clear sight of the infamous bridge that floods.

She pulled out her mobile phone and showed photos she took when the bridge flooded during past deluges.

“If there’s heavy and continuous rain, then this whole area fills up. I don’t see that happening today,” she said.

It didn’t, as all was clear and cars easily drove under the bridge.

No records broken

Worcester airport recorded a two-day total rainfall of 2.31 inches by Tuesday morning, way short of the city's record two-day rainfall of 10.99 inches Aug. 19, 1955.

For those who love data, the record rainfall in Worcester for Monday's date of Sept. 5 was 1.42 inches, set in 1935. Monday of this week, .91 inches of wet stuff fell in the city.

On Tuesday's date of Sept. 6, the record was 4.79 inches, set in 2008. That compares to 2.23 inches recorded at the airport from midnight to 11 a.m. Tuesday.

As she filled up her gas tank at the self-serve island at a Gulf station on Southbridge Street in Worcester, Leslian Leon was protected from the elements by an overhang, but she worried about those who didn't have that luxury.

“When you have no umbrella today, you can get wet when you fill up,” said Leon with a laugh.

Douglas is soaked

At least she doesn’t live in Douglas, where that town recorded 4.1 inches of rain as of 7 a.m. Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service.

That number actually rose to 4.53 inches as of 11:10 a.m. Tuesday, said John Furno, the town's assistant fire chief and highway superintendent.

"I consider this a major rain event," he said.

A stalled frontal boundary sitting across northern Rhode Island and Southern Worcester County hit Douglas harder than the rest of the county, said Andrew Loconto, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Norton.

Downed trees — one on Gilboa Street that shut down the roadway for a short period — and a power outage that lasted for more than four hours after a tree fell on a wire, causing a transformer issue, were some of the impacts in Douglas.

“It’s one of the heaviest rainfalls I’ve seen in a long time, that amount of rain in a short period of time,” said Douglas Police Chief Nick Miglionico, a 26-year veteran in the department.

Pretty quiet, with an overflow

Worcester police reported seven car accidents since midnight Tuesday. None appeared to be caused by slick roads.

"Surprisingly pretty quiet,” is how Phil Guerian, who runs the water and sewer division in the city's public works department, described the weather's impact in Worcester.

There was a so-called “combined sewer overflow" at the combined sewer treatment facility on Quinsigamond Avenue, located near Crompton Park.

Such an overflow is not unexpected in wet weather, Guerian said.

He explained that 10% of the city has old sewers that take in both storm water and wastewater. When there’s a lot a rain, like what occurred since Monday, then the flow of stormwater and wastewater increases and there can be an overflow.

When that happens, the overflow is sent into the treatment facility where it’s treated and then sent into the Blackstone River.

Worcester is required by law to notify residents of the overflow, and Guerin said the notification went out Tuesday morning to those who subscribe to the city's notification system.

Games postponed

As for the city’s high school athletes, some saw their games postponed Tuesday due to the steady droplets. A total of seven athletic events will be rescheduled in the sports of soccer, field hockey and golf, said Dave Shea, athletic director for the Worcester Public Schools.

By Tuesday night, the forecast called for the rain to move out of the area and that means it will be time to put those raincoats and umbrellas away.

Baird will likely have her mobile phone ready to take pictures the next time there is flooding under the Cambridge Street bridge. And, Mother Nature will make sure that happens again.

But Baird is thankful this week’s two-day rainfall spared her and other Worcester residents of a floating mess underneath the bridge, with stuck cars and angry motorists.

“Oh yeah, we don’t need to be in another flood situation here,” she said.

Contact Henry Schwan at henry.schwan@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @henrytelegram

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: rain weather National Weather Service Worcester