As most of the severe flooding that has recently inundated New England is now receding, Dartmouth and the town of Hanover have both managed to remain relatively unaffected. The storms will go down in history, however, as some of the most destructive the Northeast has seen in the past 70 years.
Massachusetts, New Hampshire and southern Maine saw most of the damage, and the record-breaking 17 inches of rain over the past five days forced 2,500 people to evacuate their homes throughout the region. The Office of Residential Life reports no flooding in any of the buildings on campus, however, and Hanover's streets have managed to remain fairly dry.
Students, no strangers to bad weather, were only marginally affected by the storms.
"I could really care less about this rain," Sarah Vallelian '08 said. "It's kind of depressing, but it doesn't make much of a difference."
The storm flooded basements and roads throughout the northeast and forced parts of U.S. Route 1 north of Boston to close yesterday in order to clean up damage.
The Northeast normally sees most of its rain in the month of March, and scientists were shocked to see such large amounts of rain at this time of the year, stating that normally, conditions are not ideal for massive quantities of rain in May.
On Tuesday, ten rivers in New Hampshire saw record flows, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The Merrimack River, which flows through Manchester, managed to reach a speed of 80,000 cubic feet per second, a speed only 22,000 cubic feet per second less than its speed during the famous category three hurricane that swept the Northeast in 1938.
While it is too early to report the cost of the damage caused by the recent rains, experts say it is safe to estimate that the final number will be less than it was after the hurricane in 1938. The cost of that storm was $6.2 million, roughly $80 million today.
Tuesday saw the discovery of the flood's first victim, 59-year-old James Elderkin, who was found in his partially submerged car in Topsfield, Mass.
Long-term forecasters say that due to New England's warming climate, New Hampshire can expect to see similar weather during the springs of coming years.
