by Alex Brooks
The rainstorms which came through the area on the evening of May 29 hit Petersburgh and Williamstown especially hard, as an especially intense thunderstorm tracked close to Route 2 moving over Petersburgh Pass. The storm was quick – it only lasted a half hour or so, but it dropped anywhere from an inch and a half to two inches in that time, an extraordinary rate of rainfall.
[private]In Petersburgh, there was extensive damage to Puckertoot Road, Prosser Hollow Road, and in East Hollow, Canfield Road and Phillips Road. Those roads were pretty much impassable after the storm. The town crew worked much of the night, and by the next morning those roads were still damaged, but passable. Weaver Dam Road and many others were still driveable, but had four to six foot deep canyons at the side of the road instead of the usual ditches.
The County and State Road crews were out as well. One of the County road workers was injured while responding to a washout on Jones Hollow Road. He fell into a hole in the dark and banged his face. The Petersburgh Ambulance responded.
Route 2 suffered damage in many places between Petersburgh and Petersburgh Pass. A couple of major culverts between Leah’s Road and Babcock Road got plugged up, and large quantities of water washed over the road, nearly taking it out. State crews with many trucks and several trackhoes have been working on the road all week since then, and the road has been down to one lane in sections where they are working.
The Dayfoot Brook was roaring like a major river during the storm. Behind Tim Church’s house where it is constricted by steep banks, the Brook was running 8 feet higher than its normal level. Church said he has lived next to that brook for 59 years, and has never seen it so high. It washed away a tow dolly that was in his back yard, which he later found a half mile downstream, and it made a mess of his back yard.
Further downstream on Dayfoot Road, Bob and Joy Griswold lost a wall of their garage, and the water scattered most of the contents of the garage across their yard and their neighbors’ yard. It took two days with neighbors and friends helping to retrieve their stuff, and some of it is just gone. Huge pieces of concrete that were embedded in the bank to protect their driveway were ripped out and scattered downstream. The stonework at the edge of their parking area is completely gone. Their parking area, which is normally 6 feet or so above the level of the stream, was under two feet of water, as the Brook took a shortcut through the back yards, and they had to scramble to move their vehicles to higher ground. Bob Griswold said in 30 years at that location, he has never seen the water anywhere near that high.
Although there was only minor damage to Route 2 itself on the Massachusetts side, several nearby secondary roads were badly damaged. Bee Hill Road remains closed, and Treadwell Hollow Road had major damage.[/private]