Floyd paid a visit to Stoneham
Published on September 22nd, 1999
STONEHAM, MA - Hurricane Floyd could have been worse, but he was no joke.
According to Public Works Director Bob Grover, at least five large trees came down last week — one on a house on William St., another across Garden Street, a third on a Lincoln on Hersam Street, another on a Ford on Main Street, and still another, thankfully on nothing and no one at the Middle School.
According to the fire log, 10 calls from eight streets reported fallen power lines during the latter part of last week. Wires were down on Summer Hill Road, MacArthur Road, Coolidge Street, Garden Road, Perkins Street, Spring Street, Middle Street and Franklin Street.
The Robin Hood School lost power briefly on Thursday, Sept. 16. So did residents of North Street.
According to police, several other "small pockets" lost power Thursday night, and the after effect quirks of the storm knocked power out at Redstone for a brief period in the late morning Friday, Sept. 17.
During the night Thursday, flooding was reported on parts of Green Street, Spring Street, Stevens Street, Bow Street, Nixon Lane, Janice Lane, Oak Street and Park Street.
High winds ripped the Town Day banner off its mountings in Central Square Thursday. A woman driver got stuck in water on Montvale Avenue at 6:30 p.m., and police shut the road down for the rest of the night. Then later that same night, a transformer blew across the street from Spot Pond Mobil, igniting a small fire.
By Friday some sewerage had backed up into a Franklin Street home.
But the town survived, and by Town Day, Sept. 18, the sun was shining.
Grover said he had prepared for the worst. Catch basins were cleaned out. Sewerage stations were monitored closely. And he had crews driving around waiting for accidents to happen.
"Hopefully, they will just be driving around," he had joked.
Unfortunately, the public works crews were kept busy, but forecasters and regular folks agreed — Floyd could have been a lot worse.
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