By STEPHEN BEALE
Goffstown News Correspondent
 

GOFFSTOWN - Residents who have already braved two severe floods are hoping for the best, but bracing for the worst.

Last week they met with Gov. John Lynch as he toured neighborhoods in Goffstown at risk of flooding this spring. Several residents said they were ready. Rhonda Scheerders, of 3 Sonny Ave. said she already has piled sandbags outside of her home, while many residents have raised their homes a story, ensuring that floodwaters do not touch their living space.

“I’m worried that we’ll have to be evacuated again, but water will not get in this house. It is too high up,” said Kelly Herod, of 140 Danis Park Road.

Despite widespread fears about another disaster, residents remain upbeat about the future. “I think we’re going to be OK. I really do. I hope so, you know, we can’t deal with a third year in a row,” said Marc Larochelle. He told Lynch that the April 2007 flood arrived just nine days after he finished fixing the damage from a similar flood in May 2006.

This year, Larochelle, who lives at 19 Sonny Ave., said residents are taking it one day at a time. “We’re all optimistic this year that we can go through a season and enjoy ourselves instead of spending another year fixing, rebuilding, and that sort of thing,” Larochelle said.

That spirit of cautious optimism was shared by everyone who spoke with the governor the morning of March 18 as he made his way from Danis Park Road to Sonny Avenue.

Some residents count the October 2005 storm as the first of what they hope will be a total of three floods.

“We’re going to be all set,” said Scheerders, who was out for a walk with her dog. “Third time’s a charm, right?”

Lynch said residents still need to be prepared in case this spring brings another flood, pointing out that the snow pack in the southern tier of the state contains about two months worth of rain while in the northern part it has four months.

“I still worry that as a state we are more vulnerable today than we were last year and even the year before because of the snow pack,” Lynch said.

Earlier in the day, Lynch met with town officials at the Police Department where Chief Michael French asked the state to consider dredging the river, increasing the discharge capacity of the Kelley Falls Dam, and installing more flow gauges along the main river as well as some of the streams that feed into it.

Jim Gallagher, an official with the state Dam Bureau, said the proposed changes to the Kelley Falls Dam would cost about $1.5 million. The project was included in the last state capital plan, but it did not make the final cut, according to Gallagher.

After the meeting, Lynch emphasized the importance of communication and coordination between state and local officials. He praised Goffstown emergency responders for a “remarkable job” so far, adding that he is confident they can handle another flood.

Lynch plans to continuing visiting communities that have been through severe flooding. He is warning them that they need to think about what they can do to survive a flood and protect their property.

“Again, the residents here have been through this two years in a row, so they have a good sense of what they can be doing,” Lynch said. “We’re going to continue to closely monitor the rivers and the dams, again in part because of the snow pack we have seen.”

Larochelle said it can be hard to predict what will happen. He said the second flood had a third as much rainfall as the first, but was just as damaging. When he woke up early in the morning the day his neighborhood flooded, he still did not see the signs of impending danger.

But by 10 a.m. it was almost too late for him to leave. “At 10 I left here with my plow truck. I was sitting in water up to my waist. I had said, ‘Geez I had waited too long to get out of here. Should have left earlier,’” Larochelle said.

“It just goes to show, you got to be on the ball all the time because you never know what’s going to happen,” he said.

Reproduced by the Goffstown Residents Association.