Flash Flood Inflicts Up to $35,000 in Damage to Police-Fire Headquarters-October 5, 1979

Town Manager Warns of Long-Term Drainage Fixes

“There was a loud crash, the sound of rushing water and men running for it. Thank God nobody was hurt,” Fire Chief Thomas Barry said, recounting the terrifying moment flash floodwaters burst through the steel garage doors of the municipal maintenance section during Wednesday afternoon’s torrential storm.

Garage Doors Buckle Under Three Feet of Water

A full 55-gallon oil drum was pushed across the garage floor by the rampaging water “like it was a tin can,” according to Chief Barry, who was entering the building just as the doors buckled and collapsed under the pressure. Four men working in the area managed to scramble to safety.

While the Nahatan Street building housing the police and fire departments has a long-history of minor flooding—reaching up to a foot and a half on previous occasions—Wednesday’s storm pushed water levels inside the lower level to a staggering three feet.

Initial estimates place total municipal damage between $30,000 and $35,000:

• Police Department Damage: Estimated at $15,000 to $20,000 by Lt. James F. Lyden, covering equipment repairs, labor to salvage drenched records, two cruisers, two car radios, and four portables.
• Fire Department Damage: Estimated up to $15,000 by Chief Barry, driven primarily by the required overhaul of the station’s auxiliary generator.

Despite frantic efforts by officers and firefighters who sandbagged doorways leading from maintenance areas to storage rooms, offices, the boiler room, and the pistol range, the waters proved unstoppable. “I started piling those sandbags in the door,” said police juvenile officer Dominic Fruci, pointing at a soggy heap of bags. “This is what they give us,” he added, gesturing to the recurring flood zone.

Heavy Toll on Historical and Investigative Records

The flood wreaked havoc on department records and equipment stored in lower-level areas:

• Police Lt. James Lyden spent yesterday inspecting waterlogged files inside the station’s flooded vault. Detective Sgt. William J. Travers reported that all personal papers accumulated over several years for investigations, seminars, and reference cases were completely destroyed, noting it will take months of investigation to reproduce lost case reports.
• Chief Barry noted that fire department records dating back to the turn of the century were soaked; while holding no monetary value, they represent an irreplaceable part of local department history.
• Two police cruisers were submerged hood-deep in the rear parking lot before being rescued to dry out engines, while Lt. Lyden’s personal car remained parked outside with a window-high water line. A fire department brush-fire truck was flooded inside and out, and rescue breathing apparatus and a resuscitator stored on Engine 4 were submerged.

Town Manager Warns of Complex, Costly Drainage Challenges

Town Manager John J. Carroll estimated yesterday that a comprehensive engineering and drainage plan to solve the flooding crisis will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, warning that there is “no short cut to this one.”

Carroll will recommend that selectmen commission an expensive and complicated engineering study. However, because the lower Nahatan Street drainage problem is tied directly to related flooding at the Guild and Nahatan Street railroad bridges, solving the issue is remarkably complex.

The core engineering bottleneck centers on underground infrastructure: three massive drainage pipes—two 48-inch lines and one 36-inch line—empty into a single manhole near the police station that is drained by only two 36-inch pipes. “We know we’re overloaded, it’s just a question [of] how much overloaded,” explained Bernard S. Cooper, administrative assistant to the town manager. Much of the vulnerability stems from the building’s location in a low-lying area built directly on the site of Dunn’s Pond, which was filled approximately 15 years prior to construct the station.

Even if town leaders act swiftly, Carroll noted that the engineering study, design phase, and subsequent construction will take many months, meaning “no major relief for that area for two or three years.”

According to Town Engineer Robert A. Hamilton, meteorological instruments at the Norwood Airport recorded 1.9 inches of rain falling between 3:45 and 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, while neighboring East Walpole received 2.5 inches and East Dedham recorded 1.76 inches. Cleanup operations continued throughout yesterday as town officials evaluated insurance coverage.

Archival Note: This article has been dynamically reconstructed from the original public record print archives of the Patriot Ledger