1

CAROL LOLLIS

Jeremy Smith looks over the Main Street Bridge in Leeds Sunday afternoon. Officials closed the bridge because the Mill River was so high.

2

CAROL LOLLIS

Yards off West Street in Easthampton were submerged Sunday afternoon, as shown in this picture taken from the bridge on Route 10 near Easthampton’s center.

3

CAROL LOLLIS

Northampton Department of Public Works employees work Saturday to construct a flood wall on West Street. The structure has not been used for a flood since 1955, although DPW employees practice putting it up every year.

4

CAROL LOLLIS

Northampton Department of Public Works employees Ed Dupre, left, and John Church, put the pieces of the flood wall together on West Street Saturday morning in preparation for the storm.

Downgraded to a tropical storm, Irene had become less fearsome when it hit Hampshire County on Sunday and officials said the road closings, downed trees, power outages and flooded basements were not as numerous as they had feared.

But in some places, the six inches of rain and strong winds caused major disruptions. And the Mill River set a record in Northampton, peaking, some time Sunday afternoon at 16.42 feet, according to the National Weather Service website. Flood stage for the river is 11 feet.

Interstate 91 was closed between Sunderland and Greenfield Sunday afternoon because of rising water on the Deerfield River, and some residents in the center of Huntington near the swollen Westfield River were evacuated. A quarter of Leverett households were still without power late Sunday afternoon, and an electric substation in Greenfield had to be taken offline.

Also in some more rural parts of Franklin County, residents were coping with mud slides, and dirt roads made impassable by the torrential rain, and even parts of Route 2 washed out.

A decision was made to cut short the Cummington Fair by a day even before the first raindrops starting falling at mid-afternoon Saturday.

In Northampton, Amherst and Easthampton, officials were prepared for much more damage than actually occurred.

"We caught a lucky break," Amherst Police Chief Scott Livingstone said early Sunday afternoon. "It looks like we're going to escape relatively unscathed."

Still river levels ran high, and worried both officials and residents. The Connecticut River clocked in at 109.74 feet in Northampton, according to the National Weather Service, where "action stage" is 110 feet and flood stage is 112 feet.

By 8:30 a.m. Sunday, Hurricane Irene had been demoted to a tropical storm, long before traveled through Hampshire County. It then lost a lot of strength as it moved through the area, said Sandra Ahearn, spokeswoman for the Western Massachusetts Electric Co.

Still, more than 1,000 households in the area had lost power as of 12:30 p.m. Sunday. By 5 p.m., crews had restored power to about half of them, according to the utility.

After the rain stopped around noon Sunday, it was feared that the winds on the back end of Irene would cause significant damage, as had been the case with previous tropical storms, Ahearn said. "It just dissipated," she said.

After restoring power on Sunday night, the 100 line crews and 60 tree crews engaged for the storm were expected to move to harder-hit areas in Connecticut and eastern Massachusetts, she said.

Evacuations in Northampton

In Northampton, about 12 houses had to be evacuated because of high water, said Mayor Clare Higgins. Two firefighters had to help move one family from their house on Florence Road to a shelter at Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School.

About 20 people and seven animals used the shelter Saturday night, she said. Some of those people left and new people arrived Sunday, and a volunteer on hand Sunday afternoon said the shelter would remain open as long as there was a need.

There were few downed trees but numerous road closings, including the Main Street bridge in Leeds, Higgins said. Parts of Ryan and Florence Roads were also closed, she said.

The Mill River at Spring Street, a low-lying area prone to flooding, spilled over and across the street and into the large parking lot at the Elks Lodge at 17 Spring St. in Florence.

More than 45 firefighters, police officers, public works employees and building inspectors were available to assist residents during the storm, according to Higgins. But with fewer problems than anticipated, some were made available through mutual-aid agreements to assist in other towns, Higgins said.

"We prepared for the most dramatic scenario and I'm happy it didn't happen," she said.

She said the city made the right decision in installing a four-foot-high flood wall across West Street at the dike along the Mill River, Higgins said.

At Smith College, the water going over the spillway on the Mill River southeast of Paradise Pond was so dramatic that it attracted many onlookers.

"I've lived here for 25 years and I've never seen it like this," said neighbor Meredith Young.

The area was roped off to prevent people from getting too close. Gary Hartwell, a project manager at Smith, said he thought the river was cresting at around 2 p.m. Sunday.

"I'm just watching Mother Nature doing what she does," he said.

Downed trees in Amherst

In Amherst, there had been 18 calls reporting downed trees as of 1 p.m. Sunday, said Fire Chief Tim Nelson. Pelham Road was blocked off near the Fort River, and there were temporary closings of Cottage Street, Newell Court and Mount Pleasant, he said.

Firefighters were able to help three households with flooded basements because of new portable sump pumps the department acquired, Nelson said.

Amherst had more than 40 emergency responders on duty for the storm. "It went as well as it could have gone," said Town Manager John Musante.

Livingstone, the Amherst police chief, said it made sense to "be prepared for the worst."

In Hadley, there were no major road closings. But one branch fell on a utility wire at the intersection of Rocky Hill Road and East Street, causing a temporary closure, police said.

There was extensive flooding of agricultural fields in the Honey Pot section of town, and Honey Pot Road was closed.

The streets that normally flood in Easthampton were closed Sunday, said Fire Chief David Mottor. River Street was expected to be closed for a few days, and there were temporary closings of Pomeroy Meadow Road and Drury Lane Sunday, he said.

Easthampton had 18 police officers and firefighters on duty Sunday, Mottor said. But there were no calls about flooded basements and few electrical outages, the longest of which lasted only an hour, he said.

"All in all, it was a pretty uneventful day," he said. "The rainfall was kind of what we expected, but there was not as much wind."

Trouble on 91, parts north

The closing of I-91 between Sunderland and Greenfield was caused not only by the heavy rain but by the release of a large volume of water into the Deerfield River at a dam in Rowe, according to state police.

Emergency management officials were concerned that the overloaded river might cause flooding on Route 91, state police said. The Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency and the National Guard established a command post at Greenfield Community College to address the situation.

There were numerous other flooded roads, including Route 9 in Williamsburg, according to state police. Others were Route 112 in Huntington and Buckland, Route 2 in Charlemont and Florida, Route 20 in Westfield and the Becket-Chester line, Route 8A in Charlemont, and Route 8 in North Adams and on the Otis-Sandisfield line, state police said.

Working ahead of Irene

In Northampton on Saturday, Department of Public Works Director Ned Huntley declared "all hands on deck" as workers lowered the nine-by-16-inch wood beams into place to create a "stop-log structure," or flood wall, across West Street at the dike along the Mill River.

Huntley said the city had called in extra fire, police and public works personnel on duty to help keep roads open and respond to any flooding.

"We called everyone in to do sandbags," he said, gesturing to the roughly 75 sandbags used to reinforce the four-foot-high flood wall. The wall is made of beams held in place by three 14-foot steel trestles that are anchored in holes in the street. Sheets of plywood and the sandbags prevented leaks, Huntley said.

Huntley said the city's first priority was to erect the West Street flood wall because the Mill River is more likely to flood severely than the Connecticut River, which has a larger floodplain.

The structure by the Mill River has not been used for a flood since 1955, Huntley said, but DPW employees practice putting it up every year.

South Hadley opened an emergency shelter in the Michael E. Smith Middle School at 100 Mosier St. for residents starting at 6 p.m. Saturday.

Fire Capt. Kurt Schenker said residents in areas at risk of flooding, including lower River Road and Cove Island Road, received optional evacuation notices.

He said firefighters went door-to-door Saturday morning advising residents there that the areas may be cut off by flood waters and emergency services may not be able to get to them. "But most of them wanted to stay anyways," he said.

There were few downed trees or power outages in South Hadley, and few reports of flooding. A small tree did fall on an electric light pole on Vivianni Street, but there was no interruption in power in surrounding homes, according to the Fire Department.