‘We need help’: Many roads remain closed days after torrential downpour

By DOMENIC POLI

Staff Writer

Published: 07-24-2023 7:18 PM

CONWAY — The town was still reeling on Monday from the onslaught of rain that fell Friday evening, causing road damage Bob Baker called the worst he has seen in his 42 years as fire chief.

Baker said Adams, Main Poland, Fields Hill, Old Cricket Hill and Boyden roads remained out of commission on Monday, though South Deerfield Road (Route 116) had been reopened to traffic.

“[We have] a long ways to go, but it’s going,” Baker said Monday morning.

Phil Kantor, Selectboard chair and assistant emergency management director, said Conway received nearly 9 inches of rain on Friday.

Baker mentioned Fields Hill Road likely sustained the most significant damage and was “in terrible, terrible shape.” The fire chief also said the gravel from Whately Road had washed into the Conway Community Swimming Pool, which is closed indefinitely.

“I don’t think we had any injuries,” Baker noted.

There are many homes that are only reachable by four-wheeler through the woods, the chief noted, with some residents’ driveways remaining impassable. For example, Michelle St. Martin, who lives on Route 116, made it to her driveway Friday night only to find the two culverts at the end of her driveway were washed out, meaning it was impossible for her to get to the top of the hill. She slept at a neighbor’s house.

As for the cost of damages, Baker said he could not yet venture a guess.

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“I don’t have a clue,” he said. “It’s immeasurable at this point.”

Kantor said he wants to see some follow-through from state politicians who say they care about this part of the state but often show up for only photo opportunities and press conferences.

“We need help,” he said. “Our Highway Department needs many tens of thousands of cubic yards of gravel and ... the types of materials to fix roads.”

Kantor said many residents — several of them older and living on fixed incomes — had their electrical panels, furnaces and boilers destroyed as a result of the storms and subsequent flooding.

“There’s a lot of people that have suffered a lot,” he said, adding he has been told the state can provide money for public infrastructure, but issues with individual households must be handled by homeowners and volunteers. “I don’t know when that answer was ever acceptable.”

Kyle Walker, chief of the Ashfield Fire Department, said his department sent three portable pumps and four firefighters with a rescue truck at Conway’s request on Friday. His firefighters used two pumps to remove water from a flooded Conway basement over roughly five hours. He said the firefighters did not get home until 10:30 or 11 p.m.

Herb Guyette, chief of the Shelburne Falls and Buckland fire departments, said he sent four 250-gallon-per-minute pumps to Conway but they remained in that town’s Fire Station and were not used.

“They were brought over as a precaution,” he noted, “in case they were [needed].”

In the neighboring community of Deerfield, 21 locations had been identified as needing emergency repairs from the July 10 and July 16 storms, according to a Deerfield Police Department Facebook post written by Police Chief John Paciorek Jr., who is also the town’s emergency management director. Following Friday’s storm, another 60 to 100 locations are expected to be added to that list.

Deerfield is working with the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) and the local legislative delegation in hopes of securing state and possibly federal funding, depending on whether the area meets the threshold for an emergency declaration, Paciorek explained. He thanked Sen. Jo Comerford and Rep. Natalie Blais for their support, as well as a host of construction crews, first responders and Highway Department employees who have assisted in emergency response and cleanup efforts since Friday.

“This is commonly referred to as a 500-year event, meaning that they only happen once every 500 years,” Paciorek wrote. “Let’s hope that is true, however, I’m not convinced. These events are becoming more of the norm.”

Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-930-4120.

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