CONWAY — With upwards of 8 inches of rain battering Conway on Friday evening, town officials spent much of Saturday assessing infrastructure damage and working to ensure residents could reach their homes.

“It came down hard and fast,” said Helen Baker, owner of Baker’s Country Store on River Street. “You could swim in [Route] 116.”

The rain started at around 2 p.m. on Friday, with the first downpour releasing about 5 inches of water and causing flash flooding. According to Emergency Management Director Amanda Herrmann, at least three devastating spurts exacerbated the damage. The rain stopped at around 8 p.m.

“The road destruction is the worst,” Herrmann said.

A majority of the gravel roads in Conway need attention, as well as several paved roads. Route 116, the main highway in and out of Conway, was still closed Saturday. Herrmann said contractors were working to make Route 116 passable before moving on to other roads. For some, no gravel is left or there are holes in what were once drivable streets.

When the storms first began, first responders could not get to 15 residents in town. Residents who were driving home were left circling town as many roads were closed to traffic, with some residents noting that repairs had just been completed to roads and driveways following storm damage at the same locations earlier this month.

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 completely washed out, making it impossible for her to get to the top of the hill. She slept at a neighbor’s house.

In the wake of the damage, the town of Conway declared a state of emergency and officials began coordinating with the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA).

“We are still in the early stages of assessing damages,” said MEMA Local Coordinator Christopher Marsden, “and are trying to bring resources to the community.”

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) assesses each of the catastrophic rainstorms that happened this summer separately, which makes the total damage difficult to account for. It is unclear at the moment how the recovery efforts will be funded, according to Marsden. Typically, he said, there are no state reimbursements for gravel roads, which have been devastated.

State Rep. Natalie Blais, D-Deerfield, arrived to Conway on Saturday to assess the damage firsthand. She pledged to continue to work with federal and state officials to “get money to communities to rebuild the roads that have been completely obliterated.”

First responders also helped pump water out of 12 separate basements in Conway on Friday night and Saturday morning, according to Herrmann. Many residents on River Street, including Ben Eberly, Courtney Gilligan and Lachlan Higgins, experienced basement flooding.

While Eberly coped with a couple inches of water, Gilligan and Higgins received almost 4 feet of water. The flooding did not reach the electrical box, though, so they said there will not be long-term damage to their home.

First responders pumped their basements twice, once at 7 p.m. and once at midnight when their sump pump stopped working. Conway Fire Chief Bob Baker lent the couple his own sump pump. Firefighters from multiple neighboring communities provided reinforcements, bringing extra pumps with them.

Other areas across Franklin County

Route 2, a state highway, also experienced extensive damage near the Gill-Greenfield town line as a result of a landslide. The road was closed in the area of Factory Hollow, but was reopened by the state Department of Transportation on Saturday afternoon.

In Greenfield, untreated sewage and waste was discharged into the Green River from a regulator chamber outfall behind 302 Deerfield St. on Friday starting at 4:07 p.m., with the overflow concluding at 11:49 a.m. on Saturday. According to the city’s Communications Director Matthew Conway, the total discharge is estimated at 1.41 million gallons, with the sewage discharging at a rate of 1,500 gallons per minute.

Residents are advised to avoid contact with the affected rivers — the Green River and Deerfield River in Greenfield, and the Connecticut River in Deerfield, Montague and Sunderland — for 48 hours after the discharge’s conclusion due to increased health risks from bacteria and pollutants.

In Deerfield, Lower Road and Pine Nook Road will be closed long-term due to damages. Greenfield Road (Routes 5 and 10) reopened after being impassable on Friday. However, the Deerfield Police Department advises that work is ongoing, so drivers should expect delays and use caution.

“With the large amount of rain we have had over the past couple of storms, it has caused quite a bit of damage,” Herrmann said in Conway. “We will be working diligently to get everything back open as quickly as we can.”

Bella Levavi can be reached at 413-930-4579 or blevavi@recorder.com.

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