Rain Continues As Gov. Declares State Of Emergency

BOSTON -- With heavy bands of rain lashing the Bay State, sending rivers surging to flood stage and drowning roadways across the region, Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney declared a state of emergency Sunday.

As NewsCenter 5's Lynn Jolicouer reported, the governor enacted the state of emergency at about 10 a.m. in order to be able to call upon the National Guard to help out in flooded communities.

"The reason is that we want to be able to draw on the resources of the National Guard to assure that where there is flooding and where people need to be evacuated from vehicles that have stalled in the roadways, the National Guard can come in with their equipment and help remove people from those vehicles," Romney said.

Guardsmen were called to Peabody, where some streets were flooded. The National Guard said approximately 100 soldiers from the 1058th Transportation Company out of Hingham, 1164th Transportation Company out of Leominster, 1166th Transportation Company out of Worcester and the 972nd Military Police Company out of Reading were placed on state active duty in response to severe weather conditions.

Coast Guard personnel were also called to Gloucester to help the local fire department fill more than 1,000 sandbags to help control flooding at the Milton L. Fuller Elementary School. The school is being used as an evacuation area for local residents.

In downtown Peabody, about 20 miles north of Boston, cars were pulled from flooded streets and about 300 people were evacuated from a senior citizens' apartment complex. Businesses stacked sandbags at their doors, trying to prevent damage from water that at one point rose to waist-deep. Court officials planned to close Peabody District Court on Monday in an effort to keep people away from the city's square.

Many neighborhoods on the North Shore were hit particularly hard. About 150 residents were forced to leave their homes in Melrose.

"In Melrose, in particular, there have been some reports of sewage backing up into people's homes," Romney said. "The reason for that is that as the groundwater fills the normal sewage drainage systems in our roads, the pressure from all that groundwater begins to put real pressure on the sewage systems that go into people's homes."

Officials in the fishing community of Gloucester on the North Shore also evacuated about 70 residents from Poplar Park senior home, which is downstream Babson Reservoir spillway. The structure is not endanger of collapsing, said Mayor John Bell.

In Amesbury, officials decided to keep schools closed Monday. By Sunday evening, 18 communities had decided to keep schools closed. Residents were asked to call the Amesbury emergency operations center at 978-388-8155 for assistance or road conditions.

State emergency management employees were working overtime at their headquarters in Framingham, monitoring weather reports, river levels and flooding hotspots. They said they were not concerned about possible dam failures as of Sunday afternoon. Several communities were expected to see more than 1 foot of rain before the storm passes.

"When you have that kind of water, obviously the impact on rivers can be pretty severe and the Merrimack River Valley, is expecting -- based on the water that has already been received -- to crest 6 feet above its normal flood levels," Romney said. "Now, that doesn't mean that homes are going to be swept away or anything like that, but it does mean that there's going to be a lot of water rushing down that river. Don't get too close to it."

Drivers were not heeding flood warnings in Peabody, where drivers had to be plucked out of flooded areas by firefighters.

Areas of Foster Street became more like a river than a road and several residents who tried to drive through the high water became trapped. Barriers were set up near Center Street in Peabody to prevent more motorists from entering the area.

State officials said about 100 people were evacuated from homes in Wakefield because of concern over the Union Village and Semens dams. Haverhill residents said a voluntary evacuation had been called for in the Riverside area along the Merrimack River and residents were told they could go to the Citizens Center shelter on Welcome Street.

New Hampshire and Maine were also seeing substantial flooding.

Massachustts asked residents with flooding concerns or problems to call a state emergency hotline at 1-800-293-4031.