By The Herald Staff

Frank Ceurvels and his wife Cheryl worked with friends last week to retrieve the few posessions that were salvageable after the Lilliesville Brook tore through their summer camp. (Herald photo by Zack Nelson)

A series of thunderstorms carrying a deluge of rain swept across the upper White River Valley Wednesday afternoon, depositing four to six inches of water in about as many hours, causing more than a million dollars of damage to roads and thousands of dollars more to private property.

No injuries were attributed to the storm, although an elderly couple were rescued by boat from their home at the bottom of Bear Hill Road. Another man in Lilliesville was rescued due to the presence of mind of three teenagers.

Damage to buildings was also limited, with the worst being on Lilliesville Brook in Bethel, where the brook swamped two summer residences, literally running through the middle of one of them.

Damage to roads will be costly, however. Randolph estimated its damages at $600,000 and Bethel at $500,000, and other towns also will spend in the six-figures.

Similar to another flood in 1998, this storm was very particular about where it vented its fury. Randolph, Bethel, Braintree Brookfield, and Stockbridge received the brunt of the rain, while nearby towns like Rochester reported nothing more than a vigorous thunderstorm.

The highest rain total in the state was reported by Virginia Perkins near the Findley Bridge in Bethel, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Donny Dumont. She reported 5.27 inches in an amazingly short amout of time.

"I never saw it rain harder," she told The Herald. There was virtually no rain reported until the storm began a little after noon. By 8 p.m. there were 4.12 inches, and the next morning's guage reported anoter 1.15 inches.

In Randolph Center, an unofficial report by Miriam Herwig recorded even more rain- 6.42 inches.

Both observers said the rain amounts were comparable to what happened in 1998.

This was a storm of little brooks. The big brooks and the rivers filled up, but caused little damage. The little brooks were another matter. They wiped out entire roads.

Two Bad Brooks

The two worst cases appeared to be the result of two brooks that enter Ayers Brook on Route 12 just about a mile from each other. One roared down Howard Hill and completely wiped out that road from the Sardonis home all the way into the valley, where it surrounded the handsome brick home there and wiped out the road across the street.

"It's all the way down to bedrock," said John Rotter, Randolph's new superintendent of public works. The trench dug by the brook, he said, is an average of 15 feet deep, and 30 feet in some places.

Just as dramatic was what happened on West Street, which is mostly in Brookfield and Braintree, with a tenth-mile segment in Randolph. The bottom three-quarters of a mile of that road was turned into a chasm up to 60 feet deep by the usually mild-mannered brook, according to Braintree Selectman Walt Palmer.

Most road damage in the area can be repaired by the various town crews, but West Street and Howard Hill will have to be rebuilt by a contractor, with three towns cooperating to pay for the West Street work.

Those roads will be closed for several weeks, or longer.

Randolph Report

The selective nature of the storm was demonstrated in Randolph, where two roads were due to be paved soon. The East Bethel Road, high on the ridge, was virtually unscathed, according to Rotter, and paving can be done on schedule.

Mason Road, however, won't see any pavement for awhile, as about 100 feet of the newly-constructed base was washed away. Amazingly, one-way traffic was restored late Wednesday night, but there is much more to be done. The road will be restored to its pre-storm condition this summer, Rotter said, but whether it can be paved this summer is not certain.

Another washout on LaBounty Road was caused by a brook at the LaBounty farm and closed the road until Thursday.

The other Randolph road with major damage was Clover Hill Road, the Class 4 road that bisects the Stock Farm property. The two three-quarters of that road was washed out and is impassable, Rotter said.

Tatro Hill Road and Seymour Road were blocked but were restored by the end of the day Wednesday. Otherwise, Rotter said, there is "lots of shoulder damage" that will require hundreds of truckloads of gravel during the summer.

Stockbridge

In Stockbridge, the drama played out on the lower sections of Lilliesville Road.

Road Commissioner Ken Carter said that Bethel Fire Dept. personnel evacuated six households there Wednesday afternoon. Two summer homes on that road suffered significant damage, including an A-frame that had its back end ripped off.

The other, which belongs to Frank and Cheryl Ceurvels, was wrenched about 10 feet off its foundation, turned 90 degrees, and left tipping at an angle, with the brook running underneath it.

In addition to the damage to the bridge and homes, there were numerous washouts, mostly on one side of town. Whitcomb Hill, Lilliesville Road, Blackmer Boulevard, and River Road took the brunt of the storm.

"It was overwhelming!" Carter said. "There were trees, some of them 60 feet long and two feet across at the stump, which washed down and plugged bridges and culverts.

"When they got stuck under the bridge on River Road, the water backed up and went around and washed out a 70-ft. hole around the bridge. The bridge has fallen down on one end."

"This is the worst damage I've ever had to deal with," Carter said the next day.

In Braintree, Selectman Palmer said that nothing compared to the West Street damage but that Braintree Hill Road, Flint Road and Peth Road all took severe damage, with the latter being closed at the intersection with Brainstorm Road. All the roads were open by Thursday evening.

That will leave lots of work for the summer. Along Flint Road, for instance, many culverts, some of them two-foot jobs, are plugged and will have to be dug up and replaced.

Strangely, he noted, Braintree's steepest road, Hockman Hill, stayed passable, though it was right in the middle of the damaged area.

$500K in Bethel

As in Randolph, Bethel Town Manager Dell Cloud estimated last Thursday that his town is looking at a half-million dollars in road damage.

The damage was centered over Bethel's easterly-facing hillsides, from the Lilliesville-Brink Hill area, along Camp Brook Road, and extending to the Gilead Brook area, Cloud said.

"There was so much run-off," he said, "there was no way it could all go through the culverts."

Along Camp Brook, those torrents of water dislodged huge quantities of rocks and gravel, which ended up deposited along Camp Brook Road. Surface run-off through wooded hillsides added splintered branches and other debris to the mix. A huge quantity of wood debris ended up in the yard of the Turk residence.

Bethel's road crew and fire department, assisted by volunteer contractors with excavators, worked until about 10 p.m. Wednesday, when "darkness and high water made it too difficult to do constructive work."

Everyone was back at work by 6 a.m. the next morning, Cloud said.

Road sections that were temporarily closed were mostly opened within 24 hours, but "it will be quite awhile" before repairs are done, Cloud said.

"Camp Brook Road was one of the most severely damaged, in terms of cost simply because it's paved." Cloud said. Several property owners on the road suffered significant damage, as well, including two private bridges that were destroyed.

Bethel has begun assessing the damage, in anticipation of a disaster declaration and federal funds for reconstruction, he noted.

In prior instances, the town has been "usually pretty well satisfied with coverage" from federal disaster programs, Cloud noted. "Oftentimes it's the individuals left without opportunity for assistance," he added.

Bridge Lost

Property owner Peter Johnson, who moved into his Camp Brook property a year-and-a-half ago, was worrying last Thursday about the cost of replacing the steel-and-concrete bridge that had connected his home to Camp Brook Road.

Johnson, whose home is 3.2 miles up Camp Brook, was out last Wednesday afternoon when the bridge went out. At least, he said wryly, he is lucky that his pickup "is on the right side of the bridge."

One of the bridge's two massive concrete abutments was dislodged by high water, and rocky fill around both abutments was totally scoured. The bridge's steel deck was left angled in the middle of Camp Brook, and Johnson had rigged up wooden gangways to get to his home.

Just above Johnson's porperty, Tom Bollman was out last Thursday afternoon, scraping gravel off his lawn and using it to fill in his eroded driveway.

Camp Brook passes under the road just above Bollman's property, and the culvert there plugged, sending masses of water and debris down the roadway.

According to Cloud, the Gilead area of Bethel also had extensive damage, including areas that had been fixed after flash flooding in June, 1998.

Brookfield

Brookfield's Road Crew Foreman David Gilderdale said his crew was out until 10 p.m. Wednesday night, and back on the job by 4 a.m. the next morning. By midday Thursday, the crew had done enough to guarantee that everyone could get to their homes, though in at least one case, that meant opening up a Class 4 road, he said.

By far, the worst damage was on West Street.

"It's gone," he said of the three-quarter mile stretch.

Nearby Bear Hill Road also sustained serious damage, he said.

"It was just too much water for the culverts to take," said Gilderdale. "They weren't plugged, they were what you call 'over-topped.'"

At least five inches of rain fell in Brookfield: Gilderdale noted that the five-inch gauge at the garage was full at 8 p.m. that night.

Another serious washout occurred at Lower Twin Pond Road, where a bridge and a half-mile of road were taken out. Gilderdale said there were other problem spots, including the lower end of East Hill. However, the higher sections, toward Chelsea, were fine.

He has begun the process of assessing damage costs. Last week, Gilderdale estimated that it will cost "a couple hundred thousand for West Street alone," and another $80,000 or so for the lost bridge.

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Royal Butcher

Was Flooded

Last Wednesday's storm caused the owner and employees at Royal Butcher on 12A in Braintree to scramble as torrents of water poured through the roof.

When the roof started leaking in three or four different places, the water was pouring inside the wrapping room and the employees had to move everything. Two or three inches of water flooded the floor between the wrapping room and the deli area and wrapping room. The weight of the water caused the ceiling tiles in the inspector's office to collapse and owner Royal Larocque had to unclog the drain on the roof.

"I've had problems with that roof since I bought the building five years ago," Larocque told the Herald Friday, July 13.

Larocque had a tarp fastened over the area and was hoping for the best.

"This rain just came so fast, there was no stopping it!" he said.