By Tuesday, there was still some rain, a fairly steady rain, but nothing like the deluge we'd had from Friday night to Monday afternoon. And as we shook ourselves off & started to take stock of what we'd been going thru, there were various signs that were pretty much everywhere:

Newton, New Hampshire.

Groveland, Massachusetts.

Amesbury, Massachusetts.

Amesbury, in fact, is further down the Merrimack than Haverhill and was pretty viciously hit by not just flooding from the Merrimack but also the smaller (normally much smaller) Powow River. On Thursday May 18th, a full 3 days after the end of the main part of the storm, downtown Amesbury looked like this:

Note the presence of the National Guard (perhaps the only 3 guys available from Mass, I dunno ...). By this time, we'd all heard or read those words most likely to strike fear in the hearts of Americans: FEMA was on the scene. As of this writing, more than a week after the drying out phase had begun, FEMA was still making up its mind whether the 14,000 damaged homes in Massachusetts alone constituted a federal disaster. (Hmmmmmm ... ) Some schools long the Merrimack River valley have no immediate plans to reopen, especially those in nearby Methuen & Lawrence. I don't have the totals, the numbers, but I do know what I've seen and lived through the last couple of weeks and it's just not good. One person who had been down in the Gulf region post-Katrina described it as "like Katrina, only on a much smaller scale." NH, MA & Maine have requested federal disaster area designations & federal aid, but so far there has been no decision-making that I know of. So we're very much "making do" -- my own situation is better than a lot of people's. The house sustained a fair bit of damage & just about everything in the cellar is ruined. Fortunately there weren't many keepsakes down there & though it won't be easy being without a washing machine, at least, after more than a week, I once again have heat & hot water (though at some cost).

And the sump pump finally stopped running last Saturday night around midnight, a full week after it started running.

Life's an Adventure, you know.

Cheers,

Amanda