Flooded Cranberry Highway Impassable In Spots

Route 6/28 through Wareham, aka The Cranberry Highway, is impassable for all but the highest-profile of vehicles.

Drenching rains are pouring down on the 'Ham, and the area in front of the old 99 is an urban river.

This is the second time this week that the Cran has been too flooded to drive through. Any good rain does it these days.

Note that this is a major evacuation route for Buzzards Bay and Wareham, especially Onset, in the event of a hurricane. You'll want to get ghost early if your evacuation plans include East Wareham,

We'll be back if an update is necessary.

Click the "East Wareham" link at the bottom of the article for the map location of the flooded road.

Archives: 2007 Nor'easter Hits Duxbury Beach

We're transferring our photo archive from one spot to another, and we're unearthing a few pictures that we'l be sharing out over the upcoming weeks.

One theme you will see a few times is "Duxbury Beach, Nor'easter."

We have a pile of pics on this topic, so brace yourselves over the next few weeks.

Hurricane season is actually the calm time on Duxbury Beach, so these storm photos will hopefully keep the storm-lovers happy during the off-season.

My memory is notoriously spotty, but I'm pretty sure that these pictures are from a 2007 nor'easter.

My sister Sheila is on the camera, and these pictures are from Ocean Road North on Duxbury Beach

These pictures ran on Cape Cod TODAY, who used to go off-Cape now and then if a writer maybe had a sister trapped in a beach house during a coastal storm.

It is technically Cape Cod Bay, I suppose. It also is part of why the Irish Riviera is included in this article.

If you'd like a scale of reference, take note of the fence in the lower left hand corner.

Keeping a lawn is a tough business on Duxbury Beach. Every winter, the storms take big chunks of it away, and what's left has been power-soaked in Atlantic salt water.

When I lived there, I had a lawn, a garden and a high-maintenance cobblestone patio to the right of that fence. Re-did it every year. I'm one of the very few people walking around in 2016 with a permanently deformed finger relating to a "cobblestone accident."

We're looking north in this picture, down northern Duxbury Beach towards Green Harbor.

It's almost impossible to see the town line, but it's about where the really large (100-150 yards) break in the seawall is if you're ever taking a walk down there. The break exists because the residents there decided that they were highly-enough elevated, and passed on paying the fee being charged to put up the concrete seawall in the 1950s.

Green Harbor gets a bit more of a curve to their seawall. This results in some spectacular surf-to-seawall crash spraying, as the wave hits the wall and rolls down it. You get some sweet house-high spray.

Duxbury has more of a straight-line frontage to storm winds, and they get the more foundation-shaking direct hits.

It looks worse than it is. The seawall takes most of the shots, and the spray- however impressive it may look- isn't as bad as it gets when the actual waves start coming over the wall. It's why the pay so much to repair the seawalls.

A photographer shooting pictures from this vantage point in the Blizzard of '78 or the Halloween Gale of 1991 would have been killed.

This storm did some damage, though. It tore down decks, flooded the street, smashed through fences, ruined yards and scared witless everyone who had moved into the neighborhood since the last really bad storm.

A lot of people in that neighborhood buy a cottage, renovate it, and then realize a bit too late that the area is Poseidon's punching bag. There's a lot of turnover for a neighborhood that is Heaven-on-Earth for the other 364 days of the year.

Again, this is like a C+ storm. It did damage, but it wasn't ripping houses down.

Beach people have a high bar vis a vis How Scared They Get During Ocean Storms. While this is a bit heavy for it, kids in the neighborhood do risk-taking games with slightly smaller storms.

What they call a "Death Run" involves dropping onto the beach between waves ad running as far down the beach as you can before you have to desperately claw your way back up and over the seawall.

"Death Runs" may have died out with my generation. I go to a lot of beaches during storms, and I never see anyone doing them.

... on purpose, anyhow.

The area behind the house we were shooting from is a meadow. Locals call it "Bradford's," after a family that ran a beach parking lot there. It's the Low Ground of the neighborhood.

You can see the remnants of the last of WWII-era cottages below. That house in the background is no longer standing. Someone was going to build condos there before this storm. I believe that the effort has since been abandoned.

Bradford's, like the rest of the neighborhood, sits between Cape Cod Bay and a rather large marsh. The marsh fills up during really high tides, and it spills over into the neighborhood.

The whole Gurnet Road area of Duxbury Beach becomes an island during storms, and the nearest dry land is over about where Duxbury High School is used to be. At the moment this photo was taken, Duxbury Beach was an island, about a half mile offshore.

It's basically why Duxbury Beach won this contest.

Duxbury Beach, MA

Mattapoisett Hurricane Primer: Inundation And Evacuation

Note the "Mattepoisett" spelling...

Hurricane season is upon us, and we are nearing the peak of it.

Now, we're in Massachusetts, and we haven't been hit dead-on by a hurricane since the 1990s. That means that we don't get them often, and it means that we are long overdue.

They aren't a frequent enough event that you should walk around wringing your hands or anything. However, there are certain things that a wise person might do which can actually eliminate a lot of the hand-wringing.

Ironically, the first step to a peaceful mind is to view some Disaster Porn!

We have two maps for you to look at, and they are specific to your town. One is for Inundation, and the other is for Evacuation. They pertain to a direct-hit hurricane hitting your town at mean high tide.

"Inundation" means "covered in water," although you can call it a Deathflood or a Sea Plague if that gets your people motivated. It refers to which areas in town will be covered with seawater (important distinction, these maps do NOT project freshwater flooding) if you play host to a hurricane.

The map for Inundation (the top one) is color-coded, with light green, dark green, yellow and red. Those colors equate to which areas will get wet in what kind of storm, i.e. Category 1, 2, 3 and 4. Where you see colors changing on the map, that's where the experts think it will require a greater storm to flood that area in seawater.

The map for Evacuation (right) is less complicated. If you look at the Inundation map for a moment and then look at the Evacuation map, the logic will eventually make sense. The red areas of the map essentially say "Those People Have To Leave," and the yellow areas say "You Have To Leave, Too."

See how you compare to your neighboring towns with the complete list of Inundation maps and Evacuation maps.

Remember, storm surge is not the only threat from a hurricane. Things like falling branches, freshwater flooding, lightning, flying debris, slick roads, tornadoes, downed power lines, looters and a thousand other variables can mess you up plenty when the barometer drops heavy.

Mattapoisett's status as a hurricane target depends on a battle between the barrier effect provided by Falmouth and The Islands and the funnel effect that Buzzards Bay has on storm surge being pushed ahead of a big hurricane.

As we say in all of these storm articles we write, Buzzards Bay provides a similar effect on cyclones to what you see happen in Bangladesh. Water goes into the big end and the narrowing of the bay leaves the water with nowhere to go but Forward and Higher.

There is a saying that civilization stops at the waterline, and that we all enter the food chain after that... but not always at the top. Mattapoisett has taken shots from the sea on several occasions, be it shark attack (1930s) or monster storms in 1938, 1944, 1954 and 1991. You can see the post-Bob ruins of Master P in one of these fine videos collected by my main man at West Island Weather.

Aside from the torn-apart-coastline shots you see with every storm, Matty P also offers a unique chance for the ocean to shut down not one but two major highways. Estimates vary, but even a Category 3 storm (granted, which would be among the worst in the state's White Guy history) would run a strong chance of making both Route 6 and Route 195 impassable in the Mattapoisett River area. Aucoot Cove flooding of a high order could also send ocean water across Route 6.

Aside from coves and river mouths, Matta P also gets flooding along her immediate coastline. It's not the place you want to be if a storm hits. As you might imagine, Matty has an extensive area which would merit evacuation in even a moderate hurricane. Places along the Mattapoisett River would be evacuated up to 195 in a minimal hurricane, and a slobberknocker of a storm woud push evacuations due to ocean water flooding miles past 195.

A hurricane in Mattapoisett ain't to be played with. Anyone who lives there, or even anyone who plans to visit, should be aware of which areas are prone to flooding and which areas will need to be evacuated.

We want you alive for monetary reasons, as we live off your site visits. We want you alive for professional pride reasons, i.e. "If they listened to me, they lived." We also want you alive for regular, nice-people reasons. Like the Boy Scouts say, "Be prepared."

Bourne Hurricane Season Primer I: Inundation

                                Run To The Hills...

We got ourselves a look at the current evacuation zone and hurricane inundation maps for Bourne, and the results are quite frightening. The Cape Cod Emergency Traffic Plan isn't exactly comforting, either.

Cape Codders often consider Bourne to be almost inland when compared to a Nantucket or even an Orleans. Heck, we're technically on two bays, we're not even open ocean. Cape Cod itself is our barrier beach, and maybe not that much will happen to us if the barometer drops hard. That is the sort of attitude that gets a man and his family killed in Bourne.

I have personally heard an 80-something year old guy talk about houses washing down the Cape Cod Canal in the 1938 storm, about people drowning in their attics as they tried to claw through the ceiling with their bare hands, about 5 feet of water rushing down Main Street, about old-school fisherman tough guys from the Great Depression getting blown off their feet and hurled down the road, and about power being off for months afterwards.

Bourne has an Achilles Heel, and it is the body of water known as Buzzards Bay. Buzzards Bay is sort of shaped like this ^ symbol, and water funnels up into it. It is a distinct geographical feature that we share with Bangladesh, and it leads to extensive flooding.

Hurricanes have storm surges, which are a wall of water that is pushed ashore ahead of/with the storm. If you were standing with your toes at the edge of the water at high tide and a ten foot storm surge suddenly appeared, you'd be under ten feet of water. Imagine how far that water would reach inland in such a situation, and mix it with 6-12" of rain, river/stream overflow and sewer backups to get an idea of what an Inundation Map represents.

We are just as vulnerable to a big storm now as we were in 1938. We are actually more vulnerable, if you think modern medicine, more accurate forecasting (Boston forecasters have blown mega-storm forecasts in 1978 and as recently as 1991's Halloween Gale and 2010's Hurricane Earl, but they didn't know the 1938 storm was happening until it hit them), and greater transportation capabilities are offset by the fact that 170,000 more people live here now and still only have two roads off of the Cape.

We'll get to all of that in a moment, but first, let me hit you up with some links. They'll help you out with the discussion.

- Hurricane Evacuation Zones

- Hurricane Inundation Map

- Cape Cod Emergency Traffic Plan

CYA, people. We live in dangerous times, and Bourne has been God's punching bag more than once.

We intend to cover Inundation Zones and Evacuation Zones. About halfway throuh the former, we decided that this would be a two-part special. Today is Inundation, tomorrow is Evacuation. If you are a Bourne resident or visitor, this is Disaster Porn right down to your very neighborhood.

I can play with this map all day, and I already have. It tells you what sort of hurricane would flood your neighborhood. They work by Saffir-Simpson scale, a la Category 1, Category 5 and what have you.

While I get the sense that some people would disagree with their findings, few would contend with the level of detail. You can check things not only to your town, and not only to your street, but also to your side of the street.

I had some rookie trouble getting the pics from their site to the Photobucket to here, and I apologize for the blurriness. I also apologize if I cut off the map right before it got to your house, I hate when people do that to me.

You can go to this link yourself and zoom right in on your own home, and I'd recommend doing so. It's always a wise move, getting a feel for the lay of the land around you.

To assess risk in Bourne, we'll go village-by-village.

**Yes, I'm aware that the map has my boyfriend and three Hooters waitresses on it. You get used to it after a while. Sorry girls... he's taken.

Buzzards Bay has 4 borders, and only one of them isn't liquid. Buzzards Bay (water) owns their South, the Canal bisects it, and Buttermilk Bay sits on the North and West. The trouble starts at Cohasset Narrows, out where the Massachusetts Maritime Academy is. They become inundated by a Cat-1, and you might be able to sink a boat by gouging out the bottom of it on the tallest building on Taylor's Point in a bigger storm.

It wouldn't take much of a storm (note: "much of a strorm" = "Category 2 hurricane") to inundate the Belmont Circle rotary at the mainland side of the Bourne Bridge. The rotary Capeside looks a bit better suited for Hell and high water, or at least the latter.

That trouble runs pretty much all from Taylor's Point through Buzzards Bay's Main Street area down to a bit past the Bourne Bridge. A Cat-2 storm would push the flooding over Main Street into the residential neighborhoods, and would inundate the police station, the fire station, and the Veteran's Community Center, which I presume is what they would use as a shelter. A Category 3 would be all-she-wrote for the Armory, which is the last place we could put refugees.

Bournedale, which is all wooded hills, would be untouched, save for the river flooding where the Herring Run meets the Canal. They would most likely lead the Cape in fallen trees and in boulders washing into roads, however. I live along the Bournedale/Sagamore border, on a hill, and that explains the relatively light-hearted tone of the article.

Sagamore and Sagamore Beach are basically Sagamore and North Sagamore. Route 3/6 is generally considered to be the western border. Sagamore Beach benefits mightily from Cape Cod's barrier beach effect, and only the direct shoreline is in danger. That danger would be immense in a bad storm, as there is nothing but sand between Cape Cod Bay and the first houses.

Sagamore would be at the mercy of a storm large enough to overflow the Canal. A storm of Cat-3 would flood into residential neighborhoods, although 6A would be spared up until the 130 intersection. The railroad and the power station would be fish toys in this hypothetical storm. The 3A part of Sagamore would be untouched by the sea.

Scusset Beach is Sandwich, so a Category 3 storm would end Sandwich's presence on the mainland, at least in an above-water sense. A much smaller storm would swallow up all of the revenue-generating parts.

While we're on the topic, I just want it on the Internet somewhere that we should trade south-of-the-Canal Sagamore to Sandwich for Scusset Beach, and I'd throw them a chunk of Bourne Village if they insisted upon it. It makes sense with the maps, with the cops, and with me. It would tie up a lot of loose ends.

Now, this destruction I've served up is bad. However, we have only gone through the mainland, landlubbing part of Bourne. Once you cross the bridges, it gets really dangerous.

Bourne Village is easy to describe. Once the Canal overflows, they are going to lose some houses. Houses on the Cape side of the Canal by the RR bridge would suffer heavily even in a smaller storm. As 1938 showed, the Canal isn't afraid to dine upon a few waterfront homes when the barometer gets low.

Where it gets sketchy is the if/when/where part of water creeping across and blocking Sandwich Road. Sandwich Road would be the Rubicon where a storm might start trapping refugees trying to get between bridges... assuming the bridges are open, as they presently are shut down when winds hit 70 mph.

Monument Beach, Gray Gables, and Mashnee all look to be completely under water in even a Cat-1 storm, with the inundation reaching County Road. These people would have to leave if the storm was coming, and they would, to their benefit, get to the bridges first if they were ready to move quickly when the deal went down

Shore Road looks to be where a regular-bad storm would reach, while worse ones would push past it.

Mashnee shares a problem with other parts of Bourne that we'll discuss in a moment, the problem of already being out in the water before the Inundation calculations start getting calculated.

Cataumet and Pocasset also have large sections of village that are sticking out into Buzzards Bay.

Wing's Neck, Mashnee Neck and Scraggy Neck all become a series of high-ground islands in hurricanes, and those islands are divided by hills in larger storms. Anyone riding out a major storm there is beyond foolish, although I'm sure that some of the hardcore have done it.

If an area like Sagamore Beach gets catastrophic storm damage, someone will eventually get a truck full of water or an ambulance out there soon enough. If the only road to land from where you live is, say, Scraggy Neck Road, they may have to carry your people out on boats or helicopters.

Flooding looks like a sure bet to close Shore Road and Red Brook Harbor Road.

Cape Cod's other towns have similar problems. The entire coast of Cape Cod is subject to inundation. Northern Cape Cod's shoreline is especially bad at Barnstable Harbor and Yarmouth Port, while the sea's push inland against the Nantucket Sound side would move exponentially according to storm intensity.

Route 28 would be inundated from the 28/Main Street merge in Hyannis to South Harwich in a strong storm. 6A gets covered in Sandwich and again in West Barnstable. Route 6 would need a James Bond car from Provincetown to Wellfleet

Just due to the lay of the land and the lack of overflowable rivers, Cape Codders can avoid flooding by moving inland a mile or so. Duxbury or Wareham are far, far more at risk for inland inundation than Cape Cod is. Our greatest danger is the wind, but that's a whole other article.

Again, Cape Codders can generally escape the sea by moving inland, but that's starting to bleed into tomorrow's evacuation article.

Speaking of escape routes....

The South Shore can divided in half. Much of it is protected by Cape Cod, one of America's biggest barrier beaches. This southern South Shore is also a relatively straight coastline, with few Bangladeshian water funnels. From Sagamore Beach to Plymouth Harbor, areas where coastal flooding would reach more than 100 yards inland are few.

At this point, you amazingly have to look to Provincetown for a trend. Imagine that you are a big ocean wind. You are moving from east to west at 125 mph. At a certain latitude/longitude, the first thing in Massachusetts you will hit is Provincetown. Above that latitude, it becomes Duxbury and Hull. Where the wind goes across the water, the storm surge is sure to follow.

Duxbury, Kingston, Marshfield and Scituate are also estuaries, meaning that there is a lot of salt marsh behind the barrier beaches, and salt marshes flood very easily in storms. The end result is all that nor'easter flooding you see on the news. A stretch of coast from Duxbury to Scituate inundates heavily, with houses on Duxbury Beach frequently finding themselves effectively a mile out in the ocean when the marsh floods in even cupcake storms.

The North River is unique in that it would bring coastal flooding as far inland as Hanover and Pembroke. Pembroke is funny because, when you buy a house 15 miles inland, you don't really expect "pumping water from ocean storms out of your basement" to be part of the bargain. However, the South Shore doesn't play fair.

If it makes Hanover residents feel better, a storm bad enough to push water damage to you will probably have blown your house down like the Big Bad Wolf long before.... so, like, no worries. 

The South Coast is the opposite of the sheltered side of the South Shore. They get the surf pushing up from the South Atlantic, and they take the landfall in many cases. Rivers empty there, and all of the land is relatively low-lying. It is where the storm surge smashes into Massachusetts.

A swath of coastline from Mattapoisett to Marion would be soaked several miles inland in a big storm. The Sippican River confluence, the Acushnet River Valley Golf Course (which is just below New Bedfords reservoir) and Tihonet Pond would all get ocean storm water in a Katrina-style storm.

Route 195 would be submerged from about where Tabor Academy is in Marion to the Weweantic River in Wareham. This detour-by-God also occurs in what looks to me like the region that is most at risk during a large storm.

Wareham gets her own paragraph. If the storm gets bad enough, all of Wareham east of Wareham Crossing would be underwater to some extent. Route 25 would be impassable from Wal-Mart to Wareham Crossing. Water could push 3 miles inland, to the cranberry bogs off of Route 25. The entire Cranberry Highway business district would be underwater.

If the storm gets bad enough (Category 3 or higher) and made a direct hit, Wareham would suffer worse than any region of the state. It would take years to recover.

In closing, we just want to remind you that Massachusetts is a dangerous place if a hurricane is coming, Cape Cod and the South Coast are particularly dangerous spots in Massachusetts, and Bourne is a particularly dangerous spot on both the South Coast and Cape Cod.

Residents or even visitors should study those maps, learn them, know them and live them. They should check back now and then, to see if any relevant opinions have changed. This is information you should be fully aware of.

Having your house wrecked by a storm sucks pretty hard, but what sucks worse is getting killed while it happens. We need your site visits, and we care about you... so keep informed.