By Ethan Wilensky-Lanford
The Concord Monitor
ASHLAND, NH — Ashland was worst hit in a storm last night that killed a 7-year- old girl, swept away roads and displaced dozens of people.
The girl was in a sport-utility vehicle with her family at the Ames Brook Campground when the rain hit, said Ashland Deputy Fire Chief Brad Ober. Her father got out of the vehicle, which was carried 1,000 yards downstream by a flash flood. Her mother and a sibling were rescued. Ober said he did not know whether the family lived in the area.
The rainfall was extreme, and it fell on ground saturated by weeks of above-normal precipitation caused by slow-moving, drenching storms.
“They’re very localized, and they’re very intense,” said Butch Roberts, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. “If they don’t move a lot, they’re going to lay it down.”
There were no rainfall meters in Ashland or Holderness, but meteorologists estimated that 5.69 inches fell in three hours at Harper Brook, and 4.5 inches fell at Ames Brook.
The largest recorded rainfall in the region was 3.55 inches in 90 minutes until 8 p.m., at Weirs Beach.
Sections of the Winnipesaukee Railroad tracks between The Weirs and Meredith were compromised by gravel erosion. A 40-foot section of track was hanging 10 feet above the ground, said Laconia Police Capt. Steven Clark.
The boardwalk dropped in the same area, and a separate 150-foot railroad section was badly damaged.
A sewer main was also exposed by erosion along Lakeside Avenue, where the public works department was busy last night. Laconia Deputy Fire Chief Shawn Riley said that he did not think the main had breached.
A family trapped in a car on Weirs Boulevard was rescued by Laconia Fire Chief Ken Erickson, Riley said.
A family of five on Eastman Shore Road in Laconia was evacuated after their home’s foundation was washed away, Riley said.
Petal Pushers, a florist and ice cream shop on Parade Road in Laconia, was struck by lightning as the owner watched, Riley said. A barn burned, but surrounding buildings were saved.
An Ashland firefighter, Kendall Hughes, said he saw a “normally very docile” Ames Brook swell to six times its normal size — “raging whitewater rapids” — in a matter of minutes.
At the Ames Brook Campground, below Dana Hill and the town’s former water supply, a torrential downpour washed out roads and brought trees, stumps and other debris through the campground.
Twenty-nine people were evacuated from the campground, taking temporary shelter in the elementary school cafeteria in Ashland.
Selectmen in that town watched the storm roll in during a meeting in the town hall, above the police station.
“We saw this giant ball of fire, almost,” said Leigh Sharps, chairwoman of the Ashland Board of Selectmen. “It looked like it cracked against the building.”
Alex Ray, owner of the Common Man chain of restaurants, and other local business owners contributed food and shelter.
A section of Route 132 was closed in New Hampton, but it reopened within several hours. At press time, seven roads in that town were closed.
Meredith received 1.3 inches of rain in an hour, Roberts said.
Copyright 2008 ProQuest Information and Learning All Rights Reserved