Clean up continues as Peabody residents recover from flooding

PEABODY, Mass. — Residents are still trying to dry out after heavy rains flooded the streets in Peabody Sunday morning.

As clean-up efforts began, more rain came down, undoing all the work that homeowners and city workers had put into minimizing the damage from the rainfall.

Rapid flood waters had tore up pieces of asphalt and damaged homes could be seen all over town later in the day.

"It was crazy, I mean, we looked out our window and the entire street, the entire neighborhood was like a river and a lake," said Steve Stone, a resident.

Stone said he's removed from his home anything that got soggy with the rain, but that this time they got lucky since last time his home flooded, he lost two cars.

Even as the waters receded, streets like Mountain Terrace and Granite Road were a mess, keeping public works crews hours of cleaning up to do.

Kelly Bourgeois, whose home is almost always damaged during flash floods, rushed home from church when she saw the intense rains.

"I got around here, took my shoes off, my brand new shoes that I got to wear to church, rolled my pants up to here," said Bourgeois. "I’m having a heart attack wondering what I’m going to get into."

While Bourgeois' home wasn't damaged this time, neighbors were pumping out and sweeping out water from their basements and garages.

"We have a mess, we had a river coming down the driveway, this is the third time," said Howie Freedman, a Peabody resident. "We saved our cars this time. Last time we lost two cars, so we’re good."

Across the city, the clean up and drying up process was much slower for several businesses. Some buildings are still flooded and some cars are still sitting in water.

Peabody, like Lynn, got slammed with about eight inches of rain.

MORE: Intense rainfall paralyzes parts of Lynn for hours

Cox Media Group