Salem was one of the cities on Massachusetts' North Shore that got hammered by Saturday's storm as it brought heavy winds and concerning flooding to the region.
“It was outrageous. It was really scary," Betsy Broughton, of Salem, said. "We’ve never seen waves like that, we’ve never seen force like that.”
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Residents captured cell phone video of huge waves crashing into the sea wall in their Salem Willows neighborhood, causing a section of it to cave in.
“We’ve had about a 30-foot section of the wall compromised on Beach Ave on the sea wall,” Salem Department of Public Works director Raymond Jodoin said.
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“It was throwing rocks bigger than basketballs 30 feet down the street,” Salem resident Chris White said.
People’s basements were filled with up to eight feet of water, and Salem Willows was turned into an island for a few hours.
“No furnace, no water heater, no electricity. Everything in there is gone. All our personal possessions, you know it's your worst nightmare," Dorothy McDonald, of Salem, said.
“Makes for a long day, makes for a long night, but nobody got hurt,” Salem resident Chris White said.
“It was just over my waist,” he added of the water.
“This is the hardest hit area of the city right now," Jodoin said.
“Blizzard of 78 was not even like this,” McDonald said.
City contractors and the Department of Public Works worked to stabilize the sea wall ahead of another 11-foot-high tide at 1 p.m. Sunday, as firefighters helped pump out the basements of some 30-40 homes that flooded across the city.
Residents with more than six inches of water were able to call the fire department for a pump-out.
“Now that that wall is gone, we’re even more vulnerable for the next storm and it's winter we're going to have at least a couple more nor'easters that come through here,” McDonald said.
“I think everybody would agree that this is probably the worst storm we’ve had,” Broughton said.
Salem was just one of several North Shore communities that was hit hard by the storm.
Severe flooding shut down roads in Gloucester. Waves came crashing over the seawall in Lynn, covering the pedestrian esplanade and shutting down Lynn Shore Drive.
In Revere, Mills Avenue was completely submerged before high tide. Further North in Hampton, New Hampshire, downed trees damaged homes on North Shore Road. And concrete sea walls were dismantled on North Beach.
People came from all over to get a look at the damage.
“I had to get up early this morning to come out and see it. I love crazy weather, they’re very big. I saw them coming in the dark but yeah they’re fierce,” said Stoneham resident Billy Dalton.
