By William Tauro
Many streets and bridges in and around Somerville flooded during Monday morning’s thunder storms that caused traffic delays across the city.
The Somerville Police Department garage parking lot that’s located on Somerville Avenue at the rear of the public safety building was completely flooded and disabled use of the lot for most of the morning until the rains were receding.
Also flooded during the storm was the Somerville Police training and roll call area that’s located in the public safety building that was just actually remodeled during Police Chief Tom Pasquarello’s’ tenure as chief
Police officers were even seen trying to battle the heavy rains as it was happening by deploying dozens of sandbags to try to contain the flooding and rains from entering the building.
Photos of the Somerville Police Department by William Tauro
Photos below taken at Thorndike Street Somerville by Rosalee Zammuto
So when they expanded the the Assembly Square Mall paving over the River’s edge watershed, where did they think this unabsorbed water would go? We all know runoff rushes to it’s lowest point taking trash and contaminants with it. Surely they knew they were creating catch basins all around Somerville. Offering up rain barrels at $60 a pop, although a step in the right direction, is not a solution. Do we have any studies on how developers attempted to solve this problem in the development process? http://www.ehow.com/how_6505227_calculate-surface-runoff.html
I’m curious. Does this new development use rain barrels?