Community Corner

Life Along The Connecticut River

Reports of flooding Wednesday turned out to be exaggerated, but they did yield a trickle of interesting local facts

Reports of flooding by the Connecticut River in Middletown through Wednesday and into the night turned out, thankfully, to be somewhat exaggerated.

But in the course of tracking down this story, Middletown Patch got into a conversation with Robert Dobmeier, the city's deputy director of public works (and unofficial Connecticut River monitor). We learned the following things, which we hope you, too, may find interesting:

That flooding is usually the result of snowmelt and/or rain a couple hundred miles to the north between the Green Mountains of Vermont and New Hampshire's White Mountains. The watershed there is huge, and as the water flows into the Connecticut River and gets carried south, it enters a kind of geologic "funnel" that, combined with the volume of water, causes levels to rise. Dobmeier says there's little if any relationship between the river's flooding and local weather.

Find out what's happening in Middletownwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

At an 8-foot flood stage, the first spot to go underwater is a low-lying area along Route 17A in Portland, the Gildersleeve section of town near the fairgrounds.

At 10 to 11 feet, Middletown starts to feel the effects; specifically, the area along River Road near the city's wellfield east of the Rushford center.

Find out what's happening in Middletownwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

At 12 feet, Harbor Park Restaurant's parking lot goes under, a regular occurrence each April, Dobmeier says.

At 13 to 14 feet, the water enters Harbor Park Restaurant -- something Dobmeier says occurs about every second or third year. Palmer Field also starts getting soggy.

At a 15-foot flood stage, areas off East Main Street -- specifically, Maple and Walnut streets, are affected; parking at Palmer Field is for boats only and, at Harbor Park Restaurant, fish is on the menu. Fortunately, that only happens once every three years or so, Dobmeier says.


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