In October 2000, the USGS installed two new streamgaging stations on the Spicket River in Salem, N.H., to assist communities in flood forecasting and warning, and emergency response activities. The 76 square-mile Spicket River drainage extends from Big Island Pond in Derry, N.H., through the urban centers of Salem, N.H., and Methuen and Lawrence, Mass., to the Merrimack River. The Spicket has a history of flooding that has been exacerbated by urbanization of the watershed and floodplain development. Major flooding in October 1996 led to a Presidential disaster declaration for communities along the Spicket River.

Following the flood events of the late 1990s, USGS teamed with the New Hampshire Office of Emergency Management and the NHDES to develop a Hazard Mitigation Grant Program proposal to FEMA for new streamgages and upgrades of existing gages to real-time reporting. This grant was approved and some of the funding was used to install two new streamflow and precipitation gages on the Spicket River; one in North Salem above Arlington Mill Reservoir, and another on the New Hampshire/Massachusetts State line. Funding for continued operation of these stations is being provided by the Town of Salem and the USGS.

Heavy rainfall, on the unusually heavy snowpack this spring, again caused the Spicket River to flood, cresting at near the 25-year flood level on March 24, 2001. However, the Towns were prepared. Evacuations were effected, inventory was relocated, traffic was rerouted, and reservoirs were operated to minimize damages from the flood event. Emergency managers and reservoir operators were kept well informed by following real-time river conditions on the USGS Web site. The gage at the State line will become an official forecasting site by the NWS, Northeast River Forecast Center later this year. Flood forecasting by the NWS will further improve the emergency preparedness and response of the communities along the Spicket River in the future.

 

--Ken Toppin (603) 226-7808 or ktoppin@usgs.gov

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