Soaking Rains Flood Needham

August 8, 2023

Usually, August is a dry month, but the town got a little too much rain, a little too quickly the morning of August 8th. Flooded basements and roadways and power outages resulted, with the Needham Police reporting hundreds of calls.

Chestnut Street was hit hard, with sections of the road being flooded, and 157 Eversource customers spending the day without power due to equipment damage. At the Needham Veterans of Foreign Wars Building on Junction Street, low-lying areas brought water up to the hood-lines of some of the cars parked for the day.

Chestnut Street was one of several roadways inundated with water from severe weather on Tuesday, August 8th..

Vehicles parked at the VFW Building.

The Town Reservoir on Dedham Avenue also faced flooding, causing the closure of the Public Services Administration Building, and lining the roadway with water deep enough for a fish to escape into.

A DPW work crew monitors the receding waters on Dedham Avenue. They spotted and attempted to rescue a fish who had managed to end up on not-so-dry land. Unfortunately, the fish was a bit too adept at swimming in the muddy water and evaded capture.

The Public Services Administration Building was not the only site to close due to flooding. The Town announced that the Pools at Rosemary Lake will be closed until Friday, August 11th, so that the facility may be cleaned after the severe weather caused the lake to overflow.