For some, a getaway
To hear the residents of Poplar Park in Gloucester tell it, the Great Flood of 2006 was an adventure, an annoyance and even, at least for some, a vacation.
The 76-unit housing complex for seniors on fixed incomes was evacuated last Sunday -- Mother's Day -- because it sits just below Babson Reservoir, which was gushing over its spillway and swamping the neighborhood after absorbing all of the rain it could handle.
''I thought it was a nice vacation, to tell you the truth," said Poplar resident Larry Whelan, 66, who received emergency shelter in a $300-a-night, oceanfront hotel room with a sweeping water view.
''It had all the amenities. King-size bed. I'd never been in there before," he said.
Whelan, a former fisherman and confirmed bachelor, was one of about 15 seniors from Poplar Park who were housed at the Best Western Bass Rocks Ocean Inn on Gloucester's scenic backshore. Owner Tracey Muller, a south Florida native well acquainted with storm-related chaos, offered up free rooms when she heard about the evacuations.
''I know what it's like," she said. ''We were just happy we could do something."
Most of Poplar's residents, however, opted to stay with family.
Leona Davis figured she would go to her son's house. What the 77-year-old didn't count on was the Yankee ingenuity she would need to get there. Water submerged Poplar Park's access road Sunday and most vehicles couldn't get in. Her son could get his truck only as far as the entrance, still yards away from Davis's front door.
Legally blind and hooked to oxygen to ease her weak lungs and heart, Davis couldn't make it to the truck, even using her walker. So she called the Gloucester Fire Department. They pulled in, put her on a gurney and were about to wheel her out when they got an emergency call about a person having a stroke. So they lifted Davis off the gurney and took it with them to answer their call. She called the nearby Addison Gilbert Hospital. Sure, they said, her son could borrow a wheelchair to transport her to his truck.
''I took my pills, a lot of medical things and two sets of clothing," Davis said about her harried exit.
The family would end up borrowing the wheelchair twice, because the access road leading to her door at Poplar was still blocked off on Wednesday, when she joined many of her fellow residents in returning after the skies began clearing.
They found the water had not damaged any apartments, but one of its two access roads was off limits because of sinkholes.
Despite fears that the dam would let go and put Poplar Park underwater for weeks, many residents apparently bypassed mementos on their way out the door and grabbed medications instead.
Joanna Francis, 66, who lives next door to Davis, reached for her insulin and left the pictures of her three sons, three grandchildren and one great-grandchild behind. Francis didn't want to leave at all. And she especially didn't want to be a burden to any of her children -- ''I don't like putting people out," she said -- should the evacuation become long term, but she finally relented.
''My son is a police officer in Essex and he said, 'Mom, I am not going to let you drown,' " Francis said. ''I didn't want my kids upset if I insisted on staying here."
So she went. Francis stayed with her youngest son the first night and woke up the next morning under the watchful eyes of her 2-year-old granddaughter.
''It was thrilling," she confessed.
Then Francis stayed two nights with a nephew and four great-nephews and -nieces. It was a lot of fun, she said, but she was glad to finally be home again. Still, the Flood of 2006 will be great fodder for summertime stoop-sitting all around Poplar Park.
''We'll probably be sitting around talking about this for a while," she said.
Kay Lazar can be reached at klazar@globe.com 