Hurricane Kyle makes for wet, messy weekend

Several people braved the rain and drizzle yesterday to take their sailboats out on the Charles River. (Justine Hunt/Globe Staff)

Hurricane Kyle swept into the Bay State with less fury than expected yesterday, but still caused some damage. Light wind gusts and steady rain in the morning gave way to mostly gray skies and occasional showers in the afternoon.

The most extensive damage in the Boston area occurred yesterday morning in Quincy when the roof collapsed at an automotive repair shop, while there was a smattering of flooding along the south coast, Cape Cod, and the islands.

The Category 1 hurricane just clipped the Bay State, leaving much of the storm's heaviest rains and winds over the Atlantic Ocean, as a weakened Kyle pushed northward to the Canadian coastline.

But Kyle arrived on the heels of another storm, creating three days of rain that collectively soaked many parts of Eastern Massachusetts with 3 to 6 inches of precipitation.

"New England got dumped on," said William Babcock, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Taunton. "Whether it came from Kyle or the other storm, we were wet."

In Quincy, emergency crews erected yellow caution tape and signs that read "THIS BUILDING IS UNSAFE!" after a roof caved in a Midas Auto Service garage on Mayor Thomas McGrath Highway. Inside the garage beneath a car elevated on lifts, equipment was strewn about in puddles of water. One rectangular portion of the steel roof was hanging down, exposing the cloudy sky above.

A worker blamed the collapse on the rain.

"Mother Nature," grumbled supervisor Matt Dineen, 45, of Plymouth, as he stood inside a room adjacent to the soaked garage. "Fortunately we were closed, and nobody was here to get hurt."

Dineen said the lifts, doors, and some other equipment would have to be replaced, along with the roof. He was unsure how much that would cost or when the garage would reopen.

A number of traffic accidents in Boston, on Route 128, and across the region were blamed on the soggy conditions.

In Boston about 11 a.m., a 2003 Jeep Liberty, traveling eastbound on Storrow Drive, overturned as it approached the tunnel in the Back Bay, said Trooper Thomas Murphy. No one was injured, but traffic was backed up for a while. Murphy said he believed rain was probably a factor in the crash.

One of the hardest hit areas over the weekend was Fall River and New Bedford, where the rain began creating problems Saturday afternoon. Several streets flooded in both cities, trapping vehicles and forcing manhole covers in Fall River to pop off, according to the weather service.

In nearby Wareham, a 60-unit mobile home park flooded with 2 1/2 feet of water Saturday night after a water pump failed, pushing one mobile home off its foundation. The local fire department and state highway crews brought in portable pumps and used them until yesterday morning, said Gene Crocker, a deputy fire chief.

"It's not the first time we've been there for that reason," Crocker said.

And in Somerset, a swollen brook flooded nearby streets with 2 feet of water while several business owners stacked sandbags to protect their property, the weather service reported.

By yesterday, rainfall in that region, like much of Eastern Massachusetts, tapered off as Kyle headed north.

"I guess we lucked out with that storm," said John Viveiros, a New Bedford district fire chief.

The National Weather Service yesterday was predicting drier weather for today, with some sunshine in the afternoon.

Globe correspondent Andrew Keegan contributed to this report.