A look at damage is discouraging
LAWRENCE -- Almost nothing was moving down the watery streets near the river, not cars, not children on bicycles, not swaggering groups of teenage boys. Long after the sun set, even the rats that State Police saw were scampering along the tops of chain-link fences, high above the water.
So the blue State Police amphibious vehicle, rolling on tank treads, had the streets to itself yesterday as it carried residents to their water-logged homes to retrieve medicine and clothes.
Sonya Rivera had left so quickly when the waters began rising that she forgot the medicine for her high blood pressure and had been without it for a few days. She hitched a ride with State Police to her apartment on Robinson Court, a small street near the Spicket River that was at least 2 feet under water. As small waves lapped at foundations, the vehicle slowly backed into the flooded driveway.
''Look at this," said State Police Sergeant Jim Deyermond, as the vehicle's driver backed up to a side door with its steps covered with water. ''They won't even get their feet wet."
Rivera emerged with a hastily packed garbage bag filled with clothes and her medicine. Even though her third-floor apartment was dry, the trip home made her sad.
''I just want to go back," she said. ''I miss my house." In the meantime, she is staying with a friend.
Deyermond estimated that the State Police vehicle had rescued 50 people, including a diabetic man whose family hadn't heard from him for days. They gave rides to another 25 or so people who become stranded in their cars. And they answered a handful of emergency calls, mainly people who had tried to wade through the water and got hypothermia.
They also returned people to their water-soaked homes to collect essential items.
Sharyl Woods was one of the few who returned home yesterday, even though water had crept three steps up her front porch and her basement was submerged 6 feet. She didn't want to pay for more time in a $100-a-night Andover hotel, and she had been told a city shelter was full.
Woods was devastated by what she saw when she returned to Bennington Street, to a first-floor apartment without electricity, heat, or gas.
She had moved in only a month ago, and many of her belongings were still in the basement. She has no renter's insurance and estimates she will have to spend as much as $4,000 to replace damaged goods, including a television, a computer, and a bedroom set.
As the State Police rolled by, she had one question for Deyermand. Without a working stove, she had bought a portable grill. ''Can I grill something tonight?" she asked.
''Sure," he said. 