Walking home from school Monday, Wahab Mian found his path blocked by water. Just past Durham Road, the sidewalk of Sprague Street was impassable, and the 13-year-old hesitated.
“I don’t understand how to go right there,” he said matter-of-factly.
Mian, an eighth-grade student at Dedham Middle School, ultimately chose to walk through the water, staying as close as he could to the fence.
After days of rain, a flooded 50-yard stretch of Sprague Street posed difficult – or elemental – questions for pedestrians and drivers alike. Do you go, or not?
“If you see still water, don’t go through it because it is deep,” advised a Parkway Towing employee, as he loaded a black car onto a flatbed on the other side of the mini-lake on Sprague Street, in Dedham’s Manor neighborhood.
“It doesn’t look deep, but it is,” said the man, who would not give his name, but reported that Martin Bates Street and Arcadia Avenue were also having problems. “That’s how the other roads looked too.”
The car stalled after going through the water, said a police officer at the scene.
“I’m not driving through that. I mean, it’s common sense,” said Officer James Goode.
After talking with a Transcript reporter for a minute, Goode said he was getting wet and rolled up his window, before driving away. He looped around a side street to avoid the flood on Sprague.
At least four vehicles were disabled on the street Sunday and Monday, according to police.
Elsewhere around town, sewage was backed up on Creston Avenue and Greenlodge Street Sunday night, two vehicles had to be towed from flooded Lechmere Road Monday, and Wiggin Avenue was also swamped, according to the police log. Eastern Avenue, near the middle and high schools, was closed because of flooding.
The water on Sprague was several feet deep, and the flood extended into the nearby low-lying woods by Twins Enterprises.
Two DPW trucks were parked on either end of the water, as a stream of cars and trucks continued to make their way through the busy thoroughfare.
“They’re sitting on each side. They’re not doing anything. What the hell are they doing here? You tell me,” said Larisa Kogan, whose basement at 447 Sprague St. flooded.
Kogan said she had never seen such a situation in the 20 years she’s lived there. She said called police and the Department of Public Works for help, in vain.
