Flash Flooding Rips Up Streets in the Heights

It may not have seemed like much, but the July 10 storm that brought flash flooding to much of Boston, Cambridge and Somerville, also did some damage in Arlington, requiring rescue both of a driver on Mystic Valley Parkway and some firearms in the armory and leaving a sinkhole and buckled pavement in its wake.

Dan Warren, the director of the Department of Public Work's Highway Department was helping to repair Appleton Street in the Heights on Sunday after the storm left a large sinkhole. the street had just been repaved last year.

"We are hoping to get the whole thing done by Wedneday," said Warren.

As of now, the hole is filled in with dirt, but the repaving has to wait until after a company has come to inspect the pipe that runs beneath it. "We need to make sure the pipe is not damaged before we fill it in," Warren said.

Meanwhile, a few streets over, up Park Ave, another newly paved road, the pavement had buckled and was surrounded by barrels. Work on that had not begun as of Sunday morning, but was expected to be complete by week's ends, said Warren.

Yesterday also saw a rescue on Mystic Valley Parkway. "A woman drove in a high water and her car stalled and she had to be rescued," said Arlington Police Captain Robert Bongiorno. "But nothing as dramatic as what happened elsewhere, which is a good thing."

There was also some leaking in police armory. "Some water came in and we had to call our contractor," Bongiorno said of the building, which is currently undergoing some construction. Nothing was damaged and all the weapons were removed, Bongiorno said.