Sunday, January 3, 2010

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Coastal towns battling floods, beach erosion

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LYNN, Mass. -- It's been double trouble for communities along the shore. Not only are they dealing with the snow and powerful winds, but also flooding from high tide.

Flooding made waterways out of roads in Scituate, while homes in Hull had flooded basements.

Waves closed down Hull Shore Drive, Nantasket Avenue and Moreland Avenue in Hull after waves as high as twelve feet splashed over the seawall.

Several towns along the coast reported flooding, beach erosion and waves crashing over seawalls, all results of strong winds combined with unusually high tides.

"Scituate...It's part of living down here, I guess. It comes and it goes. Comes in with the tide, depending on what the weather is," said Kathy Fogarty, a Scituate resident.

High winds kicked up waves in other coastal towns such as Boston, Gloucester, Hingham, Revere, and Saugus.

"It was going over the sea wall today. Tomorrow's supposed to be even worse, so we're going to go down at noontime tomorrow and check it out...the whole thing is part of winter here," said Laura Labonte, a Lynn resident.

The weekend snow storm is expected to blanket the state. By the end of the weekend, predictions call for six to ten inches of snow in some places.

Winds are expected to get up to 50 miles per hour Saturday night.

Authorities are advising people to take caution on the roads as visibility could become a problem.

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