As city officials began to move back into the police headquarters last week, a second flood struck the building. - Andrew Firestone

Station reopened after $1 million flood damage

By Andrew Firestone

While police headquarters might be back to business as usual, Mayor Joseph Curtatone was blunt about the prospects of the now twice-flooded building.

“I’ll tell you right now, I wish I could knock it down today. And if I could, I would,” he said at a Monday press conference to re-open the building after July 10 floods caused almost $1 million in damages.

The announcement followed another flood last week that brought six inches into the still recovering building. The second flood caused no additional damage. Detectives and administrative personnel had been cleared to resume work on August 9, following harmful air quality and faulty electrical equipment.

Curtatone expressed doubt regarding the capabilities of the building to withstand another 100-year storm typical of the northeast calling the high volume of rain “insurmountable for us, and any community in this region.”

“As a region, state, city and town we need to ask ourselves, do we have an infrastructure with the capacity necessary to take on those storms? I’d submit we do not,” he said.

The flood damaged 24 vehicles in the department’s fleet. The lost fleet, comprised of eight Ford Crown Victoria Interceptors, eight Harley Davidson Motorcycles and eight Ford Taurus, were not covered under the city’s insurance policy and will be replaced at the taxpayers expense in the next month.

~Photo by William Tauro

Despite the loss of the station, the Somerville Police Department were able to operate without interruption due to help from the Everett Police Department, who took their 911 calls, and the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security who loaned them a mobile command center.

“We have not received many complaints at all,” said Acting Chief Michael Cabral. “As a matter of fact, the public wasn’t even aware that our police station was dysfunctional at the time.”

One Somerville resident, Wally Chisholm said he was pleased with the resilience of the department. “I think they’re terrific,” said Chishom. “They just continue to do their job. A flood’s a flood, but they’re still out there.”

While Curtatone said he would do whatever he could to maintain the building, he said little besides sandbags and better preparation would help. An officer investigating the causes of the flood, Lt. Stephen Carrabino, said he was looking into waterproofing the garage door to the rear lot, but the cause was still a mystery. “We’d like to address the problem,” said Carrabino. “We’d like to know why water isn’t clearing the back lot like it used to.”

Curtatone said he would begin the process of designing and raising funds for the new building in the next few months.