What does a river rise that starts upstream mean for this town?
Water that rises in the city moves down the Salisbury Plain River into this town. The timing depends on the rain, the ground and the channel, so the water can reach a house here after the city has already started its clean-up.
The houses nearest the river take the water first, and the lower rooms and the cellar are the places the water stays longest. The record of the water line is the first piece of evidence the crew needs.
How does the river affect the drying?
River water saturates the ground around the house, and the cellar and crawl space keep taking water for days after the river has fallen. The drying is checked against that pattern rather than the first look at the floor.
Silt from the river settles into the corners and under the cabinets, and it is cleared by hand and vacuum before the drying equipment is set.
What should a West Bridgewater homeowner do after a rise?
Keep the photographs of the high-water mark, the list of what was in the water and the times the water rose and fell. Keep the crew's readings in the same file.
Ask the insurer in writing whether river water is covered, because many standard policies exclude flood water from rivers and flood cover is often separate.
Which towns sit closest to West Bridgewater?
West Bridgewater is about 6.4 km from the Brockton anchor, on ZIP 02379 in Plymouth County. The three nearest other towns in the service list are East Bridgewater (5.9 km), Bridgewater (6.0 km) and Brockton (6.4 km), and a call about West Bridgewater is passed to whichever crew is free nearest.
The record of a loss in West Bridgewater is most useful when it sits beside the record of the nearest towns, because the same storm can leave a mark in several of them. Keep the photographs and readings from each loss in a single dated folder.
