Maureen Patrick, of Westfield, was in the process of evacuating from her home when flood waters swept her vehicle sideways trapping her in it.
8.28.11 Westfield Photo by Manon L. Mirabelli Maureen Patrick, of Westfield, waits at her vehicle to be rescued by Westfield emergency personnel on Russell Road in front of Tekoa Country Club.WESTFIELD – A Westfield woman had to be rescued from her vehicle Sunday afternoon after it was swept away in a torrent of flood water on Russell Road in front of Tekoa Country Club as Tropical Storm Irene swept through the city.
Maureen Patrick, a Russell Road resident, was in the process of evacuating from her home at the request of emergency personnel during the height of Hurricane Irene’s onslaught when the quickly-rising flood waters swept her vehicle sideways trapping her in it.
“All of a sudden the water was really deep, and I floated away,” she said after Westfield firefighters rescued her and her 2-year-old cat, Ellie. “They said to evacuate, and I was trying to leave.”
Patrick, cold and soaked in rain and flood water, said the water rose quickly and was too high for her to open the door of her vehicle, but she was able to open the window and exit the car that way, bringing Ellie, safe in a pet carrier, with her.
Although she would have been able to walk through the water that at its highest point was about waist-deep, emergency officials told Patrick to wait to be escorted by a firefighter from the hood of the vehicle.
“I was out there about 20 minutes,” she said, while wringing water from her soaked T-shirt.
At one point, police had called for the use of the department’s hover craft, but canceled it after Patrick was able to walk through the water to safety.
Patrick was referred to the North Middle School where an emergency shelter was opened for evacuees.
The flooding of Russell Road in the immediate vicinity of Tekoa Country Club prompted the closing of the road from Lloyd’s Hill Road.
The area of the golf course parallel to Russell Road was completely submerged in water with just the top of a flag visible.
In other parts of the city, police and fire officials vigilantly monitored the height and speed of water as it flowed east down the Westfield River at the Great River Bridge after water topped several dams in the Berkshires and a six-foot wall of water was expected to make its way to the bridge, police said.