Volunteers, mainly from Peabody fire department, sandbagged a block’s worth of downtown stores Saturday afternoon after an unrelenting thunderstorm dropped nearly nine inches of rain and sent water into as many as a dozen businesses there.
Meanwhile, in Marion, low levels of dangerous microcystin toxins from blue-green algae in Marion Reservoir were detected late Friday in Marion drinking water, which still is deemed safe but is being monitored closely.
At midday Saturday in Peabody, floodwater still had not receded on S. Olive St. and S. Maple St., and water continued vigorously bubbling up from manhole covers as sandbaggers protected stores against renewed flooding from an additional inch or more of rain forecast for Saturday night and Sunday.
(Read more: HILLSBORO Star-Journal)