John Sehl’s crew got to work digging out Edgewood Park as the floodwaters receded.
This week’s Nor’easter caused the West River to burst through the park, making a veritable lake out of the tennis and basketball courts and the parking lot.
“I’ve been in the parks 21 years,” said Sehl (pictured), a foreman for the parks department. “Other than Hurricane Gloria,” he’d never seen such damage before in the park.
By Wednesday morning, the water had receded in the area near Whalley Avenue. So Sehl brought in his crew to begin digging out. He was shoveling mud from the parking lot to be carted out via dump truck. He said cars should be able to park there again on Thursday.
The tennis courts will prove trickier. Wednesday his crew was removing the wet leaves. Next they’ll remove the mud. “We’re trying to figure out how to do that without damaging the surface.”
The Edgewood Avenue end of the park remained a lake, where the entire flatlands became one big pond during the storm. The waters had receded from the roadway along the pond by Thursday afternoon, and the soccer field was visible again. But it may be weeks before the field will be ready for play, according to Sehl — or even for Sehl to reline it. “We’ve got to let it dry out,” he said.