SCITUATE - Their ’97 Chrysler Concorde, their family photographs, their Christmas presents – all of their belongings lost in the surge of seawater that swept up Jericho Road and into their first-floor apartment early Monday morning.
But worst of all for Robert Ali and his girlfriend Carmen Tirado: Their home is gone.
And on Day 3 living on cots in the Scituate High School cafeteria, they are almost 3 miles from their jobs in the town center, with no idea where they’ll go next and beginning to feel desperate.
“I had a nice, neat, pretty home,” said Ali, 50. “But it’s gone, just ruined.”
At 3:30 a.m. Monday, Ali waded waist-deep into ice-cold water and climbed into a front-end loader commandeered by the fire department. Tirado, who is 4 feet, 11 inches tall, was hoisted onto the shoulders of a firefighter.
They’re grateful to the rescuers, but now they are worried about their future and waiting to meet with counselors who can guide them to resources for help.
“I want to act like it was a nightmare, and I’ll wake up, but it’s not,” said Tirado, 50. “I want to settle down and go back to my job.”
She works at the Dunkin’ Donuts on Front Street, and Ali works at the Village Market.
“I don’t want to spend New Year’s Eve here,” she said, her voice cracking and her eyes welling up.
Ali and Tirado are among a half dozen people who spent two nights at the shelter, set up by Scituate firefighters and now run by the American Red Cross of Eastern Massachusetts.
And they are among nearly 100 people who fled their homes as a fast-moving tidal surge crested over beaches and the sea wall from the lighthouse and up to Egypt Beach.
Scituate was one of the hardest-hit towns on the coast. Floodwaters gushed into electrical outlets and sparked two house fires on 7th Avenue. The waves toppled massive concrete slabs of the sea wall near Turner Road.
Wednesday, U.S. Rep.-elect William Keating toured the damaged neighborhoods, and this afternoon at 3, U.S. Sen. Scott Brown is expected to visit the area.
The question is whether these legislators can obtain money to help towns and residents repair the damage.
Along Oceanside Drive and in the Sand Hills neighborhood Wednesday, backhoes and front-end loaders scraped at rocks strewn about roadsides.
The air smelled of diesel exhaust as Carl Bellu used a much smaller tool – a hand shovel – to scoop up rocks and clear drains near his brick house, which is now uninhabitable.
His driveway and yard still under water, Bellu said he lost everything on the first floor – all his appliances and furniture.
“The window blew out on the first floor, and water just poured in,” he said, as he stood outside in his Patriots jacket, his brown leather boots soaked.
Behind Bellu the charred remains of the two houses that burned down stuck out of the water.
Neighbors have begun collecting clothing and have opened a bank account at Hingham Federal Credit Union for cash donations to assist Paul Trayers and Maureen Kelly, who escaped one of the houses with their two daughters.
The storm didn’t hit Hull quite as hard, but the scene on Atlantic Avenue in Hull on Wednesday almost mirrored Scituate.
In Tim Feeney’s front yard, his white Subaru wagon and silver Saab sedan sat sunk in the sand, casualties of the storm. Feeney spent the day clearing debris – pieces of his neighbors’ fencing and decks – that had washed up on his property.
A boarding house on Park Avenue was also flooded, sending at least two of its residents to the shelter in Scituate.
The basement apartment that Christina Kiriakos, 58, rented was no bulwark to the floodwater.
“That was some cold water. It made you catch your breath,” Kiriakos said, sitting at a cafeteria table in Scituate. “There’s nothing worse than to lose everything you own in minutes.”
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