"We weren't able to save everything;" cleanup continues after Leominster floods

LEOMINSTER - From books and boxes, to walls and flooring over the weekend Leominster residents spent the day dumping all their personal items that were ruined in the Leominster floods.

"There was sub pump but it couldn't keep up. It had this much water but it couldn't keep up," said Leominster resident, Mark Lambert.

Truck after truck, dumpster after dumpster things are getting hauled away. As soon as one is full, another dumpster gets dropped off turning the Doyle Field parking lot into a major debris collection operation.

"We've gone through six already we are probably expecting another six for today," said the Leominster Director of Public Health, Michelle Powell.

The dumpsters are for storm debris only. Many residents a lot of sentimental value items in the Leominster but they are happy to have this type of access to throw it away

"We are hearing peoples stories. They're coming up and they're in tears. We are hearing their stories about loss of memories. They're really concerned about losing paper work and photos and memories," said Joan Hamlett, a chairperson at the Athol Board of Health.

"Some family mementos and things of that nature, like I said we saved what we could but we weren't able to save everything obviously," said Rich Bagley, a resident of Leominster.

Chris Pierce says his basement got severely flooded. This is his second carload of items to be thrown out.

"Anything and everything that was down there. Boxes. I lost my Christmas tree," said Pierce. "This is a godsend because I didn't want to go through several trash cycles to just causally get this off my lawn"

Patty Malcolmson is grateful that the town has put out these dumpsters.

"The stuff we threw outside had a lot of water. This is my second trip. I still have another room to basically tear up. This is amazing, so amazing. How else are you going to get rid of this?" said Patti Malcolmson of Leominster.

"We are trying to get people the help they need and it most important that it's storm debris," Hamlett told WBZ

Collections times for the dumpsters are from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. over the weekend.