【1982 Archives】

UPDATE: March 3982 Archives 2018, 9:24 a.m. EST: In Boston, the Friday night high tide fell short of what was feared. The water level reached 13.83 feet just before midnight, with a storm surge of 2.9 feet, the National Weather Service said. On Nantucket, the storm surge was higher, at 3.3 feet. This fell well short of setting a record. The total storm tide in Nantucket was 6.69 feet, with a surge of 3.3 feet.

As a powerful nor'easter slams the Atlantic Coast, flooding records in Massachusetts set just two months ago by another storm could fall by late Saturday, and images and videos of the storm's rapid intensification are already rolling across social media.

While the storm is lashing a long stretch of the East Coast, from near Washington, D.C. all the way up to Maine, the most severe flooding is expected along the Massachusetts coast, including Boston, which was pounded by the "bomb cyclone" in early January.

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With heavy winds bringing a storm surge of two to five feet to the area, as well as water levels approaching and even eclipsing 15 feet, flooding records set by that January storm could be shattered over the weekend. It's possible that Boston will see its all-time highest water level on record by the time the storm ends late Saturday.

Street flooding was already being reported in multiple coastal communities, with water rescues underway in Quincy, just to the southeast of Boston.

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At high tide on Friday morning, the water in Boston Harbor reached 14.36 feet, which was the third-highest water level on record. And the worst of this storm is yet to come. 

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Due to long-term sea level rise, storms like this one have a higher likelihood of producing major coastal flooding and exceeding past records, because the storm surge and high waves are coming on top of a higher baseline. It's similar to a basketball court with a slowly rising floor, which would enable players to sink more slam dunks over time.

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Plenty of other locations across the East Coast coast were also being slammed with high winds, heavy rain, and high waters. Massachusetts locations like Revere and Scituate are already experiencing severe flooding with the storm expected to spin over the area through the weekend.

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This is a developing story...

Additional reporting by Andrew Freedman