‘This is nuts’: Frigid temperatures, wind contribute to tough commute

MILTON, Mass. — It’s a new one for some Milton firefighters. On Tuesday morning, they performed a water rescue -- off an MBTA PCC trolley.

That train, heading to Ashmont on the Mattapan spur, suddenly became inundated with floodwaters from the nearby Neponset River.

“There’s a dam just upriver and ice formations on that dam caused the water to back up and spill the banks,” said Milton Fire Chief Chris Madden. “We found a trolley trapped in some water, probably two, three, four feet of water in some spaces.”

Using rubber rafts, firefighters rescued seven from the train. None required medical attention. MBTA workers spent the next several hours breaking up ice near that dam to prevent a recurrence.

Those rescues took place in some of the most bitterly cold temperatures of the season. Boston bottomed out between 15 and 20 degrees, but the wind -- gusting to near 40 miles per hour at times -- dragged down the perceived temperature to levels below zero.

No flooding on the Green Line Tuesday morning -- but lots of agonizing waits for the next train.

“I saw it felt like one degree,” said Sean Champa, a sophomore at Boston University who grew up in Los Angeles. “I was just like, ‘I’m not looking forward to this morning.’”

Commuters at North Station probably felt the same way. Keolis, which runs the commuter rail lines, warned of delays and cancellations as a result of weather-related equipment shortages. By noon, those issues seemed to have been resolved, with all trains running on time.

Mike O’Brien, like many, is looking forward to spring. That’s when his job as a Duckboat tour guide starts up again.

“I’m done with this,” he said. “This is the coldest it’s been in, I would say, three years.”

O’Brien made that observation while trying to make his way down Beverly Street, near North Station -- a task made exceedingly more difficult because of the wind.

“Here’s a fact,” he said. “Boston is the windiest metropolitan city in America.”

That is a fact, despite Chicago’s ‘Windy City’ moniker.

“Chicago, it’s the (windbag) politicians,” O’Brien said. “In Boston, we’re real. We got the real wind going on here. This is nuts... right in my face.”

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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