Salem floods damage 145 state vehicles

The cost of Mother Nature’s wrath could be coming out of your pocket. It was a combination of heavy rains in Salem last Thursday and the flooding of a nearby creek that caused the State Motor Pool to look like, well, a pool. State workers started moving cars out of the lot early in the morning, focusing on the newer models first. But the flood waters rose too quickly. About 145 cars were damaged. Of those, 111 were 2004 or older, and two were brand new trucks.