ALSTEAD, N.H. (AP) – One year ago today, the world changed for residents of southwestern New Hampshire, when rivers and streams overflowed after two days of unrelenting rain and raging waters washed away roads, bridges, homes and residents.

Today, some scars remain where the earth was gouged down to the bedrock, and residents gather in Alstead, the hardest-hit community, to remember.

“It may look different, but Alstead is emphatically not a different town,” said Selectman Matthew Saxton. “We are a smarter town. We are a closer town. We are a town that has been tested and we found that we’ve got strength we didn’t know we had.”

He said told The Keene Sentinel it is a town that continues to recover. One visible sign are the dump trucks that continue passing through town, often four, five, six at a time.

They carry soil that still is needed to replace what the water took away.

Along Warren Brook and the Cold River, new and repaired houses line the road. Almost 30 families have returned to houses in Alstead, and four more have bought or built new homes around town, according to information gathered by the Alstead Flood Relief Committee.

But in other spots, gutted houses and buildings remain, and there are holes along the river where several homes used to be.

The heavy rains and flooding last October caused tens of millions of dollars of damage throughout southwestern New Hampshire, destroying 36 homes and heavily damaging at least 50 more in about 20 communities. Seven people were killed.

Monday, townspeople were gathering in Alstead to remember.

At 6:57 a.m., the time the lights went out and a culvert gave way, sending a wall of water into the town, church bells will toll to remember residents who died.

They include Sally and Tim Canfield, whose home was destroyed; and William Seale and Spencer Petty, who were found dead in cornfield in neighboring Langdon.

In Unity, Steven Day of Unity and Ashley Gate of Claremont died when they drove off a washed-out bridge and kayaker Thomas Mangieri of Antrim died the raging North Branch River.

Alstead also is sponsoring an exhibit in the Municipal Building and a hayride and caravan will trace the flood’s path from Warren Pond to the Drewsville Bridge.

More repairs are coming, including rebuilding Route 123, the main road that was destroyed, and building a memorial for the victims and the survivors.

“It affected everybody in town,” Saxton said. “Some lost their homes, some lost loved ones. Some lost a piece of their town. But everybody lost something different. … It’s something that we should never forget.”