Raging river floods Vermont’s capital
ANDOVER, Vt. – A storm that dumped up to two months of rain in two days in Vermont and other parts of the Northeast brought more flooding Tuesday to communities marooned by water, including the state capital, where officials kept watch on a dam just upstream.
There were signs of hope in some areas with floodwaters beginning to recede, and officials began assessing the damage and the scope of the cleanup ahead.
The flooding has already caused tens of millions of dollars in damage, officials said, with more to come: If water pours over the dam on the Winooski River that flows through Montpelier, it could surge through downtown blocks where the floods were already waist-high.
City officials said Tuesday afternoon they had not seen any significant changes in the water levels at the dam, but would continue to monitor it.
“Floodwaters continue to rise in some places, like our capital city, and have surpassed the levels seen during Tropical Storm Irene,” Vermont Gov. Phil Scott said. Irene killed six people in Vermont in August 2011, washing homes off their foundations and damaging or destroying more than 200 bridges and 500 miles of highway.
More rain was forecast for Thursday and Friday.
“We are not out of the woods,” Scott said. “This is nowhere near over.” He tweeted that the roads around his house were impassable Tuesday morning, so he had to hike through the woods to reach the state’s emergency response center.
Montpelier Police said just before noon that water had risen to within a foot of the top of the dam, and that every foot of water that goes over the spillway would double the flow into the city. But city officials later said they hadn’t seen any significant changes in the water levels since then. They said they would continue to monitor it through the night.
One woman was swept away in New York. There have been no reports of injuries or deaths related to the flooding in Vermont, where swift-water rescue teams aided by National
Guard helicopter crews have done more than 100 rescues, Vermont Emergency Management said Tuesday.
That included an “extremely high-risk rescue” by a visiting New Hampshire team, of a person who decided to drive around a barricade on a road, said Mike Cannon of Vermont Urban Search and Rescue. “The car was washed off the roadway almost into the river,” he said, urging drivers to pay attention to road closures.
Dozens of roads and highways were closed, and flash flood warnings and advisories were in effect for much of the state, from the Massachusetts line to Canada.
Downtown Montpelier, a city of 8,000, was swamped between the Capitol and the Winooski River. Montpelier Town Manager Bill Fraser warned that the Wrightsville Dam several miles to the north could exceed capacity for the first time.
“There would be a large amount of water coming into Montpelier which would drastically add to the existing flood damage,” he said, adding that there are very few evacuation options remaining.
Rescue crews were positioned in Montpelier, where dispatch, police and fire operations were relocated to a water treatment plant after heavy flooding at City Hall and the police and fire departments. Also, the radio towers they use for emergency calls are not functional, Police Chief Eric Nordenson said.
Bryan Pfeiffer, a biologist who has lived in the Montpelier area for four decades, canoed around the downtown area on Tuesday to check out the damage and was appalled by what he saw.
“It’s heartbreaking to see my city flooded like this,” said Pfeiffer, whose home is on higher ground. The basement of every building – including the one where he works – and the lower levels of most were inundated by water that reached near the tops of the parking meters.
Shelters were set up at churches, town halls and the Barre Municipal Auditorium, where delivering food to the more than 200 people taking refuge there was a challenge. “We’re trying to find paths to get supplies in to them,” said John Montes, American Red Cross of Northern New England regional disaster officer.