Vermont’s governor said Wednesday that the latest storm to the hit the state has undone much of the cleanup and recovery work the state has done since its last major bout of flooding only weeks ago, and he called on residents to “stick together” amid reports that more bad weather is on its way.
Thunderstorms brought another round of heavy flooding Tuesday, which caved in and washed away roads, crushed vehicles, pushed homes off their foundations and required at least two dozen boat rescues in northeastern Vermont.
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Some areas got more than 8 inches of rain, which was more than some places had ever gotten in a single day.
More downpours were expected Wednesday, with flash-flooding possible in some already inundated areas, Jennifer Morrison, the commissioner of the Vermont Department of Public Safety, said at a news conference in Berlin, near the state capital, Montpelier. A National Weather Service flood watch was in effect for central and northern Vermont from noon until midnight.
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“This time, it’s especially bad after workers spent the past three weeks working furiously to recover from the last flooding," Gov. Phil Scott said at the news conference. “It feels much worse than a punch or a kick. It’s simply demoralizing. We have to stick together and fight back against the feeling of defeat.”
This week's storms have caused destruction, albeit on a smaller scale, like the flooding the state endured in early July that killed two people. As of Wednesday, there were no reported deaths caused by the latest storms, but cars and trucks were smashed and covered in mud, several homes were destroyed and pushed downstream, utility poles and power lines were knocked down, and asphalt roads were washed away.
Weeks after Jason Pilbin watched a driver get swept away by floodwaters, his northeastern Vermont town of Lyndon was ravaged again. He went outside with a flashlight and headlamp around 2:30 a.m. Tuesday to help some neighbors evacuate and then collected their vital medications about 20 minutes before their house broke in half.
After that, he woke up another neighbor to help her to leave her home.
Nearly three weeks ago, Pilbin watched helplessly as a man drowned after getting caught while driving through flooding caused by the remnants of Hurricane Beryl. “Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to save him, but I was able to save these” people, he said. “I guess that makes up for some of it. It’s been rough.”
Mark Bosma, a spokesperson for the Vermont Emergency Management Agency, said that swift water rescue teams conducted approximately two dozen boat rescues in the hardest-hit areas overnight Monday into Tuesday. There have been no reports of serious injuries or deaths during this round of flooding.
The governor visited some of the affected areas Tuesday. He posted online that although it feels “demoralizing” to see the damage, “we can’t give up. Now more then ever, I encourage Vermonters who weren't impacted to find ways to help, because no act is too small. We will get through this together.”
In May, Vermont became the first state to enact a law requiring fossil fuel companies to pay a share of the damage caused by extreme weather fanned by climate change. But officials have acknowledged that collecting any money will depend on litigation against the much-better-resourced oil industry.
Although climate change has its impacts, special calculations are needed to determine exactly how much global warming is to blame, if at all, for any single extreme weather event.
“The flooding in Lyndonville is just highlighting that climate change is here and the damage is ongoing and oil companies have so far not been required to pay for any of the damage that their product has caused and that needs to shift,” state Sen. Anne Watson said Wednesday, referring to the village of Lyndonville, just south of Lyndon. “The financial burden is increasingly unbearable by Vermonters.”
In St. Johnsbury, Vanessa Allen said she knew rain was possible, but she wasn’t expecting the deluge.
“This is devastating and was completely unexpected,” she said.
Her home was situated between two road washouts, so she was unable to leave. The roads were pockmarked and covered in debris. Nearby, she said, a house had been moved off its foundation and was blocking a road.
“It looks apocalyptic," she said. “We’re trapped. We can’t go anywhere.”
The state experienced major flooding earlier in July caused by what was left of Hurricane Beryl. The flooding destroyed roads and bridges and inundated farms, and it came exactly a year after a previous bout of severe flooding hit Vermont and several other states.
Vermont has experienced four flooding events in the last year, and a combination of climate change and the state’s mountainous geography are to blame, said Peter Banacos, science and operations officer with the weather service. Greater rainfall has made the state and its steep terrain more susceptible to flooding, he said.
The state’s soil is also getting saturated more frequently, which increases the possibility of flooding, Bancos said.
Vermont’s history of heavily manipulating its rivers and streams also plays a role in increased flooding, said Julie Moore, secretary of the state Agency of Natural Resources. The increase is “a reflection of having reached our limits of being able to truly manage rivers and hold them in place,” she continued.
Roads, bridges, culverts and wastewater facilities are all especially vulnerable The state is in the midst of a multi-decade effort to “replace them or refurbish them with our current and future climate in mind,” Moore said.
Vermont is also working to establish statewide floodplain standards.
“The last storm was a wake-up call,” Lyndonville resident Deryck Colburn said of the flooding earlier this month. “I thought I would never see anything like that again. I don’t think that holds a candle to this. Not even close.”
“There’s a lot of broken hearts,” he added.
