LYNDON, Vt. – Weeks after Jason Pilbin witnessed a driver being swept away by floodwaters, his northeast Vermont community was once again devastated by floodwaters caused by heavy rains on Tuesday.
Pilbin went out with a flashlight and headlamp around 2:30 a.m. to help some neighbors evacuate and then collected his vital medications about 20 minutes before his house broke in half. So he woke up another neighbor to help her get out of the house too.
Almost three weeks ago, he watched helplessly as a man drowned after being caught while driving in floodwaters from Hurricane Beryl. “Unfortunately I couldn’t save him, but I was able to save these” people, Pilbin said. “I think that makes up for it a little. It has been difficult.
Thunderstorms and torrential rain brought another wave of violent floods Tuesday morning that collapsed and destroyed roads, crushed vehicles, ripped homes from their foundations and led to dramatic boat rescues in northeastern Vermont. Some areas received 15 to more than 20 centimeters of rain.
More rain is forecast for central and northern Vermont on Wednesday, with flash flooding possible.
Mark Bosma, spokesman for the Vermont Emergency Management Agency, said fast boat rescue teams conducted approximately two dozen rescues in the dark in the hardest-hit areas Monday night and Tuesday morning. There were no immediate reports of serious injuries or deaths from this round of flooding.
The Lyndonville Fire Department manned its station with its rapid water rescue team around 2:30 a.m. and began rescues around 3 a.m., Chief Jeff Carrow said.
The new floods produced scenes of catastrophe similar to the floods weeks earlier, in which two people died, but on a smaller scale. Cars and trucks were crushed and covered in mud, several homes were destroyed and pushed downstream, utility poles and power lines were toppled, and asphalt roads gave way to cliffs in places where roadbeds were excavated.
Police issued a “shelter in place” warning Tuesday morning for St. Johnsbury, a town of about 6,000 people. At least 5 inches of rain fell further north in the Morgan area, which is near the Canadian border.
In St. Johnsbury, Vanessa Allen said she knew there was a chance of rain, but didn’t count on it getting too much.
“This is devastating and was completely unexpected,” she said. “I had no idea this was coming.”
Her house was situated between two devastated roads, so she couldn’t leave. The roads were potholed and covered in debris. Nearby, she said, a house was dismantled and blocking a road.
“It feels apocalyptic,” she said. “We are stuck. We can’t go anywhere.”
The state experienced major floods in early July since the end of Hurricane Beryl. The floods destroyed roads and bridges and inundated farms. It happened exactly one year after previous fight of severe flooding hit Vermont and several other states.
Vermont experienced four floods last year, due to a combination of of Climate Change and the state’s mountainous geography, said Peter Banacos, weather service science and operations officer. Increased rainfall has made the state and its steep terrain more susceptible to flooding, he said.
The state’s soil has also become saturated more frequently, which increases the possibility of flooding, Bancos said.
Vermont’s history of heavy-handed manipulation of its rivers and streams also plays a role in increased flooding, said Julie Moore, secretary of the state Natural Resources Agency. The increase in flooding is “a reflection of us having reached our limits of being able to truly manage the rivers and keep them in place,” she continued.
Roads, bridges, culverts and wastewater facilities are especially vulnerable, Moore said. The state is in the midst of a multi-decade effort to “replace or renovate them with our current and future climate in mind,” Moore said.
Vermont is also working to establish floodplain patterns.
“The last storm was a wake-up call,” Deryck Colburn said of the flooding earlier this month. “I thought I would never see anything like this again. I don’t think it compares to that. Not even close.”
“There are a lot of broken hearts,” he added.
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Sharp reported from Portland, Maine. McCormack reported from Concord, New Hampshire. Reporters Patrick Whittle in Maine and Julie Walker in New York also contributed to this story.
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