CNN
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Heavy rains that flooded the Northeast turned streets into rivers, forced evacuations and prompted officials in Vermont’s capital, Montpelier, to close its downtown area.
The catastrophic flooding threatening Vermont has drawn comparisons to Hurricane Irene in 2011, which left entire communities submerged and killed at least 40 people across the US. More than 3 million people were under flood alerts on Tuesday.
Montpelier issued an emergency order closing its downtown area until noon Tuesday, due to flooding. The city manager said a “potentially dangerous situation” was facing the capital.
“Wrightsville Dam only has 6 feet of storage capacity left. If the water exceeds capacity, the first spillway will release water into the North Branch River,” city manager William Fraser said in a Facebook post. “This has never happened since the dam was built so there is no precedent for potential damage. There is more water coming into Montpelier that will further add to the existing flood damage. ”
With water in downtown Montpelier running from knee to waist, residents stranded in their homes and businesses and roads closed, Fraser told CNN the situation looks worse than it has. flood in 2011.
Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine are under a lower risk of more rain than Monday, but the threat of flooding remains. Officials are working to address damage and immediate needs in Vermont and New York, which suffered severe flooding on Monday. Flooding has left at least one person dead in New York’s Orange County.
The situation in Vermont highlights the potential for catastrophic flooding not seen in this part of the country since 2011,” the National Weather Service said.
CNN
Roads are flooded in Montpelier, Vermont.
“We haven’t seen rainfall like this since Irene, and in some places, it’s even more than that,” said Vermont Gov. Phil Scott on Monday. Vermont remains under a state of emergency, after flooding forced several rescues and evacuations on Monday.
Two areas of the state, Weston and South Londonderry, were inaccessible due to flooding, and search and rescue teams were working to regain access and conduct welfare checks on Monday, Urban Search coordinator and Rescue team of the state Mike Cannon told reporters.
Betsy Hart called 911 when floodwaters suddenly rose Monday in the basement of her Chester property in Windsor County.
“The water rose quickly after being pretty good for most of the morning,” Hart told CNN’s Miguel Marquez. “Suddenly home.”
Hart said he has never experienced flooding like what he saw on Monday. “It’s too close for comfort,” he said.
“With Hurricane Irene, the water was flowing like this but it never reached the house,” he said, standing on a street near his home as water rushed nearby.
Many rivers across Vermont are rising amid the downpour, with some cresting higher than levels reached during Hurricane Irene. The Winooski River in Montpelier rose nearly 14 feet Monday and passed major flood stage as water continued to rise, threatening more flooding.
Nearly a dozen different areas across Vermont, from the Connecticut River in the south to the Missisquoi River in the north, are expected to see moderate or major flooding before rivers begin to overflow on Tuesday .
Vermont’s Ball Mountain Dam and Townshend Dam are expected to overflow their spillways early Tuesday morning and “release unprecedented amounts of water,” the US Army Corps of Engineers warned Monday night. Warning of “severe flooding,” the agency urged residents in threatened low-lying areas in nearby communities in Vermont and New Hampshire to evacuate.
In New York, where six counties are under a state of emergency, a 35-year-old woman died after being swept away by floodwaters as she tried to evacuate her home in Orange County on Sunday. The flooding caused “quick tens of millions of dollars in damage,” county Executive Steve Neuhaus said Monday.
Some areas of New York were hammered with more than 8 inches of rain in a 24-hour period.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul said the state will likely reach a threshold of $37 million in statewide damages and become eligible to receive funding from FEMA.
“You can see highways, roads and bridges that are still impassable, houses that have been destroyed. We have people without power and like we talked about earlier, a woman actually lost her life, so it’s still tricky in most regions,” Hochul said.
Seth Harrison/The Journal News/USA Today Network
Main Street in Highland Falls, New York, seen on Monday.
Seven-day rainfall totals for much of the Northeast are now at 300-500% of normal levels, the Weather Prediction Center said.
Widespread rainfall of 2 to 4 inches fell across the Northeast from eastern Pennsylvania and northern New Jersey to Vermont and New Hampshire. Isolated rainfall totals of more than half a foot were seen in several states.
In Vermont, the storms pounded Mount Holly Heights with a whopping 8.66 inches of rain and Tyson with 8.40 inches.
Meanwhile, Stormville, New York, received 8.61 inches while West Point — where drivers had to swim out of their cars Sunday — got 8.12 inches.
Rainfall in West Point totaled more than 7.5 inches in a six-hour period Sunday afternoon, according to preliminary data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. That’s a 1-in-1,000-year rainfall event for the area, according to a CNN analysis of historical NOAA rainfall frequency data.
Elsewhere, South Kent, Connecticut, got 6.80 inches, and West Lawn, Pennsylvania got 6.69 inches.
Hasan Jamali/AP
A man carries items through flooding from a home in Bridgewater, Vermont, on Monday.
Vermont State Rep. Kelly Pajala said she woke up Monday morning to flooded front steps of her Londonderry apartment. He and his son packed up their two cats and evacuated to higher ground.
“For people who were here during Irene, it seems like the same experience,” he said. Hurricane Irene brought devastating flooding to the state in 2011, causing major damage to infrastructure.
Floodwaters could be seen flowing between homes in Chester, where some structures were visibly destroyed and trucks were wheel-deep in water.
Don Hancock, who was covered in water from head to toe, told CNN that he had only lived in his Chester home for less than a year and watched the floodwaters enter the basement and garage of his new home. the house
“I’m a firefighter in New York. I’ve been there many times to help people, but I’ve never lived this side of it,” Hancock said.
Now, he is just waiting for his neighbor’s water to recede. “When the water recedes, we clean it every day and move on. What can we do?” Hancock said.
Windham and Windsor counties were the hardest hit by the flooding, according to Cannon, from the state’s Urban Search and Rescue Program.
Officials made 50 rescues across Vermont, including using boats to help people trapped in their homes or in cars swept away by the fast-moving water.
The state of California is also deploying search and rescue personnel to the city to aid emergency response efforts as Vermont deals with flooding, according to a Monday tweet from the California governor’s office.
Crews from Michigan, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Connecticut are also on their way to help.
