Some residents returned to their homes to survey the damage caused by the floods
MONTPELIER (Vermont), July 14 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Crews in Vermont are assessing the damage after a storm dumped up to two months of rain on the state in a matter of days, triggering dangerous flash floods that submerged homes.
The state’s governor said there had been “historic and catastrophic” flooding.
In the capital city, Montpelier, crews are beginning to clear debris and inspect buildings.
The picture is similar elsewhere in the state, such as in the town of Ludlow, where the scale of the damage is only starting to become clear as the floodwater recedes.
A freight track on the Green Mountain Railroad that runs through the town was left dangling in the sky after the floods carved a deep gorge underneath it.
A spokesperson for the Vermont Rail System said that operations had been “temporarily suspended” due to “a washout”.
Vermont’s commissioner of public safety, Jennifer Morrison, said more than 200 people have been rescued and over 100 evacuations had been performed. She called the situation “an absolute crisis” that could take years – potentially even a decade – to repair.
An emergency order was lifted in the city even as some streets remained underwater after the Winooski River burst its banks.
But Governor Phil Scott urged caution over the coming days.
“We expect more rain later this week which will have nowhere to go in the over-saturated ground,” he said. “We’re not out of the woods – this is nowhere near over.”
He added that the deluge in some parts of the state had surpassed that seen during Tropical Storm Irene in 2011, which killed six people in Vermont.
The National Weather Service forecasts more rain for Friday in Vermont, but no more torrential downpours.
Flood watches remain in effect for parts of New York, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire and Connecticut.
In New York state, which has also seen some of the worst flooding in years, a woman named by authorities as Pamela Nugent, 43, died in Orange County after she was swept away while trying to flee her home with her dog. — NNN-AGENCIES
