Huntington family spends a harrowing night stranded at home

HUNTINGTON — Late Wednesday night, David Denton stood on the raised deck of his home with his wife, Deborah, and their 9-year-old granddaughter as a nearby river surrounded their home and approached their front steps. Members of the Huntington Fire Department, positioned on the road, were weighing whether they could safely navigate the floodwaters to perform a rescue, Denton said.

“There was no way they could get to us. The water was just all the way through there,” Denton told VTDigger on Thursday afternoon, gesturing to the area between his home, the garage and the road.

It was safer to keep the Dentons inside their home, which hadn’t yet flooded, David recalled members from the department telling him, so they stayed. The fire department left to perform other rescues, and came back later in the night to check on the Dentons. David stayed awake until 3 a.m., watching as the floodwaters dropped down to his first front step, then came back up again.

When he awoke at 5 a.m., floodwaters had receded. The flood had torn the garage from its foundation, and Deborah’s black SUV lay sideways in a ditch. His backyard looked like a rocky river bank, and several large trees lay downed in the river nearby. But his family was safe, and aside from minimal basement flooding, the house remained dry.

“It was pretty scary,” David said. “My granddaughter, she was crying. We just kept an eye on it and tried to keep her safe.”

Just beyond the Dentons’ home, the road showed evidence of a harrowing night. A culvert had filled with debris, David explained, and as a result, the water took an unusual path, scouring out the pavement and splicing the road. The Dentons didn’t lose power, but utility poles leaned steeply over the road, hanging by their wires.

The area flooded last July, but not as badly, according to David. Now, the river bank is even closer to his home, eroding a hill that contains his septic system. He’s hopeful that their flood insurance will cover the cost of the garage, whose floor is covered in mud, and said the family will consider asking for a buyout.

“I don’t know what to do,” he said. “I looked out the window this morning and just about wanted to cry.”

A short drive away, on Main Road in Huntington, corn stalks lay flattened from flooding, and a hay field was covered in silt from the Huntington River. The crops belong to Tim Taft, an owner of Taft’s Milk and Maple, who estimates that he lost between 15% and 25% of his corn. It’s an expensive and labor-intensive process to restore the fields and the lost crops, and he won’t be able to produce anything else there until next summer, he said.

“It means, without us buying some feed, it’ll be impossible to feed the cows this winter,” he said. They milk 270 Jersey cows, Taft said, and sell the product to Dairy Farmers of America in St. Albans.

Buying feed has become more of a challenge as farmers in the area have become increasingly impacted by flooding, he said.

“I remember the weatherman saying yesterday morning, ‘Rest assured, this won’t be like last year on July 10,’” Taft said. “It’s way worse for us.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: Huntington family spends a harrowing night stranded at home .