Northeast Kingdom sifts through flood damage, braces for more thunderstorms

Engulfed by heavy rains just two nights ago , towns in the Northeast Kingdom looked to the sky on Wednesday morning, fearing the storms that, according to the National Weather Service , were expected to hit the state that afternoon and evening.

“Every time it rains now, everyone is cringing,” said TammyLee Morin, the town clerk for Morgan, which got more than 6 inches of rain from Monday night into Tuesday morning.

Thunderstorms blowing east from Ontario and central New York were expected to bring “the potential for heavy rain” to most of Vermont, according to Jessica Neiles, a meteorologist at the Burlington branch of the weather service, with the main hours of concern stretching from 2 to 9 p.m.

Which areas would be the hardest-hit was difficult to predict, according to Neiles, but “the models were indicating that areas east of the [Green Mountains] have potential for heavier rain.”

That means that towns in the Kingdom, which absorbed 3 to more than 8 inches of rain less than two days earlier, might be pummeled again.

“The whole state is in this warm and moist environment, so we’re all pretty primed,” said Neiles.

The Kingdom has hardly had time to contend with the wreckage from these latest floods.

At a press conference on Wednesday in Berlin, state Public Safety Commissioner Jennifer Morrison said that a “very preliminary” report estimated that “50 or more homes were destroyed or took on major damage” during the Monday night storm. That number might well rise, because “many of the hardest hit areas are still inaccessible,” according to Morrison.

The state had already received 105 reports of residential damage and six reports of business damage related to the latest flooding, as of Wednesday morning, Morrison said.

Gov. Phil Scott called the storm “a surprise to us in some respects.”

“We…didn’t expect this one, to this magnitude, this much volume, would hover over the St Johnsbury area,” Scott said at the Berlin press conference.

The cover of darkness made evacuation work difficult. Morrison thanked the volunteer search and rescue teams that “answered the call in the middle of the night.”

“We were able to mobilize 10 swiftwater teams,” she said, including one from New Hampshire. “In a matter of hours, 50 personnel responded and made 12 rescues and 15 evacuations.”

The infrastructure damage in the Kingdom was extensive, according to Transportation Secretary Joe Flynn. At the press conference, he listed six state roads, three bridges, and two rail lines compromised by the latest storm.

“The Connecticut River Line, which only reopened last week from the earlier July storm, is now closed again from the St. Johnsbury rail yard, north,” Flynn said.

Julie Moore, secretary of the Agency of Natural Resources, said that a lightning strike on St. Johnsbury’s water treatment plant “destroyed a controller that managed part of the water operation system,” while flooding damaged a pump station and sewer main.

In Lyndonville, several wells “were again inundated by flood waters,” according to Moore, though there was “sufficient water from the unaffected well to serve residents in the interim.”

In Morgan, Morin said she had to backpack to her office in the town center Wednesday morning, walking around a washout on Toad Pond Road, and then hitching a ride with her assistant clerk.

“We have a 15-foot hole that continues down and up the road,” Morin said.

Morin estimated that there are 43 parcels on the dead-end road that shoots off from Morgan Center, many parts of which were “completely washed out and impassable.” Exactly how many people were cut off was still unclear, but Morin said there were many more roads that connect to Toad Pond Road, including the one where her son lives.

“They won’t be getting out for a few days,” she said.

Morin said road crews had been hard at work from early Tuesday morning to late that night repairing damage, but she wondered whether it would all be undone by more rain.

At the press conference, Scott echoed the same sentiment. He said he had called last December’s flooding “a gut punch” and the floods earlier this month “a kick in the teeth.”

For the road crews and utility workers, amongst others, to “see all the progress they’ve made…being washed away again, it probably feels much worse than a punch, or a kick. It’s simply demoralizing,” Scott said.

It would not take much to cause flooding again in the Kingdom on Wednesday, according to the weather service. The latest flash flood guidance was at 1.5 inches of rain in 3 hours in areas such as St. Johnsbury, a “really low figure,” according to Neiles.

“If they go over an inch in an hour, we’re going to be paying close attention,” said Neiles.

Morin said that, in Morgan, at least, the latest storm was “a hundred percent worse than two weeks ago” and “the worst it’s ever been.” The idea that more rain Wednesday night could bring further damage was “a little scary,” she said.

Once again, Scott expressed a similar mood to Morin’s in his comments.

“I think I get more apprehensive every storm … With already saturated soils and already damaged infrastructure, this just adds insult to injury,” Scott said.

He continued: “An inch or two of rain in a short period of time could be catastrophic.”

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