Flood recovery begins again in Waterbury

In Waterbury, the steady rumble of water pumps, the hiss of hoses clearing away debris, and the slosh of mud against work boots and tires announce that damage has been done.

But the town’s residents tell a different story: as kids in bright rain boots splash through puddles and dogs enjoy their morning walk around the neighborhood, Thursday appears to be just another day in downtown Waterbury.

Even as locals look out over the pond that was Dascomb Rowe Field just twelve hours before, “there’s just a sense of, ‘it is what it is,’” said Waterbury Fire Chief Gary Dillon.

“I can’t tell if that’s good news,” said Peter Plagge, Pastor of Waterbury Congregational Church. “I’m grateful that no one is panicking. But it’s odd to know that we’re so used to this now.”

Plagge opened the church as an emergency shelter for any Waterbury residents who were displaced by the flood or were simply seeking community support. But no one came, he said — “no one even called.”

But that doesn’t mean last night was easy, Plagge said.

The Winooski River peaked at 424.9 feet at 4:30 a.m. , according to the National Weather Service — just inches short from a major-stage flood, and just 2 feet shy of the river’s peak during last July’s floods.

The river ran 5 feet higher than predicted, said Waterbury Municipal Manager Tom Leitz, which left some residents feeling blindsighted. But, he said, it’s nothing Waterbury hasn’t seen before.

“With time, people are getting better at flood proofing their homes, and the town is getting better at responding to floods,” Leitz said. “I think that’s our future, we just have to keep getting better, because the floods aren’t going to stop.”

What set this flood apart from previous ones in December and last July, according to Leitz, is that some roads were entirely washed out. “The road is simply gone” in areas along Gregg Hill and Shaw Mansion roads, he said. But both roads have alternate access routes, he added, which means residents can get out — and emergency crews can get in.

Sections of U.S. Route 2, and Main, Randall, Elm and Union streets were damaged as well, Letiz said. But they have been reopening throughout the day as crews clear water and debris, according to the town’s Facebook page .

Dillon said the roads were the hardest hit out of all of Waterbury’s infrastructure. Several homes have basement and first-floor flooding, he said, but most are not experiencing the same damage as they did last July.

“It is more manageable this year,” Dillon said. “But that doesn’t help the people whose basements are underwater right now. It’s not helpful to say that to them, when they know they have to do this clean up process all over again.”

Waterbury residents told VTDigger that every home woke up to a different amount of damage Thursday morning. Some are working to get water out of their cars, others are pumping multiple feet of water out of their basements, and still others only need to scrub mud off their driveway — “a few feet, a few inches even, can change how families are affected,” Leitz said.

The prevailing spirit is one of exhaustion, as residents pull out their shop vacs for the third time in a year.

“So much for a once-in-a-lifetime, once-in-a-hundred-years flood. I guess this is an annual thing now,” said Geroge Coultas, who moved to Waterbury just three weeks before last July’s floods and assumed he would never have to worry about flooding again.

The town is providing water pumps, dehumidifiers and a vactor truck to residents who need to remove water from their homes. Community Resilience for the Waterbury Area — a volunteer organization more commonly known as CReW — will be distributing the resources and scheduling stops for the vactor truck throughout the day.

“All we can do now is clean up,” said Dillon. “The worst is behind us.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: Flood recovery begins again in Waterbury .