PLAINFIELD, Vt. (AP) — Second person killed in Vermont floods The remnants of Hurricane Beryl, officials said Thursday.
Police Chief Jack Harris said 73-year-old John Rice died Thursday morning while driving through flooded streets in Lyndonville. Floodwater swept vehicles off the road and into a hayfield submerged in 10 feet (3.05 meters) of water.
Lt. Charles Wing of the Vermont State Police said Rice ignored warnings from bystanders to turn around. Rice's body was recovered hours after the floodwaters receded.
Late Wednesday, another man, Dylan Kempton, 33, was riding an all-terrain vehicle in Peacham when the vehicle was hit by floodwaters, Vermont State Police said in a statement. Rush away. His body was found Thursday morning.
The aftermath of Hurricane Beryl brought heavy rain to Vermont, washing away most of its apartment buildings, destroying bridges and severing towns, devastating a state that is still recovering. catastrophic flood One year ago to present.
Officials said rapids rescue teams rescued more than 100 people during the heaviest rains, which began Wednesday and continued into Thursday. In Plainfield, residents of a six-unit apartment building had just minutes to evacuate before water destroyed them, the town's emergency management director said.
On Thursday, stunned residents came to assess the damage to a string of small towns along the Winooski River's hilly corridor, connected mostly by U.S. Highway 2. closure. Shelters opened in several communities.
“There's dirt everywhere,” said Art Edelstein, who assessed the damage to the home he's owned in Plainfield for 50 years. “In my opinion, it's catastrophic. I've never seen anything like this.
Marlon Verasamy of the National Weather Service in Burlington said the flooding brought more than 6 inches (15 centimeters) of rain to parts of Vermont, the same area that suffered damage on July 10, 2023. The largest amount. By late Thursday afternoon, rivers had crested at nearly all locations.
Associated Press reporter Jennifer King reports that the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl, which devastated the northeastern United States, has caused flooding in Vermont.
“The irony of last year's flooding, which occurred on the one-year anniversary of the flooding that hit so many towns, is not lost on any of us,” Gov. Phil Scott told reporters.
The towns hardest hit by the rains in Berri are east of the capital, Montpellier, which suffered flooding last year but there was no serious damage this week.
In Plainfield, a concrete bridge that collapsed and tumbled downstream may have torn away part of the structure of a five-unit apartment building, Town of Plainfield Emergency Management Director Michael Billingsley said.
He said the occupants of another house were pulled to safety from a window before being swept downstream, while a mobile home floated away, with one family's four pets narrowly escaping.
Hillary Conant said she had to flee her apartment as the creek rose, just as she did a year ago.
“It's like going back to last year,” she said. “The water was rising, so I knew it was time to leave with my dog. It was very traumatic. A neighbor offered a camper. She and her dog Casper took shelter at Goddard College on Thursday , the college opened its dormitories to displaced residents.
Around the corner from her home was a collapsed apartment building. The front still stands, but the rest has been destroyed or lost. “It's otherworldly,” she said. “It's devastating.”
In Little Moretown, the devastation looks worse than a year ago and schools have been damaged again, Town Council Chairman Tom Martin said. Workers hope to install a temporary bridge on Thursday to restore the main road into the town.
“They say we're 'Vermont Strong.' We're going to get through this,” Martin said.
A police car fell 30 feet (9.1 meters) down an embankment in Moncton, south of Burlington, late Wednesday night as an officer tried to avoid utility poles and power lines blocking a road. State police said the trooper was not seriously injured.
Beryl made landfall in Texas as a Category 1 hurricane on Monday, leaving millions without power in the Houston area and is thought to have killed at least nine people in the United States and 11 in the Caribbean. It then moved across the interior of the United States as a post-tropical cyclone, bringing Floods and sometimes tornadoes From the Great Lakes to Canada and northern New England.
Six tornadoes struck Western New York on Wednesday, destroying homes and barns and uprooting trees, the weather service said. Parts of the state received 4 inches or more (10 centimeters or more) of rain, causing water rushes through the street in the village of Lowville.
Flash flooding also closed roads in several northern New Hampshire communities, including Monroe, Dalton, Lancaster and Littleton, where officials said 20 people were temporarily trapped at work at a Walmart store. Personnel are conducting water rescue operations.
Vermont’s disaster resilience efforts appear to be paying off. State Environment Commissioner Jason Batchelder said that except for one dam failure, the flood control dams “did an excellent job” with minimal impact to property or roads.
But as some residents still await federal disaster relief checks from flooding a year ago, the damage remains a bitter pill to swallow.
“It's hard to watch people in the community suffer and to go through something like this again,” said Thom Lauzon, mayor of hard-hit Barre.
Although Vermont is not a coastal state, it has extensive experience with tropical climates. Tropical Storm Irene In 2011, parts of Vermont received 11 inches (28 centimeters) of rain in 24 hours. .
In May, Vermont became first state Enact a law requiring fossil fuel companies to pay a share of losses caused by extreme weather through climate change. Scott, a Republican, allowed the bill to become law without his signature and said he was concerned about the cost of a tough legal battle. But he acknowledged the need.
“Climate change is real,” Scott said Thursday. “I think no matter your politics, we need to confront this and deal with it because we need to build back stronger, safer and smarter.”
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Associated Press writers David Sharp (Maine), Holly Larmer (New Hampshire) and Seth Borenstein (Washington) contributed to this report.
