Emergency responders sprang into action early Tuesday to rescue residents in flooded areas of northeast Vermont after a 1-in-1,000-year rainfall event created a surge of dangerous floodwaters for the second time in a matter of weeks.
Ten swift-water rescue teams completed about two dozen rescues in Caledonia and Essex counties, some of the hardest-hit areas, where flash flood emergencies warning of “catastrophic flooding” were issued and the storm unleashed inches of rainfall in just a few hours.
Nearly 8 inches of rain fell in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, in just 6 hours, an amount considered a 1-in-1,000 year event – one so extreme, it usually only happens once every thousand years in normal conditions. A total of 8.41 inches fell there in what is one of the highest calendar day totals in state history, the National Weather Service in Vermont said.
Extreme rainfall is becoming more common as fossil fuel pollution pushes temperatures higher and bolsters the atmosphere’s ability to store more water vapor. Scientists are very confident that climate change is increasing rainfall rates – how hard the rain is falling – and the amount of rain a storm can produce.
Rescue teams remain in the area Tuesday to respond to potential additional calls for help throughout the day with more rainfall possible this afternoon into the evening, according to Vermont Emergency Management.
Floodwaters have washed out roads and several state road closures are in effect.
A team was heading out to survey the damage, which included “quite a bit” of structural and road damage, National Weather Service meteorologist Seth Kutikoff told the Associated Press.
“We do know, unfortunately, some of these same areas were hit three weeks ago with some serious flash flooding, as well,” he said. “The integrity of some structures were already weakened.”
In Lyndonville, a town about 40 miles (64 kilometers) north of Montpelier, the state capital, Deryck Colburn said he woke up to a neighbor pounding on his door. They live along a brook.
“I went down the road to her house, and there was no road. There was just a river,” he said.
Colburn said he heard the same surge of rushing water he’d heard in flooding earlier in July, along with the unnerving sound of tumbling boulders carried by the water.
The nearby Passumpsic River rose 13 feet in four hours as floodwater surged into it.
This is the third devastating flood event to hit Vermont in just over a year.
More than 100 people were rescued and at least one person died in early July after the remnants of Hurricane Beryl doused the state.
Northeast Vermont and other portions of the state are also still recovering from more extensive flooding just over a year ago. Last year’s flooding caused numerous road and bridge washouts, land and mudslides resulting in significant property damage and loss.
‘This community has been hurt’
The owners of Papa Tirozzi’s Bakery, Pizza and Fish Shack believed they already saw the worst of Mother Nature when their restaurant’s driveway was destroyed from the remnants of Beryl earlier this month.
On Tuesday they learned they were wrong.
“(Our driveway) was annihilated,” Nancy Tirozzi told CNN Tuesday. “But now, it’s 20 times worse.”
Nancy and her husband, Anthony, rushed to their restaurant in St. Johnsbury, about two hours east of Burlington, as soon as they got an emergency weather warning around 4 a.m.
“We had no idea anything like this was gonna happen,” Nancy said, adding the floodwaters were up to 5 feet deep outside the restaurant when they arrived. Once they had receded, the couple turned toward working tirelessly to try to clean up the mess.
“I can’t stop crying,” Nancy said. “It’s bad, it’s really, really, bad. This community has been hurt.”
The property itself was too damaged to repair themselves, so the couple focused their energy on the inside of the building, sweeping out water and mud and ripping out the molding on the floor.
They hope they can clean up enough to reopen in the next few days, but their hurried work might be for nought.
“When you’re not open, you can’t make money,” Nancy said. “But at this point, you can’t get to us. Our street is closed down,” she added.
Nancy’s belief in her tight-knit community is what is pulling her through this moment of despair. That, and the thought of supplying them again soon with food that brings them together.
The Associated Press and CNN’s Robert Shackelford, Amy Simonson and Lauren Rapp contributed to this report.