Beryl floods Vermont a year after catastrophic rains

PLAINFIELD, Vt. (AP) — A second person has died in Vermont following flooding The remains of Hurricane Beryl, officials said Thursday.

John Rice, 73, died Thursday morning while driving his vehicle through a flooded street in Lyndonville, Police Chief Jack Harris said. The floodwaters swept the vehicle off the road and into a hayfield that was submerged under 10 feet (3.05 meters) of water.

Rice ignored warnings from passersby to turn back, Vermont State Police Lt. Charles Winn said. Rice’s body was found several hours later after the floodwaters receded.

Another man, identified as Dylan Kempton, 33, was driving an all-terrain vehicle Wednesday night when it was swept away by floodwaters in Peacham, Vermont State Police said in a statement. His body was recovered Thursday morning.

The remnants of Hurricane Beryl dumped heavy rains on Vermont, washing away much of an apartment building, destroying bridges and isolating towns, and re-traumatizing a state still recovering from catastrophic floods which struck exactly one year ago.

More than 100 people were rescued by rapid-response teams at the height of the rains, which began Wednesday and continued Thursday, authorities said. In Plainfield, residents of a six-unit apartment building had just minutes to evacuate before floodwaters destroyed it, the city’s emergency management director said.

Stunned residents came out Thursday to survey the damage in a series of small towns along a hilly corridor on the Winooski River, connected largely by U.S. Highway 2. Parts of the thoroughfare were closed, along with dozens of other roads. Shelters were opened in several communities.

“There’s just mud everywhere,” said Art Edelstein, who surveyed the damage at a home he’s owned for 50 years in Plainfield. “It’s a disaster, in my opinion. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

The deluge dropped more than 6 inches of rain in parts of Vermont, and the heaviest rainfall occurred in the same devastated areas on July 10, 2023, said Marlon Verasamy of the National Weather Service in Burlington. Rivers had crested in nearly all locations by Thursday afternoon.

“We are not losing sight of the irony that this flooding occurred on the same day that many cities were hit last year,” Gov. Phil Scott told reporters.

The towns worst hit by Beryl’s rains are east of the capital, Montpelier, which was flooded last year but escaped serious damage this week.

In Plainfield, a concrete bridge that collapsed and fell downstream likely tore off part of a five-unit apartment building, said Michael Billingsley, the city’s emergency management director.

The occupant of another home was pulled out of a window to safety moments before being swept away by the current, and a mobile home floated with four pets belonging to a family who narrowly escaped, he said.

Hilary Conant said she had to flee her apartment when the Grand Ruisseau rose, just as she had done a year earlier.

“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’s very traumatic.” A neighbor offered her a camper. She and her dog, Casper, found shelter Thursday at Goddard College, which has opened dorms to displaced residents.

Around the corner from her house was the building that had collapsed. The facade was still standing, but the rest was destroyed or gone. “It’s supernatural,” she said. “It’s devastating.”

In the small town of Moretown, the damage appears to be worse than it was a year ago, and the school has been damaged again, said Tom Martin, the town council president. Workers hope to install a temporary bridge Thursday to restore the main road access to the town.

“They say we’re ‘Vermont Strong.’ We’re going to get through this,” Martin said.

A police car went down a 30-foot embankment Wednesday night as the officer tried to avoid a utility pole and power lines blocking the road in Monkton, south of Burlington. The officer was not seriously injured, state police said.

Beryl, which has caused at least nine deaths in the United States and 11 in the Caribbean, made landfall in Texas on Monday as a Category 1 hurricane and knocked out power to millions in the Houston area. It then moved across the interior of the United States as a post-tropical cyclone, causing flooding and flooding. floods and sometimes tornadoes from the Great Lakes to Canada and northern New England.

Six tornadoes struck western New York state Wednesday, damaging homes and barns and uprooting trees, the weather service said. Some areas of the state received 4 inches (10 centimeters) or more of rain, causing water rushes into the streets in the village of Lowville.

Flash flooding also closed roads in several northern New Hampshire communities, including Monroe, Dalton, Lancaster and Littleton, where authorities said 20 people were temporarily stranded in a Walmart store and crews performed water rescues.

Resilience efforts appear to have paid off in Vermont. Flood control dams are “working phenomenally,” short of a dam failure, with minimal impact to property or roads, said Jason Batchelder, the state’s environmental commissioner.

But the damage, which came as some residents still await federal disaster aid checks from flooding a year ago, was still a bitter pill to swallow.

“It’s hard to see people in your community suffer and go through this again,” said Thom Lauzon, the mayor of Barre, a hard-hit city.

Although Vermont is not a coastal state, it does have experience with tropical climates. Tropical Storm Irene In 2011, the storm dumped 11 inches of rain on parts of Vermont in 24 hours. It killed six people in the state, swept homes off their foundations and damaged or destroyed more than 200 bridges and 500 miles of highways.

In May, Vermont became the first state to pass a law requiring fossil fuel companies to pay part of the damages caused by extreme weather by climate change. Scott, a Republican, allowed the bill to pass without his signature, saying he was concerned about the costs of an exhausting legal battle. But he acknowledged the need for the legislation.

“Climate change is real,” Scott said Thursday. “I think we all have to confront it, regardless of our political leaning, because we have to rebuild our country stronger, safer and smarter.”

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Associated Press writers David Sharp in Maine, Holly Ramer in New Hampshire and Seth Borenstein in Washington contributed to this report.