As we reported earlier, Vermont officials were on the ground as floodwaters rose on Monday. Tuesday afternoon, as a clearer picture emerged of flooding impacts across the state, Governor Phil Scott and administration officials provided an update on flood damage across the state.
Governor Phil Scott said Tuesday afternoon that waters have been receding across the state and teams are beginning to assess damages.
“Seeing homes and businesses surrounded by water once again has been heartbreaking,” reflected Scott. “I feel for those who are just getting back on their feet after this summer’s flooding and are now dealing with water in their homes and businesses again. This storm also highlights the importance of the work we began after this summer’s flooding. We simply cannot rebuild the same way in the exact same places as we have. Because as we’ve said events like this will become more frequent, which is why the resiliency mitigation work will be so important.”
Field crews report that some rivers are still at flood stage. Most have extremely strong currents and are carrying debris and pollutants. There have been no reports of deaths or injuries directly related to the flooding. Monday and overnight swift water teams completed 12 rescues, three people from a home and nine from vehicles caught in floodwaters.
Public Safety Commissioner Jennifer Morrison said they are determining if the state will qualify for public infrastructure repair assistance.
“The damage reports will be used to aggregate and quantify the damages to residences and businesses to determine if we may be eligible for any federal assistance in the wake of this event,” explained Morrison. “At this time, we do not know if any communities or the state as a whole will qualify for federal assistance, but we want to make sure that we accurately tally up the damages.”
Agency of Commerce and Community Development Secretary Lindsay Kurrle said they are reaching out to municipalities to determine what type of damage has occurred.
“We’re hearing that in many places like in Lamoille County and in Montpelier basements are once again flooded,” Kurrle said. “But the damage has not risen to the levels seen during the July event. That said, in areas like Waterbury, the Okemo Valley and the Mad River Valley the impacts of the high-water mark of yesterday’s flooding appear to be great. We know businesses that were impacted in July are again faced with cleaning up from yet another flooding event and this time doing it while temperatures drop and more winter weather-like temperatures return.”
Agency of Education Secretary Heather Bouchey noted that 120 schools closed early Monday to get children home before roads flooded or were washed out.
“Six districts are closed in full today and that’s a total of 54 schools,” said Bouchey. “Many other schools reported a delayed opening today and that’s because they wanted time to assess conditions this morning. The closures were largely due to needing to find alternative bussing routes given road conditions as affected by the rain event. To our knowledge, no one is anticipating closures beyond today.”
Amtrak has resumed service in Vermont after no rail damage was reported.
