Flooding in Vermont

Vermont got wet, really really wet. We had about 24 hours of steady rain and the already saturated fields spilled the water into the Winooski River, Otter Creek and numerous other waterways overflowing their banks and flooding homes, farms and businesses. The Winooski was over 14ft above flood stage and our tiny capital city, Montpelier, was mostly under water. Waterbury, which was devastated by TS Irene a few years back got another taste of flood and down south in Ludlow near the Okema ski area the devastation was simply catastrophic.  

As Vermonters do, people immediately pitched in and started the rescue and then the clean up as businesses shoveled mud from their stores, neighbors sheltered neighbors that had lost their homes and even the governor hiked through the woods on the snowmobile trail to get to the emergency center because all the roads around his house were washed out.

Fortunately, unlike with Irene, the Mad River here in the Mad River Valley behaved and the flooding was minor. The road closure map was all red but, now, as I write this, things are improving even as we brace for more rain.

Meanwhile, the heat out west and south is breaking records and there were tornados in Chicago!

Folks, climate change is real!