Vermont man evacuates neighbours during flooding, weeks after witnessing a driver get swept away

Weeks after Jason Pilbin witnessed a driver get swept away by floodwaters, his northeastern Vermont community was ravaged again by flooding from heavy rains.

Pilbin went outside with a flashlight and headlamp around 2:30 a.m. Tuesday to help some neighbors evacuate and then collected their vital medications about 20 minutes before their house broke in half. Then he woke up another neighbor to help her to leave her home, as well.

Nearly three weeks ago, he watched helplessly as a man drowned after getting caught while driving through floodwaters from Hurricane Beryl. “Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to save him, but I was able to save these” people, Pilbin said. “I guess that makes up for some of it. It’s been rough.”

Thunderstorms and torrential rain brought another wave of violent floods early Tuesday that caved in and washed away roads, crushed vehicles, pushed homes off their foundations and led to dramatic boat rescues in northeastern Vermont. Some areas got six to more than eight inches (15 to more than 20 centimetres) of rain.

More rain was forecast for central and northern Vermont on Wednesday with the possibility of flash flooding. A National Weather Service flood watch was in effect from noon until the end of the day.

Mark Bosma, a spokesperson for the Vermont Emergency Management Agency, said swift water rescue teams in boats conducted approximately two dozen rescues in the dark in the hardest-hit areas late Monday and early Tuesday. There were no immediate reports of serious injuries or deaths for this round of flooding.

The Lyndonville Fire Department staffed its station with its swift water rescue team around 2:30 a.m. and started rescues around 3 a.m., said Chief Jeff Carrow.

The fresh flooding yielded similar scenes of catastrophe as the flooding weeks earlier in which two people died, but on a smaller scale. Cars and trucks were smashed and covered in mud, several homes were destroyed and pushed downstream, utility poles and power lines were knocked down, and asphalt roads yielded to cliffs in spots where roadbeds were carved away.

Gov. Phil Scott visited some of the affected areas Tuesday. He posted online that while it feels “demoralizing” to see the damage, “we can’t give up. Now more then ever, I encourage Vermonters who weren’t impacted to find ways to help, because no act is too small. We will get through this together.”

Police issued a “shelter in place” advisory Tuesday for St. Johnsbury, a town of about 6,000 people. Residents were asked to conserve water as the town worked to assess damage to the water treatment plant.

At least five inches (12.7 centimetres) of rain fell farther north in area of Morgan, which is near the Canada border.

In St. Johnsbury, Vanessa Allen said she knew there was a possibility of rain, but wasn’t counting on the excessive amount.

“This is devastating and was completely unexpected,” she said. “I had no idea this was coming.”

Her home was situated between two road washouts, so she was unable to leave. The roads were pockmarked and covered in debris. Nearby, she said, a house was off its foundation and blocking a road.

“It looks apocalyptic,” she said. “We’re trapped. We can’t go anywhere.”

The state experienced major flooding earlier in July from the tail end of Hurricane Beryl. The flooding destroyed roads and bridges and inundated farms. It came exactly a year after a previous bout of severe flooding hit Vermont and several other states.

Vermont has experienced four flooding events in the last year, due to a combination of climate change and the state’s mountainous geography, said Peter Banacos, science and operations officer with the weather service. Greater rainfall have made the state and its steep terrain more susceptible to flooding, he said.

The state’s soil has also been more frequently saturated, and that increases the possibility of flooding, Bancos said.

Vermont’s history of heavily manipulating its rivers and streams also plays a role in increased flooding, said Julie Moore, secretary of the state Agency of Natural Resources. Increased flooding is “a reflection of having reached our limits of being able to truly manage rivers and hold them in place,” she continued.

Roads, bridges, culverts and wastewater facilities are all especially vulnerable, Moore said. The state is in the midst of a multidecade effort to “replace them or refurbish them with our current and future climate in mind,” Moore said.

Vermont is also working to establish statewide floodplain standards.

“The last storm was a wake-up call,” Deryck Colburn said of the flooding earlier this month. “I thought I would never see anything like that again. I don’t think that holds a candle to this. Not even close.”

“There’s a lot of broken hearts,” he added.

Sharp reported from Portland, Maine. McCormack reported from Concord, N.H. Reporters Patrick Whittle in Maine and Julie Walker in New York also contributed to this story.