Vermont Inundated as 1-in-1,000-Year Rainfall Event Destroys Homes, Prompts Rescues

Since Monday night, northeast Vermont has been inundated with heavy rain and flash flooding that washed out roads, damaged buildings and left residents stranded, reported Reuters.

Nearly eight inches of rain fell in only six hours in St. Johnsbury — considered a one in a thousand year event, CNN reported.

“This is devastating and was completely unexpected. I had no idea this was coming,” said one of the town’s residents Vanessa Allen, as reported by The Associated Press. “It’s just all unbelievable how bad the roads are. We’re trapped. We can’t go anywhere.”

According to the National Weather Service, 8.41 inches fell in Vermont, among the highest totals for a calendar day in the state’s history.

“It’s too early to determine the extent of damage, a lot of areas are still underwater,” said Mark Boma, spokesperson for Vermont Emergency Management, as Reuters reported.

Lyndonville and St. Johnsbury, located near state capital Montpelier, got the brunt of the flooding. Vermont Emergency Management said about two dozen rescues had been executed in the area by 10 swift-water rescue teams.

On Tuesday morning, the 7,000 residents of St. Johnsbury were ordered to shelter in place as images on local news and social media showed downed trees, damaged roads and homes that had been ripped from their foundations by floodwaters.

Vermont has been hit by more severe storms in the last few years, like the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl less than a month ago, which killed two people.

Deryck Colburn, a resident of Lyndonville, said he was awakened by a neighbor and heard the same sound of rushing water he had heard only weeks before, as reported by The Associated Press.

“I went down the road to her house, and there was no road. There was just a river,” Colburn said.

Peter Banacos, a weather service operations officer, said there had been four flooding events in Vermont in the past year, caused by the mountainous terrain of the state combined with climate change. Banacos said increased rainfall and more frequently saturated soil have made it more susceptible to flooding.

Scientists say extreme weather has become more frequent and intense as the human-driven climate crisis continues to wreak havoc across the planet.

“The last storm was a wake-up call,” Colburn said, referring to the flooding earlier in July, as The Associated Press reported. “I thought I would never see anything like that again. I don’t think that holds a candle to this. Not even close.”