Destructive Flooding In Vermont Ongoing From Potent Storm

Winooski River to go into rare, serious major flood stage today
in Essex Junction, Vermont

We've got some serious flooding going on around Vermont and neighboring areas this morning as last night's storm really poured an unexpectedly huge amount of water down on us.

There is quite a bit of flooding going on statewide, but the worst of it seems to be north of Route 4 and from from the east slopes of the Green Mountains through the Champlain Valley into parts of northeastern New York.

By the way, this storm ain't over.  It won't rain much more, but high winds are now a problem. I'll get to that further down in the post.

Since I'm in the heart of this flood zone, I am now incredibly happy we had a very sturdy new culvert installed under the driveway this past summer. The little brook that goes through there went wild last night, but a quick property tour with the dogs this morning revealed no damage.  The culvert and the surrounding rocks held perfectly. There's no water in the basement, either.



Missisquoi River at North Troy also going into major flood stage today.
This will flood houses in East Berkshire. 

Not so for many people around the state.  Reports were obviously still sketchy as of 6:30 this morning,  since this happened overnight when a lot of people were sleeping. But I'm sure a number of houses and other properties are flood damaged this morning.

We do know a lot of roads are closed due to flooding. Vermont rivers like the Winooski and Missisquoi that had been expected to cause minor nuisance flooding today are now going into  major flood mode.

Water from the Missisquoi will go into homes in East Berkshire today, if they haven't already.

For these two rivers, they will probably be at their highest level since 2011's Tropical Storm Irene.

I bet there's damage to buildings along the west slopes of the Green Mountains, especially around Jonesville and Richmond along the Winooski River, which is going into major flood. Most of Route 2 will be under water today from Bolton to Essex Junction.

Road closures are too numerous to count.  My road, Route 36 in St. Albans, is usually busy but strangely quiet this morning. I found out why: Route 36 is closed by flooding around ten miles east of my house.

There was also significant flash flooding overnight in urban areas like Burlington, Winooski and St. Albans, so I'm sure there's at least some wet basements in those towns.

Part of the employee parking lot of Gardener's Supply in Burlington was
flooded when I arrived at work this morning. First time I've seen that.
The parking area for retail customers is high and dry so anybody
who wants to shop today still can.

Street flooding along Williston Road in South Burlington trapped at least one car. Video from WVNY/WFFF showed high water on Riverside Avenue in Burlington, with flooding possibly entering businesses there.  

The rain has tapered off, so the urban street flooding has subsided. 

Nighttime flash flooding is especially dangerous, because motorists don't see high water or missing bridges or washouts until it is too late.  So far, I have not heard of any serious injuries or deaths. Let's keep it that way.

I'm sure we'll have updates on the extent of the damage as we go through the morning.

Rainfall has been something else for sure. Burlington was deluged with 3.3 inches of rain, making it the second wettest October day on record.

The flooding was made worse by a lot of  rain before this storm. Including last night's deluge, Burlington picked up 8.5 inches of rain this October, easily making it the wettest October on record.

Damaging floods can occur at any time in Vermont, but it's somewhat unusual to have a bad one in the late autumn. (That said, the worst flood in Vermont history happened on Nov. 3-4, 1927.)

HIGH WINDS

Aside from the ongoing flooding, high winds will be a problem today. As of 6:30 this morning, about 16,000 utility customers were without electricity.  The winds will blow pretty hard regionwide, but the strongest gusts will be in northern New York and to a slightly lesser extent the east slopes of the Green Mountains.

Those areas are already where the most power outages are.  Watertown, New York was already gusting to 61 mph early this morning with gusts to 56 mph on Burton Island in Lake Champlain.

Winds will taper off later today, which is good news. Also, I'm not seeing any signs of any new big storms in the near future. Just little ones. And a trend towards colder weather, too.