- Vermont Governor Phil Scott said it would take several more days to assess the flood damage caused by Hurricane Beryl, but praised Vermonters for their resilience.
- Scott said Vermont is better equipped to handle the impacts of a hurricane after learning lessons from the devastating flooding it experienced a year ago.
- More than six inches of rain fell on parts of the state in just a few hours, destroying homes, collapsing bridges and isolating towns.
Gov. Phil Scott said Friday that a full assessment of flood damage from the remnants of Hurricane Beryl will take several more days, but he said Vermont is well-positioned to recover quickly after enduring heartbreak, federal red tape and massive cleanup efforts from the devastating floods exactly one year ago.
“We can all use what we’ve learned last year to rapidly ramp up our response, and that starts with getting our homes, businesses and communities clean and dry as quickly as possible,” Scott told a news conference in Berlin.
He praised the resilience of Vermonters who are used to making ends meet locally without government assistance, but also urged residents to take the time to report damage and not be afraid to ask for assistance.
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The remnants of Beryl dumped more than six inches of rain on parts of Vermont in just a few hours on Wednesday and Thursday, destroying or damaging homes, destroying bridges, isolating towns and retraumatizing a state where some people are still waiting for aid from the last devastating floods that occurred exactly one year ago.
Two people died in the floodwaters: a motorist from Lyndonville and a man riding in an all-terrain vehicle from Peacham, authorities said.
Shocked residents were busy cleaning up Thursday, with the hardest hit communities in the foothills of the Winooski River and its tributaries in central Vermont and areas in the northern part of the state.
Vermont Department of Transportation Officer Jodie Tanner talks with a colleague at the high-water mark of the Lamoille River along Route 15 after remnants of Hurricane Beryl caused flooding in Cambridge, Vermont, on July 11, 2024. In the background is the Gates Farm Covered Bridge. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
The Vermont Department of Transportation plans to disburse about $30 million in town highway grants by early August to help repair flooded roads, bridges and culverts, with half of that to be disbursed by next week, Transportation Commissioner Joe Flynn said. The state has already reopened all but 18 of the 54 state highways that were closed because of floodwaters or storm debris, Flynn said.
Public Safety Commissioner Jennifer Morrison on Thursday urged people to take advantage of the sunny weather forecast for the next few days to clean up as much as they can and to air soaked rugs and furniture outside to prevent mold growth.
He then addressed Vermonters not directly affected, urging them to volunteer through state programs or “just roll up your sleeves, pick up a shovel and help your neighbors.”
Owen Bradley, who lives near where Great Brook flows into the Winooski River in hard-hit Plainfield and was helped by relatives with the cleanup Thursday, described how raging floodwaters turned into a torrent that swept through the back of his historic brick home.
“It started out as just a small sound, wood cracking, then it became this monstrous sound, like a dragon roaring. It was otherworldly,” Bradley said.
Elsewhere in the city, a concrete bridge collapsed and likely fell downstream, sweeping away parts of five apartment buildings, Plainfield Emergency Management Director Michael Billingslea said.
Homeowner Scott McKee, right, shovels mud from his home while cleaning up debris from Hurricane Beryl on July 11, 2024, in Waterbury, Vermont. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Another resident was able to pull himself to safety from a window just before he was swept downstream, and the trailer home was swept away, along with the family’s four pets who had narrowly escaped.
Similar incidents occurred across Vermont, with about 120 residents rescued by state swift-water rescue teams alone, and many more rescued by local emergency responders, officials said.
Beryl, blamed for at least nine deaths in the United States and 11 in the Caribbean, made landfall in Texas, about 2,000 miles away, on Monday as a Category 1 hurricane, knocking out power to millions in the Houston area. But that wasn’t the end of it: The storm traversed the inland U.S. as a subtropical storm, bringing flooding and tornadoes from the Great Lakes to northern New England and Canada.
The storm spawned seven tornadoes that struck western New York on Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service, and flash flooding caused road closures in several parts of northern New Hampshire and upstate New York.
Vermont is not a coastal state, but it has seen tropical weather before: In 2011, Tropical Storm Irene dumped 11 inches of rain on parts of Vermont in 24 hours, killing six people in the state, sweeping homes off their foundations, and damaging or destroying more than 200 bridges and 500 miles of highway.
Vermont officials said Friday they updated requirements for culverts and bridges after Irene to account for the potential for more dangerous storms due to climate change, and none of the bridges washed away in recent flooding had been rebuilt to the higher standards.
Debris is strewn across a damaged bridge over the Winooski River after flooding caused by remnants of Hurricane Beryl, July 11, 2024, in Plainfield, Vermont. (AP Photo/Dmitry Belyakov)
In May, Vermont became the first state to enact a law requiring fossil fuel companies to pay a share of damages from extreme weather caused by climate change, but officials acknowledged Friday that collecting the money depends on lawsuits against the much better-funded oil industry.
Having surveyed the damage caused by successive floods in Plainfield, Bradley doesn’t think he needs any further persuasion about the effects of global warming.
“Here’s what climate change looks like compared to the day the flood happened a year ago,” he said. “It’s the same day, one year apart.”
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Vermonters should at least be able to help each other, said Lindsay Carle, secretary of the Department of Commerce and Community Development.
She urged business owners who were affected last year but have escaped this time to remember the relief they felt when help arrived and to consider lending a hand now.
“Getting out there, grabbing a shovel, putting on some mud boots and helping people clean up is such an uplifting and encouraging help for all of us,” she said.
