Vermonters pummeled by floods exactly 1 year apart begin another cleanup

PLAINFIELD, Vt. (AP) — Owen Bradley has been listening to the roar of the Great Brook outside his historic brick house in Vermont for nearly 40 years. But the sound changed this week as raging waters inched closer, building to a torrent that tore through the back of the building, tearing off the decks.

“First it was little noises, cracking wood. Eventually it was just monstrous, like a dragon growling. It was just very otherworldly,” he said, describing the crescendo as the cleanup began on Thursday.

Remnants of Hurricane Beryl dumped heavy rain on Vermont, destroying and damaging homes, knocking out bridges, cutting off towns and retraumatizing a state where some people are still awaiting federal assistance checks from the last catastrophic floods that hit a year ago to the day.

More than 100 people were rescued by swift-water teams during the worst of the deluge and at least two people died, officials said.

Dylan Kempton, 33, was riding an all-terrain vehicle late Wednesday when he was swept away by floodwaters in Peacham, Vermont State Police said in a statement. His body was recovered Thursday morning.

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John Rice, 73, died when he drove his vehicle through a flooded street Thursday morning in Lyndonville, police Chief Jack Harris said. The floodwater current swept the vehicle off the road and into a hayfield that was submerged under 10 feet (3 meters) of water.

Rice had ignored bystanders’ warnings to turn around, Lt. Charles Winn of the Vermont State Police said. Rice’s body was recovered several hours later after floodwaters receded.

Stunned residents emerged Thursday to begin the cleanup even as some rivers crested and intermittent rainfall continued. The heaviest damage was in a series of small towns along a hilly corridor on the Winooski River, connected mostly by U.S. Highway 2. Parts of that artery were closed, along with dozens of other roads. Shelters opened in several communities.

The storm dropped more than 6 inches (15 centimeters) of rain on parts of Vermont, and the heaviest rainfall was in the same areas devastated a year ago. Receding floodwaters left damage and lots of mud.

“It’s not lost on any of us the irony of the flood falling on the one-year anniversary to the day when many towns were hit last year,” Gov. Phil Scott said Thursday. “But we’re ready, our response and tools are only stronger as a result of last year, and we will get through this.”

In Plainfield, a concrete bridge that collapsed and tumbled downstream was likely responsible for ripping off part of an apartment building with five units, said Michael Billingsley, the town’s emergency management director.

The occupant of another home was pulled through a window to safety moments before it was swept downstream, and a mobile home floated away with four pets belonging to a family that narrowly escaped, he said.

Hilary Conant said she had to hastily flee her apartment, just as she did a year earlier.

“The water was coming up, so I knew it was time to leave with my dog. It’s very retraumatizing,” she said. A neighbor offered a camper to temporarily house her before she and her dog Casper moved to a dorm room offered by a local college.

Beryl, blamed for at least nine U.S. deaths and 11 in the Caribbean, made landfall nearly 2,000 miles (3,220 kilometers) away in Texas on Monday as a Category 1 hurricane that left millions in the Houston area without power. Then it traveled across the interior U.S. as a post-tropical cyclone that brought flooding and some tornadoes from the Great Lakes to northern New England and Canada.

The storm spawned six tornadoes that hit western New York on Wednesday, damaging homes and barns and uprooting trees, the National Weather Service said. Flash flooding also closed roads in several northern New Hampshire communities, including Monroe, Dalton, Lancaster and Littleton, where officials said 20 people were temporarily stranded at a Walmart and crews made water rescues.

Several officials said they believed the storms in back-to-back years reflected climate change.

A study prepared directly after Hurricane Ian made landfall in 2022 climate change added at least 10% more rain to the powerful storm, compared to a storm with no human-caused climate change.

“Climate change is real,” Scott said Thursday. “I think we all need to come to grips with that regardless of your political persuasion and deal with it, because we need to build back stronger, safer and smarter.”

Even though Vermont is not a coastal state, it has been pummeled before by tropical weather systems. Tropical Storm Irene dumped 11 inches (28 centimeters) of rain on parts of Vermont in 24 hours in 2011. The storm killed six in the state, washed homes off their foundations and damaged or destroyed more than 200 bridges and 500 miles (804 kilometers) of highway.

In May, Vermont became the first state to enact a law requiring fossil fuel companies to pay a share of the damage caused by extreme weather fanned by climate change.

Scott allowed the bill to become law without his signature, saying he was concerned about the costs and outcome of the small state taking on “Big Oil.” But he said he understands something has to be done to address the toll of climate change.

In Plainfield, Bradley’s relatives removed debris and mud from the yard and wet furniture and silt from the porch while neighbors pumped out the basement.

Bradley believes climate change played a role.

“This is what climate change looks like to the day we had a flood one year ago. The same day, a year apart. And I don’t know if you could make that up,” he said.

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Associated Press writers David Sharp in Maine, Holly Ramer in New Hampshire, Seth Borenstein in Washington and Stefanie Dazio in Los Angeles contributed to this report.