(Marshfield) A second person has died in Vermont in flooding caused by the remnants of the hurricane Beryl.
John Rice, 73, died while driving his vehicle through a flooded street Thursday morning in Lyndonville, Police Chief Jack Harris said. The rushing floodwaters carried the vehicle off the road and into a hayfield submerged under 10 feet of water.
Mr. Rice had ignored warnings from passersby to turn back, said Vermont State Police Lt. Charles Winn. The body was found several hours later after the floodwaters receded.
Another man, identified as Dylan Kempton, 33, was riding an all-terrain vehicle Wednesday night when he was swept away by floodwaters in Peacham, Vermont State Police said in a statement. His body was recovered Thursday morning.
The remains of the hurricane Beryl dumped torrential rains on Vermont, sweeping away an apartment building, destroying bridges and cutting off towns, and re-traumatizing a state still recovering from catastrophic flooding that struck it exactly one year ago.
More than 100 people had to be rescued from the rushing waters caused by the rains that began Wednesday and continued Thursday, authorities said. Some communities were ordered to evacuate. Roads were flooded, washed away or covered with debris.
In Plainfield, residents of a six-unit apartment building had just 15 minutes to evacuate before the entire structure was swept away by floodwaters that also washed out at least seven bridges and left many roads impassable and people stranded, city Emergency Management Director Michael Billingsley said. One car was swept away, but its occupant managed to escape.
“Ironically, this flooding comes on the one-year anniversary of the disaster that struck many cities last year. I know that only adds to the emotion many are feeling this morning,” Gov. Phil Scott told reporters Thursday, adding that “the state’s response and tools are only stronger” in the wake of the tragedy a year ago.
The first death occurred in the community of Peacham, where floodwaters swept away a man in a vehicle, authorities said.
Public Safety Commissioner Jennifer Morrison urged people to continue taking precautions in the coming days, including staying away from fast-moving waters filled with “a tremendous amount of debris.”
The deluge dumped more than 6 inches of rain on parts of Vermont, and the heaviest rainfall was in areas hit hard a year ago, said Marlon Verasamy of the National Weather Service in Burlington. But the damage is not as widespread across the state as it was a year ago, he added.
In the small community of Moretown, the damage appears to be worse than it was a year ago, and the school is among the buildings again damaged by floodwaters. Workers hoped to install a temporary bridge Thursday across the main thoroughfare that leads into the community.
Beryl made landfall in Texas on Monday as a Category 1 hurricane, knocking out power to millions in the Houston area. It then tracked across the U.S. interior as a post-tropical cyclone that caused flooding and occasional tornadoes from the Great Lakes to Canada and northern New England. It has been blamed for at least eight deaths in the United States and 11 in the Caribbean.
Three tornadoes struck western New York state Wednesday, damaging homes and barns and uprooting trees, according to the weather service. Some areas of New York state received at least four inches of rain, causing flooding in the village of Lowville.
Flash flooding also closed roads in several northern New Hampshire communities, including Monroe, Dalton, Lancaster and Littleton, where authorities said 20 people were temporarily stranded in a Walmart store and crews conducted rescues.
Parts of upstate New York and New England, including Vermont, remained under flood watches or warnings Thursday. Thunderstorms associated with Beryl are expected across much of the East Coast through Friday, forecasters said.
In Vermont, emergency officials on Wednesday urged residents to seek higher ground if floodwaters approached and said rescue teams and the National Guard were ready to respond.
Resilience efforts appear to be paying off. Flood control dams are “working phenomenally,” with the exception of one dam failure that had minimal impact on property or roads, said Jason Batchelder, the state’s environmental commissioner.
Although Vermont is not a coastal state, it does have experience with tropical weather. In 2011, Tropical Storm Irene dumped 11 inches of rain on parts of Vermont in 24 hours. The storm killed six people in the state, blew homes off their foundations, and damaged or destroyed more than 200 bridges and 500 miles of highway.
In May, Vermont became the first state to pass a law requiring fossil fuel companies to pay for some of the damage caused by extreme weather events caused by climate change. Mr. Scott, a Republican, allowed the bill to pass without his signature, saying he was concerned about the costs of an exhausting legal battle. But he acknowledged the need to address the impacts of climate change.
“Climate change is real,” Scott said Thursday. “I think we all have to accept it, regardless of our political beliefs, and deal with it because we have to build back stronger, safer and smarter.”