Deluge a close call
Downtown businesses narrowly avoid flooding after heavy rains
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Rutland Department of Public Works worker Thomas Harte pushes debris away from a clogged sewer drain on Wales Street during Tuesday’s storm. Albert J. Marro / Rutland Herald |
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By Cristina Kumka Staff Writer - Published: July 8, 2009
Rutland's Stewart Decker watched Tuesday as one of the proprietors of Back Home Again café on Center Street, Malachi Cousino, unlaced his boots and peeled off his socks.
Perched on a curb in the Marble Valley Regional Transit Center, Cousino didn't hesitate on braving the rushing water and sewage that threatened to invade downtown businesses, including the café, for the second time in as many years.
The transit center offered cover from the heavy rain that swept through the city for 20 minutes beginning at about 12:30 p.m., causing a river of water to form down West Street.
A manhole at the corner of West and Wales streets popped open, sending waves of water down the incline, and the basement of a home on Melrose Avenue was reported as taking in water.
But as the rain pelted streets and cars, Cousino aimed to do damage control of his own — walking barefoot toward where he thought the large drain in the transit center was.
Decker and other witnesses said Tuesday's storm could have unfolded like it did in June of last year — causing flooding and thousands of dollars in lost goods.
Cousino brushed his hand over the grate to clear it.
Leaves, cigarette butts and pieces of tissue floated in the swirling pool of mucky water where Cousino waded.
The water inched up the tires of cars parked in the southwest corner of the transit center as well as a wall of sandbags, placed to protect a rear service entrance of the Gluck building near the cars.
Mayor Christopher Louras agreed that Tuesday's deluge downtown, one that followed the brief but strong thunderstorm, could have been a disaster if it rained a few minutes longer.
"An hour-long storm is a storm that would overwhelm the capacity of the storm sewer," he said. "We are at the mercy of Mother Nature is the bottom line."
Tuesday's rain lasted in Rutland County for about an hour, according to Jerry Macke, an observer program leader with the National Weather Service in South Burlington.
The heaviest rainfall was recorded in a small area northeast of Wallingford, at about 2.5 inches.
Reports from East Clarendon showed that area and Rutland received a little less than 2 inches, while Danby received 1.4 inches.
Pea-sized hail broke through the sky across the county but in other parts of the state, there was little or no rain, Macke said Tuesday.
"It would have been bad if it stalled someplace, but it did not," he said.
Louras said Gerry Myers, commissioner of the state Department of Buildings and General Services, and the state Legislature earmarked $250,000 for a trench drain to be installed in front of the transit center sometime before June 2010.
The drain would "catch surface water from West Street and redirect it to the large storm water sewer that runs under West Street, rather than get into the transit center drainage that is smaller and gets backed up quicker," Louras said.
Myers said the drainage system inside was never designed to take on water from the many city streets that flows toward it.
"It (the transit center) was a state, city, and federal cooperative project built to specifications," he said. "I believe everybody thought it would be efficient."
According to Myers, the trench drain is a measure taken by the state, and the city, to make sure the flooding of June 2008 doesn't happen again and the water flow from city streets is taken care of.
"Whether it was a flaw in the garage design or a change in the street grade … we're taking a corrective action," Myers said.
cristina.kumka@rutlandherald.com.