RutlandHerald.com - We Are Vermont

River rises rapidly in northern Vermont

CHELSEA – Usually the river runs through this quaint Vermont village.

On Friday it ran over it.

A persistent late-morning rain developed into a mid-afternoon deluge the likes of which some longtime Chelsea residents said they've never seen before, causing widespread damage to roads and property.

Emily Betts, unfortunately, has witnessed this before. Betts, 91, has lived in her Route 110 home for 45 years and has seen her expansive back yard, which abuts the First Branch of the White River, flooded on two previous occasions. Friday marked the third. "This was a good one," Betts said surveying her silt-filled yard while sipping an iced coffee she picked up on the way back from Randolph Friday afternoon.

"It was raining so hard we had to pull over because we couldn't see," explained Betts, who said that's when one of her young neighbors, Olivia Conner, called. "She said, 'You've got a puddle in your yard,' and I guess we do," Betts chuckled.

Friday's flooding left standing water and thick patches of silt in Betts' yard, washed away her garden, three recently planted trees, a newly created fire pit, and her picnic table. "That's the third one," she lamented cursing the loss of yet another picnic table.

The good news is that Betts' house is located a safe distance away from the First Branch; it was high and dry and her pear trees weren't washed away by the still-roily waters of the raging river.

Several of her Chelsea neighbors weren't so fortunate. Roads were washed out, bridges and sheds swept away, by a flood that had sump pumps working overtime bailing out basements and Fire Chief John Upham scratching his head.

"I've never seen it rain that hard in my life here," Upham said. "I've never seen the river rise so fast in my life here. This was something."

Chelsea is not immune to flooding, but Upham said it's usually caused by a combination of clogged culverts and spring runoff and impacts tend to focus on one particular area.

"This wasn't that," he said. "To have it happen in the summer time and have it flood (Route) 110 in one-two-three-four-five different places is pretty impressive. A lot of water must have dropped."

It did, according to Donny Dumont, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Burlington. A weather observer who lives in Chelsea reported 2.79 inches of rain fell there Friday afternoon. "That's not a big deal if it falls in 24 hours, but it's a big deal if it falls in a couple of hours," Dumont said.

It was raining steadily at noon, according to Upham, who said by 1:30 p.m. the First Branch had breached its banks in some areas and portions of Route 110 were under water.

On the opposite end of town, the water was knee-deep on Route 110, the gas pumps at Flanders Market were literally on an island, and water was lapping at the porch of an adjoining home where 8-year-old Katelin Flanders was hosting a sleepover.

"It was supposed to be a slumber party not a flood party," Flanders joked.





According to Flanders' mother, Stacey, the river rose swiftly after a bolt of lightning and clap of thunder that literally shook her home, knocking one of Katelin's friends off the bar stool she was sitting on. "It receded almost as fast as it came up," Flanders said, nodding at the river that was still surging, but was safely back within its banks by 4 p.m.

The river and one of its tributaries, the Jail Brook, did plenty of damage during a relatively short span. There was standing water in Helen Heslop's front yard, Jean Battey's basement, like McCullough's across the street and at least a half-dozen others, was filled with water and Battey's shed had floated over to her neighbor's property. The raging Jail Brook ripped off a shed that was attached to the back of Roxanne Benson's home, washing it and a large swath of her backyard downstream.

"This is my hell right now," said Benson, who explained she bought the house located on Route 113 in Chelsea six years ago only to see it burn to the ground 12 hours later.

"And now this?" she said. "If it wasn't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all."

A small footbridge located behind Johnson's house was washed downstream and at least one of the town's snowmobile bridges was a casualty. According to Upham, at least two roads – Upper Village Road and Scales Hill Road – were washed as well.

Upham was amazed that the storm spared the rest of central Vermont. "I was shocked that towns around us weren't hit," said Upham, who put out a call for assistance to five other fire departments. Volunteers from Washington, Williamstown, Tunbridge and Vershire all responded to the Chelsea emergency as did paid firefighters from Barre.

"It's nice to know you can call your neighbors and they bring what they can no questions asked," he said.

david.delcore@timesargus.com